EPAP CLASS OF 2023 TOURS SK+I ARCHITECTURE
By Timothy Laubacker, AIA, NCARB | Associate – SK+I Architecture
AIAPV Emerging Professional Awards Program (EPAP) Class of 2023
AIAPV’s Emerging Professional Awards Program (EPAP) annually selects a few outstanding Emerging Professionals for a yearlong mentorship with an AIAPV Fellow, coupled with leadership and career development activities. The Call for Nominations for the upcoming year’s class opens in May—watch for details in future newsletters, e-blasts, social media posts, and our website.
The Class of 2023 for the AIA Potomac Valley’s Emerging Professional Awards Program (EPAP) has been hard at work—attending conferences, executing private studies towards registration or certifications and, most recently, hosting firm tours during which EPAP cohort members can start open-discussion about trending topics in architecture and exchange ideas. Earlier this spring Zavos Architecture + Design hosted the first of such tours, led by EPAP member Emily Lally.
We assembled again on May 23rd, hosted by Bethesda, MD firm SK+I Architecture. I have been part of this amazing group of architects and designers for eight years, leading teams to design, develop, and construct projects on the east coast and beyond.
We kicked off the evening with a tour of SK+I’s office, designed by the team back in 2014 upon relocating within downtown Bethesda. The floor plan is open concept, with the conference rooms, and administrative offices towards the center, surrounding the reception area. The Interior Design and Construction Administration departments are located on the Western end of the office while the main Design Studio is on the Eastern side. The main studio is programmed in rows, with each row of desks typically assigned by project team to optimize coordination and workflow. Strategically placed breakout tables sit between each row to enable teams to host impromptu design discussions or coordination. This collaboration style of production has benefitted our process and has led to numerous awards—many of which are displayed in a dedicated section of the office.
Following the tour, the EPAP class congregated in one of the conference rooms and SK+I principal, Guclu Durusoy, provided an overview presentation of our mission statement, recent firm statistics, and some of our award-winning projects. SK+I’s work primarily focuses on residential and mixed-use projects. We offer Architecture, Interior design, Urban Design and Planning, and Sustainable Design and often provide multiple services on any given project. Our firm has grown in recent years to include more than 70 employees. Our work ranges in scale from smaller podium style buildings to large tract developments with multiple phases. To date we have $1 billion in completed construction and over 600,000 residents housed. I have, personally, worked on sixteen projects and been able to see a majority of them through from early concept to final completion.
The presentation was extremely engaging and spurred an interesting intellectual discussion. Most of the topics ranged from design process and development of staff, while others focused on the industry as a whole and how supply chain issues and the pandemic affected SK+I. The discussion of Artificial Intelligence came up and was addressed in a way that focused less on production but more on the value of the services an architecture firm can provide. We at SK+I have a strong relationship with our clients and a good majority of the work we execute is for repeat clients. We have achieved high results, particularly in the capital region, with our products and have been included on new projects with those same teams in new localities, like Nashville, Boston, and Orlando. The attention to detail, understanding of a client’s needs, creativity in expressing a given program for a unique site, and professionalism in executing a design plan are all reasons mentioned in that AI may become a tool that the architect could use, but should never replace the human aspect of the art.
The night was an overall success and being able to meet up with our cohort is always a time that I look forward to. The exchange of ideas and time spent connecting is valuable to our individual development and the advancement of the industry as a whole. We will continue to connect and develop in the remaining six months of the program and look to encourage the next class of applicants.
Timothy Laubacker, AIA, NCARB
Associate at SK+I Architecture
Tim is a Project Manager at SK+I and earned two Masters degrees from Catholic University, in Architecture, Urban Design and in Science, Sustainable Design. He is a creative problem solver with eight years’ experience on large phased developments throughout the East Coast, including affordable housing, civic building, mixed-use multifamily, and large-scale neighborhood revitalizations for a variety of clients.
His design talent and commitment to high-quality design ensure his ability to bring every client’s vision to life. Tim’s passion for design stems from the enjoyment of creating spaces that impact people’s daily lives and influence the built environments.
Tim received a 2022 AIA Potomac Valley Emerging Professional Award and is a member of the Emerging Professional Awards Program (EPAP) Class of 2023.
