may have had a hand in them, and we did a good job with the design, but the projects were theirs.” Jennifer further credits that loyalty to the cost-efficiency of the firm’s work. The firm does a lot of work on public buildings, so they are very conscious of making sure their designs are long lasting and economical to build. “We’ve always had the philosophy that for something to be beautiful, it doesn`t have to be expensive,” Jennifer explains. “It can just be really, really well thought out and designed. That’s what we try to provide.” “We’re also really rigorous with our drawings and construction documents,” she adds. “We get a lot of compliments from contractors and building permit authorities. We make sure there’s a lot of clarity. We take a lot of care with that.” Bytakingthatcare,UAAhasbeen able to build some very strong relationships with builders and building authorities. In general, the firm’s aim is to build strong relationships with all project stakeholders, especially the community stakeholders. “Community engagement is at the foundation of everything we do,” Jennifer says. “It doesn’t matter whether we are doing a housing project, a library, a community hall in a small community, or something at a university – we always gather all the stakeholders and we go through a series of exercises. Sometimes that can be a very small group, sometimes it can be 100’s of people. We always approach it the same way.” “We start with a visioning exercise where we collectively create a vision for the project, where we figure out what are the community’s priorities and mission and goals,” she explains. “Then we make sure that we deliver on those goals. We make sure that everyone at our office understands how important it is we deliver on those goals. Ultimately, I think that’s at the root of our success.” THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE CANADA
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTYzNTg=