Treanor Talks: Architecture, Planning & Design

National STEM Day: What It Means and Why It Matters

• TreanorHL • Episode 1

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In honor of National STEM Day, the architects and designers at TreanorHL have been thinking about what STEM means to them and how it affects their professional and personal lives. With STEM-related occupations expected to grow 70 percent faster than others, we have an opportunity and responsibility to share our insights and perspectives with young and aspiring professionals. To capture the spirit of STEM, we caught up with a few of our Science & Technology staff and asked them to share their experience working in a STEM field.

TreanorHL is a national architecture, planning, and design firm located in the United States. The company holds a firm belief in sharing resources and insights with professionals, clients, and building users to shape the space we use to live and grow as people. For more information, visit treanorhl.com.

Megan Brock:

Welcome to TreanorHL Talks, a podcast about architecture, planning and design trends as well as current events and noteworthy topics in the field. I am your host, Megan Brock, introducing today's topic, National STEM Day. In honor of National STEM Day, the architects and designers here at TreanorHL have been thinking a lot about what STEM means to them, and how it affects their professional and personal lives. With STEM-related occupations expected to grow 70% faster than others, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to share our insights and perspectives with young and aspiring professionals. To capture the spirit of STEM, we caught up with a few of our science and technology staff and asked them to share their experience working in a STEM field. Following are introductions of who you'll be listening to on this episode.

Andy Fan:

My name is Andy. I am an architect.

Dave Livingood:

This is Dave Livingood, and I'm a principal at TreanorHL.

Tim Reynolds:

Tim Reynolds, Principal, TreanorHL Science and Technology group.

Kyle Tinsmon:

My name is Kyle Tinsmon. I'm an architectural designer.

Micah Davis:

My name is Micah Davis. I am a designer.

Mark Muller:

My name is Mark Muller. I'm a project manager for TreanorHL.

Karla Berdeja:

My name is Karla Berdeja and I am a designer for higher education.

Patrick Jones:

My name is Patrick Jones. I'm a principal.

Jeff Davis:

My name is Jeff Davis. I'm an associate principal.

Jerome Ratzlaff:

I am Jerome Ratzlaff, I am an associate principal with TreanorHL and part of the Science and Technology group.

Megan Brock:

After sitting down with the staff ready to talk about STEM, I thought a good place to start would be with a pop quiz. What does STEM stands for?

Jerome Ratzlaff:

Science, technology, engineering, and math.

Tim Reynolds:

Science, technology, engineering, and

mathematics. Acronym:

STEM.

Mark Muller:

When I was in school, that that term did not exist, at least that I know of.

Karla Berdeja:

I use technology in every day. And I learn about technology pretty much every day not only at work, but I do at home.

Tim Reynolds:

It's really different now than when I was going through school because I look at some of the things that we are doing today for students in the spaces that we're designing and the focus on team-building and collaboration and multidisciplinary—there was none of that when I went to school.

Mark Muller:

STEM to me collects four different elements that are really all part of the same larger thing. There is no engineering without math, there is no technology without engineering, there is no science without math.

Megan Brock:

Mark has a point. The National Science Foundation defines STEM as fields that are collectively considered core technological underpinnings of an advanced society. If this sounds complex, that's because it is. It takes many disciplines to come together to solve today's problems, or even do something simple, like listen to music or watch a movie.

Dave Livingood:

My hobbies vary, and every time from music to woodworking to renovating old houses. And I'd say they're definitely all tied into STEM.

Patrick Jones:

I have a six-year-old and a three-year-old right now, most of my hobbies are not completely STEM-related, but I do want to make sure that they're invested in understanding what it is.

Kyle Tinsmon:

There's a TED Talk that talks about the gamification of science, the Fitbit and all the information that that contains.

Jerome Ratzlaff:

I mean, I think everybody these days, especially on the technology side of things, we are always using technology in our work. And for the most part, it's kind of we take it for granted. Except of course when it doesn't work.

Megan Brock:

STEM seems to be clearly rooted in what we do, where we work and how we spend our free time. It's a popular term used in educational and professional fields. A more recent term rising in popularity is the acronym STEAM. The additional letter A for arts has been working its way into the conversation, and I wanted to get our staff's input.

Tim Reynolds:

So the acronym STEAM comes from adding an A, which is specific to arts.

Kyle Tinsmon:

A breakdown of humanities, language arts, dance drama, music.

Mark Muller:

One only has to look at the physics of of music and color and form to understand that there is a relationship there that transcends both fields.

Patrick Jones:

I think art is inherent in all the sciences and what it does.

Andy Fan:

A lot of engineering projects started from art, like getting a physical model like how do you like things to look like? And then it's like how they wanted to function. And after that it gets into engineering and science and tech.

Tim Reynolds:

Without art, graphic arts, or other arts, we wouldn't be as effective in any of the STEM disciplines. So it's about communication, and art is about communication as much as is anything else.

Mark Muller:

Leonardo da Vinci was not only a great scientist, but he was also a wonderful artist.

Megan Brock:

What's interesting about the staff's consideration of art's place in STEM is that all of their narratives, place art, not as an added element or extra discipline, but as both a product of and a precursor to stem. While some see art as enabled by the understanding of STEM disciplines, others see STEM as enabled by the right side of our brains,

Jerome Ratzlaff:

Art specifically, music, drama, all those things start to, I think, train the brain to think outside the box.

Micah Davis:

Architecture is really a molding of like art and the design side. And then with the mathematic mathematics, engineering side to it kind of mixed together.

Tim Reynolds:

We're working on a project right now that's in the early design phase, where the project that we are working on will involve makerspaces, and project spaces and interdisciplinary studios that are focused more specifically on the arts.

Jerome Ratzlaff:

The specific building has chemistry classrooms, but it also has architecture and design studios, painting and drawing studios.

Tim Reynolds:

When you walk in the front door, you get a sense for how the makerspaces, and project spaces and chemistry all fit together within the building.

Jerome Ratzlaff:

One of the things we've been discussing a lot in the planning meetings is display spaces throughout the building. Science students will have posters and things on display. But at the same time we'll have art students in there and architecture students putting their work on display.

Patrick Jones:

While there are functions going within the buildings, it's the art side, whether it be through graphic, whether it be through science on display, things like that. Those are the emotional drivers that connect people. They also educate people and inspire people.

Tim Reynolds:

This is probably a project that's leading in the integration of the arts into the traditional STEM disciplines.

Megan Brock:

Whether you call it STEM or STEAM, these fields are growing faster than most others in the workforce. And the demand for trained professionals is high. But how do we get into these fields? What inspires or pushes us to pursue a career in STEM? I asked our staff why they decided to work in architecture and what they like about it.

Tim Reynolds:

I have an older brother and a younger brother. And when we were going to high school my older brother graduated, he was valedictorian or class of in a class of about 500 people. And he went to the University of Colorado to be an aerospace engineer. And then I came along and they said, well, what are you going to do? And I said, well, I suppose I'm going to be an engineer. Because I know both of my brothers are going to be engineers.

Mark Muller:

I bought my first calculator when I was in high school physics class. It was a Texas Instruments calculator, and it weighed about a pound or a pound and a half. If you dropped it on your toe, it would hurt.

Andy Fan:

My mom is a plumbing engineer. So I used to go to her office when I was a kid. And at the time, she was like still drawing by hand on a big drawing board.

Jeff Davis:

My dad took some drafting classes in junior college. And so I always had all of his drafting tools and his compass and his T square and his triangles. And so I guess I was always just kind of fascinated.

Tim Reynolds:

One of the reasons I've decided over the last 20 years to focus efforts, primarily on higher ed and primarily on science, technology, engineering and mathematics projects is because it has such a huge impact for all of us. And I was reminded of that, this summer, which was the 50th anniversary of the Apollo mission where we landed and men walked on the moon.

Dave Livingood:

Thinking of the technology that existed at that time, for and for people being willing to trust that technology, to climb into a rocket that will go four or five times the speed of a bullet. That's, I find that very intriguing to see what they do, but then what can we do to help support that research and where they're going?

Tim Reynolds:

If you look at the engineering and the science that it took to do that and how far we've come today in terms of, you know, they had rooms full of huge computers that were cranking out calculations. And we probably have as much power in our laptop, as they did in some of those large mainframe rooms. And it's all because of advances in STEM.

Jeff Davis:

Buzz Aldrin came to talk to our junior high school. And he taught us how to make a paper airplane. And it was such a enlightening thing to have this person who had done amazing things teach you how to make a paper airplane. Every time whatever with the kids or nephews and nieces were making paper airplanes I break up the one that Buzz Aldrin taught me how to fold.

Megan Brock:

TreanorHL's science and technology studio works almost exclusively with higher education clients to design environments fit for the next STEM professionals. I asked the staff what our clients have been up to, and how this affects students interested in these fields.

Micah Davis:

Their research is always fascinating. I've seen everything from nuclear research, biohazard, there was one studying cotton.

Unknown:

The most recent project I worked with, we worked with the University of North Texas, they had just, well, a few years ago had just got granted approval to start a biomedical engineering program. And so they didn't really have their space. And this is the first year that they actually graduated, somebody start to finish from their program. But we were tasked with helping them create a space that was an addition to an existing building.

Kyle Tinsmon:

I've always enjoyed every project that I've worked on for science and tech thus far, but a clear standout would be the Zachry Engineering Education Complex. And it was just such a neat building. I mean, it was, it was incredible.

Unknown:

We've been working with UTSA, in San Antonio for a Science and Engineering Building.

Karla Berdeja:

Texas Tech is a great example of why is it that we do our labs that we do, why are they different, where we would have wet labs, any type of research that we do.

Patrick Jones:

I think the research is becoming more and more just like the education more collaborative, more interdisciplinary.

Tim Reynolds:

I think that the focus on creating spaces, to allow students to be in buildings more, to actually allow them to be on campus to allow them to socialize, not just study together, but socialize together on campus, that allows them to see what other disciplines are doing and work with other disciplines. I think that can only benefit all of us long-term. w

Jeff Davis:

We're not just creating spaces for science, we're creating spaces for scientists, for people.

Patrick Jones:

Space matters, right? I mean, it matters to the way you approach things, the way you enjoy the work you do, but also the way you're able to collaborate.

Tim Reynolds:

I think it's interesting that what we do is important in terms of providing them the space. But the space that we provide is only a tool. They're the ones that are making the difference for all of us.

Patrick Jones:

They're doing things that are going to change the world.

Megan Brock:

As a firm and as contributors to the environments that help develop future STEM professionals, we care about space. In 2015, we completed an engineering facility expansion at the University of Kansas. It incorporated new active learning and collaboration concepts for students. A year later, we went back to this facility and observed how the spaces were really being used. This is called a post-occupancy evaluation. Our evaluation showed that students were not only using but thriving in these spaces. Since then, facilities such as the Zachry building at Texas A&M, are leading efforts to transform STEM education. If you ask any of these clients if

space matters, they'll say:

absolutely.

Tim Reynolds:

When we talked to the students at KU, they got it. They, you walk through the LEEP-2 project or you walk through the Zachry project and the students are using those spaces. You don't even have to stop and talk to them. They understand what it means to them. And that's really rewarding.

Patrick Jones:

When you walk through unannounced or whatever you see the students using the spaces, you've seen engagement. Those are the moments that just kind of make you really proud of what you've done.

Kyle Tinsmon:

You can walk through the hallways, and you see all the STEM-related fields in action. So you can see science as it's being made. That's my favorite part. I mean, every time I go, I'm just glued to the window. It's I mean, normally, in this day and age you have to worry about people walking into things because they're staring at their phone. But in this instance, I have to worry about walking into things because my curiosity is being enraptured by what's happening in the labs by what's happening in the makerspace. by what's happening in the classrooms.

Unknown:

Science labs and science classrooms are no longer in the basement and hidden from everything.

Dave Livingood:

Whatever space we create, it can't be so rigid that it always has to remain. With the original design intent, because in 10 years that's going to change.

Megan Brock:

So STEM is pretty important for what we do as architects. But when asked how STEM hits home personally, most were pretty quick to answer.

Tim Reynolds:

Alzheimer's, my mom died of Alzheimer's, and it is the most, I can't imagine a more dehumanizing disease, then Alzheimer's. It's, I think it's a growing challenge, we're going to see a crisis in senior care, simply because we don't have the answers for diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's.

Mark Muller:

Well, I certainly think that our human condition would be better understood and potentially improved if we had a better understanding of neuroscience and brain chemistry and how it affects our behavior.

Tim Reynolds:

And there's a lot of brain research going on now. There's a lot in facilities that we've helped design, and particularly at the Barshop Institute, and at UT Health in San Antonio, it's a major focus. For my mom, in her memory, I hope they I hope they find the causes, and the cures.

Dave Livingood:

I am concerned about what's happening with our environment today, as I watch my granddaughter and think about the world that we're going to leave for her. That scares me. And so I guess as I think about it, why while the technology with the internet, and just being able do things at such a smaller scale, is important, I hope the large-scale things on the earth we can, we can address and resolve in different ways.

Mark Muller:

In terms of architecture and engineering, we're headed to a neutral carbon neutral goal, at least in this country. And I think around the world, the buildings that we create, do not add to the carbon that's already in the planet that's already in the atmosphere.

Kyle Tinsmon:

I think energy production. I mean, this goes into the moving away from fossil fuels for a greener energy. There's a lot of different natural sources, but none of them compare as a whole yet to what we're currently producing with fossil fuels.

Karla Berdeja:

As far as sustainability, it has to become second nature, it has to be something that we just like, we just do it.

Andy Fan:

Right now, we just see a lot of people with that pouring into big cities and traffic as more and more congested.

Patrick Jones:

It hits two worlds, it hits the everyday at home for people sometimes, you know, do I have food to eat? Do I have is there power and energy to provide are we over consuming or not over consuming. But it's also the one that's probably used the biggest as a political weapon, in terms of who has the oil, who has whatever resources controls the things globally.

Tim Reynolds:

There's not enough money to go around. And, but there's a lot of really smart people that are working on the problems, and we owe them our best efforts.

Megan Brock:

Most of us have causes that mean something to us personally driving us to seek solutions or help others seek solutions that move us forward. So how can we be a part of the solution? Where do architects come in?

Tim Reynolds:

We have to listen to the people that are dreaming these dreams. And we have to figure out what questions we need to ask. So that what the space is that we plan and design for them actually help them do their jobs.

Dave Livingood:

Sometimes we'll go in and we're just solving a problem and it may not actually be a building, they may come in with this issue that they're dealing with and we find out hey, you really don't need a new building, what we need to do is take where you're at right now and rearrange it and make it more efficient. From that standpoint.

Micah Davis:

The way that we interact with clients is vastly different. You know, we go in, it's like, very much a team approach that, you know, we're building this building with you, not for you. I'm not better than you. You're not better than me. It's a team approach.

Kyle Tinsmon:

It's something that professionally you feel like you're a part of. I mean, the architect is the smallest domino, the school that comes to us looking for a design as a larger domino. The building is is an even larger domino. And then the students that are produced by learning in that facility are the largest domino because they're the ones that are going to change the future. And that's what we're a part of.

Jerome Ratzlaff:

What we can offer, I think, is we've seen new innovations, we've seen what newer buildings have been doing a lot of them new pedagogies, a lot of new ways of teaching potentially new ways of setting up laboratories that they may not be familiar with.

Micah Davis:

Basically allowing them to push their research farther, and possibly even kind of branch out in different areas or discover things that they haven't quite thought of yet.

Kyle Tinsmon:

In our designs, we like to make our the way we design dynamic, so people can utilize it to best fit their needs. And those needs are constantly changing.

Karla Berdeja:

Depending on the workflow and pattern of what they will be doing in that room is what creates the space.

Patrick Jones:

That's that's part of the challenges, we have to design facilities that exist for 60, 70, 80 years. But yet, we're using a user group that represents the now. And a lot of times a lot of those users, a lot of stakeholders are focused solely on their research and what they're doing. So we have to help provide perspective to them and meet the needs and challenges that they have today. But also help think and project about what's going to be happening in the future, the ability for the building to adapt, adjust, be flexible to support, not just their research, but all the research to come.

Dave Livingood:

To see how the students come in and are so excited to be in the space that that was created. And you begin to see them studying in the spaces that we were hoping they were seeing them beginning to engage with it with their professors in different ways. And it's just, it's fun to watch that happen.

Kyle Tinsmon:

A job well done is designing a space where students want to be, where they want to learn. It's designing a space that inspires them, that encourages them to explore STEM to the betterment of humankind.

Tim Reynolds:

If I could drive by a building, and turn to my grandkids, and say, you know what they do in that building, they find the cures for cancer, or they find the cures for mental illness, or they find the cures for Alzheimer's, or dementia, or the things that are impacting our families so dramatically every day, then that will be a career well served.

Megan Brock:

A job well done is important for all of us. But how we're getting it done is a process that has seen some change over time, I asked our staff what they've noticed change in the process of architecture, as they've entered various stages in their careers.

Patrick Jones:

The undergraduate students here, they're not afraid to fail, in a way you're not you're not afraid to fail. Whereas the graduate students, they've gone through undergraduate now they're making, they're paying more money and more investment, to go to graduate school. And they have to succeed. So they're afraid of failure.

Unknown:

I kind of envy that fearlessness from from some of the younger people, some of the recent grads.

Mark Muller:

Perhaps the young people coming up now and even the children right now. Probably technology appears to them before science and before mathematics, you know, they have tablets, and their phones and whatnot, their parents things that around the house, you know, we're surrounded by technology today.

Kyle Tinsmon:

I think it's common amongst the older generation to approach architectural design from a sketching perspective, draw it out. And the newer generation when we you're designing, we concentrate, well not concentrate, but we're more fluent and computer generation. And that's exploding right now. Considering that we are integrating virtual reality, you can now make rendering extremely quickly so you can throw something together. An hour later, you'll have something that you can virtually walk through, whether it be on virtual goggles, or something that's on your screen.

Andy Fan:

So I kind of really like that people actually do hand sketches. I think that really helps, especially during early stage of design helps you express our thoughts, much better than computer modeling. But what I feel is are now young people just don't know how to hand sketch anymore.

Patrick Jones:

So I think there's lessons both ways. There's expertise that can be shared to younger staff, but the idea of being open to new ideas and new strategies and new perspectives is what the older staff can learn from the new staff.

Megan Brock:

As current professionals, we have a responsibility to help Future STEM leaders learn from our mistakes and use our knowledge to be better. If you're a student in any STEM field, this advice is for you.

Dave Livingood:

Number one, don't be afraid to fail.

Tim Reynolds:

If I were talking to students in my era, I would say, reach out and find. Find people that have this share the same passions and work together with them.

Mark Muller:

Take as much math and science as you possibly can.

Micah Davis:

I think Study Abroad should be absolutely required for architecture, the life experience that you gain just by being in a place that's nowhere near your home. Plus the ability to see all the different buildings that you've always seen, like in architecture, you know, it's like, these great buildings across the world, you actually get to go see them and experience them.

Jerome Ratzlaff:

And we encourage any STEM student to branch outside of their specific discipline.

Patrick Jones:

Keep the first few years is general and free thinking as possible. But then use the last few years to actually kind of layer in some reality so that people are more prepared coming out.

Unknown:

You know, I went into architecture straight out of high school on a path, this is what I wanted to do. I graduated a master's degree in my early 20s. And I feel like I didn't live. Take your time to figure out what you want to do. Because the 17 or 18 year old kid is not the same person as 25 or 26.

Patrick Jones:

Everyone's gonna get the fundamental basics and you that's how you gauge your degree. But your success later on is how well you work in teams, how you can motivate others, how well you motivate yourself.

Karla Berdeja:

As already being part of, being part of a firm I would say, trust your team.

Tim Reynolds:

When I think of STEM and what we're doing. We have some of the most talented people in the world of working right here with us. And they know making a difference doesn't come with any grand pats on the back. And it doesn't matter. And our team knows it doesn't matter. And they're equally as proud to be standing in the audience. And people listening to people around them say, Wow, what a great building. And they don't have to say anything. Because they know that they were part of it. That's good enough for them.

Megan Brock:

After listening to the staff elaborate on why these activities and enabling technologies matter to them, we realized something. STEM Day isn't just about celebrating that knowledge is power. But knowledge is also empowering. What we do know inspires us to consider what we don't and to approach it as a challenge. This is Megan Brock with TreanorHL, thanking you for joining us on this episode of TreanorHL Talks. TreanorHL is a national architecture planning and design firm located in the United States. The company holds a firm belief in sharing resources and insights with professionals, clients, and building users to shape the spaces we use to live and grow as people. For more information, visit treanorhl.com That's t-r-e-a-n-o-r-h-l.com.