02.30.20 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS GoGo Designed by Qdesign Make room for GoGo - a charming collection of lounge seating and benches that keeps pace with the speed of change. Cleverly hidden casters allow models to be easily moved for quick reconfigurability, providing guests with the freedom to gather together for impromptu meeting and collaboration sessions or break away for individual activities. • An Arcadia Company • 800 585 5957 encoreseating.com 02.30.20 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS An Interview with Jennifer Kolstad Jennifer Kolstad, the first global design director atFord Motor Company, overseeing the design of Ford’s physical environments, and the current Chair of the ASID National Board, sat down with officeinsight Publisher Bob Beck to tell her story. Ms. Kolstad’s career has taken her to many corners of the world and presents a unique source of inspiration for anyone working to shape the built world. FULL STORY ON PAGE 3… What the Future Holds for American Cities in 2020 & Beyond The beginning of a new year is a great time to take stock of what’s going on around us. It’s also a time when we often find ourselves looking to the future. For those working in the built environment, what does the future, in 2020 and beyond, hold? As a starting point in gathering this type of knowledge, we reached out to Tom Schultz, architect at The Architectural Team (TAT), a 95+ person architecture firm headquartered in Boston. FULL STORY ON PAGE 12… NeoCon Team Announces 2020 Keynotes News about NeoCon is starting to stream into our inboxes, and this week we’d like to highlight theMART’s announcement of the NeoCon 2020 keynote speakers. The four speakers are CITED: an exceptional group of accomplished, compelling, curious “ARCHITECTURE SHOULD individuals who we are delighted to hear from this coming June. SPEAK OF ITS TIME AND PLACE, BUT YEARN FOR FULL STORY ON PAGE 18… TIMELESSNESS.” —FRANK GEHRY 02.30.20 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 2 OF 31 ADVERTISEMENT 02.30.20 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 3 OF 31 people Jennifer Kolstad An Interview with Jennifer Kolstad by Bob Beck Jennifer Kolstad is the global design director at Ford Mo- tive leadership in business, I realize those values mean a tor Company, overseeing the design of Ford’s physical lot. My first job out of college was for a small architecture environments, and the current Chair of the ASID National firm in Calgary, Simpson Roberts Architects. To this day Board. I had a chance to catch-up with her at the BIFMA I find them to be the most ethical guys I’ve ever worked Leadership Conference last Month and found her to be a with, and I learned a lot from them; that you can be warm and witty conversationalist who immediately put me extremely ethical in practice, be in it for the right reasons at ease; despite my ho-hum interviewing skills. and not compromise on those core values. That was my When interviewing those who have built a particularly foundation. successful career, my goal is to let them tell their stories so the rest of us can take whatever we can – whether it’s BB: What was your academic training? inspiration or specific guidance to apply to our own lives JK: My first degree was in art history from Augustana and careers. In Ms. Kolstad’s story, there’s plenty of both. at the University of Alberta. My second degree was in Interior Design from Ryerson University in Toronto, and Bob Beck (BB): Tell me a bit about your early life. my third was a Master in Architecture from IIT (Illinois Where are you from? Institute of Technology), in Chicago. I received the SOM Jennifer Kolstad (JK): I’m a Canadian. I grew up Fellowship at IIT and started work at Skidmore Owings in Western Canada, in Calgary, Alberta. Growing up I and Merrill while in school. When you start your career at learned “Canadian values.” The deeper I get into execu- SOM, it sets your path in a very specific way. 02.30.20 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 4 OF 31 people Kuwait Children’s Hospital, at 6.2 million SF is the largest children’s hospital in the world and the first consolidated pediatric care hospital in the region. Kuwait Children’s Hospital, outpatient entry. Kuwait Children’s Hospital, registration with large turtle mural. BB: Given that background, were you doing architecture or interior design at SOM? JK: I was straddling both because of my background. I started off in a unique role working with two people, Jaime Velez in interiors and Peter Rug- giero in architecture. My first project was working with Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill on the Burj Khalifa. On a project that large, we worked in teams, with each team taking a segment of the building. I worked on the serviced residences, the amenity spaces, initial hotel planning, and the Chairman’s Kuwait Children’s Hospital, retail pod. 02.30.20 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 5 OF 31 people The Bioinformatics Building, University of North Carolina 17 suite at the top of the Tower. We sort of danced around the building based on teams and deadlines. What I consider to be my first personal project at SOM was for HRH, King Abdullah of Jordan. We designed the National Security Crisis Manage- ment Center in Amman. In all I was at SOM for five years, and I was very fortunate to have several fantastic proj- ects early in my career as a platform to jump off from. BB: What was next for you? JK: My husband, Craig Kolstad, is also an architect, and he was work- ing at SOM in a separate studio. From Skidmore, we both accepted jobs in the UAE. We moved there in March of 2008, and hit the boom in Abu Dhabi. I began working for Aldar, a sovereign The Bioinformatics Building, conference room 11 02.30.20 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 6 OF 31 people landowner and development company decision to move months before the do next, but we had worked hard while building out major parcels of land with recession hit home. we were in the Middle East and were residential communities and tourist While we were living in the UAE, I tired. In the UAE, you build fast and districts including luxury hotels. Mean- had our daughter. Elsa was born in Oc- furiously, it’s exhausting; the pace is while back home, the recession hit tober of 2011, a Canadian citizen with not like the pace here, and we wanted SOM very hard. I was focused on YAS an UAE birth certificate – now living in to pause to enjoy Elsa. We looked to Island and the Yas Hotel in preparation the U.S.! We really are global expats. Vancouver to settle. But then Gensler for the first UAE Formula One race. We At the end of 2011, we moved back called. were very fortunate to have made the to Canada. We weren’t sure what we’d BB: That sounds pretty ominous! JK: They were looking for a Hospital- ity Director and a Commercial Office Building Director in their Dallas office. We knew Gensler partners well from Abu Dhabi and from London, and the fact that they had two design direc- tor positions open presented a viable option for both Craig and I, so we went down and talked to them. The next thing we knew, our container from the UAE, arriving in Vancouver, was redirected to Dallas. And that was what took us to Dallas. Later, HKS came calling because they knew of our inter- national work, and they had a number of large, international projects. We felt the alignment was better and eventu- The Bioinformatics Building, auditorium/classroom ally joined HKS. 13 Holly Hunt Showroom, Dallas, main staircase Holly Hunt Showroom, Dallas, main showroom entry 02.30.20 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 7 OF 31 people BB: Thinking back on your time in Dallas what were some of your favor- ite projects? JK: There are several. One that that I’m very proud of is the Holly Hunt showroom in Dallas. It’s a beautiful project, and it was the first time Holly Hunt had allowed an outside agency to design one of her spaces. At the time she was overtaxed with showrooms building out internationally. She came and visited with us, we had a very nice conversation about our shared design philosophy, and in that conversation she said, “You’ll do it.” The showroom won the National Retail Design Insti- tute showroom of the year in 2015. We did the Reunion Tower project in Dallas which led to the U.S. Bank Reunion Tower, Dallas, observation deck night window reflection Reunion Tower, Dallas, observation deck core wall Reunion Tower, Dallas, custom designed chandelier 02.30.20 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 8 OF 31 people Tower SKYspace in Los Angeles – a follow once the design hypothesis has going to be able to prove the value great project with an external glass been substantiated. of this work was move back into the “SkySlide” at the 76th floor of the iconic These ideas directly parallel what we owners seat – where one has assets, Pei Cobb Freed building. were talking about at ASID National.