One-on-One Communication

The openness of the office and one-on-one communication between all levels of architects and employees differentiates us particularly from larger companies with more management layers and what we see as unnecessary overlapping of responsibilities, where one often finds counter-productive separation between the project decision makers and the key design architects behind the evolution of the project. At our office, it is common to see a group of partners and principal designers gathered around a large work table spread with drawings, all focused on an individual project, for over for two to three hours. Our firm takes the position that when confronted with projects of great complexity, such a methodology broadens the design potential.

Through this process we emphasize the importance of thoroughly exploring all possible avenues of approach before launching ourselves into the most appropriate alternative. We have discovered over time that these brainstorming sessions are an extremely effective and efficient tool to allow us to avail ourselves fully of our experience as a team, and to direct that experience into a specific challenge and architectural development.

As part of this emphasis on the open evolution of ideas, employees at Laguarda Low are encouraged to explore preliminary design stages of a project through hand sketches, study models and other manual manifestations. We have found that such manual studies can allow maximum benefit to be reaped from the innovative, often messy ideas which emerge directly from the mind, unprejudiced by the mathematical and often sterile touch of the computer.

Another patently Laguarda Low characteristic is our extraordinary ability to quickly identify and solidify specific conceptual ideas for very complex problems. This often leads us to shape a full and effective presentation package for a complicated project in an unimaginably short amount of time. We have found that this ability originates with the efficiency of the design methodology we have developed.