Platt-Whitelaw Architects

Yolanda Velazco

Teaching Toward an Inclusive Architecture Industry

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Yolanda Velazco, a top-notch designer at Platt/Whitelaw, is more than just an architecture instructor teaching at Southwestern College.

Having grown up in Mexico, and even having attended Southwestern College herself, Yolanda knows that navigating a college experience in a different country comes with a learning curve. Many of her students at Southwestern College grew up in Mexico.

Un-clashing cultures

“They’re coming from a different system, and there’s culture shock, too, even though we’re a border city,” said Yolanda. “Many know some English, but I can see how they struggle when they try to get into classes and things like that. I can help provide more than just an architectural education because I understand what they’re going through.”

She has provided this help through her stints teaching Studio 1, Studio 2 and Introduction to Architecture at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. This fall will mark her third semester of teaching.

“I’ve taught students of all ages and from very diverse backgrounds,” she said. “Some of my students are older than me. Some already finished their degree in architecture in Mexico. Regardless, I try to focus on how the system works as much as how to design.”

Yolanda says that she and some of her fellow teaching instructors have thought about creating a class focused on the differences between architecture in the U.S. and in Mexico, because those differences can be so stark.

Well-rounded education

Yolanda was surprised that the Introduction to Architecture class became her favorite to teach, even though the studio classes inspire her when her students push the boundaries of design and present new ideas.

“I share a lot of my experiences in the Introduction to Architecture class, and we talk about every aspect of what they may find themselves doing with an architecture education,” she said.

A lot of the course is driven by questions from the students themselves.

“I want them to feel more comfortable and informed about the decision they’re making,” she added. “I don’t want them to be scared, but I try to be realistic. I think about what I would have liked to know as a student.”

Fortunately, it’s a student body that’s not likely to scare easily.

“My students are super hard workers. Most are attending school while working full time,” said Yolanda.

Breaking barriers

While their drive is admirable, the students’ economic circumstances can be daunting when they think about supplementing the two-year associate degree they can earn at Southwestern College with a follow-on, baccalaureate degree.

“The closest public college they can attend to earn that full degree is California State University Pomona,” said Yolanda, who is a graduate of that program. “It’s difficult to get in, even as a transfer. You submit your portfolio, and based on that, they could send you down to first year, which would mean you’d still have to do five years of study.”

NewSchool of Architecture & Design is in San Diego, but it’s private and may be cost-prohibitive for some. If Southwestern students want to pursue a four- or five-year degree at either institution, they will need to pay rent if living away from family and will probably have less hours to work a job.

It’s this plight that has inspired Southwestern College to apply for the right to offer a baccalaureate degree (four- or five-year degree) in Architecture. Time will tell if the effort succeeds.

“We’ve been creating an elite major,” says Yolanda. She’s concerned that barriers exist to getting more minorities and people of color into architecture.

“Coming to Platt/Whitelaw made me feel comfortable because its leadership is diverse,” she said, but she added that it hadn’t been her impression of most architecture firms she had encountered.

Platt/Whitelaw Architects Principal Naveen Waney said, “Yolanda is a creative, motivated, strong-minded person. Once she gets something in her head, she will make sure she explores the subject to the fullest and returns with a responsive solution. That’s a trait you cannot teach and makes her a great teacher for budding architects.”

Words of advice

Yolanda also wants to make sure that architecture students master foundational skills.

“I feel with the technology and all tools available now, we’re losing the basics,” she said. “As a student, it’s hard to understand why hand drafting is important, but you always need to know the basics first to effectively use technology as a tool. I feel like I get picky about how graphics should look and plans should read, but those are your instructions to the person who’s going to build it.”

She added one last piece of advice for up-and-coming architects.

“You’re not supposed to know it all. Ask questions. There’s so much information out there.”

Designing a Better Way for Behavioral Health Services

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By Sandra Gramley, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C

The County of San Diego provides crisis stabilization units to deliver services in community-based or hospital settings for people experiencing a mental health or substance-use crisis.

For people in the midst of a crisis, being taken to a jail or hospital may not constitute an appropriate level of care. However, going to a place that has been specifically designed and staffed as the first line of intervention will likely yield better results in the short and long term.

Platt/Whitelaw has been fortunate enough to provide architectural design services for two of the County’s crisis stabilization units, including the Oceanside location.

Here, our firm created a way to transform a first-floor parking garage into a LEED Gold, 8,300-square-foot crisis management center for at-risk adults called the Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit. The center also includes landscaped indoor and outdoor spaces designed to promote peace and calm.

While not much about the past couple of years of pandemic seems fortunate, the unusual time of isolation and lockdown gave our designers an unexpected perspective about how to design the center. Mental health was in the limelight for everyone.

Our designers expressed this collective ethos through curved instead of hard edges and corners, landscaped green walls and water features, and a calming but diverse color palette.

“We wanted to give people a space that’s pretty and inspirational – a space that would let them know others care about them,” said Project Coordinator Yolanda Velazco.

Yolanda added that already having designed one crisis stabilization unit for the County meant the team was already full of ideas of what could be done, and what challenges they would need to address.

“We spent a lot of time in meetings going over door hardware,” she said. It turns out that creating a welcoming but secure center with separate entrances and treatment areas customized to different situations requires some very sophisticated door security technology.

Also notable was the design team’s approach to plumbing fixtures. Traditionally, a facility of this type would have stainless steel toilets, sinks, and faucets. Instead, the team found a way to use fixtures and finishes reminiscent of residential or high-end office spaces that still offered the safety required for a crisis stabilization unit.

The existing building presented a challenge, too. Our team had to navigate and incorporate many of the columns of the original parking garage into the design and provide the right balance of window and door openings. It took significant effort to develop ways for the covered parking structure’s transformation to include indoor and outdoor courtyard spaces, too.

As with all successful projects, the Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit took a village to design and build. We were fortunate to be teamed a second time with Turner Construction Company’s team, who also built out the previous crisis stabilization unit we designed.

Our collaboration with frequent sub consultants, landscape architect KTU+A and MEP engineers Turpin & Rattan, also paid off. And kudos to this project’s LEED consultant, Doo Consulting – LEED Gold certification came through for the Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit without a single hitch.

We commend the vision and guidance of the County and want to give a shout-out to its project manager, Project Management Advisors.

Our whole team was inspired by the chance to positively impact a sector of society that’s hurting.

If you or someone you know is looking for mental health or substance use services, call the San Diego Access & Crisis Line (ACL) at 1-888-724-7240 or visit this website for more information.

Watch San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher talk about Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit and the County’s efforts to build a better program for behavioral health services.

Platt/Whitelaw Pays Tribute to National Hispanic Heritage Month

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Platt/Whitelaw Architects has always embraced the beautiful diversity of our region’s population, and it’s consistently been reflected within our staff. Collectively, our team speaks five languages and represents heritage from countries around the world.

In this spirit, we’re paying tribute to National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) by highlighting Platt/Whitelaw staff members Yolanda Velazco, LEED GA and Richard (Ricky) Sanchez.

As stated on the National Hispanic Heritage Month website, “We celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month to recognize the achievements and contributions of Hispanic American champions who have inspired others to achieve success.”

We’re proud to have our own Hispanic American Champions on our staff.

Yolanda Velazco

Yolanda grew up in San Diego but attended school in Tijuana and spoke only Spanish growing up. Despite earning a full-ride scholarship to a university in Mexico, Yolanda decided she wanted to attend college in California.

Her family was concerned that her language skills would hold her back, but Yolanda wasn’t deterred. She spent three years at Southwestern College, the first of which was comprised entirely of ESL classes. She quickly gravitated toward architecture and earned an associate degree. From there, she was accepted as a third-year student at Cal Poly Pomona.

“It was a big struggle for me,” said Yolanda. “I had to figure it out, including loans and scholarships.”

Now she gives back to others facing the same struggles. A former classmate who ended up in charge of the architecture program at Southwestern provided Yolanda with an opportunity to assist in design reviews for the college’s architecture students and to speak with them about her experiences. Yolanda also mentored a student who was facing many of the same language barrier challenges Yolanda experienced.

She sees her bi-cultural experience as a strength and something that influences her work. Considering Platt/Whitelaw’s focus on civic work, “we’re designing for diversity,” Yolanda said. She’s also found that her bi-lingual skills help her connect with community members and stakeholders during design charettes and other outreach meetings.

“Often, people are surprised when I can switch to speaking Spanish,” she said. “Something changes on their faces, and I can tell it creates trust.”

Richard Sanchez

In contrast to Yolanda’s experience, Ricky’s immersion into American schooling happened earlier in his life, when his family moved to San Diego from Tijuana during his third-grade year of school.

“I hated it,” he said. “I was in bi-lingual classes until the end of junior high school. It was cool, though, that I got straight A’s from elementary school through high school.”

In fact, it was the opportunity for a better education for their kids that prompted his parents’ move to the States. Ricky became the first in his family to attend college when he earned a full-ride scholarship to San Diego State University.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, he earned a second degree—this time in architecture—from NewSchool of Architecture & Design.

“I’m thankful to my family, and I’m proud of being Mexican and representing my culture in the U.S. architectural world,” he said.

Ricky loves travel and made a point of spending every weekend for more than two years traveling to a different part of Mexico to become more familiar with his home country. He brings an entire world of architectural inspiration to his work, having made at least one international trip to various countries around the globe each year since 2009—the pandemic year excepted.

“I love looking at different kinds of architecture and how spaces make people react a certain way,” he said.

The images included with this article represent some of Ricky’s travels and the inspiration he found. We’re thankful that he shared them with us. Make sure to like and subscribe!

To see more travel photos, browse to Ricky’s Instagram account here. ricky_trav3ls

His youtube account is here: youtube.com/c/rickytravels

We’re also thankful every day for our diverse staff and the richness their experiences and cultures bring to our work.

 

 

Aspects of Creativity in the Architectural Design Process

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Architecture is unique for its blend of art and science. Architect Antonin Gaudí, for example, is world famous for his unconventional shapes, colors and textures. But, at the end of the day, his designs for the Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell and other noted structures had to be technically sophisticated enough to reach into the sky without falling down and to last for centuries.

In a profession ruled heavily by technical and codified requirements, what room is left for creativity, and how does it shine through?

We posed a series of questions along these lines to some of our staff members, and some themes emerged.

The Spark

The architectural design process starts with understanding the client’s vision and needs, as well as the context of the project, and then touring the site. During the first site visit, the architect is looking to learn more about the texture of site, its environs and neighbors, its history, the social and environmental aspects, sun angles, views and more.

After this visit, the architect needs a creative spark. From this spark comes the design concept around which the rest of the project falls into place.

“With a strong design concept, all other decisions fit easily into a framework,” said Sandy Gramley, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C. “As other people get involved, the design concept can guide them, too.”

For example, knowing that the North Pleasant Valley Desalter Facility in Camarillo, California was located on the border of the city, Naveen Waney, AIA, decided that using ‘gateway to the city’ as his design concept would spark the rest of his design.

Kristin Holbrook and Yolanda Velazco used a photo of a beautiful sunset as creative inspiration for the Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit color palette.

Sourcing a Spark

Where do these sparks come from?

In addition to the two examples above, the proverbial spark can come from anything.

“I look at lots of different resources,” said Naveen. “It might come from flipping through a magazine, from past projects or just about anything.”

The ‘just about anything’ often includes nature.

“We see a lot of nature-inspired design, including biophilic design,” said Sandy. “Biophilia is the practice of taking concepts found in nature and bringing them into design.”

She referenced the inspiration a fabric designer found in observing how geckos’ feet stick to surfaces to then create a removable wallpaper, and an engineer’s study of how a cactus sheds water in that engineer’s efforts to design a water preservation system.

Naveen also credits architecture schools for helping budding architects build a strong foundation for creative spark. History classes, for example, are helpful for reviewing magnificent architectural examples from the past and then working backwards to understand them, he said.

Kristin agrees, and added that travel is also important for sparking her creativity.

“Travel is a big inspiration for me personally. I don’t always get to execute the ideas I generate right away, but it opens your mind to a different aesthetic possibility.”

Sandy pointed out that technology has opened up travel as a design inspiration for designers who may not have the wherewithal to jet to a faraway destination. With the vast resources of the Internet, including Google Earth and three-dimensional or virtual reality tours, architects can expand their creative horizons much more easily than in decades past.

The Role of Technology

Technology, however, can be a double-edged sword.

“Now, computers allow conceptual designs to develop three-dimensionally much faster,” said Sandy. “But is that better or worse? You still have to be able to do a lot in your head. [Formulating the design] without a computer can be a slower process that gives you time to work through some parameters. Conversely, a computer offers more opportunity for iterations.”

Naveen added that technology can work in the opposite direction of modeling, but neither starting point is right or wrong. “My generation learned by sculpting with chipboard, but now many architects are used to having environmental data and light studies that they can use to work backwards to shape the building,” he said.

Despite technology comprising a significant part of her architectural education, Kristen realizes the standard options available in many software programs can stifle creativity.

“If you rely on technology over drawing, you can let it make all the decisions,” she said.

Will I Dream?

In 2010, the sequel to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the partly sentient computer HAL asks, “Will I dream?” – a chilling reminder that we don’t expect a computer to think like a human. It is, in fact, the human element that an architect must be responsible for infusing into a project.

“The architect has to understand where the project’s stakeholders are coming from,” said Sandy.
We need to step into their shoes, especially to have cultural sensitivity if that’s something relevant to project.”

Civic projects make up a big portion of our work at Platt/Whitelaw, so we often seek input from many different people and groups.

“[Community input] will always color your perspective,” said Kristin. “The architect should be sensitive to it and ask, ‘Who is this project is for? What is their culture? How do we honor it in the design?’”

Kristin added that as equity and diversity advance in the architectural profession itself, the shift will “open up exciting opportunities for creativity to unfold into projects” and to reflect sparks from more types of people.

Final words

As our staff contemplated the role of creativity in architecture, Naveen offered a good summary.

“Creativity doesn’t stop or have a specific place. It needs to continue through to building occupancy. It’s expressed consistently in figuring out how the pieces fit together.”

Photo by W K on Unsplash

Teaching Future Generations of Building Professionals

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Our long history as a firm includes decades of volunteering our time to teach students and young adults about the building and design industry.

For many years, our staff was involved with B.E.E.P. (Built Environment Education Project), where we worked with school children to design imaginary projects. Topics ranged from designing animal enclosures for a zoo to masterplanning the former Naval Training Center (now Liberty Station).

More recently, many of our staff have become mentors through the ACE Mentor program, working with high school students to inspire them to pursue careers in Architecture, Construction and Engineering.

Nationwide, more than 9,000 students from 1,000 high schools annually participate in ACE, completely on a voluntary basis. In 2003, a group of local architects, engineers and general contractors founded ACE Mentor San Diego.

ACE students, who are paired with a handful of professionals in those fields, receive an invaluable, hands-on education — they learn to understand the day-to-day workings of a planning or building project by living and experiencing it.

Students who commit themselves to the ACE Mentor program may even earn scholarships from ACE. Since its inception, ACE has awarded over $15 million in scholarships to promising participants. Just last year, ACE students in San Diego collectively received $130,000 in scholarship money.

Members of our staff have volunteered through ACE at Hoover High School, San Diego High School and Eastlake High School. Each group of students and A/E/C design professionals decides what they would like to develop and then identifies the steps that would be required to bring that idea to fruition.

One of our firm’s principals, Naveen Waney, headed a group that chose a park site near their school and then designed a multi-purpose facility for training and meetings, which also featured a kitchen and gym.

Platt/Whitelaw architect Luke English led a group that also chose a site near their school and designed a center to help the homeless by providing social and employment services as well as housing.

Our firm’s Mackenzie Sims is leading a group that is choosing between their school campus or a nearby site for a student and community center and outdoor event space, while Yolanda Velazco’s group hashed out a transit mobility plan and station design as well as ideas for complementary pedestrian bridges.

Tackling challenges of land availability and iatrophobia (the fear of going to the doctor), Thomas Brothers’ group created plans for a welcoming health clinic, complete with a playground, that would sit on top of a bridge over Interstate 5.

“It’s been a lot of fun working with students,” says Mackenzie. “They bring new perspectives and ideas.”

“They don’t have limits,” adds Yolanda. “They’re super creative and think outside the box.”

Naveen, who has served as a mentor for three ACE programs and hopes to do so again in the future, says he kept coming back because “it’s so rewarding to see students’ faces light up when you tell them stories about your work.”

Luke knows the value of having extracurricular opportunities like ACE. “I was lucky – we had a vocational center at our high school. I had taken drafting courses, and it interested me in architecture.”

Thomas, who, like Naveen, had also participated with B.E.E.P., says the reward for him is in “connecting with the students, listening to their lives and seeing what they’re doing.”

“Hats off to ACE for putting together this very well-run program,” says Naveen, adding that more students need to know about it and understand that committing to a full ACE Mentor session may lead to a college scholarship from ACE.

If you are interested in volunteering with the ACE Mentor program or know a student who may want to be involved, we are happy to share more with you about our experience. You can also visit https://acementorsd.org/.