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For Jason Smith, one of the most gratifying parts of being an architect is the tangible reward of seeing his visions come to life, and the positive impact they can have on people and communities as they interact with them.

鈥淚鈥檝e had the pleasure of overhearing people talk about a great experience they had because of something I designed,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey just happened to be talking about it when I walked by.鈥�

Smith, a design principal at SmithGroup in Chicago, knows good projects mean collaboration. He wants his designs to enhance the communities that surround them. To do this, he鈥檚 focusing on getting client groups, architects, engineers and, yes, the community involved in his projects.

鈥淲e鈥檙e cultivating a vision for a project together and I shepherd that process, rather than come up with it all on my own,鈥� he says.

鈥淪ome of the coolest spaces I鈥檝e designed have been ones where I鈥檓 working with a structural engineer and a facade manufacturer,鈥� Smith states. 鈥淲e鈥檙e thinking about the space together.鈥� Smith says this collaboration results in a better end product, and a better world.

He鈥檚 talked to the people who live and work around his buildings so that his designs can be more responsive to the community鈥檚 needs. He says it鈥檚 crucial to have empathy.

He鈥檚 learned that getting input early in the process is critical, and it has also helped the bottom line. 鈥淲hen you think of design as a series of hierarchical relationships, you start to understand where you can make trade-offs,鈥� he says.

In Smith鈥檚 work on the Center for Advanced Care at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, his client wanted a hospital lobby that didn鈥檛 feel like a hospital lobby. Steel played a big part in his vision, as did collaboration.

鈥淲e used steel to express the gravity loads from the roof differently from the wind loads acting on the wall,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e had these tiny pieces of steel at the midpoints of the wall supported by rods. It was just so delicate. It became a part of that wall, part of the way the sun filters through the space. It embodied interdisciplinary design because it took an architect, a structural engineer, and a curtain wall manufacturer to figure out how to make that happen.鈥�

The result? The hospital and the community loved it.

鈥淭hey loved the scale of the lobby and how the light filled the space,鈥� he says, noting that a way to make steel seem warmer is to bring sunlight into the design. 鈥淧ositioning the lobby based on anticipated angles of the sun warms up something that feels cold.鈥�

Smith will bring empathy and collaboration into his future projects. He says the earlier collaboration starts, the better.

鈥淚 believe in the power of interdisciplinary design. That includes collaboration with engineers, architects, contractors, tradespeople and manufacturers. My preference is to have someone like Yabo亚博集团官方网站 involved in the early design concept. Working together, we can identify better manufacturing, fabricating and pricing options when we collaborate and understand an owner鈥檚 goals and parameters early in the design process.鈥�