Our firm is dedicated to building the best communities possible, but we don’t limit our scope to the architectural side of things. Our team is made up of many departments and groups of people, all richly diverse in skills and passions, and all focused on supporting the different needs of our business and clients.

Best Practices

The emphasis of our Best Practices group is on total quality management. Our greatest strengths are our team members. The design talent they bring, their expertise as long-term players in the industry, and the ever-evolving challenges they overcome all contribute to the ways in which we are continually strategizing improvements. Through a collaborative process, the committee focuses on the sharing of knowledge to empower all team members within Charlan Brock Architects to move forward with confidence and quality work.

Construction Administration

Our Construction Administration department is responsible for guiding projects through the construction phase, conducting regular site visits to monitor the work, and report progress. The CA team calls on a variety of skills to verify that our construction documents are being followed and contractor billings are accurate. We take photos, write field reports, and work with our construction partners to create solutions for issues that arise on site. 

Our goal is to navigate the building process as efficiently as possible to prevent delays and unnecessary spending, and to make sure our clients’ buildings are everything they imagined.

Leadership

The goal of a leader is to protect the company’s culture, and our firm is devoted to creating an environment where strong leaders grow and thrive.

Our Leadership group works to create Employee Development Plans—individual outlines that identify talents, strengths, and career goals. We have also implemented the ADMERGE Predictive Index platform to strengthen working relationships and focus on individuals’ needs in the workplace. These plans empower our team members to create long-term paths to success with skills training, mentoring, and growth opportunities.

We believe in promoting the Circle of Safety within our office family, which is maintained and invigorated by investing in our team’s future and weaving a positive climate of trust into the fabric of our company.

Planning Group

Our Planning Group draws on the knowledge of placemaking, spatial structures, and the ways in which communities work, combined with an understanding of local, state, and federal government programs and processes. We study demographic information to discern trends in population, employment, and health, along with the social and environmental impacts of planning decisions on communities.

By using these skills and disciplines, we’re able to find thoughtful approaches to efficiently use sites in creative ways that meet our clients’ needs, while encouraging engagement and collaboration among our team.

Design Studio

We always foster innovative thinking, and one way in which we do this is through our Design + Planning Studio. Our research into market trends inspires us to explore new visioning concepts with ambitious creativity. This process enables stronger collaboration with our clients and results in new ideas, products, and tools to design the communities of tomorrow.

Technology

We are constantly learning and adapting to new technologies as the architectural industry evolves, and our Information Technology team works tirelessly to keep us up to date with the best tools available.

We are currently in the process of transitioning to Revit’s BIM (Building Information Modeling) software for our design and construction document work, which provides more comprehensive design documentation and allows everyone on the team to understand solutions through three-dimensional modeling. We regularly build massing models using SketchUp combined with Photoshop, quickly developing concepts to get the creative juices flowing for our clients and team members. Throughout our design process, we use photorealistic renderings to express our ideas, so our clients and partners have a more accurate picture of what to expect.

Our drone, Bary (a combination of our founders’ names), takes beautiful 4K video and photography. With Bary, our trained staff can document the construction process, as well as capture incredible footage of our projects once they’re complete. We’re also keeping our eye on the future, studying augmented reality and virtual reality tools to assess how they might fit into our pipeline.

Technology is at its best when it is helping people, and that was illustrated powerfully for us in 2020. As everyone adapted to working remotely, we used videoconferencing to collaborate and maintain personal connections to keep our productivity high. More importantly, it also strengthened our team’s commitment to working together and encouraged us to form deeper relationships, as we made personal wellness, mental health, and regular communication top priorities. Despite the challenges we faced, we are especially proud of our team for making it through 2020 more unified and stronger than ever.