Episode 1 | Jonathan Gallup, Partner @ Resin Architecture

Transcript

00:00:05 Host Greg Croft

Welcome to Vision Driven with Resin Architecture, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of architecture, development, and construction. I'm your host, Greg Croft, and my co-host is Jamee Moulton, and we are thrilled to have you join us on this journey of learning, inspiration, and insight.

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00:00:32 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

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00:00:51 Host Greg Croft

We're excited to have you here with us today, Jonathan. Jonathan is a partner at Resin Architecture. He's an architect. It'll be interesting to have this conversation with you to kind of learn a little bit more about your perspective in architecture.

00:01:07 Host Greg Croft

One of the first things that we want to ask is how did you become interested in the architecture field?

00:01:13 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture I really appreciate you having me on. I’ve really looked forward to this opportunity. I'm excited to have this discussion and this conversation with both of you.

00:01:23 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

So really, what sparked my interest goes way back. My dad's been a carpenter his entire life, a union carpenter. He's worked at lots of different construction jobs, lots of projects out on the site [Idaho National Labs]. I've always been involved in construction since I was young, just building random things : dog houses, just random projects, like even pouring concrete sidewalks and things, reshingling houses and stuff. When I was 16 years old, my parents decided to embark on a journey of building their own house. I was a sophomore in high school at the time, and that's what really sparked my interest. I was really involved with them in looking at designs, looking at houses and then trying to make something fit for their site, and I was involved going with them to the drafter service that they went to at the time. That kind of sparked my interest into the design side of things. But then as a 16-year-old, I would go, and I would work nights and weekends with my dad and my family.

00:02:29 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And after school I would go to the house, the job site, and I would start working. And then my dad would show up after work, and then we'd work well into the night, which is kind of ironic. That was the worst year of grades in all my schooling, college included. But yet that's the time where it was the most applicable to my life and my career. That's what started me into this and down that path.

00:02:57 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

As Greg mentioned, you're one of three partners at Resin [Architecture], and Resin has a unique design philosophy that's different from some other architecture firms. Can you describe that design philosophy for us?

00:03:11 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Yeah, absolutely. So at Resin Architecture, we're all about vision-driven solutions and so you know we're really not like a typical kind of 2D drawing documentation firm, drafting firm. We've really had a vision for the future and what will take us to where we need to be and some of our uniques and things are walk inside before you break ground, innovative solutions, and leading collaboration. How we do that is extremely visual in the fact that we're really modeling these digital twins. That philosophy of vision-driven solutions kind of keeps us focused in on what our niche is and what our specialty is and really helps us to make our projects stand out and helps our clients achieve their vision and their goals as well.

00:04:12 Host Greg Croft

You slipped in a term there that I'm just going to have you defined. So what is a digital twin? 00:04:17 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Yeah, well, so great question. A digital twin is essentially a virtual model of what your physical building would be, right? So part of our vision-driven solutions is we're literally building these buildings virtually through design and doing it all virtually and collaborating with our consultants virtually in these models to clash detect and to problem solve and to troubleshoot. We build it virtually. Then it makes the real construction go a lot smoother, a lot quicker.

00:04:59 Host Greg Croft

Right. So, essentially the coordination that you know if a duct isn't modeled right in the in the model, in the 3D model. Then it becomes a field issue that they're like, oh, let's just drop the ceiling. You know they're coming up with some innovative solution in the field which may not be considered innovative when we come back and look at it.

00:05:22 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Absolutely. So yeah, we’ve got to find those problems during design, and we’ve got to work through those problems in design. The best way we know how to do that and the most collaborative approach is just through that virtual model.

00:05:34 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

And you talked about Resin’s guarantee to walk inside before you break ground. That really ends up meaning no surprises for the client, but talk a little bit about what kind of interfaces the client will use to be able to receive that guarantee of walking inside before construction starts.

00:05:55 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So from the client's point of view and their perspective, there's going to be multiple ways and multiple opportunities to really receive that guarantee that we put out there. One of them is just through their smartphone or their tablet through an app called BIMx. We publish out our documents and our model into BIMx, so they have it literally in the palm of their hands and they can explore it and walk through themselves. Another way is we can pre-record [a walkthrough] ourselves. We do this quite often and then just send them a little link that they just click play and so then they can get that little tour, that virtual guided tour.

00:06:39 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And then a huge way for a little more of a life-like experience is through our VR headset. And so they'll come into the virtual reality, and that's where you really feel the space. You feel like you're standing in the space, you're walking through the space. And so that really, truly gives them that ability to walk inside before they break ground.

00:06:59 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

There's probably a number of other ways that we try to do that as well, but those are the ones that are popping out to me right now.

00:07:06 Host Greg Croft

So we've bled a little bit into our questions. I'm still going to ask this one because I feel like there's a couple of missing components. But what do you feel like the process or can you walk us through the process that you have or that Resin has for working with the client to get these vision-driven solutions to really bring that project to life?

00:07:26 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

I think the best way to kind of show our process is really by talking about our proven process. At Resin, we've developed a proven process. It's got these five steps, and it is backed by the guarantee. And so yeah, this might be a little bit [similar to] what we just talked about. But first we listen. We're not going to assume anything about a particular client or a particular project. We're going to ask a lot of prompting questions because we want to know what their goals are, what their vision is.

00:08:03 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

2nd, we are innovators at heart, and so we're always trying to think outside of the box and come up with those innovative solutions that are going to help our clients, help them solve their internal problems, which will just make for a better end project for the end users.

00:08:22 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

3rd, we do have great pride in our design and our collaboration, and our collaboration - really what sets us apart is we're leading a team of collaborators. As your architect, we bring on structural engineers, mechanical, electrical, plumbing engineers - all these different disciplines and even specialty consultants if needed. And we really lead that team in a way that that really hones in on capturing our clients’ vision, our clients' goals for the space and that saves our clients a ton of headaches because we're leading that [team].

00:09:06 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Fourth, we are pushing that cutting edge technology that we just spoke about. So we're putting the virtual model in the palm of our clients' hands through BIMx. We're allowing the contractors and the subcontractors to pull section cuts through the building wherever they want.

00:09:25 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Because we've accurately modeled everything they're able to do that anywhere they want, not just pulled from our where we placed section cuts. And so that's extremely powerful as well.

00:09:37 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And then last, by involving us from very beginning pre, pre, pre-design early all the way to post construction we have a better feel for the overall building life cycle. We're not just concerned about doing this one project and this one building, but we're concerned about that building's life cycle in the long term. How is it going to benefit our client in the long term? And so taking that longer building lifestyle cycle perspective is a way that helps them and like I said that is all backed by our guarantee: walk inside before you break ground.

00:10:15 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

So that's how our proven process – that's really how we take our clients with us on this journey like we're going to be guiding them through each of these steps all along the way. And I think that's extremely important, because we're in this day in, day out.

00:10:35 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

We're the professionals here in this particular field discipline, but we want our clients to succeed and be successful. And so if we can just guide them through all the steps to take and our proven process just nails that and does that really well.

00:10:51 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

You talked a little bit about how visualization helps the client. A lot of people aren't used to reading 2D plans, but a 3D model they can comprehend a little bit better.

00:11:03 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

And then also with contractors, you talked about how they can get details wherever they need them, so that there are less errors and so they know how to follow the plans. Any other advantages you'd like to discuss about the visualization tools we use at Resin?

00:11:22 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

I think some of the other advantages would really just be... it amazes me because going to school in this, this field, this discipline and then working in it for all these years, when I look at plans, I really do see 3D, but it's - most people do not. Most people cannot grasp that and understand that and feel that and that makes sense. They're not in it every day like we are.

00:11:54 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Having the tools that we have and the tools that we give our clients and contractors and subcontractors is so powerful. I mean a person gets in there, and it's just like they get it.

00:12:11 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And at that point they can really start to feel like, oh, yeah, is this the right amount of space I need? Is this the kind of right environment?

00:12:18 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

It just helps eliminate so many surprises in construction, and that's the goal, that there are no surprises because we're making them go through it in advance in design so they're used to it every step of the way as it develops as the model develops. There's just more and more detail put into it.

00:12:39 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And it just gets more and more refined. And so it's just a pretty powerful way, and it's an awesome tool that allows our clients to experience it in a way that they otherwise would not be able to.

00:12:53 Host Greg Croft

I'm going to throw out one other thing that Resin does. Every week we do a critique where we take a few of the projects that we've got undergoing design, and we kind of throw them up and say, hey, you know, I'm familiar with this and maybe one or two other staff members are familiar with this project, but trying to get everybody else to also see and understand what's going on so we can get other perspectives because sometimes you get stuck in that like oh, like this is the direction and I feel like that's one of the uniques that we also have. We can pull other ideas and other resources from our office, and we're doing that every week where it's like, hey, like, yeah, in 2D, this space feels small or this hallway looks weird and solve some of those problems as they're coming up.

00:13:46 Host Greg Croft

And being able to reintroduce that back into the office every you know, month or whatever that is so that it's like hey you know, there's a lot of other parties that are looking at this from a visualization standpoint that are also professionals that can give other insights. And I think that's unique with how that works.

00:14:03 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Yeah, that's a definite yeah, I agree with you there. That's an awesome thing we've been doing at our studio critiques and those processes, and it's been amazing the insight that everyone has from our interns, our staff, just all the way through project managers, architects. It's just been amazing.

00:14:21 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And it truly does bring in that collaborative approach. It brings in, you know, more minds are better than just one. And so it helps us, and it helps our clients' projects actually progress in a way that has better out-of-the-box solutions, those innovative solutions.

00:14:38 Host Greg Croft

Can you share a particularly difficult project or challenging project that you've had and some of the ways that you overcame that?

00:14:49 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Yeah, sure. I would say there's lots of challenges throughout design and construction and projects for sure. A lot of challenges we're able to head off and hit just based on our experience . Really you learn from each project you do. You just learn and learn and learn and grow and grow and grow.

00:15:08 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

One particular challenge that I had fairly recently, a few years ago on a project really came down to the site selection, the location. The owners had had a site, and you know we had recommended finding a different site up front based on the building that they wanted and needed, but he was really dead set on that. The specific challenge was that the building needed to have fire suppression, but due to its location out in the county, which was remote from all the city services that would typically be used to like water lines, and you know fire hydrants and those types of things to get fire suppression in, we had to really dive in deeper into the code and figure out ways to mitigate different items. We couldn't get rid of the requirement for fire suppression, but what we were able to do was to strategically just do a fire well, a deep well system that ties in, and then also like extra pump systems and things and you know your fire department connection. Butnot only that, we were able to just work through it in a way to add different like smoke louvers in the building and different things through a code analysis, a thorough code analysis , to really kind of lessen the kind of fire flow requirements for that deep well and the pumps just to be as minimized as possible, but functional. So definitely a challenge. You know, even in hindsight, it's like, yeah, if you would have picked a different lot or site like we had recommended, that could have been potentially still to his benefit. But there's also benefits for him staying on that site.

00:17:04 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

For that location, for visibility, for different things, and access, and so it was a win-win overall, but there were many hurdles to get it fully you know, approved, permitted and worked through.

00:17:21 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

Well, in that case, when someone is starting a project, it sounds like it's great to bring on an architect even for site selection. But what other advice would you give to someone who's just beginning the process of design or of constructing a building?

00:17:40 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

I think the best advice is to contact Resin early. Get your team of professionals together early. 00:17:50 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

You need a lot of people on your team in your court, but really you bring on your design professional, your architect, early. That allows for a lot of upfront discussion which could really guide and direct just like you said. I mean even site selection could be an important component.

00:18:09 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

We're not always on board that early, but it can be helpful. A lot of clients in this particular region have problems with trying to maximize their building size, but yet keep the required amount of parking. So there's a lot of like upfront kind of feasibility studies, analysis, things like that, that we can really do and we're really good at that could direct those and help those clients to make better selections and be better prepared. Not to mention it would be we'd be making recommendations for getting geotechnical reports and studies going and the soils reports and you know, just getting the whole team kind of built up and on board.

00:18:55 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture Just makes things go smoother so.

00:19:00 Host Greg Croft

What do you see changing in the next 5 to 10 years in the architecture realm? 00:19:07 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

So that's a very good question. A lot is happening. A lot is changing. It's very interesting, like a lot of building materials are always evolving, energy codes and efficiencies are always kind of pushing that which are making things evolve.

00:19:28 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Seeing a lot of you know prefabrication and things to where you can start just kind of erecting it on site, getting it built remotely and then just kind of putting in the kit of parts together and erecting it on site.

00:19:45 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

I do feel like data is extremely powerful, and so you're seeing that data is used in ways to kind of influence design.

00:19:59 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And building in kind of smart capabilities or building twins like twin models, virtual models like we talked about earlier really gives a lot of power, not just for the building now, but for maintenan ce staff in the future.

00:20:23 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And I think that we're seeing a lot of automation that can happen and occur in the future to where if we're building virtually, and we're modeling accurately, we can start to see that the traditional kind of drafting type of construction documentation can start to be automated and views can be placed on sheets and wall assemblies can be all tagged and things.

00:20:53 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Yeah, we got to model accurately and model cleanly in order for some of that automation to occur. But I think that's stuff that we'd start to see as well. I think you'll see more collaborative, bigger teams kind of just working together more closely in live models together, instead of kind of transferring data back and forth from different models as well.

00:21:21 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. There's a lot of innovative things that are happening out there, but it's hard to tell.

00:21:28 Host Greg Croft

It's an exciting field and I'm super curious what will happen. It does seem like technology always pushes forward.

00:21:37 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

One of the things I was excited to learn about when I first started at Resin was the amount of collaboration that happens with consultants, that they are working in the same model so there's no information lost in transferring back and forth. They are up to date on whatever changes have been made, so the time that they spend designing is well spent.

00:22:01 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Yeah. Yeah, it's very unique to our workflow and how we work, but I think it is a way of the future that others are starting to do as well.

00:22:14 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

What are some common - or hopefully not so common - what are some misconceptions that people have about architects and the way they work and how do you address those misconceptions?

00:22:30 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

I think there are some of the misconceptions that we see well, actually, not a lot of people truly know what an architect does. It's kind of like a it's kind of a title or a word that's like, oh wow, you're an architect. Like there's so many responses. That's like, oh, wow, you're an architect. Oh, I was studying to be an architect once and then I just went...

00:22:50 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

You know, it's kind of like this unknown, almost thing. Like, what do they really do? You do have the misconceptions of there's a definite huge difference between like a drafter and an architect. And so there's that misconception. Architects are a lot more kind of a big picture holistic thinking, whereasa

drafter’s really just kind of like taking the orders and just kind of like, you know, drafting up the documentation side of things.

00:23:24 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

There's so much more to the role of an architect and the level of services that that we do and you know, just the education factor alone. We have to know a lot. We have to know each discipline and each field, because we are the ones coordinating and collaborating the entire design team.

00:23:53 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

So at times you feel like you know a little about a lot of disciplines because you're kind of that, you know, the master builder back to the root meaning of, you know, architects were master builders and that's how I truly feel is that we are really these master coordinators.

00:24:12 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

So you have to have a really broad reach into lots of different disciplines. Other misconceptions: I mean people... Gosh, let me see if I wrote any other notes down. People just don't know that we're not just focused in on our part.

00:24:37 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

They don't really understand that we are the ones creating and developing the model and the bones and the backbone of the project that our consultants really rely upon to kind of plug in their pieces.

00:24:49 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And that people don't really understand that as the architect like we're really involved with the clients from early, early, early beginning all the way to the end. Whereas our consultants , we bring them on kind of midstream and then they get their part done and then they're kind of back in the background you know helping as needed for any questions.

00:25:10 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

But, but we're still really there. So that kind of surprises people of like our level of involvement from a time versus our consultants and kind of what we're putting together this package, this construction documents, pulling in all the consultant information and we're making sure it's all coordinated and worked out.

00:25:32 Host Greg Croft

And then coordinating that again in the field. I think a lot of people don't recognize that, hey, after this, you know, we finished the drawings that there's a permit, and it actually keeps going after that, that we're still involved on the construction side as there are questions that may arise, you know, if they run into an issue in the field.

00:25:52 Host Greg Croft

It's like, hey, we did this wrong and how do we solve it so that we can still meet the intent of where the drawings were going, even though there's now this exception?

00:26:02 Host Greg Croft

Yeah or maybe there's a mistake in the drawings too, where it's like, hey, you know what? There's a, you know, we want to use a different product or we want to solve this a little bit differently because that was just a preference. As I've worked with some, you know, different regions have different kinds of standards as well. And so, there might be a different preference in one region to a different region.

00:26:29 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

And I think when I first started Resin that I understood how creative architects are, but you mentioned leading a team. There's a lot of leadership skills involved and then being able to work with all the different jurisdictions we work with. We're licensed in - I don't know 15-20 states - and understanding the codes that apply. You mentioned that in your example there's a lot of skill sets that I think you're right, people aren't aware of.

00:27:02 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

There's so many different nuances from different jurisdictions and different areas in the region, the country and yeah exactly, we have to be aware and keen on those and yeah, there's so many skill sets involved for sure, I agree.

00:27:17 Host Greg Croft

Alright. Last question. So your final piece of advice that you would give somebody that's considering building a project, what would you what would you tell them?

00:27:27 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

I would tell them to call Resin right away [laughing]. No, I think you’ve got to ask a lot of questions. [Designing a project is] always one of those things you don't really know until you know or do. I think a lot of clients don't truly understand everything that will go into [development] and what's going to be needed of them.

00:27:56 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

We guide them through the best we can. We ask tons of questions to get them really thinking about their project, thinking about their goals, their vision for their project. But I would advise them to just work closely with your design team and to reach out to [their design team] sooner than they think. Proactively reach out in advance. They need to know and understand are they going to send this out to bid hard to different general contractors, or are they going to try and bring on a contractor partner?

00:28:37 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

Because that can also bring on a different team dynamic that can have a lot of great input from the contractor during design. We work both methods really well, but these are some questions that we would be asking them up front.

00:29:00 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

There's a different level of detail that we would put into our drawings and into our models potentially.

00:29:07 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

And just different things. So I know there's so many things to consider, but I would just, I would just advise people to contact us early and to ask a lot of questions. Don't be afraid to ask questions and then we'll just guide them through each step of the way.

00:29:27 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture

You know, we'll start with a work session up front. We'll do a nice concept package and then we'll just kind of work through these different design phases and have them kind of review all along the way. But we're here for them. We're here to guide them. We're here to help them all the way to the end and years to come even.

00:29:46 Host Greg Croft

All right. Well, thank you for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing to Vision Driven on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to leave us a review. Your feedback helps us grow and improve our content, and it also helps others discover the podcast.

00:29:48 Guest Jonathan Gallup of Resin Architecture Thank you. Appreciate it. My pleasure.

00:30:05 Co-Host Jamee Moulton

Remember, at Resin Architecture we are dedicated to teaching and learning and are committed to helping business owners like you navigate the exciting journey of building. Stay tuned for mo re episodes where we'll continue to bring you engaging conversations, expert insights and actionable advice to fuel your real estate aspirations.