Tag Archive for: Community Involvement

Community Engagement

A building project is far more than pieces and parts that define spaces. Projects reflect the goals and aspirations of the communities they serve. Schmidt Associates views community engagement as an essential part of our strategic, data-based planning, giving Owners information to evaluate viable options and make good decisions. We take a proactive role in […]

Communities Build Schools

With Schmidt Associates’ 40th birthday just celebrated, we thought it would be interesting to explore some of the ways in which the challenges and expectations of our clients and their stakeholders have evolved over the last four decades. This month, we’re publishing four spots on what “40 years on” have meant for the team in […]

Project Blogs: What are They and how do They Work

Schmidt Associates believes it is important to keep Owners, users, and the members of the surrounding community involved with the design process. However, it can be a challenge meet with all of those people and keep them informed without delaying a project’s schedule. To address this need, Schmidt Associates has developed project blogs to serve […]

Two Questions

The founding fathers explicitly warned fellow countrymen to distrust government and to remain vigilant in their suspicion. They knew full well the tendency of those with a measure of power to steadily encroach on those with less, until the latter are fully subjugated. We were to be a nation of citizens, not subjects. That meant, […]

Elevate Your Expectations for Downtown Development, Part IV

In my Indianapolis Business Journal column listing 10 things Indianapolis could do to make our already thriving downtown an even better place to live, the fourth item was: Face up to the fact that urban dwellers may not have cars, which means we’ll need more forms of public transportation. Yes, the Indiana Pacers Bikeshare is […]

Crime prevention through environmental design

As communities work on neighborhood revitalization, one strategy of note is to deter crime through design. When Schmidt Associates studies opportunities in a neighborhood, we use a variety of crime deterrence design strategies including; Natural Surveillance – adding first floor windows onto the street, lowering hedges and fences, providing proper lighting, all provide both the […]

Elevate Your Expectations for Downtown Development, Part III

In my Indianapolis Business Journal column listing 10 things Indianapolis could do to make our already thriving downtown an even better place to live, the third item was: Mix in more housing individuals can afford. Starter living units with lower price points will lure sought-after young professionals earlier. Energy consumption will make housing and retail […]

Look Up

With the recent launch of Look Up, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) is working “to reconnect the public with architecture and position new generations of architects as catalysts of growth and visionaries for renewal.” Since its inception, Schmidt Associates has a legacy of active AIA generational involvement whose roots lie in servant leadership, a […]

Leadership Moment from November

Give someone a fish—feed them for a day; teach someone to fish—feed them for a lifetime. The adage makes a whole point with half a picture. Do you want a potato and slaw with that fish? Are you going to wear fish? …sleep on them? …use them to get around town? Clearly, man needs more […]

50 Letters From Architects: Our Contribution

This is part of a series of blog postings of Schmidt Associates architects’ responses to the American Institute of Architects (AIA)-Indianapolis invitation to write letters to Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. Architects submitted big or small ideas to improve the urban built environment for Indianapolis and were on display at The Hall during June and July […]