Wrapping Up Year 25

I wanted to take the opportunity to use this last blog post in our 25^th anniversary celebration to thank everyone who contributed to our weekly blog post series over the past year. The goal of this year long series was to raise up a diverse group of voices and illustrate what it means to be a community, connected by the work we do and our shared visions for the future. This included blog posts from Triad clients, Triad team members, our community partners, and others who we found along the way.  In some instances, we asked folks to participate. In other instances, people asked us if they could contribute. The result is 52 unique posts that are representative of 52 unique people who took the time to talk about their hopes, their dreams, and what a better world looks like to them!

As I read through the contributions, I am particularly struck by a few themes:

• Architecture, spaces, places, and the built environment have a profound impact on people’s lives. It’s important to make sure that impact is positive. The blogs written by the users of spaces and places we designed are humbling and remind me why we do the work we do. My goal is to never lose touch of the why.
• We’ve done a great job of seeking and finding clients whose values align with our own. Clients with a vision to leave a better world for future generations. There were several contributions from folks who have been clients for over a decade, and even a couple from some who have been clients for more than two decades.
• We’ve also done an amazing job of building a team who believes in our vision to bring our client’s dreams of a better future to life. I am beyond proud when I read each team members’ contributions to the blog. We have a team of thoughtful, smart, talented, and hardworking individuals dedicated to their craft.

All of this affirms to me that we are living our mission… Together, we are discovering, designing, building, and caring for places, to create a better community for all.

All of this tells me that our core values are not lip service. That we are living up to who we say we are:

• Authentic – Care for one another. Be real. Aspire to be vulnerable and allow space for others to be vulnerable.
• Drive – Be a self-starter. Be energized and diligent. Be helpful and disciplined. Seek to get your work done on time and get it done right.
• Integrity – Be honest and courteous. Aim for optimal outcomes for all. Strive to understand what is right and to do the right thing.
• Adaptable – Be nimble and willing to grow. Seek multiple points of view. Offer unique, customized solutions. Endeavor to get it right. Not be right.
• Analytical – Challenge your thinking and each other. Think critically. Find ways to leverage the knowledge and experience of all stakeholders/team members.
• Communicators – Listen to understand. Be clear and direct. Ask if the other heard and understands. If you don’t understand, ask. Dedicate yourself to providing accessible messaging in common language.

All of this means that our proven process works. When we take the time to align ourselves with our clients; understand the challenges in the way of their vision; truly listen to understand those who best know those challenges before we create solutions; and then repeat that process as needed, we build long term partnerships that go beyond the typical client / service provider relationship. This is what has driven those decade-long and multi-decade long clients.

Recently, reflecting on these posts, our communities, and our work, our dream for the future grew.  If our work is building better communities, we need to grow the number of communities we are serving.  If we want to create more opportunities for more diverse groups in our profession, we need to grow the size of our team. So, we developed a big, future goal. Something to shoot for and keep us focused on growing our impact to make a better world for more people. With that in mind we are starting year 26 of Triad with a new ten-year goal. We hope that in year 35, we will have met, or better yet, exceeded this goal…

10 YEAR GOAL:  To have transformed communities and have impacted lives in every county in Ohio.

• To create new facilities that inspire in those communities.  
• To breathe new life into existing cultural assets in those communities.  
• To build a pathway for sustainable maintenance and flexible growth for the buildings that serve those communities.

Thank you to our clients. Thank you to our team. And thank you to the communities we serve. Looking forward to the second 25 years of Triad!

WRITTEN BY BRENT FOLEY, AIA, NCARB, NOMA