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Eastern & Oriental Hotel Renovation, PenangPenang, Malaysia
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Working on projects located in exotic places is nothing new for WATG designers. But assembling a multi-disciplinary team from different offices was a relatively new concept until a few years ago.
In 2006, I went to London to meet with a project team fielded from three different offices (people with whom I’d never met), to assemble to go to Cape Verde, a small country located on an archipelago off the western coast of Africa.
"Do we need a Visa?" "Is there a consulate?" "Yes, but it's in Boston." "Boston, Why Boston?" "Never mind, you can get a visa when you get to Cape Verde."
Back then, Google Earth didn’t even have a clear image of the islands (little did we know that NATO was having a few war games off shore)—that's how obscure a place it was. Talk about interesting, even by WATG standards. Mobile phone coverage from the major carriers was non-existent. Blackberrys would not work. I called my phone company to inquire about coverage, and they said they'd never even heard of the place, let alone had reciprocal agreements with local wireless providers. It was an absolutely crazy, amazing experience. That is just the way it goes with all of the new destinations coming on line. Rugged, barren landscapes, accommodations sub-par, the culture—beautiful, sublime, and fascinating. And the language—Portuguese: difficult, rhythmic, and mellifluous.
For this project, the client wanted WATG to do the concept planning for six hotels, villas, village center, and carrying two of the hotels though schematic design in only four months. It sounds absolutely jaw dropping if not challenging or impossible—even for a firm known for tackling BIG projects like WATG. Every office was already straining to meet the demands of their current project loads. How could we make it happen? Strategic discussions among the managing directors lead to splitting the work between London, Seattle, and Irvine—each office taking two hotels, while London also tackled master planning and landscape. We worked collectively rather than independently on the same contract.
At first, our team had no idea how to share information between offices effectively, so we put our heads together on a conference call. We talked about using the FTP site, even a beta test on Groove (Microsoft's peer-to-peer software package)—we tried them all. In the end, speed and expediency ruled the day—better to just map the drives of the other offices on our systems, and drag and drop our files. After all, even London was just a four-digit extension away now. During the height of concept design, we had team members working on the project from Irvine, Seattle, London, and Cypress, as well as staff from Orlando working out of London. Video conferencing was new to the offices as well—we'd carefully hold up drawings to the camera in the dim light for team members on the other end who were straining to see.
Technology aside, the absolute best thing that has come out of the whole experience of creating global teams is the friendships forged, alliances made, and getting to form a clearer picture of WATG as a global culture. I am proud to say I know more people from the various offices now than I could have ever imagined. Individual offices and cultures are unique and very special, but globally, we are much more that I could have ever imagined.
Many WATG senior leaders have embraced the multi office team idea wholeheartedly, and the advent of better interoffice communications and file sharing make this a very attractive proposition to say the least. This may not happen a great deal in Irvine with its vast resources of staff talent and depth, but in the smaller office it is an everyday reality. After all, necessity is the mother of invention—and innovation.
We have covered a lot of ground since the time I worked as part of a global team on the Cape Verde project. At any given point in time, I have a job that involves another office. I am working on another project in Kazakhstan, a project that came about though the support and vision of people like Cynthia Jacobs, who is on WATG’s board of directors, and from the friendships I have made from working with the London office—John Goldwyn, Doug Morris, Chris Singer and Rob Day (now in Irvine). Once you know the people, their capabilities, the best ways to work together, why not make it happen? It's a great way to discover the company, its resources, and capabilities on a global level, and how truly rewarding it is to work together. I would never have it any other way now.
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Amanpuri Resort, Phuket, Thailand. This was the very first Aman resort and is located within a former coconut plantation overlooking the Andaman Sea on the west coast of the island. Following a site visit and charrette for an eco resort.
Photo by Robin Clewley |
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Gated entry to a single-family residential compound in the Seminyak area of Bali, Indonesia. Taken while on a research trip to Bali for the Smart Hero project in Xiamen, China.
Photo by Sybrina Soga. |
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John Elliott and Ron Van Pelt give a presentation at this year’s Cityscape Dubai conference. Photo by Rory Hopkins
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Baby. A site visit through a working fishing village in Doumen, China. |
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Site visit to the Algarve region of southern Portugal. |
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Jim Freeman with a Shangri-la project manager and the local architect on a site visit. The team went to set out the land and water villas on site after coordination meetings in Hong Kong and Singapore. |
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Architectural detail, Almaty, Kazakhstan. Taken during a follow-up site visit. |
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