Jackson Ryan Architects: Creativity Sparks Prosperity
Browse the portfolio of Jackson & Ryan Architects. You’ll see museums. High-rises. Private homes. Hotels. Sports facilities. Churches. In a world where many architects create off-the-shelf solutions for niche markets, this Houston-based firm thrives by using their design savvy to serve a diversity of people — bankers, art-lovers, students, worshipers, vacationers, sports fans, homeowners, and whoever next knocks on the office door.
“We’ve flourished by being flexible and insightful,” says Richard Wingfield, the Jackson & Ryan associate who oversees their technology needs, “and we’ve built a reputation for responding to each client’s needs — quickly and creatively — without any preconceived or forced style.”
Poised for Growth
In the last dozen years, Jackson & Ryan has also grown dramatically. Since a few Mac computers arrived at what was then a ten-person practice, the firm has expanded to 32 employees. “We’ve also moved from a handful of PCs running AutoCAD, to 40 Macs running the whole show,” says Wingfield.
“Our architects use VectorWorks and SketchUp extensively, plus the Adobe Creative Suite, to bring ideas to life for colleagues and clients. FormZ and Electric Image are used for high-end 3D renderings. Everyone uses Apple’s bundled software daily — Mail, iCal, Address Book, Safari. We’ve created custom in-house databases in Filemaker and use the sharing features of iCal to publish and subscribe calendars among our users. And with an Apple Xserve in-house, we host our own web, email, and file sharing.”
Today, Jackson & Ryan vies successfully for major commercial, institutional, and private projects, across the country and around the world. “Once we started using Apple systems, our business boomed. We became an all-Mac shop. Don’t ask me the chicken-or-egg question,” smiles Wingfield. “It was a symbiotic relationship.”
An Instant Rapport
That relationship began to flower soon after Wingfield joined the firm in 1993. Challenged by a high-profile client, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to drop photorealistic scans of its art collection into their CAD drawings, “we soon realized our Windows machines were abysmal at integrating CAD and presentation work in the same files,” says Wingfield. “We had a few Macs we’d been using just for marketing graphics — and when we tried the same task on a Mac, it was effortless. From that point forward, Mac quickly invaded every aspect of our work.
“The switch to VectorWorks on Mac gave us the same drafting capabilities as AutoCAD, yet it was far more intuitive to use. Suddenly, our computer systems were no longer a hindrance to our creative process. And in the Mac environment, VectorWorks files integrated easily with other visualization tools. We quickly went from simply dropping scans into CAD files to creating virtual-reality models of spaces that combined real-world photography and computer-generated images.
“The Mac made everything we do — idea sketches, presentation graphics, CAD — so much more fluid. We were impressed by its ability to intuitively join all these disciplines together. Which is, essentially, what architecture is all about.
Wowing And Winning Clients
“Suddenly, it became much easier to present more creative ideas to clients, in a more sophisticated way. Clients were impressed, and in turn, sent more clients and projects our way. The two phenomena fed on each other.” As the firm grew, they scrapped PCs and bought more Macs. “Within a year, you could barely find a PC in this office.”
Wingfield credits the core traits of the Mac — “the elegance of use, the simplicity of communication and collaboration, the easy access to archives and resources” — with driving the firm’s success and creativity. “When architects have this multifaceted tool at their fingertips, they get excited and inspired. Ideas get shared and fleshed out more fully — and that enthusiasm and energy translates to your client presentations. I mean, you really want those kids at the Children’s Museum of Houston to be enthralled by their surroundings. You want that congregation to be thrilled by what their church will look and feel like when they first walk in. Using Mac directly influenced all that.”
From Granular Detail to Grand Inspiration
Like most architecture firms, Jackson & Ryan must still spend much of their time meticulously documenting every phase of the building process. But they’re just as likely to be creating animated walk-throughs and lifelike 3D renderings of designs-in-progress.
