Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden:
Urban Designers Integrate Business, Craft Excellence
“We see that the reasons to choose Vectorworks are much like the reasons to choose Apple — it has to do with a great design and user interface, and they both offer a value proposition around ease of use and ease of maintenance,” McBeath explains.
“Like HBBH, as they are a prototypical placesetting firm, we know the context is crucial and the solution is different for every office. With Apple’s flexibility and expandability, we can expand and grow Vectorworks to what the client actually does.”
“We’ve always been a Mac shop,” Laroye underscores. “In the business we are in, we like things to look good. But we also like things to do what they should, simply and effectively. Great architecture unites the natural connections of form and function and place — well, so does Apple!”
There are financial reasons why he adheres to Apple technology, too.
In addition to his key architectural duties, Stephane must also manage the company’s IT infrastructure while keeping overall costs in line. He readily admits when he took on this role 12 years ago he had “no IT background at all”, but that did not deter him, or his firm. Of course, he will work with outside service providers or authorized dealers when necessary, but he says “[W]e are very confident in the kind of applications Apple provides to us. The platform is so straightforward, you just turn it on and away you go!”
To support his confident nature, Laroye cites industry figures that say a full-time IT guy is needed for every 25 PCs in operation in a typical maintenance or support setting. But he says he spends less than 20% of his time providing computer support for 45 users.
This low-level of required support is an on-going return on the IT investment at HBBH.
When he’s not the IT guy, he spends the rest of his time in the role of an architect, which in an architectural firm, has got to keep the bosses happy.
“Yes, I have very good buy-in from the principals” on IT matters, he says. “So when a principal mentions to me, as they have on occasion, that one of their peers in the industry has had real troubles with their servers, or their IT network, I think what’s the return on investment to ensure we are trouble-free? Well, what’s the cost of not doing business?”
As one might imagine, data is absolutely critical to the business. Architect’s documentation must always be accessible, whether online, near-line or archived. Clients may come back many years later, Laroye points out, to make additions or modifications to their building. As such, the firm must be prepared to work with files from previous software versions. Disaster recovery and safety and security concerns are also paramount.
“Stuff happens,” he agrees, but says “I do not think it is luck that we have not had a major problem.”
“We designed a system around Apple hardware and software that is very robust, and it has been running smoothly for many years. To date it has never happened, but if a server goes down, we can still continue working. There’s good redundancy within the network for 45 people to carry on working.” He mentions the Sun DNS server and CISCO routers and switches that are used for added network security, saying that the “integration was incredibly smooth” among the systems and vendors.
He also mentions OS X software and Xserve hardware tools for remote location management, backup and recovery plans, and the deployment of new machines and updating of on-board software apps. Laptop users are constantly in-sync with the main servers, as files are constantly updated, and are immediately copied over as soon as they rejoin the network.
Stephane is able to rely on NetBoot and imaging to set up new systems, and says that the Remote Desktop tool from Apple lets him manage the network, the desktops and the servers from his own desk or home office with “seamless ease. It (Apple Remote Desktop) saves me loads of time.”
This is good news because it takes time to create a great urban neighbourhood, one that is sustainable, one that has a strong people element, one that the world looks to for guidance and precedence.
The success of Granville Island lent the firm to an increased scope of work across the country; mixed-use waterfronts, public markets, residential, government, education facilities, community centres and major urban plans.
All of which helped the firm to land sustainable design work and community planning as far off as Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
As Leah Nyrose says, “HBBH is focused on the integration of place and form. Our projects relate to their environment and engage with people. Our integrated workflow has an artistic benefit, and a business benefit.”
And technology helps set the table for the work that Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden does, just as a good host sets the table before dinner.
