The Narrative 2024

The cover of our latest issue of The Narrative may look like a stylized art project, but it’s really an intricate data-point cloud generated from a Lidar survey of the historic buildings in New York’s Flatiron District that house the Simons Foundation and its Flatiron Institute across the street. Like the foundation, which “works to advance frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences through the support of computational scientists,” Trish Donnally writes in “Project Scrapbook,” the Perkins Eastman Design Technology team used computational science to determine structural connections and architectural intersections between the two buildings in the design of a glass and carbon fiber skybridge that will span between them high above West 21st Street in Manhattan.

In this respect, the skybridge design serves two purposes: It carries scientists, visiting experts and academics, and students between the foundation and the institute, but it also communicates their work through a transparent structure that looks like it’s floating—and can only be achieved through the type of groundbreaking science and technology that the people who pass through it are generating.

“Communication in its many forms is key to our work—and to the topics in this issue,” Donnally writes in the welcome letter to The Narrative’s Summer 2024 issue. Each profile and perspective offer a new vantage point on that idea:

People are at the core of everything we do.

Principal Frances Halsband imagines “happy people” as “a way for me to think about what is actually going to happen in each space” that she sketches in an initial design, she says in our “Gallery” feature.

On the conversion of the historic Maria Mitchell Observatory into a new home for the Education Department (2009) at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, Frances Halsband says, “The idea of keeping the stars, keeping the trace of the telescope, and filling the space with books all happened while making this drawing.”

Perkins Eastman’s Healthcare practice leaders are designing medical campus master plans that are meant to bring people together—researchers, scientists, clinicians, students, and patients—through spaces and places where ideas can collide and produce new discoveries, Jennifer Sergent writes in “Rx for Change.”

Kuwait University Hospital’s main student entry is a nodal point along an underground concourse, which connects more than a dozen buildings and allows students, faculty, and staff to traverse the new health-sciences campus protected from the heat in a setting with plentiful daylight. It also abuts a sunken garden. Renderings © Perkins Eastman

One of our most cherished traditions is mentorship. In “Engaging Young Minds,” Jennica Deely writes about our PEople spreading out into their communities to teach and inspire elementary, middle, and high-school students to pursue architecture and engineering.

Associate Russell Scheer presents a recent project to middle school students participating in a Salvadori Center after‑school program in Perkins Eastman’s New York studio.

In “Studio Spotlight,” Emily Bamford features Perkins Eastman affiliate BFJ Planning, whose small-team approach and collaborative spirit is vital to its success.

The staff of BFJ Planning. Photograph © Perkins Eastman

Bamford also presents “Take Five,” featuring five experts from DC to Shanghai who are continually finding ways to spread the word about smart design, leadership, sustainability, and employee engagement.

Left to right: Director of Sustainability Heather Jauregui, DC; Talent Acquisition Manager Jarvis Cook, New York; DC Studio Co-Managing Principal Jason Abbey; Associate Principal and Project Manager Mika Zhou, Shanghai; and Principal Ramu Ramachandran, Chicago. Photographs © Perkins Eastman

Good design is sustainable design.

“It adds social, economic, and environmental value to projects and communities, and it informs every aspect of Perkins Eastman’s work,” Sustainability Specialist Tanya Eagle writes in “Speaking of Sustainability.” Editorial Designer Brooke Sullivan illustrates Tanya’s points across a variety of metrics, including net zero energy, resilience, carbon neutrality, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Jennica Deely takes that concept from macro to micro scale, detailing how each individual material choice—from flooring to finish to fabric—impacts the health of people and planet in “Heathier Materials, Healthier People.”

The wide variety of sustainable materials on the market, such as natural cork, recycled terrazzo, reclaimed wood, products approved by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), and biodegradable and PFAS-free (free of “forever chemicals”) textiles, makes sourcing easier and more effective than in the past. Palette prepared and photographed by Jane Hallinan | © Perkins Eastman

And in “Proof Positive,” Jennifer Sergent describes the firm’s groundbreaking, multi-year research that demonstrates how children, teachers, and staff performance improve with healthy, well designed, and modernized school environments.

A modernized school classroom offers ample natural light, healthy indoor environmental quality, and a strong community connection, among other things that benefit students, teachers, staff, and local stakeholders. Photograph © Robert Benson Photography

Innovation is forged through competition.

There’s no better way to test ideas and sharpen skills than to enter design competitions, “an essential ingredient in a thriving design-led culture,” Co-CEO and Executive Director Nick Leahy writes in “The R&D Dividend.” “They can enhance our design reputation on the world stage too.” In an issue whose theme is communication, Leahy’s insights send a strong message.

The competition-winning “Moonrise” scheme for Wuxi Symphony Hall will be a hub of creative energy for Wuxi, China. Rendering Courtesy Perkins Eastman

Click here to see the entire issue, and contact the Communications Team with feedback, ideas, questions, or tips for our next issue. Enjoy!