Architecture, LEED Certification, and Building Strong Company Culture with Leap Chear

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Leap Chear, Senior Architect and Partner at EAPC Architects Engineers about Architecture, LEED certification, and Building Strong Company Culture.  Read his full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form

Showtimes: 
2:05  Nic & Laura talk about company culture
11:20   Interview with Leap Cheap starts
13:08   Architecture
19:09   LEED Certification
35:02   Building strong company culture
37:26   Field Notes

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This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Leap Chear at https://www.linkedin.com/in/leap-chear-aia-ncarb-leed-ap-3289b4103/

Guest Bio:

Leap Chear, a Senior Architect and Partner at EAPC Architects Engineers, amass over 25 years of experience in architectural practice. A Higher Education sector specialist, Leap skillfully manages complex projects from planning to post-occupancy. He is a LEED Accredited Professional, licensed in 7 states, and a co-founder of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) North Dakota Chapter and active member of AIA South Dakota (past board member). Honored as AIA North Dakota Young Architect of the Year in 2009 and Prairie Business Top 40 Under 40 Professional in 2012, Leap is a community leader, serving on the Sioux Empire Housing Partnership board.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Nic  
Welcome to EPR their favorite environmental enthusiast Nick and Laura. On today's episode, I want to talk about finding company culture. We have lead cheer on architecture, LEED certification and building strong company culture. And finally, architecture was once an Olympic sport. In fact, during the first four decades of the modern Olympic Games, iron 51 medals were awarded for music, painting, sculpture, literature and architecture. One caveat, every submission had to be sports related. I should have written that it read that in sportscaster announcer voice and finally I'm kidding. I'm gonna do it. How long did it took that?

Ep will be hosting the advanced NEPA training in person at the Santa Clara Valley Water District on Friday, November 17, from 8am to 5pm. Pacific time. This workshop will benefit those professionals who worked in related natural resource disciplines who work with federal land management or related real estate transactions. Federal agency projects or permitting and transportation or other infrastructure projects with a NEPA review component register@www.nadp.org Fantastic.

Unknown Speaker  
Ready for that sponsor.

Nic  
I've got one I've got one for sure. So

Speaker 2  
here we got 30/32 company sponsor Ready Go.

Nic  
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Unknown Speaker  
Oh my god. That's so morbid.

Nic  
Oh, sorry.

So he's our first architect on the show. But he also talked a lot about building strong company culture. It was a nice topic and you know, they've won awards for their culture and for how they do things. So that was really neat to hear. I mean, it's a lot of stuff I think on the show, but you've

Laura  
been going to this leadership stuff. Is that things that you're talking about?

Nic  
Well, yeah, I think there's there's a couple of things like there's companies that I've seen over the years have done several things like there's different leadership styles and paths in teaching of leadership. Sometimes it's webinars and courses and sometimes it's in person training. Sometimes it's an actual program, and sometimes it is. Welcome to corporate culture. Here's what it's like. And you make the most of that when you get there and as I'm doing the latter right now, but I've done all those other things too. I'm sure I know you have exposure to those and you've done some of that yourself from the teaching side of it. And you know, honestly, that's one of those things that I would like to do to long term. I love mentorship and I've done I've been I've been I've been mentor, almost Yeah, someone else has to tell me no tell you. And I like doing that a lot. And I think paying that forward is really, really important. And yeah, so I think all that kind of ties into to leadership in general and culture and how your team approaches certain problems and challenges. And yeah, I think that's kind of neat. So I don't know. I mean, from your perspective, when we talk about developing good leaders, because we have actually a couple of our upcoming episodes, we talked about leadership quite a bit. So maybe we should focus more on company culture, but they're all kind of interconnected, definitely

Laura  
connected. The funny thing for me is like I remember walking through Ybor City one time and there was a outdoor bar, they're having a company, you know, happy hour or something. And the owner of the company just kept saying, like, we have Greek culture, we're gonna keep having great culture and our culture is the thing that makes us the best and we have those awesome culture and it was like, I bet this dude can't tell me what that means. The world culture. And, you know, so it's abstract, right? It's not like a clear definition and good culture and Google is different maybe then it looks like in another company, but still have their same core and the the people who are the leaders need to be the ones to understand that role model it and all that good stuff, but I think Go ahead. I

Nic  
was gonna say it's like to me to use a sports analogy that you'll totally get it's like the you know, when you know leadership changes or when there's a different dynamic in play. Now, you know, in the sports world, they talked about whether you fit your system to your team or your team to your system. And you know, the most successful in my experience has always been like who your players are matters and who's on your team matters. And, you know, if somebody's really great at marketing, and you have them writing technical reports, that's a disservice to both you and your culture. And so it's trying to identify those things is really important as like a leader is one of the things you have to identify. And one thing I wanted to ask you because I think this is, maybe I'm biased on this, but doesn't matter how great your culture is, it's not for everybody, right? Doesn't matter. Yeah. So what should people do like because like, I think that's really hard for you when you're younger, identifying, like, if you're not happy at your job, why is that? Yeah, so how do you look for that? How do you find that what you have?

Laura  
That's a great point. And I think probably the best way to like, pull that back out further. So there's an analogy is like, like, I'm in Atlanta right now. Right? There's a certain vibe a certain culture here is different than New York City is different than Seattle. It's the same for a company right? So when you're just starting like, where am I going to live? Currently, like? I'm looking for options outside of Syracuse. What kind of culture Am I looking for? Like Atlanta has very creative is very know fast paced. It's kind of like fast and slow paced. And same thing. Yeah. So what speed Do you want to have your life and it's the same thing with work what speed of work do you want? What kind of you know nightlife? Is it the kind of culture where the company hangs out together after work or is it just like all business you know, I went to a engineering company one time and they worked in the dark in silence with their headphones on and they all loved it, but oh my god, most people, a lot of people say most people got a lot of people that would be so uncomfortable for them. Right, you know, so yeah, culture is manifests itself in a lifestyle. So it's almost like business, the lifestyle of the company, right? Yeah. So yeah, it makes a huge difference. And the thing with the leadership is like, a lot of times they think it just happens. But you really if you own a company, you have to determine what kind of culture do you want? And are you are you achieving that type of culture that you're looking for?

Nic  
And it's not static. To even know the company changes over time, you know, the changes of new leadership, it just gradually changes with different people in different positions. And generationally. It changes it just certain things will matter a little bit more or less depending on who's with you.

Laura  
Right, but the thing is, you want it to to drift in the direction that you want to quit, you're clear, okay with going in a direction that is opposite what you want is and sort of having a high turnover. That's when people are unsatisfied. And a lot of times it's because culture is not culture can just be downright terrible. No, sometimes culture is like the family culture. Right? A lot of times, companies will be more boast about their family culture, but what that really means is you're toxic you know, and it just means a certain number of people who are your favorites like just like a family culture, they get to a negative they call the shots but everyone else feels like a redheaded stepchild. So that would be careful, too. I think maybe your culture is a great exercise. Interesting.

Nic  
That's very interesting. I mean, I think there's good things about families as well. So I mean, it just really depends on your experience, you know, because if that means to love and support, that's great. If it means you know, you'd never get fired no matter what, because it's family, that's less great. And so yeah, I think even saying even the term family is going so many different ways. But yeah,

Laura  
when I've worked with companies and they boast about their family culture, it's because they're okay with like, arguing with each other okay, with like, you know, we stab each other in the back, but tomorrow, we're cool and that is fine. But when they do person, like think about that with a family, a new person comes in. A lot of times, they don't really fit into that. Yeah, you're right. There's different types of family culture also. But typically, when a company starts saying their families because you're allowing for a whole lot of bad stuff.

Nic  
I'm gonna that's interesting. I like that. Yeah. Because it's funny. It's one of the things truthfully, it's one of the things Dawson talks about is you know, Ohana means family. That's one of the things that's what that means to us is very different. I think then Then what you're describing and how we talked about it, it's very, very different. We don't have a blame culture. We don't. And there's mistakes, we make them as a team, and the responsibility falls to leadership. And that's just kind of how it should be. But yeah, it is. It's so true, though. I can totally see where you're coming from. And you know, there's there's others I know, there's cultures like engineering versus architecture. I'll give you a good example of one so

Unknown Speaker  
please give me a bad example. Oh, yeah.

Nic  
So anyways, I was just telling one of my job engineering firm that has architects, right, yeah, engineering firm unless the architects design cubicles for the company. The next wave of cubicles. And so the architects designed them to be very open to the point where like, you could be in one room and you can see every single person in it. So they do that they start putting them in and then the complaints from the engineers skyrocket. They're like, I can't get any work done because it's so noisy and I can see everybody in this all this. And I liked the prison walls that we have prior to this. The architects are like, that's the worst possible thing for us. And then the company was like, You know what, we can do two things. Engineering Design, cubes and architecture design. That was the compromise, basically. Yeah. You know, even stuff like that matters.

Laura  
Yeah, I mean, is the culture caring is the culture collaborative is the culture. You know, so like, and I think that it's important that the leadership does not make those decisions or evaluate on their own right. You've got to be asking the staff employees, what do you feel like the call because we can say all day, what week more the calls will be what we think it is. Yeah, but it only is what it is, you know? So you have to ask people what they think it is. Make sure that you've aligned it correctly. Exactly.

Nic  
That's exactly right. That's a good place to start. Yeah.

Laura  
Because I think I'm really interested like I missed this episode to interview on. So I'm really excited to listen to what lipase say. Yeah,

Nic  
it's a good one. Let's get to it. Hello, and welcome back to EPR. Today, we have leek chair, senior architect and planner at EA PC architects, engineers on the show. Welcome. Thank you for having me here. Of course, of course and now I want to start in the most obvious place. So you went to school in North Dakota, and are currently living in South Dakota. So is there a state rivalry between those two states and if so, where do you fall?

Leap Chear  
Yeah, so absolutely. There is a huge rivalry between North Dakota and South Dakota, North Dakota State, graduate and alumni. By the nation and then live it in South Dakota where the South Dakota State jack rabbit has had longtime rivalry and it's fun. I really enjoy that. You know, college football. Basketball is all good.

Nic  
Yeah, that's, that's great. I figured there would be How could it not be raised so great to hear that. Do you ever get any flack for you know, going to school in North Dakota but living in South Dakota? Absolutely.

Leap Chear  
We do projects for South Dakota School. They know that I'm from North Dakota, and they'll give me some hard times about that, especially when we're working on like athletic facilities. And so it did, but it's all good nature and we love it. It's what makes that rivalry between the two stage two school even more interesting. Yeah,

Nic  
absolutely. Couldn't agree more. As I grew up in Virginia, we have Virginia, Maryland is one and I live in North Carolina. So it's obviously the same North South North and South Carolina. Very, very similar. So yeah, we're happy to hear it. But yeah, you're also our first architect on the show, which is really exciting. And there's almost too many questions we could ask you. But let's start with a little bit about what is the day to day life for an architect. What are they? Well, I

Leap Chear  
think that that is always a challenge to be able to try to describe what we do day in, day out moland feel or think that architects just put together a blueprint. Right. And that's just the very, very tip of the iceberg. And what architects do, you know, from just working with clients at the very beginning to try and understand their vision. What they want to do, and then helping them fulfill that vision talking to what spaces they'd like to have in there and talking to budgets and talking to their, their ideas. Do they have grandiose visions of what they're building wants to be? What is the nature of their business? We tried to understand that before stepping into the project itself, and go through lots of different stages of design, pre design, lots of technical nature, you know, understanding codes and working with local jurisdiction. Does every city municipalities, all very different have different zoning ordinances and codes adoptions? So it's, it's our role to understand that and help the client make sure that their project gets designed and gets approved by the city and then going forward and then helping them through the bidding process, finding out you know, they get half a dozen contractors bidding the project is like how do we know beyond the low bids? How do we know which ones qualified to be able to do this? projects? And so that's our duty diligence in helping the client and then seeing the project through construction. You know, answering questions contractors may have and then just making sure that construction is being built the way it was designed in the intent of the design. And then obviously closing up the project, getting the walkthrough, doing those punch lists and making sure that all everything gets taken care of before the owner takes occupancy of it. So fulfilling process.

Nic  
Oh yeah. Absolutely. And there's a multitude of ways we can go from here, and I'll try to touch on a few things broadly, but it's really interesting. I didn't know you guys were also part of the process to bid out helped it out the project, which makes total sense. It really does. I don't know why think of that. So, I mean, I'm assuming when you have a project you've got a project going forward, the bids one, you're starting to do things there have to be made construction changes. So what are those kinds of challenges you see, when you're in the middle of something and maybe like the design you had initially isn't going to work? How do you manage those changes? Yeah,

Leap Chear  
I think those are the process of the development of design. It could take various terms. From an owners perspective, let's say, you know, they're happy with everything that has been talked about, it's been incorporated into the design, and then all of a sudden, they want to add something to the project. And that's where the challenge is, is like, Oh, we're in the middle of design. So they want to add, you know, maybe it's another 1500 square feet to the project. And it's very specific in what they do what they want for their building. And so then it's like, okay, well, we understand that and let's figure out how we can incorporate this additional 1500 square feet into the project, and this is walking them through the process. And you know, at some time instances, we're already into construction and contractors on board and they're like, Oh, this is gonna throw a wrench into schedule and everything else. But once everybody is informed of that, and the potential costs, you know, the additional design, how that impacts the project. We work to come in it's a matter of teamwork. You know, we have responsibilities again, making sure that this addition, again, isn't complied with codes and so forth. And obviously, we have to go back to the city and say, Oh, we are adding a little bit more to it. And this is how it impacts code or doesn't. Then we go through and make sure that all of that is on the up and up and and then we proceed forward.

Nic  
So for the whole process, I started tarsal finishing the design, you have the build version, you know, and then you know, finally it gets completed. I'm assuming the challenges are different as they go but is there a part of the process that's the most important or most challenging that you have to get right initially? Or is it kind of just depends on the project anything?

Leap Chear  
Well, I think, again, it's understanding the vision of the client, and as we spend time upfront, kind of fleshing those things out. And once we have that understanding, we help to develop a story behind their project. And the story again, allows the design team which includes architects, interior designers, engineering, mechanical, electrical, structural, civil, that they all understand that and so every decision that is made helps support that story, which the owner already approved of and the design team understands and so it makes it a lot easier when decisions come later on in the design process or even construction. Like if we are making a change. Does it still conform to the original design intent? Does it feel support the story? If it doesn't, what are the reasons for that? And how does that impact the overall project budget and schedule?

Nic  
That's very interesting, and it's really, really cool. To see that whole thing kind of come together. So what are the kinds of projects that you do you mentioned buildings for municipalities, but what are those? Yeah,

Leap Chear  
well, we will, primarily for myself, I do a lot of work with higher education institutions, colleges. And universities and completed a couple of projects and the first project is it's a new major for the university that where they combined plant science department with agriculture engineering, to create a new major called precision agriculture. And so we're creating a building that is a collaboration between two departments very different in nature, but it's combining the two and how do they work together to provide the education you know for the new farmers in the United States, where they can produce more on the same acreage. And then just being very precise, you know, when it comes to getting the right moisture in the into the soil or the nutrients, have controls and so forth that they don't have to blanket the entire site, but they can be very specific to the site. So plant science, agriculture, engineering, kind of a force marriage, if you will, to create a new major and throughout the building collaboration spaces is developed so that faculties and students can come together to work out solution. So that project is again, it's a LEED silver project. So it's one of the state's requirements. So we worked through it and we looked at ways to you know, reduce water consumption, reduce parking counts, you know, this is a campus settings and parking is a challenge, but we did not have any more parking. In fact, we helped reduce the number of parking on campus. And so part of the sustainability is not to again, be unmanageable about like, hard surfaces, right? So they kind of don't allow water stormwater to percolate, but yet they kind of impact how stormwater moves. Yeah, daylight and views really critical to the project. There was over 130,000 square foot building that needs to have access to daylight and due to the outside, so that was pretty critical for us to be able to do. We also looked at renewable energy, adding photo voltaic basically solar panels to help generate not a lot of power, but enough power to help offset you know, the needs for the building. And then we've done a basketball arena project where it's a large facility, how do you do incorporate sustainable practice into something like that? You have in the project itself. First and foremost, is bringing an aged building up to modern day codes for lighting ventilation. Accessibility is huge restroom. Toilet counts, in terms of male to female restroom in these sporting arenas. So again, not discounting existing building age building, but what can we do to bring life back into it? What can we do to bring it into the modern day competition environment? So I think making that decision from the university standpoint is just being sustainable and good stewards of what they have.

Nic  
Yeah, that sparks a question for me as an architect, when you see restoration or new build, does that mean anything to you? Are you like, Oh, thank goodness, we get to start it from scratch, or would you rather do one or the other? Are they just different?

Leap Chear  
We're very different. In the United States, there's many existing buildings right and what are the options? While you can either just let it sit abandoned or you can rehab it? So there's great energy that gets infused into an old building where new life is coming back around? That's great for a community it's great for, especially like downtown where you've got kind of a rundown area, you know, a blighted site or a building that just needs a lot of TLC. Right. And so investing into those types of properties, you know, has its advantages as well. And you can still make me an existing building very sustainable, new builds. I think every architect would love to have, you know, those new constructions. But again, there's lots of existing building that's going to need rehabilitation, repurposing. into something new. As far as its use. Me, I don't really have a preference. I enjoy doing both. Right. So as a company, I'd say maybe 70 75% of our work is rehabilitation, right? It's taken exactly structure and repurposing it.

Nic  
And you mentioned LEED certification to I always think it's very fascinating. And it's basically just say, designing sustainable building and there's different levels of it, depending on what you're doing. So when you go into a project, knowing it's going to be LEED certified to a certain degree is I think it's what it was silver and gold. I'm not sure if there's another but I mean, how challenging is that versus do it using standard practice for a standard building?

Leap Chear  
Not terribly challenging. In fact, most projects can achieve LEED certification onto best practices. We as a company we tried to incorporate a lot of those sustainable criteria into just your everyday building, energy efficiency, low water consumption, daylight and views. I mean, those are just the basic things that architects look at, at the start of a project. Whether it's new construction, new build or rehab is just a great opportunity to be able to inject in life back into existing buildings and opportunities to create something new vibrant in new building, but again, just kind of understanding how those big projects fit into the context of a neighborhood and downtown area.

Nic  
Very important. Yeah, of course, of course. And you mentioned sustainability a couple of times in it. And one of the things I wanted to ask you is how has sustainability changed over time? In the industry and where do you see it going in the future?

Leap Chear  
I think it's going to, again, get incorporated into everyday practice. I think the leaders out there, various sustainable, I guess organization, US United States Green Building Council well, and Green Globe, I mean, they're all going to be very relevant can will continue to be very relevant in everyday practice. But as far as from a design industry, again, a lot of that is getting adapted into what we do day in and day out. Much like accessibility, you know, that when it first came out, you know, it's like, Oh, we got to incorporate this but now it becomes just a normal practice. A building has to be accessible. Sustainability, I think, from a developer, real estate side. Companies want to be in buildings that are being good stewards, right of the resources and big companies. They have part of their pro forma criteria is that hey, this building, to be in a building because it's part of their marketing campaign and their image and brand, want to be occupying a building that has sustainability, Incorporated. into every facet of it. So I do see it becoming more and more mainstream, that it's not just a specialty. Some of our clients don't want to go through that process. But there is a marketing side to having a building with these LEED certification. Because it's like, yeah, it says to, to the public. We're invested in what we do. And we care about the environment. We care about the impact of our building to the environment, and how it impacts the people that work. There, live there.

Nic  
Which is great. That's great. And I took
______________
Leap Chear  
I totally agree. I

Nic  
think it's absolutely fascinating. And it's to see a change over time. And it's really cool that you said people do pay attention to what companies do more so now than ever, I would say, it's funny if we can take a step back too. And I want to talk a little bit about the field in general, right? So architecture is a challenging field to get into. It's a challenging field to be in. So what advice would you have for people who are looking to break into

Leap Chear  
I would say that from very early on, even like in high school, job shadow, learn more about what it is that an architect does. We as a company, we we take that on, we work with school districts, and, you know, throughout the semester, we would have students come into our office and just learn more about the everyday life in an architect world and so kind of understand a little bit of everything that we do. It can be mundane at times, but it's like, it's not just one thing. It's like all of these different aspects from the early on, programming side of a project all the way through designing and then construction side and then you know, out of these, I guess, pretty pictures to put it in, in kind of very simple terms. How does that get generated? Well, it's it's understanding how to use the software. But then it's like what generated that image Why is the building so tall so wide, and why did you do all these push and pull at the facades of the building? There's reasons for it and I think for high school students is doing the job shadow. You know, for those in college it into a firm to do your internship, right? Even if it's a summer internship, learn about the practice more because it is becoming more technical than it used to be. I think the more that people have understandings on the profession, and then as they're going through school firms will oftentimes take those students on and continue to employ them and even help them through that process of testing to obtain their licensure and then maintaining their license. You know, once they have it and what does it mean to have a license and even in multiple states, right? So it's like, get in there early. Learn as much as you can. It may not be for them, right? But it's better to discover it early. And the 10 years into is like man, I wish I could have done something else.

Nic  
Represent and you know, one of the things I've noticed about you in particular, you really do enjoy working with students. I've seen that in a couple of different places. So what about it? Do you enjoy it? What do you get out of working with students and doing these internships working with universities to get projects going? What about that interests you?

Leap Chear  
Yeah, it again, it's trying to pass on to some of that professional knowledge, what the industry is doing, and then how it directly relates to what they're going through, you know, with education. For me personally, I just see, again, this and our future workforce. Yeah, they're coming into the profession. And, you know, what, what do we those who are practitioners want the future workforce to know about the profession, what we do, and I think any opportunity that we have to partner up with an institution, a university with architecture and engineering, construction management, anytime we have an opportunity to partner with them, we're going to do it. That's just our business and not every company does that you know, we can't afford not to invest that kind of time and energy. Because, you know, down the road, they could be like, maybe running our company someday, right? So it's like, let's invest in the future. And that's, that's the thing that drives my motivation for wanting to connect more with students. And

Nic  
I mean, it's a perfect answer. It's absolutely great. You're totally right. So I'm glad to hear that. So. Now you have, you know, obviously we've talked a little bit about like starting out in your careers, how to get involved and but what is your career path look like? What I mean, you know, maybe maybe it's yours you want to talk about or just, you know, architecture in general, how do you go from starting out in the industry to being a leader like you are?

Leap Chear  
Yeah, I think it is really up to the individual. What motivates them, what drives them? Those who know where they want to go early in their career, they create this path, right? And then they they connect with other professionals, you know, in, if they're working in the office, they connect with them so that they can help them right. It's that mentor, ship relationship that is going to help people get to where they want to be. I didn't know that I would end up being a partner in a multidisciplinary firm. I just know that I want to be able to help create opportunity for others. Right. I see that and we as a company, we were nearly 200 people 10 offices in four states. So there are definitely opportunities for our people. And we want to make sure that we are prepared for that, you know, five years from now, all of our younger staff, they're going to gain more experienced, what's going to happen to them, right, they started to see those pictures, and then our mid level becomes more senior level and our senior levels become leaders in the company. So opportunities needs to be created. And I do enjoy more on the development of people. Right? And that's not what I went to school for. Right? It was about building the built environment. But I don't I've had my days, you know, doing those designs, but now it's about investing. In a future to allow others to kind of make their pathway to our company and developing future leaders and replace me as a leader in the firm. So I mean, I'm about five years into partnerships with the company, but I'm already thinking about, hey, at some point, I'm going to retire the what are we going to do to help build new leadership? Yeah, so that interests me significantly.

Nic  
Yeah, it's a great and leads right into like my next question. I think it's kind of the heart of one of the big reasons we wanted to have you on you have built a really strong culture at AAPC. So what what does good business culture look like? And how do you find the people that fit that vision? It's easy to say, Oh, well mentor people and teach people but you know, that's not simple. How do you do it? Yeah, yeah.

Leap Chear  
I think office culture, office environment really is different for every company. And for ours. We're multi discipline, first of all, architects, engineers, many disciplines, multiple offices in multiple states. So our footprint is really big. You know, how do we get our 200 some staff to really be able to connect with each other and it's leading by example. How do you connect virtually value can be intentional in your office to go and make those connections. It's about creating a fun, office environment that people can enjoy to come in, do their work, be fulfilled. I think that's really critical, not only in the profession, what we do, but also being fulfilled in how we relate to the community that we live in. What can we do together as an office, a group of individuals with common goal to make a difference in our community? Yesterday, half of our office went to help do a community built in say, a new veteran community right on these small homes. And half of our staff was were doing that the other half was on the road project meetings on the reservation. Oh, right. So there's opportunity to make a difference in what we do. Design. Architecture does impact the environment. And what can we do to reduce our footprint really, in terms of designing construction? Yeah,

Nic  
I mean, there's benefits for that, right? Like one of the best reasons. I work for a native Hawaiian company and that's one of the big values we have to is being part of the community but you know, one of the big reasons is you have connection points, and people feel like not just that they're working, but they're also part of a larger community. And, yeah, it's great to hear that you have that as well. And like I say, we're getting closer to the end here. We love to ask people a couple of standard questions. One of them is about your experience is doing your job. So we like to ask about memorable moments on the work that you do a time that's either funny or scary or unique, where you were working as an architect doing your job and you're like, oh, wow, this is a new change, big, big changes, whatever it is, or you know, even if you make a mistake, you know, we love hearing those stories, too. Because, you know, we were in the field, you're in the field, you take one step and all of a sudden, you know, your entire life is in a swamp. Right. Right. So for us, yeah. So

Leap Chear  
I'll start with some mistakes. In the industry, they call it E and O. So error and omission. You know, we all strive to just be as perfect as we can on each project, right? Nobody wants mistakes on their projects. And on a typical project that could be smaller projects could be, you know, half a dozen people working on it. To larger projects where there could be 30 to 40 people working on it. Many sets of eyes are looking at the project, but you know, through through the process of design and putting the construction documents together, specifications, sometimes, some things get missed, or the wrong material is specified, right. In this case, we've specified the wrong material. But okay, so what do you do? Well, if you asked earlier about culture, that office culture, you know, I want to make sure that that we own it as a team not just one person that's responsible for managing a project, but it's the team, the entire team. And essentially, it's the offense. How do we take care of that? Well, we know it's a mistake. And so right away, we helped develop a solution. And then we worked with a client, and we told them, here's what we did. This was our mistakes. Clearly, we're working to resolve this. We're working with a contractor. We're working with a third party consultant that's providing some analysis, and we're going to own it right we have professional liability insurance that's going to pay for you know, a good portion of that. The others comes out of our pocket. And so it's like how you handle mistakes, is absolutely crucial for an owner right. So if you and I are owners of a project we want to make sure that our design team who are advocating for us can be honest about it, you know, own it, and let's work through it together. And because of that, here's the silver lining behind it. And our client was very just pleased to hearing that admissions are small. And they said, we appreciate that. We're going to work with you through this. And a couple of weeks later, we were interviewing for another project with them. And that came up in our q&a. And we we answered it, you know, truthfully, cuz it's like this is what happened. And this is how we handle that and they want us another project. So a costly mistake. Again, we own it and it turned into another multimillion dollar project with a client because they're they want that type of relationship. So in for young architects, don't be afraid to admit the mistake, own it, and ask for help and work through it. And because of that, you're building your reputation. That integrity is important and it's gonna go a long way. The next job that they're looking at, or within the company, promotions take place, and leadership know if there's a mistake made but still this is how it was handled. And that's the key.

Nic  
Right? Absolutely. Yep. It's like, we can trust this person. They made a mistake and told us and yeah, you were able to find a solution. And then the client sees it the same way we can trust them. Yeah, you know, yep. Love to hear that. Love to hear that. So okay, we talked about architecture we talked about, you know, your firm, but what do you do for fun what is like when you Yeah, the architecture here you go home? What do you do?

Leap Chear  
Well, it's about what how do I even use what I do every day to help others and my wife and I are experiencing you know, that empty nest syndrome right now our kids are growing up and, you know, we enjoy again, just kind of working with our hands until through our church and we partner up with Casa Cristo, though they they are an organization that builds home homes for families in third world country. So my son and I had an opportunity to do that in the Dominican Republic. My wife and I are going to do that this January in Guatemala. So we're going to meet the basic needs of which is a shelter. Right? So these families in the third world countries do not have a whole what they have is not to any of our standing today, but this is an opportunity to build a very modest home with our church group. And to them it's like Ella, lifting them up out of abject poverty into a you know, we can have a chance. And so that's kind of our missions. Were continuing to do that and at least once a year, we tried to participate and give back because we feel the basic needs of shelter is essential. And it's very relevant to architecture, the design industry, what we do is very fulfilling

Nic  
100% and I loved that your hobbies still kind of ties to your job with it, too. That's great. And it's really very novel. I'm really really glad you guys are doing that. That's wonderful. So we are we're close to time. So is there anything we didn't talk about that you'd like to share with our audience?

Leap Chear  
I think we covered you know, a lot of that and I think what we do, as the design professional architects within the community, you know, it's about how we engage in our community, with what we do, how we help the client, you know, maybe connecting with another partnership to fully realize a project that is very beneficial to the community. And so anytime you get a business and the city, doing our joint venture on a project within their community, and being intentional about it, meeting the needs, that's at the beginning of a beautiful relationship and it creates for a healthy community and a create for a healthy, trusting relationship between city leaders, businesses, and then the design team that comes in and helped pull all of that together. So is fulfilling, we provide a service and we take that very seriously, but more important than anything, it's about relationship that we connect with our clients. And with community. We tried to understand their world when we approach design, and when we have a little bit of that knowledge and understanding. It makes projects a little bit more successful.

Nic  
For us. That's great. Thank you so much. And if people do want to reach out to you and ask you any questions themselves, where can they find you?

Leap Chear  
Yeah, so they can reach me with my email address. It's leap dot tear. Lea P dot h e AR at EA pc.net.

Nic  
Perfect. Thank you so much for being here.

Leap Chear  
Right. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Nic  
That's our show. Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe. rate and review. See everybody bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai