TO WIN APPROVALS FOR INNOVATIVE DESIGN: CONNECT THROUGH STORYTELLING

by By Joshua Zinder, AIA, LEED AP BD+C Managing Partner, JZA+D, Princeton, N.J.

This article summarizes the presentation, “Progress Through Storytelling” at the 2022 AIA Tri-State Small Firms Symposium with Derek Bridger, Zoning Officer/ Assistant HP Officer, Municipality of Princeton, New Jersey; Pablo David, VP, Government Affairs & Community Relations, AJ Capital Partners.

Small firms are the main drivers of smart development, especially in the communities where the practitioners live and work. But too often a great idea fails to win approval because of a natural tendency by stakeholders to resist innovation, coupled with a failure to see through the architect’s eyes exactly how the project would benefit the community and project stakeholders. This is common both in big cities and smaller municipalities with historic neighborhoods, where requests for permits and variances are often rejected even when the proposed design harmonizes with the context and the solution is badly needed. To make a positive impact practice leaders have to be highly effective communicators as well as excellent designers. By employing tried-and-true storytelling techniques and principles, small firms can become empowered to make compelling cases to approval-granting agencies and win critical entitlements for projects.

After a virtual presentation on this topic titled “Progress Through Storytelling” offered at the 2022 AIA Tri-State Small Firms Symposium, the discussion that followed in the Q&A portion revealed that small and emerging practitioners are particularly concerned that they may not have the resources to compete with larger firms. But access to resources is not critical for winning approvals. If your design solution is the best one, it’s not manpower or marketing assets that will win the day.

Far more important is making a connection with the individuals who constitute the planning or zoning commission, the historic preservation board, or whatever entitlement-granting authority you may present your design to. What they want to know is that you are aware of the issues they contend with and working to resolve them to everyone’s satisfaction. Knowing your audience and offering them a compelling story is worth far more than a litany of exhaustive analyses and technical information. And visuals are important, but a hand drawing can be just as effective as intricate computer models and 3D walkthroughs, which are expensive and time-consuming to produce.

THE RIGHT STORY, TOLD WELL

As architects we are trained in school to communicate ideas through detailed descriptions of imagined, as-yet-unbuilt places. In our pursuit of design excellence and real world experiences we often forget this important tool, one that is essential to successfully realizing innovative architectural solutions. To reclaim this tool, we can take a lesson from the basics of journalism and remember the five W’s – who, what, when, where, and why – and the H of “how” as well. Answering these questions for the audience cuts through the courtroom feel of typical entitlements presentations and shows that you under- stand the potential impact and both the positive and negative criteria, communicating far more effectively than technical descriptions and construction documents.

In the case of entitlements, the who and the why are usually closely connected. Knowing who the individuals are you’re speaking to and who they represent in their official function means that you also know why they are vested in the project outcome. This was especially important for my firm’s conversion of Aaron Lodge No. 9, a historic meeting house at 30 MacLean Street in a residential neighborhood near the center of Princeton, NJ into a ten-unit mixed-income multifamily residence.

Aaron Lodge No. 9 remains an important part of the history of the municipality’s African-American community, and members of the still-active Masonic chapter who were consulted on aspects of the façade’s preservation and architectural details became an integral part of the story presented to the local historic commission. In addition to being the who—or at least one of the groups the project would impact—they also helped form the reasons why the preservation of the façade mattered, and why giving the building a new life (not to mention introducing much-needed rental options) would be a plus for the neighborhood. 30 MacLean Street also provides a good example of the when part of the story, which included attention not only to the project timeline and construction schedule but also how the project would connect residents to their neighborhood’s history through revival of a locally iconic structure. The where, likewise, is about more than just an address. This is an opportunity to show your familiarity with the site constraints, the geography and, most importantly, the surrounding context. We recently presented for use entitlements for Home- works, Trenton, a non-profit providing dorms for young women in high school to support study and achievement. Our presentation cut through concerns about a dorm project—often considered a non-starter in a residential area—to talk about why the project was not only essential but ideally suited to the chosen site: a distressed property in need of redevelopment, set back from the street, close to the homes and schools of the girls it would serve, and adjacent to a historic park.

In all cases, the what question is best answered for your audience as the big picture—or perhaps more essentially as the “need.” This is the thrust of your story: What function does it serve for their community? What does your design solution do differently from others to answer that need? What will be the overall effect when it is done? Presenting the what will have the greatest impact on whether you establish a connection with your audience.

Visual Assets

But the what is not as challenging to convey effectively as the how. This is where many will falter in making their case by falling back on technical schematics and plans that are hard for the lay person to understand. Sharing with the entitlements authority how your design works, and how it can be accomplished, may depend on the strength of the visual assets you bring. Again, this is not to say you need expensive-to-produce detailed renderings or 3D animation. Most important is that your graphic elements make it easier for the audience to understand the how.

For Homeworks, Trenton, our presentation’s most effective graphic showed additions on the existing structure and proposed street access as super-imposed drawings on an aerial photo, also showing the adjacency to the park. A rather complicated design for interlocking flats and split-level units proposed for 30 MacLean street was shown over the course of several slides as color-coded blocks dropping one by one into a stacked formation within the outline of the existing building, reminiscent of a game of Tetris. These visuals were simple to produce in-house, and convey clear meaning to the uninitiated.

As a last word on the subject, stay flexible and nimble. The connection made through the story you tell is the important thing, not any one component of your presentation. So if you’re not sure there will be support for an audiovisual presentation, bring hard copies of your deck to pass around—in fact, bring them even if you are sure, just in case. If you can bring your own projector, do it, and if they don’t have a screen use a plain wall. In short, do what you have to do to tell your story, and make that connection. l

Joshua Zinder, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C is the founder and managing partner of integrated design firm JZA+D. Amassed over 30-plus years, his design portfolio includes residential, mixed-use, office, hospitality, institutional, academic and government environments. Active in his community of Princeton, NJ, Zinder is also a co-developer of multiple commercial real estate properties. He currently serves as New Jersey’s representative in the AIA Small Firm Exchange, and previously served as 2021 president of AIA New Jersey.

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