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A podcast on shared humanity; discussing personal and professional perspectives. From serious to silly to sublime, coming from kindness and curiosity, it is all about connections.
Hi. I hope you're well. This podcast is a place for people to share personal and professional perspectives to talk openly and to ask questions. From serious to silly to sublime, it's all about communication and connections, Always coming from a place of kindness and curiosity, we talk about shared humanity, discuss ideas, and highlight people creating a better world. We've got to keep learning, keep growing, keep being.
Melissa Shere Beek:I'm Melissa Shere Beek, and this is Beek on being. Today's episode is Beek on being an architect. Art, science, engineering, design, beauty, shelter, sanctuary, all elements of architecture. What is it about the art and practice of designing and building a structure that moves you literally and figuratively? How has it evolved and what inspires it?
Melissa Shere Beek:Because it is a profound responsibility shaping the places in which people work and live. In studio today, we have David Schwade, architect, principal and creative founder of Ann Studio here to discuss it all. I am so excited to have you here. You have no idea. Nice to be here.
Melissa Shere Beek:This is my topic that I love, so I can totally geek out with you about this. So I'm so thrilled.
David Schwade:I was introduced to the profession really by your dad.
Melissa Shere Beek:I know. It's a full circle.
David Schwade:It's pretty full circle moment here.
Melissa Shere Beek:It's crazy. So tell our listeners a little bit about you and how you got into the field of architecture.
David Schwade:So I'm a I grew up in Miami, and I've always kind of had a passion for architecture and just the built environment around us. Yeah. Even I remember as a kid growing up, my cousin and I would draw houses, and we, you know, talked about how we would build houses next to each other and grow up together. And so, as far back as I can remember, it's always been kind of a driving force Yeah. In my life.
David Schwade:But, yeah, it's it's great to be in Miami, a city that I love and practicing what I love to do.
Melissa Shere Beek:So how did you get into it? Did you decide that you're gonna go to school for it? Did you
David Schwade:So I actually wanted to go to school for architecture. Mhmm. I went to Tulane University Yeah. And I remember
Melissa Shere Beek:Exactly. I went to my That's my
David Schwade:very first architecture class. And when I'm there, the teacher's telling everyone, if you wanna go to Bourbon Street, if you wanna be in a fraternity, leave now
Melissa Shere Beek:and go to the business school. Right.
David Schwade:Yeah. So I got up and I left and I went to the business school.
Melissa Shere Beek:Wow. So
David Schwade:I did four years of undergrad in business
Melissa Shere Beek:Uh-huh.
David Schwade:Which was great. I had a great experience. But afterwards, you know, kind of had that that itch that I really wanted to get back into design. So Wow. Went to the University of Miami and got my masters in architecture.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's incredible. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's fabulous. I didn't know that about, like, if you wanna get up and go and then you went to business school I
David Schwade:think meant it, you know, figuratively. Don't wanna
Melissa Shere Beek:keep figuring Literally. To get
David Schwade:up and do it. Then
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. But it is. Because it's it's it's a full commitment.
David Schwade:Totally.
Melissa Shere Beek:There's no work play balance. It's all work work work.
David Schwade:And at the time, I think I probably wasn't ready for that type of commitment True. As a freshman in college.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, yeah.
David Schwade:So I needed those four years to kind of
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:You know.
Melissa Shere Beek:But it gives you a good foundation for everything else.
David Schwade:Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:Good. Good. Good. Okay. So can you tell our listeners what kind of architect are you?
Melissa Shere Beek:Do you do commercial, residential, both?
David Schwade:We do a little bit of everything,
Melissa Shere Beek:actually. Okay.
David Schwade:We we have about 50% commercial and 50% residential. Okay. We do a lot of high end commercial retail in the design District. We've done about 15 projects ranging from Brunello Cucinelli Mhmm. And Stone Island, and Ghani.
David Schwade:And in Coconut Grove, we did Love Shack Fancy and Los Felix. Oh, wow. We've done a couple offices and hospitality projects. So they're so different, the approach to Yeah. The commercial projects versus the residential projects that it's really great to kinda see how each one path each one takes and how you how we approach them.
Melissa Shere Beek:So how do you approach it? A client comes to you and I know I'm like skipping around over everything, but I'm just like so excited right now. But how do you approach it when you when a client comes to you and you're working on like a commercial?
David Schwade:So the commercial projects really were focused on brand identity.
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
David Schwade:And I would say budget doesn't really come into play that much
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:On these high end retail projects. But
Melissa Shere Beek:As opposed to residential.
David Schwade:Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. But
David Schwade:the the brand identity is really the driving force. So we meet with their designers. A lot of times, they're international designers from
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, wow.
David Schwade:London or Stockholm or Italy. Mhmm. And so we have, like, weekly meetings with them and basically take their their concepts, their design intent.
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
David Schwade:And we, you know, analyze it and make sure that it's adequate for, you know, the the Florida building code.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:And then we oversee the construction of these projects.
Melissa Shere Beek:So you kind of keep the continuity of their brand with what matches for our area. Okay. Got it. I was Yeah. Thinking
David Schwade:For the retail component, it's less exciting for the most part because they have their design aesthetic that we are Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:You have to stay into that lane.
David Schwade:We've done a couple restaurants and offices where we are the designers, so we have Oh, free that's right. That's so fun. So we did Los Felix in Coconut Grove.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, wow.
David Schwade:And it's just it's a great experience because you get to really craft these spaces for for like the future tenants, whoever's gonna be in there.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Okay. So I wanna get back I wanna get back to that a little bit about design and your firm, but tell us about the residential clients.
David Schwade:So I prefer the residential side I of really do. Because you're designing for an end user. Right. So it's you're trying to create these spaces that these people are gonna live in, raise families Yeah. And kind of have these
Melissa Shere Beek:You're shaping their life. Yeah. Exactly. When you're designing with someone from residential, do you start out with they give you an idea like, oh, this is the heart of my home is going to be the kitchen or the living room and then you sort So of branch out from
David Schwade:we have meetings and by the way, the residential side, what I love about it is each client is so different and so unique that it's it gives us a great opportunity to really, you know, cater to whatever their priorities are.
Melissa Shere Beek:And continue to be creative on your end as well.
David Schwade:Exactly. So we have some clients who, you know, the kitchen is the heart of their home and it needs to be the center of everything. And then we have other clients who, you know, they have live in help and so the kitchen is really secondary. Right. And needs to be kind of out of sight.
David Schwade:Oh, okay. So we've designed for every possible scenario.
Melissa Shere Beek:I'm gonna ask you about your favorite ones later. Okay. So do you have a design philosophy?
David Schwade:Really, it's like taking the the site and the context and the the program that the client needs
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:And starting from there.
Melissa Shere Beek:And leading with that.
David Schwade:And leading with that. Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:So tell me about Anne's studio.
David Schwade:The firm itself?
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Like how did that come about?
David Schwade:So I my background was in I did architecture for a while. Worked in Uh-huh. Commercial architecture and commercial development. And then I worked we moved to New York and worked for Kiehl's Okay. At L'Oreal.
Melissa Shere Beek:Sure.
David Schwade:So I was doing a lot of their retail design build firm. Actually, to back it up a little bit further, when I was still at architecture school at University of Miami, I was an intern at Max Strang Architecture. And he was heavily focused in, you know, residential, high end residential construction in or high end residential design in Miami
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:Especially in Coconut Grove.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:So I really got my feet wet in the residential sphere at the beginning, and then moved to New York and started working for Kiehl's and doing the the commercial side.
Melissa Shere Beek:Did you always have an idea, like, oh, when I have my own firm, I'm gonna do this, that and the other? Or was it something that you didn't plan for?
David Schwade:I think I always knew that I wanted to have my own firm because I wanted the
Melissa Shere Beek:Control. The freedom Yeah. To be able to do what I
David Schwade:wanna do and and design it. And I I didn't know when that was gonna happen or how I was gonna land there. It kind of came about when I I was living in New York, working for Keehl's and they wanted me to open up their or relocate their location on Lincoln Road.
Melissa Shere Beek:Uh-huh.
David Schwade:So, I came back to Miami.
Melissa Shere Beek:Back here.
David Schwade:Yeah. Moved it over and then I started working with a developer, Fortis Development with David Polinski and Brad Carlson to design and build 250 Wynwood.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay.
David Schwade:Which was the first residential project in Wynwood. Which was really exciting because that neighborhood was
Melissa Shere Beek:Very different.
David Schwade:Very different, a lot of warehouses and we really allowed, it was just we were kind of at the forefront of the redevelopment of Wynwood. Changed Of this new neighborhood.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. And
David Schwade:it's growing up in Miami and seeing what it used to be where it was Coconut Grove and it was Miami Beach and that was really it.
Melissa Shere Beek:That was it.
David Schwade:And so, now we have all these neighborhoods that have kind of evolved over the last few decades.
Melissa Shere Beek:Wynwood Design District, have all like ARCHITECT down there, Midtown.
David Schwade:Exactly. You've
Melissa Shere Beek:got everything. It's really growing.
David Schwade:And it's become this continuous fabric where Miami was never really thought of as a pedestrian city.
Melissa Shere Beek:No.
David Schwade:But now you could really take the underline all the way to downtown.
Melissa Shere Beek:You could
David Schwade:walk to the Design District and it's really great.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, love that. Okay. So is there a key role or responsibility that an architect has?
David Schwade:I think there are a lot of responsibilities.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay.
David Schwade:You know, the architect is really kind of managing the client, the GC Mhmm. The engineers, the consultants, and trying to put everything together to deliver Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:You're the quarterback.
David Schwade:A product for
Melissa Shere Beek:the Exactly. Do you have like a signature style of architecture?
David Schwade:That's a that's a good question. I mean, we we try to design around the client, really. Right. So the client if you look at our website Mhmm. We have Mediterranean houses
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:Tropical modern houses, mid century modern houses. Okay. So it really depends on the Who
Melissa Shere Beek:are designing for?
David Schwade:Yeah. I don't wanna force my style Right. On the client, but I wanna hear from them what they like.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:And then it's how do we take their Concepts and their needs. Program and with their aesthetic
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:And doing it in in, you know, a well thought out way.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, I love that. Okay. Because I was gonna say, like, there's some you can say, oh, well, that's Frank Lloyd Wright. Yeah. That's like a Russier.
Melissa Shere Beek:Exactly. You know, so, okay.
David Schwade:I think that there's a lot of architects who try to, you know, this is my style, this is my niche and I'm gonna
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:You know, stick in my lane.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:But for me, I really approach
Melissa Shere Beek:You're more client driven.
David Schwade:I'm more client driven. Okay. Like how can I how can I give you a space that's both functional and beautiful? Yeah. Where it's not necessarily
Melissa Shere Beek:Something you imposed.
David Schwade:Something I imposed on them.
Melissa Shere Beek:Got it. Okay. So we already was gonna ask you about the residential as opposed to commercial, but I like that you're really more client driven. Okay. So what's the most important aspect you need to consider when dealing with a client?
Melissa Shere Beek:Because residential, you said, is more budget oriented, let's say?
David Schwade:I mean, not necessarily budget, but where commercial is just, I would say, budget less.
Melissa Shere Beek:Budget less.
David Schwade:You know, they they know how much things are gonna cost Right. Because they've they've done this across the country, around the world.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:The particular clients that we work in. Not saying that they have an unlimited budget, but they know they know what they're gonna spend and what their designs will cost to build.
Melissa Shere Beek:So they they have less parameters.
David Schwade:Less parameters. For them, it's it's really about bottom line
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:A lot of times. For the client, it's it's more sorry. For commercial, it's more bottom line and Right. Schedule. Like, we wanna be open for Basel.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, yeah. Schedule.
David Schwade:And that has been for us, I would say in the last ten years that we've been in business, was really the the driving factor for all of our commercial projects. Everyone wants to be open for Basel.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Is it difficult to meet those deadlines? Because some of those things for as far as materials and things like that go really out of your control.
David Schwade:It's difficult because all of the commercial projects and design districts are all trying to be open for Basel. So, you know, really the schedule as far as construction is on the the GC, the general contractor. We visit the site weekly and we act as owner's rep and we are kind of the middleman between the client Right. And the GC.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. You won't get the complaints. The GC, I would get the complaints. Exactly. But yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay. Got it.
David Schwade:But the on the residential side Yeah. I would say the biggest thing is, you know, there's there's It's not as much as a clear consensus Yeah. Your husband and wife or partners.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:And they have differing opinions, so it's like Oh, find common that's ground between these two players is sometimes we act as marriage counselors.
Melissa Shere Beek:I was just gonna say. Yeah. Oh, gosh. That's stressful.
David Schwade:Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:Alright. So I wanna go back to what you said about creativity and function. Something being, you know, both beautiful and utilitarian. How do you balance that?
David Schwade:That's a great question. I think it's important to be able to balance both of them to have it not be purely aesthetic, where you're not factoring how people are gonna live and enjoy the space.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:But at the same time, we don't design buildings from the inside out where, you know, we're just drawing rooms and then on the outside it's it's Nothing. Hodgepodge.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:So, you have to kind of find that balance between form and function. And I think, you know, that that really is the biggest
Melissa Shere Beek:Challenge?
David Schwade:Challenge in in residential architecture is how you how do you deliver both.
Melissa Shere Beek:Does that balance come into play with the engineer too? So Because of codes and different things that maybe more aesthetically aren't figured into the picture or
David Schwade:So the way we typically work is, you know, there's different phases of the design process. So there's schematic design, which is where we will show lots of different options to a client. Right. You know, what if you what if you had a one story house? What if you had a two story house?
David Schwade:What if the pool was on the right side? What if it was a courtyard style house? We really try and flush out every possible scenario so that the client really feels like they are committed to Mhmm. The direction that we're gonna go, even before we bring on the engineers. So we do zoning studies and massing models.
David Schwade:Because I really want the client to realize that, like, to kind of be sold on the idea that this is the best approach and best direction.
Melissa Shere Beek:Alright. Because you answered one of the next questions I had about what you're striving for with your clients because you want to enhance beauty and quality of life.
David Schwade:For sure.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:I mean, at the end of the day, when the client moves in, and for us, we don't do marketing, it's all word-of-mouth. So for the client to live in their house, refer us to their friends Uh-huh. And, you know, be a repeat client for us if they decide to
Melissa Shere Beek:move on, at the end of the day, that
David Schwade:is very rewarding and fulfilling for It's
Melissa Shere Beek:gotta be.
David Schwade:Yeah. It's great.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, it's amazing.
David Schwade:Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:Just to have someone just just enjoy the everyday coming home and just looking around and going, oh. Yeah. I love this.
David Schwade:I mean, you know, architecture and construction is is a huge investment
Melissa Shere Beek:for
David Schwade:a lot of these people. Most people are lucky enough only to do this, you know, once in their Yeah. So we wanna make sure that we get it right and that
Melissa Shere Beek:Build their dream home.
David Schwade:Build their dream home and where they feel like the money that they've invested is well spent.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, And,
David Schwade:you know, providing them with an asset that is both valuable from a financial perspective. We don't want them to be underwater.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:But that, you know, from an emotional standpoint, they can, you know, feel like this is their home.
Melissa Shere Beek:I think that you said that it's an investment and an asset. Yeah. Both of those things. Okay. Good.
Melissa Shere Beek:I So like when you're considering building, you have to factor in environment. So when you were building in New York, different than building down here.
David Schwade:Completely.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right? Okay. So can you, like, expand upon that a little bit?
David Schwade:So, I mean, we're we're lucky that we live in the climate that we do where it's, you know, the outside is beautiful, it's tropical. Can really blur the lines between indoor and outdoor Yeah. On a yearly basis. Right. Up north and other areas where it's cold, you know, a lot of times you look inward Right.
David Schwade:Because, you know, you can't really experience the outside all year round. So for us down here, I think it's really special that we
Melissa Shere Beek:Is it easier?
David Schwade:It's not easier. It's harder.
Melissa Shere Beek:It's harder.
David Schwade:From the per from their perspective, we're introducing moisture, humidity.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:You know, sea level rise. We have a very high water table here. So we have to factor in all those things, flooding.
Melissa Shere Beek:And the limestone and all those, like, because we don't really have great foundation.
David Schwade:Exactly. Wow. I mean, luckily, you know, when when we design houses in Coconut Grove or other areas where we have quote unquote high ground Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. If you just left
David Schwade:it, I
Melissa Shere Beek:was just gonna say. Yeah. That's all relative. Yeah. But, yeah.
David Schwade:The the foundations are pretty straightforward. The projects that we do on Miami Beach, in Normandy, and on the water, in Lagors, they have, you know, deep piles that we need to factor in.
Melissa Shere Beek:So I was gonna ask you about that. Not just factoring in that with foundations and stuff like that, but when you when you're creating communities that are already developed, do you have to sort of take into consideration everything that's around them?
David Schwade:I think it's
Melissa Shere Beek:Like the history of Coconut Grove or just the area when you're talking Miami Beach? So Are these factors that come in play? Okay.
David Schwade:It depends on the neighborhood. So when we do work in Miami Beach or Coral Gables Mhmm. Let's say, where we have to go before the board of architects.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Coral Gables is hard.
David Schwade:Coral Gables is it's tricky.
Melissa Shere Beek:They give you a hard time all the time.
David Schwade:Yeah. We we've gone before the Board of Architects and it's I I do think that they serve a great purpose. Right. I live in Coral Gables. Right.
David Schwade:And I think part of the charm is, you know, the aesthetic of the architecture and how it feels
Melissa Shere Beek:Used to live there, they gave us such a hard time.
David Schwade:Yeah. It's it's tough. Yeah. It's tough. But I think that it serves a good purpose Mhmm.
David Schwade:And and I like it. We've done projects in Miami Beach where we had to go before the the historic review board as well Yeah. There.
Melissa Shere Beek:So Do they press you to keep the integrity of structures that exist if you're working with something that may already be there? Or Yes. Or is it different when you just are starting from the ground up?
David Schwade:So it depends on the structure. It depends on if it's a historical structure or a contributing structure.
Melissa Shere Beek:Got it.
David Schwade:One of the the things to put a pin in that for a second, is Miami is a youngish city.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:You know, it's been around for a hundred years.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:But we have great architectural styles that for such a young city, we have pretty historic neighborhoods. Yeah. So the Deco District
Melissa Shere Beek:I was just gonna say.
David Schwade:Coral Gables Mhmm. Is another example in Miami Beach. So I think people feel the need to protect
Melissa Shere Beek:Sure.
David Schwade:The architecture, which I think is extremely important.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. It is.
David Schwade:You know, we have some buildings, like Alfred Browning Parker, which is one of my favorite architects Yeah. Who, you know, he had beautiful houses all over Miami and Coral Gables, and they all they've all just been knocked down. I know.
Melissa Shere Beek:Isn't that a shame?
David Schwade:I do think it's important if you can keep a structure.
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
David Schwade:Not only from the environmental side
Melissa Shere Beek:of it. Yeah. I'm gonna get into that afterwards. Yeah.
David Schwade:Okay. But I think it's important to not necessarily look at a building and think that the the first approach is to knock it down and build something new. Yeah. So we try to we did a house on Amothla in North Grove
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
David Schwade:Where we took this, like, hacienda style house from the I think it was built in the seventies. One story kinda looked a little dated and run down and we wanted to improve, expand on it and renovate it. We took the house down to the walls. We ripped the roof off.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:We ended up even raising the floor up because of, you know, the flooding. Uh-huh. But the new house is it feels like a brand new house, but it still maintains some of
Melissa Shere Beek:the Integrity of the outside and the character. Oh, I love that.
David Schwade:Oh. The other reason we did it though also was because the existing wall was encroaching about 10 feet into the front setback. So we were able to, you know, grandfather in certain aspects of the house that we wouldn't have otherwise been able to maintain.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Oh, gosh. That's the worst with the setbacks, especially because I don't think everybody was on top of it then. When you do these new evaluations and you're like, oh, shit.
David Schwade:Yeah. Exactly. And Coconut Grove, in particular, has gone through so many different versions of zoning code. So they had Yeah. They have a bunch of overlays that they have a NCD three overlay and then Miami 21.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay.
David Schwade:I don't know if you're familiar with that.
Melissa Shere Beek:Not the Miami 21.
David Schwade:So they I wanna say, like, twenty years ago Uh-huh. They hired a DPZ Uh-huh. Who is Duane Platter Zieberg, who was the the old dean of the University of Miami when I was there. Mhmm. New urbanist architecture firm.
David Schwade:And they do a lot of town planning.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay.
David Schwade:So they really helped with overseeing kind of a comprehensive code. Because Miami was really
Melissa Shere Beek:Sections.
David Schwade:Section by section. A lot of I don't know if you remember, but the the boom of, like, 2003 to 2005.
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
David Schwade:There were a lot of these high rises being built.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, yeah.
David Schwade:But at street level, they weren't taking into account the pedestrian experience.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:So you would have these blank walls, you would have service loading bays, and it just really was was
Melissa Shere Beek:Uninviting.
David Schwade:It was uninviting and it wasn't there was no, like, street level urban fabric. Right. Mhmm. And so they basically redid the zoning code. It's it's resulted in a much better pedestrian experience.
David Schwade:Right. You were talking about how you can walk from, you know, the design district to downtown. A lot of that is because of, you know, what the requirements What
Melissa Shere Beek:they did. Oh, I like that. I wasn't familiar with that one. That's a good one. Okay.
Melissa Shere Beek:So let's get back to how much environment plays a factor
David Schwade:Yes.
Melissa Shere Beek:When you're doing all of this.
David Schwade:So Not
Melissa Shere Beek:just the structure, surrounding structures, but the environment.
David Schwade:So my favorite style of architecture Yeah. Like I I look to, you know, Roman architecture and these courtyard style houses. I love that. A lot of times, you know, the the white picket fence Mhmm. People think of, you know, your house in the middle with windows looking out.
David Schwade:I really like to create, whether it's a courtyard style house or whether you use, like, the negative space around the buildings Yeah. To create this, the area that can be activated, like a like a courtyard or a side yard. I think the environment plays a huge factor here because
Melissa Shere Beek:Especially here.
David Schwade:We really do have this indoor outdoor living. Everyone has a pool, everyone has a backyard with an outdoor kitchen. So how do you make that negative space feel like it's an outdoor living room?
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. An extension.
David Schwade:An extension of that.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. I love that. Okay, so you take that into consideration. I love that. Because it's different living here.
Melissa Shere Beek:Don't have to live in a vertical way.
David Schwade:Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:So we have all of that space available to us. So I'm glad that you utilize it like that. Oh, good, good, good. Okay. So how much of the psychology of structure plays into it when you're doing, let's say, more on the commercial side?
Melissa Shere Beek:Because we talk about, like, moving people through when you talk about, like, a pedestrian experience. But when you think about going into a mall or any of these places, there's a psychology behind moving people through commercial properties. So how much of that is factored in when you design, especially with like ones that are already in existence? Because they probably have an idea how they want people to move through there.
David Schwade:Definitely. So you I mean you have the psychology of movement, like how do you subconsciously guide people through space? But then you also have, you know, how does this space make people feel when they're in there. And it's like a lot of times it's a subconscious
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah, they're not even aware of it.
David Schwade:They're not aware of it. I would say, you know, you and I, we have architecture background.
Melissa Shere Beek:We're spatial. Yeah. We're looking at things from a spatial perspective. Yeah. We don't know
David Schwade:I'm walking around analyzing, judging everything.
Melissa Shere Beek:I would do
David Schwade:this differently. I would do that differently.
Melissa Shere Beek:Wait. But I'm just laughing that you said that because when I was looking for a home and I would go into a a place and within three seconds, I would judge, like, if I could take this wall down and move this and create, like, an open plan and this, that, and the other. And at one point, my husband's like, I'm gonna stay home with the kids. You just Yeah. When you find the house, you just let me know.
Melissa Shere Beek:And I was like, that's it. But like, I'm always sizing things Yeah. Up that So funny. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt.
David Schwade:No. No. I mean, I I think, you know, most people don't realize it that they're doing it. They're like, why why does this space make me feel good and why does this space not make me feel good?
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:Like, why do I have, you know, I don't Like, We spend so much of our time in architecture, surrounded by architecture, where it's important to think about how the spaces, you know, make people feel. Right. And how do they naturally move through them.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Emotionally and physically.
David Schwade:Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. I know some museums, especially if you travel and you go to certain museums, they have a complete plan commercially of how they make people navigate and you're not even aware of it. Or even just compressing the space so that you feel tense and then opening it up.
David Schwade:Frank Lloyd Wright, that was
Melissa Shere Beek:his Well, was moving people through But I loved well, he's my favorite. Because I loved how he involved environment. So the house would open up as an extension to what was already existing. He wouldn't cut down the trees. He would work with the rock that was on them, like Call it a house.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's it. That was like my favorite. So yeah. So I love it. Okay.
Melissa Shere Beek:So when it comes to materials though, because architects talk about water levels and all these things, we talk about climate change. Are you concerned building a greener home? Are you concerned about using materials that are non toxic?
David Schwade:So I got LEED accredited, which is basically understanding how you know, the built environment around us can can
Melissa Shere Beek:Impact.
David Schwade:Make us healthy, make us sick. Yeah. You know, how do we so LEAD is like a you can get a building LEAD certified and that's kind of a criteria that some people wanna
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay. So tell our listeners about LEAD.
David Schwade:So LEAD is an organization that's used to just analyze how how a project is built Mhmm. And you get points based off of certain things.
Melissa Shere Beek:So Right.
David Schwade:You know, sourcing material from a particular radius away from the job site, reusing
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Less of a footprint, less impact Uh-huh. Moving
David Schwade:Yeah. There's like there's different categories, storm water management, how do you retain the water on your site and reuse it.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:So, like low VOC paints and stuff, I feel like that's all kind of
Melissa Shere Beek:Is that part of the GC's kind of thing? No.
David Schwade:I mean, would it would be part of the architect's role where we're specifying Mhmm. Materials and stuff and it and that's to actually get LEED certified is a longer process and most people don't do it. But the the principles of LEED, we use it all the time.
Melissa Shere Beek:I love that.
David Schwade:So, you know, to go back to trying to enhance a building that's already there versus automatically wanting to tear it down is, I think, an important first step.
Melissa Shere Beek:Sure. Well, if the structure isn't know, the structure is solid, you don't have to mess with the integrity of that. So you've already got a good foundation and everything and you can build from there.
David Schwade:Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:And you can repurpose and reuse a lot of things.
David Schwade:Definitely.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, I love that.
David Schwade:I think that there's a lot of clients who whether it's from a cost perspective or whether it's from a environmental perspective, they they definitely like to
Melissa Shere Beek:Be eco friendly?
David Schwade:Be yeah. Kind of see, you know, what they can save and how they can
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:You know, get the most bank from their buck.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Lot of times,
David Schwade:you know, do I keep the shell of the house Right. And, you know, build a new house.
Melissa Shere Beek:And work within that or Exactly. Add Oh, gosh. Okay. Good. Can't wait for you to hire an intern.
Melissa Shere Beek:I would definitely sign up.
David Schwade:I did hire
Melissa Shere Beek:an intern. I know. You hired an That was so well, thanks to my friend. He called. She was great.
David Schwade:Was great.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh my god. I love that.
David Schwade:We actually
Melissa Shere Beek:Maybe I'll apply next time.
David Schwade:You're you're hired. You don't even need to
Melissa Shere Beek:I mean, have years of experience with both architecture and being a general contractor. So I kind of have but I'm not up to date with a lot of the engineering stuff. So Yeah. I got reamed out on like one of my first things in architecture because we're designing something and I'm a Florida girl.
David Schwade:Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:Born and raised here. So it would they didn't have a specification. They were like, build your dream home. And so I did. But then I got reamed out about like weight load and weight bearing because of the snow.
Melissa Shere Beek:And I was like, what snow?
David Schwade:Yeah. They're like
Melissa Shere Beek:I'm in Miami. And they're
David Schwade:like I'm designing for an ideal world.
Melissa Shere Beek:Exactly. It's my dream home and I'm in Miami. If you had told me New York, then I would have designed something different. So yeah, I'll never forget that. Was like and that's what I'm hiring an engineer for.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right? He'll figure out weight load. Oh my god. We all
David Schwade:know our lanes and Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:And where Right. You know, where we need to lean on. I was function and design and, you know, he can count the spaces between the outlets later, you know? And I yeah. So funny.
Melissa Shere Beek:Anyways. Okay. So with urban designs, this kind of goes back go ahead.
David Schwade:To get back to that, when earlier we were talking about like the different phases with schematic design, like giving lots of different options to clients. We don't really involve the consultants until
Melissa Shere Beek:You set the design.
David Schwade:Until we set the design in And the then we obviously have to coordinate with mechanical, electrical, plumbing,
Melissa Shere Beek:So structural I wanna get into that. I'm gonna I'm gonna skip ahead and make my little notes here because technology.
David Schwade:Yes.
Melissa Shere Beek:So like, I was really with blueprints when they were really blue. You're not No. I mean, that's how I grew up with blueprints and we were drafting and everything. There was no CAD system when I went to college for architecture. There was none of the things that I can't even imagine what exists now.
Melissa Shere Beek:To be able to provide the client with all those different schematic things, like so tell me how technology has played a part in all of this.
David Schwade:So when I was in school many decades ago, it was University of Miami is at the time, it was a very classical school. Yeah. So they practiced, you know, principles of symmetry and balance. Mhmm. And there was all for the first three years, it was all hand drawings.
Melissa Shere Beek:Draft. Didn't Okay. Got
David Schwade:use any computer.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Didn't have anything. We didn't even have computers at all. Those didn't even exist yet. But okay, so tell me, how does it change?
David Schwade:But at the end, we started to use AutoCAD, which was like a two d drafting. When you wanted to draw a floor plan, you draw the floor plan. When you wanna draw an elevation, you would draw an elevation. And that's how that's how it was for, I'd say, the last, you know, fifteen years.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:Up until about, you know, for me anyway, like five years ago, now there's other software like Rhino and Revit, which you're basically building the house in in with the software in three d. So as you're you're you're basically building in three d, you're assigning, you know, wall types and it's very difficult.
Melissa Shere Beek:Do you need another degree to do that?
David Schwade:So, I don't know how to use that Okay.
Melissa Shere Beek:I'm too
David Schwade:old. I'm a dinosaur. There's no way I'm gonna go back and
Melissa Shere Beek:There's some learn skills I just can't learn So,
David Schwade:we have, you know, really great employees are much younger than me, who grew up with that software, and they're whizzes. So they're, you know, I'll give them the sketches and Uh-huh. Work through the details and they're, you know, creating these three d models. What's great is that we can show clients with these photorealistic renderings, they feel like they're in there. They can really experience what it's like
Melissa Shere Beek:to Yeah. Be real life renderings. They're like, they're in it. Exactly.
David Schwade:My god. Because a lot of times
Melissa Shere Beek:That would blow my mind.
David Schwade:I show clients two d drawings and they're like
Melissa Shere Beek:that's because you and I think spatially. Other people will look at it and go, I don't understand where don't
David Schwade:understand this. I can't see this. What is this? And you're you're showing them and and
Melissa Shere Beek:it's It's flat for them.
David Schwade:It doesn't look So the technology now has really allowed for the clients to be immersed in the space before it's even built. I think what that's done is it's really allowed them to be more involved in the design process.
Melissa Shere Beek:Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
David Schwade:I think it's a great thing. Okay. I think it's a great thing.
Melissa Shere Beek:Bending on the client?
David Schwade:The end the day, I don't want any surprises with them. Right. I don't want them to walk in their house and be like, well, I thought that this was gonna be different than it is. True. I think it's really important for us to make sure that every detail, every They're corner
Melissa Shere Beek:fully aware.
David Schwade:Is fully thought out.
Melissa Shere Beek:Uh-huh.
David Schwade:And and, you know, discussed and Do
Melissa Shere Beek:you still love drawing it out?
David Schwade:I do love drawing but it I I'm not really good at sketching to scale.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:It's a problem.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:So I do some preliminary hand sketches, but then I really am doing this magazine process in CAD. Wow. So, you know, I'm changing different volumes around.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. Moving rooms in
David Schwade:different Yeah. Because if I'm when I start sketching, I'm like, oh, is great. And I'm like, oh, that room is actually, we don't have as much space as I thought I I had. So it really allows us the technology to, you know, work through all the details.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's so cool. Because I'm still with the trace paper going back and forth. Like, I move this here, I move this there.
David Schwade:Well, I think you have to start. You have to start
Melissa Shere Beek:with the trace. Start with the drawing. But still, I would love to just, like, come into the studio one time and just, You're like
David Schwade:more than welcome.
Melissa Shere Beek:Be fascinated with the technology that exists now. Okay. So why does architecture matter?
David Schwade:I mean, I think it matters because it's all around us. Yeah. I mean, you I don't think we wanna live in a cold, boring, white box world. Yeah. You know?
Melissa Shere Beek:I see some of these buildings. I'm sorry. I have to say this. But I see a lot of those prefab buildings and they all have no character.
David Schwade:There's a lot of garbage
Melissa Shere Beek:They out have no character. They're so stale. They're so boring. And I'm not saying you have to get a seventies avocado colored refrigerator in there, but I'm just saying they're so dry, they're so bland. They're They're Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:They're cold. They're cold. They're terrible.
David Schwade:I just I read an article last week where they were saying, like, you know, there's always been trends
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:You know, the avocado refrigerator
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. The All about
David Schwade:sixties and seventies. And we've kinda been in this cold, like, gray, white Yeah. World for, like, the last decade.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, it's awful.
David Schwade:Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:To me, it's awful.
David Schwade:I I agree.
Melissa Shere Beek:And there's some people who like it. I don't mean to knock it, but just
David Schwade:You know, there's and when even when you look at kind of where the commercial box stores have gone, I mean, stores, I guess, fast food. Right. Like, they used to all kind of have
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, McDonald's is completely different.
David Schwade:McDonald's is a vanilla box.
Melissa Shere Beek:I don't go there, but I'm past
David Schwade:them and I've
Melissa Shere Beek:seen them as I drive past them and I went, what is that? Yeah. That's a McDonald's?
David Schwade:Like, no. They're all like vanilla. Yeah. They're all just boring. Yeah.
David Schwade:But, yeah, there was something about how, you know, in the eighties, there was a big push for McDonald's for these solariums. That they were adding to
Melissa Shere Beek:all of
David Schwade:the franchises and it brought light in and they had plants and I don't know. I I hope that this is
Melissa Shere Beek:Very sterile looking now.
David Schwade:It's very sterile. Yeah. And, you know, Miami, you need a lot of infill buildings when the city's growing. You look at like West Brickell.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yes.
David Schwade:It makes sense that all of these high rise buildings are going up and they're a little boring and boxy. Yeah. Maybe there's like a colored accent wall, but even that
Melissa Shere Beek:Well, there's one that has like balconies that are colored and that's like the only flavor that's in there at that point.
David Schwade:Exactly. But there's an architecture firm called Heatherwick Studios. I don't know if
Melissa Shere Beek:you know them.
David Schwade:No. They're out of out of London. They're great. Yeah. They did forgot what it's called.
David Schwade:Anyway, they've done they've done a bunch of projects.
Melissa Shere Beek:Are they bringing character back?
David Schwade:They're bringing character back. You know Sunset Place?
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Yeah.
David Schwade:Yeah. So, you know Are
Melissa Shere Beek:they doing it?
David Schwade:They're doing Sunset Place. So they're tearing
Melissa Shere Beek:down Sunset gives me a little heartbreak there too about all of that because that used to be wholesome bakery to me. But remember the bakery center. Right? I just this sort of community that South Miami is, I'm afraid of what's gonna happen.
David Schwade:Yes.
Melissa Shere Beek:They already kind of did it with the Sunset Place, but now if this new firm comes in, maybe they'll they'll touch upon the flavor of what South Miami is. Think Or was.
David Schwade:You look at when these buildings were built. So CocoWalk was built in 1990. I think Sunset Place was like '89 or '99.
Melissa Shere Beek:Around the same time. Yeah.
David Schwade:I'm sorry. '99 or '98. It was a different world where people would go to malls. Right. And, like, you look at even Dade Land, let's say, or or to go back to Sunset Place, when you drive down Sunset or Red Road, you see the back of all the stores.
David Schwade:Right.
Melissa Shere Beek:There's nothing inviting about it. It was one little loop that you could, like, drop Yeah. Off
David Schwade:Exactly. So I think that Sunset Place really killed the main street vibe
Melissa Shere Beek:Sure.
David Schwade:Of South Miami. And I think that this this architecture firm They're bringing that back? Bring it back.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. So you walk us pedestrian appeal.
David Schwade:Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:Sunset I think It's Place had none.
David Schwade:Had none. Yeah. Like you had to drive there, park, and it was all about the interior
Melissa Shere Beek:In closed structure. Yeah.
David Schwade:And then you look at the other side of Sunset Place where what was there before? Like where that sushi place, I forgot
Melissa Shere Beek:the I name forget the name. Yeah.
David Schwade:But, you know, where where Ruthie Oh,
Melissa Shere Beek:is this Steven?
David Schwade:And my mom
Melissa Shere Beek:Akashi? Oh, okay.
David Schwade:Yeah. Well, Ruthie and my
Melissa Shere Beek:mom Yes. Had
David Schwade:So you had, like, that Main Street Yeah. Which is right there
Melissa Shere Beek:Thank Steven.
David Schwade:Pedestrian if you can walk to the restaurants. Right. I think that type of
Melissa Shere Beek:We need to bring that back.
David Schwade:We need to bring that back. Yeah. For sure.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh my god. So do you think technology is in the future? How do you think in the future it's gonna affect architecture and the way firms operate?
David Schwade:So it's inevitable that architect that that technology is is advancing. Mhmm. And I think that there are tools now, like I said, with, you know, these three d models that you can create and AI, where it's definitely gonna help improve the efficiency of firms.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay.
David Schwade:So we use it a lot now for, you know, code research. You know, we still
Melissa Shere Beek:go Oh,
David Schwade:that's We go through the Florida Building Code, but it'll help us, you know, maybe isolate sections of a code where we need to, you know, analyze, you know, potential restrictions and stuff.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay.
David Schwade:So we we don't use AI from the design side.
Melissa Shere Beek:I was just gonna ask you. Code searching is fine, but like from the design side, that kinda scares me.
David Schwade:And I think a lot of times we'll use it, let's say, for like an exterior material. We'll we'll have our three d models and we're like, yeah, what if we were to, you know, change this material to a We different can use AI for that.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. But not in the design.
David Schwade:No. Because I think it's so specific to, you know, different clients and
Melissa Shere Beek:different
David Schwade:needs and it's not like
Melissa Shere Beek:There's no personal touch in there.
David Schwade:Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:I don't know I don't care how you program it. Yeah. But it's not you talking with the client saying this is how I feel and this is what I want to feel when I walk into a space. Exactly. Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay. Good. What's the biggest problem that an architect faces?
David Schwade:Oh, there's lots of problems. Okay. So I think I would say managing expectations from the client
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh. Of the client from It's a big one.
David Schwade:We have some clients who, you know, there's they're either they're a lot or they're they're limited with, you know, their budget or something. Right. So managing what their expectations for what they can get, like For
Melissa Shere Beek:size, finances. Exactly. Got it. Okay.
David Schwade:You know, we have some clients who, you know, wanna be able to put all of this program into their house and we can design that, but it's gonna be, you know, 2,000 square feet bigger than you think or it's gonna cost, you know.
Melissa Shere Beek:10 times.
David Schwade:Yeah. $500,000 more. Yeah. So managing expectations, I think, is is the biggest thing. And then finding common ground between the the clients, usually the husband and wife
Melissa Shere Beek:The husband
David Schwade:and wife. To make sure that everyone's happy and they
Melissa Shere Beek:That's a lifelong thing depending on some couples, like For sure. Yeah.
David Schwade:For sure.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay. I think you said it before, but tell me again. Who's your favorite architect and why?
David Schwade:So looking back, I would say Alfred Browning Parker Mhmm. Is one of my favorite architects. Right. He's he's like a student, like, very Frank Lloyd Wright Right. For for Florida.
David Schwade:Yeah. Max Strang, who was my my first boss. I was his first intern at his firm.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's so cool.
David Schwade:He's great.
Melissa Shere Beek:Is he still around?
David Schwade:Still around.
Melissa Shere Beek:Is he comes to your firm?
David Schwade:He hasn't seen our office, but we talk all the time.
Melissa Shere Beek:I saw his we're we're very close. I actually
David Schwade:saw one of his partner architects last weekend randomly at the airport.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's so cool.
David Schwade:Yeah. Just they're they're great Miami firms.
Melissa Shere Beek:What is it about their architecture that you love?
David Schwade:I think they blend the local vernacular Mhmm. With the environment. Mhmm. So it's kind of this tropical modernism Yeah. Which which kind of is a big buzzword now.
David Schwade:Everyone's doing tropical modern architecture. But I think they were kind of like,
Melissa Shere Beek:The first.
David Schwade:Alfred Bining Parker was, you know, earlier on Uh-huh. And Max was, you know, the last couple decades.
Melissa Shere Beek:Nice.
David Schwade:But I have different architects that I like for different styles. Okay. I would say for tropical modernism that those are the architects that I like. If I was
Melissa Shere Beek:What other styles do you like?
David Schwade:I happen to still be a little classicist at heart. Like, I like classical architecture. I love Mediterranean architecture if it's done well.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:So you have architects like Robert Stern Mhmm. Who does, you know, beautiful houses in the Northeast. And I think, to me, it doesn't matter what style you do as long as you do it well.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yes.
David Schwade:So finding an architect that really can do those styles well.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's so cool. What home is your style? Now I'm curious.
David Schwade:I live in Coral Gables, so it's a Mediterranean style.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. You're under you're under rules. You're under strict rules.
David Schwade:Exactly. But Yeah. I think I think we're kinda stuck with with the Mediterranean style. That's it. Unless we move.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Okay. So How about you? Who's your favorite architect? Frank Lloyd Wright.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. A 100%. I loved him. I I just yeah. He's right up there for
David Schwade:I would agree with you.
Melissa Shere Beek:I just yeah. There's nothing else I can say. I'm just mad for him. I'm mad for the way he involves the environment.
David Schwade:Totally.
Melissa Shere Beek:I love to be outside, I think nature is very healing, it's grounding for me. I'm hugging the trees, talking to them, I'm walking barefoot in the grass and doing all that. And I love the way he kept the form and function in line with what was existing already. Yeah. So he didn't disturb the elements.
Melissa Shere Beek:Especially also since I grew up here, and I drive around and I was like, oh, that was an orange grove. Oh, that was that. And I see like they just bulldozed the natural beauty of what made old Miami Miami instead of working with what was there. And we didn't have the rocks and all the formations, but we had these beautiful beautiful trees. I just thought like, yeah, was always designing tree houses in my But yeah, so Frank Lloyd Wright, that's mine.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay. So are there exciting projects that are coming up for you that you can talk about?
David Schwade:So there's a I would say two of our really exciting projects are probably one of our smallest projects.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay.
David Schwade:That we did this beautiful house in North Grove. And at the time, I was pushing the client actually, this this project started, this was the Hacienda style house.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, We renovated it.
David Schwade:Originally, the clients wanted to keep it a one story house, basically gut it, take down structural walls and and, you know, reimagine it. And as we started the process, they didn't have any kids at the time. And the the the architecture process is like a relationship. You're in it for, you know, two or three years.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:So during that
Melissa Shere Beek:It's a marriage in and of its own self.
David Schwade:It is. Yeah. It is. So you wanna make sure you pick the right client and you end the the project on good terms. Yeah.
David Schwade:So this particular client ended up having kids
Melissa Shere Beek:In the process.
David Schwade:In the process. So once we had the the design approved, we were about to move forward, they're like, you know what? We wanna add a a second story. We went back to the drawing board, designed a two story portion of the house with three bedrooms and three bathrooms upstairs.
Melissa Shere Beek:Wow. And
David Schwade:then as we're going there, like, you know what? We wanna enclose this outdoor atrium, this outdoor courtyard into an atrium.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, cool.
David Schwade:And I'm like, great. So we put a glass atrium on it, created a living room. So that the project kept morphing over time. Mhmm. And we kept telling the clients that, you know, you really need a pool house.
David Schwade:Because they had just a little
Melissa Shere Beek:know With Yeah. All those kids, all the floaties and all this stuff, all the equipment that comes with it. Yeah.
David Schwade:I was like,
Melissa Shere Beek:you need a barbecue, you need an outdoor was like, no,
David Schwade:no, no, we don't. We're fine. So they built the house. They've been living in it for a year and a half. They just came back to us and said, we need a pool house.
Melissa Shere Beek:We need a pool house.
David Schwade:So we're now designing this, you know, 1,300 square foot pool house and Oh, a guest bedroom and
Melissa Shere Beek:here come all the in laws. Exactly.
David Schwade:But what's great about it is it really, you know, we talked about the space in between the next Right. This really allowed us to create that courtyard feeling on the property by, adding more structure and
Melissa Shere Beek:We didn't even touch we did a little bit about negative space. We didn't even, like, talk about urban design. Yeah. A little bit about pedestrian stuff. But like the space between the space between buildings.
David Schwade:To me, what
Melissa Shere Beek:happens there? Yeah. So wait. Let's do a little bit of that. Let's do it.
Melissa Shere Beek:So tell me about what your concept is when you're talking about urban spaces and the and the space between buildings.
David Schwade:So, I mean, when you think about like a single family residence Mhmm.
Melissa Shere Beek:Or
David Schwade:in a neighborhood, you have different layers of the experience. Have, know, the street, sidewalk
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:The front yard. So you go from, like, the public realm to like To the private. Semi prop Uh-huh. Semi public, private. And so how do you how does the the client experience that procession
Melissa Shere Beek:from the Uh-huh. Street
David Schwade:the transition into their house? And what is that what is that space in between look like? Here where we have setbacks, we don't really have a lot of the negative space necessarily between buildings. You're not really experiencing Right, right,
Melissa Shere Beek:No, unless you live near a park or something like that.
David Schwade:Exactly. But, yeah, I think it's important to to study that that procession and the arrival for not only the clients, but like their guests. When someone comes over, where do they park?
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:How do they enter the house? How do they experience it and move through it?
Melissa Shere Beek:Are you big on like foyers as a transition sort of semi private? Because if you ever walk into a home and then you're already standing in someone's dining room in your family room, wait, It's It's off putting.
David Schwade:It's extremely important. Yeah. And I think it's like the the additional step from the public to the semi public, to the semi private, to the
Melissa Shere Beek:If you're up north, it would be like a mud room or something else, but it's different. But we don't really have that down here, because a lot of the homes are these big ranch style homes, and so you just sort of are dropped off
David Schwade:Exactly.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right in somebody's room. I feel like I've interfered in a private space.
David Schwade:It's funny. You look at like you brought the ranch style house, all these houses in Pinecrest where they have these front porches, but then when you open the door, you're in the living room.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:So how do you create that space Right. In that arrival area?
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:But from a programming perspective, we never really design coat closets at the front door because they're not necessary.
Melissa Shere Beek:Not down Not
David Schwade:down here. But we have some clients who are from the Northeast and they want a coat closet. Right. You know, whether it has coats or not, they want a coat closet.
Melissa Shere Beek:They want a coat closet. Oh. It's a place to hide all their flip flops or their shoes, like, they need on the way out. Or the umbrella, because every afternoon in the summer, you know. Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's it. Oh, that's so funny.
David Schwade:I will say we're getting a lot, like, they're like, clients have been requesting in their houses has evolved over the
Melissa Shere Beek:past years. Tell me. What are they requesting? Now,
David Schwade:I mean, the a mud room is is a big thing.
Melissa Shere Beek:Really?
David Schwade:A spot where the kids can leave their backpacks and
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. So it's
David Schwade:shoes and
Melissa Shere Beek:The unsightly is out of sight.
David Schwade:Exactly. So designing it in a way where it's thoughtful, it's like it's the the arrival day to
Melissa Shere Beek:day Yeah.
David Schwade:You know, with your family. But I would say the biggest thing is a a toilet room.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:And couples want his and her toilet room. Sure. Like they're okay sharing
Melissa Shere Beek:A sink area.
David Schwade:Hallway bathroom. Right. But they want their own their own toilets.
Melissa Shere Beek:My husband's claimed the guest bathroom is You his
David Schwade:know what? A lot of our clients, we, you know, they'll have their master bathroom, which is great. Yeah. And then the husband is like, the the wife is like, you know, the husband's closet is the guest bedroom. The office closet.
David Schwade:So funny. Bathroom.
Melissa Shere Beek:It's so terrible. But it's true. We have this gorgeous
David Schwade:It's true.
Melissa Shere Beek:I redid the house when I found it and we have this gorgeous master bathroom.
David Schwade:Yeah. That's for you. What? Your space.
Melissa Shere Beek:Well, there's two separate areas and two sinks and a gorgeous shower and a whole thing, but there's only one toilet in And it's a big open space. So he's like, yeah, I'm gonna go. He goes to the other side of the house where the guest bathroom is And that's sort of like his
David Schwade:His zone.
Melissa Shere Beek:His zone. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah. Oh, some things don't change.
David Schwade:I think I think it's for a healthy marriage, I think it's important to
Melissa Shere Beek:have
David Schwade:your husband.
Melissa Shere Beek:It's been great. Yeah. It was so funny. Oh, my god.
David Schwade:The other thing we're seeing a lot of is is like a infrared sauna.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, really?
David Schwade:Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:That's so cool. You
David Schwade:know, gyms have kind of always been
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:Big, but now people are really into wellness.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. So they have, like, their own personal wellness area.
David Schwade:Exactly. Wow. And obviously, in South Florida, you know, outdoor summer kitchens, winter kitchens,
Melissa Shere Beek:I guess,
David Schwade:really big here.
Melissa Shere Beek:And then what about did things change after COVID? As far as what people were looking for because more people were staying home?
David Schwade:Immediately after COVID. And I think it's because the market has just exploded here. Yeah. So, like, you can't the people that are from here that didn't move here and they're used to, like, a different cost of living and what Right. What things should cost.
David Schwade:Yeah. They're like, we're we're not moving. It's almost like musical chairs. Yeah. Everyone kind of is where they are.
David Schwade:The music's stuck.
Melissa Shere Beek:Our ass is stuck in the seat.
David Schwade:Yeah. We're like, this is this is my house. How do I improve my my built environment?
Melissa Shere Beek:My surroundings.
David Schwade:So a lot of them, you know, right after COVID, there were a lot of people working from home. It's like, do I add an office? How do I add a gym? True. And so there was a lot of focus on that for the last five years.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:But we haven't really seen COVID driven design, I think, in the last couple years.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay.
David Schwade:We are starting to see people designing, not necessarily now, for intergenerational
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:Living, but they wanna make sure that they have, you know, a guest house or a guest suite that is maybe accessible from a separate entrance. Right. So that when they're
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, I have four plans for that when I do that.
David Schwade:Parents, yeah. When their parents, you know, get older or wanna move in
Melissa Shere Beek:I was thinking kids because my mom's refusing to move from her home. But I was thinking like when they come down and visit, I always have that like idea. So Yeah. We'll talk about that after.
David Schwade:For sure.
Melissa Shere Beek:What other trends for the future? Or what is the future of architecture look like? What's what's on the horizon for it?
David Schwade:Think the future of architecture is incorporating wellness and, like you said, green initiatives.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:You know, how do you how do you plan for, you know, new technologies that are coming up?
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:There is like Tesla has roof tiles. No one wants solar panels on their roof. They they don't look great.
Melissa Shere Beek:Well, they're unsightly, but they're effective.
David Schwade:Exactly. So Tesla has, like, these roof tiles that are solar panels. And they
Melissa Shere Beek:But they look like regular roof tiles?
David Schwade:They look like roof tiles. They're not they're not approved for Miami Dade County. We have very strict building codes
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:After Hurricane Andrew.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yes. Rightfully so.
David Schwade:Rightfully so. So here, we build out of concrete block. Right. Everything is tied down. The roofs are tied down to the walls.
David Schwade:The walls are tied up to the foundation.
Melissa Shere Beek:Has to be.
David Schwade:Which is great, you know?
Melissa Shere Beek:It's gonna be a Dorothy situation if not. Exactly.
David Schwade:Yeah. Exactly. I mean, you probably remember right after Andrew.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, yeah.
David Schwade:Yeah. So
Melissa Shere Beek:Nothing was recognizable. Everything was leveled.
David Schwade:Yeah. How do you incorporate new technology into the aesthetic of a house without, you know, it being unsightly? Yeah. You said. But I think the future is, you know, everyone has backup battery or generator Yeah.
David Schwade:For their house, so that the power goes out, you're still, you know, able to have your air conditioning
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:Which is so important here.
Melissa Shere Beek:I think a lot of the new homes were done built with generators already attached or Yep. Either there's a space for them because otherwise it's
David Schwade:We I would say that's probably the number one requirement
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
David Schwade:For houses that we work on. Right. Now is is a generator. And a lot of times, they don't have the gas connection in
Melissa Shere Beek:the street.
David Schwade:So we have, you know, underground gas tanks Right. That can that can power it.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right. And then what about the solar, though? Because here we are, it's a perfect place for us to store all that power.
David Schwade:You know, it really it depends on the neighborhood. Like Coconut Grove, your solar panels really aren't effective
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:Because of the tree canopy.
Melissa Shere Beek:It's too many canopies. Yeah. Trees.
David Schwade:But I think that there
Melissa Shere Beek:are Which is gorgeous. Every time I drive through there, I'm like, this my favorite.
David Schwade:This is my favorite.
Melissa Shere Beek:Sorry.
David Schwade:No. But I I think, you know, there's geothermal
Melissa Shere Beek:Mhmm.
David Schwade:Technology which they can use up north a lot where they, you know, I think it's like 50 degrees consistently underground.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh, wow.
David Schwade:But here we have a high water table,
Melissa Shere Beek:so Right. We don't really have much much basement space, let's Exactly. Just
David Schwade:Okay. But, yeah. I mean, I think the smart home I caution myself to say that because a lot of times the technology changes so quickly where we tell clients a lot, you know, don't wire your house for the technology of today because
Melissa Shere Beek:It's gonna be outdated.
David Schwade:It's gonna be obsolete. So there's a lot of, you know, speakers, Sonos is great. Mhmm. WiFi speakers are, you know, smart keypads that communicate with the light fixture rather than, you know, having these big bulky speakers that are installed in the ceiling Yeah. Which we try to avoid.
Melissa Shere Beek:I I was at a hotel once when we were traveling, and it was like a whole smart thing. I ended up sleeping with all the lights on and the sound on because I did not know how to And figure I always like, yeah. I'm technologically challenged. Yeah. And at that point, I was exhausted.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. And I was like, fuck it. I'm going to bed. Like, that was it. Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:I couldn't figure it out. So, yeah. We're not gonna have a smart home for me. But just I'm just the switch will do. Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:It's so funny.
David Schwade:A lot of times, we will work on a project. You know, we'll move into a we'll we'll go into a house for some of the client and the person who was there hadn't renovated the person they bought it from hadn't renovated in forty years.
Melissa Shere Beek:So Oh, wow.
David Schwade:There's this one house that we that we're doing in more in Miami Shores where it had like a blender that was integrated into the island. I think it probably was from like
Melissa Shere Beek:the sixties Yeah.
David Schwade:But they had blenders integrated into it and it was it was like the Jetsons. Yeah. Whatever the technology was That's
Melissa Shere Beek:so funny.
David Schwade:Yeah. So
Melissa Shere Beek:I love that though. That's kind of cool.
David Schwade:It's very, It's very cool. But it's yeah. The technology now is advancing so quickly.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. You couldn't keep up with it.
David Schwade:That's crazy.
Melissa Shere Beek:Like you said, it'd be obsolete. Oh, my god. Is there anything we left out?
David Schwade:No. Mean Anything
Melissa Shere Beek:I forgot to ask?
David Schwade:No. You've been you've been great. My God. Mean, you know, we didn't talk about, you know, when I built your house or built built with Steven.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. That
David Schwade:was You
Melissa Shere Beek:could tell my listeners about that.
David Schwade:So, I mean, I was I think I was 16 or 17 years old and I was home for the summer and I, like, didn't have a job. And my mom was, you gotta get a job. You gotta get a job. And Ruthie
Melissa Shere Beek:was My mom, yeah.
David Schwade:Yeah. Your mom was, you know, mentioned, I think, that, you know, Steven needed help. So I actually went to build the two houses that he was building in in The Moorings Right. In Coconut Grove.
Melissa Shere Beek:Right.
David Schwade:And I had so much fun. It was summer, it was so hot, but I got to, you know, dig foundations and pour and really be involved in the construction of these two houses. Right. And it was, for me, the first experience that I had in the industry, and really what I think pushed me into I could really do this. Can do
Melissa Shere Beek:this for life. Yeah.
David Schwade:And it's funny because we've done two houses in
Melissa Shere Beek:the morning. She feels so good.
David Schwade:And I drive by all the time.
Melissa Shere Beek:You do?
David Schwade:And I see it.
Melissa Shere Beek:I did that? Exactly. Oh, I love that. Yeah. That makes me feel so good because it's where my dad's heart always was.
Melissa Shere Beek:Always. I grew up in the construction site like that. And so I'm always I stop at construction. And people are like, can we help you? I'm like, no.
Melissa Shere Beek:I'm really enjoying this. Just taking it in. Just taking it in. But he was also a great person to learn from. He was the best.
Melissa Shere Beek:That makes me happy that there's continuity, that it continues to go through you too as well.
David Schwade:So
Melissa Shere Beek:yay. Oh, thank you so much.
David Schwade:Oh, this has been great.
Melissa Shere Beek:I'm so thrilled. You have no idea. I've been, like, so excited for this all summer. I've been waiting for you to get back here so I could get back Excited to know But you had a good time?
David Schwade:Yeah. It was great. We'll continue this.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay. I've got one more thing to do before I let you go.
David Schwade:Let's hear it.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. You can come back anytime. I love it. Okay. So I do a thing with my my guest called Quickie Questions.
Melissa Shere Beek:Are you game? Okay.
David Schwade:I think so.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. You can do it. Okay. Happiest memory?
David Schwade:Oh, happiest memory. Probably getting getting my architecture license. Yeah. Since we're on the on the subject.
Melissa Shere Beek:I love it. That's a good one. Okay. Favorite journey?
David Schwade:Favorite journey.
Melissa Shere Beek:Not traveling back with two kids alone.
David Schwade:Yeah. That was very tough. Actually, I'll say the opposite, but I went to Disney with the two kids alone.
Melissa Shere Beek:Oh.
David Schwade:And that was
Melissa Shere Beek:That was a good journey?
David Schwade:It It was a hard journey.
Melissa Shere Beek:It was a hard journey. Yeah. But satisfying in the end?
David Schwade:In the end.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah.
David Schwade:I was happy it was over.
Melissa Shere Beek:That was the favorite part of your journey was coming home. Okay. Got it. Who or what inspires you?
David Schwade:I think my kids inspire
Melissa Shere Beek:me. Yeah.
David Schwade:You know, I see just yeah, my kids.
Melissa Shere Beek:I love that. Yeah. Okay. Where do you find beauty?
David Schwade:I mean, I find beauty all around in just the the world that we live in and, like, the the environment and and just seeing the city grow Yeah. And develop is really great.
Melissa Shere Beek:I love that. Okay. Last thing you do before you go to bed? You have, like, a nightly ritual?
David Schwade:Or I check emails until my eyeballs
Melissa Shere Beek:roll backwards. Yeah. Okay.
David Schwade:Unfortunately, that's not a really good thing to do, but it's, you
Melissa Shere Beek:know I'm guilty of sending those emails. Sorry. Yeah. Last time you laughed?
David Schwade:I try to laugh as as much as possible.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay. Good.
David Schwade:Yeah. Again, my kids are really make me laugh.
Melissa Shere Beek:I love that.
David Schwade:Probably this morning, getting ready for for school.
Melissa Shere Beek:First school, the first day of school. Did you have a dance party too? That's important. We need to know this.
David Schwade:No. We need a
Melissa Shere Beek:need a dance party. You need to have a dance party.
David Schwade:We will do it tonight.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yes. First day of school dance party. Exactly. Okay. I like that one.
Melissa Shere Beek:Aw. Thank you, David, so much. I really appreciate you being here. This is so much fun for You have no idea. And, you know, if you see like you know, I wear a hat all the time.
Melissa Shere Beek:If you see like a hat snooping around the studio or the firm and like, you just open the door, let me in.
David Schwade:Okay.
Melissa Shere Beek:Okay. Good. Alright. Stick around. I'm gonna do my outro and then we'll talk afterwards.
David Schwade:Sounds good.
Melissa Shere Beek:Thank you. I really appreciated this. To our listeners, thank you so much. So grateful you're here. Keep listening.
Melissa Shere Beek:Keep learning. Keep laughing. Keep up with Beek on being. Listen to Beek on being wherever you get your podcasts. All episodes are automatically transcribed.
Melissa Shere Beek:DM us to share thoughts, ideas, or to nominate a guest. A big shout out and a huge thank you to Steven Chen. Woo hoo. At Penthouse Studios. Beek on being was recorded at Penthouse Studios and is a proud member of the Penthouse Podcast Network.
Melissa Shere Beek:You're good?
David Schwade:I'm good.
Melissa Shere Beek:Did you like it? This was great. It was fun. Right? Not scary.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. A little scary. We're But you had a good time? Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. We're done. Yeah. You wanna take them off? Oh, yeah.
Melissa Shere Beek:Yeah. Go ahead.
David Schwade:We could still talk.
Melissa Shere Beek:My god. Yeah. Yeah. We can still talk.