Our obligation as an A/E firm invested in 50 years of continuing operation, is to mentor and to lead
Mentor by being teachers to the next generation of architects, Louis and Suzanne teach and train staff to understand the construction process. That what staff draws in the computer will be put together by a person’s hands on the construction site. That the architectural design - construction process is ancient, as old as the human need for shelter. That that process has a sequence, an order, a course. That an architect is above all else ethical; an architect works for the public good, for project funds to be expended ON THE PROJECT. That the public always deserves good architecture; nevertheless, when public funds are expended, the project funds morally must be expended on the project the public has been promised by the architects’ construction contract documents.
Lead by example, volunteer. Louis is NJ State Director of Employer Support to the Guard and Reserve (ESGR.) ESGR is a civilian agency within the Department of Defense agency helping Guard and Reserve soldiers returning from active duty returned to the jobs they interrupted as per law. Soldiers wishing to do so recommend their employers for the national ‘Freedom Award,’ recognizing that company’s commitment to support the deployment and training missions of that soldier. Louis arranges award ceremonies for such stellar companies as Hackensack Meridian Health Care, Prudential, and Horizon; and county governments such as Bergen, Passaic, and Hudson.
Lead by example, volunteer. Suzanne is a key part of the leadership for the Storm Surge Working Group, an ad-hoc joining of scientists, engineers, architects, and community leaders formed to advance the design and construction of a bi-part system of low walls to accommodate sea level rise in conjunction with a Seagate system to protect all of NY NJ Harbor. The gate we advocate to build would span five miles between Sandy Hook NJ and Jamaica Bay NY, along with other smaller gates, and a gate north of the East River. Such a system will prevent flooding from Storm Surge in Staten Island, NJ, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and all the way up the Hudson River to above Albany to Troy Lock and Dam. At the threat of storm surge, the gates close at low tide so that above the gate, all during the storm or the threat of a storm, it is always low tide.
After COVID 19, the county needs large scale construction projects to establish a solid economic recovery.