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Bio
Yolanda Cole, FAIA, is a Senior Principal and Owner of Hickok Cole, a forward-focused commercial architecture and design practice located in Washington, DC. With over three decades of experience in base building and interior design, Yolanda has worked on projects ranging from large-scale, mixed-use developments to commercial and retail interiors. She is widely recognized for spearheading innovation in the profession through the cultivation of a collaborative, research-based practice. Yolanda is a frequent speaker at conferences on topics ranging from transforming the practice of architecture through exploration, to ground-breaking technologies for urban Net Zero renovations. Her personal passion is to influence housing policy and create new prototypes to maintain young families in our cities.
Yolanda is a Past Chair of the Washington District Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Past Chair of the Governance Committee. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and Past President of the local AIA|DC chapter, where she served on its Board of Directors for many years. In 2013, Yolanda was named one of the Washington Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business. In 2017 she was honored as a Women of Influence in Commercial Real Estate at Bisnow’s Power Series and was named one of the Washington Business Journal’s Power 100. In addition to her leadership in the real estate profession, Yolanda is a founding board member of the DC Concert Orchestra and serves as the orchestra’s Chair of Development and Principal Flutist.
Show Notes
- Current role- “Senior Principal”- Collaborative role with Mike Hickok, her co-partner (5:30)
- Prevents territorial divisions (6:30)
- Mike and she work things out in a way to be aligned
- Mike is more the people person while she is the tougher person on tasks (7:20)
- Partnership advantages- Need a buddy to get perspective (8:00)
- More difficult with more than one partner- triangulation becomes a problem (8:30)
- COVID 19 impacts- Completely different effects (9:15)
- More emphasis on wellness (9:30)
- Hybrid work- Minimum of 3 days a week in office (10:00)
- Must be in the room with people to be creative in her opinion (10:40)
- Totally mobile (11:45)
Origins
- Grew up in Waverly, Ohio (rural town between Columbus and Cincinnati) (12:15)
- Father an accountant and attorney (12:45)
- Mother was a home economics teacher and was subsequently recruited to become the State of Ohio Vocational (13:00)
- Mother was creative and stimulated her interest in creativity (13:50)
- Father was a partner in a music store and her babysitter was a piccolo player and her Dad gave her a flute when she was a child (14:20)
- She became very interested in flute playing (15:10)
- More of a “cerebral” person who enjoyed being alone more (15:45)
- Music and writing were more fun for her than athletics (16:00)
- Yet, she enjoyed playing in groups or bands (16:20)
- Learned music in band and with private lessons (16:50)
- Always making things- macrame, embroidery, and sculptures (17:40)
- Jewelry and decoupage (18:00)
Music and Architecture Education
- Went to Ohio State University and majored in music (19:00)
- “About face” from music to architecture after she realized that teaching flute was a challenging route as there are so few opportunities (19:40)
- Performance music is very difficult to compete to move into it (20:40)
- Her flute teacher moved away and that affected her interest in music as a profession (21:00)
- Her architectural interest (22:00)
- Her parents built a house when she was a youth and was fascinated with the plans (22:50)
- She designed tiles in their bathroom (23:30)
- A friend of hers father was an architect and she was impressed with his office (23:45)
- Went to University of Cincinnati to major in architecture- a coop work/study program (24:30)
- Experience during architectural school is a great way to learn and see the practical aspects of design (25:00)
- Learning the collaborative nature of architecture is important (26:00)
- Subsequently transferred to Columbia University after getting a job at Kohn Pederson Fox, a New York firm for an internship (28:15)
- Stayed in NY for ten years working for KPF (29:20)
- Scholarship, Aid and loans to complete her degree (29:40)
- Graduate program was rigorous at Columbia and are well known practitioners (30:00)
Employment
- Working at KPF and going to school simultaneous (31:20)
- Opportunity in Australia to design a large mixed use project (31:30)
- Client was Alan Bond, a character who was imprisoned for financial issues (31:50)
- She enjoyed working on large projects (33:15)
- When she came back from Australia she became pregnant and bought a house in Pennsylvania and then decided to teach at Lehigh University (33:45)
- Started a practice out of her home while teaching (34:30)
- Also taught music
- Home design was not her specialty (35:15)
- Decided to look for a smaller city for family living and ended up in DC (36:30)
- DC had more availability of work in the early 1990s (35:50)
- Joined Keyes Condon Florence, a large local firm (37:20)
- Worked there for 2+ years (38:00)
- Smith Hinchman & Grylls merged with KCF (38:20)
- She was working on Reston Town Center with Boston Properties (38:45)
- She met Mike Hickok, her partner, in Ray Ritchey‘s office (39:10)
Entrepreneurship & Partnership
- Client at KCF need both an architect and someone to buy out their interiors firm (40:00)
- Decided to buy the business and learn the interior design business (40:50)
- She wanted to stay on the “outside” and her team were the interiors people in the firm (41:00)
- Body of knowledge in architecture is more complicated than interiors (42:00)
- Architects look at context of location and surroundings whereas interior designers look at the person looking out and ergonomics (42:40)
- Solving problems is important today- housing challenges today (44:20)
- Better at less costs (44:50)
- How to keep young families in the city (45:00)
- Sitting in NOMA- Interesting mix of uses (46:30)
- Union Market (46:50)
- Traditional apartment project (47:00)
- Carr’s Signal House offers more office in a primarily residential market (47:15)
- Zoning is not “balanced” to offer a 24/7 environment where residential is incentivized in some areas (47:30)
- Amenities evolved from residential to office space (50:00)
- Buildings over time were built for specific uses (51:00)
- Footprints were built in large blocks (51:15)
- Now they need to evolve into a “flexible footprint” (51:50)
- Looking at a research project for vertical mixed use (52:30)
- Vertical mixed use has challenges- architectural study (54:00)
- Not as much technology than a system called “Frames” they are patenting for pre-coordinated for vertical componentization and could become modular eventually (58:00)
- Find magic that is common among different uses (59:30)
- American Geophysical Union Building (1:00:30)
- Unique office building that is the first “Net Zero” building in DC (1:01:00)
- Sustainable building statement for Hickok Cole (1:01:30)
- Wanted to design a Net Zero building and did it on a smaller residential building and had enough experience and looked at the people inside the building to win the competition (1:02:00)
- “Labor of love” to do the first “Net Zero” building in the City (1:03:20)
- Roger Frechette– Engineer for building
- Learning experience- bundling energy system strategies together where combinations created efficiencies and opportunities for unique savings (1:04:15)
- Heat exchange with heat from sewer line under Florida Ave. (1:05:30)
- Radiant ceiling panels (1:06:10)
- HiFi ceiling wall with live plants in wall (1:06:20)
- PV Array on the roof actually overlayed over the edge of the building (1:06:45)
- Beloved building because of its quirky design and the community supported the Net Zero mission (1:07:15)
- At the urban scale it is difficult to make it feasible; however, the industry adapts to meet standards like LEED standards (1:08:30)
- Climate change is forcing changes in laws and incentivizing changes (carrots and sticks) (1:09:30)
- Building has a room that measures the building’s efficiency and designed for 5% surplus energy (1:10:30)
- What makes Hickok Cole unique? (1:11:45)
- Came about after 2008 recession (1:12:10)
- Office of the Future competition- concept with a footprint that is long and narrow that offers more flexibility for uses (1:12:15)
- Chose a site that JBG owned for this building in Tysons Corner (1:13:20)
- Led to I-Lab, a new R&D process internally to create new design innovations (1:13:50)
- Example of modular buildings (1:15:00)
- Virtual Reality experiment (1:16:20)
- Hydroponic system (1:16:30)
- Research orientation for innovation (1:17:15)
- Mass Timber (CLT) 80 M St.- Structure is wood on top of concrete building (1:17:40)
- Mission Statement- Hickok Cole is a forward-focused design practice. We connect bold ideas, diverse expertise, and partners with vision to do work that matters. (1:19:00)
- What epochal changes from the pandemic? (1:21:00)
- Just brought back workers 3 days/week (1:21:15)
- Getting people out of their houses (1:21:50)
- What to do to bring people back to the office?
- Make transportation easier (1:22:45)
- Parking in a hybrid world needs to be flexible and reduced in office space (1:23:20)
- Provide space people want to be in (1:25:20)
- People move around in their space for different settings to do their creative work (1:25:45)
- People need people- Culture lacks without presence (1:28:45)
- Struggle through hybrid phase (1:29:20)
- Zone of time- 10 am to 4pm to be available either at home or the office (1:31:15)
- New business- repeat business and new business from reputation (1:32:00)
- New office in Richmond offers opportunities in the South (Raleigh, Charlotte, Tidewater) (1:32:40)
- Looking to build quality over quantity- not looking to chase volume (1:34:30)
- Hospitality a potential (1:35:45)
- Spy Museum (1:36:00)
- National Geographic project (1:36:30)
- Organic growth (1:37:30)
- “Taste For Makers” Paul Graham article reference (1:38:00)
- Rather call it “beauty” (1:39:00)
- Underlying premise is “simplicity is beautiful” (1:39:30)
- Design is more fuzzy than mathematics (1:40:15)
- Patterns in nature…look for patterns (1:41:00)
- Cites cathedral in Barcelona (Sagrada Familia) as being layered in ornamentation (1:41:45)
- Approach design with “honesty or earnestness” (1:42:30)
- Ornamentation (layering) should emerge from simple essence behind the design (1:43:15)
- Meaning is important along with context for a design (1:44:00)
- Problem solving creatively (1:44:30)
- What is main idea for the design? (1:45:00)
- Taste is cultural and contextual (1:46:00)
- “Form Follows Function”- Idea behind designing toward the function of the property (1:48:20)
- Votes for flexibility today to adapt over time to different uses (1:49:20)
Hiring, Leadership and Personal Philosophy
- Hiring thought process (1:50:30)
- Allocating different processes
- Few super designers (1:51:00)
- Project management (1:52:30)
- Business development
- Young people come in and you don’t know- eventually people gravitate to areas where they are talented
- Looking for people with an understanding on Revit (design software) (1:53:00)
- May need different talents depending on the situations the firm needs
- Find a person that is outstanding and build a process
- Strengthsfinder process assess strengths internally (1:53:40)
- Rhea Vaflor, Researching lifestyle ideas, big ideas…Director of Trendcasting (1:55:00)
- Gen Z Research- Purpose Oriented (1:57:00)
- Metaverse
- Leadership (1:57:00)
- Maximizer- Leads by doing (1:58:45)
- “Chase my passion” (1:59:15)
- Partnership with Mike (2:00:00)
- Concentrate on what she wants to accomplish and goes to do it
- People follow because they see her doing things
- Passion is contagious- Belief comes from the heart (2:00:30)
- Reference to Linda Rabbitt (2:01:15)
- “Find a bigger sandbox or build a bigger sandbox”
- 25 Yr. Old Self- Can you define for yourself: Why do you want to be a designer? (2:02:15)
- The sooner you know why, you should then find out how (2:02:30)
- Imagine yourself in roles
- No decision you make today is your last decision (2:03:30)
- Billboard question
- Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible (Frank Zappa) (2:04:15)
- Always wanting to make the world how it should be and make change (2:04:45)
- Desire to fix something or make it better (2:05:00)
- Go do something you haven’t done before (2:05:30)
- Industry is a conservative place (2:05:40)
- Hard to get people to do things differently
- Trap with construction costs and division of labor (2:06:00)
- Find more efficient ways (2:06:30)
Postscript
- Colin Madden Commentary (2:07:00)
- Her origins are interesting with Yolanda’s rapid career trajectory
- Like a musician, she was “super passionate”
- Antoine St. Exupery: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up men and women to gather the wood, instead ask them to yearn for the vast and endless sea”
- Hickok Cole is very mission driven
- Exerting their influence on the built world
- Seeks for the why
- She believes that taste is a personal opinion
- AGU Building- Synergies of energy conservation projects
- Evolution of LEED certification is analogous to the innovations in urban buildings
- May not get an economic “net zero” building yet, but progress is being made with this project
- Meridian (Colin’s employer) is taking ideas from this project
- Picked up curiosity from her conversation
- Willing to take risk
- Places curiosity above her ego
- ILab concepts- Internal R&D
- Take on difficult challenges
