As a kid, Bill Halter, design director in HOK’s Atlanta office, was the one in the neighborhood always leading the charge on some project, whether it was building a fort or a tree house, a go-cart or some other contraption. Electrical engineering interested him initially, but a love of drawing and drafting emerged after taking a high school drafting class on a whim.
A few decades later, that passion for architecture has left its mark internationally, with Halter’s projects such as the New China International Exhibition Center in Beijing, Three First Union Center in Charlotte and BellSouth’s Campanile in Atlanta.
We caught up with Halter, who’s also senior vice president and a managing principal with HOK, to discuss local and big-picture architecture as well as architects’ and architecture’s position in the development process.
APN: How do you get cost-conscious developers to buy into sustainable design?
Halter: The first thing we do is look at what you don’t have to pay for to achieve sustainable solutions. It really depends on where the site is located and some other conditions that are just naturally part of the project, but a lot of times you can get really close to reaching a solution with sustainable components without any real premium at all. If you do that, you realize that with a little bit more money, you can create a much better project.
Clients often don’t want to talk about improvements and quality-of-life issues. They don’t think that’s part of their responsibility. If you take the approach that you get this without extra cost, you can get it anyway.
The other thing is, there are those clients who do realize the importance of the quality of the workplace environment. That starts to trickle down to the eventual users, corporate users, who do understand that. In that sense, the developer wants to incorporate those things in the building because it helps sell the product.
There’s a conscience side of it, and then there’s a practical side of it.
APN: What are some of the relatively low-cost paths to sustainable design?
Halter: First of all, if you think sustainable we tend to gravitate toward the LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design) checklist. That’s a good, thorough, step-by-step look at all the different parts of the design, construction and occupancy phases of the project. With site selection, for example, by the fact that you’ve chosen an urban site -- you’re not going out and taking greenfield sites -- you get a point. One thing you have to realize about LEED, which is the adopted standard for achieving a sustainable building, is that there is no one thing you can do that leaps you way ahead. It’s one point at a time and fairly incremental.
But things like the way you handle the construction process, most contractors are willing to recycle anyway. The fact is, they do tend to find that a smart business practice, to separate metal from glass from paper, and again you get a point for doing that. Those are two examples, and once the building is occupied, we’re all getting used to recycling metals and glass into different bins and paper. Those are things we’re doing already that you get points for.
APN: Architecturally, if you could change one -- or a couple of -- thing(s) about Atlanta, what would it be and why?
Halter: Atlanta is a beautiful city, and one of the things I love about it is that we live in the most incredible second- and third-generation forest on the planet. That is a great thing.
From an architectural standpoint and that context, the more we can preserve the buildings that are within the city the more it enriches the overall environment. It’s even gotten to the point now where buildings that were built in the ‘50s and ‘60s have become noticed as having some historical significance. I believe that having an understanding and a general appreciation of our architectural history throughout the decades is an area where we could probably do better.
The other thing, looking at new buildings, Atlanta is a conservative city, a Southern conservative town. It has been for years. As the markets change, as we become more urbanized, as people realize the benefits and positive aspects of living closer to the city center, that those kinds of lifestyles are a little different from living in a home, I think more modern spaces tend to be appreciated more and more -- more glass, higher ceilings, more daylight to capture views. I’m thinking more in terms of residential construction. We’re starting to see more of a willingness to explore a little more modern style of architecture, and I think that’s a good thing.
APN: What are some of the keys to integrating cutting edge architecture into established communities?
Halter: The answer is in having an appreciation for the scale of the area you’re in, handling the experience of the street in a way that maintains a sense of openness. Buildings are wonderful when they have retail and restaurants that are open and spill onto the street edge. All the things that make great buildings -- the detailing is done properly and the color of the building, the quality of the building -- in my mind become the keys to any successful integration whether it’s modern or not.
APN: How are architects responding to rapidly escalating construction prices?
Halter: It seems we have that discussion every day, and it’s a tough question. The unpredictability of costs right now is a subject of great concern, causing a lot of buildings to have to go back and be redesigned because it’s very difficult to do an early estimate.
My sense of it is the sooner you can buy the building the better. Until you can make the purchase for the building and its systems, you just don’t know what the ultimate cost is going to be. The problem is that you’re often putting contingencies on top of contingencies, and it becomes so blurred you don’t know what you’re really buying.
From an architectural standpoint, you have to have a good idea for which systems in the marketplace are pretty predictable in cost. Is it pre-cast, which in the past concrete has been difficult to estimate because those prices keep going up? Is it curtainwall? Whatever it is, you have to have a pretty good grasp of which systems you can count on maintaining fairly stable costs.
In the end, it’s a volatile environment. What we can do is work with the knowledge of our most recent projects in that same market and apply our best judgment.
APN: Architecturally, what's your favorite city and why?
Halter: Rome, because it’s real. It was a toss up between Rome and Paris.
Somehow with Rome, you get less of a sense of it being a tourist place, even though I know it is. I find it easier to get lost in Rome. There are great urban spaces, but there there’s a real economy in the sense that when you’re on a train you’re riding with business people and shop keepers. It’s just such a beautiful city, and the scale of the spaces is hard to beat, changing from big to small all the time.
APN: How would you characterize the current state of architecture, especially as it relates to society in general?
Halter: This is a great time for architecture. I just get a sense that architecture is somehow getting noticed by the guy on the street as well as the people who teach it and practice it. I think that’s great. Our built environment is starting to have more and more direct impact on our daily lives. For whatever reason, I think this is a great time for the appreciation of the quality of our surrounding environment.