Published in the Addison Independent November 29, 2010
Vermont Architect with a Green Vision
Challenges Tough Times with Confidence
Most people would say you’ve got to be crazy to start a business related to construction during the worst economic crash since the Great Depression. What would they say about someone who started two?
But Adam Ginsburg knew it was time, and nothing was going to stop him.
“I love Vermont,” the Bristol architect says, “and I have a lot of confidence in the people of the state, my friends and neighbors, people I work with and live with. I know we’re coming back, and I wanted to make a contribution.”
So after a decade in Vermont working for other architects and builders, creating and constructing dozens of design projects, making his mark on the look of the state and in turn absorbing the spirit of Vermont’s people and landscape, Adam passed the lengthy qualification and exam process and earned his professional licensure in the state of Vermont. And he established his own firm, A. Ginsburg Architects.
Not content merely to create designs, from his first days studying architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, then in graduate school at the Rhode Island School of Design, Adam had sought opportunities to learn about the construction process, literally from the ground up. From nailing up wall studs to working in concrete fabrication, installing windows and putting on roofs, he built up a deep knowledge of the ways an abstract drawing on paper gets translated into a real building resting on the ground.
That was the foundation for Deerleap Design-Build, one of Vermont’s first design-build firms based on the innovative architect-led model. Drawing on the broad network of relationships he had built over the past 10 years with accomplished professionals in construction management and trades, he decided to offer design clients who chose to continue the collaboration high-quality construction services with guaranteed completion timing and cost.
Unlike the ordinary design-build process, in which the client and designer turn over the plan they’ve developed to a builder and hope for the best, the architect-led model brings the builder into the design process with the client and keeps the architect involved in overseeing all the construction details of the design he has created with the client.
Putting the architect and client side-by-side in control of the project also allows for a leaner, more efficient construction process, an important consideration in a time of shrinking resources. Resources, and the way we treat our environment, is a subject Adam has given a lot of thought.
“People in Vermont have a special feeling for the land and the way we live with it,” Adam says, “and that’s a big part of why people in other places admire Vermonters and want to come here to visit or live.
“As someone who designs and builds structures to fit into their surroundings, I take our responsibility to the environment very seriously. Whether it’s smart design that minimizes waste, how we place the building on the land, the materials we use and how far they have to be shipped, choosing alternative sources of energy, designing for minimal maintenance and operating costs, carefully considering our clients’ future to insure that the building will adapt effectively to changing needs — in everything we do, we work hard to make the smallest possible impact on the environment.”
For all the technical expertise and creative energy that go into architecture, Adam has always thought of his profession as first and most importantly resting on relationships between people, a collaboration between a designer and a person with a dream.
“I know the common image of an architect is a design diva who wants to push his vision onto his clients,” Adam says, “but that’s my idea of failure. Successful design grows organically out of the relationship between architect and client. It’s built on the client’s dreams and needs. A good architect is a good listener.
“Of course,” he says, “good design also depends on the architect’s ability to bring creativity and imagination to making the client’s desires into a reality. Great design isn’t just practical, it’s also beautiful.”
Adam figured the first business tool he needed was a website, where he could share his design ideas with others, a place where someone thinking about building a home or commercial property could compare his vision with their own. And so aginsburgarchitects.com was born.
“That was a lot of fun,” Adam says, “pulling together ideas and images from more than ten years of design work, a chance to stand back a little and see what I’ve accomplished.
“It made me really excited to see what my clients and I can do in the next ten years,” he says.