19
Jun
2018

The answer to growing your team is not “I just need to do more”.  That’s actually the best way to not grow.  Keeping the “to do” list on your own plate is probably the best way to stagnate growth.  When the “to do” list remains too large for everyone, there is a diminishing return on the effectiveness of your personal efforts and the team’s collective results.  Not only is the team’s effectiveness diminished, but each person’s work/life balance is most likely out of balance too, which benefits nobody.  So how do you grow your team?  Simple.

 

  • Get yourself out of the way: Take yourself out of the mix.  Don’t make yourself the obstacle.  How can I better cast a vision on the goal or task ahead so others can accomplish the effort with me being less involved?
  • Empower others: Don’t micro manage your team. How can you empower your team so they know they have full authority to do what needs to be done?
  • Growth and development: Equip your team for success. How can you equip others to have the necessary resources to get things done?
  • Servant leadership: Growing your team has to do with others, not with you. Don’t lead from the top.  Lead from the middle of the pack.  Be part of the solution.  How can you help the team get done what needs to be done?

 

The best way to grow your team is not to have you do more work, it is to train up others to do what you are doing.  If more team members are doing what you are doing, the team will be destined to grow while developing a sustainable organization that is well balanced and positioned for the future.

 

Growing every day…

21
May
2018

When asked what engineers and architects usually do, most people typically say “they prepare drawings and specifications on their computer or a drafting table”.  While that response may be partially correct to describe a specific task, the single most important “thing” we do is solve our clients’ problems.

A recent project assignment required us to provide condition assessments, surveying, environmental assessments, and aviation design for a client’s facilities at a number of remote wilderness locations throughout the northeastern United States.  To perform this work, the NKB team utilized helicopters, UAVs, all-terrain vehicles, extra heavy-duty four wheel drive vehicles, chain saws, GPS tracking, satellite phones, wilderness camping, and emergency response preparedness for all team members; all with making provisions for contingencies and backup plans for any unforeseen conditions.  The field work for this unusual project scope was completed without incident and on schedule.  All of those years in Boys Scouts really did pay off in terms of being prepared.

Doing what we are being asked to do is what we do as engineers and architects.  It is in doing each assignment seamlessly, that our clients can be assured that we have their back; making their life easier.  If providing the services of a wilderness outfitter solves our clients’ problems, that’s what engineers and architects do.

Be Prepared.

24
Apr
2018

Going Out of My Comfort Zone | by Laura-Renee Macri

Hi! My name is Laura-Renee Macri and I am a senior studying Environmental and Interior Design at Syracuse University. For as long as I could remember, I’ve been so sure I only wanted to do residential design or just simply decorate homes as a career. My past working experiences consisted of managing an ice-cream store, staging homes, and designing high-end events. Before I started applying for jobs, I wanted the chance to experience what it would be like to work at an architecture firm that specializes in commercial design before I settled on what I always thought I wanted to do. When my former professor and current Interior Designer at NKB, Lauren Zacher, reached out asking if I was interested in applying to be an intern, I knew it would be an amazing opportunity to see if I could succeed in this kind of atmosphere.

At NKB, I was fortunate enough to work on various phases of design, enhance my skills in Revit, pick out materials for GSA projects, and collaborate with Lauren on marketing materials. After working at NKB, I have learned that I love the small firm, team-oriented environment where the architects, engineers, and designers can all work together on the same project. Everyone at NKB was very welcoming and I am sad that my last day for my student internship is approaching.

Post-graduation, I have accepted a job offer as a Junior Designer with LB Architects in New York City. I am very excited to go out of my comfort zone and see what I am capable of doing at an architecture firm.  Without having this experience at NKB, I would not have had the confidence to apply to an architecture firm right out of college and for that I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I had here.

2018 Intern Interior Designers: Allie Eigo (left) and Laura-Renee Macri (right)

An Amazing Opportunity| by Alexandria (Allie) Eigo

Hi I am Allie; I am a senior at Syracuse University studying Environmental and Interior Design. I am from upstate New York and live on Lake George. As a little girl I have always had a passion for interiors, from moving around furniture and making houses on Sims, I knew that this was something I wanted to do in my future. When I was abroad in London last spring I discovered a new passion and appreciation for architectural photography; my love for photography and interiors combined.  I got this amazing opportunity to intern at NKB under Lauren Zacher. Lauren was my teacher my freshman year in college so I was looking forward with working and learning with her again.

At NKB I furthered my knowledge in Revit, learned about the GSA requirements, picked out materials, created a material board, worked on FF&E packages, and fixed redlines on construction documents.  It was a great opportunity seeing how a design firm works on projects in real life compared to school projects. At NKB everyone was so welcoming and helpful during my time there. After interning at NKB, I realized I have an interest in a small firm atmosphere that specializes in commercial design.  After graduation I am planning on applying for jobs in Boston or Charleston to firms that focus on commercial design, lighting design and architectural photography.

 

 

- NKB Team
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31
Aug
2017

Have you ever tightened a bolt?  How tight is tight enough?  Is it possible to tighten it too much?  Whereas these questions might not matter as much when you assemble an IKEA side table for your living room, they sure do matter when you are tightening bolts in a member connection for a steel building. One convention is to follow the “snug-tight” method where bolts are tightened until first sign of resistance and then given another quarter turn.

Another convention is to use direct tension indicators.  Direct tension indicators are washers that have small protrusions on them.  When the bolt is tightened, the gap between the unturned element and the washer decreases.  The size of the gap is then measured and when it reaches the desired size, the bolt is pronounced tightened.  It is often required to have all the connections in a building inspected to ensure tightened adequacy.  But to go and climb up to every connection and hand check each bolt is both extremely time consuming and still subject to human error, especially when there are a lot of connections and thus a lot of bolts to inspect.

 

Then a special machine is used to tighten the nut without turning the bolt.  But here is where the ingenious part of the design comes in.  When it has been tightened to the required torque, the small spline pops off!  So that is when you know that the bolt is tightened just right and, as an added bonus, it makes for a very quick, easy, and thus efficient connection inspection, you just have to look for all the bolts to have their splines popped off.

Snug-tight conditions and direct tension indicators are still widely used today, so tension control bolts are just another option to use in construction, but a pretty innovative option!

 

 

 

9
Nov
2016

So you have something valuable in your building that you want to protect, like children at a daycare or the entrance to a federal building, yet you want to be able to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and views of the outdoors, what do you do? Thankfully, there are decades of research and many manufactures out there that are able to provide you with products that can provide you a security solution for such a case.

Figure 1: 3M put money inside a bus stop partition in Vancouver, Canada to prove their security glass could withstand nearly any attack by an unarmed person. If anyone could break the glass, they got the money. No one broke the glass.

To tackle this problem, the first real question you have to ask is “what am I protecting against?” Are you trying to protect against a guy with a hammer breaking through your window, an active shooter, falling ice. The gamut is nearly limitless but needs to be defined early on in the decisions making process. Until you narrow that down, the options, and cost, are boundless. If you are trying to stop a burglar, that can be accomplished without too much trouble. If you are trying to stop an active shooter, or are looking for “blast protection”, things get complicated quickly.

The chart below lays out the major categories of protected glazing and potential materials that will accomplish that:Now if that table with all of those options looks confusing, it is. The worst part is that depending on manufacturer, one might make a glass-clad polycarbonate that is UL 752 level 3 rated that is ½” thick, where another might make the same apparent product that is ¾” thick. So how do you choose? It all comes down to what you are trying to protect against, and how important the aesthetic is. Even though many products pass the specific UL or ASTM testing requirements, they often vary in thickness, color, and physical make up and thus may not be suitable depending on the application.

Once a decision is made on what level of security you want and what type of material you want, you then have to struggle with how to secure this very expensive, but very dependable piece of glazing into place. Depending on the material and the manufacturer, you can use a captured system like a storefront or curtainwall system, you can use a custom designed steel framing system with glazing channels, or you might even be able to use mechanical fasteners to anchor through the material depending on its composition. The real factor in choosing the right framing system is the frame’s ability to withstand the kinetic energy distributed to it by the burglar / bullet / blast. Selecting the right frame typically requires engineering calculations and/or consulting a specific manufacturer to select a pre-engineered system.

If all of this sounds rather complicated, it’s because it is. NKB has done multiple projects where the design necessitated that some form of transparent security be provided, and each time we go through answering all of these questions in order to choose the right solution. Transparent security is a building component that requires special attention to detail and to ensure the right outcome. Do not just pick a product off the shelf when dealing with such complex problems, consult a design professional; broken glass in this case is a lot more dangerous than just a sharp edge.

14
Oct
2016

nkb-office-progress-2016-1We have all experienced it, you look at the place you live and realize it just isn’t working for you anymore. The layout isn’t conducive to the way you process, you don’t have enough room for yourself, this other room you never use has excess space, and really it all just needs a face lift. Well N.K. BHANDARI has been feeling the same way. So after searching and searching and then analyzing different locations we have finally found our new home; but we aren’t going very far. How close may you ask? Well we are currently listening to them renovating our space as I type this. That’s right we are sticking to our roots here at Rockwest Center and moving one floor up.

So now what we get to do for our clients every day is exactly what we get to do for ourselves. Our team has worked for many months to come up with the best solution for ourselves that will help us create in a more effective work environment. We analyzed the way we work, questioned processes, looked at different trends, questioned the “norm” of office design, listened to our employee’s needs and wants, did A LOT of different layouts, selected a layout, changed that layout, and came up with a design to meet our needs! Now I won’t say we revolutionized the way offices are designed but ultimately we came up with what works best for us. It’s what we do every day for our clients too. Finding solutions to meet their needs.

Here are some pictures of our process and even some of our space before, and the current construction. Final pictures will come hopefully in the New Year once we have moved and settled into our new home!

nkb-office-progress-2016-3

nkb-office-progress-2016-2

-Lauren Zacher, NCIDQ

16
Aug
2016

Being aProfessionalismcountable means being able to answer for your actions, but not necessarily being responsible for them. Similarly, accountability is something you hold a person to only AFTER a task is or isn’t done. Responsibility occurs before and/or after a task, and is ongoing. Responsibility can also be shared while accountability cannot. The many experiences throughout my career continue to influence my ability to respond to and account for my actions and allow me to integrate both concepts of responsibility and accountability.

The success of my job depends on my ability to merge both accountability and responsibility, to shape and establish a firm confidence and understanding of the expectations of my profession, and to deliver exceptional service to those that need it.  The following are some thoughts about how and why this came to be.

 

My Work: In my profession, we are consistently asking for people to “take ownership” of their work. As a design professional, this prescribes significant commitment to and cultivation of our work product. You become accountable for every line that’s drawn, every word that written. Thus, you must know exactly what it means and why you did it.

My Actions: Accountability can most precisely be defined as answerability. Being accountable is an expectation to explain one’s actions for whatever they are. An easy way to think about being accountable is – literally, whatever the results of my actions, I must be able to give an account of what happened, why it happened, and how.

My Process: I can do a fantastic job or a terrible job, allow good or bad things to happen, and make smart or terrible decisions and not actually be responsible – but I am accountable by being able to explain what happened, how it happened, and why. Accountability, doesn’t lay blame for or pin success on me, it only describes me as being able to explain my actions or the actions of a group or business.

The Distinction: So why is it important to be both responsible and accountable? In order for me to develop, grow, and thrive as a professional, I need to know what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and how I can get it done. I may do it myself, or enlist the aid of my colleagues. But for this thing I’m doing to have any value I need to be fully engaged in the making of it. That means knowing what the heck is going on AND making sure it’s successful.

The Results: Can you imagine being completely in charge of something – the root cause behind whether that thing succeeds or fails – but not able to explain how or why? In contradistinction, can you imagine being accountable for how or why something is fantastically prosperous but not being responsible for it?

These two concepts being separate or distinctly different make for a terrible work environment and just don’t sound good at all. When I was first introduced to “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Dr. Stephen Covey, I was deeply impressed with his definition of “responsible” as being “able to respond” or my ability to respond to things around me. I have better things to do than claim someone else is responsible for my actions or success, or living the hollow role of being responsible for actions that are out of my control or understanding. Having the combined knowledge of doing a task well and being the ultimate owner of it – merging accountability with responsibility – has heightened my sense of how to do things better, and also answers why I should be doing better things.

Check out part one of this series on professionalism here.

18
Jul
2016

gsa_logoN.K. BHANDARI is pleased to announce that it was recently awarded a five year term contract to provide Architecture & Engineering design services to the Federal Government’s General Services Administration Special Programs Division (GSA SPD) throughout the northeastern United States.  Projects for the GSA SPD involve complex design challenges that need to be delivered with an expedited schedule.  Project assignments anticipated for this contract will be located at Federal installations  including: Federal Buildings, Federal Courthouses, Land Ports of Entry, Border Crossings, and other Federal assets throughout the states of New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

Over 90% of N.K. BHANDARI’s GSA SPD design team is located in Central New York, with the potential to support almost 100 full time design team personnel.  The contract has the capacity to generate $100,000,000 in construction projects per year throughout the northeastern United States.

The N.K. BHANDARI team for the GSA SPD contract includes seven subconsultant firms from Central New York  (C&S Engineers; Holmes-King-Kallquist; CNY Elevator Engineering; Dwyer Architectural; Environmental Design & Research; Thew Associates), and three firms located outside Central New York (Faithful+Gould (New York, NY); Shen-Milsom-Wilke (New York, NY); Karagozian & Case (Glendale, CA)).

N.K. BHANDARI is proud to continue its longstanding tradition of providing service to the Federal government through the GSA SPD contract.  In the firm’s 36 year history, N.K. BHANDARI has provided services to the Federal government on 16 Indefinite Quantity / Indefinite Delivery (IDIQ) Term Contracts for seven different agencies on 455 projects at 145 locations throughout the United States.  As a firm, we could not be more proud to provide Unrivaled Service and Unique Results for the United States of America.

28
Jun
2016
St Marys_ (5)

Aerial Image taken with NKB’s UAV

Documenting existing conditions can often times be difficult for Architects & Engineers, because the conditions are concealed, too high, out of reach, or outright unsafe to get to.  The question is, how can you see things that you cannot ordinarily see?  Technology.  Using technology to your advantage is the way you get the job done.

When posed with performing a condition assessment and preparing the design for the restoration of the steeple on the historic St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Liverpool, NY, NKB offered the use of our unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with an onboard high definition digital camera to document the conditions that were otherwise unobservable from the ground.  The conditions were too high and unsafe to try to get to with a ladder or lift.  By using our UAV, NKB could provide high definition still or video imagery of conditions on the steeple that the owner, design professional, and contractor could not otherwise see.  Having this visual documentation of an otherwise obscured condition is allowing the design team and the contractor to proceed with the design and construction activities on the steeple in an orderly manner.

The next big thing in Architecture and Engineering is not necessarily some earth-shaking new approach to re-invent the built environment.  The next big thing is how we as design professionals can use technology in creative ways to provide unparalleled service for our clients.

Using technology in creative ways to work for you.

St Marys_ (3)

Aerial Image taken with NKB’s UAV

St Marys_ (2)

Up close on a hard to reach spot using NKB’s UAV