Svigals+Partners is an architecture firm in New Haven, Connecticut that works with prominent corporate, healthcare, and higher education institutions throughout the Northeast. With an enviable client roster and no shortage of new work in the pipeline, the firm had achieved success by many standards.
The principals, however, weren’t satisfied; they sensed there was something missing. They knew the firm had something more to offer but didn’t have the framing or language to talk about it. Being a creative team, they had attempted, unsuccessfully, to define it for themselves.
Offering an outside frame of reference and new strategies for discovery, we helped them find an interpretation of who they are and what makes them different that has unified and energized the company. This significant shift in perspective has supported a reinterpretation of their market facing image and signaled a new context for every new undertaking, including leadership transitions, RFP responses, and recruitment efforts.
Engaging with the team through leadership retreats, development workshops, coaching, and at critical junctions of choice and change, we helped ensure that their vision of the future didn’t disappear under the weight of day-to-day responsibilities.
Finding possibility in the unknown
Creativity is often sabotaged by a belief that an outcome is already known. Our vision and mission workshops allow for differences in expectations, communication styles, and the “short-circuiting” of logical thinking. For Svigals + Partners this meant getting past the “shoulds” and “musts” of the industry to reveal a solution that rang true for everyone.
Interpretation and adoption
A day-long event brought the entire company together to build a collective vision of Svigals + Partners’ future. Activities, similar to those that Fathom had taken the leadership team through, provided the backdrop for each person to uncover how the vision and mission could influence their work as individuals and as a collective.
Provoking a wider conversation
Continuing our work with the leadership team, we helped translate the foundational statements about who they are into ideas and language that would matter to their most important communities. These generative conversations center on three over-arching questions that Svigals + Partners explore in each engagement.
Integrating the inseperable
Fathom helped the company create an unapologetic version of their story that showcases what had been two distinct disciplines – art and architecture – as one seamless practice. Also, unlike many architecture firms, Svigals + Partners saw value in demonstrating their belief that an artful process is as important to the community as the final product.
