It’s a new year and the Gaines Group is welcoming a new face to the team. Annie Frazier is the most recent addition to the Harrisonburg team and she is eager to begin her journey. Although she doesn’t have design-related credential initials behind her name (yet), she is approaching her role at Gaines Group with enthusiasm and a readiness to serve.
Annie joined the Gaines Group PLC at the beginning of 2022 and started a new chapter in her career path. She is a native of Richmond, Virginia but has considered Harrisonburg to be her home since she graduated from JMU in 2012. She currently resides in the “friendly city” with her husband and two young daughters.
Annie’s decision to pursue a career in architectural design stems from her deep appreciation and recognition of the impact intentional design has on those who inhabit a space. Prior to working at the Gaines Group, she held multiple leadership positions in a residential long-term care community. It was during this time she played a pivotal role in transitioning the community from an institutional environment into newly designed, home-like “households”. Through thoughtful design and a shift in culture, these environments fostered independence, a stronger sense of identity, and engaging community life. This experience greatly impacted Annie and served as a catalyst for her to follow a career path in the design industry.
When searching for opportunities in the field, Annie instantly connected with the Gaines Group’s mission to make a difference in the community through design. She is eager to work alongside the team and learn all aspects of the construction and design industry. She will be supporting the Harrisonburg team with operations in the office and aspires to contribute to future designs as she grows her skillset and completes design-related coursework.
Outside of work, Annie enjoys living an active lifestyle and is often playing in the mountains either on her skis, trail running, or toting one of her daughters in a hiking backpack.
I have the honor of presenting at #YAWS2022 on Sunday. #YAWS2022 is an innovative architectural conference focused on helping architects be better people hosted by Young Architect. My topic is Empathetic Design or how to use empathy as a design tool to serve your clients while serving your community. This is an approach that I have grown into over the last 23 years and even more over the last two years. As the world seems to be ruled now by loud voices that control the narrative I feel that we need architects to step forward with elegant and equitable solutions to solve some very complex problems. After all, through design, we can build a better future for all.
We are all born with empathy in our hearts, but not always able to access it. As architects, we are taught to form judgments and opinions that can cloud our ability to absorb opinions from others. Without intentionally using empathy we miss opportunities to build better designs. There are some simple tools that can be used to infuse architecture with empathy. It does require you as the architect to let go of ego and listen fully to others, your own experiences, and the community.
If we all use empathy in our daily lives, even outside of architecture, the world would be a little bit brighter. As an incredible 9 year old said yesterday – we could have a world built on kindness if we change our priorities a bit.
That is the challenge, how can we ignore the loud voices that are pushing us to hate one another and embrace the 9-year old that thinks we can act with kindness. How do we solve really big complex problems? I think we do it by working together for a common goal. #serviceaboveself #YAWS2022
#libraryshelfieday happens on the fourth Wednesday in January and offers a unique opportunity for book lovers to show off their collections. Our bookshelves are a reflection of who we are as designers and our personalities. Our bookshelves change over time as our season in life changes and we find new interests. Whether the books are organized by author, color, size, or topic, each bookshelf featured below will give you some insight into the person that put it together. Which is your favorite #libraryshelfieday photo? Post a photo of your #libraryshelfieday in the comments!
Time for another year-end recap, here are the top blog posts for 2021 on the Gaines Group Architects page. This list is misleading as I pick the blogs with the most clicks over the year, so of course, older blogs have more time to get those clicks. This was also the first year I let someone else write blog posts on a regular basis, which changed the point of view of this blog from being my voice to being the firm’s voice. So the list is the list, let me know which are your favorite as I am once again writing the blogs and will want to make sure I am writing content you care to read.
The first on the list is an older post but tells a bit about my story of finding my way and following my heart.
This is a blog I created as a resource for potential clients trying to decide how to move forward with a custom home. I hope to do more with this list of blogs to create a guide, just need the time to do so. It is one of the most clicked-on blogs I have created.
I will do a better summary of the year in a blog post soon, but this photo of stickers on my desk is a good visual representation of this past year for now.
The Blue Ridge Mountain Home, which backs up to the parkway, is now framed, and the roof trusses were being installed when we last visited. This single-level home has a detached garage, bonus room over the garage, and an open floor plan, making sure there is plenty of space for our clients to stretch out. Aside from the Blue Ridge Mountain home we have, we have a few other projects in the works, check out our blogs or Facebook to keep an eye out for updates!
The crawl space in this home features a concrete slab to keep the space easy to maintain, dry, and clean. This space will be conditioned and sealed to keep theHVAC systems working efficiently. Sealing a crawl space is an effective way to manage your thermal envelope, keep the critters out, and to control your indoor environmental quality.
The bonus room over the garage adds to the flexibility of the floorplan and captures the additional space needed to make the house just right. As you can see from the photos, the views are breathtaking on top of Afton mountain, and the house is situated perfectly to take advantage of the breathtaking views.
