Tami Greene, President, IKM Architecture
Tami Greene, president of IKM Architecture, spoke with Invest: about the firm’s broad strategy that spans across multiple regions and sectors. Greene also highlighted the firm’s involvement with the Tree of Life project, which she believes “shows our power in architecture to bring people together and help them heal.”
How has the recent leadership change shaped the direction of the firm, and what changes or successes from the past year have been most impactful?
Our previous president was a great leader for many years, and is still involved as a medical planner on some of our larger projects. The transition went smoothly, and we now manage things a bit differently. When I came into leadership, I asked the different departments for details that previously hadn’t been reported. I didn’t realize how much of a numbers gal I am, but when I got involved in looking at finances, accounting, projections, and the business development side of things, I realized I like to look at the numbers and see it all written down in a nice, structured way.
I have worked as a project manager in architecture for many years and have over 27 years of healthcare expertise, so moving into the role of president means I am involved in a lot more than architecture.
Now, a little more than a year in, I’m comfortable with this position — interacting with clients and our staff on a different level. Overall, I think the transition has gone very well and am happy with where we are.
For IKM, the past year has brought successes and challenges. One of the highlights was being asked to partner on an important project for our community.
We have a long and meaningful history of work at IKM. Our Pittsburgh office has been open since 1911, so the legacy of IKM serving our community has been great, with historic landmark projects like the Buhl Planetarium, which is now a part of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Chatham Village, and Phipps Conservatory — we did the Rainforest and Welcome Center projects. That legacy is a great one, and we’re very proud of contributing to the Pittsburgh community.
This year, we continue that with being part of a very important project, which I would say is one of our most notable successes this year — partnering with Studio Libeskind on the Tree of Life. It’s a project that is deeply meaningful to us. Being selected to be part of such an important project and contributing to the design and documentation of a building that honors the memory of those lost while fostering resilience is a true privilege. We believe this shows our power in architecture to bring people together and help them heal. It is always rewarding to serve others through our work, but this sense of honor and responsibility on the Tree of Life project is profound.
From your perspective, what changes in the local economy over the past year have affected your work?
We’ve seen some larger projects with our healthcare and higher education clients be placed on hold in the past year. We believe some of this is the result of tighter capital budgets and the turmoil around the federal funding of projects. We have been focused on costs on all of our projects, and the clients don’t really know where funding will come from. We have multiple clients who have shared that they are optimistic about projects moving forward in the next quarter or two. For the most part, the projects that have started within the past year are facility improvements with a focus on upgrading infrastructure, replacing medical equipment, or responding to a growing patient caseload. Right now, funding seems to be flowing toward urgent needs, and that’s what’s keeping our pipeline active. Larger, more strategic projects are getting shelved in response to uncertain economic conditions.
What new opportunities are you seeing in different sectors?
We are seeing growth in higher education as well as the workplace. We see trends in higher education towardlistening closely to what students want. Interestingly enough, we have had almost the same number of proposals for higher education in the past year as we had for healthcare. The higher education work we are doing is more in response to improvements in student recruitment. We do work for the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, Carnegie Mellon University, Carlow University, and Slippery Rock University.
There are really two things from that growth. One is flexible learning spaces to accommodate different learning methods, whether it’s for small groups or large groups. There’s also a technology demand, so making sure we keep up with those needs.
We’re seeing more collaboration zones integrated into higher education design — spaces where students or faculty can spontaneously connect, whether it’s continuing a hallway conversation or working through an idea together. These informal gathering areas are becoming essential across campus.The other thing with higher education we’re focused on is designing environments that promote wellness. We recently completed the Forbes Beeler apartment complex for Carnegie Mellon, in partnership with Goody Clancy. We designed many of the interior spaces with input from the students. The result was a peaceful and playful space, including mood rooms with color-changing lights, called Everbright walls, for the students to take a break.
That’s been our focus for higher education, and we’re seeing a lot of growth with our clients wanting to pay attention. It’s very important to our clients and to us.
What changes have you seen in your workforce strategy over the past year, and what are your goals for attracting, developing and retaining top talent in Pittsburgh?
We have faced some challenges around remote work and virtual meetings, with both our staff and our clients. We have some employees who prefer working from home because they want to retain flexibility and work-life balance. Our current model sees employees in the office three days a week, and certain days we require everyone to be in the office. We have some staff members asking for more in-person meetings in addition to our weekly company-wide virtual meetings. Our staff understands the value of being in the room with each other to share ideas and socialize. We also offer flex time. Any staff member who works overtime on a particular day can take time off the following day, to help maintain work-life balance.
Looking ahead, what are your key goals and priorities for IKM in the next two to three years?
Our priorities over the next few years are making sure IKM connects across markets. We have insights from healthcare that shape higher ed and workplace, and insights from science and technology that bridge into the education and healthcare industry. Civic projects anchor our community and culture. These bridges and connections between the sectors we serve are where we want to grow. We plan to grow in size in Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Cleveland, and grow the expertise we need to serve all those sectors appropriately. We are also looking for more work, and have recently gotten work in Michigan. We have long-standing clients we’ve served for decades in Pittsburgh, and we appreciate the trust we have developed. We will continue to do excellent work for those long-standing clients while building trust with new clients. This past year, we have received repeat work with newer clients. We have proven ourselves as a dependable partner and will continue to do so in the new regions we are reaching.
