Kirk Mitchell of AKT Designs | North Woodland St in Englewood | The Client's Desire
Transcript
Announcer 00:06
What goes into making an iconic building in America? What are the stories and who are the people behind the next generation of architecture? If your work touches the real estate industry in any way, or you're just curious about what goes into one of a kind cities and towns all across our country, join us on the American building podcast. In season two, we learn about everything from skyscrapers to single family homes from the famous and soon to be famous designers and developers responsible for them. This season focuses particularly on the pandemic and how our buildings will change in response. Our sponsor is the iconic design firm Michael Graves architecture and design. And now your host award winning architect turned entrepreneur, Atif Qadir, AIA
Atif Qadir 01:04
This is American building, and I'm your host Atif Qadir. We are recording from the historic home of world renowned architect Michael Graves in Princeton, New Jersey. Check out this amazing space for yourself at the Michael Graves architecture and design YouTube channel. Now let's build something. today. Our guest is architect Kirk Mitchell. Kirk is the founder and principal at aka T designs and architecture and interior design firm based in Bergen County, New Jersey.
Atif Qadir 01:32
He focuses on residential projects across New York and New Jersey that includes new construction and renovations of single family and multifamily buildings. He has a particular expertise in combining historic details with modern technology, having completed over 80 townhouse projects as a Katy designs and previously, as the Director of Design and Construction for Dixon advisory, we'll be talking about for 32 woodland spectacular renovation of a single family home in Englewood, that is in the Palisades, a stunning cliffside part of northern New Jersey, we will put that project into the context of COVID, and how home designs have changed over the past year. So thank you so much for being with us here. Kirk.
Kirk Mitchell 02:15
Thank you for having me. Absolutely.
Atif Qadir 02:17
So let's start with your parents. So both of your parents are artists, could you talk about the influence that they had on your interests as a kid?
Kirk Mitchell 02:25
Absolutely. Growing up in a family of artists, I saw everyday use of different mediums. And I saw their passion for art, which really rubbed off on me and my siblings. One of the things we did notice is that our parents weren't artists professionally, meaning they didn't make money. They didn't know how to monetize it. And they had their own. They're both in their own different industries that had nothing to do with art. And one of the things I realized is that I didn't want to become a struggling artist, which was so known I was a child. I never really saw any rich artists, or someone that I can relate to that figured out how to monetize their talent.
Kirk Mitchell 03:04
So when I was young, I went to art camps, art schools, and I spoke to one of my professors, my senior high school art class, his name was Mr. autosen. And I asked him about, if I'm looking to go into school, I didn't know what I wanted to major in because I didn't want to be a struggling artist. And I didn't know exactly what I can do that it's going to allow me to exemplify this passion. It said I ever looked into architecture. And I didn't, I didn't know much about architecture. But I started doing a little bit of background research. And he introduced me to a mechanical drafting class. And as soon as I learned more about it and read more about it, I instantly fell.
Atif Qadir 03:44
Excellent. And from there on, you went to Howard University, and then Carnegie Mellon to study architecture. Could you talk about what your experiences were like there?
Kirk Mitchell 03:54
Sure thing, Howard University, my older cousin went to when I was a junior in high school where I went to visit a school and I fell in love with it. And I knew from that point on, that was the school I wanted to attend on Washington, DC, I applied to about seven or eight different schools. And I got into mostly all of them, but the only one I was worried about was Howard University, which was the last one that I was accepted to. So that was the best days of my life or myself, my family, my friends, everybody knew how important it was for me. But one of the things was that I was scared that if I tried to apply for admission, with architecture as my major being that I didn't have any experience in architecture that I wasn't going to get in.
Kirk Mitchell 04:34
So I applied as a liberal arts major undecided. And that way once I got accepted, I got into school, but it took me a year to get to transfer into architecture because of the prerequisite classes that you have to have both semesters. So once I got into the architecture program at Howard, I immediately fell in love with it. And one of the things that I loved about Howard besides the professor's servers that were there, which were mostly practicing professionals that had their own firms or worked for larger firms was that it was a small class size. And our class, the entire architecture class started up to be about 125 people. By the time we graduated, it was close to 25 people and an architecture school. When you first get into school, they sit you down, and they tell you, if you're into this profession for money, you may want to leave now, they actually use the term, you don't get paid until you're gray.
Kirk Mitchell 05:32
So a lot of people left. And even through the years a lot of people have because it is a very demanding major. One of the ways you can see this is when you walk into any architectural design studio, any college across the country, you'll see beds, or you'll see lounges or couches. You're like, why are these convertible couches in the Design Lab, because you're going to be sleeping there pulling all nighters. So it's something that brought our class together. Because we were small, we all helped each other, we support each other. And we got to some late nights and some awesome projects together. During my freshman year at Howard, the Hillier group, which is a very large architecture firm, one of the largest in New Jersey at the time, came to Howard University and interviewed some students for internships. So I was lucky enough to win an internship in the New York office location. So when I came home summers and winters I worked at the Hillier group, which was in Newark, New Jersey. And then I did so well there that I got another internship in DC. So that was my three first internships while I was in school, to really give me a jumpstart on the industry.
Atif Qadir 06:41
Excellent. And then your professional career that started at Marshadow. Hagen, Steve, under architect, Dean Marshadow, whoever called the godfather of Hoboken and Jersey City in terms of architecture, what role did you play at the firm? And how did that help in developing your own career as an architect?
Kirk Mitchell 06:59
Sure, well, I was doing some amazing things while at Howard, when I learned 3d Studio Max and these 3d programs and CAD. So I started doing some really awesome renderings for the projects I was designing in, in Design Studio. And what I did was one of the administrators at Howard University told me that there was a scholarship, and it was in northern New Jersey, where I'm from Northern New Jersey, and for the AIA, northern Jersey League. So I submitted a bunch of my renderings and designs. And I ended up winning the architect intern of the Year award. And this is 2003. Three or one. Anyway, besides the point, right after I got that award, about three different architectural firms or architects came up asking if I would be interested in interviewing, one of those architects was Dean Marcelo.
Kirk Mitchell 07:51
And I got a call and I got an interview with Dean at the time, it was DiMartino architects before they changed her name. And then I was lucky enough that even though I got the job, Dean understood that I was going to go away to Carnegie Mellon for my master's degree. So he allowed me to work summers and winters until I finished that program, and then I worked full time.
Atif Qadir 08:12
That's awesome. And then the last job that you had before starting your own firm, was with ethics and advisory, what did you do there? And what was your learning experience there like?
Kirk Mitchell 08:21
Sure. So Dixon advisory is a financial advisory company, private out of Australia, and one of their CFO, originally from Jersey City. And when we had the downturn in the market, that CFO went to the CEO of Dixon, his name is Ellen Dixon, and told them about the idea of starting a real estate investment trust back in the northern New Jersey area, because you can acquire properties for pennies on the dollar at the time. So that encompassed Hudson County, and in Manhattan and Brooklyn. So they started acquiring buying properties around. They started in 2000, late 2011. And then, once they started getting into the higher end properties and doing large renovations, they figured that they needed an architect, that would help them not just design but welcome entire process, construction and construction management.
Kirk Mitchell 09:12
So they started a subsidiary of the company called Dixon projects, which was design and construction management. And I was hired as the head architect for that. And what I got an opportunity to do is essentially build an architecture firm within that real estate investment trust. So I had all the equipment, all the software that we needed, and we hired three young architectural interns. We hired about eight interior designers, a few project managers. So when I first came to Dixon or went to Dixon, it was about 50 people. And then by the time I left four years later, it was over 150 people, and I was managing up to 16 staff of very talented architects, designers, interior designers and project managers.
Atif Qadir 09:59
Given that you had so much independence, and it's such a large role in the growth of that firm, why did you end up leaving? And how did you know that it was time to leave?
Kirk Mitchell 10:09
Well, I've always wanted to be in practice for myself, I've always wanted to, I'm an entrepreneur by spirit. So I've always looked at having full time jobs as an opportunity to gain as much experience and as much knowledge as possible in order to take that to start my own practice. So I've had several different companies during my youth have been a general contractor, architectural, I guess, Moonlighter, for lack of a better term. And I've also done a lot of real estate investing, buying investment properties and managing them. So when I found Dixon Dixon kind of married off three, it married to construction, architecture, and real estate investment all under one roof. So I had a plan, I just didn't know when, because I was being paid very well, it was, it was kind of like a family oriented company, we had a lot of fun, we had amazing projects.
Kirk Mitchell 11:01
And the cool thing about working for a real estate investment trust is I can design something today in six months is actually built. If you're working for an architecture firm, sometimes you got to wait a few years to see your projects come to fruition while it takes and I did over 300 townhouses with them, anything from one to four families, and it grew an amazing portfolio. But it also became a time that when you're buying in real estate, you're buying when it's low, that way you can make money. So when they first started buying in 2011, it was still after the recession that we had here. And so they got houses considerably cheap. Once we got into I came on board, early 2013. So by the time 2014 2015, rolled around, properties were a lot more expensive, because there were a lot more expensive. We had to limit the budget to construction budget of things that we're doing to it. So I got a chance to do some amazing work there. meeting amazing people work with amazing people.
Kirk Mitchell 11:58
But I knew that okay, the market isn't going to stay on fire the way it was, it's going to get soft. And it was about time to start making my move. So what I had to do, I gave myself a year plan. And I couldn't tell anybody about it, I had to be very secretive. And I started really reaching out to resources, reaching out to contractors that I know real estate agents, attorneys, anybody in the field that can assist in supporting my launch. And then as the days go by after work, I work on my website, work on the portfolio, work on all the things that I needed to so by the time I was ready to leave, I can hit the ground running. And that's what I did. And matter of fact, I had a project that I JV with a architect friend of mine, his name is Steven Wilder. And we we had a project in Plainfield, but 90 building that he landed and brought me aboard to assist. So I had a good, a nice project to kind of lead into and then once I left, and really went out there and use all of my full time hours that I was giving to an employer and use it for myself. And then some things just kind of opened up, right.
Atif Qadir 13:08
Yeah, and one of those particular projects that will when you left to start your own firm that will highlight today is what 32 woodland so that's a single family home that you redesigned in Englewood. So for our listeners, can you describe this area, this part of New Jersey
Kirk Mitchell 13:25
Shore thing so Englewood is located in Bergen County and Bergen County is northern New Jersey right next to New York City. We're literally right next to the George Washington Bridge. So we are considered a suburb of the New York metropolitan area. I've grown up here most of my life. I'm a Bergen County boy. So I know the area very well. in Englewood is a little bit more of a city than the town that I'm from Teaneck, which is more of a township. So in Englewood, you have a lot more larger density of people. And they're probably a bigger variety of classes, and wealth portion. So you'll have apartment buildings, and you'll have lower blue collar income, and then you'll have mega mansions for the super wealthy, all within one town.
Kirk Mitchell 14:13
That's actually where my office is located in New Jersey, so have a good lay of the land. I know a lot of people in Englewood, but one of these first single family renovation projects, was a friend of a friend and that's typically how I get word to word of mouth referrals. Have a really good friend that I grew up with His name is Dr. Jason Baines, who's a orthopedic surgeon. And he has an office in Englewood. And he has a group of young black doctors, prominent doctors in Bergen County that he golf, squid and good close friends with and I'm to him an avid golfer. So one day he gives me a call from the golf course and said, Hey, I got a buddy of mine. He's one of the best plastic surgeons in Bergen County. He just put an offer on a house is up on the hills of Englewood. And he's looking to do a complete renovation, can you help him out? I said, I'd be here tomorrow.
Atif Qadir 15:10
Perfect. So that was the client for the project. And when you when you met him, what was the initial vision that he had for the project.
Kirk Mitchell 15:19
So my client bought a ranch style home on about it, but an acre, or the property, which is normal for North woodland is one of the most prominent artery streets through the hills of Englewood. And what he wanted to do was, he wanted to complete cave man's cave in the basement. So the basement was a complete gut renovation, he wanted to redo the entire kitchen, master bedroom, master bathroom, all the bathrooms in the house, and just a complete cosmetic makeover to the rest of the plus he wanted to incorporate some new age back. So he had the idea that he wanted to do something like a ski chalet. 19 7080s ski interior.
Atif Qadir 16:03
How did you did you like hold back your laughter there?
Kirk Mitchell 16:07
Well, you know, it's it's not professional to laugh in the face. But being that we're friends, I could. So I said, you know, I understand where you're coming from. And I know where you're drawing the inspiration. However, that look is a bit dated now. And the problem with that is that if you go too strong in that direction, either your house gonna look dated now or dated later, at some point, it's going to be dated, and the value is going to drop. So I said, I can definitely find a way to incorporate the natural woods that you like so much and a warm feeling of the chalet, but in a more modern format. So that's exactly what we did. And one of the really cool things about this project is that the basement itself, they had this elaborate age vac system, because they had basically a spa inside the basement.
Atif Qadir 16:52
And in fact means heating, ventilation, air conditioner.
Kirk Mitchell 16:56
So they had a mechanical system that was literally just for the spa downstairs where they had a whirlpool hot tub, heated spa, they had a shower, steam shower, I mean, they had the works, but it's been very old. There's a lot of mold down there, it was dated, and the ceiling heights are very low. Because of all this mechanical work. There was so low that the client couldn't use the basement for his enjoyment, because all this mechanical work taking up the ceiling space. So what we did was, we had to re engineer the entire H vac system for the house just so that he could get all his ceiling height back, which ended up being about between eight and eight and a half feet before we started, it was right below seven feet.
Atif Qadir 17:41
Oh, wow. Not only is that not good, that's probably not up to modern standards, right in terms of codes
Kirk Mitchell 17:47
Exactly. Well, because they didn't have habitable rooms down there. They were just considering it rec room. And I guess they got away with it. And they've done so long ago. But what one of my clients all who want to do is put a habitable legal bedroom downstairs, so as to if in order to do that, you have to have a minimum ceiling height. So what we did was we got rid of some really big ductwork and some really heavy stone. That was there'll be the hot tub was made out of stone. And we designed the system, we dropped it down, and then we split the system in the house. So now the upper floor was controlled by a air handler and in the attic, and the lower floors were handling on its own separate system. We also in order to make the basement legal and habitable, we put a second means of egress by adding an exit stairs out into the side yard.
Kirk Mitchell 18:39
So we did that. We did a couple of egress windows and new bedroom. And we added besides a large open space, we added a second kitchen, which is for all intents and purposes, it's a bar but it's really a second kitchen. We did an exercise room and billiards area, and as huge TV and a full bathroom. So that came out. Or we also added a brand new Astaire open risers there because the stair that was there, we kind of separated the basement into two pieces. And we wanted to feel like it was one hole space. So we got to open risers there. So you kind of see right through it.
Atif Qadir 19:18
So it sounds like the three key areas that it focused on was modernizing and upgrading all of the finishes. That's kind of the first level. The second thing being the the mechanical systems that supported everything that you wanted to do in the new layouts, and the new look and feel and then like the more fundamental structural one is the circulation. So that sounds like the right way of breaking it down.
Kirk Mitchell 19:40
Absolutely. Absolutely. And then upstairs you know, to your point we opened up the living and kitchen areas created a large island because now most of the learning is done in the kitchen space when you have guests come over. So we opened up the living room spaces as well. We did a killer master bathroom. So my client is a bachelor and he He said he plans on being a bachelor for a good amount of time. So it was one of the reasons that he wanted to Mankey. But the other reason was to have a really great master bathroom so you can impress the ladies. So we did a really cool walking standing shower. It's like a human carwash. It has a steam shower, it has about, I want to say six to nine sprays, overhead. I mean, it's amazing. And then we have a large Whirlpool, a private toilet. And then my clients a little fancy, who went and bought this modern Japanese toilet that had its own remote,
Atif Qadir 20:37
plays music and has lights,
Kirk Mitchell 20:39
yeah, lights and the seats warm. And thanks to you when you leave. So we did that we finished all the closets to do master walk in closets. And we did all the bathrooms in the house over so we modernized the entire hall. One of the things that he came to me and this is not a lot of architects have experience also in the value proposition, doing renovations home. And one of the things he came to me and said, Listen, I bought this home for such and such price, it's a ranch, everybody else on the block would knock these kind of homes down and build a 2 million 3 million $4 million mansion. He said I don't want to over capitalize, I want to keep the budget. And that way, when I'm out of this after the renovation, I'm not at a point where I feel like I should have just ripped us down and built from scratch. So we were able to find that happy medium to modernize the entire household without making him regretted not knocking it down and building something.
Atif Qadir 21:40
So that given that there were a lot of steps in this process, architecturally and it sounds like there was a lot of decision making in terms of finishes. Talk to us about the design process. So from the initial description and the the ski lodge aesthetic that that he described to the final design that you presented, like what is the step by step in that process?
Kirk Mitchell 22:02
Okay, so after what we call schematic design is when we're working with the floorplan layout, because you gotta you have to make sure that you have a floor plan that's conducive to how the house is going to function, how you're going to live in the house. So once the floor plan was approved, then we started working on interior designs and boots. So what we do is either we'll do physical interior moodboard. But what we'd like to do even better than that is work off of Pinterest. Pinterest is a program that allows anybody to open up pages and pin images, and then post comments to those images. So for instance, a lot of our clients or private clients, it's hard for them to explain exactly what they like.
Kirk Mitchell 22:44
But it's very easy for them to find pictures of what they like. Or if they go traveling or to villas or hotels, they can take pictures, and they can post them on this. And in that way, it creates a dialogue between us and the clients to say, Okay, send us pictures of your dream bathroom, your dream kitchen, know, what are these spaces look like? What are the finishes that will be drawn in your eye? What are the colors? Now there's so much that can be said. And so the words will share an image with somebody. So we set up a board for these different areas of the house. And we have them pin images that they like. And we start pinning images back and saying this is what we see. So we're trying to marry declines desires, we're trying to marry their budget. And we're also trying to marry the design trends of time, right, because we want to make sure that whatever we do that we're adding value to the property and not taking away property.
Kirk Mitchell 23:41
So after a collaboration of a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks going back and forth the images and posts or comments, we really can narrow in on a client's desired and then once we started showing them how we can modernize the look and still try to emulate the ski chalet. It was sold to the pictures. But then what we did was we do Interior renderings. That way, if we do 3d photorealistic renderings to show our clients what those spaces look like, before they spend $1 on buying any finishes. That way they can be completely satisfied prior to starting construction. That's kind of the process of how we get the look, the feel, the desire design, and how we communicate our ideas and vice versa. And then once we have kind of a signed off interior design, then we break up all those finishes into what we call a finished schedule. And we do a package of a finished schedule that essentially itemizes every finished product in a project.
Kirk Mitchell 24:42
So that range is anywhere from appliances and plumbing fixtures, lighting fixtures, flooring, paint, wall coverings, tiles, everything that you can think of that if you were to take a building and shake it if it wouldn't fall out. And the reason I say that is because we don't concentrate on soft finishes We have a designer that does that. But in house, we do hard finishes. So the thing that's actually fixed to the hole. And then once we have this finished schedule package along with the renderings, that goes with the construction drawings to a contractor to bid, this way, the client knows exactly how much they're worth co owner supplied items will cost prior to it being bid. Sometimes if you don't have a tool like that, a contractor can bid prices or give you allowances and it's not very accurate.
Kirk Mitchell 25:29
This also now gives the contractor they know exactly from the rendering what the finished product should look like. They know when and how to order everything to their finish schedule, because it's given to them early enough where if their items at long lead times they can go ahead and order sooner than later. And then it's just a great tool to minimize costly mistakes, which you know, and construction could add up to be a lot.
Atif Qadir 25:52
So it sounds like the tools that you have at your disposal as design process. It's the moodboards, which can be virtual or like a print version. Then there's renderings, there's construction drawings, and then there is finishes Lister finishes schedule. What do you say? Like I mean, when I think this past year number of friends that are renovating their townhouses in New York, or they moved to the suburbs and bought new houses, and I'll pretty frequently get text messages of like, should I choose this one? Or this one? Or do you like pizza?
Atif Qadir 26:22
So amongst like the limitless options that you have at your disposal as a design professional, for example, for the tile for the master bathroom that you were talking about? What process do you go through in order to take this limitless set of options to be something that is sensible for you to be looking at, and then sensible for the client to make a decision about how does that work.
Kirk Mitchell 26:42
So with the back and forth, and Pinterest and other shareable images, we kind of get the idea of the design is going to be so that, that way, we start to present different options. And we'll present maybe three or four options, let's just say have a master bathroom tile, but it won't just be the tile by itself, present the tile along with the other finishes, so they can see how it's incorporated into that look. Now we have a lot of vendors that we've worked with in the past, that we know their price points, we know that things will be readily available. So that way, it's easy for us. And we actually have some really good reps at for instance, we use a towel shop called the title stop, literally, literally in a very popular northern New Jersey and I believe in New York, and we have a rep that I can just send them images and send them quantities and say, Listen, I need something that looks like this within this price point.
Kirk Mitchell 27:35
And I need it by then. And they'll let me know if they can do it or not. And we have about four or five reps do different companies that do the same thing. Now if it's something that's very special, when a client comes to us and says, Listen, I want this, I don't know this bare skin covered law title, that it's something we may have to search for and or if it's out of budget, or if we can't find it, it's not going to work with our timeline, we try our best to find something as comparable as possible.
Atif Qadir 28:01
It sounds like there, your ability to produce a really accurate, really beautiful, effective finished schedule has a lot to do with the relationships that you've developed with all of these vendors for all these different products. Does that sound right?
Kirk Mitchell 28:14
Absolutely, that in our interior designers are wonderful. Our head interior designer ever could Gibson she, I can show her something, a blank, white subway tile, and she can pretty much tell me where to get it and how much it costs.
Atif Qadir 28:28
I think that that's definitely definitely an art. For me, I've used Garden State tile, for tile for many projects. And I find that that relationship helps a lot because they can kind of fill in the gaps between our own knowledge as architects. Cool.
Atif Qadir 28:41
And then I'm just gonna take a break here to let our listeners know about some great news. So architect, Sean Chakravarthy, will be one of our guests in season two. Sean is the founder of design firm a practice for architecture and urbanism. And he's also the dean of Architecture at UC Berkeley. And he was actually one of my professors when I was at graduate school at Columbia. So subscribe to The American building podcast now. So you don't miss any of our amazing season two guests.
Atif Qadir 29:08
So the pandemic has changed a lot of the normal processes of residential design. And what would you say has been the biggest change in terms of the process? And also like the physical layout of the homes that you've been working on?
Kirk Mitchell 29:23
Short thing? Yeah, homes. I mean, because of COVID. You'll notice that people were stuck in their house for almost a year. And then they had to live with their families for a year nine to five. And that included the kids running out of their home offices or people trying to work on the dining room tables, trying to do their work while they're trying to actually help their children in class. So a lot of people came to us looking to do extensions in their home, they needed more space. They realized they needed more space because there was nowhere for them to work nowhere for them to work out over there for them to get quiet or relax. So we can Got a lot of requests for extensions, we got requests for office spaces, home gyms, finished basements, new master bedrooms, a lot of people.
Kirk Mitchell 30:10
Also because of COVID. Notice the real estate market here has gotten really hot. So it's pretty much a seller's market. And because a lot of people found out that they can get a substantially larger amount for their homes, they wanted to do some renovations to see if they can increase the value of that property and either refinance and pull cash out, or go ahead and sell. And with selling, they'd have to buy something and then they will buy that. So it's almost like a cluster of our perfect storm. That kind of changed the way people are looking at their homes or designing a lot of outdoor spaces. We've done like covered patios, and outdoor kitchens and pools, pools now can increase the value of your home from 100 to $200,000. It's amazing. We've done houses than a lot of these amenities spaces, were typically somebody that was working from, I don't know, eight o'clock in the morning to 6pm out in the city or out of the office, they didn't have time to really enjoy their home.
Kirk Mitchell 31:14
And because of COVID Even if you had to go back to work now you realize that it's more than life than just making money and staying in an office, though, it's about enjoying the time enjoying the money that you made and enjoying with Windsor to LA. So now we've kind of taken that theme and brought it into the design spaces a little bit more intimate. And then you have these hideaway spaces kids rooms, kids playroom, private gyms, people, a lot of people that were scared to go to the gym, myself included, I had to set up a private gym in my house, while other people converted some of their their garages, man caves or gyms. So we are seeing a lot of that. And we're seeing a lot of bounce back now to where for instance, people were scared to spend money for a little bit in home. But now, it's almost like it gave a lot of people a year to save their money.
Atif Qadir 32:05
So given the fact that seems like all of America is renovating their homes right now, another issue like a consequence of that is material availability and costs due to supply chain disruptions. Could you talk about how that has affected your projects and how you try to mitigate those issues?
Kirk Mitchell 32:23
Yes. So we've been very fortunate in that the time that materials, specifically lumber, I think that increased like 300%. At the time that that happened, our projects were either coming to completion, or they were in a lot of the bigger projects, we were in phases of approval with the building department. And because COVID slowed everything down, it also slowed down approvals. So we got lucky enough that all the projects that had major framing were either already trained, or hasn't haven't started yet. So some of the items that we had finished items, or the flooring, cabinets, some mechanical equipment, it was on backorder. So some of the projects got delayed, but other projects hold indefinitely.
Kirk Mitchell 33:06
So we had a few development projects, we do a lot of large scale mixed use development now anywhere between 20 and 120 units. And some of those projects because they couldn't get pilot programs or tax abatement programs to the city, because COVID kind of shut down the cities. And they were worried about the skyrocketing price and materials those project got put on hold, or they were finding difficulties getting them financed. So luckily, things are starting to go back to normal. But I know some of the underwriters for banks that are seriously looking at these projects differently because of construction costs and labor costs. Because somebody's thought, especially in this particular region, America, so many people are building and so many people are working, that it's hard to find somebody, it's nearly impossible to find a way to do a small job in a larger jobs, you're getting a tax you're getting if you want it now you gotta pay extra because we've got a whole bunch of people waiting. And this is included for us. I mean, we don't put a tax on our work. But we're getting close to our bandwidth. And we're trying to scale up our business because we have such a demand. We have been blessed to have a lot of contracts and deadlines coming soon. So
Atif Qadir 34:20
yeah, I think that's something that you're correct in saying that it's something that design professionals as well as contractors happens. There's a lot of demand this project over the past couple of years, or the past few years specifically. One thing that has that is tied to that is this unprecedented flow of people and money from core urban areas like Midtown Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights, to ring areas like Jersey City like Hoboken, the North for the South for Hudson Valley, and Western Connecticut. I think we have friends that have all gone off to these places.
Atif Qadir 34:56
What do you see in terms of your pipeline? Do you see that being reflected where now you're doing projects all across this tri state? Or are you seeing people staying put where they are and doing a lot of that renovation work in place in the house that they're in already,
Kirk Mitchell 35:12
we do a probably a mix of both. Again, we're very lucky to be located where we are being in the northern New Jersey, New York metropolitan area, you get the best of both worlds. One, you got New York City. And then right outside of New York City, you have the suburbs. And they're vastly different, especially when it comes to property values. If I were to look for, let's just say, a 2000 square foot home, in Manhattan, I can easily be paying $2 million for $2 million in the suburbs of New Jersey, literally 10 to 15 minutes away, you could probably have about a seven to 8000 square foot, newly built home with everything that you can possibly think of plus an acre of land. So we've gotten lucky in that the people that left New York to go into the suburbs, we got them as clients, the people that thought they wanted to go to the suburbs, or they moved up, and they bought a larger home for more space within the city, we got them as well. Many architects in this area don't work both in New Jersey and New York, because they're two different animals. When it comes to approvals when it comes to construction process.
Kirk Mitchell 36:21
We've been very fortunate that we have both markets, because we have a lot of experience in both. So we do have our large share of clients that left Manhattan, they went to Brooklyn and went to Queens, they came over here to Bergen County, Hudson County, to say Essex County. So we got those clients. But we also got the clients oddly enough that they felt as though their mansions in the suburbs, it was too much. It was too much to take care of. And the amount of money that they were spending or time they were spending. It could just be like hiring a landscaper coming twice a week spending $1,000 a week on an acre of land, but they want to move back into the city be closer to their family. And they spent money on brownstones. So we've oddly enough seen both the mass exodus out of New York City, and then a small Exodus back into the city.
Atif Qadir 37:15
Okay, and I guess that creates opportunities for design, renovation of all of those, those properties that are being picked up again back in the city. So during this time, you've also pivoted towards multifamily and commercial projects, including several in in Newark and New Jersey. Could you talk about some of those projects?
Kirk Mitchell 37:33
Sure thing. We have a few of them one right now under construction is famous down Pepys restaurant, and Newark, New Jersey right off on route 21. This is from one of my attorneys that works with our site plan applications, and use attorneys named Chris Murphy, some good projects for us. And Pepe, the owner of Don Pepe is older gentleman, great businessman. He's been in business in Newark for over 40 years, knows exactly what he wants and how he wants it. And he needed a he was hurting because he has a restaurant just like most restaurant businesses during COVID. and New Jersey came up with a call that said that if you had a space that had 50% or more open space, and you allowed your standard maximum capacity, and you wouldn't be limited to the COVID.
Kirk Mitchell 38:22
So he wanted to do an extension we did about a 2000 square foot extension one storey extension of his restaurant that is 50% open to the outside elements. And meaning we what we did was we use that a wall folding door glass systems so that during operational hours of the business, almost the entire walls can be opened up. And then once it's closed, it can be closed for security. But it's a really cool space that should be opening in about a month, or they move very quickly. And we have other projects, large scale projects. One is on Halsey Street. 29 Halsey Street, and that's a 40 unit residential, multifamily building four storeys residential over one storey parking and commercial.
Kirk Mitchell 39:08
That's really cool space because Halsey is right downtown, not too many blocks away from Whole Foods where the work is changing every day very drastically. We got an opportunity to do a really nice building design there. And that one is in the building department now being viewed for construction drawings permits, so that we can start hopefully breaking ground and next month or two.
Atif Qadir 39:31
So it sounds like with all of these projects from Newark to Manhattan, small projects, big projects, you're incredibly busy. So what from your experience is an important part of being able to be really efficient with your team and production like collaboration, what would you say are the most important things of managing a team to be able to do all of this stuff?
Kirk Mitchell 39:51
Absolutely. First is the right team right the right team members you have to have the right people in position to you want to delegate sir and things that people are good at and people enjoy. Right. One of the things I learned early is that if you're pigeon holed in doing something that you hate, you're not going to be very good at it just like we spoke towards in the beginning. So when you find somebody that has a passion in something like I design, and you want to emerge them in design, and they will come out successful. So we have the right team members, the right consultants, the right staff, to be able to handle these projects, but also to create a template. So we have a template for our New York projects, that template for our New Jersey projects. And we try to stick to that template, as best possible to streamline the design and the production process.
Kirk Mitchell 40:38
One of the great things that I learned at demarked shadows with this type of scale building, which is what we used to work on the mid to high rise, multifamily building mixed use buildings is that you want a very comprehensive, good looking set of drawings. If you're if nobody can read your drawings, and they're pointless, right? If you can't find something, if it's too cluttered, if you have so many dimensions that you can't read any notes on your drawings, then you're gonna get a lot of questions, you're gonna get a lot of change orders, change orders, means a lot of money, a lot of money. So by creating these templates, trying to have as the most comprehensive, attractive set of drawings that we can, it helps kind of fill in the void that those gaps. So right team members having a good template in order to streamline the production process. And then knowing your clients wants.
Kirk Mitchell 41:31
One of the big things is make sure that not let our design egos get in the way of our clients pockets or our clients vision. Just like the initial client with the chalet ski chalet. We could have said no, no way. No, we're not doing anything like that. It's not a no, no, we wouldn't do anything when I can put our name on a ski chalet. But we want to let you know when to manage your expectations that you may not love this at the end result, but we think we can find a happy medium. So it's important, especially for the developers, if they need a certain amount of units to make a project feasible. And we have to make sure that we get the most amount of units and then if we can try to find other creative ways of regaining that lost value.
Atif Qadir 42:12
Excellent. And if our listeners want to get in touch with you, what's the best way for them to do that?
Kirk Mitchell 42:17
I can be emailed directly my email is Kirk KRK at a que te dash designs with an s.com you could check out our website, www AK T desk designs.com. Or you can reach out to us here if that's your thing. Give me a
Atif Qadir 42:34
happy to do that as well. So, Kurt, thank you so much for joining us today on the American building podcast. If you want to hear the behind the scenes stories of how iconic buildings in our country were designed and built. Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google, or wherever it is that you'd like to listen. We all know that real estate is a tough industry to make it so how can professionals stand out and make a name for themselves in today's world? Hear from me, the team and Michael Graves and many of our spectacular guests like Kirk, on what we did to make it where we are grab our exclusive guide seven tips on how to stand out in your field at American building. podcast.com. Finally, we live in the richest country in the history of humankind. We must reach beyond the boundaries that we see and the boundaries that we create in order to help build homes and communities. Today Kirk and I have made donations to future Ford for Haiti, an organization that packs food for underprivileged children in Haiti. I encourage you our listeners to support their worthwhile work as well. My name is optive other and this has been American building by Michael Graves.