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Steve Oliver (President, BLDD Architects):
BLDD originally was the last four names of the partners at that time. Since then we've been incorporated. Now we also have the motto "Because life deserves designed". So we've sort of attached that to the BLDD.
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Steve:
We are a ninety year old architecture firm that actually started here in Decatur, Illinois, back in 1929 and we focus on architecture. We have a staff of over 65 professionals. They're scattered over three offices here in Decatur, Chicago, and Davenport.
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Steve Oliver sitting in his office with a plethora of paint sample chips attached to the wall behind him. On the table in front of him is a variety of hand-drawn building sketches |
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Steve:
The mission of BLDD Architects is to positively affect everything that we come in contact with, whether it be the people, our clients, um our staff or the projects that we design. We really want to have a positive influence on everything we come in contact with.
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John Whitlock (Principal, BLDD Architects):
Everything we do usually centers around imagery of some kind, and a lot more of that sketching is occurring on the computer, where printouts then become extremely important.
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John:
The technology around printing that allows us to show them colored images very quickly, very fast. It's very valuable to what we do.
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Steve:
It's very important who we partner with at all levels. Technology is a huge part of what we do, so we really want the best technology. We've sort of been front runners in a lot of ways, in technology, and implementing that. But that has really allowed us to innovate and really be different from our competitors.
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Man walks up to a Sharp printer and makes copies of a document. |
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Dan Reynolds (Director of IT, BLDD Architects):
Printer technology is important at BLDD because we're a very visual company, so you have to have documents to, you know, show people what you produce and what you can do. You have to have good printed output, you just have to.
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BLDD Employee prints a floor plan on a Sharp printer. |
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Steve:
We rely on printing very much internally for check sets and review drawings, and so we use them a tremendous amount. And so we need to have very reliable printers in all of our offices so that we can do the work that we need to do internally.
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John:
Our printers being used pretty much 24/7 it's the backbone of what we do.
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Dan:
I like the fact that I now have the same printer for eveybody. I've not ever been able to do that. I've always had to have a different printer for marketing and a different printer for accounting and a different printer for the architects.
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Multiple BLDD employees using same type of Sharp printer in different areas of the office building. |
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John:
Those images are definitely used on site, not only for us to confirm what's getting built, meets expectations of our design, but it's being used by eveyone on site. From today we saw HVAC contractors, the heating and ventilation contractors using printouts um so they could put the duct work together. So there is a lot of printing that goes on with everybody involved within an archtectural project.
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Sketch of a building interior design fades out into live image of building interior. Different contractors walking around and inspecting the building. |
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Dan:
Architects are very hard to please, but I think the quality and the color correctness of the Sharp printers has helped win them over.
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Steve:
Finding a partner that is passionate, fun to work with as well as technically competent, is very important to us. So we look at that with our clients. We look at that with our staff and our partners as well.
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Sharp logo fades in. |