Laquilan Press
The Architecture of Practice Series

Current Titles

Three books. Three disciplines. One series built for the professionals who lead, grow, and differentiate the firms that define their industries.

Technology & DesignSoon
LeadershipBrand StrategyBusiness Strategy
Building Beyond
Coming Soon
Technology & Design

Building Beyond

Human Experience and the Future of the Built Environment

The buildings are going to keep getting smarter. That much is settled. The interesting question — the one this book exists to ask — is whether they will get better, for the people who have to live and work and heal and learn inside them.

For four decades, the conversation about technology in the built environment has been a conversation about systems: the displays, the networks, the sensors, the platforms sold under the word "smart." Building Beyond argues this is the wrong conversation. An environment is more than the sum of its systems, and what it exists to produce is not comfort, efficiency, or even functionality — it is human experience. The technology is the means; the experience is the end. Craig Park distills more than forty-five years at the intersection of architecture and technology into a way of thinking durable enough to outlast the specific technology of any given year — and a discipline for acting on it.

Contents

01The Wrong Question
02Human Experience as Infrastructure
03Designing for Change
04The Five Layers
05The Operational Maturity Model
06Stakeholders, Governance, and Ethics
07The Adaptive Workplace
08The Clinical Environment
09The Classroom and the Civic Commons
10Artificial Intelligence as the Coordinating Layer
11Designing for Futures No One Can Foresee
12A Practical Roadmap for Monday Morning
By Craig Park
The Architecture of Vision

The Architecture of Vision

Leadership in Your Professional Practice

ISBN:978-0-989338-21-9
Pages:394
Published:2023
Leadership

The Architecture of Vision

Leadership in Your Professional Practice

Park and Shuck — SMPS Fellows and Weld Coxe Marketing Achievement Award recipients — share their insights into the nature of leadership and leadership development, providing a framework based on three pillars: Inspiration, Innovation, and Integrity. Aimed at the needs of the firm and aspiring leaders, they share real-world, contemporary examples of how to become more aware, accepting, and actionable on a path to becoming a visionary leader in a professional service firm.

The idea behind The Architecture of Vision came from a belief that individuals and organizations can enhance leadership by focusing on three essential pillars — Inspiration, Innovation, and Integrity. With an understanding and development of fundamental traits related to each pillar — through a practice of awareness, acceptance, and action — each of us can become visionary leaders. This leadership development process benefits the individual, their firm, their clients, and their communities. The book provides a framework, methodology, and assessment tools to give your firm the edge while building a collaborative, creative, and consensus-driven growth-focused leadership culture. Aspiring and emerging leaders will find new insights, direction, and actionable steps to take their careers to the next level. Including input and observations from 25 A/E/C industry leaders, the authors have also included personal assessment tools to aid readers on their own personal leadership development path.

Contents

01The Three Pillars: Inspiration, Innovation, and Integrity
02Awareness: Understanding the Leadership Persona
03Acceptance: Embracing Your Leadership Path
04Action: Becoming a Visionary Leader
05The Eighteen Leadership Characteristics
06Insights from 25 A/E/C Industry Leaders
07Personal Leadership Assessment Tools

About the Author

Craig Park & Barbara Shuck

SMPS Fellows, Weld Coxe Marketing Achievement Award Recipients

Craig Park, FSMPS, Assoc. AIA has been active in the building industry for more than 40 years, holding strategic marketing leadership roles for firms in design, engineering consulting, contracting, and manufacturing. A Fellow and past national president of SMPS, he is the recipient of the Weld Coxe Marketing Achievement Award and the William B. Hankinson Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Barbara Shuck, FSMPS, CPSM, is a veteran A/E/C strategist, writer, thought leader, innovator, trainer, and mentor with more than 35 years of proven expertise. A Fellow and past national president of SMPS, she is also a recipient of the Weld Coxe Marketing Achievement Award.

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The Architecture of Image

The Architecture of Image

Branding Your Professional Practice

ISBN:978-0-989338-20-2
Pages:254
Published:2013
Brand Strategy

The Architecture of Image

Branding Your Professional Practice

The brand of the professional service firm is one of the most misunderstood and often under-utilized tools used to build market share and increase business. In The Architecture of Image, Craig Park, SMPS Fellow and award-winning author, explores how culture, collaboration, and communication create, develop, and sustain an enduring brand — providing your firm with the understanding and tools to establish your brand in the professional service marketplace.

Your brand is critical to establishing and sustaining your firm's image in the market, and critical to the creation of a successful and enduring professional practice. Sharing insights, best practices, and examples from some of the leading brands in the AEC industry, this book dispels the myths of what branding isn't and provides a laser focus on what many have found to be an elusive and mysterious concept for professional service firms. Drawn from real-world experiences spanning more than 30 years in the building industry, the examples provided, advice cited, and recommendations made can make an immediate and lasting difference for any firm seeking to define, develop, and enhance its brand.

Contents

01The Brand of the Professional Service Firm
02Culture as the Foundation of Brand
03Collaboration and the Brand Experience
04Communication: Telling Your Brand Story
05Developing and Sustaining an Enduring Brand
06Brand Strategy in the AEC Marketplace
07Building Market Share Through Brand

About the Author

Craig Park, FSMPS

Founder, Laquilan Press

Craig Park, FSMPS, Assoc. AIA has been active in the building industry for more than 40 years, holding strategic marketing leadership roles for firms in design and engineering consulting, contracting, and manufacturing. A Fellow and past national president of SMPS, he is the recipient of the Weld Coxe Marketing Achievement Award and the William B. Hankinson Award for Lifetime Achievement.

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The Architecture of Value

The Architecture of Value

Building Your Professional Practice

ISBN:978-0-615513-34-8
Pages:276
Published:2011
Business Strategy

The Architecture of Value

Building Your Professional Practice

In The Architecture of Value, Craig Park updates his 2002 publication Design. Market. Grow! with an expanded collection of observations and lessons learned drawn from more than 40 years in the building industry. Framed as practical direction for aspiring leaders, he shares real-world examples of how to build a professional service firm through a combination of leadership, collaboration, and value — the basis for creating an enduring professional service practice.

EXPERTISE creates the opportunity to build a unique professional service practice — one that has differentiated strategies, goals, and mission based on your vision and leadership. EXCELLENCE is the result of applied expertise: the message that your marketers and business developers communicate to both existing and potential clients. EXPERIENCE comes from the right practice of your business — providing collaborative work that your people love to do, and as a result, work that your clients love beyond expectation. Developing a knowledge-based, customer-centric culture should be the goal of every professional service firm. Getting there requires the same discipline for strategic planning, sales and marketing, and practice and process execution that characterize the best-of-class companies throughout the business world.

Contents

01Building a Practice with Vision, Mission, and Principles
02Marketing and Business Development: Communicating and Selling Services
03The Right Practice: Work That People Love to Do
04Leveraging Expertise: The Knowledge-Based Advisory Approach
05Excellence: Differentiating the Best from the Commonplace
06Experience: Drawing Staff and Clients Back for More
07Brand Identity, Image, and Connection
08Leadership, Value, and the Foundation of Practice

About the Author

Craig Park, FSMPS

Founder, Laquilan Press

Craig Park has advised professional services firms for over forty years, working with architecture, engineering, construction, legal, financial, and technology advisory businesses across North America. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a contributing editor to several professional publications.

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