Eugene Colberg: Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As An Architect
An Interview With Jason Hartman
Architecture is incredibly exciting, rewarding and challenging. The key qualities an architect must have to succeed are confidence, optimism and pragmatism.
As a part of my series about the ‘Five Things You Need To Know To Create A Highly Successful Career As An Architect’, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eugene Colberg.
Eugene Colberg is a Brooklyn-based architect with over 25 years of experience producing award-winning architecture and interiors in the United States and internationally. As Principal of Colberg Architecture, he has designed imaginative and environmentally sensitive projects across the residential, workplace, retail, educational, healthcare, institutional, museum, and urban planning sectors. Having earned his BArch from Cornell University, Eugene is a Registered Architect in the State of New York, a Green Associate of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Colberg Architecture is a Certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) with the City and State of New York and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this particular career path?
My career path has been about making things better. I come from a long tradition of makers and tinkerers. For example, my grandfather was a train mechanic. From a young age, beyond playing with LEGO blocks and drawing, I knew I had a strong design sensitivity for creating things and the capacity to improve them. Architecture seemed like the right fit because I could apply my skills and instinct for design. I was lucky enough to be at the top of my class in high school and got accepted into a top architecture program at Cornell University. I went on to work at some of the New York’s foremost architecture firms before launching Colberg Architecture in 2016.
Today, I’m proud to have worked across the residential, workplace, retail, educational, healthcare, institutional, museum, and urban planning sectors. From this wealth of experience, our firm is ideally suited to solve problems and meet the needs of each and every client. The role of an architect has evolved to be an experienced advisor and a problem solver for the client across a variety of sectors.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
First, good design makes people’s lives better across the communities in which we live and work. I love the quote, “When design works well, it become invisible.” This means while we may not notice great spaces, we definitely notice inadequately designed spaces. Similarly, when technology works at its best, it becomes invisible; and at its worst, is maddening.
In our day-to-day interactions with architecture, we as a society don’t want to be aware of each aspect of it — we simply want to use it comfortably without thinking about it.
Our studio seeks to create that “invisible” built environment. The more invisible that interaction is between people and spaces, the better I’ve done my job. Without this seamless design, people feel annoyed or pained. For example, if an office space is uncomfortable, productivity suffers. if a person lives in multi-level house, and their laundry hamper is on a different level than their laundry machine, they will feel that pain every time they do laundry. Offering sophisticated, yet simple and pragmatic design solutions is key for us. We always want to think of the end user and their needs.
We like to make our clients happy. The way we do that is by giving them a solution that is design-forward, sustainable and often unconventional in order to meet their project goals.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Our projects speak for themselves. We have been lucky to work with large developers as well as leading companies and brands. As an independent business, we are flexible to our clients’ evolving needs. Most architects try to be solutions-driven, tailoring the solution to the problem in order to check a box, and move on to the next problem. While we believe in solving problems, we take a thoughtful approach by creating forms and spaces and looking at it from a high-level point of view, beyond just the problem presented to us. Because we don’t have a rigid structure, we can be more creative than other firms that have a lot of administrative layers. We believe in being malleable and engaged, and entrenched in our clients’ activities. As a result, we become an extension of their team.
One of my mentors once said, “You will always want to be the number-one person at the table.” This means that you are the trusted advisor working alongside your client to shape the project and the team from the inception. You become their top advisor — and as a result, they significantly benefit from your experience and insights.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
First, my family has been incredibly supportive and helpful in my career. I have been lucky to have incredible mentors as well — professors, old bosses and other high-level executives in the industry — who have each taught me different things at different stages that completely ring true and frame the work that I’m doing today. Jonathan Marvel and Rob Rogers (Rogers Marvel Architects) taught me the ins and outs of leading a thoughtful generalist practice. Art Gensler and Walter Hunt (Gensler) showed me how to apply that knowledge and specifically apply it as an expert to different practice areas. Kevin McClurkan (Ennead) help me to hone my managing skills and instilled the empathy required to be successful.
The best mentors push you but give you great support. I’ve been lucky enough to not have too much supervision, so was able to flourish on my own over the course of over two decades.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
A successful architect needs confidence, a healthy degree of optimism, and pragmatism — working in a sensible, realistic way. Having an honest and ethical character is important for any career, but especially in the world of design where structures impact the daily experience, safety of people and quality of life. At the end of the day, the client is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in development of your design. You need the confidence to say, “this is what you want to do and why.” You have to have the right combination of intuition and experience in order to know the right approach and share the best recommendations for their particular challenge.
I always try to remember that we are in a service industry. We are here to solve problems for clients, helping them create the best possible outcome that fulfills objectives.
Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. Can you share 3 things that most excite you about architecture and the real estate industry in general? If you can please share a story or example.
First, the thing that makes me most excited about architecture is to contribute to the fabric of a city and be able to shape somebody’s life with design. Whether it’s a public park that a family enjoys going to, an apartment building a person will call home, or a school that that the next generation of leaders are attending, design has a real material impact. The capacity that architecture has to do that is always a powerful thing.
Second, there is real opportunity in improving and revitalizing cities and communities nowadays as public and private investment has increased. This is especially true with the urgent need for greater public spaces, housing and structures. As architects, we must keep in mind that we don’t self-direct projects, because all projects are dependent on a sponsor and a clear set of goals. For example, without popes, the Renaissance would have probably never happened. Without the federal government’s WPA, we would have not had a generation of architects that made modern architecture commonplace with great works of infrastructure, civic buildings and public spaces. The new generation of architects are realizing they can shape cities and make a difference on the client side.
Third, there is more than one way to contribute to the future of design. Architects, urban planners, real estate professionals and even policy makers are getting involved in projects. As an architect you’re in the trenches and on the front lines making project-specific design decisions. Today, architects are now finding other ways of getting involved and shaping the urban environment through politics. Former architecture classmates have gone to work for cities and municipalities, and are today doing important work shaping zoning and codes for different cities.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest? Please share stories or examples if possible.
The world of architecture has grown and changed significantly over the past decade. There have been positive changes as well as things to consider.
First, architects must be aware that any project is a huge team effort and requires a collaborative approach. You are not going to get a successful project without a visionary client, extremely collaborative engineers, and a builder that understands the process and outcome. Some years ago, I worked on a new hospital project of approximately one million square feet, as part of a 50-person team working on the building envelope and public spaces collaborating in lockstep with another 30-person team in another architect’s office working on the clinical spaces. To say it was complicated was an understatement, but because the teams were so professional and collaborative, we had a highly successful result. In order to do complicated buildings like hospitals or museums, it takes a collaborative environment: the cult of the single creator, or “starchitect”, is not accurate. It’s nice when someone gets recognized, but we must remember it’s always a team effort.
Second, we must focus on the experience of the space rather than getting the perfect picture of social media. Design must consider those who use the space and build for them. Here in New York, for projects like the High Line and Little Island, one of the most popular ways of getting exposure is social media. Catering the design of a space to that one Instagram moment is unfortunate, as high-quality spaces that professionals have labored on for years, which have been crafted specifically as a 3D experience, become a series of episodic photos. Something that’s meant to be experiential or three-dimensional is so much more than a square photo.
Third, we must consider sustainability and the environment. Today, there is an overarching attitude around the disposability of things. We all want to feel that we are building in a “green” manner and utilizing the best earth-friendly materials, but the truth is that we have a long way to go. Because there is still a large amount of waste in almost every project, the construction industry must be more conscious about using the right materials and strategies. We hear about the occasional “net zero” building here and there, but the real estate development and design communities around the world need to adopt a greater consciousness toward sustainability for each and every project. Like everything else, it will take critical mass for positive change to happen.
Ok, here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share with our readers the “Five Things You Need to Know to Create A Highly Successful Career As An Architect?” If you can, please give a story or an example for each?
Architecture is incredibly exciting, rewarding and challenging. The key qualities an architect must have to succeed are confidence, optimism and pragmatism.
When I worked at Gensler, I was lucky and fortunate to work with Art Gensler and his son Doug. I will never forget one of the things he used to say: remember that we are a professional service and our value comes in our advice and experience. This is what we offer. We are here to be a partner and to do an important job, and with that we bring foresight and experience. Being a cheerleader for the work, not taking yourself too seriously, and providing best-in-class design advisory, are cornerstones of success as well. We want to achieve great design, but also safe and sustainable design that benefit society.
Because of your position, you are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Having lived in New York City for 20 years and having experienced countless cities around the country and the world, I’m a big believer in the urban experience. While many cities have invested in design and architecture, for so many urban areas the experience is unpleasant.
The movement I would want to see is better design globally that facilitates working and living successfully with others. This means creating architecture that engages the public. When you’re designing buildings in an urban condition, a public space or streetscape, the more civic consequences we can give to our buildings, the better. In turn, these spaces can deliver an important contribution to the urban condition: more effective spaces conducive to living and working. Remember, the best design is invisible.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Please visit us at www.colbergarchitecture.com, LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/colbergarchitecture and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/colberg_architecture. We would love to hear from you!
Thank you for your time, and your excellent insights! We wish you continued success.
