by Deborah Snoonian, P.E.

Portrait Courtesy Richard Epstein

Richard Epstein, AIA, has had his own firm in Boulder, Colorado, Richard Epstein Architects since 1992. He has designed a variety of commercial, residential, and mixed-use projects; public art and sustainability have been the mainstays of his practice. For more than 20 years he has collaborated with the renowned artist Michael Singer, whom he met as an architecture student at MIT. Together they designed the Phoenix Recycling Center as well as numerous projects at the Denver International Airport.

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD: What kinds of digital tools are integral to your firm’s practice?

RICHARD EPSTEIN: We’re a PC office, and for design we use primarily AutoCAD and Form-Z. We do a lot of Form-Z modeling of every project—we often begin with that, and then we use AutoCAD to generate production drawings.

AR: Have you explored other 3D design programs?

RE: We’ve explored to some degree the idea of parametric modeling, using some of the software packages that are available right now. But at this point, I’ve determined that between the amount of computer horsepower needed to keep a model updated and the time it takes, especially with multiple people working on a project, it’s not as efficient as allowing different people to work on portions of a project at the same time. The models ended up getting in the way, we found. I can imagine that on a very complex building it might be the only way you can get fast results, but I’m still unconvinced of the value of parametric modeling.

Epstein’s Prospects Lofts mixed-use development (above and below) has been modeled extensively in 3D as he and his partners seek funding to build it. Photography and images: © Brian Dale

AR: What are your major hardware needs?

RE: We don’t buy computers premade from Dell or Gateway or any of those companies. We always need better graphics cards and other features like that, and we find the machines are much more affordable and functional if we piece them together ourselves. We have a part-time guy, Ferdinand Schmidt, who’s an IT manager for Architectural Energy Corporation, a large firm nearby. He builds the computers for us and provides technical support for them, as well as our printers and other hardware.

Using models created in Form-Z (above), Epstein showed clearly how the firm would transform a tilt-up concrete industrial building into office space with a new facade, more windows, and a glass corner.

AR: How has technology affected the way you practice architecture?

RE: Technology has become a great equalizer. Even though we’re a small firm—just four people—we’re able to compete with larger firms and be efficient in our practice because of the level of technological proficiency we’ve achieved. I think the quality of our modeling work is as good as most firms in our area, if not better. So we can offer those benefits to our clients, as well as the advantages of working with a smaller firm.

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We’ve seen more and more benefits in doing 3D modeling in the early stages of a project to explore design options like material and color with our clients. In some cases this work has helped us convince clients of the value of our ideas in a way that wouldn’t have been possible before. For instance, the renderings for a project that’s under construction right now, a renovation of an existing building [see images below], sold the developer on a more radical design concept than he’d originally been comfortable with.

We use the Internet extensively to search product catalogs. Looking up specific manufacturers and products online saves us a lot of time. Many companies also provide dimension information for their products on their Web sites, along with CAD details you can download.

I’m also acting as a developer for a mixed-use project in Longmont, Colorado, and being able to use the Internet to research material costs has been crucial to doing this in conjunction with my practice.