About Us

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Workshop for High Performance Architecture PLLC or WHiP Architecture, is committed to excellence in the design and development of all our building projects. As such, we employ an integrated approach that achieves the highest quality of aesthetics in meeting the requirements of the building’s owners and users, while at the same time delivering a building that is cost effective to maintain throughout its useful life and is a lasting architectural legacy that will last for many decades.

This design philosophy allows our firm to provide for requisite and adequate facilities in an architectural style and form which is distinguished and which will reflect the dignity, enterprise, vigor and stability of our clients. Our designs embody the finest contemporary architectural thought. Specific attention is paid to the possibilities of incorporating qualities which reflect the regional architectural traditions of that part of the country in which the buildings is located. WHiP Architecture adheres to sound construction practice and utilizes materials, methods and equipment of proven dependability. 

Conventional building design usually involves a series of hand-offs from owner to architect to builder to occupant. This path does not invite all affected parties into the planning process, and therefore does not take into account their needs, areas of expertise or insights. In some cases, using the conventional method, incompatible elements of the design are not discovered until late in the process when it is expensive to make changes.

To create a successful high-performance building, an interactive approach to the design process is required. It means all the stakeholders—everyone involved in the planning, design, use, construction, operation, and maintenance of the facility—must fully understand the issues and concerns of all the other parties and interact closely throughout all phases of the project. WHiP Architecture fully embraces and employs Integrated Design Approachand Integrated Team Process methodologies of design and building which assures the most responsive, accurate and cost effective project delivery outcomes.

There is a growing sector in the field of architecture known as Public Interest Design documented in exhibits such as MoMA’s Small Scale, Big Change and publications like Design Like You Give Damn. The projects in this sector are unlike traditional practice in critical ways and are an area of great potential for the future of the profession.

In January 2015, WHiP Architecture's Principal & Owner, Patrick Williams, attended Public Interest Design Institute® training in Washington, DC, which was sponsored by the SEED Network. The learning objectives included:

• Finding new clients and public interest design projects
  
• Learning about new fee sources and structures
  
• Using a step-by-step process of working with a community as a design partner
  
• Leveraging other partners and assets to address project challenges
  
• Maximizing a project’s positive impact on a community
  
• Moving beyond LEED to measure the social, economic, and environmental impact on communities
  
• Understanding public interest design and how is it re-shaping the design professions
  

This training is provided to architecture and other design professionals in public interest design with in-depth study over two days on methods of how design can address the critical issues faced by communities. Training in public interest design is a way of enhancing an existing design practice and learning skills to become pro-actively engaged in community-based design through fee-based projects.