A2SO4 president, Sanford E. Garner, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP ND, will be featured as keynote speaker for Open/Closed in St. Louis at The Sanctuary – 4449 Red Bud, St. Louis, MO.

A2SO4 co-founder and president, Sanford Garner will speak on his involvement with Fall Creek Place and how he helped lead the public-private partnership project, which covers a 26-block area and includes what were originally 292 developable lots on the north side of Indianapolis, IN. Over a seven-year period, 243 single-family homes and 87 townhomes were built and 46 houses were rehabilitated. About half of the houses sold are considered ‘affordable’ housing and the other half were sold at market rate.

Open/Closed: Exploring Vacant Property in St. Louis is an opportunity for community residents, leaders, artists and activists to strengthen their understanding of the vacant property issue and to develop new ways of seeing, changing and knowing their home. Open/Closed is not a meeting for “movers and shakers”, it is, instead, an opportunity for those who want to shake up the region. A way to unsettle what we accept and assume about our present and future.

For more information please visit:  http://openclosedstl.org/2012/03/17/panels-discussion-and-keynote/.

A2SO4 president, Sanford E. Garner, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP ND, participates in MIBOR Housing Summit Webinar.

A2SO4 co-founder and president, Sanford Garner was featured in MIBOR Housing Summit webinar on November 1^st 2011. The 2011 Summit webinar was an opportunity for people to engage in discussion about what housing experts feel central Indiana’s collective community priorities should be in order to maintain a healthy, vibrant housing market.  The webinar which was led by moderator John Ketzenberger, president of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute, is step one in a process to develop the real estate industry’s view on central Indiana priorities for growth. It also allowed participants to ask questions to a group of panelists including Keira Amstutz, president and CEO of the Indiana Humanities Council; Sanford E. Garner, president and founding partner of A2SO4; and Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research.

A full report will be presented in March 2012 in honor of MIBOR’s centennial celebration. The report will hone in on the real estate community’s recommendations for the region.

To view webinar please visit: http://www.mibor.com/housingsummit//2011/webstream.asp.

A2SO4 president, Sanford E. Garner, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP ND, speaks on upcoming move and restructuring.

A2SO4 co-founder and president, Sanford Garner is featured in the September 21^st, 2011 edition of the Indiana Business Journal and speaks on his company’s restructuring after the buyout of co-founder Vop Osili. He speaks on the direction in which the company is moving, including its upcoming change of location from the historic Union Station to St. Joseph’s Church. Mr. Garner provides a preview inside the church and discusses how he has learned to cope with stress as well as the coincidental significance of moving into a church.

 To read remainder of article please visit: http://www.ibj.com/leading-questions-sanford-garner/PARAMS/article/29644

 “Leading Questions: Wisdom from the Corner Office,” is an ongoing series in which IBJ sits down with central Indiana’s top bosses to talk shop about the latest developments in their industries and the habits that lead to success.”

A2SO4 president, Sanford E. Garner, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP ND, shares view on Mass Transit system in Indianapolis.

There continues to be a lot of talk about whether Central Indiana will support a rapid transit system as so many other metropolitan cities around the country have done for years.

While thousands of people, organizations and businesses have signed petitions showing their support of transit and efforts from the Central Indiana Regional Transit Authority, we remain at a standstill. It was surprising to see a recent Star editorial conclude that Indianapolis lacks enough density to support transit (we are a metro area of about 1.8 million), and that our city was developed with the idea that residents would only drive to-and-fro in automobiles. This simply is not true.

In fact, some of Indianapolis’ most prosperous neighborhoods developed as a result of transit. According to the Polis Center’s study on neighborhoods from the Project on Religion and Culture, Broad Ripple, Irvington, Beech Grove and even Lawrence provide an “interesting study in how transportation can shape and influence community development over time.”

Please follow link below to read rest of article, courtesy of Indianapolis Star Newspaper: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011109110308

A2SO4 president, Sanford E. Garner, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP ND, was one of 11 recipients honored with the 2011 AIA Young Architects Award at the AIA National Convention in New Orleans.

Garner’s is also featured in a book which serves as a compilation of the work and achievements of the American Institute of Architects 2011 Young Architects Award Winners:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/aia-2011-young-architects-award/15439859

Click here to view the embedded video.

A2SO4 president, Sanford E. Garner, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP ND, speaks on the Profitability of being Diverse.

Sanford E. Garner, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP ND, NCARB, is founding partner and president of A2SO4 Architecture, LLC, Indianapolis. Recent projects include work on the Lucas Oil Stadium, parking and terminal facilities at the Indianapolis airport, Sky Tower in Abu Dhabi, and Masdar City. A graduate of Howard University School of Architecture & Design, he has served as president of the Indianapolis AIA component and on the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. Garner recently began a two-year term as president of the National Organization of Minority Architects. In 2007, he was named to the BD+C “40 Under 40” elite list.

Building Design + Construction (BD+C) / June Issue / By Robert Cassidy, Editoral Director

BD+C: How is the market for design services in Indianapolis these days? What’s in demand? How is business holding up?

Sanford E. Garner: We received a nice influx of ARRA money, mostly for transportation projects, but more than likely when that work is done, a lot of contractors are going to be wondering where they’re going to get work. The commercial office market is soft. The single-family housing market seems to be turning positive, and there are still a number of condo projects going to rental—the banks are not as desirous of financing condominiums.

We’re fortunate in being in the third phase of a capital improvement program for our consolidated schools system, so there’s a reasonable amount of work for K-12. Higher education seems to be opening up a bit in RFPs and projects. The area that we’re seeing a lot of work in is anything that is tax-credit related, such as tax-related low-income housing projects, even more so than mixed-income. That’s pretty strong.

BD+C: What’s about other building sectors in Indy?

SEG: We’ve finished the majority of our major public-based projects—a new basketball arena, the football stadium, a new convention center, and a new airport—and I don’t imagine we’ll have anything that large for a while. However, we are working on our county hospital [the new Wishard Hospital, with 315 in-patient and 200 outpatient beds, a 2,400-car parking garage, a 90-bed emergency department, a women’s health clinic, and a central energy plant, currently under construction and seeking LEED Silver certification, financed through a $754 million referendum in 2009]. There’s also a new FBI field office [a $39.8 million project northeast of the city] and some court buildings.

We’re starting to see a few more developer-led projects, in particular the North of South project, where Eli Lilly is working with a developer [Buckingham Companies] to develop housing for their employees [320 rental units]. It will also have a boutique hotel [from Dolce Hotels & Resorts], 40,000 sf of retail and parking, and a full-service Y [a new 75,000-sf facility].

BD+C: Your Fall Creek Place mixed-use housing project won awards from the NAHB, Professional Builder, the Urban Land Institute, and the American Planning Association. What lessons did you learn from it?

SEG: One of the lessons is that we need to address potential problems like gentrification early in the process. In the case of Fall Creek, 51% of the homeowners were 80% below area median income (AMI), with a five-year tax abatement. It was hugely successful—we sold out phase one in about eight months, but the AMI kept increasing, and you’re coming off a tax abatement in year six, just before the market crashed. So, for mixed-income projects like this, you might want to consider looking at a 10- to 15-year period. We tried to do a good job with gentrification going in, but any time you significantly increase the value of surrounding properties it’s going to increase property taxes. Having that kind of discussion early on was hugely important.

Another lesson is that private-sector development expertise is a must-have. We spent a lot of time trying to get the private sector involved. We succeeded in engaging several developers that were relative newcomers to this type of project, which meant having to do a lot of education.

We also learned that the greatest marketing tool is always visual impact. We had six prototype houses and two other projects from developers, all adjacent to historic buildings that were being rehabbed. We had a nice mass of redevelopment going on, and that lent confidence to the project.

The other thing that we did well in this case was maximizing public/private partnerships.  The city leveraged its relationship with the utility companies to supply incentives, and we worked with the banks to provide pre-approved loans for a point or so below prime. Financial incentives like that are absolutely necessary for mixed-income projects.

BD+C: You spoke at your alma mater, Howard University, recently on “the profitability of diversity”? What did you mean by that phrase?

SEG: We are at the point where companies are realizing that it can be profitable to be diverse—in gender, race, religion, sexual orientation. In the design industry, the better your understanding of those individuals or cultures or religions, the better you’re going to be able to market to them.

There’s even the profitability of diversification in your company. Our firm started with architecture and added interiors, urban planning, furniture design, graphics and communications, and construction observation for flat work. Within a changing market, there is a benefit of being a generalist, but there’s also need for specificity within areas of our industry.

BD+C: As president, what are your objectives for the National Organization of Minority Architects?

SEG: 2012 will be our 40th anniversary. We are transitioning from a more socially based organization into more of a professional organization. We have operated more as a social organization, since many of our members are also AIA members. We are at the point where we are changing ourselves to purposely become more deliberate in what we do, running NOMA truly as a nonprofit, to leverage what we have as an organization.

I call my leadership platform “MECCA”—mentorship, education, community, collaboration, and authority. We’re looking to strengthen our foundation, to give more scholarships to minority students, provide more economic backing for our members, and strengthen our affiliate relationships.

I also want to increase our value proposition: What benefit does NOMA bring to our members, with so many of our people out of work?

article courtesy of Building Design and Construction magazine: http://www.bdcnetwork.com/sanford-e-garner-profitability-being-diverse