March Studio’s Principal, Todd Erlandson, had been considering what the future looks like for his professional practice long before the pandemic.

Over the last year, Todd has been developing his vision, defining goals and outcomes, and crafting a strategic road map to get there. Building this strategic plan has not been a quick and easy process, and making sure it’s authentic has required time, energy, and resources. “In 2018, around the time of March’s 20th anniversary, we knew we wanted to plan the next 15 or 20 years for the office - make intentional decisions about where we were going, and to take March in a particular direction, despite not knowing exactly what that would be.” 

This was about the time Todd began meeting with strategic planning consultant, Jorge Sciupac, with the goal of defining and implementing a strategic plan for March Studio. “Jorge's strength is not just helping to write a strategic plan, but helping to execute it. He has a circular concept about how this works. We start small, making an initial plan, implementing it, testing it, and reviewing outcomes. Each time that we adjust the plan, we do the same kind of revising, implementing, and reflecting, just over a longer period of time.” 

With Jorge’s guidance throughout this ideation process, Todd worked on various visioning exercises to reveal insights about the right direction for March Studio. One of these was creating a series of collages.

“The first prompt was to illustrate who we are as a studio now, our current practice—what we’ve done up till now and what we’re good at. It incorporates our aesthetic, but also what we do as an office, and ideas that relate to what we do as practitioners. We make buildings that reflect our clients' vision and help them achieve their goals. We combine art, furniture and unique materials. We support the wellbeing of the community. It’s what we do.” 

Although something to build on, Todd noted that the first collage didn’t really point to a new direction forward, so he set it aside and made another. 

“The second collage taps into my own personal approach, what I care about, and the way I think about buildings and the environment. I think about them as, I wouldn't say practical, but certainly not precious. If you can get to where you need to go using simpler techniques, or non-precious techniques and materials to achieve it, then let’s do that.” 

Todd identified another important core philosophy to March’s path forward: collaborative partnering. 

“Our practice is about connections and relationships with others and talking about the things that they're passionate about. It’s about listening to people and thinking, Well, you know, I think there's a project in there somewhere, or maybe there's something we can work on together, or maybe at least there’s a way I can help this person out.” 

Creating these collages and completing other strategic exercises emphasized the importance of collaboration for March Studio. It’s also making a path for Todd to use his unique perspective and expertise to solve problems and positively impact the community. Because of the pandemic, there is a substantial population of experts and skilled professionals looking for things to do. For those that can’t or don’t want the same kind of full-time pressures they had in the past, freelancing and collaboration has become the norm. Todd thinks that’s something to leverage. 

“I like the idea of connecting people and not working in isolation—teaming up with people in different disciplines that have different perspectives around design, and allowing everyone to take control of their particular areas of expertise. Everyone has something to contribute and we all can learn from the different experiences of others. Then we can apply what we learn to new areas or take something that exists and give it a new life, reinvigorate it. We can discover and understand alternative ways to get to design solutions.”

Since the beginning, March’s methodology has been uniquely human-centered. With so many years of experience in the commercial sector, their approach has always put the client’s audience and the brand’s story at the forefront. Though not conventionally seen as consumer brands, community-based organizations also have a unique story to tell in the marketplace—they aim to draw people into their brand story, goods, and services just like their for-profit counterparts. They deserve a built environment that reflects and strengthens their purpose. Although March was built on these ideas, and leveraging these methodologies from commercial to community, it wasn’t always as clear a direction to Todd as it is now. 

As a test, March had an opportunity to dive into more non-profit, community-based projects after receiving the PPP loan in May. The office used the time and funds that the loan afforded to step into the work that he had imagined for March. Projects like the PILA Canyon Nest, a pre-school for refugee families in Tijuana, Mexico, and Epicenter’s Open Grounds Park project, a pop-up drive-in and rodeo ring in Green River, Utah, are the types of projects that Todd wants to continue doing at March.

Through the strategic planning process, COVID, recent cultural shifts, social movements, and the culmination of so many things, he realizes now more than ever the importance of this community work. Todd asks, “How about you? What do you envision for your community, what do people need, and how might we help?”

If you want to share your ideas with us or have a project in mind, reach out to Todd at todd@marchstudio.com, and let’s start the conversation.