Editorial

Copyright © Margaret Michaels 2008 All rights reserved
No part of this copy may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the author.

Client:  PIT Access Control Systems
Business:  Manufacturer of security systems for mini-storage facilities
Project:  Excepts from trade journal article

Facility Communications System
The Fastest, Easiest Route to Value-Added Service

One of the most effective ways to move your mini-storage facility into a class of its own is the installation of a state-of-the-art communications system.  Yes, the quality of the security system that you select is critical.  Of course, the location and general appearance of the property plays a major role in attracting customers.  However important these basic considerations may be, they represent only the “nuts and bolts.”  The key to leaping ahead of the competition is to offer an added dimension of service — which is exactly the edge that a communications system can provide.

What do we mean by a facility communications system?  These systems combine intercom and paging capability with the option to provide a musical background of your choice.  Relatively new to the mini-storage industry, a communications system such as the PTI Informer from PTI Access Control Systems is based on proven, state-of-the-art technology.  Once you have purchased a system from a reputable supplier with installation expertise, the benefits are immediate.

Literally overnight, your storage facility transforms from an isolated, silent labyrinth of corridors into a more comfortable, welcoming, and accessible place of business.  Customer assistance is now available at the touch of a button should a problem arise.  Important messages can be transmitted in a heartbeat.  Let’s take a close look at customer advantages as well as the new tools for sales and marketing.

Intercom Convenience

Imagine one of your customers entering your facility a Saturday morning, already burdened with a long errand list and frustrating time constraints.  Perhaps the location is Miami in August — or maybe Minneapolis in January.  Spending one more minute than absolutely necessary at her storage unit is the last thing on her mind.  Although this customer has never encountered trouble with the lock in the past, it happens to freeze up inexplicably.  After jiggling both key and lock to the point where she is seeing red, she finally crawls back into her car and drives to the office for help.  Can you sense the mental and emotional state of this customer as she walks through your door?

Most customers will never require office assistance or need the reassurance that someone is readily available, but every customer can appreciate that level of courtesy.  Should a problem or question arise, the office personnel are as close as the push of a button.  “We are here for you” becomes more than an empty promise or a catch phrase in sales literature.  If need be, the manager can hop on his golf cart and greet the customer face-to-face to resolve any issues.  Conversely, the facility personnel have an opportunity to convey messages to visiting customers over the same intercom.

Client:  Searer, Robbins & Stephens
Business:  Privately owned dialysis centers and dialysis services
Project:  Excerpts from cover article for renal-care trade journal

The House that Teamwork Built: Introducing DaVita’s State-of-the-Art Dialysis Center in Scottsdale

Facility administrator Gary Hamilton had a simply stated but ambitious design goal for the new DaVita, Inc., dialysis center in Scottsdale, Arizona. "I want our patients and teammates to have the most aesthetically pleasing, calming, ergonomic, and efficient dialysis facility in the nation." Drawing from considerable experience in opening and managing facilities, Hamilton took the time to solicit input and listen. Nurses, technicians, laboratory personnel, office administration, receptionist, dietitian, social worker and patients—all had a voice. With support from DaVita management and flexibility on the part of the architects at Searer, Robbins & Stephens, the new facility integrates many of their suggestions and ideas.

Searer, Robbins & Stephens has always believed that client involvement and a team approach is essential to a successful outcome. The firm has designed more than 30 DaVita facilities over the past five years, and many were conversions of existing properties. Adaptive reuse offers definite cost and time advantages over ground-up construction, although this approach never fails to present unique challenges. The collaboration between architect and client actually begins with the selection of a suitable site, long before preliminary designs.

DaVita finds the best possible location in terms of patient access. SRS is the expert on suitability of the property for its intended function. Once DaVita has identified a possible site, SRS completes a report on required improvements that covers everything from infrastructure to level flooring. While SRS research has helped DaVita avoid some problematic sites, the selection of an older structure always has the potential for surprises. In those cases, decades of SRS experience in resolving unforeseen problems become invaluable.

Patient Care—First

Adapting existing property for a dialysis center always begins with the design of the patient care floor. In SRS designs and in DaVita reality, every element of the center revolves around the core activity of caring for patients. The Scottsdale DaVita teammates prefer a circular rather than a linear layout for patient stations in order to maintain face-to-face contact. Technicians are never looking at the back of a patient's head or straining to see a patient along a row of stations. The Scottsdale center separates the circular layout into four pods, each one with a subtle design difference. Beyond enhancing patient visibility, this approach allows technicians to rotate each day for a slight variation in their working environment.

Although design elements in adaptive/reuse dialysis facilities are influenced by the size and layout of the basic structure, SRS architects were able to create an open feeling of spaciousness in the Scottsdale facility. Passing through the wide, automatic front doors, patients and family members enter an inviting lobby. The reception counter provides enough height to ensure adequate privacy with a lower section for wheel-chair access. Just a few steps from the reception counter are the offices for the dietician, the social worker, and the business administration.

The Scottsdale center manages to balance a sense of privacy on the patient care floor with a high degree of visibility throughout the facility. Strategically positioned windows within the facility and openings in the wall that separates the patient care floor from the main hallway make this possible. The design lends itself to a cooperative team effort completely centered on the patients. Hamilton elaborated, “Our administrative assistant can see in a moment when the receptionist needs relief. The nurse, dietician, social worker, and even laboratory personnel all have a clear view of the patient care floor.”

State-of-the-art infection control and overall facility efficiency drove many of the decisions that make the new Scottsdale dialysis center so exceptional. Every surface and material from floor to ceiling was carefully selected for durability and easy cleaning. Staff suggestions were invaluable in reducing extra steps and workload while maintaining the highest possible standards. Small conveniences like the location of files or availability of supplies create a more highly organized, flowing work environment and reduce the time required for repetitive tasks. Hamilton added, "We also looked for ways to eliminate every possible nook, cranny, and crevice that requires disinfection. Time and effort saved in maintenance can be directed toward patient care."

Client:  Ritchie PR Firm
Business:  Public Relations and Marketing
Project:  Biographical profile for one-man show at Scottsdale art gallery

African American artist, educator, author, lecturer and researcher Eugene Grigsby, Jr. was born on October 17, 1918, in Greensboro, N.C. Underlining his lifelong passion for art and education, he earned degrees from Morehouse College, Ohio State University, and New York University, culminating in a doctorate in art, art history and art education. As early as 1941, Grigsby taught art at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Fla., and served as artist-in-residence at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C.

Even in wartime, Grigsby's creative genius touched the lives of those around him. During his World War II service in a U.S. Army ammunition battalion, Grigsby's idea to issue and reload ammunition directly from trucks helped to speed the movement of the 3rd Army from Omaha Beach through Europe. Honored with the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, Grigsby responded to the end of the war in Europe by writing, producing and directing a hit musical comedy that entertained U.S. soldiers stationed in Germany.

In 1946 Grigsby relocated to Arizona, teaching at the all-black George Washington Carver High School until its closing in 1954, a landmark year that ended a half-century of educational segregation in Arizona. He moved to Phoenix Union High School, where he continued to teach as art department chairman. From 1966 until his retirement in 1988, Grigsby served as professor in the School of Art at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz. Throughout the decades, his advocacy for African American art as well as art education and history has created a peerless legacy in Arizona with ripple effects across the entire nation.

Working tirelessly to inspire and uplift African Americans as well as the larger community, Grigsby has played leading roles in scores of organizations and earned countless awards. He served as vice president of the National Art Education Association from 1972-74 and president of the Arizona Art Education Association from 1988-90. Driven by the feeling that Arizona and the nation was disconnecting with the importance of art and particularly the historic significance of African American Art, Grigsby founded the Consortium of Black Organizations and Others for the Arts. For more than 20 years, COBA has sought out ways to ensure that art and its history are valued and preserved, including scholarship programs and youth art exhibits.

Client:  Sundance Press
Business:  Printing, publications
Project:  Excerpts from trade journal article for D-Day Anniversary

VerPlank Family Shares Intimate Memories of D-Day

As the world pauses to remember the 60th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 2004, some hearts still feel the weight of indescribable sacrifice and loss. Others may catch a glimpse of a news headline and vaguely recall a high-school history lesson. To the VerPlank family, who shares a legacy of nearly 100 years of involvement in the casket industry, the Normandy invasion holds a very personal meaning.

Even in the riveting drama surrounding U.S. involvement in World War II, Marvin VerPlank was an unusual draft candidate. He was 34 years old, married, and a proud father of a newborn son. His wife Laura recalls, "Marvin and I grew up in families that were friends in a small town, so we were often in each other's homes. With our nine-year age difference, he left Zeeland to attend the Michigan School of Mines before I even entered high school. Years passed before we began dating, and he waited patiently to marry me until I had finished my college degree. The war and his draft notice felt like a tragedy to a couple married only a year with a six-week-old baby. I believe he was the first father in our small town to be drafted. During his military service, many of his commanding officers were up to 10 years his junior."

After completing his basic training, VerPlank was given the opportunity to attend officer training school for the infantry or for combat engineering. He chose the latter and received his commission at Fort Belvoir, Va. The world seemed like one fiery battlefront in 1942, and every military base in America was churning out fresh recruits. During the first six months of 1944, the number of U.S. troops based in Great Britain alone rocketed from 774,000 to 1,537,000. Marvin VerPlank was among them, serving as a first lieutenant and unit commander in the 294th engineer combat battalion of the First Army under General Omar Bradley. This group of 800 men remained together through all five epic European campaigns—Normandy, Ardennes, Northern France, Central Europe, and Rhineland.

The Normandy Invasion

By the end of May, the 294th had moved to a marshaling area in Wales. Early in June, trains carried the men to Newport at the head of the Bristol Channel where they joined other divisions on the USS Susan B. Anthony—a cruise ship converted to military use. On June 6, now immortalized as D-Day, the vessel was sailing along the southern coast of England. The men were listening intently to reports of Allied airdrops and landings, knowing that they were among the wave of reinforcements to follow on June 7.

Just prior to dawn on D-Day, bombers began massive strikes up and down the Normandy coastline. In spite of heavy winds and dangerous seas, the day's first light saw the largest armada ever assembled fill the horizon—more than 5,000 vessels in all. Minutes later, the Allied forces began operations to destroy German defensive positions and to detonate the huge minefields along the shoreline. Following this unimaginable bombardment, more than 100,000 infantrymen swept ashore in one of the epic assaults of history.

By the evening of June 6, Allied power prevailed across the Normandy beachhead at an incalculable price in human life. Lacking a strong air force or navy presence, the Germans relied on mines and beach obstacles to slow Allied progress. Their most dramatic success occurred at dawn on June 7. The USS Susan B. Anthony was preparing to drop anchor at Utah Beach when the vessel hit a mine. The blast immediately knocked out all communications and electricity, and the ship was soon in flames. Barking orders to troops trying to navigate narrow corridors in total darkness, officers quickly restored order. Stripping themselves of heavy clothing and equipment, the men assembled on deck and climbed down rope ladders to rescue vessels below. The presence of a fire-fighting boat made it possible save every life. Just minutes after the last men safely evacuated, the Susan B. Anthony sank under the Channel waters.

The sinking of the ship only slightly slowed the disembarking process for the arriving divisions, among them the 294th. Once on Utah Beach, however, the troops no longer had helmets, rifles, ammunition, food, or personal provisions. Some men had even removed their combat boots and were barefooted. In the heat of a raging battle, their first priority had to be scrounging the necessary supplies and equipment from dead soldiers scattered across the sand.