ARCHITECTURE & INTERIOR DESIGN

Architecture

Architecture and interior design at RAFI / Fielden and Partners are the product of “Doing the Right Things – Right; the First Time! “ As the recipient of more than 50 significant honors and awards, principals and professional staff are committed to work that goes beyond simply addressing the clients immediate needs. Our goal is to be considered one of the clients’ trusted advisors; one that helps clients become more successful in their endeavors through our assistance.

Through the firms’ consulting, planning and design efforts, clients are guided in preparing for tomorrow’s needs: growth that demands more efficient uses of existing facilities, facility expansion and even facility consolidation when times are lean. We also assist our clients in improving their facilities to be more productive, resourceful, and energy efficient – helping reduce cleaning, maintenance and monthly operating expenses. We have experience working with a variety of different vendors, from college and universities to city community centers and libraries to the hospitality industry on the Las Vegas strip.

With more than 35 years of serving clients successfully across the western mountain region, there are few issues the firms’ have not had to address and resolve. RAFI prides itself on high-quality planning and designing of new facilities, upgrading existing buildings and infrastructure, and working with historic properties using the US Secretary of Interior’s Standards. With our many decades of experience, we have the knowledge to successfully support RAFI’s client service capabilities. Architectural assistance includes:

Developing highly effective and efficient architectural programs to define client needs for achieving short-term and long-term goals
Creating functional buildings and building envelopes that are affordable for meeting clients’ needs for a minimum useful life of 100 years
Providing interior building systems that are flexible and easily adaptable through reconfiguration
Providing environmental systems that likewise are easily adaptable through reconfiguration to adapt to change, upgrades and replacement over time
Providing means to dramatically reduce ongoing maintenance and operating expenses
Means to achieve zero carbon output using renewable energy resources and strategic design applications
Creating timeless architecture that remains iconic, relevant and functional, and a valuable economical asset that advances and enhances the client’s public image

Interior Design

Space planning assistance has become an integral part of every organization’s needs today. How to best accommodate staff’s space needs, furnishings, fixtures, data and communication devices and equipment as economically and efficiently as possible is common to every organization – small or large. Through dialog with clients, reviewing job descriptions and tasks personnel perform, RAFI translates functional roles to staff needs. From a functional perspective, where staff is located is the product of whom they work with and any needs they have for close access to others - or to task related equipment.

Just as important, anticipated needs for future growth in staffing and where additional staff is to be situated can be can be predetermined as part of the space planning process - and incorporated within existing space when needs arise. Additionally, the space planning process offers clients the ability to:

Plan strategically for short-term and long-term staffing goals
Organize staffing requirements and departmental needs upon functional work flow processes
Plan for space needs using net/gross facility ratios
Plan space requirements based on staff’s task requirements
Plan for common work and general storage areas, file storage, data rooms, break rooms and meeting, conference and media rooms, mechanical rooms, electrical equipment rooms and data, communication and emergency management center
Plan accordingly for open-office and traditional furnishings, office equipment, mailroom equipment, copy and mass printing machines, and security

RAFI’s interior design: furnishings, fixtures, finishes, signage and graphics are recognized for how well they integrate and supplement the overall architectural design of a project. The interior design team focuses on incorporating design elements from the outside into lobbies, interior corridors, auxiliary rooms and enclosed working spaces. Recognizing that wall surfaces and carpeting in heavy traffic areas must be replaced after 15 years, clients inform us that past interiors in 20+ years of age are still in good working condition. Good interior design for clients results in:

Reduced wear and tear, janitorial and maintenance expenses
Interior environments that stimulate pleasure, productivity, employee satisfaction and fewer absences
Stronger corporate identity, imagery and visual communications
Tailored and timeless design that possesses greatly extended useful lives
State-of-the-art high-tech media and presentation centers capable of serving multiple language users
Eliminating VOC’s, allergenic’s and air-borne illnesses

interior design rafi architecture closet

Redevelopment,

Historic Preservation

Redevelopment, Adaptive Use and Historic Preservation

Existing community assets possess far more future value today to property owners and investors than ever before. While existing infrastructure and older buildings may require improvements to make them more efficient and code compliant, the costs to incorporate upgrades are far less expensive to the owner than replacing the existing structure with a new building and accompanying new infrastructure. Many older properties when properly redesigned can have extended lives of 100+ years.

RAFI’s experience with redeveloping older structures and creating adaptive uses dates back to the firm’s earliest days when it conducted a forensic study of the Community Church in Henderson, Nevada. The church, constructed in 1942, was severely damaged and declared unsafe as a result of the rocket fuel explosion at the nearby Pepcon manufacturing plant. An investigation and economic feasibility analysis determined that redeveloping the property to conform to current codes and adapting it as a new senior center was one-third the cost of demolishing the existing building and constructing new facilities on site. The revised and upgraded property remained in full use until a new senior housing facility was constructed on the site in 2010.

In addition to redeveloping the Henderson Senior Center and receiving a Historic Preservation Design Award for its contributions, RAFI was commissioned to perform a Blight Study and expand the City of Las Vegas Redevelopment Area to incorporate new, larger area boundaries. The firm went on to assist other cities in Nevada, including Boulder City, Mesquite, and Elko in establishing new redevelopment agencies and areas. The Boulder City and City of Elko projects both incorporate its historic downtown areas.

Working within established redevelopment areas offers property owners and developers opportunities for grants, stipends and tax abatements. Similar assistance is available when working on upgrading designated historic properties using the US Secretary of the Interiors standards. RAFI’s work through the State of Nevada State Historic Preservation Office ranges from a number of surveys and investigations to rehabilitating the historic USO building in Hawthorne, Nevada.

Other extended use and rehabilitation projects include upgrading housing units for the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority, where 50 year old properties will now serve residents in highly improved settings for a minimum future of another 50 to 100 years. Similar success has occurred for RAFI at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where facility upgrades are extending the lives of historic buildings approaching 70 years old for an additional 50 to 100 years of continued service.

With its next redevelopment project, the firm is already creating strategies to upgrade an older existing structure to provide an extended one-hundred year future that functions entirely free from the existing power grid.