Author: tsausa
An Answer to What Ails Us
There’s nothing like an event such as now to give us an immediate and clear vision of what is important in life and to render so obviously unnecessary the pointless distractions.
There’s nothing such as an all-encompassing tribulation to brilliantly illustrate an immediate sense of priority—what is truly needed, uplifting, and valuable, and what is not.
There is nothing that manifests our latent strength and incredible ability to adjust, adapt, and change than poignant moments like these.
There is nothing that so keenly exposes our lack of wisdom, preparation, and misguided priorities . . .
There is nothing that so impels us toward making long-needed and meaningful change . . .
And if we didn’t have times like these, might we be content to remain reactive or passive bystanders? . . . complacent, becoming ever-busier, yet not progressing or meaningfully engaging and realizing true potential?
Thank goodness for times like these.
Why?
Why do we continue to migrate daily across ever-widening, costly, clogged, stress-inducing and resource-robbing roads to perform work that technology has proven we can do remotely?
How much of this for-mentioned commuting to distant workplaces can be reduced if we targeted only truly meaningful and necessary engagements?
How much could we downsize the vastness of workplaces and the consequent wideness of roads if we only built what was needed to accommodate these engagements?
Is it any wonder how we rob ourselves of the energy and time to make healthy exercise, diet, recreation, family and community, and spiritual engagement integral to our daily life?
Why do we continue to build bigger, resource-consuming houses when we spend less time in them and our families are shrinking?
Why do we invest so extensively in technology intended to make life more effective yet simultaneously continue with archaic and costly ways of doing the necessary things across so many aspects of life?
Why, if our lives have become so eased and comfortable, do we find ourselves ever busy, tired, and ailing?
Staying Connected During Quarantine
We’ve already talked about how we’re staying connected to our team and our clients through #covid19, but we wanted to share how we’re connecting with our families and communities on a daily basis. We’re fascinated with the human experience (of course we partial to how architecture and design play a role in it) generally, but we’ve been so inspired at the many opportunities we’ve found to appreciate each other during social distancing.
Doug – Because my sons are home, unable to go to school and my wife is there as well, we’re in the home together in the evenings a lot more than we have been because there’s no games or church meetings. We’ve been playing a lot of games together as a family, almost every night. We’re engaging a lot.
Nathan – We do things like a bake-n-run. My wife bakes something for the kids and then we do a drive-by delivery, we’ll waive from the car after dropping it on the porch. I’ve noticed when going outside and getting some sunshine walking the dog, there’s a lot more people outside and we’ve got a lot of opportunities to check on people and see what they need.
Marnie – We’re not a game family. I buy games and we never play them. But the last week or so, we’ve been playing a game every night too. It’s been really fun! We’ve been practicing losing, and teach our kids to practice losing. Turning the TV off has been really great. I’ll pick a kid and say, let’s go on a walk and it’s been a great opportunity to talk to them one-on-one and it’s really nice to see so many other people outside too. It’s a good thing, in a way, for us to be able to reconnect.
Rachel – We’ve also been going for walks to keep our sanity. Last week, I made my son’s hands and footprints into cards and we sent surprises to a lot of friends and neighbors. We also painted our windows to hopefully give the kids something fun to look at when they’re out for a walk. They get excited about the butterflies or bunnies in our windows.
Jessica- We started a group Marco Polo with my friends from high school. There’s 15 of us in there, and we joke and cry and it’s been great because we haven’t all sat down and talked in almost 20 years. There’s been a lot of bonding. My family sits down a lot together to eat a lot of days of the week and it’s been really nice.
Sean – A friend a few weeks ago suggested putting up a picture of a landscape, so I’ve been going to a certain Facebook page and sharing pictures that I’ve taken over the years and I’ve been putting up one a day for them to see club races, club events, things that’s happened and are not going on right now. It’s been kind of fun, and people seem positive about it.
Haley – We did a family Facetime. My brother’s in Colorado and my family is in CA, and it’s been fun to catch up with everyone.
Stephanie – It’s kind of hard, the whole day I stay home and I try to go out and contact more of my friends and yesterday we had a Zoom party of 8. We play games together. We went to Japan together 2 or 3 years ago, and we made a video. We watched that video on the Zoom app and it was fun to look back on that together. Another thing my friend and I do is we want to support local restaurants, and I order some takeout and my friend orders cookies and we swap things.
Sara: There’s 3 of us – we have our roomate, and we’ve been trying to continue to support local as well especially the restaurants here in Sandy. We continue ordering out once a week by sending one of the three of us to get it and bring it home. Our puppy is almost 9 months old, so she’s still in training to be active and learning. Our trainers are local and so sweet trying to keep the normalcy in all of this craziness. They’ve changed the class from 10 down to 4 so it’s semiprivate, we meet at a park nearby and stand 8 feet apart to train our dogs together working on obedience skills that our dogs need and it’s been nice to keep her on a schedule.
Barton – we moved recently before all this happened, and we haven’t met anyone so it feels like this strange limbo. We wave to our neighbors but we can’t really talk to them. With a 2 year old, all he wants to do is go to the park but they’re all roped off so it’s hard to do much of anything. We’ll go drive past a field of horses or cows or something like that, and he loves to sit there and watch them. Then we’ll drive around to find the next animal. We also drive past a little airport so he can watch the planes.
Cali – It feels like extended winter in the worst way for my social, outdoor-loving kids so we play outside in the dirt and go on walks as often as we can. We try and make something to drop on their friend’s porch once a week or so to try and brighten other kids’ days as well.
2020 Newsletter: Edition 1
TSA Team News
What an interesting time to be alive. While this unprecedented time is full of unknowns, we want each of you to be certain of one thing: TSA is positioned to further your mission and keep your projects moving, if that is your desire. We are taking all precautions to keep our clients, our colleagues, our families and our employees healthy.
Click Here to read how we’re going to continue working to keep you moving forward!
3rd Annual Putt Putt Tournament Update
Though we’ve been incredibly excited about hosting the 3rd Annual Putt Putt Tournament, with the current situation regarding COVID-19 we’ve made the decision to postpone this year’s event (to be rescheduled at a later date) for obvious reasons and out of a sincere desire to do our part in promoting safety and health for our team and all of our valued associates, clients, consultants and friends.
2020 EFA Showcase Featuring The Lodge
We can’t wait to see the March/April issue of Environments for Aging Magazine. This year, RMC’s The Lodge was selected as one of the top senior care environments in the nation in the EFA Showcase and will be featured in a two-page spread. We know the jury had their work cut out for them and are pleased to be recognized in a lineup of so many beautiful projects.
Tracy Presents at Winter USHE Conference
Tracy presented at the USHE conference – Low-Trauma Construction at a Level 1 Trauma Center. He shared how intense teamwork and collaboration at the University of Utah Hospital ensured patient safety and satisfaction on a “surgically implanted” construction project surrounded by the most sensitive patient care units.
Project Updates
McKay Dee Cancer Center Linear Accelerator (Ogden, Utah)
The Linear Accelerator phase of the new Cancer Center at Intermountain Healthcare’s McKay-Dee Hospital is open for treatment! Thanks to the team at Big-D Construction and the great folks at McKay-Dee and Intermountain HEalthcare! Pictured is Doug Banks TSA Project Architect, Barton Done TSA Proect Coordinator, Mike Engstrom Big-D Project Manager and Kelly Mannix Big-D Superintendent. We love being part of projects that make a difference in people’s lives! In a setting that caare for people in a tumultuous time of life, we recognize the enormous impact their environment plays in their experience and sense of peace. It has been an honor to be able to create a space that helps patients navigate their treatment optimally.
University of Utah Hospital Infill (Salt Lake City, Utah)
The UU radiology Infill project is totally operational, and the doctors and physicians are loving their new space. Now that they have patients and are learning how to use the space, we have new insights on the functionality of the project. Most notably, we are fulfilling some post-occupancy requests regarding door operation. These new changes will make moving patients in and out of procedures more efficient and improve security and safety. This project team has stood out as being innovative and efficient at solving difficult and unique problems.
Project Announcements
University of Utah Hospital Backfill (Salt Lake City, Utah)
Now that the University of Utah Hospital Radiology Infill project is complete, the Radiologists are loving their new reading room suite. The next phase is to renovate (or backfill – as they like to say) the vacated reading rooms. The “backfill” project program includes adding two new imaging modalities – a CT and an MRI along with the necessary supporting functions such as Control Rooms, Equipment Rooms, Patient Bays, etc. Once again TSA was selected to perform architectural surgery in a functioning hospital setting. The surgical implants will include a structural system to support the highly sensitive imaging equipment, mechanical system upgrades and electrical systems enhancements. TSA will also perform cosmetic surgery so that when the space is stitched back together it will look better than new – and 40 years younger. This critical project will help the hospital accomplish mission-critical goals of expanding and consolidating Imaging Services and enhancing patient safety and satisfaction.
Davis Hospital Women and Newborn Center Remodel (Layton, Utah)
Steward Healthcare based in Dallas, Texas has engaged TSA Architects to envision and remodel the Women & Newborn Center at their Davis Hospital campus in Layton, Utah. Included in the multi-phase project are upgrade Postpartum rooms, NICU, corridors and support space. Our design approach is to create a strong W&N Center presence, strengthen intuitive wayfinding, improve function and zoning throughout the unit and within patient rooms, and to introduce a timeless, robust interior finish palette that celebrates birth, family and parenthood. Construction is slated to begin the summer of 2020 and be complete in early 2021.
Our Team Shares
Our team has grown again! We are pleased to welcome Jocelyn Ingram to our team. Jocelyn’s role as Quality Assurance Coordinator and Estimator brings an eye for detail to our drawing sets. In addition, her background in construction estimation specializing in healthcare projects will lend itself to more accurate construction and project cost estimations. She bring with her a unique perspective and firsthand experience in multiple roles of the construction industry that helps our team serve our clients even better. To learn ore about why an architecture can provide even better service with an estimator, check out this blog post!
TSA and COVID-19: We’re Here for You
While this unprecedented time is full of unknowns, we want each of you to be certain of one thing: TSA is positioned to further your mission and keep your projects moving, if that is your desire. We are taking all precautions to keep our clients, our colleagues, our families and our employees healthy.
Here’s what that looks like on our end:
1) Our team is positioned and prepared to work either in-home or in the office. Through remote access, our team has the ability to access anything needed on-site or off. We also have the latest technology and know-how to set-up and participate in a variety of web-based video conference/meeting applications. We’ve encouraged our employees to work in whichever environment will enable them to be most productive. Our firm is committed to staying up-to-date on the CDC and local recommendations in regards to public gatherings, meetings and all other precautions in an effort to preserve the health of our clients, their patients, and the vulnerable populations among us. We are sensitive to the settings in which our projects take place and will operate in accordance to those guidelines.
2) In office, we are exercising caution with scheduled daily disinfecting and other hygiene measures to keep our environment as healthy as possible.
3) We are acutely aware of how hard each of our clients are working right now under the added weight of COVID-19. Specializing in health are and senior care, we feel an immense sense of responsibility to support you and it is our privilege to help those on the “front lines” in any way we can.
What does this mean for you?
You can be assured that we will continue to provide the same level of attention and expertise moving forward. We’re not going anywhere – well, maybe to our home office if need be – but we’re taking our work with us.
Stay healthy, stay safe!