Earlier this year, ArchTam created and launched an interactive web-based tool called the Virtual Consultation Room, which enables our clients around the world to engage and consult interested stakeholders from their computer or mobile device, simulating the community meeting experience in a virtual environment. In addition to providing a safer environment for participation during the coronavirus pandemic, the Virtual Consultation Room creates a more flexible and inclusive approach to community engagement. This tool allows our clients to reach a wider audience — beyond those who might be able to attend traditional in-person meetings — including those with physical limitations.

In the past six months, our Virtual Consultation Room platform was visited more than one million times. We have had the pleasure of working with top clients across the globe with an outstanding, 100 percent customer satisfaction rating, including from clients such as the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy, Public Health England, the City of San Diego, Highways England, Roche, Georgia Department of Transportation, among others.

“The Virtual Room was simple and fast to deliver. It gave us an easy-to-implement solution to meet challenging and unforeseen circumstances. Yet at the same time there was the opportunity to flex the product so it better suited our needs. A big benefit for us was that it didn’t slow down the timing of the consultation, or our overall project programme. You were able to mobilise the product quickly and efficient in delivery.” – Melissa Williams, Senior Communications Manager, Highways England

Through the new platform, clients can curate a virtual stakeholder engagement event to show consultation materials including virtual reality and sound demonstrations, videos, maps, plans and pop-up banners, just as people would experience at an in-person engagement. There is also a chat function for on-hand experts to remotely answer questions as visitors view the materials, further simulating what would happen at an in-person event. The tool allows for instant feedback, so public comments can be captured and saved for analysis, and to ensure accurate reporting.

“I’m delighted to announce that Roche was the first company in Ireland to use innovative virtual consultation technology to share plans for the decommissioning of its Clarecastle site with the public. The technology, developed by ArchTam , enabled us to display a series of information boards about the project in a dynamic virtual room and undertake live chats with the public.” – Gerry Cahill, Roche Managing Director/ Site Head, Ireland

Prior to the global pandemic, digital tools were already featured heavily during ArchTam’s in-person community engagement events — including 360-degree Virtual Reality (VR), visualizations, sentiment mapping, sound demonstrations and interactive apps — so the logical next step was to bring them all together into one digital platform.

The adoption of digital tools and processes has differentiated ArchTam from its peers in the sector and helped us work faster, smarter and better, and our industry is benefiting from improvements in quality, cost and schedule. As clients and communities start experiencing the benefits — in terms of savings, collaboration, efficiencies, better environmental, social and governance outcomes, and more effective operation and maintenance — we’ll continue to bring to market new digital and innovation offerings that will reshape the infrastructure industry.

“The Virtual Meeting Room developed by ArchTam to support Fort Benning’s HOMMTA public notice period provided participants with a platform that delivered the necessary materials and information to effectively conduct our virtual public meeting. This platform enabled Fort Benning to use modern digital capabilities to adapt to the COVID environment.” – U.S Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District

If we are to build a better world for generations to come, we need all members of our society to be active, vocal participants in the process. Virtual public consultation, incorporating VR, is a powerful tool in achieving societal equity and improving our built environment for our communities.

I would like to thank the people who helped bring the Virtual Consultation tool to life and make it a success. Through their hard work and innovative approach to problem solving, Andy Thomas, Xavier Xia and Jamie Lord were able to bring this offering to market quickly and ensure our clients’ work kept moving forward.

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Building positive experiences for communities

The legacy I hope to create for the industry and our communities is one that makes the world a better place to live in. For us as a group in the Visualization Studio, one of the ways we contribute to a better world is by helping to communicate projects that impact people’s lives in a very direct way.

We work on all kinds of projects including architecture, transportation, water, energy and education. What continuously inspires me is that these projects directly impact local communities in incredibly positive ways. Our team helps to communicate how we help to build that better world for the people who live there.

Before I joined ArchTam, I was a college professor and two of my former students happen to be on my team. For me personally, one of my proudest moments has been seeing them succeed. My definition of success includes every time we help to win work, communicate a project impact effectively or someone

We take design, engineering and architecture and bring them to life. In 2017, we created virtual reality visualizations of a proposed rebuilding of Five Points Plaza in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s a historic neighborhood, and the community was very concerned about what it would look like. We provided VR headsets for the public meetings to review the proposed designs, and the community members – from the youngest to the oldest – enthusiastically engaged with our plans. We were blown away by the effectiveness of the connection that we were able to facilitate! That was a proud moment.

Innovating in a changing landscape

In 2020, it seems as though everything has changed. We’re in an unknown territory, but one thing that is certain is that infrastructure will be a critical part of how we return to normalcy. I see what we do in the Visualization Studio as being a critical part of how we connect the plans for building a better world with those who we are building it for.

In these days of social distancing, we’re finding that some of the most impactful things we can offer are the virtual consultation tools and public meeting rooms. These allow for our stakeholders to visit virtual community centers and gathering places in 3D rooms over the web. There they can view documents, watch slideshows and videos, live chat, leave messages, share information and even experience virtual reality scenes of proposed designs – all remotely from their own homes and mobile devices. It’s proving to be a great way to staying connected to the people who really matter in our work – our communities.

Advancing in STEM with Humanities

I would say, to anyone wanting to move forward in the world ahead of us that science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) have never been more important, but so is our ability to connect with and understand the needs of our fellow human beings. Develop your sense of empathy and your communication abilities as much as your understanding of the hard facts of the world around you.

STEM cannot exist or thrive without the humanities. The things we build help make the world a better place only if we remember — and hear — the people we are building for.

Embracing new possibilities

My career as a designer began designing for theater. I have a bachelor’s degree in English and I studied creative writing at the University of Iowa. After graduation, I started designing and working in theater, where I met my wife, a modern dance choreographer. I later earned my Master of Fine Arts in interactive media design.

I have a theatre production company and I still design for it, although not as frequently as I once did. My role in the company is to design everything — set, light, sound, projection — and I’m now starting to design in VR and come up with ideas for performance pieces in that.

So, my next piece of advice is to stay flexible and adaptable. I’ve been lucky enough to have a career that has spanned pencils to VR for our work. Understanding and engaging with the changing flow of the world around us is key to surviving and thriving. Always stay open to new ideas.

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