One of the most influential trends in pedagogy today, especially in the world of K-12 education, is Project-Based Learning, sometimes abbreviated as PBL. Rather than discrete lessons about individual subjects, PBL takes a more integrative, more active, and often a more collaborative approach to learning. Students are challenged with projects which require integration across disciplines,…
Effective January 2020, GFF co-founder Duncan T. Fulton, FAIA, LEED AP will step down as Chairman/CEO, and will be retiring from the firm entirely in March, with the time in between spent helping ensure a smooth transition on projects for which he is responsible. Evan Beattie, AIA, LEED AP will assume the role of Chairman/CEO.
Learning is shaped, for better or worse, by the environment where it takes place. Current research on cognitive science demonstrates that learning requires both an internal process of assimilating new information and a social process of discussion and negotiation to build new understanding. Knowledge is constructed both through engagement with ideas and with others, so…
written by Gavin Newman Sometimes research can be fun. After several days of unseasonably cold weather, GFF’s Planning and Landscape studios took a field trip to downtown Dallas’ newest spot of green, Pacific Plaza. New parks don’t just appear out of thin air – this park combines an existing park, an adjacent parking lot, and…
GFF has had the wonderful opportunity to participate in Bark + Build for the past several years which is a doghouse and cat condo design/build competition between professional teams consisting of architects and contractors. This year we were able to team up with RO Construction to create a bar cart/doghouse in the Doggy Décor category,…
GFF celebrated Halloween with our annual pumpkin painting and costume contest! Shout out to this year’s winners: Costumes: 1. Addam’s Family 2. 101 Dalmations 3. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Pumpkins: 1. The Fox 2. Spa Day 3. Spooky Landscape
This summer, GFF took part in our eighth year of On My Own Time. By working closely with Business Council for the Arts, we created an outstanding art show featuring the talent of our employees and spouses. GFF’s Tara Harandi and Perry Weber served as OMOT Ambassadors who managed the in-house exhibitions and acted as…
The GFF Fort Worth Team will be hanging ten at this year’s PARK(ing) Day. Come stop by and visit our parking space oasis on Magnolia on Friday, September 20th! https://www.nearsouthsidefw.org/events/park-ing-day Below are the concept plans of the team’s space titled ‘Catch a Wave’:
Meet Taylor Hanttula. Taylor is a Frisco native and graduate of Texas Tech University with a Master of Architecture. She joined the Kanaga studio in January of 2019. Read below for more about Taylor! My one true love is my parents’ dog, Scarlett! She has easily become the favorite child. I just took a DNA…
Meet Jordan Coslett. Jordan joined them GFF Austin team after graduating from the University of Kansas with a Master of Architecture and Minor in Business. Read below for more about Jordan! My parents never got a dog until I moved away for college. Not fair! If you think Kansas is flat, try walking to class…
Meet Colleen Christian Goff. Colleen attended Harding University and lived in Nashville, Tennessee before moving to Texas last year. She is a Team Member in the Interiors Studio. Read below for more about Colleen! My family moved to Japan when I began high school, so I finished school there and now visit as much as…
Construction is in full swing on the Buckner International’s new Family Hope Center in the Bachman Lake area. On Friday, June 14th, members of the community were invited to participate in a beam signing ceremony and allowed to inscribe their names and a special message on the final steel beam to be erected in place.…
Meet Perry Weber. Perry is a Chicago native and graduate from the University of Kansas. He joined GFF in 2018 and is in the Womble Studio. Read below for more about Perry! As a kid I was known for having weird accidents. Ask me about the time I got magnets stuck up my nose.…
GFF is celebrating our one-year anniversary in Austin with a growing team and an impressive mix of design work on the boards and in construction. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our clients, consultants and collaborators for their support over the course of the last year. The GFF Austin team has quickly…
Meet Dean Hageman. Dean is an Associate in the Austin office, but started his career at GFF in the Dallas office in 2013. Read below for more about Dean! I am originally from Wisconsin. One of my favorite hobbies is playing golf. I am an avid sports fan. I graduated from Oklahoma State University. I…
Meet Maxine Kraft. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Maxine joined the Austin office in its first year after interning for GFF Dallas. Maxine was born in Germany and grew up in Fort Worth, but is a typical Austinite in her love for food, music, the outdoors, dogs, increasing housing costs, and…
Meet Zach McLain. Zach received his Bachelor of Architecture from Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!) and joined the GFF Austin team as a Team Member in June 2018. Read below for more about Zach! When I was a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer because I thought lying and arguing with people was fun.…
Meet Michael Keller. Michael grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, and attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Although he is a certified Ragin Cajun, he moved to Houston where he worked and lived for 20 years. After the Great Recession, he moved to Brazil to start a modular housing company which never took off. Michael…
Up to 66% of learning for today’s college students takes place outside the classroom, according to a recent study from the University of Central Florida. “Sticky” spaces, places which attract students and encourage them to stay and collaborate and/or work individually, provide the venue for much of this learning. Recent GFF Education Blog posts have…
Meet Anna Eliese Scott. Anna Eliese is a graduate of The University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined the GFF Landscape Studio in 2018. She is well suited for landscape architecture because she has quite the green thumb! She loves plants and is the designated plant expert for friends and family. She has a wide range of interests…
This past weekend, GFFers gathered at the Dallas Arboretum for STEAM’s ‘Girl Powered Weekend’ event. The Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden Girl Powered Weekend encourages boys and girls of all ages to get involved in the STEAM community and educates our youth of STEAM initiatives. The event included a multitude of activities including the creation…
In last month’s post my colleague Jon Rollins discussed some of the considerations at the intersection of space planning, room utilization and building programming. In this post, we will look at an individual learning space and a few simple, but often overlooked, steps to maximize its use. The flexible classroom is often considered a space…
Meet Chelsea Byrd. Chelsea joined the GFF Interiors team in November of 2018 as a Senior Interiors Coordinator and is a graduate of UNT. Read below for more about Chelsea! I grew up camping. Every Thanksgiving was spent around a fire, not a dinner table I have wanted to be a designer since I was…
One of the most common client comments we hear in our campus planning practice is “there’s not enough space for ___”. While there may be legitimate deficits in certain types of campus space (more on that later), what we frequently discover though interviews and analysis is that it is not the amount of space that’s…
