It’s been 10 years since architecture firm CMBA acquired the Smith-Metzger architectural firm in Des Moines, allowing the Sioux City-based company to expand its footprint in Iowa.

Today, with a team in Des Moines, CMBA is focused on projects in the education and health care sector in the communities it serves.

Among those projects are hospitals in Orange City, Sioux Center and Lake City. School projects include those in Gilbert, Grinnell and Harlan.

CMBA has Iowa offices in Des Moines, Sioux City, Spencer and Cedar Falls. It also has an office in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Omaha and Grand Island, Neb. In all, it employs more than 60 people, with 19 based in Des Moines.

The Business Record caught up with Brian Crichton, president and CEO of CMBA, and Kent Lutz, the firm’s CFO, for a conversation about the company, trends they are seeing in the industry and how the firm has adapted to meet clients’ needs. Crichton has been with CMBA since 2001. Lutz worked for Smith-Metzger for a number of years before the acquisition 10 years ago.

Their responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

How has CMBA evolved since it was founded in 1963?

Crichton: As our firm started, they did a lot of different projects but over the years we sort of focused and became more experienced in health care and K-12. Those are the two main sectors that we had for many years, but all the other general commercial things all architects get to work on. Then we’ve added firms to our group and they brought on expertise as well, and Des Moines was one of those purchases that brought higher ed to the forefront for us. We had dabbled in higher ed here and there, but they definitely had more higher ed in their portfolio than we did in the past. And then there’s municipal and county government type of work. We look at those sectors as institutional type projects. Clients that serve not just that entity but many other people outside of that because every project we do has many types of people who go through it and experience that space and get services from that organization. We look at our work as serving the greater community, not just the entity that we’re working with.

How has the architectural industry changed since you started?

Lutz: I think it’s changed significantly on the higher ed side because they really had to start marketing to the students to get them to come there, and wanted to put their best foot forward to keep up with other universities. That created a lot of work for us. Whoever had the nicest space, and students were attracted to food options and housing and dining, but they also were interested in classrooms and study spaces and community spaces. That generated a lot of work for us because everybody wanted to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak.

Crichton: I think that’s the case on the K-12 and health care side as well. It used to be in K-12 you went through school and you sat in a chair and listened to the teacher with a blackboard. Education has definitely changed on the primary and secondary levels, and now it’s a more active and engaged learning space. Children learn in different ways and now schools are adapting to allow for different types of learning styles. So classrooms are much more flexible with open spaces with flexible learning environments that allow teachers and staff to help students learn in a different way than just sitting and listening all day. It’s a much more activity engaged environment. And on the health care side, hospitals used to feel very cold, very white, very sterile with long hallways. Today, hospitals are gearing their environments in a more hospitality-type way and catering to patients’ needs in a more inviting way. Entry spaces and waiting spaces are providing more of that hospitality feel and dining options are more robust. On the staff spaces, we are looking at respite-type areas for staff to get away from their work for a brief time with natural light and access to the outside to give them time for self care while they’re in an environment that’s very demanding on a daily basis. The focus is thinking differently about spaces to truly impact the human side of those who are inside those facilities.

Has that focus on the “human side” of how space is used become a more prevalent part of conversations with clients?

Crichton: Yes, it’s part of our first, initial conversation with clients at every level because it’s more about the people that are part of that organization and that experience we’re trying to create.

What lessons have you learned over the years about how to best meet the needs of your clients?

Lutz: I think we ask way more questions than we used to as a firm from the design side, and really spend a lot of time in the beginning phases of a project to really understand the project. We talk to everyone involved. All the stakeholders. We’re really poking the bear to see where the pain points are and to really understand before we jump and try to solve the problem. We want to jump to the end because we like to create things, but you have to know what the problem is first before you can solve it.

Crichton: We have to know their why as well. Why are we even here today? First and foremost, what drove us to this point and then what are they hoping to see at the end? They may have an idea of what they want, but if we don’t continue to pull back those layers of the  onion, we won’t get to the true heart of the matter and understand what’s driving them as an organization.

How have advancements in technology helped the architectural industry?

Lutz: We now live in a world where we snap our fingers and we can instantly see what you can get. With virtual reality and all the three-dimensional design tools that we have now, it makes what we’re producing more accessible for a conversation, which we never had before. That’s been a huge change.

Crichton: Technology has come a long way. I was at the beginning or close to the beginning of our [computer aided drafting] days. I never did hand drafting but we have drafting tables still in the office, but adding three-dimensional video lets people truly visualize much quicker and easier. It helps the process. It helps a client feel like they are part of the design process.

Are you venturing into the world of AI?

Lutz: I think we have dabbled in AI, and I think the tools for that for our profession are amazing on the production side right now. There’s a lot of automation that can happen in the drafting part of the work that we do. AI is really helpful for the visualization part and creative part. It’s not there yet, in my opinion, but you can see it coming, and we need to be ready.

Crichton: We’re talking about an AI policy with our company and what that should look like and have guide rails to run in. We’re not creating content in AI because there could be liability concerns, or there could be as AI relies on data that is out there in the world, and we don’t want to use something that’s not generated by us in a directed way and showing clients something the client believes we created ourselves. We’re dabbling our toes in it. We’re not experts at AI. We do have a digital practice person in our firm that helps us think about the future of technology and how we integrate that into our company.