Managing Design

CHAPTER 2Client Empathy: Listening, Collaboration, and Expertise

INTERVIEW

Chuck Thomsen, FAIA, FCMAA

Past Chairman, 3D/I International

4th August 2017

Chuck Thomsen, FAIA, FCMAA, is former chairman of 3D/I International, Houston, Texas, a global design and construction firm with more than 500 employees. He has practiced as architect, construction manager, and program manager, and was the author of Managing Brainpower in 1989. He was the first to become a Fellow in both the American Institute of Architects and Construction Management Association of America. He shares universal truths about process differences, expertise, and interpersonal interaction.

Client Intimacy and the Creative Continuum or “Snow Cards, Squatter Sessions, and Goody-Goody Talk”

You remain an inspiration at 86. You're still posting articles, consulting, taking time to talk to guys like me; you and your wife just took your new boat from Boston to Houston. How was it?

Thomsen: We had a grand time, from Boston to Houston, in four legs starting in July. Loved it. The secret to old age is to try new things.

“The secret to old age is to try new things.”

The Harvard Medical Journal and my doctor say if you're good at crosswords, that's good, but you gotta do new things to keep your brain active: learn to navigate a boat or learn to play a piano, things like that.

So, my first reaction to ...