We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Peter Margittai a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Peter, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any advice for creating a more inclusive workplace?

To us at Margittai Architects being inclusive is synonymous with being part of a team.

I always thought that inclusion happened organically as a byproduct of my attitude and values, however, a couple of years ago I realized that the team wasn’t functioning very well and that I needed to do something differently. That’s when I sought out the advice of a executive coach who really helped me understand that building an effective team is all about creating a feedback culture where people are able and encouraged to give immediate feedback to everyone on the team, all the time, and in real time. This is the way we improve quickly.

My son plays football and every time he gets off the field, during a game, his coach comes up to him and they review the video that had been taken just moments ago from the press box. They talk about what what went well and what needed to improvement. This he is able to go back on the field with real time feedback and make the appropriate adjustment. What his coach does not tell him is that he has something “really important to talk to him about” and would my son be free next Wednesday for a coffee to sit down and have a discussion. That’s not effective. That’s not how you build a successful team or improve quickly.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My love for drawing, as a child, led me to the arts. I was happiest when I was drawing, painting or making ceramics. The joy I felt while creating art was why I decided to pursue a Fine Arts Degree after graduating high school. My father, however, thought this idea was not the best. He was a mechanical engineer, my brother was an engineer, and my grandfather was an engineer. My father explained to everyone that his family had engineering lineage back to the Venetian Bridge Builders! I, however, did not want to be an engineer. Though I knew little about what Architects did, I knew that they drew, and I loved to draw. So, to appease my father and pursue my passion, I transferred into the Architecture program – one of the best decisions I ever made.

At Penn State I was provided the opportunity to study Architecture in Rome, Italy. It was there, in this 2,000 year old city, that I began to understand that each generation of designers and builders acknowledged what had been built before and then adding their own unique creations. This experience gave me a profound understanding of how the buildings and cities we create are historically and culturally connected and that, as designers, we can create richer and more meaningful environments by recognizing and celebrating this aspect.

After graduating, I traveled a bit and finally ended up moving to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Since Pittsburgh has a long and incredibly interesting history, I have had the great opportunity, for the last 25 years, to work with people every day to come up with ways to redesign and reimagine old buildings to give them new uses. An example of this would be the Market Street Townhomes. The design challenge was to create three luxury townhomes in one of downtown Pittsburgh’s oldest buildings, a 14,100 square foot warehouse, which was built in 1847. Our design included an expansion of the rooftop which provided outdoor space with views to Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River. The glass and aluminum details pay homage to the nearby PPG Place, designed by Philip Johnson. By faithfully restoring and highlighting the masonry and heavy timber structure and designing unique rooftop terraces, Market Street Townhomes now contributes to Pittsburgh’s thriving downtown, and was the recipient of the 2019 AIA Pittsburgh Certificate of Merit in the Medium-sized project category. The competition’s jury commented, “This is a great adaptation of a historic building. The re-use of the existing timber construction and the roof-top addition that allowed light to penetrate through the residence creates a unique experience. The jury appreciated the lengths that the architect accomplished in preserving and enhancing the existing structure.”

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

The year was 2008 and every day the news was reporting about the financial crisis. I was hearing stories and getting calls from colleagues who just experience massive layoffs at the other architecture firms in town. Although the stock market was dropping hundreds of points at a time, the firm was still fairly busy and therefore, we initially thought that we had dodged the bullet.

As it turned out, by the beginning of 2009, we realize that the bullet had found us after all. Some clients started to cancel their projects while other clients simply didn’t move forward. We were uncertain as to our future so we scaled back our hours to four days a week and the team decided we were going to try to muscle through it. After a couple of months, however, it was clear the proposals we were sending out we’re not getting signed and the work was drying up. It was at that time that I had to make the hardest decision of my career was to lay off most of my team. I kept one employee and a few months later it was able to bring another one back.

Those were difficult times. to get through it. Surviving every day and keeping one’s spirits up was real challenge. In hindsight, I should have focus better on mentally and physically taking care of myself since there’s no way to know when things were going to turn around. I simply had to make extreamly hard decisions while getting creative in the way we packaged our services. It seemed to help sell our services if they were small enough that individuals perceived them a more affordable.

We are better prepared for the next recession due to our financial reserves, however, at the end of the day, its impossible to know when the next recession will arrive or how exactly it’s going to affect us. We can only hope for the best, keep our relationships with our clients strong, and take care of ourselves.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I’ve always believed that people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be heard, challenged and celebrated.

I used to think that this was the way to achieve and maintain high morale on the team. Recently though, with the help of my executive coach, I was made to realized that that’s not nearly enough. Managing the team, as it turns out, is also a team effort. The entire teem has to contribute towards this goal every day. In order to keep effective communication on the top of everyone’s mind we meeting every Wednesday. The firm treats everyone to lunch and we talk about how we are going to create and and maintain a culture where we feel fulfilled and enjoy working together. If this collective participation is not done on a regular basis, the culture of the office starts to suffer. Just like if you don’t do your push-ups on a regular basis, you won’t get stronger. The focus and effort has to happen consistently – not just whenever you have a problem .

Contact Info:

• Website: peter@margittai.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/margittai_architects/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/margittai
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/75068969

Image Credits

Massery Photography and Skysight Photography