Emma S. Eckert has recently completed her final Architect Registration Exam, the last step on her route to New York State architecture license. Emma has been with Flynn Battaglia since she started as an intern in summer of 2011 and became a full-time employee in September 2012. Emma holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Architecture from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.
Emma is an essential asset to Flynn Battaglia Architects not only because of her cheerful personality but also because of her skillset that she has refined over the past years. Being LEED certified and having extensive technical knowledge in Building Information Modeling (BIM) software, Emma contributes to all project phases. Among her many talents, she is also a vital part of the marketing team where she creates marketing proposals and redesigned the Flynn Battaglia website. Emma is a quick learner with wit, enthusiasm and she is always interested in further education. She welcomes challenges of any kind that she handles with power of endurance and her creative problem solving skills that she gained through her education. Two of her favorite projects from her time at FBA include the Richardson Olmsted Complex Core Project and the exterior rehabilitation of the MLK Jr. Park Casino.
Favorite architect: The most influential part of architecture school for me was the two semesters I spent in Florence, Italy. The field trips and other travelling experiences, I believe, have shaped me as a designer as well as a citizen of the world. Living in Florence, I grew partial to Italian architecture but the work of Carlo Scarpa in Northern Italy was the most notable in my mind. I wouldn’t consider Scarpa my “favorite architect” but the integration of the modern museum at Castelvecchio into the existing medieval castle stuck in my mind 6 years ago, and I still remember the specifically designed details in the museum when I am here working on buildings that are historic in a completely different sense. The modern interventions inside medieval construction had a simplicity in their complexity – that is total architecture speak. I hope to be a part of a project in the future where there is opportunity for such a modern interference into a historic building. Resurging Buffalo may be just the place.
Reason for studying Architecture:
Growing up in Buffalo, I think I was always a little jaded when it came to architecture. With several landmark structures in your backyard, it wasn’t until I moved to Northeast Ohio that I realized the architecture of the city was unique to WNY. I was always interested in the arts and took many classes in high school, but it wasn’t until I visited a family friend’s architecture firm and saw a set of drawings that would become the new welcome center to a local university that I thought architecture might be for me.
The Unity of BIM and Green Design: I believe that BIM is a valuable tool to realize architecture in its entirety. The field of architecture has come to a point where the architecture and the building systems can be integrated from an early point in the design process, ultimately saving time and resolving conflicts earlier in the project’s life. If you can make your life easier, why wouldn’t you? Americans spend something like 90% of their time inside buildings. BIM is an amazing way to realize a space and how a building’s active and passive systems will perform. An opportunity to see into the future of your building’s life is an amazing chance that professionals in the past did not have. Green design has become standard and we need to realize that green buildings do not only benefit the client in energy cost savings, but everyone on this planet and our future generations. BIM should be synonymous with sustainability.
Flynn Battaglia Architects is an architectural firm focusing on design, historic preservation, and planning for higher education, housing and community projects. It has an award-winning portfolio including national historic landmarks, colleges and universities, waterfronts and cultural resources. Based in Buffalo, NY, the firm provides unique solutions delivering innovative, environmentally sensitive and cost conscious design.