Communications

Positioning a Primarily Residential Firm to Compete for Public Projects

Challenge

A six-person studio in Tucson, Arizona, with a portfolio of private residences, approached us with the ambition to win institutional and civic work in the region. They had only completed one public building: a small birdwatching pavilion in Southern Arizona.

Strategy

Future–Future developed a communications strategy to position them for larger-scale work, target public clients, and speak to their focused priorities like advancing institutional missions, stakeholder engagement, capability to deliver high-quality projects, and cost-and-schedule control.

We leveraged the firm Principals’ legacy projects, installed processes to chase public work such as RFQ/RFP response and interview presentation templates, and identified opportunities to promote their birdwatching pavilion.

Execution

Future–Future prepared the firm’s submission for the US Pavilion’s call for entries for PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity at the 2025 Venice Biennale, which frames their birdwatching pavilion as a porch that brings communities together.

Our narrative focused on the pavilion’s civic impact and spirit of generosity. It described how the project replaced a temporary birdwatching tent built by the Paton family in their backyard, turning it into a permanent public porch.

Results

The firm’s project was selected for exhibition at the US Pavilion—an opportunity we capitalized on to launch communications campaigns and generate new business opportunities.

We fielded an RFQ for a birdwatching center in Henderson, Nevada, released shortly after, focusing the content on their inclusion in the Venice Biennale for their birdwatching pavilion, resulting in them being the only out-of-state firm shortlisted.