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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

Our company's unique structure

Our company has a unique structure -- one we believe gives our clients a competitive advantage when it comes to developing or expanding their location-based entertainment centers. Unlike architectural firms that offer only design, or consulting companies that offer only advice, we have structured our company to offer comprehensive services to our clients -- from project conception to opening -- to assure all aspects of projects are fully integrated to offer the maximum success synergies. As such, we are technically neither consultants nor designers. Rather, we are producers, and our services are comprehensive, including all aspects of market research, concept development, mix, design, brand development and management start-up.

Traditionally in our industry, the wand of development is passed from one company to another, with much getting lost in the process. The final product rarely ends up matching the vision of the original concept. As producers, we oversee the entire development process to assure all the parts fit together, complement each other and match the original vision and target market. We oversee our Design Alliance, which includes all design disciplines, many that architect-only firms overlook, such as acoustics, menu development, or universal design (full accessibility for the maximum number of guests, including children). To assure the best possible environments, our interior designer has as much say, if not more, than the architects when it comes to interior layout and design. Interior designers are trained in the psychology of interior environments and have much more expertise in designing interior spaces than do most architects. So rather than be subordinate to the preferences of architects, she actually directs the interior design, which needs to drive the architecture, rather than the traditional process where architecture drives the interior design. We have specialists in wayfinding and signage on our team to assure both are integrated into the design rather than relegated to an afterthought. And our design team includes an acoustic engineer to make sure the noise doesn't drive you batty. In fact, our projects have received reviews for their incredible acoustics -- you can conduct a conversation without raising your voice.

Our design team uses a concurrent or integrated approach to design, where all the design disciplines are involved in every stage of design. This is far different than the typical sequential design process, where the design is passed from one design discipline to another. This creates constraints on all subsequent design disciplines to find the highest quality and most cost-effective design solutions.

(www.whitehutchinson.com/ aboutus/ vicki.shtml) We are also unique in that our Education & Child Development Director, Vicki Stoecklin (www.whitehutchinson.com/ aboutus/ vicki.shtml) , is intimately involved in the entire development process for family and children's venues. Rather than be just an outside consultant's voice often ignored by architects and designers (due to either egos or lack of understanding of the issues), Vicki directs our design team on all aspects of design that impact the experience of families and children.

We believe that our market- and producer-driven concurrent design process, heavily overseen by both our interior designer and our Education & Child Development Director, is the reason for the success of our projects. These facilities have received many industry awards and wide recognition, including by Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal and the Food Network.

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