Sheldon R. Stone, FARA, M.Arch, MBA

 

Innovation, education, experience, research, diligence, and creativity to see problems, opportunities, and solutions leading to positive improvements in strategic facility planning to meet an organization's short-, medium- and long-term strategic business objectives -- with the objectives to reduce building construction and operating costs and improve employee productivity.

 

Sheldon Stone is an award-winning architect, a Fellow of the Society of American Registered Architects, and recipient of their National Presidential Gold Medal.  He earned his Master of Architecture from the Ohio State University and his MBA from Case Western Reserve University.

Immediately after passing his architect registration exams, Stone started his own architectural practice.  During the next 18 years his experience included all phases of the practice from program analysis, design, and contract documents through bid and construction.  His clients have included the State of Ohio, City of Cleveland, City of Oberlin, the U.S. Air Force, and various universities, corporations, and developers.  In every project, Stone employed proven business and organization tools to design on-budget cost-effective projects that met his clients’ short- and long-term building and employee needs.

Stone branched out to the real estate services industry, working for two national real estate due diligence firms.  In the first he rose from a project manager to a Vice President within six months.  In the second, he served as Vice President of Corporate Services.  Several years ago Stone took a lead role in developing, then helping to write the U.S. General Services Administration Public Building Service “Site Selection Guide” initially used for all new United States Federal Court property acquisitions.  Stone worked with the U.S. General Services Administration, General Motors, Toys “R” Us, Staples, major banks, real estate services companies, property owners, and developers.

     Stone’s numerous articles have appeared in the Society of American Registered Architects state and national publications.  His research, articles, and presentations concerning methods to improve process management have received high recognition.  For further information, please see our Home webpage under “What is Strategic Facility Planning (SFP)?” – “Case Example” – “International Awareness.”

     Stone presented a paper entitled “The Organization Behavior Component of Facilities Management – Becoming Part of the Business Process,” at that year’s International Conference for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) W70 2004 Hong Kong Symposium, “The Human Elements of Facilities Management - Understanding the Needs of the Customers.”  CIB is the acronym of the former French name, "Conseil International du Bâtiment" (International Council for Building).  The CIB had been established in 1953 with the support of the United Nations.  Its objectives were to stimulate and facilitate international collaboration and information exchange between governmental research institutes and to assist in the reconstruction of the European infrastructure following World War II.  As noted on the official CIB website, “It is no exaggeration to say that at present CIB is the world's foremost platform for international cooperation and information exchange in the area of building and construction research and innovation.”

    The paper was included on the Fraunhofer IRB website, Germany's central facility for national and international knowledge transfer in planning and building. Their partners include the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Affairs; the German Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning; the German Institute for Construction Technology; the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs in Austria; and many other German and international partners. The Fraunhofer IRB website states that they include papers "mainly from German-speaking countries."