When UK-based architecture practice Stride Treglown set out to solve its Revit content management challenges, the team didn’t just choose AVAIL’s content management solution—they created a thoughtful rollout plan that met the culture of the company and led to a steady, successful adoption of the software. Stride Treglown’s technology team transformed a patchwork of siloed and uncontrolled files into a centralized, easy-to-use system that is now embraced across the business. Learn more about how the team went from no content management system (CMS) to a championed use of AVAIL and the creative strategies—like a playful yet utilitarian Advent calendar—they employed along the way.
Jump to
- Finding the Right Fit
- AVAIL Advice: Take Advantage of Customizable Elements
- Steady Success: Stride Treglown’s Deployment Process
- Award-winning Advent Calendar
- The Value of AVAIL
- What’s Next? Project Photography and More
Finding the Right Fit
What started as a proactive search to fix a point-problem with Revit led Stride Treglown’s Senior Associate, Chartered Architectural Technologist Chris Charlton to eventually build a case for a firm-wide content management solution.
Previously, Stride Treglown’s network of nine studios functioned without a content management system while offering services in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, masterplanning, town planning, building surveying, graphic design, and social research. Without a centralized way to organize digital assets, some content was locked down—where it could not be added to or edited—and other content was too open—where anyone could add and make edits.
“We stumbled upon AVAIL, like we did a few others,” Chris says. After trialing the AVAIL content management system (CMS) alongside three other options, “AVAIL stood out head and shoulders above the rest,” Chris says.
During the trial process, when the team tried to upload content, other CMS candidates were wracked with errors. “We instantly lost confidence in those platforms,” Chris says.
The AVAIL CMS, on the other hand, did exactly what it said it was going to do. “It’s quite intuitive to use,” Chris says. “People pick it up very easily, and it’s very user-friendly.”
AVAIL Advice: Take Advantage of Customizable Elements
The Stride Treglown team took their time to create a customized system of Key Cards, Channel Cards, and Channel Groups in the AVAIL CMS that helps them achieve a seamless, branded, and intuitive experience for end-users. Using the organizational strategies of color and icons—the latter of which was created by the firm’s in-house graphics team—Stride Treglown is able to break down about 30 Channels into a smooth, easy-to-navigate system.
Steady Success: Stride Treglown’s Deployment Process
To meet a culture that had previously not used a content management system, Chris and his team took the following steps to deploy the wholly new software to the nine-studio firm.
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Defined a content management strategy: “We wrote a document that would guide anyone new coming in to see exactly how we have everything set up,” Chris says.
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Started with a silent rollout: Prior to firm-wide deployment, Chris and his team spent about three months “getting our house in order,” he says, which involved speaking to specific sector leads to bring content out of silos and building up a basic structure to make AVAIL easier to access.
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Created short how-to video guides: When the team officially launched the AVAIL system in autumn of 2024, it was easy to share these in-house, “intentionally brief guides”—five videos around five minutes each—with the wider team.
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Removed old library: In the location of the old library, the Stride Treglown team placed a folder that simply says “Use AVAIL.” There was no other choice to get the content designers needed.
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Creative nudges: To encourage more people onto the AVAIL CMS, the team created an Advent calendar with daily riddles and hidden content.
Award-winning Advent Calendar
Following the firm’s official AVAIL CMS rollout in autumn of 2024, Chris wanted to bring as many people onto the platform as possible. “At that point, I was keen to inundate as many people in the business with AVAIL over and over again,” he says.
So, the Stride Treglown team cooked up the idea of an Advent calendar as a way to regularly nudge team members to AVAIL. “We set up a little riddle each day which alluded to what the content might be,” Chris says. It was a healthy mixture of genuinely useful content for the business, as well as less-serious content playing with themes like Father Christmas and Star Wars. The goal was “to make as much noise as we could to as many people,” Chris notes.
Looking back, “It felt worth doing,” Chris says. Stride Treglown’s Advent calendar was named the “Most Creative” in AVAIL’s 2025 Show Your Cards Contest.
The Value of AVAIL
When asked one word he would use to describe AVAIL, Chris says, “Slick.” He adds, “it works and works well … It’s been incredibly well thought through.”
The content management features that come together to create this experience for Chris and his team include:
- Key Cards, Channel Cards, and Channel Groups: Customizing these elements in AVAIL has created an intuitive, visual guide for Stride Treglown designers to easily move through the firm’s content.
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AVAIL for Revit, Harvest Mode: The ability to harvest pre-drawn details like Drafting Views into a detail library is a powerful tool for Stride Treglown’s team. “We are in a bad habit of continually redrawing the same detail over and over again on every project and stupidly making mistakes on it or drawing it differently,” Chris says. “Features like that have the potential to save a huge amount of time.” Materials transfer perfectly from project to project.
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Host In Cloud: “The Host In Cloud capability creates a good balance,” Chris says. “It keeps people from making accidental changes to content but—at the same time—gives us that flexibility to open up access to people in the business who know what they’re doing.”
Getting Started with AVAIL: AEC’s All-In-One Content Management Solution
Watch recorded webinarWhat’s Next?
AVAIL helped Stride Treglown streamline its content library so all its studios and disciplines can find the content they need, quickly.
“We’re not finished,” Chris says. “Each time we fix one issue, it gives us a little more breathing space to look at the next thing.”
Now that they have successfully rolled out the AVAIL software across the firm, Chris and his team can turn their attention more to content curation and management.
More Than a Platform: Mead & Hunt’s Partnership with AVAIL
The multidisciplinary firm of around 1,500 employees turned to AVAIL to make it easier for their designers and engineers to find the right data, quickly.
About Stride Treglown
One of the UK’s largest architectural practices, Stride Treglown was founded in 1953 and now boasts nine studios in the UK. Pursuing design excellence with a human approach, the practice offers services in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, masterplanning, town planning, building surveying, graphic design, and social research.
ABOUT AVAIL
Founded in 2016 as a solution for architecture and engineering firms to find the information they need faster, AVAIL creates software for the global architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. AVAIL’s content management system (CMS) platform and Revit application tools help designers and engineers take control of their intricate network of files in one visual, streamlined solution. AVAIL’s customers include industry leaders Gensler, Perkins&Will, IMEG, LEO A DALY, and Populous.
