Magnificent Home Improvements: Architecture Profession

It's no secret that Architecture is generally thought of as a noble profession.  Along with the idea that you get to create buildings out of thin air is also the responsibility of maintaining a professional license.  Many people consider being an Architect as being on par with Doctors and Lawyers when it comes to stature and salary.  Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.  For years Architects have been engaging in deplorable behavior and the profession has suffered.  During the most recent recession, Architecture had one of the highest unemployment rates among all service professions.  In 2011, the New York Times said that Architecture graduates had the highest unemployment rate above any other field.  Doctors and Lawyers weren't even in the top 50.  So what can we learn from these other professions?  Here's a few of my own observations: 1- Architects need to specialize - If you were drafting a contract to buy a company, you would hire a corporate attorney.  If you were getting a divorce, you would hire a divorce attorney.  It's pretty simple.  Each of these areas of practice have specific skill sets that require attention to details.  Architecture is no different.  Designing a hospital is completely different than designing a fast food restaurant.  Unfortunately, most Architects will take any job that comes their way regardless of their skill set.  This results in more competition (which lowers overall wages) and lower quality buildings.   If Architects focused on a smaller group of practice areas then they could afford to focus on quality and details.  The best Architects of our time are the ones who are really good at a select group of building types.  2- Architects should focus on regional practice - You won't see many doctors travelling from state to state to do surgeries.  It's not to say that they couldn't (they would have to get licensed by the board of each state).  It's mostly because they don't have to.  They charge enough money for their skills to stay within a fixed region.  Many doctors have affiliations with one or two hospitals that allow them to conduct business on their turf.  They don't have affiliations with 40 hospitals or try to make money on volume.  Architects who become known in a certain region or area tend to become a known entity and therefore have a large referral base.  Trying to practice in too many states or regions often results in producing generic buildings that have no sense of place and therefore devalue local real estate. 3- Architects should refer projects to other Architects - At one point or another everyone has gotten a referral from a doctor to go to a specialist.  Imagine if you specialized in designing pool houses and every time another Architect had a pool house in their project, they called you up?  It would never happen in the Architecture profession.  But it happens every day in the legal and medical professions.   Many of the best firms often partner with other firms that specialize or are local to a project instead of trying to do everything themselves.  Instead of cutting our fees to win every job, we could be sharing the work and raising the wages for everyone.  Which leads me to my next issue. 4- Architects should not be lowering their fees to get work - Recently my dentist told me that I needed a crown and it would be $1200.  I called another dentist and they told me it was also $1200.  Having a pricing standard ensures both a quality of care and guarantee of wage.  My dentist drives a new Mercedes while I have a 6 year old pick up truck.  I think they have the right idea. 5- Architects should be stand their ground with clients - I don't think there is a doctor around that would let a patient operate on themselves.  Most court cases I've seen have the lawyers doing the talking while the client sits by and watches.  Unfortunately in Architecture, many of our clients want to drive.  And of course we let them in the spirit of collaboration.  And while that can be productive in some situations, the bottom line is that you are the licensed professional and it's your name on the line.  At some point Architects need to stand up for themselves and take the reigns back on a project.   If we never do this as a profession, we will continue to end up with developer driven buildings that devalue our communities.   The unfortunate part about all this is that it will take a uniform effort to make the profession better.  It's all or nothing when it comes to reform that works.  This kind of thing would be perfect for the AIA to work on.  After all, if Architects are specializing in certain areas (and referring work they aren't good at) it means they are doing better work.  And if they are doing better work, then the values in communities start to rise.  If the values in communities start to rise it means that people have more assets.  If people have more assets, they can spend more.  If they can spend more then we can charge more for our services.  And if we can charge more for our services then we can take on fewer projects and do better work.  It's a circle that Doctors and Lawyers know well.  So why don't Architects do it?

5 Things that Architects can learn from Doctors and Lawyers

It's no secret that Architecture is generally thought of as a noble profession. Along with the idea that you get to create buildings ou...

In 1857, 13 Architects got together and founded what is now known as the American Institute of Architects, or the AIA. The group had two main goals which were to educate their members in the science and art of Architecture and to elevate the status of the profession. Fast forward 152 years, the AIA has become an organization that has over 200 employees and 83,000 members. And while it is no longer a grass roots movement, many would argue that the organization is irrelevant and out of touch. Having worked among AIA members for the last fifteen years, I would constantly inquire about the advantages of membership. The conversations would go something like this: Me: Do you get special privileges that Registered Architects can't get? AIA-Member: No. Me: Is it affordable AIA-Member: No. Me: Do you get better deals on books and stuff? AIA-Member: No. Me: Do the other members help you out if you're in a bind? AIA-Member: No. Me: Do they get you work? AIA-Member: They have a section on their web site where my name is listed, but other than that, not really. Me: Do you go to any local meetings? AIA-Member: No. They're too boring and nothing ever happens. Me: Can you charge more for your time because you are in the AIA? AIA-Member: No. In fact, I just lost a job to another AIA Architect who undercut my fee by 25%. Me: Wow. So what are the advantages of being in the AIA? AIA-Member: I get to put the letters "AIA" after my name. Basically that's it. Now I should say that the people that I know in the AIA are small practitioners. This is their experience. It may be different if you go higher up the AIA food chain. Maybe those Architects actually help each other get work or maybe they have the power to get things done. If they do, I haven't heard about it. What I have heard is how disgruntled Architects are about the AIA and how most people I know wouldn't even be members if their company didn't pay the registration fees for them. Those fees by the way, include membership at the National, State, and Local levels. Every branch gets a piece and it gets expensive. They do give you a $37 annual subscription to Architectural Record, so I guess that's something. In 2006, I attended a conference sponsored by Residential Architect Magazine in San Diego. The conference attracted alot of attendees and was generally very successful. At a portion of the conference, we broke up into groups and got to have lunch with different groups of people for lunch. In our group were some national AIA officers who confessed that they had come to the conference to try and attract smaller firms to the AIA. In their research, they had found that small firms (under 10 people) and sole practitioners represented a very small percentage of their membership. They asked us if anyone at the table was a member. Not one person was. They asked us how they could make it more attractive for people like us to join? Needless to say, the lunch wasn't long enough to give everyone a chance to speak. Almost three years later, I see that they have taken none of the suggestions to heart. That being that case, I wanted to put the ideas out there again in the hopes that maybe someone will find these suggestions and bring them up at a meeting. So here they are, in no particular order: 1. Your web site, your marketing, and all of your promotional campaigns are terrible. You people are supposed to be representing Great Design. Your web site looks like a Pharmaceutical company's web site. You can't even find how much it costs to join. On the application, it says "please call for local and state rates". When you try to search for an Architect on your web site, it does it by zip code alphabetically. I'd hate to have a name that started with a W or a Z. How about filters for type of work and size of firm? Lastly, your print ads depict Architects as family psychologists instead of Great Designers. Whoever came up with that campaign should be fired. I did hear an ad recently on AM radio though. Way to elevate the profession. 2. Stop trying to keep people OUT of the profession. In recent years, the AIA has spent alot of time and money lobbying for tighter regulations on who can officially call themselves an "Architect". Apparently, they now own the word and can sue anyone who tries to call themselves an Architect without the proper credentials. I think you have all forgotten who does the 'heavy lifting'. You know those recent graduates who work 90 hours a week when all of the "Architects" have gone home? Instead of trying to prevent them from putting "Project Architect" on their resume, why don't you try to give people more incentive to become an Architect? Better pay for Registered Architects would be a good start. 3. Lobby for Laws that make sense and help Architects. Almost everyone I know has renovated their house in some way. HGTV and big box stores have empowered homeowners to bust apart their houses and get dirty. If you are building a home from the ground up, most states don't even require an Architect's involvement which is evident by cookie cutter developments cropping up all over our country. Perhaps if there was legislation to require that Architects be involved at a Residential scale, there would be more work available for Architects and the overall quality of Residential Design in this country would improve. 4. Don't let EVERYONE join. I'm sure there was a time when being a member carried some exclusivity along with it. Not any more. Every time a new EIFS clad drug store or bank gets built in my neighborhood, it usually bears the seal of an AIA member. Shouldn't the AIA be endorsing great design? For all of your 83,000 members, how many actually build buildings that adhere to the principles of true Architecture? If you want good architects to join (the ones who will really be a credit to the AIA and attract new members) you have to understand that they don't want to be lumped in with bad architects. Recently, an Architect that I admire (who is actually FAIA- very high up on the AIA food chain) told me that if he had to do it over again, he wouldn't even join. How's that for an endorsement. 5. If you can't do any of the above, can you at least get a deal on some books? Architects love books (as do non Architects, and pretty much every Designer I know). With 83,000 members and millions more interested in Architecture books, you would think maybe the largest professional Architecture organization in the US could at least help bring down the cost of publications to its members, right? Wrong. I went to the AIA website to check out some deals on 'Publications'. Even those which are published by the AIA are still 10-20% cheaper on Amazon. How is that possible? If I were spending $1,000 on membership, couldn't you at least give me some deals on a book that you publish? It's just absurd to think that in a world where you can compare prices of everything from your phone, the AIA can't find a way to deliver educational materials to their members at a reasonable cost. And don't even get me started on the AIA Documents. In conclusion, I hope that there is someone out there who can talk some sense into the AIA. I would recommend starting with a frank conversation with the current members to determine what value (if any) membership still has. From what I have seen in the last year, the profession has taken a serious hit from the economy and shows no signs of a quick recovery. I think people and companies will be taking a long hard look at what those three letters are worth on a business card.

Some suggestions for the AIA on saving the profession of Architecture

In 1857, 13 Architects got together and founded what is now known as the American Institute of Architects, or the AIA . The group had two ma...

Magnificent Home Improvements

5 Things that Architects can learn from Doctors and Lawyers

Some suggestions for the AIA on saving the profession of Architecture

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