On Thursday, August 14, the AIA’s chief economist and occasional prognosticator, Kermit Baker, hopped off the train, just before the blackout. Blithely unaware of what lay in store for us all, he wanted to share preliminary findings from the AIA Firm Survey several weeks before its fall publication. Conducted every three years, the firm survey, compiled with help from McGraw-Hill Construction, has proved to be an invaluable research tool, offering a multidimensional snapshot of the architectural office.

Baker let us in on several key points that should fuel at least a year’s worth of further professional conversation. Obviously, he reported, the recent financial contraction has affected most offices. Architect’s billings have been growing at only about 2 percent per annum, he reported, or just barely keeping up with inflation. No surprises there. However, the number of firms overall declined by 8 percent over the past three years, a meaningful statistic. Are you still in business?