Making the worst task slightly easier for all Countless times last year, architects were called into a principal’s office and told they were being laid off: the depressed economy brutalizing the blameless. That thousands of professionals have lost their jobs is bad enough, but the psychological harm to the firm and those lucky enough to remain can also be damaging. With the possibility that more layoffs will occur this year, how can firm principals make staff cuts less painful? To what extent can and should you delay the inevitable? When everyone knows the ax is about to fall, how do

There are many ways to get a client to pay, starting with frank communication and looking out for red flags. How do you cope with a client reluctant to pay what they owe? The best advice is to apply certain preventive measures to avoid the problem in the first place. Whether the client is suffering from the slowdown or is simply a deadbeat, paying attention to your business can forestall future headaches. Illustration: © Shout And yet many architects tend to be more interested in the execution of projects than in managing their firm as a business, says Michael Strogoff,

The traditional way in which architecture and engineering firms partner may be transforming. It is becoming widely understood that interdisciplinary collaboration is critical early in the design process if maximum sustainability is to be achieved. To encourage such novel relationships among owners, architects, consultants, and constructors, the AIA has been promoting “integrated project delivery” and has developed legal documents to support it. Illustration: © Alison Seiffer Some architecture firms are responding by shedding traditional relationships with consultants and hiring their own in-house engineers. Some existing AE firms are changing the way they practice by promoting interdisciplinary collaboration earlier in the

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” wisely opined Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra. In these days of economic turmoil, construction industry observers may wish they had made better predictions. Might there have been ways to avoid the downturn, or at least mitigate its effect on architecture firms? According to McLean, Virginia—based consultant Raymond Kogan, AIA, looking ahead by projecting major industry trends can help firms avoid being fatally blindsided by future events. Better yet, anticipating what’s coming can reveal new opportunities for profitable work. Illustration © Robert Meganck Most of the trends that Kogan suggests firms

If Rip Van Winkle, AIA, awoke today with no knowledge of the near collapse of the economy last year, and he decided to start catching up on news of the profession by checking architectural record’s Top 250 Firms list, he might be skeptical of the rumors that we’re in one.

In the current troubled economy, a powerful one-two punch has stung architects searching for work. First, there are few openings at firms, many of which have laid off workers in droves in recent months while also imposing hiring freezes. Plus, competition for those few spots is fierce, as tens of thousands of out-of-work architects do battle with thousands of recent graduates. Illustration © A. Richard Allen But among those who aren’t enrolling in graduate school to ride out the storm, unemployed architects are hardly acting cowed. If anything, they’re redoubling their efforts to find work — including, of course, prepping

If the new federal stimulus package fulfills one of its promises—greening the built infrastructure in the United States—it will generate a huge amount of work for architects. Even while the depressed economy means fewer new construction projects, there will be meaningful work in building assessment and subsequent renovation, especially in the public sector. Much of the energy analysis of existing buildings will relate to HVAC systems and therefore be more in the domain of engineers than architects. But owners may still see architects as their first point of contact for any work related to their facilities. And architects can deploy

Intensification of collaborative practices within the office may result in novel outcomes that can significantly enhance cost-effectiveness as well as project quality. 

Building trust, goodwill, and respect among all the multidisciplinary players is also essential to integrated project delivery. How do you do that? “Transparency, openness, and a willingness to share information,” states Jim Summers, an associate in the Boston office of Burt Hill, “will enable the change of focus from individual to project.” Their team members will spend a significant amount of time together to understand a clear scope of responsibilities, design objectives, degree of risk, and bottom line; this “fleshing out” is part of the discovery process resulting in a contract that supports a unique work flow. Summers is amazed