1. Personal relationships with clients
Working on residential projects allows for a personal connection that simply doesn’t exist on commercial or civic projects. The distinction might be based purely on the fact that residential projects are not developed for profit. When I work with a developer, the bottom line is really the client because that’s what driving the decision making process. Residential work is motivated by the individual who is paying for the work – it’s their money and the level of emotional/ personal involvement is proportional to that end. I have written other posts that explore this concept in greater lengths, one is title ‘Clients and Online Dating’ (here) if you are interested in reading more.
2. Involvement of the client in the process
I also have another post that discusses the traits that make a great client (here). Most of the traits are more readily available with residential projects because of the personal and emotional involvement clients demonstrate when it is for their own benefit. We do quite a bit of commercial work for individuals who originally came to us as residential clients – they liked the experience of working with us, enjoyed the methods at which we problem solved (which for the record are not intrinsic to residential vs. commercial) and asked us to take on a project type that was not in our typical base of expertise. Interestingly enough, my experience with these clients is dramatically different with them in the role of homeowner than when they are in the role of developer.
3. My role in the process
I learned a long time ago that I enjoy working on projects where I am involved in the entire process. Starting with initial programming meetings, through design development, construction drawings and construction administration, I enjoy them all. The size of most residential projects lends themselves to this level of involvement. While this might be more the result a the size of firm rather than project type, my experience has shown me that residential firms need individuals that can wear several hats at once far more often than large firms (regardless of project type of size).
4. Length of projects
This is one item that I debated leaving off the lists as a positive. A very high percentage of our residential projects have a higher cost per square foot construction cost than our commercial projects (the biggest separator being land costs). The general timeline in our office for starting a project and getting through programming, schematic design and design development is around 3 months. Once the project enters the construction documents phase (unless we have a client who constantly makes changes – which all are guilty of to some degree) we can typically get a high quality competitive bid set of drawings issued in 2 to 4 months. Construction generally runs around 9 to 14 months on our projects but here is a good rule of thumb:
- A really top level contractor, on a project with high end level finishes, can only average about $25,ooo a week (slightly lower end might be around $18k – $20k). Take your budget and divide by the approximate level of your finish out and you will get a pretty good approximation of how long your period of construction will take. I learned this rule from a great contractor years ago and have been amazed at how often it works out.
All told, most residential project take around 18 months to two years from start to finish and the amount of time required from my level of involvement seem to be just the perfect amount to keep me motivated and focused on the project. Some commercial projects are in the works for years before they break ground. They stop and start, get put on hold, pull them back out of the drawer where you have to review them for code changes from when you put them in the drawer, etc., shift directions due to constantly changing external factors. It can be an exasperating experience and I’d just as much try to avoid that nonsense as much as possible.
5. Opportunity to Teach
This can mean several things; for some, it’s a balance between their professional working lives and teaching at a institution of higher learning. For others, like me, I have the ability to work with younger architectural interns at my office and help guide them along their process of becoming an architect with quality skills (at least I hope). Since residential practices often require each individual to wear several hats, interns are given responsibility early and are frequently asked to demonstrate proficiency at a faster rate than they might be at a larger office. This puts me in a position to try and help the interns who work with me understand what they are being asked to do, rather than simply sketching it out and telling them to put it into cad. I enjoy this aspect of my job probably as much as any other and I have found out that I’m pretty good at it. The opportunity to teach people has helped me stay on my toes knowing that anyone could walk into my office and ask me “why?” and I’d better have an answer.
6. Opportunity to Learn
The ability to work on projects that have a relatively short life span in our office means that we can experiment more frequently. I wouldn’t want to come right out and say we get things wrong, but I will say that we can get things better. Personal evolution is a strong reason to work on smaller projects – at least those whose start to finish is measured in months (like 18). I’d like to say that I am not terribly influenced by trends but I know better. I have been able to track my own predilections over the last several years as I have come to know what’s important to me in the architecture I create but there are constantly evolving technologies along with the availability to new materials, I am always looking for the opportunity to marry the appropriate material with the appropriate project.
7. Flexible Hours
Let’s get this one out of the way up front; you work a lot of hours as an architect, 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration right? Except who among us ever has ever stopped at 10% of the hours in a work week? With a practice that’s focused on residential work, most of our clients have jobs that are not associated with the designing and construction of their building. As a result, we frequently meet on a schedule that meets their needs, which includes a lot of night and weekend meetings. A positive spin on that is the ability to be flexible with my time during most regular business hours. I have been able to attend all the school programs for my daughter and I work in the school cafeteria serving food once a month. I know all the kids in her class and they all know me and that’s the way I like it to be. I have a friend who is a partner at HKS and he just reached 2 million miles on American Airlines at 37 years old. While I know his paycheck is far greater than my own and I am happy for his success, I feel that I am better compensated.
8. Ownership
To be direct, residential practices tend to be driven by the talents and personality of a small few, typically the person whose name is on the door. The “Sole Practitioner” category represents the highest percentage of licensed architects in this country and I have been searching for some statistic that tells me what market sector these practices focus on. What I do know would suggest that they are residential practices and I know that of the times I have thought through starting my own practice, the focus would be on residential work. The reason I went to the firm I am currently at 8 years ago was to get quality experience in this building type so that when I did go out on my own I would be prepared (turns out I like the people I work with and they like me).
9. Part of a Community
This is also an area that could have several different meanings. A majority of our projects are concentrated in a geographically small area, something in the neighborhood of 10 miles squared. That community knows who we are and we have taken lengths to get to know who they are. At my office, we use a credit card that has a rewards program for business purchases and at the end of every year; we turn all the points into cash reward cards and donate them to the local elementary school to buy things that the local independent school district can’t provide. I am very proud to say we do this but it’s really to two partners in the firm – it’s their points. These rewards could easily be turned into several nice vacations for their families but as a part of that community, they don’t spend any appreciable time thinking about what how those rewards will benefit others in more need.
10. Good for my Ego
I feel constant gratification for the work I do and the time I spend on projects for others. These people are paying me for my time but they know that I am just as invested in the success of the project as they are – and as a result, I feel appreciated. I speak with far too many people who either don’t like what they do or work for a paycheck to take this appreciation for granted. When I have visitors come in from out of town, I generally arrange for them to take a tour of some of my projects and the homeowners are always excited to show people their house. This goes on for years after the project has been completed. The homeowners always go on about how great their house is, how much everyone likes it, how important I was to the process – it’s a great feeling and seems to be fairly unique to our profession and more specifically to residential architects. I am friends with everyone one of my clients. Eventually, they aren’t my clients anymore, they are simply my friends.
.
To say I could elaborate on this list of reasons is an understatement. I hope you will leave a comment to contribute to the discussion. If you are already an architect who is thinking about getting into this market sector, check out this book by my friend Michael Malone titled “The Architect’s Guide to Residential Design“.
There are clients I like and then there are clients I love. There are loads of reasons why but the best clients always seem to share some of the same characteristics. These reasons might seem obvious to some but in most cases, my favorite clients have every single one of these traits. Feel free to leave your own favorite qualities in the comment section.
1. Involved in the process:good architecture is the result of a back and forth process, needs versus wants. Clients that participate in the process of evaluating and setting priorities are in a better position to make a diminishing scale of values. This type of client involvement helps create ownership of the process, and ultimately the end product.
2. Understand their budget:this is not the same as knowing your budget. It’s sort of a glass half empty versus glass half full mentality – but with money. One has an empty “budget bag” that they think they can put stuff in until it’s full; the other has a bag with their budget in it and they take things out until the budget is expended. It might seem like the same thing but it’s not. The group putting stuff in the bag will continually try and jam more stuff in, well beyond when the zipper will close (just sit on it and then try…). The other, well, when you take the last thing out, that’s it, there’s nothing left. Whenever we have clients that stress quantity over quality, it’s a harbinger of things to come. It’s not the clients job to know what things cost, but when they keep increasing the square footage of the project, or continue to add program requirements without ever thinking that these things have costs associated with them, it’s shows that they aren’t thinking about the very base fact that everything has a cost associated with it.
3. Challenge the norm: the best projects are a result of clients who push the envelop, those who are not interested in what everyone else is doing but rather interested in getting something that is uniquely theirs. Again, it’s an indication of ownership, both in the process and in the result.
4. Willing to Change:these clients will listen to the advice of the experts they have hired. Just because you have lived in a house your whole life does not necessarily make you qualified to design one. Let’s take a look at the simplest of spaces – the bathroom. In a nutshell it’s a toilet, a sink, a shower, bath or some combination of the two. Used one before and you pretty much have the essence of the thing. Let interject some variables; finish materials, cabinetry, door locations (one door from a hall or single room or shared access between multiple rooms), accessories (bath towel, hand towel, toilet paper roll, etc.) do you have a warming drawer (like you might see in kitchens), is the mirror configured to not steam up, or is there a TV behind a portion of it? I could keep going on – and half of this list involves technologies that weren’t available a few years ago. We even joke with some of our clients that we get at least one “Do what I say” card that we get to play at some point, ha ha right? We always use it.
5. Don’t already have it all figured out: This one seems pretty obvious. If we have someone who comes in and tells us that they already know what they want, they just need someone to draw it up….I’m out. If this is you, don’t even bother calling me because I’m not interested.
6. Expectations change as the process evolves:This is really about enjoying the process. Part of the design process will be discovering the unexpected; which is really the best, most exciting part. Some clients get as excited as we do when there is a struggle to find a better way, to explore the possibilities of what we think we know. There is typically a “Ah-Ha!” moment when things come together and the results look so obvious and simple, you wondered how it was that you only just know figured it out. These are great moments and are always the best part of any day.
7. Flexible:This is sort of an extension of #6 but I’ll focus on something that goes wrong; because something always goes wrong during construction. There are too many moving parts with dozens of separate individuals working on a project for there not to be misunderstandings, gaps in the documentation or even omissions. A good project requires everyone working together towards a common goal, a great project requires everyone to be on the same page and collaborating. The by-product of this collaboration means that as the project is getting built, things will require the input of the individuals working and sometimes that input requires change. Clients who understand the value of collaboration have the ability to be flexible – it’s an extension of teamwork.
8. Enjoy the construction process:Instead of waiting for the project to simply be done, the clients who come out and do more than project their lives into the building. They want to understand and see what’s happening. When you see clients on the job-site, some might think, “oh no, what are they doing here…”. I think, awesome, let’s walk around and see how things are turning out. I really enjoy explaining what people see on a job site (“see that piece of wood right there? That’s a fire stop”). The construction process is another part of the process and I like clients who are as involved during the building as they were selecting appliances. In some cases, I enjoy the clients who come out to the job-site during construction a lot more.
9: Sum of the whole is greater than it’s parts:We have all heard this phrase but putting into action can be tough. The items listed #1 through #8 all contribute towards an great client and the more of those traits (to me) the better. All of these characteristics have value and I don’t have them listed in any particular order. That having been said, the benefit of these traits seem to exponentially compound on one another and more time than not, when a client exhibits a few of these traits, they tend to exhibit them all.
10: Owners with Ownership: This is sort of the tally line for the entire list. Clients that go through and invest themselves into this process validate the end result because they didn’t just order this project, they helped create this project. Being involved and knowing why a thing exists they way it does, helps support it’s justification for being that particular way. Every owner I know who has committed themselves to the experience through their involvement has turned into my greatest advocate. I believe this to be true because they choose to get involved and be a part an act of creation – but they didn’t just “place an order” for a product, they came along for the experience and the “product” just happened to be the end result.
Julius Caesar
I have been struggling lately with a post I wrote some time ago about the top ten reasons to not be an architect and the top ten reasons to be an architect. When I wrote these, it was a response to another blog I saw where the author was really down on the profession of architecture and had prepared a list of reasons why someone should not consider architecture as a career. I thought the list was terrible and when I finished reading the list, I determined that he must not be a very good architect; if your terrible at your job, you probably don’t like it regardless of what it is. Right?
The only way I would write my own reasons for not being an architect would be after I had written one containing a list of reasons why you should be an architect – so that’s what I did. The problem since then is that these are the two most popular posts (or at least the most viewed) I have written – with the list of reasons NOT to be an architect in the lead – by a mile.
“Et tu Brute?”
Shakespeare wrote this now famous line describing the moment when Julius Caesar saw Brutus amongst the traitors who stabbed him; in my case, the role of Julius Caesar will be played by Architecture, I will be Brutus, and the first post I read that led to me writing my own list of reasons will be Cassius. If I remember my history, things did not go well for Brutus and he took his own life.
In the 23 days since I wrote the first list, it has had almost 8,000 views (that I know of). I have been contacted by several other sites asking if they could copy the list and add their own comments. A German design magazine wants to run it in their magazine. In addition, I know that it’s also been published in Italy, Portugal, and Brazil. At first I was really excited because I had just started writing my blog and these lists were generating a tremendous amount of interest in my site which lead to them being exposed to my other posts. I had no expectation that these two posts would be popular and quite honestly, I didn’t have anything clever to write about so I took the easy road and wrote these top ten lists.
Maybe the reason I feel so guilty about writing the list of reasons not to be an architect is that despite being a party to trashing the profession that I love, I am happy that people have found my blog. I told someone just a few days ago that I write my posts for other people to read and that it was important to me to get more and more people reading this blog, otherwise I should just keep a diary. I care about what I write and I want people to feel something when they read it – move them to thinking or understanding something differently. To stop writting now seems unfathomable, but maybe I am at a crossroads. Do I keep writing and try to stay relevant so people are interested and keep coming, keep writing but at my own pace and schedule (and unplug from the para-metrics that tell me if anyone is coming and what they are reading), or quit all together.
I’m not sure what I’d vote for just now, but I never thought that what people wanted from me the most was a top ten list…..I feel cheap, like veneer…
So if your reading this post, I would like for every architect (or architect in training) to list one reason in the comment section below, or email me at bob@lifeofanarchitect.com, about what you like about being in this profession. I will collect all the answers and publish them. Since I have so many readers from non-english speaking countries, I will do my best to translate your comment.
Thanks.
1. The gene pool that is your social life will not have a lot of diversity
Architects are friends with other architects. This is either because they are the only other people you see because of item #3, or your interests align closely so you run into the same people (because architects don’t stop being architects at 5:00pm). I know of about 10 married couples where both are architects. I don’t know any lawyers married to lawyers, or doctors married to doctors – certainly not the extent that architect marry one another. Really, why is this?
2. The pay and benefits are not as good as they could be
I have not tracked this information but rather basing it on what I know from colleagues working at other architectural firms. A majority of architectural firms do not offer comprehensive benefit packages that would be considered standard in other professional industries. I am talking about 401K programs, dental and vision insurance, availability to get long term disability, flex spending accounts, etc. I have already written about the pay structure for architects (you can find it here). I am one of the lucky ones because I work at one of the rare (rare like finding a live platypus in your toilet) firms that offers almost all of these things and we only have 6 full time employees. The fact that we do it here is evidence that other firms can do it as well if they made it a priority. There are occasions when my wife comes home and I imagine how things could be different if I worked in a “real” industry that cared about its employees over the long haul. Maybe that should be a post – do architectural firms really care about their employees? As an industry, we seem to value the experience that comes from someone who has moved around - we just don’t want to foot the bill while training someone else’s future employee.
3. The hours you work are long and under-valued
The time you spend working on a project, in many regards, is proportional to the quality of the end product. It is very difficult to separate out the desire to create something with the business of how much time you have to create it. As a result, architects tend to work late hours developing scheme after scheme to evaluating possible solutions. Most of the time, so much fee is burned up during schematic design and design development when the people with the highest billing rates contribute, that the production period of the project is compressed down into a calendar deadline, not a fee-based allotment of time. The difference is that the company doesn’t pay you more for working a 8 hour day versus a 16 hour day – but they do pay rent on the space you occupy, the computer you use, the software on that computer, etc. If there is 200 hours of time allocated to produce construction drawings (at your billing rate) and you work 8 hour days – that 25 work days of time. If you work 16 hour days, that’s slightly more than 2 weeks and all the overhead associated with a person working in your position has just essentially been cut in half. Great for them, sucks for you -it’s hazing for adults.
4. Your ideals don’t really matter
Your clients hire you to give them a product that they want, not necessarily what you want. We basically go to school to learn how to learn – architecture isn’t a trade. As a result, you should be equipped to design projects that aren’t in the style of architecture that you would like to do for yourself. Most projects are developed for profit and despite the fact that good design equals good solutions which translates into a form of measured success, everybody wants more for less. There will be times when you are told to do something that you know is terrible and the absolute wrong thing to do. Based on your need for the work, or the force of your personality, you will make concessions that will make you want to die.
5. If your ideals are important to you, you will lose work
Because architects are opinionated, they will argue for points that the client has clearly stated that they do not want. You are probably thinking that a clearly stated result, while demonstrating the error in the alternative, will win out. It doesn’t always work that way. I have been fired by a client, while trying to fire them, because I didn’t want my name associated with their project. They didn’t know that I was trying to get both the husband and wife into the office so we could give them the drawings, wish them luck, and then kick their sorry butts out the door. So while I was trying to schedule a meeting with both of them, the husband got mad that we “weren’t listening” when the wife said she could handle the meeting without her husband. We really needed them both in this particular meeting. Ironic really.
6. Not all architects have fun jobs
Maybe glamorous is a better word than fun. I am sure that 95% of the time you spent in your design studios at school was about design and not about construction detailing or project management, or communication, shop drawings, billing, etc. Very few architects 10 years down the road into their careers are “designers”, most are project architects. The role of project architect can be very rewarding but there will be aspects to that job that you never imagined could be so tedious and boring. The only analogy I can currently think of to describe it is building a car so you can drive down the street. A lot of work goes in to creating buildings and very little of that time is spent on design.
7. The house you live in will depress you
This is an easy one because what I know is far from what I can afford. I have lived in 5 houses during a 15 year stretch and have spent almost as much time fantasizing all the things I could do to make them better as I have fantasized about winning the lottery. The good news is that the light at the end of the really unimaginably long tunnel is your future ability to change that situation. It just takes patience.
8. You will live with terrible decisions
The nature of architecture includes, and sometimes require, experimentation. As a result, you will make decisions that are really bad and you will have to live with knowing that your terrible idea is ruining people’s lives all day, every day. The good news is that buildings seem to be disposable now and it will only be a matter of time before your mistake is corrected by someone else. Oh yeah – the projects you do that are good will also be disposable and shortly torn down to make way for yet another branch bank.
9. Architecture requires a lot of work and dedication
Architects go to school for a long time, take a lot of demanding tests, and have to work for years to gain the experience to call themselves an “architect”. There are a lot of other jobs that if you were to put in the same level of time and singularly minded dedication, you would be much further along in your development. Please note that I didn’t say that you would be making more money because we have already rung that bell. This is about putting your time in and paying your dues to develop the skill to practice architecture. I’d like to think that most architects are pretty bright individuals and if they wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer they could have. If you want to be a lawyer, go get a 4 year degree, then 3 years of law school, graduate and take a test. 7 years and you are in! It took my 6 years and 207 degree hours to get my Bachelors degree in Architecture and I studied abroad during that time. I worked for 6 years before taking the Architectural Registration Exam (passed them all on the first try btw) and was rewarded with a healthy raise of $0. Point is, you had better really want to be an architect – I did and I knew it when I was 5 years old. Then again, 5 year olds don’t know much yet so re-evaluate from time to time.
10. You probably won’t be a designer
In my class, everyone thought they were the next super-designer. I mean every single person. The truth is, almost none-of them are now. I get to spend a lot of my time designing (in my office of eight) but I spend a lot more time doing other things. There is one person in our office that comes closest to meeting the definition of “designer” but even she does more than that. I spent time working at RTKL in the mid-90′s and there were about 120 people in that office. Out of those 120, probably 108 were being developed as project architects and they never talked to a client. If they were lucky, maybe they talked to a contractor but it took years to get to that level. the remaining 12 were the designers. Those 12 were made up of 5 who designed things that actually got built and the other 7 designed things that sold the work that the previously mentioned 5 designed. I was one of the 12 and I thought it was a terrible job. I never did see anything get built in person. I didn’t have to worry about how it was going to be detailed – that was someone else’s job. Eventually, they started putting me in front of clients because I am picking good at talking in front of a lot of people and can think well enough on my feet to avoid saying something that will get us in trouble. At any rate, aspiring to be a designer isn’t as great as you might think it is.
If you are reading this list, you owe it to yourself to read the list of reason why you should be an architect. You can find it here
