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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
A Practical Guide to the Career and Practice of Architecture
Where will architecture take you? Find answers in Forever Practice: The Architect at Work, a thoughtful and accessible book by author Jim Nielson, FAIA. Drawn from decades of experience and study, this engaging new book immerses the reader in best practices and proven tools for success.
In 28 brisk chapters, this book lends readers a glimpse of the architect in practice. It instills confidence and purpose. The author demystifies the profession, crafting his narrative—about licensure, project management, sustainability, and so much more—from the fodder of experience, case studies, and savvy. Empowering readers to embrace their role (or their future) as a practitioner, Forever Practice: The Architect at Work:
- Offers concrete steps for leading a collaborative team from project conception through completion
- Includes a wealth of insights and lessons learned to prepare readers for challenges in the field
- Features practice management tools and discussion topics for classroom and independent learning
- Addresses key professional standards, including codes of conduct, ethics, and the standard of care
Forever Practice: The Architect at Work is perfect for architecture students enrolled in professional practice courses. It is also ideal for early-career professionals and seasoned practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of practice management and design team leadership.
“In this book, Forever Practice: The Architect at Work, Jim Nielson, FAIA undertakes the task of introducing the reader to those business skills an emerging architectural professional, as well as a more seasoned professional, needs to succeed over a long career. It’s all there, plus additional resources to explore these topics more deeply. After reading this book, you’ll want to keep it near your computer as a valued reference.”
—RK Stewart, FAIA, Hon FRAIC, Hon JIA, Hon AIA, 2007 AIA National President
“I wish I had had Jim’s book when I was in practice.”
— John S. Reynolds, FAIA, Emeritus, Professor Emeritus, University of Oregon, Co-author, Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings
“For years Jim has played an active role in the regulatory process governing the profession of architecture at the local and national level. This book helps readers — from aspiring architects to seasoned practitioners — come to understand the general requirements of licensure and professional practice.”
— Harry M. Falconer, Jr., FAIA, NCARB, HonD BAC, Hon FCARM, Former Senior Architect | Vice President, Policy + International Relations, NCARB
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Seitenzahl: 397
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Design!: A Foreword
About the Author
Part I: Forever
Chapter 1: Caring About the World We Live In
He’d Keep Designing
Perhaps Architects Care Too Much
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 2: Always Looking for Work
Is There Such a Thing as No-effort Marketing?
Overview: Who Markets?
Marketing Professionals
Delegating Responsibility
Marketing Discussions Continue…
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Part II: Practice
Chapter 3: We Just Keep at It
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 4: Our Environment
Treading Lightly
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 5: The Value of Green
Case Study: Integrated Design and Adding Triple-pane Glazing to a House
Case Study: Utah Department of Natural Resources Office Building
Case Study: U of U Sutton Geology and Geophysics Building
Is Green Better?
Specifics
Too Wasteful, or Just Too Big?
Author’s Note
Notes
Part III: Profession
Chapter 6: The Profession of Architecture
Attitude
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 7: Architectural Licensure
Becoming Licensed
Education, Experience, Examination
NCARB Record
NAAB-accredited Degree
Architectural Experience Program
Architect Registration Examination
Licensure and the Workplace
State Licensing Board
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 8: Regulation and the Code of Conduct
Regulating the Profession
Disciplinary Action
The Architect’s Responsibility
National Council of Architectural Registration Board
American Institute of Architects
The Architect’s Standard of Care
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 9: The Architect’s Standard of Care
Professional Licensing Requirements
Obligation of Professional Association Membership
Contractual Language
Standard of Care—General Test
State Jury Instructions Regarding Standard of Care
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Part IV: Career
Chapter 10: Core Responsibilities
Jack of All Trades
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Chapter 11: Architecture and Related Fields
Owner-contractor
Developer-architect
Risk Management by Striking up a Conversation
Dispassionate Professionalism and Design-Build
Design
Design vs. Management
Allied Careers
Care and Feeding
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Chapter 12: Blog: Architecture Career and Culture
Young Architect Guide: 5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Graduated with My Architecture Degree
The Culture of Architecture Needs an Overhaul, Part I: The Necessity of Cultural Change
The Culture of Architecture Needs an Overhaul, Part II: Historical Background, Today’s Context and Future Steps
The Culture of Architecture Needs an Overhaul, Part III: Creating a Values-based Teaching and Learning Culture
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Part V: Project
Chapter 13: Project Management
Communication
Entitlements
Facilities Program
Project
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Part VI: Firm
Chapter 14: Marketing and Business Development
Beginning
End
Requests for Proposals/Qualifications
Go/No-Go Decision
The Selection Process
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 15: Marketing Proposals
Interview
Management Plan (Project Approach)
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 16: Business and Financial Management
Form of Company
Tax Planning
Succession Planning
General Business Planning
Goals
Building Ownership
Accounting
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Note
Chapter 17: Business and Human Resource Management
Quality
Design
Documentation
Construction
Business Risk
Human Resources
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Chapter 18: Getting It Right I
Inventing Ways to Do Better
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 19: Getting It Right II
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Chapter 20: What About Risks?
More Reward than Risk
Potential Occupational Hazards
How to Mitigate Risks
If a Claim Is Lodged?
About the Contract
Responding to Risk
Notes
Part VII: Community
Chapter 21: Giving Back
Developer
Mentor
AIA College of Fellows
Fellowship Objects of Nomination
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Part VIII: Client
Chapter 22: One of a Kind
Scope of Services
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Chapter 23: Delivery Methods and the Client
Traditional Design-Bid-Build
Design-Build
Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC)
Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)
Bidder-designed Systems and Components are Found in All Delivery Methods
Architect as Consultant Rather than Design Team Leader
Challenges—Architect’s Role: Case Study
Project Leadership
Role Limitations, Based on the Actions of Others
Consequences of a Diminished Role
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Part IX: Construction
Chapter 24: Getting Started
Assisting with Contractor Selection
Contract Documents and the Conformed Set
Bidding and Negotiation
Preconstruction Meeting
Preconstruction Conferences for Individual Trades
Project Meetings/Site Visits
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Chapter 25: Put It in Writing
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Chapter 26: Delivery Methods and the Contractor
Working with the Contractor
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Chapter 27: Bidder-designed Work
Summary
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Notes
Chapter 28: Closeout
Closing Thoughts
Dealing with Conflict
Finally, How Much Do I Understand About Construction?
Additional Resources
Author’s Note
Part X: Appendices
Appendix A: The Facilities Program
Appendix B: The Project Plan
Appendix C: The Project Schedule
Appendix D: Breaking Down the Fee, Scope, and Schedule
Appendix E: Dividing up the Work
Appendix F: Employee Owned
Appendix G: The Project Progress Report
Appendix H: The Contractor’s S-curve
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 25-year TOTAL enterprise cost-conventional building.
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 2002 Olympic speed skating oval. LEED 1.0 Certified.
Figure 5.2 Tunneling through the cost barrier.
Figure 5.3 The Utah Department of Natural Resources Office Building.
4
Figure 5.4 Site as programmed. Image Overlay by the author.
5
Figure 5.5 Site after value engineering.
Figure 5.6 Sutton building roof garden.
Figure 5.7 Sutton building-landscaping.
Chapter 15
Figure 15.1 UVU Fulton Library.
Figure 15.2 UVU Fulton Library.
Chapter 20
Figure 20.1 The Citicorp Tower.
Chapter 21
Figure 21.1
Canstruction
“Peas on Earth.”
Figure 21.2
Casa Maraposa
, Baja, Mexico, Jersey Devil.
Figure 21.3
Mr. Robinson
, a mixed-use project by Jonathan Segal, FAIA.
Appendix B
Figure B.1 Budget allocation of design fee—The project manager evaluates the...
Figure B.2 Percentage of labor expended by phase—The project manager...
Figure B.3 Level-of-effort (Hours) by activity—As part of the assessment...
Appendix C
Figure C.1 Gantt schedule chart. This approach shows a simple progression of...
Figure C.2 Gantt schedule chart with more detailed dependencies.
Figure C.3 A schedule for the rest of us may make it easier for an owner to...
Appendix H
Figure H.1 Plan This original curve plots the anticipated pace of billing ...
Figure H.2 Slippage In this theoretical example, the dashed line shows actual pe...
Figure H.3 Optimistic recovery plan The next curve added to the graph with a dot...
Figure H.4 Alternative ending The final line added (in dash-dot pattern) shows a...
List of Tables
Chapter 13
Table 13.1 Project Acounting—This table shows a method of calculating available...
Table 13.2 Top-down Staffing Budget considers the mix of personnel at different...
Table 13.3 Bottom-up Level-of-effort Budget tallies the tasks and level-of-effo...
Chapter 14
Table 14.1 Go/No-Go Questionnaire—Assuming the ones filling out the form are ho...
Appendix D
Table D.1 Breaking down the fee, scope, and schedule
Appendix E
Table E.1 Dividing up the work
Appendix G
Table G.1 The project progress report
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Design!: A Foreword
About the Author
Begin Reading
Appendix A: The Facilities Program
Appendix B: The Project Plan
Appendix C: The Project Schedule
Appendix D: Breaking Down the Fee, Scope, and Schedule
Appendix E: Dividing up the Work
Appendix F: Employee Owned
Appendix G: The Project Progress Report
Appendix H: The Contractor’s S-curve
Index
End User License Agreement
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Forever Practice
The Architect at Work
Jim Nielson, FAIA
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial intelligence technologies or similar technologies.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Nielson, Jim, author.
Title: Forever practice : The Architect at Work / Jim Nielson, Utah Valley University.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, 2025. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2024062193 | ISBN 9781394324378 (paperback) | ISBN 9781394324392 (epdf) | ISBN 9781394324385 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Architectural practice. | Architecture–Vocational guidance.
Classification: LCC NA1995 .N495 2025 | DDC 720.23–dc23/eng/20250206
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024062193
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: Courtesy of Jim Nielson
I wrote this book for and with the help of my architecture students; I dedicate it to each of them. I retired from practice and took up teaching architecture, figuring that was a way I could give back. As it turns out, my students have been the ones that did the giving.
I have forever been on the receiving end.
—Jim Nielson, FAIA
Preface
I asked a senior designer and colleague why part of a project he was working on was bright red. He shared something he had learned from an architecture professor years previously:
If you can’t make it beautiful, make it big.
If you can’t make it big, make it red.
What struck me is that I actually thought this concept made sense in a way!
During my years in architecture school and as a licensed architect, I went from loving one building in our community that was merely tolerated by most, to adoring another, our new federal courthouse. That building, a cube in shape, has come to be known, and almost universally reviled by community members, as the Borg, of Star Trek fame.
The gift, or perhaps the burden, of being an architect is that we have learned to see things differently. At some point, perhaps, in preparing for a career in architecture, in professional school, or even in practice, some of us may have become accustomed to the idea that painting a building element red, as a design flourish, might somehow make sense.
Becoming an architect, and practicing it, requires both creativity and lengthy preparation. For many, it is a surprising and all-consuming challenge. An architecture student realizes one day that he is in over his head, yet the prospect of tunneling through may motivate. Returning to the interplanetary courthouse metaphor above, it may be that the daunting nature of architecture brings the emerging professional to understand, as the Borg Collective was prone to put it, that “Resistance is futile.”
For a student, professional practice may be unexpected and unfamiliar. Since my move from practice to teaching, my aim has been to make the profession a bit less mysterious. Teaching at a nascent architecture program pursuing NAAB accreditation, I designed our first professional practice course and have been working on the course in the years since.
At some point each of my professional practice students has expressed surprise about at least one aspect of the profession. For many, puzzlement about architectural practice is a steady state. To minimize student bewilderment about their possible future, I thought first to use the AIA reference work, The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice, as reading material. This book is encyclopedic and of immense value. But as the standard source of course readings, it can be a bit much.
A younger brother of mine took to occupying himself by reading from encyclopedias recreationally. My son did the same thing. But for me, as for my students, the definitive architectural reference work proved best if used mostly for looking things up.
My experience that first year inspired a different approach. I began writing brief essays about practice management concepts I wish I had been introduced to in architecture school. These conversations, which would ultimately become course materials, were taken not from any other volume, but from the everyday life of an architect at work. For me, architectural project and practice management became a specialty, almost the day I got out of school.
But that is not where it began. My early career before I pursued architecture spanned several years. I was a management and policy analyst in commercial and government organizations. My focus: making operations succeed. I took on challenging issues, like crafting staffing projections, formulating salaries and expense budgets for large organizations, developing complex procurements, improving credit management, dealing with public relations, communicating with organization heads, streamlining agency-wide financial management, and strengthening grants and contracts administration. I even worked on a Wall Street securitized asset transaction valued at the better part of a billion dollars. As an architect, I found I could put that experience in business and government to use. Increasingly, during my career, if there ever was a contract to write, if my firm had personnel difficulties to resolve, if financial hurdles were threatening to sink us, or if we had a furious client that was about to fire us, I was the one to address it.
In this capacity, I hired people. Unfortunately, I sometimes had to let people go. I handled most employee training. Taking over the reins of firm finances, I directed major accounting improvements, including, hiring and directing the work of a controller for our firm, changing from cash to accrual accounting, dealing with tax planning, being the first ever to gain approval for a Section 179D tax deduction for a firm from our state building authority, and vastly improving our firm’s accounts payable and accounts receivable systems and performance. I created and put in place a firm succession plan (a seven-year endeavor). And I also detailed financial tools to help our project managers develop project plans and manage accordingly.
In preparing this book for publication, I have added end-of-chapter references that offer both tools for instruction and suggestions for research. Student and instructor references come from The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice. Videos that instructors may wish to use in the classroom, where available, are from ACSA’s ProPEL Professional Practice Education Library.
As far as I have been able to determine, and although I have used artistic license on occasion (modifying circumstances and changing or omitting names to ensure privacy) the interactions, events, and conversations shared as examples and case studies in this book are drawn from real events. I have taken these lessons learned and anecdotes from personal experiences as well as from conversations with colleagues and associates in the industry.
In writing this textbook, I have benefitted from the experience and input of trusted colleagues and experts within the profession of architecture and without. Although I acknowledge the critical role others have played in making this book what it is today, in the end, the work is my own; I am solely responsible for its contents.
Jim Nielson, FAIA
Design!A Foreword
When the public thinks of architects, it is design that they cite most often. That perception is borne out by the fact that when movie makers, TV writers, or authors want a creative character audiences will recognize, it’s often an architect that gets cast. Design is usually the characteristic that draws young people to undertake an education and career in architecture. Design is typically the primary focus of most architectural education programs. Without a doubt, design is the architect’s superpower as they envision places that do not yet exist where people will live their lives.
But being a great designer is not the sole skill required to be a great architect. What is often overlooked in the education and public perception of architects are the business skills needed to lead a successful enterprise. As Garry Stevens writes in his classic study of the profession, The Favored Circle, much of the profession’s minimization of the need for business skills may stem from its rise during the Renaissance in Europe. The need to focus on pleasing the patron—think Lorenzo the Magnificent in Florence—for projects, for income, for recognition, often resulted in the architect sacrificing more than they gained.
In some ways, these traditions of sacrifice over self-interest continued into the twentieth century. In the rebuilding and growth following World War II, larger and more ambitious projects were undertaken across society. These projects required larger teams, more scheduling, more financial control, more of everything to succeed. They also required architects to move from a labor-intensive profession to one that required more capital investment to enable them to do their work. The investment in a computer and BIM software, rather than a T-square and a pencil, to create construction documents illustrates the point. Thanks to industry leaders like M. Arthur Gensler FAIA, Eugene Kohn FAIA, Weld Coxe, Hugh Hochberg, and others, architects across the profession have come to understand it was not just OK but required that architects improve their business skills to maintain their position as leaders of the design and construction industry.
In this book, Forever Practice: The Architect at Work, Jim Nielson, FAIA undertakes the task of introducing the reader to those business skills an emerging architectural professional, as well as a more seasoned professional, needs to succeed over a long career. Jim touches on all the skills needed, from getting the work, creating a contract for services, determining appropriate fees, organizing a design team, preparing documents, dealing with contractors, closing out the project, and most importantly—getting paid. It’s all there, including the tools to help execute those business tasks. Plus, he offers additional resources to explore these topics more deeply. After reading this book, you’ll want to keep it near your computer as a valued reference to revisit often.
It is very important that Jim chose to introduce the reader to the “why” and the ethical standards that underpin the profession. Establishing the profession’s concern for society, sustainability, resilience, and equity that guide the work architects undertake before getting to the meat of the book’s business focus is a meaningful choice. As the profession focuses on making people’s lives better and restoring the planet to support all living things, these concerns bring great meaning to all the work that architects do.
I hope that having read Jim’s book, you are better prepared to go out and make great things happen throughout your career.
RK Stewart FAIA, Hon FRAIC, Hon JIA, Hon AIA
2007 AIA National President
About the Author
Jim Nielson, FAIA
Following college and several years in business and government, in 1991 Jim attended the University of Oregon. He graduated with an MArch degree in 1991 and found a job in Salt Lake City, Utah. Licensed in just three years, he worked at leading firms there as project manager and later principal. He would go on to become a firm owner and chief financial officer. Jim’s work spanned higher education, industrial, office, retail, and multi-family projects with public and private clients. He was part of the development team for some of his projects.
During his career, Jim worked on influential sustainable projects, including university buildings rated LEED® Silver and Gold. Years before LEED was introduced, Jim managed a 100,000 SF project incorporating extensive recycled materials, xeriscaping and drip irrigation, and reduced parking with preferential spots for carpoolers. It beat the energy code by more than 50%. Some time later, Jim designed the first underfloor air and utility distribution (UFAD) system for an industrial project in the United States.
In 2021, Jim left practice to take up teaching. He has taught Professional Practice, Environmental Control Systems, and Codes and Construction Law in an emerging program at Utah Valley University currently seeking NAAB accreditation. He has also team taught the Capstone Studio each year. Jim has consulted as an architectural expert on dozens of construction defect cases. Many of the principles in this book are informed by tough lessons he has gleaned from this work. Jim serves on the Board of Governors of Envision Utah, an influential visioning powerhouse active in many markets locally and around the country. He has also been a member of national NCARB task forces and NAAB accrediting teams.
Jim served on the Utah architect licensing board for five years and in the State House of Representatives for four. Over the past 15 years, he has published dozens of op-ed columns to move the needle in public policy debates. As a lawmaker, he shepherded a constitutional amendment that now requires that if we are going to continue extracting nonrenewable resources from our land, a sizeable portion of the severance taxes the state levies on these extractions must be invested for future generations rather than spent as a windfall in the year they are received.
In 2015, in recognition of service to society and to the profession with national impact, Jim was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows, the highest membership distinction of the American Institute of Architects.
During his career, Jim has honed his craft as a firm leader and as a writer and communicator. The art of using simple, clear explanations when telling a story is evident in what he writes, from opinion columns to internal documents. Forever Practice: The Architect at Work is built first upon comprehensive technical understanding of architectural practice. From that foundation Jim forges an engaging conversation, weaving a narrative that is both a superb reference work and a good read.
Part IForever
Architects care deeply about our world and are forever striving to improve it. We are at our best when designing solutions to the challenges facing individuals and communities. Solving these problems requires a steady flow of work. And so, we are forever scouring our surroundings for the next meaningful project.
Irrigating in the desert. Forever lost.
Chapter 1Caring About the World We Live In
On a job-hunting trip shortly before completing his architecture degree, a future architect scored an interview with the lead in-house architect for a large organization. His group wasn’t hiring, but the gentleman graciously continued with a few thoughts about his city and its leading architecture firms.
At one point, the senior architect said to the job seeker rather abruptly, “Architecture is a jealous master. It can take over your life.” He wondered whether the prospective architect was up to the task of balancing his life as an architect with family, community, avocations, and other passions. The field was all-consuming, he told him. If allowed to do so, architecture could easily overshadow everything else this aspiring professional cared about.
Architecture is both demanding and rewarding. Often, those that pursue it can’t help but fall under its spell. Sometimes they just don’t know when to quit.
He’d Keep Designing
“What would an architect do if he suddenly received a million dollars?” I think I was in architecture school when I first heard this quip.
“He’d keep designing until he had spent it all.”
Ask yourself
What is it that makes architecture students pull all-nighters on studio projects? What makes architects polish a Monday design presentation all weekend long?
If they think about it, practitioners may say the reason the profession of architecture often takes over an architect’s life is that almost every task an architect undertakes is so complex that in all her professional pursuits, the architect may never quite reach a point where she’s got it down—where there’s nothing left to figure out. Architects will generally agree that every task an architect completes, whether design, documentation, marketing, or mentoring, could still be improved, extended, or embellished. There is always more that could be done.
Architects tend to be possessed of a perpetual consciousness that they could improve their work further if they just kept at it a little longer. Few are those that recognize when it’s time to quit.
Perhaps Architects Care Too Much
Architects may have important skills that others do not:
An architect is often skilled at seeing solutions to problems that are not obvious
In practice, architects learn to be unusually good at leading a team of experts
Architects generally have training and experience they can apply in designing elegant solutions
Experienced architects may also possess the uncanny ability to understand the big picture very quickly—to recognize instantly the many factors members of their team must work through to craft a successful project
Even if some architects don’t possess special skills such as these, most architects tend to have the self-confidence to convince themselves that their own personal skillsets are a cut above those of contractors, city officials, developers, facilities managers, bankers, and pretty much everyone. So, with sincere confidence in their own unique gifts, experienced architects may forge ahead as if their skills did stand a world apart.
Skills or no skills, because architects usually care deeply about the built environment, they often do feel a burden to put the skills they have to use in the interest of society. In a way, many architects see it as a duty to protect those around them from the dreadful impact of living, working, and playing in badly designed spaces.
For instance, consider the following case studies, based on the experiences of architects dealing with real-world challenges. As is the case throughout this book, identifying information has been removed from these accounts to ensure anonymity.
Example #1
Tom was part of the design team working on a large project near the center of a good-sized city. Tom’s architecture group had teamed with an out-of-town firm for this project; Tom headed up on-site construction administration work, including shop-drawing review. The work was at the corner of two busy streets, where the city would also be doing sidewalk and utility improvements under separate contracts.
So as not to affect traffic more than necessary, the city scheduled its sidewalk and utility work at that corner concurrently with construction on the building. They engaged the contractor Tom was working with to do this separate, off-site construction, as well.
Tom and his firm weren’t involved in designing utility work at the corner, but he was well aware of it. Even though his design team had no contractual responsibility to take the city’s separate efforts into account in their work, he felt that coordinating with the city made sense.
The city’s construction work included upgrades to the roadway, curb and gutter, walks, lights, traffic signals, and signage. When Tom saw a coordination drawing outlining the city’s offsite work pinned up in the contractor’s trailer one afternoon, he was dismayed. At the edge of the sidewalk, the design called for a signpost, a light pole, and a traffic signal pole: three separate elements. All of this visual clutter would interrupt the view of the pedestrian crossing the street, partially blocking visibility of the main entry to the new building Tom and his partner firm were working on.
Tom couldn’t let go of his concerns. Without getting a go-ahead from his principal in charge, from the city, or from anyone else, he started working on a solution. He gathered dimensional information and made related comments in his notebook while in the contractor’s trailer. Back at the office, he sketched options, picked the best solution, drew it up, and offered it to the city’s civil/utilities project manager as a suggestion. His solution gathered all three verticals—traffic signal pole, light pole, and signpost—into a single element. And he showed how they could move the whole obstacle just a couple of feet to avoid blocking the line of sight to the entry from any point in the crosswalk.
Things were ultimately built just as Tom had sketched them.
Excellent work, right?
Ask yourself
What are the possible impacts of Tom’s decision to become involved in the design of this off-site work by the city? Consider both positives and negatives.
Example #2
American Institute of Architects (AIA) Contract Documents typically contain a requirement that architects rarely allow to play out. AIA Document A201-2017, General Conditions, for example, includes the following provision:
When the Contractor considers that the Work, or a portion thereof which the Owner agrees to accept separately, is substantially complete, the Contractor shall prepare and submit to the Architect a comprehensive list of items to be completed or corrected prior to final payment. (§ 9.8.2)
The document then goes on to describe responsibilities of the architect and owner to review, perhaps accept, and possibly add to the list—often called a punch list—before executing a Certificate of Substantial Completion.
This is how the AIA General Conditions of the contract divide up initial punch list responsibilities, even though some owner-contractor agreements may set things up differently.
But even with AIA conditions of the contract in place, things are rarely done that way. It turns out that tradition and the architect’s own insistence almost always lead to the architect preparing the punch list—first draft and every draft.
Ask yourself
Considering example #2, how would you respond to the following questions?
How can the architect know for sure whose responsibility it is to prepare the punch list?What reasons might an architect have for taking over this responsibility of a contractor?What are the effects of this common tactic on the part of architects?How does this approach affect individual project team members and the team as a whole?If a contractor asks an architect, “When would you like to walk the site and prepare the punch list?” Knowing it’s the contractor’s responsibility to prepare the list, what might an appropriate and effective response look like?Additional Resources
The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice1
Chapter 9
Design Project Delivery (P. 552, ¶ 1 & 2 “Scope Creep”)
10.10
Project Completion and Post-Construction
16.4
Dispute Management and Resolution (Pp. 1031, ¶ 6 “Scope Creep,” 1032, blue box text: “
Playing Outside the Contract
”)
ProPEL, ACSA
Professional Practice Education Library
(Videos for Classroom Use)
https://propel.yuja.com2
Failure Unit | Lesson 3 Architecture Dos and Don’ts (Time stamp 3:28 through 4:43 and 8:30 through the end of the video—“Don’t Give Away…Services.”)
Author’s Note
A project he’d always dreamed of
Once, when my business partner showed me a Request for Proposals (RFP) that had been sent to him, he and I did a quick no-go/go check (see Chapter 14 Marketing and Business Development) and decided it was not for us. A senior member of our firm, however, came looking for the RFP. He told us he had been working with potential clients to get a project like this. This project was what he was most interested in doing at this point in his career. He was confident we could get the job, and he was prepared to lead the marketing effort to do so.
He talked us into it, and our marketing succeeded.
This senior staff member dearly wanted to be successful with this project; whatever the owner asked, he just did it. When we realized he had been expanding our scope of services to include major changes to the mechanical system the owner had asked for, we asked him to get a contract change to cover the additional scope. He dutifully prepared a proposed design services amendment, but unfortunately, the contract amendment didn’t end up in front of the owner until after we’d done the extra work. Things didn’t go well. Perhaps it was because the owner had gotten used to asking for extras and not paying for them; perhaps it was the fact that the proposed contract amendment came as a surprise, and the client had no funding. Either way, the owner rejected the design services amendment. He then accused us of having acted in bad faith. With the project beginning construction, the client threatened to fire us.
Ultimately, we made the business decision to say goodbye to any extra compensation. And we had to work our tails off just to finish things up and get paid the rest of our original fee.
In this case, we had a team member who cared so much about the project that he willingly gave away free services without knowing if the client would pay for them. The client’s anger about our desire to be paid for going above and beyond soured relationships and ensured that we never had another project of this type.
Notes
1
American Institute of Architects. (2013).
The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice
, Wiley.
2
https://propel.yuja.com
(accessed October 19, 2024). Access to the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Professional Practice Education Library (ProPEL) requires ACSA member login. Professional architecture programs are usually ACSA members; faculty gain ACSA membership (and thereby ProPEL access) through their professional program. To obtain login credentials, faculty members validate their teaching status in a member program through the ACSA website.
Chapter 2Always Looking for Work
A recent M.Arch. graduate was applying for her third job in less than a year. She figured she was qualified and ought to have some job security, but times were tough. Firms seemed to be struggling, and job openings were scarce. But she was feeling good because she’d scored an interview.
In the interview, she began to feel even better. Things were looking up. The interviewer sensed that this job seeker had just the skills the firm needed. The architect conducting the interview didn’t quite offer the aspiring architect a job, but he said it was quite likely they would be putting an offer together.
“That would be wonderful,” said the job applicant, “I so look forward to taking a break from looking for work all the time.”
A break from looking for work all the time? thought the interviewer. And more as a teaching opportunity than a criticism, he said to the job applicant, “If you want a break from looking for work constantly, you may be in the wrong profession.”
An architectural project manager, for example, looks for work every day. Managing projects may be the ostensible focus, but the underlying goal is to manage things so that clients will want to hire the firm again for another project. If an organization doesn’t have another project coming up, the goal is to ensure that they recommend the firm to others in their industry getting ready to build. All members of an architecture firm should share this goal.
In addition to providing services with an eye to repeat work, when there is marketing for a new project to be done, an effective project manager may be tasked with preparing a winning proposal. When an RFP comes along, the project manager and other firm members assigned to the effort are usually heavily involved managing or producing work on architectural projects. The architects and leaders that produce the best work for a firm are typically also the ones the firm relies on to do the heavy lifting on key marketing proposals.
So, during brief, yet intense stints dedicated to targeted marketing campaigns, architects, staff members, and leaders may sometimes be required to spend more time in marketing efforts aimed at new prospects than on tasks related to work on the boards. Maybe much more time.
Architects that become firm principals as their career matures will likely find that the professional priority they must place on marketing, proposals, and business development (as opposed to designing and directing projects) only becomes more pronounced; long-term success depends on it.
Most principals find themselves always looking for work—forever marketing.
Is There Such a Thing as No-effort Marketing?
When comparing notes with colleagues, architects sometimes hear marketing claims like these:
“Our projects pretty much just walk in the door.”
“Most of our work comes through word of mouth.”
As experience in the business demonstrates, however, a firm that depends on work walking in the door in its early years usually finds that this pattern dwindles with the passage of time. A drop in walk-in commissions may be most precipitous when a charismatic founder retires. It’s not uncommon that soon after such a founder leaves, the company’s story ends with an Out of Business sign on the door.
A firm founder may be popular and socially well connected, but without ingrained, disciplined, and continuous marketing, the reputation and goodwill the founder builds will one day be gone. Without constant focus on landing the next job, and the one after that, a firm may soon find that there is no next job, no more revenues to finance ongoing business development, and nothing to sustain operations for the next generation of employees and leaders.
What is the impact of constantly looking for work?
One, firms that are always marketing are the most likely to survive.
Two, firms tend to reward the firm members they see bringing work in. Employees that contribute most to keeping the doors open usually receive superior compensation and increased opportunities for advancement.
It turns out everyone in an architecture firm markets. But most of the new work comes about through leaders and key staff members. These may include designers, project managers, and principals, all supported by a dedicated marketing team. Some are involved more than others, depending both on their capabilities and schedules and their roles in the firm.
The marketing responsibilities of key staff members often look something like this:
Designer
More than anything else, an effective designer brings in work by crafting design solutions that are so enviable, current clients will want to return, and others will dream of being the firm’s clients.
It’s hard to overstate the value of a new work of architecture that makes everyone ask, “What firm designed that?” Those preparing for an upcoming project may think: “I want one of those.”
Even if the project manager gets credit for putting a successful team and proposal together, in many cases it is the designer’s work, included in a proposal or interview, that is the ultimate attraction. Such design work may be expressed in evocative sketches, timeless renderings, or compelling physical models. Often, it is a bold design tour de force that grabs a prospective client’s attention and makes the sale.
Project Manager
At the front end, though, it’s often through effective project management that new inquiries come about. A good project manager manages his projects so expertly and efficiently that clients will value how they are treated and the way their resources are used. Enthusiasm for the disciplined and well-managed work of a successful project manager’s firm will not end with a thank-you note; clients generally go on to share recommendations with their peers that may also be looking for an architect. Also, having appreciated the project manager’s service profoundly, those same clients are likely to return with their next project.
In addition to building client trust through thoughtful, responsive management, a project manager endeavors to identify strategic marketing opportunities by asking clients regularly what else they have in the pipeline and by cultivating relationships with public entities, businesspeople, and contractors to identify and target upcoming work before it’s advertised.
Over the course of what could be years for many projects, a great project manager tracks these projects, makes contact and builds trust with key players, and begins envisioning and even implementing a winning project approach, while at the same time making plans for the best architectural and consultant team, well in advance of any formal solicitation.
When solicitations do come, an effective project manager understands that the firm’s chances are many times higher if the firm has laid this sort of groundwork for the solicitation ahead of time. Once the firm has greenlighted doing a proposal, a project manager may be assigned to prepare a standout submittal that will make the short list. If the project manager isn’t asked to author the proposal, she should be! With assistance from one of the firm’s key designers and the marketing department, the project manager is best positioned to prioritize her work so she can spend as much time as needed (perhaps even full time for a brief window) on the intense enterprise of putting everything together, followed (it is hoped) by preparations for the short-list interview. Confident in getting an interview, the project manager may even propose that interview preparations begin immediately after sending in the proposal. Such a wager means days, if not a week or more, of extra time to prepare for the hoped-for, face-to-face presentation to the client’s selection team.
In all the project manager’s endeavors, she is responsible for:
Exercising leadership in preparing responses to competitive solicitations for professional services, as assigned or approved by firm ownership
Engaging the firm’s best visual interpretations and concepts the firm’s premier designers can produce
Working with clients and managing her projects well
Identifying and preparing strategically for future solicitations
Principal
It is a truth universally acknowledged (as Jane Austen might start this story) that architecture firm leaders—principals—tend to size each other up based on two things:
The amount of work they have on the boards.
Their record of bringing in new work.
Number 2 usually carries the day. There are, of course, a few other factors, but none is as visible and crucial as new work. Yes, one principal may have heavy operational responsibilities. Others may have leadership in design, finance, marketing, or human resources. Regardless of other tasks, however, in the circle of firm principals, marketing success is noticed most. If he’s not bringing more and more new work, a young firm leader may not be offered the opportunity to build or even acquire firm ownership. He may not see growth, either in compensation or influence.
It follows, then, that those in firm leadership focus much of their energy on looking for work. They generally don’t rely on work walking in the door. The marketing responsibilities described for designers and project managers also apply to architecture firm leaders. As its leaders’ overall marketing fortunes go, so goes the firm.
