First question, are you only looking at firms in the city of St. Paul, or in the greater Twin Cities area? More of the local architecture firms are located on the other side of the river in Minneapolis, of which there have been several threads about in the past year or so, found here and here and here.

This might at least get you started
http://www.aia-mn.org/firm_directory_search/index.cfm?fuseaction=searchform

You can search by city and most if not all of the firms listed have websites on their directory listing

aquapura: thanks for the links, I'll take a look at them as soon as I can. I guess I'm willing to work anywhere within reason if its a really good firm. I'm looking for nice, clean, minimalist, refined, etc... not a lot of colors and crazy stuff, if that helps.

imnop15: thanks. I've seen other types of directories and they're helpful to wade though sometimes for sure.

jonas.

Just as a reference, downtown Minneapolis is 4-10 minutes from downtown Saint Paul (non-rush-hour), even with the I-35 bridge gone. So definitely look in both cities!

Jonas-

sorry I missed your post the first go round. We all want to work for amazing firms - most places aren't.

Minnesota firms pride themselves as being 'good' places to work by being very family friendly (if you like fishing and hunting)- not for making good architecture. The starchitects round here include Julie Snow and VJAA; the big corporate gorilla is HGA along with the usual suspects; lots of A/E firms; and lots of residential (including the not-so-big-house architect).

there will be culture shock comparing DC firms and projects with whats available up in the north woods. most firms are staffed by local grads- ND, IA, NE, WI and MN - so you'll need to break into this tight network.

you will also have to swallow a 20% or more salary cut- though cost of living will still leave you with more $$ in your pockets at the end of each month. Its pretty slow round here and not that many places seem to hiring - so the job search will take a while. Send me an email/resume and I'll recommend some places that I recently talked too. I had success through a head-hunter/employment agency 9though I'd clasify my current office as producing 'crazy stuff'. Folks with intermediate experience and up are more in demand, lots of entry level people are saturating the market.

let us know what your schedule is...

Treekiller-

As I’m looking around at the firms in the area, I’m defiantly seeing what you’re talking about. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of sleek architecture just the fun, playful, crazy stuff. I also understand that I won’t be making as much there either.

I do have about six years of experience under my belt, well rounded experience at a few different firms. Also the firm I’m currently at does really good clean architecture, with an immaculate attention to detail. –Feel free to check out my firm’s website: www.lsm.com

I’d like to send you a resume/images of some of my other work. I’m fairly new to this forum and don’t know how to get your email address. If you let me know how to do that I’ll certainly send you something. I’m moving to Minnesota around the 20th of August. Thanks for the help and words of advice.

jonas

jonas- click on my name, that will open my profile where there is a link to email me...

clean and minimal would be Julie Snow and Vincent James (VJAA), maybe MS&R (they are struggling right now), & RRTL is the cleanest corporate joint. the others tend to run the gamut of corporate styles. there is also a whole knotty pine/cabin minimal aesthetic around

What is your IDP status?

if you need other help, let us know...




Rush### & imnopt- are you folks in the twin cities too? seems like archinect is finally getting a critical mass up in the north woods if you are.

jonas... click on treekiller's name... that will take you to his user profile... there you will see a link to click on that says email... that will take you to an online form to send him an email...

beat me to it... :)

knoty pine aesthetic....now that's a good line to use when pitching an idea to a client.

I was going to suggest Julie Snow.

She's teaching studio at GSD at the moment though.

It's kind of crazy that she's become a local 'starchitect'. She's my friend's mom.

And my dad hates her architecture.

Hey guys

So again, thanks for the helpful tips. To answer your question treekiller, I've taken two of the A.R.E. registration exams.

You know, I figured out how to email someone on this forum, but I haven't figured out how to attach images. Anyway, essentially my resume is as follows:


Linesync Architecture 02' - 03'
Freeman French Freeman 04' - 05'
Lehman Smith Mcleish 05' - Present


Autocad
Microstation
Vectorworks
3D Studio Max/Viz
Adobe Applicatons
Flash / HTML


Architectural Registration Exams 2 Tests Passed
Norwich University M-Arch/B-Arch (Graduated 01')
Hockschule Wismar Semester Exchange


I VERY much like Julie Snow's architecture, as well as VJAA. Again I feel like there is a shortage of clean design firms in Minnesota, and getting in to an office like that is next to impossible. I've seen some interesting and fun work from other firms, but those ones certainly stand out, maybe a few other ones also. What about Smithgroup or Leo A Daly? Has anyone heard anything about working for those places? Am I inadvertently insulting people here? -If so sorry about that.

Thanks again for the comments.

Smithgroup and Leo A Daly are both corporate firms with offices all over the states, as I recall. I have heard their office culture is representative of that.

Yeah, I figured they were like that, just wondered if anyone had any extra insight.

insidearch.org has some answers, but I don't remember seeing a review of smithgroup or leo daly...

don't give up on getting into JS or VJAA, you never know when they suddenly will need to hire. seems like you'd be a great addition to their staff.

norwich u isn't well represented on archinect and you are the first arch grad from their I've met. Even with a degree from a well known school, I found resistance in the interview process since I wasn't locally educated. JS and VJAA probably won't have this bias, but other firms may. good luck!!

Yup. I'm going to apply to all of those places. -thanks for the tips. I might also try and get other Norwich Grads on this site... -get us out there a bit more.

TK - back off those local grads a bit. i may or may not have attended one of those institutions and found an equally tough time out east competing with the local schools there.

How is it working @ LSM?

local grads have the leg up everywhere. some places are just more local, like the twin cities.

at my prior firm (the one that axed me) 80% of the staff was from mn or the adjacent states and had never left the region. In LA, less then 30% of the staff was local or went to school there (including principals). In philly, just over half the staff of each firm was schooled locally (if you consider the entire bos-wash corridor local), but most of them didn't grow up their. In NYC, other then the principal, I was the only yankee on the design staff.

so is the twin cities local- yup. doesn't mean you can't find work if your not.

Working at LSM was fabulous. The firm does great design work, nice, clean architecture. They do corporate work which is mostly law firms, so there is a lot of money involved. They can afford to treat their employee's very well, and they go out of their way to do so. Yeah, I can't say enough good things about the firm, its people, and the whole experience working there. The work on their website is not a few of their best projects, but a small selection of their very typical work.

I'm not SO concerned about competing with local grads to get a job in Minnesota. First of all I'm not a "grad" anymore, I have a little bit of experience already. Also I feel like after you're out working for a bit, all jobs are up for for anybody, and our experience is what sells us to architecture firms.

Don't you guys feel the same way? Maybe its just be but I've never felt like going to school in a state made it a lot easier to get a job there. ? I guess I've only had a few jobs so... maybe I don't know.

This is an interesting side topic I think.

jonas.

Not necessarily true. Cities with a "tight" university system tend to pull from the colleges. although most of the design firms tend to pull from the ivies and the one's they teach at on a regular basis. don't forget familiarity seems to put them at ease...

tightness versus openness seems determined by the numbers of folks moving in and out of the place. the midwest is very stable compared to the sunbelt/coasts.

Jonas, your portfolio/abilities should help you get interviews. intermediate designers/IDP finished/ARE taking folks are in demand. with the local economics being slower then what your used to, seek firms with multi-markets and a national reach (even if this hasn't helped MS+R).

even though my firm does crazy stuff, i'd love to pass your resume along.

the other strange ocal phenomena is the high proportion of 'technical' staff at most firms. this created weird hierarchy and management issues at my previous place.

Hey Jonas,

was your position architect 1 2 or 3? Are they reasonable with employees who have family?

How projects get handle to? Who designs them? Each team?

living la vida loca

Hey,
Sorry I haven't written on this in a while. So for those of you interested I've been in St. Paul for about a week now. I've visited a few firms, talked to a few people, and its been better then I've expected. So far the firm I'm most impressed with has been VJA Architects. Their work is great, and from the little I saw their office seems like a great place to work also. I've been by a few other firms and all in all its been a good experience. I enjoy stopping by and seeing activity, it sort of tells you that there are things going on there, there's a lot of energy and they have a lot of work. I stopped by Charles Stinsons office today also, that one looked pretty good as well.

Quick question... I'm going to go on Salary.com/AIA and do some research on what an architect makes at my level around here, but maybe you guys can throw out some numbers also? I'm a level 3 architect with about five years of experience.

Thanks for all your help. I'm still looking but I'll keep you posted. While I'm up and about looking at firms, if you have any questions about my findings please let me know. I'm happy to share any general impressions I might have, though I don't know how useful it would be.

Thanks again.
jonas.

Jonas-
lets do lunch next week - got a deadline on wednesday, so end of the week is best. I'll give you the down-low on twin cities salaries as I've experienced...

passed your resume to the bosses, they've been traveling this week, so patience may be required to get a call from us.

different sort of question, not about a job, but about a project that needs an architect.

an old friend in mpls needs an architect for a house around 50th & france. probably will be more traditional than most of our tastes, but the firm she's considering looks ok via their website. any local testimonials, good or bad?:

http://www.aharchitecture.com/index.html

you know, i appreciate firms that do this kind of work because of the quality and level of detail that is brought to the work. it's so easy to do this kind of work on the cheap, but to bring the craft back to traditonal vernacular i find quite appealing. i don't know them, but their work seems pleasant and quite fitting for the area, but i gather you already know that steven.........................................................

Hi Jonas and everyone,

I am an Architect working in Germany and planning to move to USA with my small family in the coming future. Specifically either Minnesota or Washington D.C.

I would like to know you opinions (Architects from both States) about working as an Architect, about quality of life, free time and work balance, etc.

Thanks in advance!