Archinect - News

ABI Reverts into Negative Territory for First Time in Nine Months

2013-05-23T17:26:00-04:00

“Project approval delays are having an adverse effect on the design and construction industry, but again and again we are hearing that it is extremely difficult to obtain financing to move forward on real estate projects,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “There are other challenges that have prevented a broader recovery that we will examine in the coming months if this negative trajectory continues... we’re hopeful that this is just a short-term dip.”

Architecture billings up for 8th consecutive month

2013-04-25T17:22:00-04:00

In March, the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index marked its eighth consecutive month of growth in the demand for architectural design services. While the national score of 51.9 is down three full points from February’s score of 54.9, the architecture industry is still seeing continued strength nationwide, and across all regions and industry sectors.

What's hot in housing trends these days?

2013-04-17T19:30:00-04:00

Housing starts in March rose to the highest level in five years. If developers keep building at that rate, there’d be one million new houses by the end of the year. So, what are builders building and what kind of homes do consumers want? The granite countertop of the new kitchen is like the leather interior of a new car -- a standard, special order must-have.

Architecture Billings Up for Seventh Consecutive Month

2013-03-20T13:57:00-04:00

In February, the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index marked its seventh consecutive month of growth in the demand for architectural design services. With a national score of 54.9, up from January’s score of 54.2, the architecture industry is seeing continued strength and a higher rate of growth of billings than it has seen since the bubble burst five years ago. (A score above 50.0 in the index means that demand is increasing.)

Ohio Tax Proposal Would Extend Sales Tax to Architectural Services

2013-03-06T15:00:00-05:00

While architects and small firms would undoubtedly benefit from the income tax cuts and deduction, the sales tax on services is problematic for the architectural profession. If the tax plan is approved, architects may find themselves at a distinct disadvantage to out of state firms.

via David Cole in the Forum

"GSAPP 2012 - 6 Months After Graduation" Employment Status Report

2013-03-05T18:53:00-05:00

An independently-led survey of graduates from Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation was recently conducted, to assess the overall status of employment. The infographic-rich document can be seen below.

“GSAPP 2012 - 6 Months After Graduation” is an attempt to capture the state of our class in our first year of post-gradschool life. Did we finally find a job? Did we move to another city? Another country? How many hours a week are we working? How much are we making? What software are we finally using? These are some of the questions this survey tries to answer, and in doing so, it may also serve as a snapshot of the architectural profession itself, how it treats its newest members and how it is doing in this fragile economy.

The survey was made up of 17 questions and was voluntarily responded by 63 graduates from the Masters of Architecture program at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University.

Strong Surge for Architecture Billings Index

2013-02-21T03:11:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the January ABI score was 54.2, up sharply from a mark of 51.2* in December. This score reflects a strong increase in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 63.2, much higher than the reading of 57.9 the previous month.

How A Spanish City Went Boom, Then Bust

2013-01-30T12:20:00-05:00

The Spanish region of Valencia has been called the "California of Spain" for its gorgeous Mediterranean coastline and modern architecture. But now Valencia epitomizes the worst of Spain's problems. It had the country's most inflated property market and the biggest crash. Its landscape is littered with empty and half-finished buildings.

Fifth Consecutive Month of Gains in ABI

2013-01-23T11:40:00-05:00

“While it’s not an across the board recovery, we are hearing a much more positive outlook in terms of demand for design services,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “Moving into 2013 we are expecting this trend to continue and conditions improve at a slow and steady rate. That said, we remain concerned that continued uncertainty over the outcomes of budget sequestration and the debt ceiling could impact further economic growth.”

Airport City Manchester – a £650 million ‘Aerotropolis’

2013-01-07T00:31:00-05:00

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has outlined redevelopment plans worth £650 million to create Airport City Manchester, a future ‘aerotropolis’, close to Manchester Airport, the UK’s third busiest airport.

Demand for Architects Builds Momentum

2012-12-19T02:17:00-05:00

There are few professionals more hopeful for a bright future this holiday season than architects, who are finally starting to see business conditions improve. Billings at architecture firms have been depressed for the past four years, another victim of the real-estate and housing downturn. But in recent months, that has started to change.

US economy adds 146K jobs, rate falls to 7.7%

2012-12-07T12:18:00-05:00

Companies added 146,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent - the lowest in nearly four years - from 7.9 percent in October. The rate declined mainly because more people stopped looking for work and weren't counted as unemployed.

What Jane Jacobs Got Wrong About Urban Economies

2012-12-05T14:49:00-05:00

To survive, a city or a region has to make money; it has to export more than it imports, in dollar terms. Cities that decline are on the losing side of this equation. So if you care about cities, which I do, it leads you to think about how they function as economic entities. It leads you to think about economics. I think this is what happened to Jane Jacobs, and why she ended up writing several books about economics after her seminal 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Is America Really Experiencing a Building Comeback?

2012-11-26T11:39:00-05:00

Current market conditions for architecture and the near-term outlook for the construction industry in the US is a two-sided story, with forward-looking indicators showing steady improvement but serious concerns arising out of an impending ‘fiscal cliff’.

Architecture billings rise for fifth straight month

2012-11-21T14:19:00-05:00

After declining earlier in 2012, the billings index began to turn higher in June, then accelerated, and has now marked its third straight month above the 50 level, which indicates expanding demand for architects' services. "It's beginning to look like demand for design services has turned the corner," said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker.

London future skyline is put on ice

2012-11-19T12:38:00-05:00

At least six landmark projects - worth hundreds of millions of pounds - have been put on ice or cancelled altogether. These include the 172m (564ft) 100 Bishopsgate skyscraper, on hold until developers secure enough advance tenants to make it viable. Also on hold is the so-called Can of Ham, on St Mary's Axe.

POST+CAPITALIST CITY 2#Work - Winning Projects

2012-11-12T15:31:00-05:00

Last month, we published the winners of the international ideas competition POST+CAPITALIST CITY, #1Shop. Today we are presenting the two winning projects of the competition's second edition, POST+CAPITALIST CITY, 2#Work, which called for proposals that re-imagine the concept of work, the way we produce, and a city with another system of working culture.

If you are interested in participating in the most current competition cycle of POST+CAPITALIST CITY, #3Live which launched last month, click here for more details. Submissions for #3Live are due by January 15, 2013 (early birds registration: December 1, 2012), and the results will be announced in mid-February on Bustler.

October: 17,000 Construction Jobs and 1,500 Architectural and Engineering Jobs Added

2012-11-02T17:16:00-04:00

Among the specific industry sectors, professional services, healthcare, retail, leisure and hospitality, and construction all added jobs last month. The mining sector lost jobs. And employment in the rest of the economy—including manufacturing, financial services, government, information, and more—treaded water.

American architects explain their appeal overseas

2012-10-26T15:18:00-04:00

“Why do they come to us? Because of 15 Central Park West,” Mr. Stern, 73, said earlier this month from his office on the West Side of Manhattan. The Chinese “don’t want to go home at night to their three-bedroom shelf on the 44th floor,” he added. “They want to live in a place. That’s what we do: we’re place-makers.”

“You used to look out that window and somewhere you would see a crane,” [Richard Meier] said a few days ago. “You go around New York City today and you don’t see that many cranes. It is just not happening at this moment.”

“Obviously,” he added, “if the economy in this country stays the way it’s been, we are happy to be working all over the world. I wish we had a project in New York City, but we don’t.”

POST+CAPITALIST CITY 1#Shop - Winning Projects

2012-10-18T14:13:00-04:00

Two winning projects and one special mention have recently been announced in the first competition cycle of POST+CAPITALIST CITY, #1Shop. This international ideas competition called for proposals which re-think the concept of the shop, the way we consume, and a city with alternative shopping systems and shopping culture—from small interventions up to global concepts.

If you are interested in participating in the most current competition cycle of POST+CAPITALIST CITY, #3Live which launched earlier this week, click here for more details. Submissions for #3Live are due by January 15, 2013, and the results will be announced in mid-February on Bustler.

Scarcity contra Austerity

2012-10-08T19:37:00-04:00

Conditions of scarcity demand new ways of thinking, an expansion of the role of the architect and designer outwards in order to function more broadly and imaginatively as spatial agents. In contrast to the regimes of austerity ... the territory of processes and networks opened up by scarcity is far more conducive to creative intervention. It is here that scarcity — which can seem at first a bleak prospect — can become the inspiration and context for constructive and transformative action.

What is the difference between scarcity and austerity? On Places, Jeremy Till contrasts the political ideology of austerity — imposed reductions of public services and social benefits — with the physical condition of scarcity — the measureable dwindling of finite resources — and explores how this distinction might enable designers to grapple with big-scale challenges. A keener understanding of scarcity, he argues, "might inspire us to widen the field of practice and allow us to operate more creatively."

How the economy upended young architects' hopes

2012-09-25T12:44:00-04:00

The evidence sits in my refrigerator: chevroned tall boys of Saison ale and a meticulous shortbread fruit tart, both crafted by former co-workers and classmates who initially pursued architecture only to search for fulfillment elsewhere. Photographers, typographers, bakers, bikers, and brewers are all disguised on LinkedIn and Facebook as design interns. There’s a renaissance happening among young architects — and it’s not in architecture.

ABI Inches Back into Positive Territory

2012-09-19T22:56:00-04:00

On the heels of a nearly three-point increase, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) climbed into positive terrain for the first time in five months... The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the August ABI score was 50.2, up from the mark of 48.7 in July. This score reflects an increase in demand for design services. The new projects inquiry index was 57.2, up from mark of 56.3 the previous month.

Economic Downturn Cut Architecture Firm Revenue by 40 Percent, Employment by Almost a Third

2012-09-17T16:23:00-04:00

Since the beginning of the recession in early 2008, architecture firms have collectively seen their revenue drop by 40 percent and have had to cut personnel by nearly a third. Despite a national recovery from the recession in 2009, construction activity continued to spiral downward, according to the recently release 2012 AIA Firm Survey

In Ruined Apartments, Symbol of Ireland’s Fall

2012-09-03T16:22:00-04:00

Those residents, unable to move back into houses they still have to pay for, have spent nearly a year in legal limbo... More than 2,000 developments begun during that period have turned into “ghost estates,” ...Others, built under a system that allowed developers to “self-certify” — meaning that they could unilaterally declare, with only minimal government oversight, that their properties complied with building codes — are now falling apart, even while residents live there.

A look at how self-certification helped developers cut corners during Ireland's construction boom, leaving home-owners homeless and trapped in a legal bind.

Boston architecture firms recovering from 2008

2012-08-15T17:00:00-04:00

Architecture firms in the Boston area are continuing their recovery from the sharp declines in 2008 and 2009, according to the 2012 Architectural Survey from accounting firm CBIZ Tofias. In 2011, these firms saw a slight improvement from the slowdown, which for most firms began in 2008. There were slight increases in the direct labor utilization rate (the percentage of time worked on billable projects) and the profit per direct hour compared to 2010.

China's ghost towns and phantom malls

2012-08-14T16:56:00-04:00

As growth slows, China's huge investment in infrastructure is looking ever harder to sustain, leaving a string of ambitious projects - towns, shopping malls and even a theme park - empty and forlorn.

June U.S. housing starts up 6.9% to highest level in four years

2012-07-18T12:51:00-04:00

American builders last month began construction on the highest number of new homes since October 2008, with housing starts jumping 6.9% in another encouraging sign for the housing market.

Why Canada's houses are getting smaller

2012-07-17T12:09:00-04:00

The Milllennials, the generation born from 1983 onwards, enjoyed a childhood free of bunkbeds or even shared bathrooms. Growing up in plush megahomes undoubtedly helped them become, in the words of one author, “self-centred, needy, and entitled with unrealistic work expectations.” Oddly, it also spawned a group of people patently unimpressed with backyards and breakfast nooks.

Gov. Brown gives fast-track status to Apple headquarters

2012-07-03T17:26:00-04:00

"Apple's state-of-the art campus brings at least $100 million dollars in investment to California and generates no additional greenhouse gas emissions," Brown said in a statement to this newspaper, listing two of the requirements Apple had met to qualify under the law. "On-site fuel cells and 650,000 square feet of solar panels will provide clean, renewable energy for more than 12,000 Apple employees on the new campus."