Archinect - Features

Architecture Business Metrics Begin To Turn Positive: Archinect’s State of AEC November 2024

2024-12-02T13:55:00-05:00

Welcome to the sixth installment of Archinect's series, State of AEC. At the end of each month, we will guide you through the latest analyses, indexes, and trends on how the architecture and construction industries are performing economically.

Throughout the past month, several key indicators related to architectural business have either stabilized or turned positive, counteracting a year of largely negative numbers. The AIA's Architecture Billings Index marginally turned positive for the first time in almost two years, while billings also increased in firms located in the South region and in firms specializing in institutional projects. For some commentators, such numbers are the early shoots of a more positive economic landscape expected in 2025.

Read our full roundup of the month's economic and business figures below and find out more about how the business health of the architecture profession is faring via our recently released survey results here.

When Should Architecture Firms Start Hiring? Five Factors To Consider

2024-11-14T13:46:00-05:00

With the U.S. Federal Reserve embarking on rounds of target interest rate cuts in late 2024, AEC industry commentators are forecasting that architectural business conditions may improve in the coming months. Architecture firms experiencing an increased workload may, therefore, find themselves asking the deceptively simple question: When should I start hiring?

Should hiring decisions be made in response to secure work or more speculative projections? Should onboarding time be taken into account? Are there economic considerations beyond workload projects that should be factored in?

In search of answers, Archinect spoke with four firms about their hiring strategies: Fogarty Finger, FXCollaborative, Marmol Radziner, and Marvel. From our conversations, five key factors emerged for firms to consider when designing their own hiring strategies.

Interest Rates Were Cut, but Growth Takes Time: Archinect’s State of AEC October 2024

2024-11-05T08:00:00-05:00

Welcome to the fifth installment of Archinect's new series, State of AEC. At the end of each month, we will guide you through the latest analyses, indexes, and trends on how the architecture and construction industries are performing economically.

Throughout the last month, commentators in the architecture and planning spheres have noted that, although interest rates were cut in September, clients remain cautious about commissioning architects for new projects or committing projects to planning. For one commentator, the industry may not feel the full positive impact of the rate cuts until the middle of 2025, which may lead to strong nonresidential planning performance.

10 Tips for Architects To Survive Downturns by Former HOK CEO Patrick MacLeamy

2024-10-18T13:55:00-04:00

“I spent 50 years at HOK, working my way up from junior designer to CEO,” Patrick MacLeamy wrote in his 2020 book Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm: The People, Stories, and Strategies Behind HOK. “Where else can you do that?”

During his time as HOK CEO and Chairman from 2003 to 2016, MacLeamy exerted great effort in shaping a resilient practice that, in many ways, harks back to the ethos of the firm’s founding. As a child of the Great Depression, co-founder George Hellmuth purposely structured HOK along the principles of what he described in 1944 as a 'Depression-Proof Firm,' one that could step off the typical economic rollercoaster that many firms, then and now, continue to ride.

Eight decades later, MacLeamy believes the industry has much to learn from the approach taken by Hellmuth, along with his co-founders Gyo Obata and George Kassabaum. “Architecture is a passion, not just a profession, and my own passion for the field extends to the business side,” MacLeamy writes...

'Starting a Successful Woman-Owned Business in a Heavily Male-Dominated Industry Is No Joke': A Conversation with Open Studio Collective

2024-10-11T12:14:00-04:00

In this episode of our Studio Snapshot series, Archinect connected with Allison Bryan, Founding Principal of multi-disciplinary design practice Open Studio Collective, based in Bozeman, Montana, and Ojai, California.

Trained in both graphic design and architecture, Bryan talks about the importance of establishing an open-minded approach to business, what it means to build success as a female business owner in a male-dominated field, and the qualities her studio looks for in new hires.

The Industry Reacts to Interest Rate Cuts: Archinect’s State of AEC September 2024

2024-10-08T08:39:00-04:00

Welcome to the fourth installment of Archinect's new series, State of AEC. At the end of each month, we will guide you through the latest analyses, indexes, and trends on how the architecture and construction industries are performing economically.

Since our last edition, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced its first interest cut in four years, lowering its rate by half a percentage point. In previous editions of this series, we noted that many commentators had expressed hope that such a move would begin to reverse the fortunes of firms that, as can be seen in the data published below, continue to see declining billings. As we noted in a recent feature published after the rate cut, history tells us the move will indeed have a positive impact on architectural business conditions, though it may be several months before such an impact is felt.

Read our full roundup of the month's economic and business figures below and find out more about how the business health of the architecture prof...

The Fed Just Cut Interest Rates. What Does It Mean for Architects?

2024-09-27T08:13:00-04:00

In September 2024, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut the target range of interest rates for the first time in four years. The move was long anticipated by AEC commentators, who hoped that the lower cost of borrowing would begin to pull the sector out of a two-year stagnation in business conditions.

We explore what the interest rate cut means in the context of 2024’s architectural business conditions with input from Phillip Ross, partner at the AEC division of financial firm Anchin.

Your Architecture Work Sample Isn’t Your Portfolio. 10 Creative Tips To Keep in Mind When Job Searching

2024-09-12T12:20:00-04:00

In many cases, your work sample is the first visual evidence you will offer a prospective employer when applying for a new architectural position. What you include in your sample, as well as how you structure and present it, is therefore important for creating a good first impression and increasing your chances of progressing through to an interview and job offer.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to work samples, just as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to design. Your own work sample will be influenced not only by your preferences and tastes but also by the medium through which you are presenting it, the type of firm you are applying to, and the stage of your career.

The following set of ten tips on creating your work sample is, therefore, not a rigid prescription but answers to common queries we hear on the topic, suggestions based on the experience of our team and community, and questions to ask yourself as you assemble your own work sample to aid your next job searc...

How to Effectively Introduce Your Architecture Firm in Under 2 Minutes

2024-09-11T08:13:00-04:00

Recently, we explained how to create an elevator pitch for your architecture portfolio when searching for your next role as a job seeker. As we noted, the ability to capture a body of work as rich, complex, and varied as an architecture portfolio in a timely, clear, and succinct manner requires planning and preparation.

The same holds true when introducing your architecture firm. In addition to hosting their own portfolio of work, firms possess their own ethos, characters, specialties, and value propositions to clients, collaborators, and beyond. For architects representing their firm, there is, therefore, merit in developing an elevator pitch that is brief, persuasive, and capable of sparking outside interest in what a firm stands for and what it can do for others.

With that in mind, we have assembled below a series of tips to help you design and deliver a brief elevator pitch to introduce your architecture firm.

Do you have further advice for succinctly pitching your firm to new a...

Being Laid off Is Tough; So Is Waiting To Be

2024-08-26T08:00:00-04:00

Findings from our recent Archinect Business Survey suggest that many architecture employees do not feel secure in their current roles. For those facing the looming prospect of layoffs in the coming weeks or months, the emotional strain can be as taxing as that experienced by those who have already lost their jobs. What can employees and employers alike do to mitigate such anxiety?

The Longevity & Legacy of the 'Vanilla Architect': How a Monoculture Yields Cycles of Unconscious Bias, Tokenism, and System Justification

2024-08-20T15:18:00-04:00

This Op-Ed explores how unconscious bias of mentors, tokenism, and resultant patterns of system justification reinforce a status quo that marginalizes women and people of color. These complex and long-lived dynamics are unpacked through personal anecdotes, historical analysis, and contemporary research. By examining repeating organizational behaviors, we can better discuss the barriers that women and people of color face within the industry. I hope that the anecdotes act as a lens to another perspective to those without these experiences and give voice to those with similar.

Are Architectural Workers More Pessimistic About the Economy Than Firm Owners?

2024-08-19T08:00:00-04:00

In our recent analysis of the Archinect Business Survey published last month, we observed a distinct divergence between how firm owners and workers were feeling about the business health of their firm, industry, and the wider U.S. economy. Across the board, our survey suggests that firm workers felt more pessimistic and insecure about today’s economic landscape than firm owners. Why?

There is likely no ‘one size fits all’ answer to this question. However, a number of trends playing out across the economy, including architecture-specific trends previously reported by Archinect, offer several lines of speculation.

How To Create an Elevator Pitch for Your Architecture Portfolio When Job Searching

2024-08-07T11:49:00-04:00

Your architecture portfolio is one of your most powerful tools when searching for a new career opportunity. Whether describing your work at a networking event or presenting your previous projects in an interview setting, the ability to clearly and succinctly pitch your portfolio has the potential to evoke intrigue and excitement in the listener and influence the lens through which your prospective employer will read your wider work. However, the ability to capture a body of work as rich, complex, and varied as an architecture portfolio requires deliberate planning and preparation.

With that in mind, we have assembled below a series of tips to help you design and deliver a brief elevator pitch to introduce your architecture portfolio during a job search.

Do you have advice for pitching your portfolio while searching for your next role? Let us know in the comments.

How To Reduce the Stress of an Architecture Job Search

2024-07-12T08:58:00-04:00

At some point in their careers, most, if not all, individuals in the architecture profession find themselves looking for new employment. This can include graduates looking for their first job out of architecture school, experienced designers and architects moving from one firm to the next, whether through layoffs or wanting a fresh start, and individuals seeking to enter the profession from an adjacent field.

Searching for a new job can be a source of excitement through the promise of a new chapter in life, but it can also be a time of uncertainty, anxiety, and disappointment. To help you navigate this emotional rollercoaster, we present below ten non-exhaustive tips to employ when seeking new employment.

Do you have advice for managing emotions during a job search beyond those set out below? Let us know in the comments.

Five Big Factors Behind the Architecture Industry’s Economic Slowdown

2024-07-05T12:59:00-04:00

Earlier this week, we released Part One of our findings from the Archinect Business Survey, which invited you to share how you were feeling about the economic outlook of your firm and sector. Our analysis found that across the United States, architects have seen business conditions decline in the past year and are downbeat about their firm’s business health, the health of the architecture industry at large, and the wider U.S. economy. Meanwhile, clients are cautious about starting or continuing projects.

While Part One offered an insight into how architects and clients are faring within the architecture industry’s current economic slowdown, this article, Part Two, explores the potential causes of the slowdown itself. The five factors set out below reflect what respondents to our survey, and economists and commentators from within and beyond the architecture industry, have identified as driving forces behind today’s business climate.

While each of these factors deserves to be isolate...

Architects and Clients Downbeat About Economy: Archinect's Business Survey Results Revealed

2024-07-03T08:29:00-04:00

Throughout May and June 2024, we invited our community to offer us insights and feedback on how you were feeling about the economic outlook of your firm and sector. As we explained at the time, this project was motivated by several observations from economists within and beyond the AEC industry that the U.S. may be “sleepwalking” into a recession.

To investigate how the architecture profession was fairing against such headwinds, we asked you a series of questions on the economic health of your firm, your sentiments on the wider sector, your experience of the job market, your conversations with clients, your plans for the future, and more.

Having analyzed your feedback, Archinect can now reveal our findings, which will be published in two parts. Part One, below, offers an overview of how both architects and clients are feeling about the industry, in addition to how they are responding to the challenges they are facing. Part Two sets out some of the key factors and driving forces behi...

What To Do If You Hate Your Architecture Job

2024-06-21T13:02:00-04:00

Every architecture worker will, at some point, endure a period of stress or anxiety in the workplace. Sometimes, these feelings can be fleeting, caused by an exceptionally short project deadline, a difficult client, or even a legal dispute. If you find yourself actively hating your architecture job over a prolonged period, however, it may be time to take action. While your first instinct may be to seek a new job in a new firm, this is not always necessary, or even helpful. Rather, there may be steps you can take that can improve your experience and circumstances within your current workplace. Below, we offer our suggestions.

Do you have advice for colleagues stressed or anxious about their jobs beyond those set out below? Let us know in the comments.

Just Finished Architecture School? Here's Some Advice

2024-06-07T13:02:00-04:00

As the 2023/2024 academic year draws to a close, architecture graduates across the United States are preparing for the next stage in their design career, be it through employment, further education, journeys into adjacent fields, and beyond. If you are one of the many graduates embarking on this next chapter, we offer you not only our congratulations, but also a non-exhaustive collection of thoughts and advice to support your journey.

Do you have advice for recent architecture graduates beyond those set out below? Let us know in the comments.

Freelancing and Architecture: A Complicated Relationship

2024-05-23T14:49:00-04:00

For many salaried workers, freelancing and contracting may once have been a scary proposition, little more than placeholder labels as one moved between secure, salaried positions. However, the past decade has seen a notable increase in skilled workers and professionals becoming freelancers out of choice, with a unique skillset increasingly being capitalized upon by firms and businesses. Where do the architecture industry and its workers sit in this emerging landscape of the blended workforce?

Architects, How Is Work Feeling These Days?

2024-05-16T10:45:00-04:00

We want to hear from our community: How are you feeling about the economic outlook of your firm and sector? How easy or difficult are you finding it to secure projects? What is your employment outlook? What are you hearing from clients?

Fill out our anonymous survey below.

Happy National Volunteer Week! Here's a resource guide for architects and designers looking to lend a hand

2024-04-22T14:14:00-04:00

This week, from April 21–27, is officially National Volunteer Week in the United States. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Archinect has curated a handy guide of resources for architects looking to donate their time and skills to various causes that will ultimately lead to healthier communities, a cleaner planet, and a more just society.

A Guide to Salary Transparency Laws Across the United States

2024-03-26T08:54:00-04:00

At present, there is no federal pay transparency law in the United States. However, as Archinect frequently reports on, several states and cities across the United States have enacted their own requirements for employers seeking to hire or promote within their organization.

Below, we have listed the details of salary transparency laws across American cities and states as they exist in March 2024. As is noted towards the end of this resource, several more states with no existing requirements are currently in the process of debating or passing legislation to strengthen salary disclosure requirements.

You can help us make architecture salaries more transparent through Archinect’s ongoing salary poll. The poll, currently approaching 20,000 submissions, allows workers from practices across the U.S. and globally to anonymously offer their salary levels.

Creativity Won’t Protect Architects from Automation — But Labor Unions Might

2024-02-27T07:31:00-05:00

The proliferation of generative AI tools such as Midjourney and ChatGPT has undermined long-held assumptions that artificial intelligence would not threaten creative disciplines. In an effort to balance the opportunities and limits of artificial intelligence in the architecture studio, we ask what lessons architects can take from recent successful labor actions by screenwriters and actors in Hollywood's entertainment industry.

This article is part of the Archinect In-Depth: Artificial Intelligence series.

'A Commitment to Craft Is Intrinsic to This Place': A Conversation with Portland-Based Linden, Brown Architecture

2024-02-13T13:28:00-05:00

For our latest Studio Snapshot conversation, we had the pleasure of chatting with Brent Linden and Chris Brown, founding partners of Portland, Oregon-based Linden, Brown Architecture (rebranded as Observation Studio in July 2024). Established in 2018 as a collaborative venture after working for large, established firms, the small studio of five seeks inspiration in the rugged beauty and self-reliant spirit of its Pacific Northwest environment.

Our conversation touches on the importance of craft and material culture, favorite design innovators in the greater Portland region, and what qualities the firm looks for in new hires.

Archinect's Guide to Job Titles: Set Designer

2023-12-16T07:23:00-05:00

As we delve deeper into our exploration of key job titles within the intersection of architecture and the broader world of design, we turn our attention to a role that plays a pivotal part in the realms of film, television, and theater: the Set Designer. This role, while distinct, shares a symbiotic relationship with architectural principles, often requiring a deep understanding of space, structure, and visual storytelling. Unlike architects who design spaces for living and functionality, Set Designers create environments for narrative purposes, where each element serves the storyline and the director's vision.

This marks our latest installment in Archinect's Guide to Job Titles series. In this feature, we will explore the multifaceted role of the Set Designer. We’ll examine the key responsibilities, the skills necessary for success in this field, and how their work in film and television differs from conventional architectural practices.

Discussing Paid Research Opportunities for M.Arch Students at UW-Milwaukee SARUP

2023-12-04T08:00:00-05:00

In November 2022, we connected with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture & Urban Planning (SARUP) to unpack its Mellows Graduate Research Positions (formerly called the Mellowes Master’s Research Assistantships).

For the 2024-2025 school year, SARUP is accepting applications for its latest round of M.Arch graduate researchers in the field of architecture and is offering two additional research positions exploring preservation, conservation and restoration, and material investigations.

To further investigate what options graduate students have, we've reconnected with the school to learn more about its series of paid graduate research openings and why they should apply.

How to Get a Job at Workshop/APD

2023-10-26T07:41:00-04:00

Established by founding principals Andrew Kotchen and Matt Berman in 1999, New York City-based firm Workshop/APD has grown into a design force whose reach far exceeds the American Northeast with completed projects also in the Rocky Mountains, South Florida, California, Europe, and the Bahamas. As a vertically integrated practice with offices in NYC, Nantucket, Greenwich, and Minneapolis, the studio now employs a diverse team of more than 100 whose background and qualifications allows them to unite a wide range of services — including architecture, interiors, product design, planning, and branding — under one roof.

For this episode of Archinect's "How To Get A Job At ____" series, we talked to members of the Workshop/APD leadership team to learn more about their hiring process, what the firm is looking for in prospective new "Workshoppers," and how the company encourages work-life balance within the office.

Meet Tulane School of Architecture's New Faculty Hires

2023-10-16T08:00:00-04:00

Tulane School of Architecture (TuSA), one of Archinect’s School Partners, welcomes nine full-time incoming faculty members who will hold permanent positions at the school starting in the 2023/24 school year.

TuSA Dean Iñaki Alday shared that the aim for this new round of faculty hiring was to respond to the school's growth and impact on the school's programs housed within the school – Real Estate Development, Landscape Architecture, Historic Preservation, Social Innovation, Design and Architecture. Dean Alday explained, "...new people equals new perspectives, new reach, and a richer learning environment." He adds, "We're very committed to this work because we need our faculty to represent different perspectives, different cultures, different educations, and different experiences. Diversity of thought is essential for excellence and innovative thinking."

Archinect's Tips for Recent Graduates Navigating Architectural Employment

2023-06-26T11:49:00-04:00

In 2023, navigating the job market for recent graduates can be daunting. Discussions surrounding portfolio advice, crafting an effective resume, and if one should follow their "dream job or a dream school" have been ongoing topics on Archinect and our forum. Within the last few years, expanded discussions over work conditions, ethical labor, and internship opportunities for graduates across our editorial have also been widely discussed. More recently, discussions of fair wages and unionization have propelled the launch of salary transparencies across several U.S. states and parts of the U.K.

For students who have recently graduated and preparing to enter the workforce this summer, Archinect aims to provide as many tips and resources for those preparing to step into professional practice.

'AI Is Both Incredible and Terrifying'; A Conversation with Neil Leach

2023-06-19T11:00:00-04:00

Neil Leach is a British professor and licensed architect currently based in California. He has worked for NASA developing a 3D printer for the Moon and Mars, and is co-founder of DigitalFUTURES. Having authored over 40 books on architecture and digital design, and taught at some of the world's leading architecture schools, including the AA, Harvard, SCI-Arc, and Columbia, his in-depth understanding of architecture's professional and academic landscapes allows him to speculate how artificial intelligence will impact the future of design.

For Leach, conversations limited to popular AI tools such as Midjourney and ChatGPT detract from a broader reckoning that the architecture profession must have in the face of ever-more-capable AI models and platforms. This AI-induced reckoning includes, though is not limited to, the supply and demand of architectural labor, liabilities, and insurance, and the future of all pillars of the architectural community, be it practice, academia, or licensure...