Archinect - News

Penn Station's planned redevelopment could be going nowhere for a while

2023-02-27T14:07:00-05:00

Vornado Realty Trust, the developer hoping to remake the skyline around Pennsylvania Station with a bundle of new office towers, has put the brakes on the massive redevelopment plan for now as interest rates remain high and the real estate market struggles to recover from the pandemic. Plans for the Penn site, a roughly 18 million-square-foot project that could include 10 new skyscrapers of mostly office space around the transit hub, could be delayed for at least two to three years.

Despite her recent mum on the status of the $7 billion project, the Empire State Development agency said it remains confident in New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s commitment. Vornado, which owns half of the sites included in the scheme and in January was delisted from the S&P 500, reportedly considered high lending rates and the city’s lagging return-to-office crisis as a cause for the delay.

Right now, ten office towers are planned alongside only 1,800 units of housing in an area the state controversially declared blighted in December. “We should spend those once-in-a-lifetime dollars on a 2050-type vision as opposed to a 1970s vision,” State Senator Leroy Comrie said presciently at the last update. “We need to make sure that whatever happens aboveground is actually something that will help finance the project.”

New York's subway system could be broke by 2025 as remote work continues

2021-09-29T20:40:00-04:00

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the largest U.S. mass-transit provider, is running on borrowed time, facing budget and revenue challenges as federal aid is set to tap out in 2025, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, said in a report Tuesday.

The announcement comes on the heels of a rough summer for the MTA, which is only now seeing its ridership climb past 50% of pre-pandemic levels as it weighs a controversial congestion pricing plan that would add $1 billion in revenue a year beginning in 2023.

Interim boss Sarah Feinberg stepped down in late July, creating a leadership vacuum for the agency, which is now projecting $3.5 billion budget deficits that will run into 2024 and 2025. The MTA currently owes about $48 billion in debt.

The MTA will now have to grapple with the ramifications of the remote work revolution. According to the state’s report, annual fare revenues could decrease by $500 million if the typical rider adopts a three-to-four-day telecommute.

7 Steps to Improve Cash Flow at Your Architectural Firm

2019-12-03T14:15:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core

As an architect, you want to spend your time designing, creating, and innovating. But as a firm principal, you need to make sure you have a healthy cash flow to pay for those projects and support your passions. Manage your cash flow well, and you can stay in business, even when you’re not operating at a profit.

Unfortunately, many companies fail to properly manage profit and cash flow. According to a study by U.S. Bank, 82% of businesses fail due to cash flow mismanagement. And a survey by Fifth Third Bank found that 4 out of 10 small business owners didn’t have enough cash to meet their business goals.

Examine your own processes. How many days after sending and invoice does it take to see a check show up in your back account? Studies put the average collection period for AEC firms between 70 to 80 days. Can you go that long without getting paid for the work you perform?

If you want to avoid the perils of poorly managed cash flow, pay attentio...

The 11 Project Performance KPIs You Need to Track

2017-10-30T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

Your world—at least during the workday—likely revolves around projects. Keeping them going smoothly and profitably is a critical goal for any architecture firm. That’s why you need to monitor them in multiple ways, including through key performance indicators (KPIs). Monitoring them gives you a straightforward, quantifiable way of ensuring that everything is going according to plan.

The 11 KPIs we’re about to discuss make up a potentially daunting list, but when you track them regularly, you’ll have the information you need to make the right decisions for your firm.

1. Work in Progress: Work in progress represents the billable time and expenses that you’ve done but haven’t invoiced yet. It’s important to track as an asset on your balance sheet and as revenue on your income statement. It doesn’t just show project managers how far along work is, but also acts as a booster if your firm needs a line of credit or loan.

2. Earned Value: This is a b...

5 Tips for Getting Clients to Pay You on Time

2017-10-09T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

Putting up with a late-paying client every now and then is definitely annoying, but it usually won't break the bank. If late payments become a regular occurrence, however, you should take action by better communicating with your clients. Otherwise, you risk hurting your cash flow and damaging your firm. Here are 5 ways to avoid a cash crunch by doing your part to help clients make their payments on time.

Verbally read over contracts together

You just received a signed contract from your client. But does that mean your client actually read it and remembers all the details—including payment deadlines? Don't just get a signature from them and tuck the contract away in your file cabinet. Call your client on the phone (or better yet, meet in person) to verbally go over important sections of the contract, including when you're expecting to get paid.

Side note: Going through the contract with your client will also help you manage their expectations ...

How New York City's luxury housing tax could finance affordable units

2017-02-23T19:44:00-05:00

While President Trump talks repeatedly about fixing America’s inner cities, it’s a good bet that in the coming years, New York and other large metropolitan areas will need to be more self-reliant in solving pressing problems, especially low-income housing. [...] Fortunately, there’s an already tested alternative: an annual luxury housing tax, levied on new high-end condos and rentals, which would feed a self-sustaining fund dedicated to develop truly affordable units.

Is Your Architectural Firm a Practice or Business?

2016-11-14T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

In my experience, most firm owners don’t appreciate the significance of being at the helm of a business. At the risk of sounding cliché, they run a “practice” and they operate it as if they’re just… well… practicing. This problem is evident in each firm’s mission statement. Of the many I’ve read, only a handful acknowledge the firm’s ultimate goal is to sustain itself and be a profitable, successful business. This is a primary reason why architects are notoriously under-compensated.

Mostly, firms use the mission statement as an opportunity to echo what every architecture school pounded into our brains: something touching upon the noble pursuit of our profession, improving the built environment, serving our clients and helping the planet. Neither our employees nor our clients can differentiate one firm from another. Imagine showing up at a conference and everyone is handed a name tag that reads “Joe.” Not much sense in that. Why bother ...

Quickly Recover from Missing Billable Hours and Miscalculated Project Costs

2016-10-10T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Learn how this Brisbane-based architectural firm is enjoying faster cash flow now.

About

Based in West End, Brisbane, Tim Bennetton Architects is a small, private architectural firm with a single director and three employees. They work in an intimate, responsive environment that collectively values good design, simplicity and positive relationships. This Australian firm goes above and beyond for their clients to ensure that the joy remains through the ups and downs of their projects – from the initial meeting through to completion. Tim Bennetton and his team offer unparalleled service that provides excellent design, as well as an experience in transforming that vision into reality.

Background

Prior to finding the right software for their firm, Tim Bennetton Architects encountered many time tracking issues that made it difficult to estimate project costs and profits. “We used something called Timesheet Professional, which tracked our ti...

Financial Management for the Small Architectural Firm 101

2016-09-12T08:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Providing great architectural services and running a financially successful firm are not mutually exclusive. It’s quite the contrary. If you are as good an architect as you think, you’ll be successful and it won’t be because of your design skills. However, what separates the great–struggling designers from the great-successful designers isn’t just luck.

It’s not your fault that after all the years of education and training you endured to become an architect, you don’t know the first thing about how to run a business. Sure, you can design – like nobody’s business – but do you truly understand the difference between income and revenue? How about a credit and debit? Do you know what an overhead factor is and why it’s so critical? Do you know what your minimum billing rate is? Did you ever sit down and map out your firm’s operating budget?

Chances are the answer to all these questions is no. So let’s get to work and get you on the right tr...

Kingdom Tower megaproject secures new funding to complete long-delayed construction

2015-11-30T13:33:00-05:00

The developer behind the Kingdom Tower, set to become the world’s tallest building, has secured new funding to complete its construction. [...] The company said that 26 of the planned 252 floors of the tower had been completed by contractor Saudi Binladin Group (SBL). The tower would overtake the 828-metre Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the world’s tallest building when it is expected to be completed in 2018.

New York Attorney General is investigating Cooper Union’s finances

2015-03-25T17:44:00-04:00

When CU’s board of trustees decided last year to start charging tuition, its chair Richard S. Lincer claimed that to do so was “the only realistic source of new revenue in the near future.” The Attorney General’s office will be looking into the decisions that left the university in such a precarious financial situation [...] It will also investigate the decision to start charging tuition itself, which was the subject of protests, demonstrations, multiple occupations, and, currently, a lawsuit