Architect Duo Dickinson on the hazards of practicing in the pandemic economy

2021-12-22T18:39:00-05:00

Months of isolation made people rethink the way they wanted to live. That meant their buildings would change. That meant construction, and architects became useful again, after being abandoned. But the craziness of a new era has made all builders and architects simultaneously empowered by their new in-demand status while fully threatened by costs and availability of all the products and people necessary to build.

Earlier in the year, labor and supply chain issues had caused markets in steel and timber to skyrocket, delaying many commercial and residential projects industry-wide, in addition to triggering what some think will be a boom in demand once the pandemic subsides.

However bright the prospects are for some people, architect Duo Dickinson sees recent gains as part of a cycle which has become “insane and dangerous.”

Related Duo Dickinson feature article on Archinect: Everything Is Changing: But Not Architecture’s “Deep State”

“If the past is prologue, this boom shall soon bust,” he wrote. “The anecdotes of recent months are great in the construction world, but the articles and studies have not kept up with a chaotic time. In my little corner of this world, the last season has seen four of my clients dip their toes into building and use my firm to scope out the time and money involved, and when inflated numbers and indeterminable schedules were revealed, they simply opted out, even though...

"The Trumpeteers" – LACMA gets Lautner, AIA gets Spacey on Archinect Sessions #53

2016-02-18T18:27:00-05:00

We swear, no BIG or Trump on this episode. We discuss the donation of Lautner's breathtaking Sheats-Goldstein house, complete with jungle, nightclub and infinity tennis court, to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to become the museum's first acquired piece of architecture (along with a sizable endowment for maintenance). The U.S. saw a major step forward into the realm of driverless cars, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Google that its computers in autonomous vehicles could legally be counted as drivers, while the internet ogled Nissan's self-parking office chairs.

It's also that time of year again, when the AIA announces the keynote speakers for its National Convention (check out our podcast on last year's convention in Atlanta), and this year's threw us for a loop – first, actor Kevin Spacey was named as Day 1 speaker, and praised for his "disruption" of "appointment television". Neri Oxman will give the Day 2 keynote, a very solid choice if not somew...

Archinect - News

Architect Duo Dickinson on the hazards of practicing in the pandemic economy

"The Trumpeteers" – LACMA gets Lautner, AIA gets Spacey on Archinect Sessions #53