Yes, I do my own drafting. I have a pencil box of 2H pencils and an electric eraser @!

I've just hit PM level myself.  As a PA, I ultimately touched most of every sheet.  My last 3 projects still involved me sitting down with the entire set and redlining everything and then picking up my own redlines (all Revit btw) before I let it out the door.  Now as a PM, I'm not supposed to do that anymore... and honestly, it's been a bit rocky.  We're supposed to use Bluebeam and more often than not I feel like I could make the corrections on the sheet in the model more quickly.  I try to chalk it up to "learning experience" for the team, especially those still working on their IDP/AXP hours... but more often than not, I get blank stares or arguments about how "that's not how I did it last time" from my team.  

I'd love to hear from some other PMs how they balance this.

PA here, moving soon to PM.  I do all my own drafting and red-lines on my project and occasionally red-line for others.  We just don't have enough quality (ie. reliable) drafting team.

It varies from firm to firm and person to person.  Once when I was interviewing for a senior PM position I was criticized by an interviewer who was incredulous that I was still doing a lot of my own drafting/BIM in my PM position in a small firm.  It was clear that he interpreted that to  mean that I didn't know how to delegate well, or was a control freak.  In his firm no self-respecting PM would squander their time on tasks that someone less experienced could do.  But the firm I was coming from had the philosophy that continuity on the project resulted in a better end product than assigning all less-skill-demanding work to others.

I would argue that any firm that has PMs or even PAs drafting has some organizational issues. First, unless you are drafting regularly, you are not going to be as efficient as someone who is drafting everyday. Second, there's too much work to do on a project to have senior-level staff drafting, even at small firms. Third, it's not fair to clients to have senior staff doing drafting work at their higher billable rates. All that being said, I do think that PMs/PAs need to keep their technical skills fresh to the point that they understand how production actually works, even if they are not doing it themselves.

Many years ago, I was the "CAD ace" working for senior people who still thought in pencil. Now I'm the senior guy who still thinks in CAD, working with "drafters" who are using Revit. I actually have taken a couple Revit classes, so I can at least grasp what's going on, but I could no more turn out a project in Revit than flap my arms and fly.

Ok thank you all for the feedback. I don’t feel bad that I can barely draft anymore!

Agreed, this was great feedback

I find that doing both design/leading and drafting doesn't work. When I focus on one or the other and have others to help, it works a lot better. Otherwise I get caught in a vortex of conflicting values. 

I kind of equate this to the difference between an office and belt on gc 

I stopped drafting CD sets 2 years after graduation. I'll still occasionally sketch out a site plan in CAD to hand off to a drafting tech, but that's been it for the last 6 years. 

As others have said, if you're that far into your career and still drafting, you're either overpaid for that, or underpaid for what you should really be doing (managing projects).

I'll leave the drafting to the bartender.

I draft, design and PM. Small, what I consider to be be one person jobs. For me having the experience allows me to draft as I design. I can draft/design faster than the drafters with less experience because I am making better decision as I draft. The PM portion just makes it more interesting and give me more experience to make better decision the next time. Small projects is the key for me.

Fascinating discussion here.

I split my time between PA and PM yet do more than 90% of the drafting as well as the CA parts.  I certainly agree that my time could be better spent dealing with site issues, shop drawings, client correspondence, etc... but we simply don't have that type of office structure or drafting staff.  What I have found is that my commercial clients prefer to deal directly with the PA who can also act quickly without needing to go ask others to make changes. Our engineering consultants are notorious for this and it angers many clients.

I'm looking to transition more to PM in the near future and since I'm by far the most advanced Revit user, I'm building up our standards to control as much of the drafting process as possible.    

There is a real business reason for senior staff not doing drafting. It's proprac 101 and goes back to the concept of leverage. In order to increase profitability, you leverage the work of your more efficient, less expensive junior staff. The staffing model is built like a pyramid with a greater number of junior staff (drafters) at the bottom with a smaller number of owners/partners at the top. The model works for both large and small offices. This link explains the concept pretty well: Leverage Model in Professional Services.

It took me a little less than two years to get to a position where I wasn’t doing production drafting. I still redline drawings and sketch out ideas for others to draft, but I don’t do it myself for many of the same reason outlined by others. I don’t even have Revit installed on my machine. At first i missed it a little bit, but now I wouldn’t want to go back. I’ve found better ways to distinguish myself than being a faster draftsperson.

I'm rolling up on the 10 year mark.  Licensed, but not stamping anything.  On some projects I'm the PA/semi-PM.  Others, I'm the PA.  Others, I'm the design/drafting entity.  It all depends on who in my office has the project.  Plenty of people outrank me.  If it's their project, then I'm doing the more menial tasks.  If all of our drafting/design staff is occupied, then I'm still the guy.  

In the end, it's better to take the most cost effective route.  But, it's also good to be able to meet deadlines.  If you're in a schedule crunch, it's nice to be able to sit down and crank out drawings.  I find its especially helpful to draft during those crunch times because I get it done without having someone else draft, me redline, and them redraft.  

It's been a hard transition for me taking on the PA/PM role.  My first big project, I was told to trust in the drafting staff.  I probably should have involved myself a bit more, because there were a lot of things done that I would have done very differently.  Sometimes a decision by a drafter can have implications through the entire project (like what level they model something on).  It might not show up until it's way too late and a lot of things are wonky.

The OP is such a Primadonna- get over yourself. Yes- drafting is what makes you an architect.

Projects are made successful in excel, not in sketchup

I am the principal / owner of a small firm 4-6 staff.  I do all the  preliminary CAD work up to completion of Design Development / DP.  then typically pass it on to others.  Then only occasional detail design / layout from there.  In a small firm it gives me the design input I desire and stay on top of key design strategies and principles as we work with clients and contractors through to a point where CD can start. then I will work with Project architect / designer as they flush out the remainder of the package.

Jose,  It's true that you get do more earlier in your career at a small firm,  yes there's a lot of cad monkey work but early in your career you need to get experience on wood frame, passive house, steel and concrete you need a shit load of project "Cad Monkey" work to understand how to design,  you don't start our designing well without knowing how to put a building together. But you also get to run the project once you take it over and deal with clients, contractors, clients, authorities having jurisdiction etc.  That is unique to a small firm when you are only 2-3 years out of school. Wa-a-a-y better than just doing reflected ceiling plans.

Bowling, as a small firm client come to our office for me, my skills, how we manage a project and get projects executed... not for my staff. Therefore they want me to lead the project not hand it off to someone to wants to explore design ideas that aren't practical, functional or buildable ( typical of new staffers ). Advantage of having been doing this for 25-30 years more than most of my staff. I don't need to spend time finding work, we turn down more projects than we take on. Just because we are a small firm doesn't mean we are struggling, we are small by choice and successful because we know what we are good at work with repeat clients most of the time.

Curtkram, yes, thank you. You understand where we are at and what I have aimed to achieve.

Yes - also boutique resi office.  Do anything from sketches to rendering as needed to get project delivered on time and on budget.  Delegate as much as possible, but there are moments when things just need a bit of in depth look and it helps to draw it out.  Until you've drawn things a few times and seen it go in in the field, its hard to be confident that the drawing is drawn correctly and well (hence hard to manage the set).

Seen PMs who don't have experience and never bothered to learn any skill set (CAD/BIM/hand drawing/modelling) try to manage projects with disastrous results: copying bad details, telling subs its their responsibility, poor execution in the field, huge cost overruns, etc..  

Yup- PM in a niche commercial office. I do my own drafting, sketchup, photoshop and revit, whenever I can. Gotta stay sharp, no?

sounds like there are a lot of lazy middle managers out there which is a sign of fat times...What could you possibly be spending your time on all day (getting work and maintaining relationships) that would prevent you from also producing actual work (drafting, rendering, modeling, working drawings)....staying sharp is important...if you want to start your own practice someday knowing how to do it all is critical...nobody starts out with a full staff that can support a PM position...

Most architecture firms can't be compared to giant corporations because they are small operations.  Your stance on maintaining a disconnect from management to production only works in a few settings and produces a less cohesive product.  The fewer people responsible for project delivery equals less mistakes.  The last thing a small firm needs is a paper pushing manager that refuses to get their hands dirty with actual work.

I'm drafting on Sunday so I can slack off tomorrow. 

what does a PM do to fill their day if not drafting?  They seem to like sitting in meetings.  They should probably be setting schedules and agendas.   Older PMs seem to enjoy scribbling out of scale ideas on trace paper, but not necessarily stuff that will be part of the project. 

Do you see PMs actually redlining, like with red pencils or markers?  If you have junior staff that needs to learn how to draw a detail or something in revit, are you really ok with not knowing how to do that?  If you're developing a project schedule, shouldn't you have a pretty good idea of what your staff are doing?