Got a very ominous email from the boss man today.  We shall see what the next few weeks bring.

Just announced company wide furlough.

Mid-size Landscape firm in NorCal.

I’ve heard of more pay cuts at multiple firms in the Chicago area this week. Some varying depending on your title, others flat cuts. 

I was doing the plan check corrections and was just about the get the drawings approved by the LADBS for a small ground up hillside house, but the client terminated the project. I can't blame them either. The future is very uncertain at the moment. I am sad because it was gem of a house, but hey, people are fighting for their livelihood.
Good thing I am one person show and have a teaching job for the foreseeable future.
My sympathies for all my architecture colleagues here and elsewhere. Stay healthy and never lose your love for architecture!

This downturn will only last as long as the virus keeps people from working.  Its wasn't a market based crash, it was because the economy is physically frozen since many people physically can't work.  The virus wont kill as many people as the news will lead you to believe, and the downturn wont be as bad as people think, this extreme market drop will be followed by just as extreme of a recovery once things start running  back to normal.  If it were a pop in a housing/real estate valuations, architects would be screwed, like they were in the GFC, but this isn't the case.  Just hold on tight, ride the wave.  Its gonna come and then go and people will forget it was even a thing.

on the upside, although the bank wouldn't give me more money to keep my firm up and running they are not asking me to pay for 30 days...I'm in a FEMA crisis zone.

The NYC Department of Design and Construction has halted all projects: Design though Construction Administration. This is HUGE for NYC architects..

Hi all..It has been too long since I actually posted something here in the Forum! Anywho, anecdotally...my wife and the other "newest" employee (both yr-ish +) at their small (8-10 person) design firm, got let go in last 24hrs. As I understand it everyone else is taking a reduction in hours and work is shifting. On the other-hand, there have been postings on the Jobs boards this month by some local/regional firms, so who knows?! One bright spot, they are paying out sick/vacation days and its on good terms/not personal.

None of our projects are on hold as of yet! Been keeping everyone busy and will probably bring some people on board! It's scary as fuck though. I told my accountant to bill everything asap and hope we get paid. 

https://www.sba.gov/funding-pr...

my understanding is if you keep people on it's a grant, if not it's a loan, looking into it. 

but government moves slower than private business so not sure the alignment happens here. i.e. keeping on people with cash funds while applying for loans.

I've been working as much as I can around university and mostly that's dried up now (I was mostly doing photography and surveying work as it was easy to fit round uni work but its pretty hard to do during a pandemic) after I...work out how to afford rent and food for the rest of this degree though I'm mostly worried about what on earth I should do post-graduation. 

Graduating MArch in the UK and presumably not going to get a job in the industry any time soon. Once I'm not working on final portfolios, dissertations and such I can do something that will at least earn money, ideally something relevant but idk what. If not will be something like supermarket work and I should probably use the time to learn something useful outside of that (get better at revit maybe?)

I'm in London and the property market is weird here now, is it the same elsewhere? sales of housing has practically halted, rents are down and airbnb places are being put onto the regular rental market. I don't know if it'll have a lasting effect or n effect on architecture profession but its some weird stuff

A little less then half our production staff was laid off Friday (5 of 12)

Yay, I'm graduating with a BS Arch this semester! It's getting real tired to feel so absurdly hopeless and vulnerable. I should get used to it.

Lost a few CAD interviews in construction because of the virus. I know I won't get architecture interviews. But if I want some roof over my head, I can go flip burgers and pray someone will make me a CAD jockey. Woo, 5 years of school and mental degradation for the glorious right to beg for CAD work. Tbf, I like CAD, but the emotional stress of it all has been...so much. Too much.

Should I...even bother with the built environment? Damn I love it, damn I'd like to become a builder, but at this rate, why should the younger guys even bother with dreaming buildings? 

I guess...I've settled knowing that architecture doesn't bring tangible value, and we have to convince others we have ANY value. But, I...haven't processed that yet. That architecture is an art, equally unstable and fueled by misery. And we're taught to treat it like a career.

Yeah, no, sorry, I'm just...tired of being vulnerable, but being unable to switch yet. Is hopelessness an architect's rite of passage? Does it ever get better?

Mid size firm in the Toronto area. Production staff layoffs and pay cuts across the board. Still expected to maintain full work week (40+ hrs) with the pay cut. As of right now, project work has only been minimally impacted.

Are other folks maintaining full time work with pay cuts as well? 

Company meeting just announced firm-wide meeting tomorrow....bracing for pay cuts. A couple of our large projects in CDs have gone on hold and ones that were supposed to start are also on hold.

Sigh. 

any sole proprietors apply for unemployment? how'd it go? 

We've had a bunch of projects go on hold (as far as I know nothing out-right cancelled yet, just paused) but for now a majority of projects - including my own - are marching ahead.

Looking at some salary cuts and a freeze on any discretionary spending, but for the moment no layoffs (for the moment). Fingers crossed this is a shorter disruption than the last one.

If you just got laid off, I am very, very sorry. I am in an East coast based 100 person firm- have had about 30% of our projects go on pause. Had a long meeting today going through "The List" which sucked and I cried afterward. Whole firm will have payroll reductions, we will furlough or lay off 10%-15% of staff on April 1.

In 2008, I was afraid for my job - I was only 2 years out of school  and cheap labor so made it through luckily, now I am in "management" and I see every name on that list as a person who is supporting a family or who is sending money home to help their folks and pay their school loans.

I also talk to my relatives and friends who work in healthcare as doctors, nurses, EMTs and we should ALL be worried about this virus. Please do everything you can to stay healthy, well and take care of each other-

We've apparently had a few clients reach out to "pause" their projects as well. Leaders were very intentional to indicate this is not on hold, and not cancelled. Hasn't really affected my work yet. 

I don't think anyone is getting laid off at my office yet. We've had a good first of the year so far so we might have a bit of a buffer before we really need to trim some fat. We are still submitting for RFPs and getting awarded work as recently as Friday. 

I think the biggest unknown for us is when we can get back to construction on those non-essential projects where it has been forced to stop by state government order. A lot of our in construction work is allowed to proceed though so staff has mostly been able to shuffle around to keep everyone busy and billable. 

Any small firms start any SBA applications specifically the Paycheck Protection Program?

The beginning of the podcast gives a really good and accessible summary of the big picture points of how the CARES Act and Coronavirus Relief bill pertains to individuals and families (gig workers, 1099, how to borrow from your 401K, etc...) 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/broken-brain-with-dhru-purohit/id1381257272#episodeGuid=5e8126d56fb4790c2dea264a

for NYC (as new market if you're not already in it)

DOB Guidance Document on Enforcement of Essential vs. Nonessential Construction.

i currently work for a large, global firm with sizeable office in NYC. we all just found out that everyone is receiving pay cuts starting april 1st. layoffs haven't been announced but i'm almost certain that this is just the beginning.

good luck all.

I've decided to keep all of my firm's staff and roll the dice on the whole Payroll Protection Program thing.  We haven't had any jobs cancelled or paused yet, but only about 1/3 of the clients are bothering to pay their invoices within 30 days, but it's been that way since well before COVID-19. 

well, we've had 40% of our work go on "hold" - most of that being donor driven non-profit/private sector institutional work. none were in construction - all of our work underway is continuing. 2 layoffs. worst day of my work life. 

we are having to take a lot harder look at which trees we are shaking at the moment. i have heard of some developer work/rfp's continuing to move forward but as someone noted above, those type clients are going to have a lot more leverage in terms of pricing/payment right now.

(and yes, we know about the sba PPP programs - part of the issue is some of that work likely won't come back at all; some will come back next year; some might get started again this fall. a lot depends on how people's portfolio's look and how generous/bullish they're feeling. so, based on that, doing a short term bridge loan that can be forgiven might - in our case - buy a little time but not enough.)

A similar PPP programme was announced on 20 March in UK - Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme paying furlough staff 80% up to £2500 per month. Small business in hospitality can apply for £25,000 grant. Extended the UK programme to include self-employed on 26th. Also announced mortgage holiday for 3 months. 

US is really behind the ball supporting working people. I am so pleased I live in a country with the National Health System - 

So are we all hoping for a medicare to all approach to health care? 

While the US will pay for the 'test' if you take the test at an emergency room expect to pay $2k - and don't even think of the cost if you end up hospitalized in an ICU for 30 days or more. 

The pandemic demonstrates how fragile our systems are - sad days ahead.

Wimbledon just canceled! 

I'm a sole proprietor.  80% of my work is single-family homes and additions in the DC area.  About 1/3 of my work has been stopped with no indication on when it could come back online.  Looking for freelance work to pick up the slack.

This whole situation sucks and exposes in an instant every governmental shortcoming that has been made in the name of austerity.  It lays bare the class divisions in our society, and we will unfortunately have a body count to point to in order to demonstrate this inequality.  

We could reasonably get through this with a competent government that cared about its citizens more than corporate profits.  But we don't, so we're going to be forced to go through this national trauma and prolonged economic recession in order to maintain our decrepit economic system that only enriches the few.

A few things that would go a long way to flattening the curve:

1) National moratorium on mortgages, rent, and property taxes for the duration of the crisis.  The only reason why people will leave their homes in the midst of a global pandemic is because they need to pay for their living situation.  Same applies to businesses who need to cover their rents.  A moratorium on this removes the single largest expense for every citizen and incentives them to stay home.  Today is April 1.  How many people of the 3 million recently unemployed missed their rent payments today?  How many of them will come out the other side of this crisis with 3 to 4 months of back-rent that they are unable to pay?  As soon as the health crisis ends, the economic crisis will begin.

2) Monthly payments to each citizen to cover food and basic needs.  This would be far more effective than a one time payment that is unnecessarily means tested.  You can always tax it at the end of the year if it's too much.

3) Medicare for all.  Look, this pandemic is going to rip through vulnerable communities and leave a wake of destruction, both physical and financial.  How many of those 3 million recently unemployed people just lost access to their healthcare because it was previously tethered to employment?  How many of those who uninsured who recover will now be forced to pay a hospital bill that they can not afford because they have no income and no insurance? Those people now unemployed, uninsured, and now housing insecure.  They are the ones most likely to get infection as they are forced to find income during a plague when nobody is hiring.  How many hospitals have been shuttered this decade alone because they are not deemed profitable?  There are major US cities that don't have a public hospital because they were sold off as assets for cash strapped municipalities.

4) Nationalize key industries, even if only temporarily.  This pandemic has very clearly shown that are 40 year drift toward hyper capitalist privatization has thoroughly hollowed out the infrastructure needed to keep our society functioning.  We are going to learn that the federal government has been forcing states to bid against one another to drive up the price of necessary medical equipment and personal protective equipment as well as using agencies such as FEMA to outbid state governments to funnel equipment to party loyalists and agencies such as ICE (this should be an outrage that forces a regime change, but we'll be so disoriented from this ordeal that it will go largely unnoticed.)  Even energy and telecommunication industries should be democratized, as it is now apparent that they are now essential infrastructure items needed to maintain any semblance of our economy.  Instead of having companies foot the bill for these items, it will be offloaded onto the backs of their workers.  A negative outcome of this pandemic will be the "uber-ization" of the private sector, where companies learn to cut costs by having their workers pay for most of the key overhead needed to run a business.

5) Immediately release all non-violent offenders in prisons and ICE concentration camps.  An outbreak of a deadly infectious disease in these closed quarters will deadly.   And if we honestly and soberly assess the communities who are targeted to fill these detention centers, then the question must be asked:  Will this be a genocide?  It's important to remember that Anne Frank did not die in the gas chambers.  She died along with 17,000 other prisoners from a typhus outbreak.

6) Shelter for the homeless.  Similar to above, but without a guarantee to housing, the people most likely to die in the streets will be the poor, the mentally unstable, and those with addiction or victims of domestic abuse.

But we won't do any of these things.  Instead we'll do what we always do:  Infuse the markets with liquidity and bail out industries with no strings attached (looking at you, Mnuchin) even as those same industries hemorrhage their workforce. And the result will be more and more people thrust into poverty and economic insecurity, with their entire existence dependent on their ability to provide productive value to a new boss.

So let's add these up and guess who will be most targeted by this pandemic: The poor, the elderly, minorities, the homeless.  In short, those who have been deemed economically un-productive.

And why?  Why neglect to address the items above?  Because to actually solve these issues, the state would have to admit that our current economic model is ineffective by design.  That it always has been.  Solving these issues would spread the idea that collective ownership of production of necessary industries is not only feasible, but morally responsible.  But instead we are left with a false choice where we try to balance when it is okay to re-open the market vs an acceptable body count.  And if at least 200,000 people have to die in order to maintain this system of extreme privatization followed by a deep and prolonged recession where more and more people are thrown into the streets, then that is what the government is going to do.  Because fuck you.

...

https://covid19relief.sba.gov/#/https://covid19relief.sba.gov/#/

Back to lay-off talk:  20-person firm, Midwest, just put entire staff including partners on a 32 hour week. I honestly think it’s a smart move and we will ride it out. Hang in there everyone.

word from our honchos is that the loans from the fed's will pay everyone's salary for 2 months, and will become grants if all stipulations are followed.  Hopefully that works out as planned.

Nurse wife is being sent to bedside care next week, hasn't done patient care in 10 years.  We're told that anyone who refuses will see immediate termination.  Nor are nurses allowed to wear their own PPE if the hospital cannot supply it.  (they can't)

I suspect there are some overzealous HR folks involved.  I'm certain that they will love dealing with a nurses union this time next year.

A real challenge of the PPP is going to be how the banks are going to handle the huge wave of applications from borrowers.  I also think the $350 billion is going to be exhausted pretty quickly.

all the best archinect peeps - stay safe!

6.6 million layed off and furloughed so far, Boeing announces employee buyouts

Few days ago, our firm laid off around 15% 30+ people from our 3 offices across the east coast. Pay cuts starting around 5-10%. But have to be happy we're still working. One of my staff was about to get the boot but I had to find work for him to do to get his 40hrs/wk. We're based in Central Fl

We are WFH and are to use the 80 new hours on our time sheets provided by the fed govt to cover any slack work.  Given the current pace, that should cover all employees through the end of summer without furlough or layoffs.  

we’ve fully converted to WFH and had an office wide video meeting yesterday. No loss of production or billable time so things are looking as good as they can be.  Got a few new projects on the books too. 

Hearing about lots of layoffs in NYC. Was laid off myself March 20 with 10 others after our first week of WFH out of 80ish person firm.  Was there +5 years, associate. Laid off over the phone, no contact from bosses, 2 weeks severance, zero effort at empathy. Is this crisis bringing out the worst in others’ former (or current) employers?

Sorry for everyone that has been laid off from their job or been directly affected. It is probably just a matter of time before I too am confronted with such. Hopefully job losses will be temporary for most and we will resume our positions or find new jobs. The conditions underlying this slowdown are very unique. The economy may pick back up as quickly as it came to a halt.