20706
Given the architectural bloodbath and culling of the feild, is design as we knew it now folly and irelevent. So many have had dreams and career hopes dashed in their 20's even more in their 30's and it has become downright apocalyptic for the 45 and over crowd that are not firm owners, partners in firms or rainmakers.
I don't know how you feel about the issue but, the new sleeker lined, multi- faceted designs should be exciting me but they just are not anymore because now I realize that the Designs have come at such a great price. So muchso that it almost seems like vanity, folly and irrelevent when compared to the Architecture profession's bloodbath and culling of the feild. I know that things are starting to pick up a little here and there (mostly in New York, LA and slightly here in DC) but only for the young with little experience.
Do you want to hear an ironic story that illustrates my point. Recently I attended a ''state of the profession during a recession '' roundtable discussion here in Washington DC. The event was sponsored by the AIA and held in the swank new AIA "Design Center." I was excited to go to the event because I had previously read so much about the new AIA design center and the roundtable discussion sounded interesting to me.
So I go to the event and couldn't believe when I realised that the design center was located in the same address/location as a former ARchitecture Firm employer of mine.
HNTB -DC..........I thought to myself how ironic is this that I am attending a ''state of the profession during a recession '' roundtable discuss while standing on the bones of an old employer of mine.......( who once had an office of 50 no longer has a DC office) in my old office and now the receptionist sits just A few feet from where my old work station used to be located.
Also what was another sad note was that there were only 15 people that showed up for the event and that included the 5 panelist leading the discussion...........and the direction of the discussion was basically that If you are not tied into design build........then basically you are screwed because recessions happen and the architecture profession is fragile at best so you had better be industrious with a hammer as well as with the latest cad/bim software........., I was underwhelmed, disalussioned and sarcastically laughing inside my head realising the irony of the night.
Sounds like a great excuse for a night of heavy drinking afterward. And though I do get the irony in your title above, I'm not yet sensing the folly part...
The irony of this is that most modern and contemporary architecture is a folly by nature. And we live, unfortunately, in a time lacking whimsy and humor. It's amazing that people of centuries past made more time for living despite the fact that most of them were dying.
The non-snark answer to this is that while people focus on the U.S. as a singular entity— we're far from a cohesive single-bodied entity that can be defined by broad statements.
Which makes the conversation difficult especially when federal policy can drastically change some markets but not others: e.g., housing policies, especially those regarding social accessibility and affordability, are likely to have a bigger economic impact on certain states whereas other states have operated programs for years parafederally.
The problem with "increasing sales" and "rainmaking" is not so much with the difficulty of marketing and sales but being able to actually delivering a product ready for market. Once you actually have a product to sell, it's surprisingly easy to make sales. Selling something that doesn't exist, services, future products et cetera, is incredibly difficult.
There really is no one-size-fits-all— if there was, you wouldn't have salespeople selling you classes on the ability to sell things. If they were so proficient at selling things, one would think they would have a monopoly on all sales.
Design-build solves that problem adequately— it transforms a firm into a factory. You're no longer selling architecture, you're selling architectural objects.
does anyone on this site know what a paragraph is? haha its funny because you can tell how pissed/depressed the poster is by the amount of paragraphs there are in the rant.
The USA has too many architects and architecture firms by at least half (and probably several times too many architecture schools). Major recessions are how we correct for misallocation of capital: monetary, human, design effort, or otherwise. Too many people have allocated their professional lives to practicing architecture, and now the ones who are marginal won't be able to keep doing it economically. Lots of firms started up on very marginal bases. Now they're failing. Too much money was spent on solipsistic, self-indulgent crap. Now that money is gone. This is all for the good.
Apr 20, 12 4:47 pm ·
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Folly/Irony
20706 Given the architectural bloodbath and culling of the feild, is design as we knew it now folly and irelevent. So many have had dreams and career hopes dashed in their 20's even more in their 30's and it has become downright apocalyptic for the 45 and over crowd that are not firm owners, partners in firms or rainmakers. I don't know how you feel about the issue but, the new sleeker lined, multi- faceted designs should be exciting me but they just are not anymore because now I realize that the Designs have come at such a great price. So muchso that it almost seems like vanity, folly and irrelevent when compared to the Architecture profession's bloodbath and culling of the feild. I know that things are starting to pick up a little here and there (mostly in New York, LA and slightly here in DC) but only for the young with little experience. Do you want to hear an ironic story that illustrates my point. Recently I attended a ''state of the profession during a recession '' roundtable discussion here in Washington DC. The event was sponsored by the AIA and held in the swank new AIA "Design Center." I was excited to go to the event because I had previously read so much about the new AIA design center and the roundtable discussion sounded interesting to me. So I go to the event and couldn't believe when I realised that the design center was located in the same address/location as a former ARchitecture Firm employer of mine. HNTB -DC..........I thought to myself how ironic is this that I am attending a ''state of the profession during a recession '' roundtable discuss while standing on the bones of an old employer of mine.......( who once had an office of 50 no longer has a DC office) in my old office and now the receptionist sits just A few feet from where my old work station used to be located. Also what was another sad note was that there were only 15 people that showed up for the event and that included the 5 panelist leading the discussion...........and the direction of the discussion was basically that If you are not tied into design build........then basically you are screwed because recessions happen and the architecture profession is fragile at best so you had better be industrious with a hammer as well as with the latest cad/bim software........., I was underwhelmed, disalussioned and sarcastically laughing inside my head realising the irony of the night.
Wow.
Sounds like a great excuse for a night of heavy drinking afterward. And though I do get the irony in your title above, I'm not yet sensing the folly part...
Best of luck, by the way, to us all.
It's like rain on your wedding day.
The irony of this is that most modern and contemporary architecture is a folly by nature. And we live, unfortunately, in a time lacking whimsy and humor. It's amazing that people of centuries past made more time for living despite the fact that most of them were dying.
The non-snark answer to this is that while people focus on the U.S. as a singular entity— we're far from a cohesive single-bodied entity that can be defined by broad statements.
Which makes the conversation difficult especially when federal policy can drastically change some markets but not others: e.g., housing policies, especially those regarding social accessibility and affordability, are likely to have a bigger economic impact on certain states whereas other states have operated programs for years parafederally.
The problem with "increasing sales" and "rainmaking" is not so much with the difficulty of marketing and sales but being able to actually delivering a product ready for market. Once you actually have a product to sell, it's surprisingly easy to make sales. Selling something that doesn't exist, services, future products et cetera, is incredibly difficult.
There really is no one-size-fits-all— if there was, you wouldn't have salespeople selling you classes on the ability to sell things. If they were so proficient at selling things, one would think they would have a monopoly on all sales.
Design-build solves that problem adequately— it transforms a firm into a factory. You're no longer selling architecture, you're selling architectural objects.
does anyone on this site know what a paragraph is? haha its funny because you can tell how pissed/depressed the poster is by the amount of paragraphs there are in the rant.
The USA has too many architects and architecture firms by at least half (and probably several times too many architecture schools). Major recessions are how we correct for misallocation of capital: monetary, human, design effort, or otherwise. Too many people have allocated their professional lives to practicing architecture, and now the ones who are marginal won't be able to keep doing it economically. Lots of firms started up on very marginal bases. Now they're failing. Too much money was spent on solipsistic, self-indulgent crap. Now that money is gone. This is all for the good.
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