MS&R better work, I think. HGA too much of a chance you wind up in a bad place in the firm. HGA seems to have some migration going on and MS&R seems to have hit a downturn at the moment, they asked their employees to take an unpaid vacation for the month of May.

Thanks Beta - any word on good design firms that are looking for people in Minneapolis? Do you know anything about Rozeboom Miller?

I'll second beta's assesment.

What sort of projects do you aspire to? chichi interiors? high end retail? stodgy corporate? profit driven developers? sustainable design? urbaniste planners? crazy-ass starchitect?

aia mn has the broadest listings on the rchitecture side, never bothered to find the nteriors postings.

I'm happy with my headhunter - drop me an email & I'll hook you up.

then there is:

Architect/Designer
Organization: KUHL DESIGN & BUILD, LLC
Description: Warning: This is a bs-free job listing. If this makes you uncomforable, please call one of our competitors. About Kuhl Design & Build, LLC.: Our goal is to be the best building and remodeling firm in the country. If you are not a cool human who is looking for long-term employment please read no further. What we seek: We are looking for someone who is... Creative yet pragmatic, energetic yet focused, serious but fun, talented yet open-minded, highly educated but adventurous. We require that you have a passion for what you do because that is how we approach every day. Unexceptional people will not fit in around here so please read further to make sure this is the place for you. We need someone with experience in residential design because that is all we do. If you do not have a wealth of experience designing both the interiors and exteriors of single-family residential homes, please to not contact us. Job Responsibilities: 1) Work with our clients towards the design of their new and remodeled homes, 2) Be skilled in AutoCAD, Chief Architect, Vectorworks, or similar. We are a very techy company and while we run mostly Macintosh in our office, we have entertained visiting the dark side as we grow, 3) We need you to be familiar with MS Office applications, 4) You must be able to articulate designs to a fine level of detail. You must be able to illustrate millwork and cabinetry details, interior and exterior construction specifications, finish terminations, lighting plans and so on. You will be generating construction drawings from top to bottom, 5) You must be adept in your communications skills, both written and verbal because you will be a large part of how we present to the world. You will be dealing with our clients, our employees, our tradesmen, our vendors and our designers. You must be able to impress people with high-brow conversation yet also be respected by our trades people for your approachability, 6) You must be very experienced in the process of client programming, design development and the practical realities of construction. Other Pertinent Information: Ours is a small, but stable company. Our benefits include 401k with employer match, paid vacations, flexible work hours and a work environment that is challenging yet fun. We do not offer health care at this time but have ambitious plans to do so within one year. We look forward to hearing from you. -Your friends at KDB





my new gig is looking for many, many more peeps - but its way too soon to tell if i'd refer them to anybody else since i start monday. do you speak chinese?

HGA tends to get more of the "high design" projects than other local firms and their work is very well regarded, well published. For that reason many younger architects like to work there. However they also have a local reputation for being a little cyclical. From what I've heard it's a great place to work as long as there is work.

MS&R is much smaller. Again, more design oriented projects, and great place so long as there's something to work on. Many people love their office, which is undoubtedly unique. Not sure it's worth an unpaid month off work though.

Rozeboom Miller is a young, very well respected firm doing some of the best educational K-12 work in the area, much at the expense of some old established firms in that market. They've been well published in that arena and if interested in that building type they're probably the best bet for growth and innovative design.

Thanks aqua - very helpful

TK - yours is helpful as well - i will take you up on your email offer.

hga and msr are very corporate. as far as their design sensibilities go my understanding is that there are divisions within each that do some good work but that the majority of the work is crap.

if you are looking for offices that do good work a couple you might look at follow: they are smaller but the work is generally much better.

www.vjaa.com

juliesnowarchitects.com

loomstudio.com

they are smaller but the work is generally much better. im sure there are others i am less aware of too...

ms&r, very corporate? hardly. maybe my definition of corporate is skewed, but they certainly are not SOM and that, to me defines corporate.

corporate is as corporate does. firms tend to match the business model of their clients, so a corporate firm have lots of management structure matching the capitalist world that pays their fees. Starchitects serve ego driven institutions and so have a top down model similar to who they serve. firms that do lots of public work, tends to have lots of technocratic administrators to parallel the public agencies...

MS&R mostly serves the adaptive reuse developers - so they seem to be top heavy and hire talent as needed to get the projects finished.

check out the ego and work environment of vjaa and julie snow before considering them good places to work...

I'll second that 'killer. Wouldn't be caught dead working at vjaa or julie snow. The ego factor is a deal breaker for me. There are dozens of other local small firms that don't have the ego but have IMO equally good "non corporate" work out there...and probably are much for fun to work for. Just my 2 cents.

Looking for a good place to work, try Urban-Works, someone rated them one of the best places to work in the twin-cities, at least I think that is what I read.

Urban Works - from taking a look at their website I would have to say that I'm not a fan. The work seems pretty mediocre and conservative. Housing looks like their focus but they are not pushing it in any other way than what the developers probably want. But it may be a great place to work if you can stomach working on projects like that.

Aqua - "Wouldn't be caught dead working at vjaa or julie snow" I was just wondering what that statement is based on? (I'm not attacking your comment - just curious) How do you know these people have big ego's - and a big ego isn't always a bad thing. From my experience it can drive people to do big things (sometimes).

darth- I never extended a greetings to Archinect, welcome!


if you haven't experienced working for a big ego, then go ahead and try getting a job with them. If you've been around the block a few times, then you'd understand our comments.

good projects doesn't often equal good place to work
good place to work doesn't always mean bad projects

so what is more important to you, some bling for your book and a notch on the bedpost, or somewhere that encourages your personal development?



So it seems that it may be worth trying for an twin cities archinect meet up, and expect more then Beta and TK to show up. Anybody else game for a flash mob at ____?

ive worked at both jsa and vjaa and i never found ego to be an issue. the work is demanding and can be very time consuming but it comes from a real commitment to the work. i found there was a lot of mutual respect between people in these environments - much more so than in, for example, a corporate office i worked in recently.

as for work environment, there are days that you wish you could go home earlier, however, i found that as long as i was working on stuff that was of that calibre i didnt mind. i have worked in offices where i made more money and worked shorter hours but i enjoyed the time in both of those offices much more both because of the work and the people.

finally, i have to address the following comment,

"so what is more important to you, some bling for your book and a notch on the bedpost, or somewhere that encourages your personal development? "

no offense, but in my opinion this is a profoundly cynical statement. it presumes first that the only reason anyone would try to get work in offices of this sort would be for personal gain or self-promotion and secondly that there are not opportunities for personal development in such offices. the first i wont even address, as for the second, i can safely say that the opportunities for such growth are probably greater in these office than at many other places - just my personal experience, take it or leave it.

Thanks for the warm welcome TK.

I have worked for big egos before so I understand your comments. But it just seems that Aqua is writing off these two well recognized offices based on an assumption that they have big egos. I've heard great things about JS as a teacher and employer.

Working for a well recognized office doesn't necessarily equal a bad place to work that doesn't promote professional development.

Thank you dmciv - I didnt see your post before I posted mine. It's nice to see someone with a more positive outlook.

guilty as charged - cynical...

darthlook - hope you've had progress on finding a suitable employer in Mpls.

I'm with TK in being cynical of the "high ego" firms. Although I've not worked at either firm in question the local design/construction community is small enough for reputations to be made quickly.

Without naming names I've heard comments from very well respected people that have direct experience working with some of the "high ego" local architects. I know who they are and don't intend to work for them based on comments from these people whom I trust highly. Thus my "wouldn't be caught dead" comment.