yes. maybe. lower than average at your experience level, possibly (but by no means guaranteed) higher than average after 10++ years if you own the firm or become partner.

work for a full service architecture firm first. get through IDP. get licensed. get some more broad experience. then look for places like this to work.

great site...thanks for the link...

These people have too much money on their hands.

you'll be able to land a job doing that stuff.. find some boutique firm in some big city and there ya have it... just gotta meet the right people in school.

ever thought you were purusing the wrong degree? interior design maybe? lots of the stuff in those environments looks like it has been spec'd by the interior designer, if there is one, on the project.

still, an architecture degree is certainly more flexible than an interior designing degree so i'm not going to change at this point. i'm just wondering what the lifestyle and salary is like doing this kind of work as opposed to your average hellhole architecture firm.

where do you get this stuff from?

As President and CEO of Average Hellhole Architects, I resent that.

Kurt, are you guys hiring?

you can land a job going down in to the materials library and finding samples and or calling reps to have samples sent to you. this is the glamorous world of highflying not average hellhole interior design firm junior designers...

"Kurt, are you guys hiring?"

Depends, sevensixfive. Can you convincingly demonstrate an abject average-ness, suitable for a hellhole environment???

i thought i read that average hellhole architects was bought-out by above-average hellhole architects.

or was it the other way around?

either way, i know their CAD test for new hires lasts for 3 days straight, with no restroom or food breaks...

That's true about the prolonged CAD test, el jeffe, however we do provide plastic drafting suits.

sure you provide the suit, but the catheter bag is a payroll deduction!

jesus, this forum is where i hear the most whining and bitching about the whole architecture profession. and now you guys are complaining about the term "architecture hellhole"?

but you hear good things too. just because some places are worth bitchiness doesn't mean all.

It's a little hard to hear someone with no architectural working experience describe the majority of our profession as a "hellhole working environment." That's what average means... now quit yer whinin' about our whinin', we earned it, young whippersnapper!

also, it is pretty easy to get a job in a place like that. there are loads of interiors firms doing great playful work. just work hard in school and develop your ability, nurture what talent you have with an understanding of design tenets and an understanding of yourself and the world around you, and voila... send that resume out and get to work!

payscale varies widely and has been covered in numerous previous posts. it can usually be summed up as : "you certainly won't starve but you won't be rich, either." if you have a ton of student loans and like to work in small boutique-y firms in expensive cities, you may have trouble paying those loans off.

Kurt, I will send you my 25 meg pdf portfolio, it's in a nonstandard paper size and uses a font you've never heard of. Best viewed fullscreen! I can also send a link to my flash website that resizes your browser window.

I hope it has lots of spelling mistakes otherwise it won't get past HR.

Yes, but the commute to Cincinnati for AHA LLC may be worth the personalized portfolio drop-off

Or you can apply to the branch in Königsberg - I hear they have nice bridges



In the late 90's there was a NYT article (I think - maybe the Post) on the coolhunt. I only remember because of the sucking vacuum created around it. It documented these two women who researched, compiled and sold something called 'the coolhunt' list (what was currently de rigeur) for corporations and advertising agencies to further capitalize on youth culture.



and I found it
Malcolm Gladwell, before his other equally empty works http://www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_03_17_a_cool.htm

I sound really harsh - my apologies (and I have read both Blink and Tipping Point)

on closer inspection the UK website looks more like boing boing and core77 than an exploitative marketing strategy.

did I kill this thread? Shame - Average Hellhole Architects had a lot of potential.

You know what would be hellhole-ish to me? Having to go to work every day in a space filled with pseudo-igloos and treehuts. Gah.

There's a lot to be said for the relative anonymity of professionalism, and for a quiet space in which to think, work, and not constantly feel under pressure to come up with Juno-like sarcastic zings.

AHA just made my morning, gracias a todos.

i worked for one of the offices on the site (i imagine you can guess which one)

can't speak to the rest but really what they are looking for is young people with fresh ideas and an ability to do the 3d shtuff...AND if at all possible a bit of skill with the actual realisation of the good stuff. kids straight from school they have use for but i think it takes a coupla years to get them into shape...hence the desire for experienced applicants.

the office i worked for was and is pretty much all architects, and don't consider themselves as interior designers. they just happen to do more interiors than most architects.

^ really? That's very cool. Were most of them licensed?

I also work for one of the places in that article.. Everything that jump said applies to us. If anything, I think our interiors work requires more technical skill on the design team than our equivalently ambitious ground-up work - interiors doesn't have a 'back' or tolerance for slop created by formal moves that are aesthetically successful but not functional. People that don't know what a wall is made out of have a pretty hard time - coordinating all the crap that goes into a space with exposed services takes a lot of work. And knowledge.

We're about 30% licensed architects. Alas, I would say that is a higher percentage than most firms in our area (Los Angeles).

would the salary be noticeably less than a regular firm? it certainly sounds like a great place to start fresh out of college while building up some experience.

oh and most importantly, did you enjoy your work there?

i enjoyed the work. mostly because of the people. the work is sort of just what i do anyway, and not connected to the particular office.

i think most of the staff had licences. there were no interior designers at all. other specialties, but not one single Interior designer. i won't explain why in this forum but am fairly certain that was on purpose.

more than salary the biggest difference is a about the projects - with small projects like these offices do the work is very intense and very fast and very high turnover. so there is not always a lot of exploration of things that could be worth exploring. the skillset for this type of work is very different from trad architecture too and could be a liability if you plan to move onto larger work someday...and the opposite is equally true. i know a lot of architects who would never in a million years know where to start with this kind of work...