Wow, there are some interesting commentary there. I've never heard of a "home designer"

Thats so depressing. But its true for a lot of the cases out there nowdays. When I worked in construction we tore up the architects to the point they wouldnt even come near us anymore and we then owned their clients for life, they returned to us first - but we were really good contractors. Now Im on the architect side and we beat up minority contractors because we can. Its sick and terrible that firms go out of their way to find weak contractors. I think they are afraid of being showed up The best solution is for the next generation to put aside this us / them BS and just shelve the egos and work together. It will produce the best results. Nobody knows everything.

wow.... wow. there are a lot of misconceptions on here.

here or there?

well, on the posting. so there.

haha
i only got through the 1st page of comments, and see there are 103 or something more

i would say thats a typical reaction and response though

i love how all of a sudden architect's fees are "too high"



its like any kind of service though
you have good and bad ones
there are good and bad contractors as well

the fee being too high though is the same with anything
if you are a firm who has work, and someone comes and wants to hire you for a small job you dont really feel is financially viable to spend time on, of course you will offer to still do it, but at a price that will make it worth your time

i am not sure what is wrong with something like that


especially projects like remodelling a home

i have been looking into putting a small roof deck on my row house
its a very small job, and some contractors i have contacted have given me very high quotes, just because it needs to be worth their time
that is fine with me, i just cant pay them that much to do it
but to think they are wrong for asking that is ridiculous

the problem is people dont want to pay money for anything anymore
especially with home remodelling or additions, the people who complain about architects seem to be the people who dont see or understand the value in what we do, and some times think they can do it themselves, so why pay

those commentators are assdonkeys, to borrow a term from another current thread!

Hmm, I personally have mixed feelings about all this.

Architects, IMO, are not as knowledgeable or as skilled at the nuts and bolts of construction as we should be and alot of that may have to do with the fact that we start off in our careers stuck in offices copy pasting details all day and never really gleam the kind of in-depth knowledge a skilled contractor has. Sure we have the AREs, but unless that knowledge honed for those exams is applied frequently its all to easy to forget. Not to mention the fact that when it comes to how a building is financed contractors are knee deep in the budget all the time because their ability to break even on a job relies on hitting a very thin profit margin in many instances. My problem is I have yet to work for an architect that I feel is truly knowledgeable about the ins and outs of real construction and that may shade my views a bit.

However, there is one key thing architects have in spades that everybody else in our industry lacks and that's vision. The ability to think outside the normal parameters of construction enables us to design solutions to problems that, in many cases, would simply be ignored. Vision can turn a weak site into a strong project Vision can make a budget-busting project affordable. Vision can make the spaces that are built far more comfortable and catered towards the end user then they would have been without it. Anybody can design a home and anybody can build a home, just like anybody can cook and paint, but without the ability to see something in three-dimensions when it isn't there in reality all your going to wind up with is just a built white-good.

Wow. Those comments were infuriating. I can't believe how people are so ill-informed about our profession.

I'm also shocked by all of the discussion of "home designers". Home designers? What? How has our reputation gotten so bad that people are more willing to hire unlicensed "home designers" than professionals.

Where is the AIA on this? I looked up Home Designer on google and found this http://www.ncbdc.com/

Apparently, all you have to do be a registered "building designer" is submit 3 drawings, 3 letters of recommendation, take a short test, and pay $350.

maybe architects just need to advertise.. or have a childrens tv show like bob the builder.. or have an HGTV show.. or a reality tv show.. thats how you reach these people.. cartoons and senseless television

It seems to me that there are three reasons why architects find themselves in this position:

1. We've subcontracted out what used to be core functions of our profession: interiors, landscape, sustainability, etc. We've also allowed feeder professions such as "house designer" and "design-build contractor" to leech off our profession. As far as I can tell, most of the negative comments on the msn article were from design-build contractors or "house designers". Makes sense, right? They want our work. The best way to get it is to make the public think architects are a bunch of whining incompetent primadonnas. We need to take back our core functionalities, and expose these people as makers of cheap, ugly crapitechture.

2. We haven't explained to both clients (the public) and contractors the professional role of an architect. More than being designers, architects are agents for clients—we are their representatives, often against contractors or other vendors who want to rip them off.

As soon as we allow contractors to ingratiate themselves with clients and badmouth us, we've failed in one of our professional responsibilities. The contractor, who has a monetary stake in the project, can now rip the client off. (Once the paper design is complete, architects have no financial stake in the project.) Architects are there to see that a. clients get a good, quality design and b. they pay the right price for it. This needs to be clear to both contractors and clients. Clients need to understand that we are there "for them." The contractor is merely delivering a product.

3. We allow architects who don't fully understand construction or the professional role of architects to run and manage jobs. Of course, everyone has to learn, but without proper oversight, a young or uncaring architect can make some big and costly mistakes.

i don't think those comments are coming from a representative population. my clients know that i know construction issues, as do the contractors and CMs with whom i've been working. the people who end up our clients are in positions to understand why they need us and how we not only facilitate a project but make it better than they could otherwise imagine it might be.

ignore the b.s. if you know what you're doing, keep on. if you don't, get there.

online comments of this type usually run along the lines of "They ain't so smart."

Doesn't matter much who "they" are, the commenter is always MUCH smarter and has all kinds of things figured out.

There isn't much point to paying attention to this kind of mentality, abundantly displayed all over the internet on all kinds of topics. I, too, could be an instant expert on any subject of my choosing; it takes nothing but access to a keyboard and total lack of accountability for anything I say.