The Red Sox got booted from the playoffs. The Patriots are 5-3 and NFL ref's have been calling an inordinate amount of roughing the passer for Tom Brady. The Bruins seem to be doing okay. The Celtics are going for another title run. Nobody cares about the Revolution or the MLS.

Haha, jp. I'll move out of the city the first time I see someone wearing a Revolution hoodie.

it'd be hard for the pats to be 5-3 with only six games played... they're 4-2. haven't heard to much about jobs though up there

Jobs are few and far between...

Eh, I live in London now. Come on Arsenal! just kidding, cricket is awesome. Actually disregard that, uk sports suck tea bags.

Except for tennis - come on!

my friends are actually huge fans of arsenal...but i'd imagine moving to boston would bring your cost of living way down.

I'll actually answer the question without being a wise ass.

The market is pretty bad overall. Elkus Manfredi has severely contracted and last I heard Peyette and SBRA were both hurting pretty badly. Those are of course the corporate firms I know of... Not sure about the smaller guys.

I'm actually working at a leased desk at a well-known architect's office in Boston and looking around...it's not the best of times.

it's bad and slow. A couple of friends of mine got job after about a year long searching here in Boston. yeah, it's a good news, but they are just two out of many friends who are still looking.

I'm originally from Boston. There's somegood firms but most of the 'scene' is corporate crapfest. Move to NY.

You know the economy has hit rock bottom when people start inquiring about jobs in Boston.

wwwwwWWWWWHAT!?

it was snowing last night. doesn't mean anything to jobs but do you really want to live somewhere where it snows before halloween?

Actually, scratch that - you may actually want to consider working in NYC over Boston: the last two songs that were just played in the office were, "What A Fool Believes" followed by "Desperado."

...GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!

Anyone catch that? "Get me outta here!"? Dane Cook...Boston...get it? It's funny. It's funny because Dane Cook's a comedian...from Boston. Yeahhhhhhhh.


Sorry, I think chaos may have occurred - I'm going to stop posting for a little bit....

In terms of opportunity it's about scope. Boston tends to the regional, New York is obviously international. I love Boston, but I cannot live there for professional reasons.

I'm working at a small office outside Boston--we've got a few big jobs that are holding us up, but it's a small office so there wasn't much to lose. At the moment, there isn't anything new coming in, though we've had a few calls, but it's generally slow. While I disagree with jp--there are some very good, smaller, up and coming type offices in Boston (though almost certainly not hiring even in good times)--I'd be apprehensive about moving to the city with the highest concentration of architects in the US during a recession. Still, the beer bars here are good and growing, and personally I think an office pumping to Michael Macdonald is always a good thing.

maybe you don't care about the MLS because you are white

Pretty sure a ton of white people all over the world absolutely love soccer/football. What an unfunny thing to say, ten. Tisk Tisk. Hey Admins, can we get some moderation in here?




flm, you amke some points, but to clarify: I wasn't placing a value judgement on the quality of the few 'up and comers' that you refer to. Of course firms like officeDA and single speed etc etc are fantastic. The question raised was about the job market in Boston, and as projects are *mostly* local or regional , that means there's less work, which means less job openings. If you're office is international, then you have a wider pool of possibilties. That's not to say the *quality* of the work is any better or worse.

"Nobody cares about the Revolution or the MLS."

I wasn't being funny, this person was perpetuating a subtly racist stereotype.

Is it? There are plently of white people in the US and even in Boston who like soccer. Are you nuts? My whole first post was entirely sarcastic. I think you misunderstood the point of bringing up sports when he was asking a professional question. I think you're bringing negativity into this needlessly and naively.

maybe you shouldn't perpetuate stereotypes that alienate minority communities in the US.

oh my god. Is anyone else listening to this guy? Canadians like hockey, and pretty much only hockey, does that make them racist? I myself am WHITE and watch British football quite regularly. Come off it. I have better things to do than 'try to have a conversation with dining room table.'

jp, good point regarding offices. I think there are still some good offices like Moskow Linn, etc that aren't quite as trendy as some of the others but doing very good work and more likely perhaps to begin hiring again in the future.

To clarify: I don't know anything about Moskow Linn's employment policies, hiring, or even anyone who works there--just throwing them out as an office that I like who seem to be one of many fine, smaller offices where someone in town might be more likely to find a job at some point.

personally i think there are a ton of good little offices in boston...
harvard and mit bring a number of profs to the area so it's atypical of a small US city...northeastern, bac, and wentworth to a smaller extent. there are also a number of young offices starting up that i've been noticing. and in boston you have the advantage of getting space...vs nyc where there isn't much unless you go into brooklyn...and even there it won't be as cheap as somerville or jp or the like. nyc will always have more offices..but boston is definitely a city worth looking at for high end architecture.

LL, you're entirely right. preston scott cohen, MOS, etc etc etc. The number of firms doing good work is unproportional [in a good way] relative to other northeastern cities. The difference is scale though, viz you dont get firms like SOM, Piano, Eisenman, Libeskind, Polshek, KPF, Gensler, etc. Or even regional offices like Foster and OMA.

So, relative to the point of this thread, looking for work, I'd say NY is a better bet, even though there are a lot of architects, there's more opportunity because of the scale and because of the international nature of the projects. Beantown still gets my respect, of course.

right on, lars. one consideration in looking for work in either NYC or Boston should be the consider cost of living in either city. both are quite high, but NYC even more than Boston. perhaps jp is on to something here--if you're looking for a larger office, perhaps with more international work, NYC might be the place, whereas Boston certainly offers more smaller offices than large ones. Not sure which is actually better for job security.

Finally, I have to take exception to the constant characterization of Boston as a small city--determined only by population within the city of Boston, it is smaller than many (still bigger than Seattle, etc though), but when you include the cities right around it (incl. at the very least Cambridge, etc) it is either the 5th or 10th largest metro area in the country. It's not that important, and it's certainly still smaller than Chicago or NYC and so on, but I think it's a bit misleading to treat Boston as a city of only the 600k or so people living within city limits.

Sure, and the proportion of good schools is ridiculously high, and it's part of the BosWash I95 corridor, which is the densest part of the States.

Interesting post:

http://www.bostonworldpartnerships.com/blog/2009/04/23/boston-a-city-of-architects/

Having just moved from Boston to NYC (2 months ago) these are some comparisons I have noticed (all are my opinion, all are debatable.)

1. Boston feels much smaller now that I have moved to NYC. Everything in Boston feels smaller (building, subway stations, amount of street vendors, number of people, activity on the street, amount and quality of parks.)

2. Boston is walkable, which was what I loved about it, NYC is not.

3 Rent is higher, but I am living in a much nicer neighborhood. I could be living for the same amount of rent as I paid in Boston, easily.

4 There are far more young children in NYC, then in Boston. Boston has many more college students.

5. The job hunt is going much better in NYC, more opening, more work, bigger firms (if that is what you are into.)

6. From September 15th-30th Craigslist posted 16 jobs I was qualified to apply for in NYC, 1 was posted on Boston’s Craigslist.

7. Groceries are much more expensive in NYC.

8. There are cheap places to eat and grab drinks in both cities.

9. I thought I knew what it was like for a city to be ethnically diverse, nop. Now, I at least have an idea.

10. People in NYC are much more career focused.

11. Men dress differently in NYC. Fewer hooded sweat shirts, and far less men wearing shorts in the summer time, weird.

These are just a few comparisons I noticed in the last two months. I’m sure my list will grow over time.

You forgot #12. Boston totally sucks. NYC only partially sucks.

Bring it on :)

''2. Boston is walkable, which was what I loved about it, NYC is not.''

Best way to get around is on a bike, by far.

''7. Groceries are much more expensive in NYC.''

Try to find a famer's market near you. There's one in Fort Green, Brooklyn, one in Prospect Park, and one at Union Square.


''9. I thought I knew what it was like for a city to be ethnically diverse, nop. Now, I at least have an idea. ''

The neighborhood I lived in in Brooklyn had roughly equal portions of Orthodox Jews, Chinese, African Americans, Trinidadians and Mexicans.

''10. People in NYC are much more career focused.''

How so?

''11. Men dress differently in NYC. Fewer hooded sweat shirts, and far less men wearing shorts in the summer time, weird. ''

I've noticed this as well. In most parts of the world, dress is a bit more formal than in the States. Perhaps with NYC being so diverse, there's less of a propensity to go with the American standard?

13. Boston has Cambridge Brewing Company. Done deal.

These Boston v. NY arguments always crack me up. The scale of the two cities is so ludicrisly disparate that the ability to make a compelling argument for which is fundamentally 'better' is a moot point. It's like arguing whether Tokyo or Osaka, or London or Manchester, or Paris or Nimes, is fundamentally better. It's absurd, the logic always devolves into an entirely subjective emotional construct.

Which is better Boston, or Nashua, New Hampshire?

Ok...I'll play.
Between Boston and Nashua, I choose death by firing squad.

My wife’s mother would say, without a doubt, that Nashue is much “better” then Boston.

I don’t think it is about one city being generally better then another city. It is more about what city is better for me, or for you. It is all about fit.

Boston is a better fit for me (at the moment.) This may change as I spend more time in NYC, and I hope it does.

There really is nothing except “subjective emotional constructs” to base our decisions off of. And I’m fine with that.

right on, iheatbooks. I've never cared for NYC when I've been there, and am very comfortable in Boston, and it is all based on the "subjective emotional constructs" as you put it. Nevertheless, I hope you end up enjoying NYC.

Boston smells like fish and it is filled with Irish people.

and NYC smells like ass...

back to the question -

for work - things really suck for people just starting out. Unless you are extremely talented in some area (usually graphics), or you have connections, you're still going to have a really hard time finding work right now.

things are definitely picking up a little, but most of the jobs aren't being advertised because we've all got friends who are out of work - and they're getting first dibs on the jobs.