I'm just about to graduate from grad school. I'm starting a job search, or I'm not. I'm thinking about starting a practice, I'm licensed, I've worked at a semi-prestigious academic firm and a huge, respected corporate firm, and before that worked at a not prestigious small firm that I'm embarrassed I was at for so long (An illness in the family kept me from moving on, but that's probably more detail than you were all looking for).
What do you guys think? Does going to work at a Starchitect for a while make the most sense before starting a practice? Would that just burn a person out? Aside from Bjarke, I haven't seen a lot of break-off firms that have been particularly successful, and from what I understand he was only at OMA for a handful of months. But maybe I'm wrong?
What about ditching the common path of LA or NY and moving to a more remote area? Does anyone know someone working in a small town? I grew up in a small town and I still romanticize that lifestyle.
What firms in any locations do you think are making interesting work? Treat employees well?
Let's open this up for discussion, hopefully it can be a place for others to sound off and share their thoughts about what it means to work as an architect and enjoy what you do!
Thanks!
archinet
May 7, 17 3:11 pm
If I was american living in the US and in your shoes I would definitely think about opening a practice away from NYC or even LA. If you are licensed and worked for a few years and can afford it- do it. NYC and LA seem over-saturated and perhaps there is more economic opportunity in places such as Portland. As for small American offices doing good work I am not informed.
BusinessPlan
May 20, 17 6:47 pm
Thanks, Rick, this is an interesting thing to look into, does every state have a system like ORPIN? Are you in Astoria, New York? Do you know if New York has a system like this?
Chuck71
May 22, 17 10:31 am
I used to live in a regional city in Australia, working for a public sector office. Not that far from the capital of the state, but far enough at 125 km away from the capital CBD, that we were reponsible for design of projects up to the border of the adjacent states, both south and west, and quite a few hundred KM north as well.
Current population of this town is around 114,000, and I knew every Architect in town, most of the engineers, and the only electrical engineers and quantity surveyor worked for us. There just wasn't enough work for that many professionals in construction, and if a project was big enough it was done somewhere else, like the next firm I went to work at (my first project at my next employer was actually in the town I'd just stopped living in!)
Later on, working in London, my boss had a nice cottage down in Dorset. I asked him why he didn't move there, his simply reply was that he'd love to, but his clients were in London.
I think we'd all love to move to a small town, do quality work, but the work has to exist too, be available, within our scope for doing it (size of practice), clients have to think you can do it, and so on.
It's hard to find the right fit for this, so I suggest asking yourself what type of projects you want to do, and whether you will be more or less likely to be able to do them where you want to live.
Because it really isn't feasible to do everything by internet, and clients want to be able to speak to their Architect in person, have them attend meetings at short notice, and so on.
mightyaa
May 22, 17 11:01 am
Honestly, the internet killed the outlying architecture firms. The 'local boy' influence was reduced to nothing when they could find a large firm on the internet with a full fledged marketing department (eye candy brochures and webpages) and a vast array of services a larger firm can do.
What the trend is, are branch offices. Basically a large firm 'in the city' will buy out or start up a firm in a hot area. Like a Denver firm opening a branch up in the mountains to serve the resort towns. That way they have the resources and online presence to land the work AND the local networking.
That's probably your best bet; research firms with branch offices and start marketing them. Otherwise the small firms not 'in the city' tend to be regulated to small residential and very tight fees.
Hello All,
I'm just about to graduate from grad school. I'm starting a job search, or I'm not. I'm thinking about starting a practice, I'm licensed, I've worked at a semi-prestigious academic firm and a huge, respected corporate firm, and before that worked at a not prestigious small firm that I'm embarrassed I was at for so long (An illness in the family kept me from moving on, but that's probably more detail than you were all looking for).
What do you guys think? Does going to work at a Starchitect for a while make the most sense before starting a practice? Would that just burn a person out? Aside from Bjarke, I haven't seen a lot of break-off firms that have been particularly successful, and from what I understand he was only at OMA for a handful of months. But maybe I'm wrong?
What about ditching the common path of LA or NY and moving to a more remote area? Does anyone know someone working in a small town? I grew up in a small town and I still romanticize that lifestyle.
What firms in any locations do you think are making interesting work? Treat employees well?
Let's open this up for discussion, hopefully it can be a place for others to sound off and share their thoughts about what it means to work as an architect and enjoy what you do!
Thanks!
If I was american living in the US and in your shoes I would definitely think about opening a practice away from NYC or even LA. If you are licensed and worked for a few years and can afford it- do it. NYC and LA seem over-saturated and perhaps there is more economic opportunity in places such as Portland. As for small American offices doing good work I am not informed.
Thanks, Rick, this is an interesting thing to look into, does every state have a system like ORPIN? Are you in Astoria, New York? Do you know if New York has a system like this?
I used to live in a regional city in Australia, working for a public sector office. Not that far from the capital of the state, but far enough at 125 km away from the capital CBD, that we were reponsible for design of projects up to the border of the adjacent states, both south and west, and quite a few hundred KM north as well.
Current population of this town is around 114,000, and I knew every Architect in town, most of the engineers, and the only electrical engineers and quantity surveyor worked for us. There just wasn't enough work for that many professionals in construction, and if a project was big enough it was done somewhere else, like the next firm I went to work at (my first project at my next employer was actually in the town I'd just stopped living in!)
Later on, working in London, my boss had a nice cottage down in Dorset. I asked him why he didn't move there, his simply reply was that he'd love to, but his clients were in London.
I think we'd all love to move to a small town, do quality work, but the work has to exist too, be available, within our scope for doing it (size of practice), clients have to think you can do it, and so on.
It's hard to find the right fit for this, so I suggest asking yourself what type of projects you want to do, and whether you will be more or less likely to be able to do them where you want to live.
Because it really isn't feasible to do everything by internet, and clients want to be able to speak to their Architect in person, have them attend meetings at short notice, and so on.
Honestly, the internet killed the outlying architecture firms. The 'local boy' influence was reduced to nothing when they could find a large firm on the internet with a full fledged marketing department (eye candy brochures and webpages) and a vast array of services a larger firm can do.
What the trend is, are branch offices. Basically a large firm 'in the city' will buy out or start up a firm in a hot area. Like a Denver firm opening a branch up in the mountains to serve the resort towns. That way they have the resources and online presence to land the work AND the local networking.
That's probably your best bet; research firms with branch offices and start marketing them. Otherwise the small firms not 'in the city' tend to be regulated to small residential and very tight fees.