STATE OF THE PROFESSION - 2014

Lance Bird, FAIA, Principal, LCDG

Where is our profession headed?  AIA P&F members say:

• Our influence is growing (53% surveyed)
• Areas of anticipated growth include
• Design Build (83%)
• Specialization (83%)
• Collaboration (94%!)
• Ten-person firm will continue to be relevant (63%)

At the final First Friday Forum for 2014, nearly 20 members representing a broad cross- section of our chapter took part in a lively discussion on the State of Our Profession.  Three-fourths are architects, and the majority has 16 or more years’ experience.  Only four worked for national or international firms, the rest working for local and regional practices.  Nearly 60% work for firms with less than 16 persons.  Interesting survey results included:

• 89% are happy with their career. 
• When asked if they would recommend the architectural profession as a career to a young person, 68% said “it depends”.  Coulter Winn, AIA summed it up with “They have to have the drive to put in the work.”
• The greatest single impact on their career was a mentor (47%).

What are the opportunities in the next decade? 

• Strongest markets
• Sustainability
• Healthcare
• Affordable housing and senior housing.
• Public infrastructure
• Technology
• Improved analysis tools like code analysis and Facilities Management software
• Revit
• 3-D printing

Trends: 

1. “Integrated Project Delivery is where it’s going”, Armando Gonzalez, FAIA.  “We need a holistic approach to the entire delivery supply chain and stop throwing what we make over the proverbial fence,” said Zig Rubel, AIACC, Definitions Committee chair. “IPD is the necessary bridge for our evolution in maturing the industry and this update defines the differentiation needed for clarity to get us there.”
2. Toby Pugh, AIA says “… successful projects that I have worked on have depended heavily on collaboration with the larger design team, the owner/developer, contractors and in most cases also with the authority having jurisdiction.”
3. “Sustainability is big at Occidental College.  It’s important to students.  It must be addressed in every job.  The next generation (students) are well informed”.  Joe O’Hara, AIA. 
4. Threats – “The California Energy Commission said that architects don’t have the skills to address energy conservation.”  Mark Gangi, AIA
5. Assembling a winning team – Scott Gaudineer says “Small firms can compete with large firms by hiring consultants to meet client’s needs.  It’s about the people.” 

Advise:

1. “Have the courage to walk away from bad clients”, Steve Lewis, AIA.
2. Coulter Winn, AIA said “We must set ourselves apart as creative people.  We can draw!”
3. Toby Pugh, AIA says “Transparency with building officials, fire officials and planning departments as well as with the client/design/construction teams has been critical for every project I have seen successfully completed.”
4. Steve Lewis would have our profession increase our community activism.  He referred to the “1% Solution” promoted by John Peterson in San Francisco.  The program pairs architects and non-profits.  Participating architects volunteer a minimum of 1% of their total hours each year.
5. “Social media is really important”, Armando Gonzalez, FAIA.  “See ‘Innovate Pasadena’, meeting every Friday and aggressively using social media.”  Coulter Winn, AIA added “Use social media to raise awareness of the value of architecture.”
6. To counter negative forces and completion, Mitch Sawasy, AIA says “We do more than design buildings.  Get the word out by our actions and involvement.  We can’t be passive, and we can’t be reactionaries.” 

 

How can AIA help you?

1. Sponsor forums to meet potential clients
2. Develop opportunities for members to share resources

·         Software

·         Model shops and 3-D printers

·         Staff

3. Julie Arcelay, Assoc. AIA says “AIA must change to become current with emerging trends, and reach out to the younger community.”  Toby Pugh, AIA echoed her remarks, emphasizing mentoring of interns. 

And if you are starting your career and looking for where an architect can make a difference, participants agreed we are needed by builders, construction managers, large engineering firms (i.e. Jacobs, Parsons), and corporations.  If you are thinking of leaving the profession, Joe O’Hara, AIA ended on this high note – “It’s still good to have this background and education.  It’s applicable to a lot of different professions.”  Hmmm…



L. Bird - Maui 12/14

SMALL FIRMS ON CHOPPING BLOCK?

Lance Bird, FAIA, Principal, LCDG
 

AIA defends our interests, provides learning opportunities and essential documents, and is a forum to meet and share ideas with our colleagues. Great for small firms.  However, forces and trends bringing rapid changes to our profession may crush those firms. 

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times  –  Changes everywhere we look.  For example:

Plus – According to DBIA, Design-Build (D-B) practices reduce construction change orders and claims.  Large clients like LACCD, LA County and Caltech favor D-B. 

Negative – As part of the bidding process, the architect prepares schematics – for free!   How can a small firm afford it?  And why would a large contractor partner with a small firm when the Gensler’s of the world have better connections and resources to compete in the proposal process? 

Best of Times

• Getting busy! 
• Extraordinary design tools
• Easy and quick access to information
• Easier to practice nationally and internationally – IBC, improved communications
• Ever-larger architectural firms responding to economies of scale. They have the wealth to influence legislation and develop new technologies.  
• Legislated sustainability
• Growing number of specialty firms – knowledge equals better client service
• On-Call Contracts – Public entities are awarding large, multi-year contracts Marketing costs are reduced and a client partnership is formed 
• CMs and Design-Build practices reduce construction change orders and claims
• Lease-leaseback contracting allows school districts to select builders on the basis of qualifications instead of low bid. 

Worst of Times (for small firms)

• As economy improves, firms will have difficulty finding experienced staff with less than five years’ experience.  They’re gone!
• Declining Architect registration – Baby Boomers retiring and recent graduates bailing because of limited jobs and daunting licensing requirements
• As we get busy, we have less time to check our work, leading to more construction claims 
• On-call contracts blocking new firms from getting work during the term of the agreement 
• Diminishing role in construction as D-B and CM entities grow 
• Increased liability – Witness the California Supreme Court ruling against SOM
• A squeeze on fees and the expectation of Architect’s to bid for projects – Public sector ignoring Qualifications Based Selection and architects going along with it (bidding).
• Increased regulations – ADA, California Energy Code 2013.
• Growing communication and documentation expectations
• As small firms get squeezed out, “hands-on” personal service may also diminish. 
• Growing number of specialty firms – challenges generalists that can’t compete. They haven’t done 20+ fire stations, etc.  A loss to “fresh thinking” and new ideas.

What can AIA do for small firms?  Promote the advantages a small firm brings a client:  hands-on personal service tailored to a client’s personal needs. 

What can you do?  Consider teaming to augment your strengths, increasing your competitiveness.  Be the ‘go to’ architect in a narrow specialty.  Good luck!

Treps As Designers

Take an intern, an entrepreneurial intern, and turn them loose with new technologies.  New technologies are emerging daily.   A generation of young treps (entrepreneurs) are finding new applications for every great technology.  I’m amused and inspired by Entrepreneur’s Editor in Chief, Amy Casper.  In her June Editor’s Note, She talks “about giving fear the middle finger.  Actually it is about giving everyone the middle finger because, well, sometimes that’s necessary.” 

Questions and concerns spinning out of a local AIA meeting centered on “Have architects lost their importance in society?”  That question sounds like fear.  Where has our courage to speak out and take chances gone?  How about innovating with the plethora of emerging technologies?  Consider what these entrepreneurs are doing.    

Nest Labs¹ has re-invented the home thermostat with the “Learning Thermostat.” They’ve cobbled together cell-phone parts, open-source software and other technologies.  Connected to Wi-Fi, this device becomes the brain for a smart house and you don’t have to program it.  Expanded uses include a dehumidifier, a smoke detector and the ability to adapt to direct sunlight.  Buy it and you get free updates.  A best seller in the home market, Google bought them for $3.2 billion last January! 

Under the leadership of Aydogan Ozcan in UCLA’s engineering labs², affordable smartphone add-ons are being developed as state-of-the-art diagnostic tools to test blood, evaluate the quality of water, etc. on a global scale.  If just a portion of the world’s three billion mobile subscribers can beam up health and environmental data, the spread of disease and other invisible threats can be followed in real time.  If scientists can develop this useful technology, can designers develop an app or modify devices that improve our ability to synthesize complex determinants in our quest to find better solutions?  Better analysis, better solutions! 

Our biggest challenge today, and what could be our biggest opportunity, is to make sense of environmental regulations and design accordingly.  AIA’s Architecture 2030 aggressively addresses the amount of energy used by commercial buildings in U.S.  California’s goal is to reach net zero for new non-residential buildings by 2030.  Achieving sustainability is an urgent issue for economic, social and environmental reasons.  Do your MEP engineers get it?  As the lead designer, are you participating with energy simulation software?  Life cycle cost analyses find that over a 60-year life cycle, operating energy accounted for 95% of the buildings’ life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions³.  We need simple, affordable, easy-to-use energy tools to help us evaluate our designs, and optimize our solutions.  Maybe one of our trep interns will find the answer (and get rich in the process).   

Lance Bird, FAIA

________

1.  “Man of the House”, by John Patrick Pullen, page 40, Entrepreneur, June 2014.

2. “Inventing the Real McCoy”, by Ariel Sabar, page 70, Smithsonian.com, May 2014.

3.  “Use Phase Dominates Environmental Impact”, by Emily Lorenz, page 8, Ascent, Spring 2014.   

Arid Lands Institute

Peter Arnold, Director of Research, Arid Lands Institute, Woodbury University, presented astounding facts at the April First Friday Forum.   

• 20% of California’s energy is used by the water sector (for conveyance, treatment, distribution, end-use, and re-use).
• Three-fourths of California water is used for agriculture.
• 88-90% of the City of L.A.s water is imported.

Crossing the concrete-lined L.A. River in Long Beach last week, I was struck by the huge volumes of water flowing to the ocean.  We’re treating storm water as waste. 

Recognizing our shortage of water, and the environmental cost of energy, the L.A. Department of Water and Power is investing in a master plan to capture storm water. A Metropolitan Water District study argues that “localization” (increased conservation and recycling combined with capturing local storm water) can meet 85% of our water needs by 2060. Using local water reduces energy consumption and carbon impacts.  Each year enough water to supply 2.5 million people runs off LA's surface.  It costs $311 million per year to import the same amount from the Colorado River. In theory, a billion-dollar investment in storm water capture could be recouped in just over 3 years. 

ALI has developed a fine-scaled geospatial modeling tool for the 200 square mile San Fernando Valley.  The “calculation engine” assesses runoff, infiltration and constraints (where you don’t want water to percolate).  Ground water contamination is prevalent at former aerospace sites and gas stations throughout the Valley.  Channeling runoff through contaminated soil may exacerbate the condition.  Since storm water crosses multiple jurisdictions, coordinated plans for capturing runoff is required.   

In one case study zone, areas best suited for capturing storm water and redirecting it to aquifers are residential neighborhoods along the eastern foothills of Burbank and the northern foothills of Glendale.  Water in the front and backyards of homes redirected underground rather than flowing to streets and gutters will be one part of a comprehensive regional program for storm water retention.  

ALI is forging partnerships with AIA-LA, Arup, City of L.A. Bureau of Engineering, Bureau of Sanitation, EPA, Tree People and others to develop the tool for public testing and implementation.  Needed are storm water capture details to guide the public in implementation of this critical program.  

 

I was reminded on July 1^st, the California Energy Code goes live.  California’s goal is to reach net zero for new residences by 2020 and new non-residential by 2030.  By executive order Governor Brown has set a goal of net zero for 50% of State-owned buildings by 2025.  To reach those goals requires innovative (and costly) efficiencies and renewable energy. 

 

By Lance Bird, FAIA

Architects Wages Stink!

If wages and respect have a relationship, architects get no respect.  Many bright college students have figured it out – this is not the profession for them.  We have a “brain drain”.  And AIA has had its hands tied.  Twenty years ago the Department of Justice barred AIA from talking about the amount of fees for service.  It smacked of price fixing.  Go to AIA National’s website to read a depressing summary of the recently published AIA Compensation Report.   

ARE WE LOSING OUR VALUE…or is something really screwed up in our society?  Does it make sense that those on “Wall Street” can make millions, no…billions, while architects design environments with a deep, lasting positive effect on society for modest wages?   

What do WE do?  Changing the profession is beyond your control.  Changing what you do is possible.  In a few words: 

UNDERSTAND THE VALUE YOU CREATE

LEVERAGE YOUR TIME

                                    LEARN TO SELL

                                                RISKS AND REWARDS

                                                            CREATE PASSIVE INCOME 

 

It seems like forever.  AIA has promoted VALUE.  Effectively communicating value occurs at the personal, face-to-face level.  What is it you do as an architect that helps your boss or transforms your client’s needs to valuable solutions? 

Throughout time, amassing wealth has depended on leveraging time.  We do that with our consultants and staff.  Amp it up! 

Stop thinking of “selling” as a four-letter word.  The architects we admire understand the art of selling.   

Risks and rewards – If it feels uncomfortable, do it.  That’s how we grow.   

Supplement your paycheck with passive income.  It comes in many forms  

In the words of Philo Jacobson, a good designer I worked with many years ago, “You make your own breaks”.  Start now.                 

 

Lance Bird, FAIA