I just happen to come across this post and it just struck a cord with me. With all my work on an affordable LEED Home and the AIA Ohio Affordable Green Home Design Competition, what this architect writes about is exactly what I believe in and want to advocate as my professional career progresses.
The Case for Affordable Housing & A National Energy Standard
They must go hand-in-hand. ( October 2009 )
Certain items are needed for all people to live a decent (modern) life: decent housing, decent (safe) food, clear (safe) water & air; fair wage/job; access to health care. All other things are possible (for a people) from there.
Making a (high end designer) commodity of any of the aforementioned, makes those items inaccessible by lower income people and the poor, and now we see, inaccessible to even the middle class in America.
Behind affordable health care, Affordable Housing is the largest problem facing our nation. When jobs are harder to get, it makes it that much harder to maintain one’s health, and to maintain a decent place to live. Basic, decent housing, healthcare and food are a human right.
Continue reading the article at ShantyWorld
For most of us in the architectural profession, this past year has been painful. Many have lost their jobs, and a good amount of us have had pay cuts, which is equally stressful with the amount of strain it puts on our families. However I have taken the attitude that even though the time is difficult, you just need to push through it. Because even with the few jobs that are out there, the competition is fierce. I interviewed for a new job a couple of weeks ago to try and get my salary back to normal just to be able to provide for my family better, and I was up against 15 other people. That was just how many they interviewed, who knows how many resumes they actually received. Because I think the latest statistic that I heard was that close to 30% of the architectural profession is without a job.
I also believe you need to prepare for the worst. Now for a lot of us, stashing money in a savings account is not an option. But there are other things that can be done. My local AIA chapter (AIA Columbus) recently held a seminar for the recently unemployed on various issues to consider if you decide to work for yourself. Believe it or not, a lot of architectural firms get their start during a recession (article). Attend AIA meetings and other events and start networking with colleagues. Let them know who you are and what you are up to. Even though they may not have work to take you on at that time, keeping an open line of communication with others will put you in the loop when new jobs are available and that personal connection may help you get your foot in the door. Because it truly is not always what you know, but who you know.
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So I have joined the world of twitter and have been exploring the vast amounts of instant information and dinner ideas for the past couple of weeks. What I have learned on my short time with twitter, it is a good way to receive massive amounts of up to date information as long as you are following the right people and or organizations. Two organizations that I obviously follow are AIA (@AIANational) and the USGBC (@usgbc). They tweet on a fairly regular basis about recent press releases, articles, and other random pieces of information related to the design & construction field. However you can receive equal amounts of useless information such as “homemade eggplant parm, steamed artichoke with sherry vinaigrette, and a mediterranean cucumber and tomato salad…rainy Saturday dinner“. But as I learned by listening in to a social media webinar by @LewisHowes & @SeanMalarkey, social media is exactly what it is called, it is another means of socializing with hundreds if not thousands of people and letting them know what you are doing. So it is a little more personalized to let people know more about you as a person rather than a company.
In this social media webinar that I attended they were presenting ways for the user to generate business and/or job leads for almost any company. But not just by using twitter, they also discussed other online networking sites such as LinkedIn and briefly touched upon facebook, which I am a user of all three. With the exception of facebook, I can see how these can be very effective marketing tools if you are active users of these two sites. However it could be difficult as an employee of a larger firm to use social media for marketing purposes. Although you do see some architectural firms creating their own twitter accounts. On the other hand, as an employee it is a great way to brand yourself and get your information out to others and try to have yourself seen as an expert, which can prove to be useful in these slower times if you happen to be job hunting. So I would like to offer my opinion on the different social networking sites.
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With today’s economy, it is to no surprise that the design and construction industry has slowed down, significantly. There have been numerous articles in some of the trade publications such as Architect magazine (Available: Immediately), even Architectural Record has created the Architect’s Survival Guide. I have heard that in upwards of 40% of the architectural profession is currently unemployed. So needless to say, times are scary. What do you do if you loose your job because there is currently a lot of competition for very few jobs. People are starting to get creative with their marketing efforts, such as 5 cent Architect.
On the other hand, every week I feel lucky that I still have a job and still receive a paycheck. Even though we have not had a new project come into our office for almost 10 months. I guess that is the benefit of working for a smaller architectural firm that is well established. This is not the owners first recession, so he is a little more prepared for the slow down. But we have not been totally insulated from the slow down. We had to let go two of our employees back in January, which equates to almost a third of our staff. But what makes things nerve wracking is the fact that we have submitted more qualifications statements so far this year than we did all last year. And out of 10 interviews in the past 3 months, all that work has only landed us one small job that won’t even start up for another month. I guess we are lucky to get calls to submit for work, or that there is even work out there at all. I just would like to see the management of the firm out hitting the pavement a little more instead of just wait for Request For Qualifications.
As a result of the slow down, our office has actually been taking advantage of the time to re-tool itself. First it is starting to think about a new brand. How can we reinvent ourselves? We are also updating our website to get the most current projects online. We have even updated our current CAD software to the latest version and revisited our project standards in preparation for the next project. It has even given me the opportunity to organize the AIA Ohio Affordable Green Home design competition utilizing more office time. Something that I did not expect back in December when I received the approval to move forward with the competition. I have even been given the opportunity to teach Greening Your Home seminars to local homeowners, which should put a few extra dollars in my pocket. But most importantly potentially drum up some work for the office.
I try and keep my mind off the fact that we are slow and keep myself busy with the organizations that I am involved with. I will even get back to studying for the ARE (4 more exams to go!) once the competition rolls out later this month. So hopefully I will have some better news to report within the coming weeks/months as my office prepares for a couple more interviews. Until then I will continue to absorb as much knowledge as I can with the free time I have and do my part with the marketing efforts and the occasional RFI or LEED submittal that comes across my desk.
-Josh
I found out last week that I passed another one of my exams, Building Technology. So at this point I have passed 3 of the 9 exams that are currently required to obtain my architectural license. However I am still awaiting the results of two other tests that I have already taken. I have set for myself what is by today’s standards, a pretty ambitious schedule of taking one exam every 3 weeks to complete the exams by May 2009 which will allow me to stay with the current version of the exam.
For those of you who may be reading this and do not know what is involved within the architectural profession I hope this can help explain the process of what we must go through. To practice architecture in the United States, one must first graduate with a degree in architecture that is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). This at a minimum is a 4 year pre-professional degree, plus a 1 year Bachelor of Architecture degree.
Once the graduate is within the work force, they must then enroll into the Intern Development Program (IDP) that is overseen by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). This process typically takes 3 or more years to complete all the requirements. Until recently most states required the graduate to complete the IDP process to even sit for the Architectural Registration Exam (ARE). On the other hand the majority of the states will now allow you to sit for the exam while earning your IDP credits. However you cannot become a licensed architect until you have completed all of the IDP requirements.
But the exam process is a grueling series of exams that test you on design, as well as general practice requirements from contractual obligations to site, mechanical and structural design of the building. The exams are to reflect the practice of architecture as an integrated whole.
Once you have completed the exam, you are then allowed to practice architecture within your home state. Though with today’s technology you can work on a project anywhere within the country and a license from other states can easily be obtained through NCARB by reciprocity.
I look forward to taking my next exam in a few weeks because it gets me one step closer to the end of this long process and will then allow me to practice architecture on my own if I choose to someday. 
-Josh