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WalkerARCHITECTS
Joined: 25 Sep 2007
Posts: 51
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 Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 11:59 pm Post subject: Is there any future in Architecture? |
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The sad answer is probably not. This was posted back in 2003, is it still true today?
| Quote: | Why not tell people the truth:
"Architecture is the career from Hell"
Why:
*Ridiculously low pay, miniscule bonuses, if any at all, sometimes not even basic health insurance is available
*Layoffs (oh, sorry...house-cleaning!) every three months....i.e., the perennial revolving door.
*No career mobility, for most people: "shut up and draw" = no growth of any kind
*Crucial early career training in specific market-sector design (e.g. hospitals, aviation, office buildings, etc.) is only available to those few who survive "the axe at the revolving door!"
*This means that you may have ten years of experience, but only have done details and Cad drawings!.....and
*One or two arrogant designers in each firm behave like hogs...nobody else gets a chance to ever be creative, or blossom into a real contributor to the firm. Probably less than one percent of all Architects get to do any really expressive creative work on the job. And design competitions are almost non-existent, and are usually closed to "people without a track record"....i.e. almost everyone who does not lie on their resume!
*Excessive work hours, most of which are unpaid....."Well, you're on salary, and you are responsible for getting your assigned work on the project done, even if it means working until 2 AM 4 nights a week plus one all-nighter on the fifth, and 12 hours per day on the following Saturday and Sunday"....."The law allows us to pay salaried people for only forty hours, and it's your responsibility to meet the deadline. We know that we are under-staffed, but in order to get the job, we had to under-bid for our services, which is why we cannot pay any sort of overtime, and by the way, comp-time is illegal"......And then your boss drives home at a reasonable hour to his own 5-acre estate with a view of the ocean, and later in the year spends holidays at his vast out-of-town tropical or Ski-vacation property!
*Those in control of firms do not take registration seriously. Lack of registration is used as an excuse "to force people to keep working on AutoCAD", but when someone finally achieves registration, the rules change....He/she never gets much of a raise in pay and usually gets laid off!!
*Starting ones own Architecture firm in Today's economy is not a realistic proposition...only poverty and house additions!!
*Minority architects rarely have any power in the context of the traditional Architecture firm, and are always relegated to "doing the details"....."my, my, what a good detailer he/she is, but don't ever trust him/her with generating good ideas....he has such a communication problem...laughable, isn't it!" Minorities, even if registered, are usually forced to report to younger, white, unregistered "design stars" , even if those same "stars" are dependent on the minority in concern for detailed knowledge of codes and technical issues.
*Client representatives are nearly always specific white men, or some white women who dress like men in a non-threatening way
*Teaching in an Architecture school is not available to most Architects who have spent their professional lives doing details on AutoCAD, and pays sub-standard wages.
*In summary, Architectural education is very, very expensive, with almost no return on one's investment, and leads to endless job instability, terrible pay, horrible hours, and rarely satisfies the heady desire to "create one's own works of Architecture"
If you are looking for a creative field, think about getting into computer animation, advertising/branding or graphics, etc. Please avoid Architecture.
If you want to make money from buildings, become a licensed realtor and contractor, borrow money and develop property. Please do not get stuck in Architecture.. |
I think the profession has actually declined since 2003 and this sad story is a solid trend in our profession. What do you think? |
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djswan
Joined: 17 Aug 2007
Posts: 887
Location: Montana, USA
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| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:15 am Post subject: |
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well duh, Shut up and draw.
Well there's the problem right there. Doesn't any archi tectons build anymore?
Maybe more talents then sitting on your butt day dreaming would help. I would have been fired for that on a jobsite.
I'm firing myself for wasting to much time here.
_________________
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solidred
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 631
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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As a matter of interest Mr.Walker, who posted that in 2003? I know it wasn't me but, seriously, it could have been as they're my thoughts exactly. I'm not just saying this because I'm currently unemployed; I've been thinking this for years.
It's not an awful job to do. The pay is relatively awful (i.e. compared to similarly educated people in other fields) but not generally so. Job security can be lousy -it's not at all recession proof- but, then again, a great many people's jobs are on the line at present.
What bugs me, really, is that it sets up the carrot of creative expression and maintains this through what is deemed worthy of publication and by one's own peers and yet this isn't the job the vast majority of us end up doing. This, perhaps, is no different from yer average jobbing actor/waiter dreaming of being Leo di Caprio or Vanessa Redgrave but it doesn't make the situation suck less.
At least, being unemployed, I don't miss the money much, because there never was much to begin with and one can be so much more fulfilled as a creative individual when left to one's own devices.
An average career in architecture is like going through life attached to a ball-and-chain and, to be honest, I've generally hated the experience  |
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RSCarcht
Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 114
Location: USA: RI, CT, NY, MA, FL
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| Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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There is no doubt that for 99% of practitioners, architecture is not a lucrative pursuit. The basic problem is that architecture is too much fun and therefore more people who enter the profession than there are profitable positions.
This conditiond leads to:
--price competition between firms, leading to:
--insufficient funds to properly produce the design and documents, leading to:
--unfair use of entry level personnel, which leads to
--internal struggle within firms to achieve promotion, which leads to
--unhealthy and inhospitable work environments.
Like so many dominoes failing in a row, it all harkens back to an overabundance of people who want to design buildings.
With regard to the bosses driving back to their 5 acre estates on the ocean, I rather suspect that is hyperbole on Walker's part or perhaps the architect in his story came from money before they came to architecture.
To paraphrase the old joke, the best way to make a small fortune in architecture is to start with a large one! Privilege provides you with:
-- the travel experiences to know good architecture,
--the personality to interface with the wealthy people who commision architecture
--the opportunity to do work for family members early in your career to differentiate yourself from the scores of very talents peers that you may have
--the ability to survive the vicious cycles that occur regularly in building, which has only two speeds: crazed and dead.
Architecture has always seemed to be the career of patricians and sadly this fact has not changed much.
_________________
Ross Sinclair Cann, AIA APA
http://www.a4arch.com |
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88
Joined: 15 Nov 2005
Posts: 76
Location: usa
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| Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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Design is kind of fun so a lot of young start up architects/ designers think they can do it a lower cost. Live a funky cool life style . If all goes well they will not screw up any projects.. and they kepp rollong on.. After a while they will find out, hey where is the money? Where is my BMW...? It is very hard to get anything build in a great democratic country where everyone from the mayor to the lady with 20 cats has a big say on our design . Most clients can't even spare the money for the architects to sit through all those public hearing/design review meeting that goes on and on......
All and all if one want to make money, have a life and do good design one needs to very good at the business as well as design end of architecture. |
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Checkpoint43
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 81
Location: Lexington, VA
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| Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:03 pm Post subject: |
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Obviously, architecture is a business.
If you only focus on details of design, you're looking at only half of it.
Do you want to be a chef, or own the restaurant?
I would suggest reading the book, "The E Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber.
It compares a business owner's mentality with a technician's mentality.
Designers need to learn how to appeal to the public. They need to make a name for themselves instead of becoming some anonymous worker in a cubicle.
www.checkpointplans.com |
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88
Joined: 15 Nov 2005
Posts: 76
Location: usa
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| Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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The pay is awful because this is a very time consuming and labour intensive job no matter how fast your drafter or architect can do it on the latest software. I have started to do some building development and from a new stand point I began to see how much time architects wasted/spended and can't really charge client for it. All those hours that architect can't charge adding up slowly send him/her to the poor house.
Run it like a business like checkpoint said. It is not a hobby. |
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