In an opinion piece taking on New Urbanism’s critics, Jeff Speck, former director of design at the National Endowment for the Arts and co-author of Suburban Nation and The Smart Growth Manual throws in a couple of gems:

“…I live in a Modernist house, but I don’t let my personal style preference doom my clients….”

“…while most of us were trained in architecture school to serve clients and patrons with sophisticated designs, nobody prepared us for the vast collection of customers that we would take on…”

In an interview with Grace Kim, co-founder of Seattle-based Architectural firm Schemata Workshop, writer Edward Keegan notes: “Most of them probably wouldn’t trumpet it, but architects are in the service industry.” Kim notes that she has purposefully ingrained client satisfaction into the culture of the firm:

“Client satisfaction is the first of five objectives we listed when we started the firm,”…. Design is “the reason we do what we do,” she adds, “but we don’t practice architecture as a service to ourselves.”

See more at Schemata Workshop’s blog: schemataworkshop.wordpress.com , or read her book: The Survival Guide to Architectural Internship and Career Development.

Architectural writer Mark Lamster notes in an article on design thinking that

“Too many architects don’t just want a seat at the table, but the seat at the very head of the table.”

Without a client, an architect can only draw. Bringing form into existence is a team effort, and unless an architect is independently wealthy, the practice of architecture requires collaboration with a client.

Architects “are afforded little power or reward because the profession is fundamentally terrified of economics.” – Gregg Pasquarelli, founding principal of New York’s SHoP Architects

“It’s not considered a ‘noble’ quality to want to have your design and profit from it at the same time.” – Dan Rockhill, Studio 804 / University of Kansas School of Architecture

“The NAAB guidelines are about 20 years behind the times regarding what an architect actually needs to thrive in practice” – Gregg Pasquarelli

Lots of great emerging programs and suggestions in this insightful article from Architect Magazine.

Whether or not you decide to stay within architecture (and I agree, we need talented folks to reinforce and build the profession), the advice at 20:40 is helpful:

Don’t be the person who’s out there looking for a job – be the person out there doing something interesting.

Find the full movie on Hulu here:   http://bit.ly/aYxu2n

Buy the DVD from LemonadeMovie.com

Buy the DVD from Amazon.com

A recent article on the Design Intelligence blog (http://www.di.net/blog/2009/12/intern-to-architect/) analyzes historical data from Oregon, New York and Nebraska to show that the time it is taking architectural interns to achieve licensure is longer than anticipated, and appears to be increasing over time. Below are a few potential reasons.

1 – Intern Development Program (IDP)

The 2008 article “Licensure and Time” from the AIA California Council posits IDP as part of the problem, noting that “In the 1990s, the time it took for a professional degree graduate to complete licensure requirements more than doubled.” Why would this be the effect of a program designed to assist interns in structuring a more complete internship? “…IDP placed additional requirements on interns to get specific work experiences that they were mostly powerless to ensure….”

2 – Computer-based exams

The move from a paper based exam to the multiple-choice ARE increased cost, while perhaps unintentionally reducing support from within firms. A comment from from an intern in the above article is revealing: “I think that architecture firms were more supportive of the time and other needs when 10 or 15 interns were taking the exam all together. Now it’s one here, one there, and it’s like the firm is doing you a favor.”

Without a groundswell of camaraderie within a firm, interns are often left on their own to find the time and motivation to schedule exams.

3 – Insufficient Financial Incentive

In other professional fields like law, medicine, accounting, & engineering, there is a typically a substantial financial incentive to pursue and achieve licensure – salary increase, promotion, job title, increased public role within the firm. Depending on the company, the rewards in an architecture firm upon receiving one’s license may be small, if indeed they exist at all.

One architect once told me he looked at getting his license as just the pre-requisite to quitting architecture. Perhaps said facetiously, but hardly encouraging to someone in the midst of the licensure process.

4 – Supplementary Exams (CA Orals)

In California, the CA Supplemental Exam is one additional barrier. The California Architect’s Board announcement that the exam is moving to a computer-based format (www.cab.ca.gov/pdf/publications/csefaq_newformat.pdf) recognizes that a multiple-choice “exam will be more defensible”, indicating that the current system is somewhat less so.

Indeed, criticism of the subjective nature of the oral format has long dogged the CAB, memorably in the editorial in the AIACC’s 07.04 “PreFABiana” issue of their quarterly publication, arcCA, an issue that is sadly not available online:  After describing the exam as an opportunity to  “haze the incoming generation”, the editorial concludes:

“What can the Supplemental Exam judge that a computer-administered test can’t?  Well, it can judge whether you clean up nice, it can judge your hue, it can judge your gender.  It can judge whether you sound intelligent….  It can judge how well you handle pressure, which is perhaps relevant to architectural practice but is hardly a criterion for licensure.”

“In other words, it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen, and it should be discontinued.  Architecture school is hellish enough.  We don’t need a belt line too.”

I don’t come from a rural background, but strange as it may seem, I find swinging an ax enjoyable, and I could spend an hour a day at it and not get sick of it. In fact, I did just that one summer. And having done so, I now realize there are some simple problem solving skills and lessons one can learn from splitting wood.

You may not use an ax as a part of your daily chores. Perhaps the closest you come is watching the Stihl Timbersports Professional Series, a pseudo-sporting event sponsored by the chainsaw manufacturer that I used to watch as a teenager back when I wasn’t the one paying for cable. Some of the events of course feature chainsaws, both of the manufacturer’s stock variety and some that are basically a small motorcycle engine attached to a six foot long blade. But the events that were the most interesting to me were always those that required more manual skill. The underhand chop, in which two men each stand on a ~3 foot long, 12-14” diameter log, chopping between their feet – a sharp ax and clean cuts matter in this event. World record is 12.11 seconds (2003) – look it up.

I have, of course, no intention of competing in that event. However, while in college I had some friends that had recently moved into a new home that had several trees cut down in their backyard. The log pile was probably 20 feet wide and 10 feet high, and each day after work I would drive over and split logs for an hour or so before helping them out with some home fix-it project, moving in, unpacking boxes, or just having dinner together. It is one of my fondest memories of that time.

A chore or an meditative task?

If you have ever split logs, you may understand why it is considered a chore – it’s repetitive labor, takes some physical exertion to lift and swing a heavy axe and come down with enough force to break a log apart. It always seems random whether this swing will be easy or hard, is your aim good enough to hit the log again where you just made an unimpressive dent?

What is interesting to me is how much the mind can make this an enjoyable, easy task. No Jedi mind tricks here, just a bit of logic. There are 3 main lessons I took from splitting logs and they are applicable to any kind of problem solving.

1. Find the right tool

Maybe an ax is the tool you have – maybe it’s not the right tool. Maybe it’s a hatchet, a smaller tool more suited to close handwork with small logs or branches, good for making kindling. Maybe for larger logs, a maul or a sledge hammer and wedge are what is needed. A traditional axe has a narrow blade, which, depending on the logs you are working with, may not have the required width of angle to split the log, but would just bite into the wood repeatedly.

Do you have the right tool to solve your problem? If the tools you have been trying aren’t working, do you have something else you can try? Perhaps the grudge match you are in with a co-worker isn’t being solved by you trying to explain in great logical detail all the ways in which their actions have been incorrect. Maybe a simpler approach is needed. Try a different tactic.

Do you have the right tool?

2. Sharpen the tool.

Once you have the right tool, it will work better if it is sharp. If it’s dull or blunt, you run a greater risk or injury, as the ax will have a tendency to bounce off the surface of the log, imparting more vibration into the handle and you as it does so. The ax might be more likely to break at a weak point in the handle. The effort required to get a blunt tool into the wood is greater, and the process is more dangerous.

Sharpening is a force multiplier – you can decrease the surface area over which the force is applied to the wood by sharpening the edge. The edge area gets thinner, the force is increased just on that basis – you don’t have to swing any harder. It is the difference between poking a dull pencil into your palm and poking a needle into it. The needle takes much less force before it will start to do some damage and cause you some pain.

Do your business’ marketing efforts never seem to get anywhere? Do you prepare proposal after proposal and yet you never seem to win a commission? Perhaps your approach is too blunt, too dull, not targeted enough. If you are pursuing work in an area where you aren’t an expert, where you can really shine, much of that effort is evidently wasted. Sharpen your focus.

Are your tools sharp enough?

3. Examine the problem

Before just hacking away at it, make sure you understand the problem correctly. When you put the section of wood up on the stump to be split, do you look it over first? If you spend any time splitting logs, you will appreciate that any areas of knots in the log will prove difficult, as the wood grows around the knot, making it stronger at that point. Are you looking at the problem correctly?

There is wisdom in how you chose where to attack the log – find some place it’s already starting to crack. Have you seen the small slivers of a crack already begun by the drying out of the log that you might use to your advantage? Sometimes you have to turn the log over, look for those weaker areas that you can exploit. It takes a good understanding of the problem, sometimes you have to turn it over, get a look at it from another angle, before you can see the right way to approach a solution.

Even if you have the right tool, and the tool is sharp, the effort is always served well by approaching it with wisdom.

It is often possible to push through a situation without the right tool, with only dull tools, and without the benefit of a correct analysis of the best method or approach;  We may succeed with enough effort and time, but think of the waste.  You can perhaps get through, but not profitably, not efficiently.  If you just push your way through with brute force and ignorance, you might make it, but the road is hard, and you may endanger yourself, and others.

Far better to take a lesson from the woodcutter, and take a moment to assess the appropriateness of your tools, to evaluate the keenness of their edge, and confirm you have the best approach to the problem.

Now, go make some kindling of your difficulties.

Greenbuild 2009
Green A-Ha!

HOK is turning the tables at Greenbuild ‘09. Instead of adorning our booth with OUR story, we’re creating a platform for telling yours. That’s right, it’s Open Mic Night in Booth 3442 at the conference and expo in Phoenix from November 11-13.

During the show, we will be inviting individuals to share their Green Aha!, the moment they first realized the importance of living or working “green.”

We will broadcast those inspiring tales at our booth, as well as uploading them to a YouTube Channel and listing them here so others can share the experience. The most profound Aha! moments will win a free signed copy of The Green Workplace, the new book by HOK’s Leigh Stringer.

So…please stop by and see us and we’ll add your green a-ha! moment to the collection.

From the world of webdesign and web applications comes an excellent reminder to any business.  When you create the product that your business is known for, you are typically creating waste, or a by-product that is usually undervalued.  37 Signals‘ CEO Jason Fried notes the following examples:

• The lumber industry used to consider sawdust and wood chips a simple waste product of milling lumber, but these products have been streamlined into other products:  landscaping mulch, fiberboard (MDF), Oriented Strand board (OSB), many other products.
• The oil industry originally drilled for crude to supply motor fuel and oils, but the number of consumer goods that contain petroleum byproducts now staggers the mind, from plastics to synthetic fibers and even food grade waxes like paraffin.

Fried discusses several examples of the products his company has created as by-products of their design work:

• Blogging about the process of building a company led to the writing of their first self-published book, Getting Real, and the running of several web-design conferences, that Fried notes has generated over $1,000,000 in revenue for the firm.  (Read the book free here.)
• Creating Basecamp, an internal project management system for the firm’s web design work led to the realization that the system might be of value to other web designers, or other small businesses.
• The codebase that ran Basecamp was cleaned up and extended to become a more general web application framework, Ruby on Rails, a system released as an open source product that has generated extensive publicity and good will in the webdesign community.

If nothing else, your work process creates experience, and hopefully expertise, which if documented appropriately, can be sold for its value.  Write a book, but do so incrementally as your process develops.  Capture that experience as it happens and funnel it into a saleable product.

• In the process of designing homes for clients, Susan Susanka developed a set of theories and practices that she has spawned into a series of successful books:  The Not So Big House.
• Because We Can creates custom furnishings and interior pieces using Revit and a low-cost CNC robot they have named Frank.  They sell their by-products, the small scale mockups they create while prototyping their commissions:  Prototype Sale.
• At my current firm, I have created several code compliance spreadsheets for use within the company.  Why not make these available to clients, even other architects? Your firm’ s CAD standards, software guides, quality control checklists, reference material, screencasts, any of these might find a valuable buyer.

What is your company’s by-product?

How soon can you identify it, determine its value to the market and make it available?

More at carsonified.com

Original Blog post at 37signals.com

Julius Shulman, 2002, in KCRW’s Design and Architecture (DnA)

Seth Godin’s recent bestseller The Dip is a  concise presentation of a couple of simple notions:

Quit the wrong stuff

Stick with the right stuff

Have the guts to do one or the other

What is the Dip?  “…a temporary setback that you will overcome if you keep pushing”, “any rough patch you have to get through before achieving your big goal…if in fact you’re chasing the right goal.”

Being the Best in the World

Godin argues that the benefits that accrue to the market leader over exceed those experienced by his next several competitors, perhaps all of them.  When you need surgery, you want the best hospital in the world, when you need a Realtor, you need the same.  The difference is in how you define “world” – large or small.  You want the best, most helpful most productive Realtor in the neighborhood you are considering.  If you want a candy bar, you want the best in your world, in your experience, the best for your taste.  Sure, the long tail may need serving, and the market may be waiting for your niche product, but be the best at serving your niche.

Quitting the wrong stuff

Winners never quit?  Not so, says Godin – winners quit all the time – but they quit strategically.  They quit activities, tactics, efforts that are not working and are not going to pay off.   This can a large competitor that you can’t compete with, or something small like a marketing approach that isn’t seeing measurable results.

Quit before you get to the dip if you aren’t going to push through it.  Said another way, “Find a dip you can conquer.”  Be sure that you can become the best at this thing you are doing, so that the gap you leave between you and your competitors is wide and the benefits of being the market leader come to you – until and unless your competition can start to catch up.

Don’t quit because you are panicking – this has to be a strategic decision, ideally one you have made in advance of the rough times.  If you can figure out the conditions under which you will need to give up a failing tactic and try something else before you get to that point, you can reason it out rationally, rather than under the pressure of the moment.  No one quits a marathon when the end goal is in sight; those that do drop out when they get tired, the legs start to burn, the dehydraton sets in after the first few miles.

In order to quit strategically, you must be using measurable, meaningful metrics, a topic for another time.  Without accurate information to evaluate, your decision to quit or stick will be based on little more than instinct.  If you quit a dip you were nearly through, you have wasted all the effort it took to get to that point.

How does this affect Architects?

Be the best - pick the project type you are best at, most passionate about, and specialize – as long as you can be the best at it.  In your town, in your city, your state – whatever market you can serve and be the best by a long stretch.  Mediocrity will place you only in the middle of the pack.

Plan to quit efforts that are not providing results and are not going to – see a dead end for what it is.  Ignore sunk costs, difficult as that is.  Focus on measurable progress:  on a specific project, with a particular client, with a general project type, with a large scale marketing plan – businesswide.

Understand who you are trying to influence – a person, a group, a market.  The methods for approaching each are different.  See the book for more.

Godin suggest some questions to ask:

• “Who defines what best is?” Godin argues that the client decides – best for them.  This implies that good matching between architect and market is critical.
• “Can we make the world smaller?” Can you target your efforts on a smaller group of clients, a narrower project type, going after the jobs at which you can be exemplary?

More info – squidoo.com/thedipbook

The Dip at amazon.com

“Soft Ideas, soft lines; hard ideas, hard lines”  “When overused as a design tool, however, computer drafting programs can encourage the endless generation of options rather than foster a deepening understanding of the design problem you which to solve.” -Matthew Frederick

Get your fat pencils, pens and watercolors out again, have some fun and loosen up in your design explorations.  I am proud of the vast majority of the projects I did in architecture school, but there is only one that I am proudest of:  a quickly knocked-out third year watercolor elevation of a dirigible-like building floating over an inset base.  The image guided me through that semester, and still sits proudly in its frame in my home.