This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Committee of Corporate Architects and Facility Management and Practice Management Member Conversations .
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All the messages posted about this subject fall back on architecture as a profession. Architects are the only group out of all those discussed, contractors, real estate brokers, etc. that do not seem to focus on the bottom line when setting fees for their work. This leads to the perception by the public that the services provided are worth less, since we as a profession seem to reduce fees just to have that cool project rather than all those going after the project setting a fee based on their office's bottom line or a industry norm.
In real estate the 7% fee is known by the public as the industry norm, does anyone see a public known industry norm for the architect's fee? Who uses a 3% to 6% fee on a project and then expects the same respect as a real estate (sales) person who will get 7% for selling the same building the day after it opens with likely less health, safety and welfare professional risk or liability? Do you have more expectations from a real estate broker working for 7% Vs. one working for 3%? It is all about public respect and architects must first respect themselves and the professional services they provide as a business.
Architects should use fees in a way that does not hurt their office's bottom line, following and enforcing Qualification Based Selection (QBS) Laws where identified as a jurisdictional legal obligation. If the public believed the industry norm for architect's fees was 7%, like in real estate, then architects would likely get fees like real estate brokers. Contractors bid on projects not architects or real estate brokers! Contractors set low margins to win the bid but they also have a business plan based on careful review of the documents and the market to know what percentage they can likely make up in changes.
Do architects ever go into a project looking at it with a business plan first, noting potential additional services and not looking at it as a cool project but rather as making a business profit from the scope defined? Just remember what additional services are for in AIA contracts - additional work and providing an additional service product that benefits the client, right? Once again some architects undermine that AIA contract language by including more in their services for the base fee rather than asking for additional services per the AIA contracts; just because it is a cool project. What does that tell the public?
Firms that expand and grow look at architecture as a business first then strive to provide their clients with the best overall building design as possible, all based on the fee, the client's budget and not just taking the project for being cool. The Architect's whole team needs to continue to look at their efforts based on the contractual agreement for business gain throughout the entire project. Educate the client along the way gaining trust for what architects do as a business and for gaining additional services, just like contractors gain trust when in the field to get paid for field suggested construction benefits to the owner.
Architecture is a business of putting the client's needs first over our own ambitions for designing cool projects, all for a fee that meets the office's bottom line! You will be surprised that both can happen with a good business project work plan defined up front, based on the scope given by the client, then understood by the whole team and followed by the whole team. Always keeping the whole team educated while educating the client throughout the entire project. If the scope changes then that is an additional service and additional fee should be identified before proceeding with that change in scope, which needs to be understood by the entire team working on the project.
Enjoy being an architect it has many long lasting rewards!
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William Burmeister AIA
St. Louis MO
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