Sorry if I sent incomplete message, but here goes again.
I was glad to see the Department of Justice edict mentioned. It occurred in early 1980';. My recollection is that it had a devastating effect on young practitioners who had who just starting to price their work. Their best guess or shooting from the hip seemed to be the most favored method of project value. With definite lack of business education the only glimpse of fee calculations for time, value, and profit? on a project was only available if you were working for a larger firm as a project manager. More importantly it put wedges between competing architects and many other potential impediments into seeing any historical information of previous projects. Ethically there may have been the need for the Justice intervention as I did not know.
However it did severe damage to the fellowship of AIA members as they no longer felt free to discuss in chapter meetings how projects and business were growing. Starting as a new firm owner, guestimating fees, shooting from the hip on projects with no historical base or business education seemed the only way to work for a new client....opening the door to the client to dictate the fees. Later I found that some of the mature firms banded together in joint ventures very quietly pooling their abilities and going after the "big projects". This left a whole generation of us floundering with clients demanding fees, worth of work, construction values. And to billing by the square foot fee for residential construction...which to this day baffles me that clients first questions if "what do you charge per square foot " for your designs? Is that square foot of drawings or square foot of house? At one firm I learned that at one point charging $100/sheet for con docs was an accurate method.
Sure we would love to be the best designers on the best projects with no limit of fees...no reality there! But my only safe place in this profession has been not to hire employees, do only the work I can be responsible for, use technology to my advantage and still only make a living wage because clients can ge the work done for the smallest fee and do they really care as long as they get the permit? No, it only sends them on the way to building the building as they want to and putting the blame on architects. My only consolation is that I still provide the very best quality of work I can, do extensive follow- up work on phone and in field with Owners and contractors who appreciate that we can work as a team to end with a quality project and a satisfied client. Probably not the infinitely best designs I would like to do, but much better project process and quality because an architect participated as a team member on the project. Master builder...how about master team builder?
Always trying to do the best work for the smallest fee has ground this profession down to the stature that we see today.
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Ann Dunning AIA
President
Ann M. Dunning, AIA, Inc.
Chagrin Falls OH
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-15-2010 13:39
From: Tara Imani
Subject: Role and perception of Architect
Hi Lisa,
That was hilarious! Thanks for sharing it.
Tara
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Tara Imani AIA
Architect/Owner
Tara Imani Designs, LLC
Houston TX
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