As someone who has been doing residential work for almost 30 years, I have developed some strong opinions on this matter. My biggest complaint with architects is that they have done a really poor job of communicating their VALUE (beyond "good design") to prospective clients. And the AIA is not helping them much. In fact, I doubt if many of them even could even come up with three things that would make them compare favorably to a design/build contractor, or an unlicensed drafting service, beyond "good design."
Most prospective clients would love to get "good design", whatever that is, of course, rather than "amateur design", if all other things were equal, but they are not. For the run of the mill client, good (or exceptional) design ranks pretty far down on the list of overall project needs: like meeting their budget, getting their functional requirements met, not having huge overruns of time and cost, dealing with the stress of construction, finding a good contractor, shopping for lighting fixtures and tile, etc. So the particular commodity most architects feel they have to sell is not particularly compelling to the average residential buyer of design. Nice to have, maybe, but non-essential. No wonder many architects feel like they are simply a luxury.
Then there are the FEARS that prospective clients have: an architect is going to cost so much more than another type of unlicensed design service, they will be forced to accept a "high design style" that they really don't like (and many, if not most, of architects are not particularly enamored of doing a country-style kitchen), that there will be inevitable battles between the architect and the contractor, that the meter of fees is always ticking, etc. And many of these fears are also explicitly promulgated by design-builders.
I would like to see architects understanding and selling their VALUE, perhaps with better support from the AIA. For example, off the top of my head (and I could come up with more):
1. Good planning can allow you to build less square footage. (Value engineering.)
2. The plans and specifications that an architect produces are usually more detailed than a drafting service, leading to a smaller contingency fund on the part of a contractor, and fewer surprises during construction.
3. The architect is on top of current products and trends, and can suggest products and construction methods that can save money without a conflict of interest.
4. The plans are produced independently, giving a customer flexibility with choosing a contractor.
5. If conflicts or questions arise, they will have a fiduciary on their side.
6. They will be hiring someone who has experience dealing with planning boards and city officials.
7. And, oh, yeah, they will get a better "design" which could result in a higher resale value.
None of this gets into the concept that the client is hiring someone who views them as a patron who is funding a work of art, as most architectural magazine implicitly suggest. (Not that I'm opposed to this, but it's very difficult to sell to a prospective client. But great work if you can get it.)
While I'm on my soapbox, I would like to opine that architects who have abdicated their role in the interior design aspects of a residential project (at least in getting an interior designer involved as a consultant), probably shouldn't even be doing it at all. I don't really understand why so many architects have turned their backs on what could be a very lucrative profit center, in addition to helping them sell jobs over their competitors, and having the project turn out so much better. Not every residential project needs new furniture or window treatments, of course, but they ALL need intelligent furniture placement, and often kitchen design. In some cases, this has doubled my architectural fees for a project. There is potentially a huge money pie that is just getting sliced up and handed out to others -- mostly because architects don't want to, or aren't trained to, deal with these aspects. Of course, these are also the architects who are also whining that "there is no money in residential design."
I recently was having breakfast with an architect colleague who was relating how, during his vacation, he came across the PERFECT light fixture for a project, and sent an iPhone picture to his client, who loved it. I asked how much he marked up the fixture (which was very expensive). No, he'd just sent the details of the product to his client and let the client make his own purchase. With a significant trade discount, he could have marked up the product and still have provided it for less than the client paid. Everybody lost on that one. (Except the vendor, of course.) Architects are often their own worst enemies.
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Richard Morrison AIA
Richard Morrison, AIA, ASID
Redwood City CA
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