This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: CRAN Custom Residential Architects Network and Residential Knowledge Community .
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Perhaps, here in San Francisco, the building environment is somewhat more over-regulated than most of the country, but the greater part of my clientele come to me because they
have to hire an architect or engineer. Building contractors are no longer able or willing to satisfy the City's requirements for submittal for a permit - drawings, calculations, etc. I suspect many urban areas are experiencing a similar phenomenom. Even the most mundane projects here require drawings, structural and energy calculations, neighborhood meetings and various other tasks beyond the scope of a layman or even an experienced builder.
I have built a small but thriving business over the years catering to this need and most of my clients are definitely middle class. They are not interested in alluring renderings, structural gymnastics or signature buildings. All they want is City approval for a new room, deck, garage or whatever. My challenge is to provide them with this at a reasonable cost and still be able to survive as a business. Very few new buildings are built in San Francisco. Additions and renovations are the wave of the future and they will, by necessity, be custom.
So, yes, the field is changing. Unfortunately, the growing appreciation of architecture does not seem to be the focus of it's destination. Good design may survive as a private, almost secret pleasure appreciated by those who can recognize it, but the bulk of our time as professionals is destined to be spent catering to the changing and growing lexicon of codes and regulations, negotiating with neighbors, neighborhood organizations and homeowners associations, testifying at commission hearings and boards of appeal and berating and beguiling bureaucrats. These are the skills a good architect will need in the 21st century!
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A. Atkinson
A. Gordon Atkinson, Architect
San Francisco CA
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