Mary Graham has hit the nail on the head.
Architects were the master builders and abdicated that because they were too timid about liability.
As the world gets more litigious, we can't avoid that liability anyway so why don't we become the master builders again?
If we don't begin to take over "design-build" as a project delivery method, contractors will dominate as they already have and we'll end up just being a sub-contractor without any real control over what is built.
While we're at it, I'd suggest architects become developers (another bad word) to better retain control over what is built.
I've worked for a lot of developers who had no real experience other than being entrepreneurs and willing to take a gamble, pretty much like contractors.
And they get to call many of the shots and tell the architect what should and shouldn't be done and how to do it.
How did we let this get this way?
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Larry Paul AIA
L. A. Paul & Associates
San Francisco CA
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