Raised in India, Padam was put on an early track toward medical school. While her grades earned her a position into dental school, she decided to hold off and wait for the next year of testing to pursue education toward an M.D. While waiting to take the entrance exam again the following year, she attended architecture school to avoid having a gap on her resume. Padam’s sister was already in architecture school and she had enjoyed helping her with drawings. Fate guided her well, and Padam soon realized her calling was also architecture.

Padam came to the United States for a Masters degree of architecture from University of Michigan. She says, “I chose the US because it was a progressive country. India has a deep respect to tradition and history, but as architects we don’t have a lot of design freedom.” She wanted to design modern structures and express her creativity with innovative, open-minded clients. She also mentions choosing the US for schooling because the diverse background of the population indicated the climate would be more welcoming to her as a foreigner. Never having lived in snow, she chose Michigan to have a new experience and to attend a top ranked program.

Upon graduation, Padam was hired as a designer for Las Vegas firm Perlman Architects. Knowing she had a strong interest in sustainability, Padam earned her LEED certification out of the gates. After two years, she moved to another Las Vegas Firm, Tate Snyder Kimsey and worked as an architect and sustainability director. During the next three years, she became registered and received NCARB certification. Passionate about green building Padam, in her current role, is responsible for LEED Certification of multiple projects, which includes civic, educational, public, commercial, and mixed-use facilities. 

While not a fan of Las Vegas, Padam appreciated her time in Sin City, saying “ I grew tremendous amounts professionally and found many opportunities to participate.” Deepika was awarded the AIA Nevada Associate Award in 2007 and the AIA Nevada Young Architect Award in 2008. Founder and past chair for AIA Las Vegas Emerging Professionals/Young Architects Forum, Padam has served as the USGBC Nevada President in 2009 and the AIA Las Vegas President in 2010.

Padam strongly encourages all up and coming architects to volunteer. She says, “Taking a leadership role breaks you of any hesitation to speak up. You learn to voice your opinion and to manage teams.” In addition to her leadership roles, Padam also taught LEED accreditation classes to community members through UNLV and the National Guard as a way to deepen her firm’s relationship with client groups. She adds, “They didn’t pay, but it built valuable loyalty, which often means they return to you for future work opportunities.”

Padam is currently the communications adviser with National Young Architects Forum (YAF) and a project manager with Heller Manus in San Francisco. She came on board to lead the firm’s new business development efforts in India. She also oversees the firm’s sustainability efforts.

Padam acknowledges how her upbringing in India affects her approach to architecture. She explains, “India feels like a different time period, as they operate about 20 years behind the United States.” She goes onto to say the lack of natural resources and significant population also affect how things are built, how design is facilitated and the approach of teamwork. Padam adds, “India doesn’t have a choice around practicing sustainability – architecture and design must to be both energy and cost efficient, wherever possible.” Padam says her exposure to Indian architecture and culture also cultivated her passion for green building. “Younger folks don’t realize that environmentalism used to be expected. Thankfully LEED has resurfaced and the world now sees we are in a dire situation environmentally, so we have to pay attention and return to that approach.”

After working in firms of various sizes and configurations, Padam is ready to shift gears and get to work bringing in business abroad. She says, “In order to grow in this profession, you have to be involved in business development on some level. That is typically how you will become management.” To that end, she has joined the local chamber of commerce and has begun networking with local architects in India to partner on projects. In pursuit of new business, she also joined the real estate development association in India. Picking up the phone and contacting these firms as well as potential clients directly, Padam has received a surprisingly warm reception. It’s no doubt due, in large part, to her direct, prepared approach.

She can be reached at deepika@bashless.com.

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Walter co-authored Social Media in Action

Over the past year, my co-author and I interviewed and surveyed hundreds of professionals in architecture, engineering and related industries about social media for our book, “Social Media in Action”. Based on our research, we came up with five myths that are either preventing firms from diving into social media or are keeping them from seeing the benefits of these tools.

 1. Our clients aren’t on social media, so we don’t need to be there either.

Almost three quarters of the A/E professionals we surveyed one year ago are on LinkedIn, almost half are on Facebook and more than a third are on Twitter. These numbers are increasing each day. If your client isn’t on these social networks already, they may join at any moment – will they find you there? Until then, reaching those who influence the decision maker is also an effective marketing strategy.

First impressions are now made online. Prior to your first meeting with a potential client, they most likely Google you.

Sure, your website comes up, but if you have a blog, videos, a Facebook page, or you tweet regularly, these come up near the top of the search results as well. Your social media content can shape people’s perceptions of you. People are not just looking at what you are posting, but other what others are saying about you. Generations X and Y are less likely to settle for what you say about yourself (your marketing messages) and put greater value in what others say about you. These influential people are emerging industry leaders and want to read about you on Twitter, blogs, forums and in comments. If you aren’t putting your ideas, opinions and projects out into the social web, you aren’t likely to have much content or information to offer these readers.

But there is more to social media than optimizing your content for search engines; it’s also about building relationships. Social media is changing how we communicate. 

2. Social media is free.

Yes, it is free to set up a Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest pages and accounts, but these are not set-it-and-forget-it tools.  You need to be updating these accounts regularly and engaging with your audience and this takes time and considerable thought – on an ongoing basis. Building a social media presence that supports your business requires an overall objective (that is preferably aligned with your business objective), but until you find the right formula for engaging your network, it also requires a lot of short term goals and testing. What types of content is your audience most likely to share? Tools like video, audio and slideshows require specialized skill sets and take time to produce. Will a contest or giveaway spur them to engage? This is a process of trial and error and requires an attentive and focused approach.

3. It can be run by our high school son/daughter or intern.

Who communicates for you on social media is a very important decision. Not only does this person need to know your business, they also need to have a strong interpretation of your firm’s personality and brand attributes. This person should understand your target audience and engage with others on the social web in a way that shapes and reinforces the reputation you want your firm to have. This is someone you trust with managing your firm’s community. They need to have the intellect to respond to most of the inquiries and questions and the sensitivity to know when to bring in an expert.

Your lead designer doesn’t need to write each word, but if the lead designer’s vision is what you are trying to convey, they need to be part of the content development process.

4. Social media are just new channels to broadcast our marketing messages.

Think of social media as a virtual cocktail party. If you walk in and start passing out your business card and brochures without asking about them and having actual conversations, the only thing you will be successful at is annoying others and making a negative, self-consumed first impression.

Social media is a new set of tools for building relationships. People want to engage with others with common interests. Consider your audience and try to engage in the forums that they are using. Professional organizations are great places to start. Listen for a while and chime in when you have something constructive to contribute.  Let people know if their content is interesting, by commenting, liking, sharing or retweeting it to your followers. Offer your experiences and knowledge in ways that are useful to others. For the most part, the social media community is generous and people often reciprocate. If you share their content, they are more likely to do the same for you.

A good balance of content that is 75% other people’s content, 25% your own.

5. The bigger the network the better.

Don’t get discouraged by the accounts with tens of thousands of followers. Anyone can subscribe to a service that lets you buy followers. Real social media networks take time – and not everyone or every firm needs 10,000 followers. Start by searching for people (clients, partner firms, friends) you already know and notice who they follow (Twitter), like (Facebook), or the groups they’ve joined (LinkedIn). These are great cues to where you’ll find more people like them. Follow peers you admire as well. This is a learning opportunity and if someone gave a great speech on BIM at the AIA National Conference last year, chances are you’ll find their more frequent content interesting as well.

The more authentic you are in creating your network and content, the more you’ll get from it.

Amanda Walter is a principal at Walter Communications and co-author of Social Media in Action: Comprehensive Guide for Architecture, Engineering, Planning and Environmental Consulting Firms.

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Ella Stelter, founder of Nestiv

Where’s the Architecture?

We know that recent architecture graduates are struggling in today’s economy. We also know, but don’t like to admit, that even in the best of times there are too many architects and not enough projects.

The role of an architect is to design buildings, and yet we aren’t involved in the vast majority of construction. We don’t need a masterpiece on every street corner, but we have done nothing to prevent us from turning into a nation of strip malls and McMansions.

We Are Our Worst Enemies

Architects use an outdated business model, and are much slower to adapt than other professions.  We fulfill long, low-paying internships and graduate to serve the rich and powerful.  However, the rich are a limited market, and we are capable of far more than drafting restrooms.

Where most professions have embraced the breadth of their market, seizing new opportunities and exploiting niches, architects have had little concern for what happens in the world at large.  This is indoctrinated in us by the majority of our professors, and reinforced by our work experience after graduation.  We want the perfect (rich and foolish) client and the perfect (unbridled) project.

Our Responsibilities, Our Opportunities

These problems were passed on to us from past generations, but are ours to solve.  The fight against this order has given us our greatest victories and advances.  The roots of modernism lay in the quest for social justice. The challenges of sustainability have led us to push our craft past the creative stagnation of the past generations.  We may dream of projects with compliant clients and unlimited budgets, but the greatest innovations have always come from our struggles with the most urgent realities.  And now our own realities are quite urgent.

We need to grow our market to prevent our generation from being lost to the profession. We need to find a way to have a hand in all new construction, from museums to warehouses.  We need to stop waiting for the recovery to finally reach us, and fix our own problems.

Instead of shutting out the middle class and those we deem too poor of taste, let’s acknowledge our responsibility to the entire built environment.  The Modernism movement, as noted before, was begun by social innovators.  But that was nearly 100 years ago, and we still call it new.  Ranch style homes are the most modern housing prototype.  Others of lesser skill are out there working this market, but we can do better. Thankfully we have new and amazing tools that we can master, such as the internet or open-source software.  We also have our energy, drive, and idealistic foolishness.

A Solution

I recently launched my own solution: Nestiv. An online marketplace where architects and professional designers can sell their home plans, Nestiv offers struggling designers opportunities to earn income and build their portfolio.  Nestiv  takes care of many back end components of business, such as payment processing, payment disbursements, printing and shipping, taxes, marketing, PR, some legal aspects, and generally things related to the business side, thus allowing architects to concentrate on design.  And more importantly, Nestiv allows young (and struggling) architects a chance to stay in the industry and get build works during these difficult times.

It is not the only, or even the best, solution.  But it is a solution, and one worth exploring.  So please, check us out. Or even better, start working on some solutions of your own. 

Ella Stelter, an architect living in New Orleans recently founded Nestiv.  She currently serves as the secretary for the USGBC Louisiana Chapter.

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Dr. Lee Waldrep

For many students, graduation is just around the corner.  As you approach graduation and ponder your future career path, do you still wish to become an architect?  When your family, friends, faculty, or even prospective employer inquire about your career goals, what do you share?  Do you quickly outline your path as one of pursuing internship, passing the ARE and becoming an architect or do you hesitate and state with less conviction, “I do not know,” as you are worried and not sure of your future.

Regardless of your answer, be confident, as an architectural education is a springboard to a myriad of career pursuits both in architecture and beyond.  But, what are these career fields and how do you approach them. 

 Reflect on your education and the skills that you are still developing and how they will launch your career.

• Communication – amazingly, communication is the most sought after skill of all employers yet most graduates do not recognize its power in both their job search or career pursuit.  Each semester, you presented your studio work; now, tap that ability to present your “self” to prospective firms and possible new career fields.  Contact professionals in and beyond the field to conduct “informational interviews” and learn firsthand their discipline.

• Collaboration – perhaps, one weakness of an architectural education is teamwork.  Unlike the “real world,” you do not collaborate in teams or even manage people.  However, do not underestimate the skill set of working with people and its importance when you enter the workforce.

• Integrating – in studio, you were “integrating” what you learned in previous studios and other courses along with new information and skills.  Upon graduation, strive to continue this integration as you determine your path and profession.

• Research – One of the most valuable skills learned while in college is research, but graduates soon forget to use when seeking their career path.  Truly research possible firms for hire and aspiring career paths.  Contact a professional association or the Bureau of Labor Statistics to research an occupation to pursue.

• Creative Problem-Solving – perhaps more than other skills, graduates develop problem-solving skills that can easily be transferred to any career field.  But truly think about what problems you wish to “solve” in your career and pursue it with a passion.

Anecdotal estimates suggest that only 50% of architectural graduates pursue licensure.  If this is true, you should be learning ways to show how your hard-won skills from architecture can contribute to success in a number of fields.  As well, consider networking with other professional and business groups, informing them of the broad skill set you possess. 

Over the years, numerous resources highlight careers that “look beyond architecture,” — landscape architecture; interior design; lighting design; acoustical design; engineering; construction; urban and regional planning; architectural history, theory, and criticism; and environmental and behavioral research.  Once such resource is Archinect with its ongoing series entitled, Working Out of the Box – http://archinect.com/ (search for Working … from homepage) that profiles individuals educated as architects in pursuit of other paths.

So, the next time someone asks of your future, reply confidently that you intend to use what you have learned to improve the quality of life in the built environment and are just pondering the details to fully implement your desired path. 

As Leslie Kanes Weisman, of the New Jersey Institute of Technology has stated, “I am certain that architectural graduates who are in command of the powerful problem defining and problem solving skills of the designer, will be fully capable of designing their own imaginative careers by creating new definitions of meaningful work for architects that are embedded in the social landscape of human activity and life’s events.”

 Below is a list of careers/professions that an individual with an architectural education could pursue.  The careers are organized by the World of Work Map (http://actstudent.org/wwm/world.html).

 OUTSIDE OF TRADITIONAL SETTING

Bart Mendel. Photo by Breeze Munson

Disaster stories in construction abound: unfinished homes and buildings, blown budgets, lawsuits and contractors fleeing the state.  True story: a potential client came to me after receiving an anonymous packet on their front doorstep after they had hired a contractor, containing 200 pages of his nefarious crimes: his restraining orders, lawsuits and judgments – why he even hooked his pickup truck to an old client’s electrical service and ripped it out.  I have had 35 years both as a Buddhist teacher and construction professional counseling others on how to avoid disputes and disasters in construction – here are a few tips to maintain your sanity:

 1. Seek Wisdom in All the Right Places

Hire the best construction professionals within your means. Going too cheap may cost you in the long run, sending your peace of mind right out the window. King Solomon wrote: “Listen to wise advice and follow it closely.” Maybe he learned this from building his temple.

 2.  Deconstructing the Construction Team

Get to know the players before they’re hired.  Don’t just check licenses and     the references they provide to you. Talk to former clients, vendors and people outside their reference list for true enlightenment.

 3. Take a Big View on Time and Budget

Manage your expectations. Remember that the best work may not always be the cheapest and fastest. Carefully think through what you can afford, and then allow a substantial contingency – 10-15% or more. Expect to spend every penny of it and you won’t be disappointed.

 4. Hire a Master and Let Go

Professional construction managers are essential to keep large projects on time, on budget and risk managed. The money invested will end up saving you substantially, often more than the CM’s own fees. A CM will keep all the players on the same page.  Let go and let them do their job.

 5. Plan, Plan, Plan

Prepare a preconstruction plan with your team, or best, have a CM do it. Seek contractor input early and pay for estimating services (in this way you won’t feel obliged to hire them). Planning saves real time and money in construction where 90% of the cost and all the liability occur.

 6. Value Real Value

Don’t automatically pick the lowest bid – pick the one that gives the most value. You get what you pay for, and if you pay too little, you often get even less. Pick general and trade contractors, architects, engineers and consultants based on relevant experience and value, not just price.

 7. Be Omniscient

Remember the initial price from your architect or contractor is not the same as the final price.  A low price that doesn’t include the entire scope of the project is meaningless – throw it out and get bids that provide a realistic budget for everything you want or may need from the get-go.

8. Say No to Stress

Know and manage your stress and risk tolerance. Stay within your means and don’t take on a bigger project than you can handle. Embrace change – learn to accept chaos and dust as progress.  During construction? Meditate each morning and maintain a sense of humor.

 9. You Don’t Have to be a Hobbit to Go Green.

Focus on ways to reduce energy and water use. Site your building to take advantage of passive solar. Improve the efficiency of your exterior walls and roof to reduce energy for heating and cooling. Enjoy the peace that comes from reducing energy consumption and sustaining the environment.  

 10. Positive People Power

Buildings are designed and built by people so clear, calm communication is your essential survival tool. Offer praise regularly.  Remember, job satisfaction is often more important than compensation. Help them do their best work–after all, they are building your home.

 People often undervalue the knowledge required to design and build successfully. Just because you own a hammer and a cordless drill, the odds are construction professionals know more than you do. Evaluate them, hire them, trust them and let them build you a great home, where the real peace of mind begins.

Bart Mendel is the President of Stonemark Construction Management, a full-service firm with offices in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California.

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Often, architects approach us for our feedback on overloaded websites that contain mixed messages about their work. They insist they want a clean, clear identity, but they have difficulty being objective, and divorcing themselves from the myriad of mixed bag projects they have produced over the years. Yes, it’s true, every project offers potential inspiration for a future client—but architects need to work with professionals to truly hone their portfolios if they are serious about professionally packaging their image for a sophisticated impression. You need to learn to be your own best editor, and if this is impossible for you, and it can be for many, heed the advice of the professionals. They are really your best allies when it comes to selecting your strongest projects for the audience you most want to reach.

Everything needs to work together: You cannot have three succinct message points about your firm (cutting-edge contemporary; South Bay-based; coastal expertise) and show Tudor homes and condominiums all on the same website. It’s impossible to present the firm as a stand-out company if you insist on being all things to all people. Don’t be afraid to pare down your repertoire.

From a journalist’s perspective, they are constantly seeking firms that offer specific expertise for the column or feature story they are immediately working on. It’s simply not believable to be ‘all things to all people,’ and simultaneously claim that your firm is the foremost expert in cutting-edge coastal living. So, from a credibility perspective, ‘shrink-wrap’ your sound bytes and come to terms with who you are, and who you really want to be.

Here are ten suggestions for working with a branding team:

–Sit down with two to three PR/branding veterans who have great antennae and years of experience in the field. You will ultimately select the one you click with most.

–Prepare at least twenty questions for these meetings, including queries on experience; their current clients; success records; website examples; a list of their best contacts; their specific branding, PR and marketing expertise and a list of current references from both clients and journalists. –Once you select your firm: Commit for at least one year. Advertising never works after just one ad placement (we have all tried this and the track record is the same)-and this goes for PR as well.

–Be very clear on your own goals: Do you want to see your name in print; do you want to be socially networked from here to eternity; do you really want to have your face on television—or are your goals far more academic? The more clear you are about your goals, the better your PR representative can succeed. –Be patient! You say you understand that it takes one year to properly discern the impressions you are giving to the public, so save your success ratio analysis for month ten, not month three.

–Insist on 30 day reports: No one can retain or refer back to professional feedback if it is given verbally. Ask to review a 30 day monthly report format, and see if it is readable and actually clear for you and your principals.

–Ensure that your PR representative listens to your feedback both visually, and verbally. Communication, in this regard, is a two-way street: A good professional should graciously welcome your feedback and your edits—but also have a rhyme and a reason for preparing materials for you in a particular way. So, in addition to being listened to, most important, be sure to listen in return.

–Put your feedback in writing: This is for your safety as well as the PR firm’s. Also, make sure your representative has a system for client sign-offs. You should sign off on every document—but remember, once you do so, your PR reps have the right to go forth and publish. It is not their fault if you change your mind later—because oftentimes, the information has already gone live.

–Insist on 30 day in-person meetings, and at those meetings, keep the PR firm’s original proposal at your side. Refer to it frequently to make sure every activity is on track, as promised, and not being forgotten in favor of new day- to- day ideas.

–Be your best eyes and ears: Anything you see out there in the universe, whether it be a fabulous article that really should have been about you or a television program on architecture that was particularly well-done—share this with your PR and branding team. If they are on the ball, they too will present you with several articles and programs that they would like to pursue. Between the two of you, because after all, a PR relationship is a partnership, you will steadily conquer the outside world.

Christine Anderson is the the president of Communication Arts & Design, Inc., a Los Angeles based firm specializing in PR and marketing for architects, builders and designers.

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Kappe’s focus on architecture began during his junior year of high school after reading a book about the trade. His strengths in art, math, and science seemed a perfect combination, however before attending college, he was drafted into the army and spent several years as a surveying instructor for the US Army Corp of Engineers. After World War II, Kappe spent brief stints at both UCLA and USC before settling in at UC Berkeley’s architecture program.

During his final year at Berkeley, Kappe worked as a draftsman for Anshen+Allen in San Francisco. He recalls being with a small design-oriented firm as an excellent experience. He worked primarily on Joseph Eichler homes—exploring small, affordable, well-designed, modern structures—as well as Standard Oil stations. “This gave me experience in simple post and beam wood detailing and metalprefab systems,” he says. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this firm.”

“For those of us working during the 1950s, our interest was developing architecture to create a better California lifestyle, and Eichler was wholeheartedly selling just that,” Kappe says. “The photos of the homes depicted scenes such as a wife happily gardening, kids playing ball, barbecue parties, and such.” Kappe grew up living in apartment buildings and recalls that most people had older houses back then. “Eichler presented a great opportunity to have a whole new generation of young people move into what we thought was a better lifestyle: greenbelt communities.”

Kappe and his wife, Shelly, then returned to Los Angeles, where he worked for Pereira & Luckman to gain experience with a large firm. That experience was short-lived because he found the learning process was too slow. He went to work with Carl Maston for the next two years, obtained his architectural license, and opened his own practice in 1953. Kappe gained a great deal of knowledge about architecture and business working for Maston. He says it was the foundation from which he subsequently ran his practice.

Kappe also grew up around business. His parents were in the mercantile industry, and starting at age twelve, he would help his father with the accounting. “I saw how he marked up merchandise and understood how to make a profit,” he recalls. “That held me in pretty good stead. I understood that you have to spend less than you take in, which is a simple principle of economics.”

Kappe enjoys running his company. He says, “I like the business part. It was never a big deal to me.” I inquired if he had a chief financial officer, to which he explains, “I was CFO, CEO, COO—all of it.” This same principle held true when he founded SCI-Arc. “Finances were a large part of my responsibility. I wanted to understand the budget and be in control of where the dollars were going. I always knew how much I had. It’s basic—know your expenditures and know what’s left. With that money, you can make decisions. I was very comfortable with all those roles.”

Early on in his career, Kappe knew he wanted to have his own firm. “I was never a company guy,” he says matter-of-factly. He also knew he wanted a small office, citing that he didn’t like that the design staff was separated out from the people doing construction documents in the larger firms. “The bosses wander through the office once a week,” he says. “I never cared for that type of operation.” Instead, he built a small office and explains, “Usually, the principals in small firms—including mine— don’t segregate themselves from the staff. The phone is in the middle of the room and you hear quite a bit.” His formula has been to have a maximum of five drafters per principal. And while many firms put four or five people on a project in the design phase, he says it’s not a necessary money drain. In fact, he says, “Some architects believe an office has to be losing money (on these big teams) to be ultimately successful, but I don’t agree. “ He also mentions that billing, payroll, and monitoring hours is easier to keep track of with five or less employees.

Kappe’s first project was for himself. His father put up $6,000 for the land, and he designed, built, and rented out an apartment complex. He remembers meeting people who stopped by to see it, and before long, four or five jobs sprang from it. Arts & Architecture published this complex project, along with the first house Kappe built. Later, he won awards on both buildings, which helped garner much attention. During his early career, he also designed projects for several young engineers in the aerospace industry, with one project leading to the next. Kappe says to this day, press and word-of- mouth are his main avenues for landing work. He’s never formally marketed himself, yet he’s always had enough work. He says, “I didn’t feel like I needed to beat the world or grow the biggest firm.”

After ten years in practice, Kappe, along with Herb Kahn and Rex Lotery, became involved with AIA’s Urban Design Committee. Advocating for people to leave the land in a more natural state,they issued a small book on how to plan in the hillsides to avoid the cut and fill the developers were doing. They completed studies for the Los Angeles County planning and transportation departments, which led to the formation of a planning collaborative. The three men solidified a formal partnership with a focus on urban design and planning.

The partnership worked well for twelve years. Eventually the City of Los Angeles was no longer interested in planning studies. They wanted implementation, which was developer driven, so the work evaporated. Kappe also says, “Postmodernism was becoming prevalent. We weren’t interested in making the compromise to design that type of work. And so over a lunch, we decided we weren’t having fun anymore and amicably dissolved our partnership. We split the work and went our separate ways.” He’s been working out of his home office ever since.

During this same time, Kappe was asked to become chairman of the architectural department at Cal Poly Pomona—a golden opportunity to create the program and staff it from scratch. Pulling from experience he had teaching at USC, Kappe built a successful program that promotes a spirit of experimentation.

After differences with the dean at Cal Poly, he decided to leave and start his own school, SCI-Arc. Fifty students and six faculty members from Cal Poly followed him to get started. Another twenty-five students joined from around the country for their first academic year. He found a raw warehouse and fronted the money for the first month of rent to get the school up and running. Tuition carried them from there, and much like his practice, Kappe insisted they stay in the black instead of relying on grants. He says most architectural students learn in an intuitive versus rational or scientific way. He believes quality architecture requires a balance of both rational and intuitive thinking.

Kappe suggests everyone work for a firm for at least a few years. “If you’re entrepreneurial, then either look for the smaller firm or the big firm with a unique opportunity for you to take a client,” he says. “Most students end up outside the field or in large firms, which can be satisfying, as you get to work on important, big-scale projects. If you’re more interested in design, then residential and small work can be done without a huge operation. Follow your own desires and know who you are and what satisfies you.”

Kappe laughs at the idea of a dream project. He recounts one seemingly perfect client who was interested in everything he was exploring, including modular construction, energy systems,and kinetics for his fifteen thousand-square-foot house. He designed a gorgeous home, which incorporated both kinetics and sustainable elements. Suddenly the client was bankrupt, and the house was never was built.

Kappe has learned many lessons over the years. He suggests architects insist on a retainer to start a project. He used to ask for just a small amount, but says, “There came a time when clients figured out they could get away with stiffing us on the last $10,000, so I started building in an advance to any job. Many architects have been hurt when working with developers when the economy goes south—they end up going bankrupt. You have to be aware and have contracts in place.” He also remembers in the beginning, he was embarrassed to execute a real contract. Eventually he began using the AIA contract. “Handshakes work during the honeymoon,” he says, “but they don’t work when there is disagreement, so protect yourself.”

Kappe has been married to Shelly for more than fifty years and you can still see the chemistry between them. She straightens his shirt and makes him giggle for the photo shoot. “We have always been very close and mutually supportive,” he says. “When our three children were growing up, I never worked nights or weekends and was always available for trips and family activities. After our children went off to college, we continued working together developing SCI-Arc into an internationally recognized school.” And now, Kappe says he’s just enjoying himself. Swimming daily, traveling, and reading are his mainstay. He has certainly earned it.

The BLA Statistics and a recent study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education offer the following as signs of difficulty and doom:

• Licensing requirements (for architects) include not only a professional degree in architecture (4-6 years of schooling), but also at least 3 years of practical work, training, and passing all divisions of the Architect Registration Examination
• Architecture graduates face stiff competition, especially for jobs in the most prestigious firms
• Undergraduate architecture students are facing 13.9 percent unemployment rates
• About 21 percent of architects are self-employed—almost 3 times the proportion for all occupations

While these statistics could take one down a road of despair, there is more to the story. The reality is that the architecture field has naturally changed with a changing world. All professions are undergoing a profound evolution on several fronts: demographic, education and economic. These changes are not all bad, and actually may provide the basis for optimism.

Demographics

“Architecture was historically a gentleman’s profession,” said Michael Porter, AIA during an interview we conducted for Success by Design. He went on to say, “Even as recently as 50 years ago, architects were almost always male, came from wealthy families and pursued the career as a symbol of philanthropy more than for financial gain.”

In recent decades, the bias against women and minorities has lifted, and now many architecture programs have almost equal male to female populations. Social standing is no longer a prerequisite to success in the architecture filed. This is positive development that we ought to embrace. Of course, the numbers of graduates has increased, thus putting pressure on employment prospects, but the fact that the architecture profession has embraced greater diversity should be applauded. If it is difficult to match these greater numbers with existing jobs, what can be done to help them develop careers in adjacent industries? Changes in how students and post-graduates are trained provides the key.

Education

There are two aspects to think about. First, while architecture has seemingly raised the bar by moving most programs to five or six years of schooling, together with post-graduate training and practical work experience, architecture is not all that dissimilar from the medical field or legal field whose graduates also face stiff competition for the larger firm jobs and require not only extended schooling, but rigorous preparation to pass an exam that gives them entre in one’s chosen field. Ensuring that those entering a profession, which comes with significant responsibility, are prepared is also a good thing.

Having said that, especially in these uncertain economic times, architecture schools can do more to prepare their students for a career. Universities have done a fine job on the technical front to provide architects with the skills needed to design. Unfortunately, however, there is a glaring blind spot on the business side. Most students leave with a single course in professional practices, at best. Rarely do they learn about marketing, client relations, strategic thinking or business development, which are the core skills that can set them apart, make them invaluable hires, and prepare them to run their own business down the road.

Graduates are also hard pressed to learn these skills on the job. Depending on the culture, size and infrastructure of the firms who employ them in their early career, they may never get access to this information. Unfortunately, the AIA offers slim continuing education in the areas of professional practice. Recent graduates and those seeking a career change are left with little more than networking events and conventions as resources to discuss business challenges and meet peers. What else can they do to try to prepare? Inspiration is an important tool.

Economic

The entire world is suffering a recession and employment is down across the board. This is an invitation for architecture schools to consider how to better prepare their students with business tools and real world experience. During my book research, I met with leaders like Art Gensler, Steven Ehlich and Lauren Rottet. We did not talk about their design philosophy, but rather about their approach to their businesses. Our discussion ran the gamut from how they started their companies (literally, who paid rent and how did they get clients) to how they survived the inevitable recessions and challenges that affected their particular niche.

Rottet points to diversification in terms of the type of work they take, as well as where throughout the world they pursue work, as ways her firm has stayed strong. Gensler took on the work no one wanted (interiors) and built relationships with those clients that made his firm known international. Ehrlich has arranged his firm atelier style and consciously keeps the decision-making democratic. He also acknowledges that his two partners have different skill sets, which helps the business run better on all fronts.

Like many of the other entrepreneurs, in professions and industries across the board, who I have interviewed over the years, the architects profiled in Success by Design had to figure it out on their own by making mistakes, being proactive and testing ideas. Elisa Garcia points to the value of having a strong mentor, while Barry Berkus, ever the maverick, pursued modular housing and design build before either were mainstream. Allison Williams, a talented designer, knew she would need business skills if she wanted to grow her own company. Williams sought colleagues that could teach her how to develop fees, write contracts, staff an office and use various software to get the firm up and running.

This drive, curiosity and willingness to learn skills beyond core architecture are what made these folks navigate the unknown and excel through both recessions and steep competition.

We should take a second look at the statistic that 21% of architects run their own shop. Rather than portray it as a bad thing, why not improve undergraduate education to cultivate these future entrepreneurs? Why not introduce more students and recent graduates to the stories of those who have found success? This is a critical time for practitioners to seek advice from other freelancers and business owners.

All professions evolve. While it may appear that the basic foundation of the architecture profession has shifted seismically, current students, recent graduates and even those seeking a mid-career change all have much to learn from and be inspired by architects such as these. Understanding how a diverse group of architects have grown successful businesses of different types will help those struggling in the current environment to do the same.

Jenn Kennedy is the author of Success by Design and owner of Architect Success. She also contributes to Huffington Post, ArchDaily.com and Noozhawk.com. Blog readers receive a 20% discount on the purchase of Success by Design by using the code Blog20.

While architects have the talent for interpreting a client’s needs into a physical building, sharing their magic and vision, isn’t always the easiest next step. 

With any client, the first step always is to DEFINE THE GOALS, the TARGET and your key MESSAGE.  Start by asking yourself a lot of the same questions you ask a client!  Here are a few tips to get the ideas and the message rolling:

1. What IS your marketing goal for your business or project?  Are you trying to reach a particular (named) level of awareness or of profit in a defined timeframe?  Are you directing your company to international or domestic business?  Do you wish to reframe yourselves toward sustainability or another direction?

2. Bore down as close as you can to who your target audience is – age, income, location, architectural preferences, social/cultural/lifestyle choices.

3. Identify your best tools:  is the best approach trying to market yourself (as a personality), your company’s employees and services, or focused individual projects?

4. What is your message?  Why are you different, what adjectives describe your company best, what are the key insights to your services/projects.

5. Get your company out in front of your target audience. 

1. Participate in trade or consumer shows, as a panelist or as presenter of a case study;
2. Place case studies and topical articles credited to your company, or promote your spokesperson as an “expert” in appropriate media outlets;
3. Join trade associations (and then participate)—but also consider joining tangential associations whose members you (should) work with, and again, help create a path to your target;
4. Host events at places that show off your work, such as your office or one of your projects.  These can be educational events, that can be tied to associations, or social events, to which a target-appropriate charitable cause can be connected, thus bringing in a fresh audience;
5. Have a strong website, period.  There is no question of “Should I?” but only “How fast?”  Again, your marketing goal, target audience, services, key accomplishments and any other element that helps distinguish you from your competition are to be considered.  And discuss with your web designer the importance of Search Engine Optimization—best to build it in upfront, but a built site can also be reworked to feature SEO;
6. Social Media:  don’t be scared.  You may not need to participate in everything out there (and it’s not for everyone!), but it’s also not to be ignored.  Your goals and your target will help determine which option(s) to try out.  Do you, or does someone in your firm, like to write?  If so, start a company blog.  Does your staff attend a lot of events and conventions?  This is a great use of Twitter.  Do you want to target particular professional groups?  Check out LinkedIn groups.  And Facebook can provide an engaging secondary website.

Finally, every 6-12 months, review your goals, your tools, your targets, and re-evaluate.  They may change, in which case, your marketing outreach will need to be reviewed as well, beyond the regular updates and tweaks that are an important ongoing exercise of marketing you and your company.

 Julie Du Brow is the principal of dubroWORKS, a Los Angeles based public relations and marketing firm specializing in architecture and design clients. See more about Julie at www.dubroworks.com. Follow her on twitter @juliedubrow.

Projects come via the people you know.  Start nurturing personal friendships and professional relationships as soon as possible.  Get involved in organizations and activities that allow you to meet people. Do this in college and in your very first job, and keep doing it. If you’re not an extrovert or a glad-hander, you may not feel comfortable joining the Rotary Club or Toastmasters.  If this is the case, join groups that you have real interest in, say, a city basketball league, a book or hiking club.

Keep in touch with people you’ve worked with or have met over the years.  When you’re ready to take on projects of your own, let those people know.  Contact everyone you know, both personally and professionally.  Then keep reminding them on a regular basis that you’re looking to land projects.   Friends might see you not as an architect, but as their buddy they watch tennis with or their fellow church-goer, and when one of their acquaintances asks them if they know an architect, they may not necessarily think of you. You have to keep reminding people.  However, while you’re still at your full-time job, you’ll need to be careful about how and where you market yourself.  Your employer will, most likely, not be pleased if you’re marketing your own firm and not theirs.

Continually be on the lookout for project opportunities.  If you see an opportunity, jump on it, and if you can land the project, take it. This is assuming the fees and contract are acceptable.  If you don’t know how to draft a client agreement or estimate fees, ask a colleague (or me) for help.  Project opportunities don’t come around that often, so don’t try to wait until the timing is perfect.  This could be your one and only chance to launch your practice.  Chances are that the first project will lead to others.

Once you start the first project, you may want to work on it after hours and stick with your full-time job until you know if more projects will come your way.  If it’s a large project that will consume too much of your time, consider taking a leave of absence from your job.  If you’re good at what you do, your company will likely grant you a leave in lieu of losing you.  This will reduce your risk as you’ll have a job to go back to if the project dies or does not lead to more jobs right away.  If the project is small enough, then you probably want to work on it while continuing to work at your full-time job.  It’s probably best to be honest with your employer about what you’re doing, and hopefully, they’ll support your goals.  If you’re not honest, you could damage your integrity.  Yet if you are open, be aware that there could be significant career consequences with your existing employer, even termination.

When you land so much work that you can no longer do a good job for your own clients as well as for your employer, you’ll need to take that leap of faith, and either ask for the leave of absence or quit your job.  This takes courage.  But if you don’t do a good job on your new projects, they won’t lead to other projects, and you could expose yourself to a lawsuit as well.  Once you leave your job, you can start doing some real marketing such as blogging, joining a “BNI” or “Leads” referral-focused group, and targeting clients in specific niches and industries such as schools, banks, or law firms.  This should lead to more projects.  Then the real work begins…..managing a company.  Even as a sole proprietor with only a few projects, there is a lot involved in having a practice.  Do some research to find out in advance if it is an endeavor you really want to pursue.

Elisa Garcia is a licensed architect with over 20 years of expertise in the architectural industry on both the owner and architect’s side of the table. She blogs on topics around business, leadership and design. Garcia is also featured in Success by Design.