Every Monday morning, team members in the Philadelphia and Princeton offices gather together via video-conference to discuss firm news and upcoming events and projects. Since 2003, founding partner Allan Kehrt, FAIA, has delivered his Monday Morning Musings, weekly slices of personal insight into the design profession, to the firm. To comment on any of his posts, send an email to us. We look forward to hearing from you. |
| April 24, 2006 Wealth Samuel Mockbee of Auburn's Rural Studio and posthumous winner of the AIA Gold Medal once called architects "house pets to the rich". It was a harsh statement about the profession, but one that has a ring of truth. Whether we are designing high-end houses, university buildings, warehouses, or developer projects we operate in a world of money; money for fees, money for construction and money for operations. We are far removed from those whose world does not include design, from those who can't afford the luxury of our services because they have little money. And we are far removed from those who might benefit the most from what we can bring to their world. Our profession has always needed those with money, whether patrons or corporate clients. But it is those with no money, those whom for one reason or another have been left behind by our well-heeled world that we can help the most. Somewhere along the way we have forgotten what our skills can do to improve the lives of those who can't afford to hire us. |
| April 17, 2006 Commerce For most of its existence the profession of architecture has held itself apart from the competitive nature of commerce, aloof and detached. But the world in which we work is trying to tell us we are just like any other business. Most of us prefer the old view, myself included. But we do deal with the real world and we build in the real world, so we have to work at working in the real world. There are a few things we can do to adjust to this and accommodate the reality of the environment in which we work, all while trying to maintain ourselves as different from the everyday commercial:
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| April 10, 2006 Subsidies There is a simple economic rule within the office for completing projects. The rule is that we must accomplish all of the tasks required of us within the fee which we have been given. We have not been very good at observing it. The rule is important because if consistently observed it will guarantee the long term financial stability of the firm. Since we generally have a variety of project types within the office we can sometimes rob Peter to pay Paul, allowing the more profitable projects to subsidize those that are less so. This is normal in many firms; indeed all firms will have a variety of project profit levels that will eventually be averaged. But it is important that the range of profitability on projects not become too great or subsidies will become the normal way of working and we will forget that we have a responsibility to that simple economic rule. We're going to work very hard on changing the way we manage our project profitability. |
| April 3, 2006 Performance In this highly competitive age in which we practice, it is imperative that each of us perform to the absolute best of our abilities. The profession of architecture rewards us in many ways and demands a great deal of us as well. It rewards us in ways that other professions will never experience; it gives us pride in having created something physical of lasting value and hopefully great beauty; it allows us to know that our work will outlive us, bequeathing to future generations gifts that are of our making. And architecture demands much of us; it demands a lot of our time; it makes demands on our creativity; it demands thoughtful attention to detail, and it seems continually to find new things to demand of us every day. The nature of architecture also demands that we perform our work in teams, and thus the manner in which we work directly affects others on a daily basis. Because of this we must always think of the other members of our team and ensure that we are working at our best and performing as well as we possibly can. Peter Drucker is quoted as saying one of the worst things management can do is to allow underperforming individuals to continue in important jobs. It robs those around them of energy, enthusiasm and, in the end, the ability to do their own work. It is a simple question of each of us maximizing our own performance and it is critical to the survival of any good organization. |
