| I work at an integrated company so we have engineering degrees as well as architecture degrees. I would guess that at least 25% of our construction engineering folks started in architecture and then transfered out. I have talked to many of them about this decision, and I think it comes down to how comfortable they are with ambiguity. Architects love to wallow in ambiguity; is that a good design or a bad design?....well it depends on who you ask, and when you ask, and how you talked about it before you asked. Perhaps it's a bad design, but maybe it's bad in a good way, or by being bad it's making a critical statement about our current cultural condition, in which case it's good. This drives most people with an engineering mindset nuts. They just want a problem they can solve and know whether they have the right answer or the wrong answer. No ambiguity, no judgement calls. Just the facts.
I have often envied engineers; in a meeting the owner will ask if a beam can be made smaller. They will pull out a calculator, punch some numbers, and then say....NO. When they ask me if we can use a different color of stone to save money, I have often wanted to pull out a calculator, punch some numbers, and then say....NO ;-)
rick | 
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