samj516

Do architects who work for real estate developers in a large city such as NYC earn a higher salary than those working in a typical architectural firm?

sashimi46

I may be wrong but my assumption is not really, because they (architects) are not the ones investing in the project so they do not reap the rewards or losses of the project. architects are hired by the developers and are paid by the developers some standard fee that has nothing to do with the return of the investment by the developer. developers try to keep costs as low as possible so usually they may hire an architect that would offer the cheapest rates..but that is not always the case

of course there are exceptions if the developer agrees to give a part of the development to the architect in return for architectural services. the architect in this case only reaps extra reward if the return on investment is greater than what was invested. of course an architect could also lose money as a result of that. an architect developing his/her own project however is a whole different story...

SSD

My husband arch engineering degree many years ago is in charge of construction and facilities for a major developer in NYC. They do have architects on staff that do not do design. I believe some of them have masters degrees in real-estate development. I remember him telling me that they do make more money than a junior architect and is one of the reasons they went into this area. The work is more business related and I do believe that they are also do a liason function to architecture firms. This development firm also have a few architects that do design in-house as well.