to start a firm

cheers
Wed, 02 May 2007 17:35:37 +0000

la…you may or may not discover why the practice of architecture doesn’t light your fire. all I can say is that you are not alone. You have many many female compatriots who are equally dissatisfied and disenchanted. This is not happenstance, IMO. The rate of disenchantment among women is directly related to the lack of design opportunities.

That’s been my observation. It is my opinion only. Feel free to ignore.

By example, there are a number of other talented, Ivy-educated female architects on this board. Yet they don’t contribute to the CC architecture threads because they do not feel they are practicing in the mainstream.

Why do they feel they are not in the mainstream? My guess is that it is related to the size of their projects (small), the amount of high design they are allowed to do in their projects (minimal) and the type of project (residential). I’m guessing–but those are similar things I’ve heard from my female friends who run small residential practices.

rick, congrats on the completion of your $100M project–and the Stanford acceptance for your D.

Momrath, congrats on his job! Woot!

There are many many different types of practices. rick appears to be a partner in a development/construction firm which has 80 staff architects producing super-large scale work.

I am a partner in a small design firm which does medium to large scale work. My interest and passion is pursuing high art in built architecture. It’s an old person’s game. It takes forever to pull the talent and experience together. Decades.

In general, even though the money can be better, it is tough to maintain high-design standards in a development/construction firm. That is the reason many architects do not choose that path. For instance, there are no Pritzker Prize winners who are partners in a development construction firm. Maybe rick will be the one to break that mold–but that’s been the history of the profession.

My advice is specific. It is geared toward students (especially women) who want to pursue a satisfying, high design career with good lifestyle flexibility and good income. It sounds like rick is making $800k a year which is more than high design architects make at 50. They might make that amount at 75 or 80 but not 50.

On the other hand, without giving out my tax statements, I can say that once I opened my own firm, I made good money (50% better than my corporate peers) with a great lifestyle (three times the holidays of my corporate peers–plus a travel budget).

For my specific aim–developing a high design practice–opening a firm at age 28 without a license and without much cash–was a great choice–actually the ONLY choice since I didn’t have cash or a license. ;)

Of course, I wasn’t an idiot. I knew the history of many other high design architects.



Richard Meier (born October 12, 1934 in Newark, New Jersey) …earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University in 1957, worked for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill briefly in 1959, and then for Marcel Breuer for three years, prior to starting his own practice in New York in 1963.



I doubt he had his license when he opened his firm because Meier had to take the exam five times to pass it and you can only take it once a year.

Gehry opened his firm at age 32 after a few years apprenticeship.

Gwathmey started his firm at age 33 after 9 years as an apprentice.

Stephen Holl opened his office in New York at age 29–although he was also teaching at the AA in the late 70’s. I know he didn’t have any money because he used to go down and shower at the YMCA. No shower or bath in his apartment. I’m not sure he was supposed to be living in there, LOL.

Thomas Mayne opened Morphosis when he was 28–and he started SCI-Arc that same year.

Zaha Hadid joined Rem Koolhaus after graduation and became a partner in OMA at age 27.

Anyway, the list goes on and on. I followed a well-established–but not well publicized–path to opening and maintaining a successful architecture practice, one that is dedicated to exploring the high art aspects of built work.

In my opinion, to have independent success in the high design area of the profession, it is essential to open your practice early in life. You certainly don’t need a title from an established firm to do so. Staying in a firm for more than a few years signicificantly reduces your ability to open a traditonal architecture practice which focuses on high design–that’s been my observation.

Also, I don’t live archtiecture as a cult. I never have. I don’t promote cultish behavior in my office. I never have. Even though I do love studios of all kinds, I think architects over-dramatize the lifestyle. Painters and sculptors don’t go around crowing about their long hours. I’m not crazy about that aspect of the profession but lots of archtiects wear it as a badge of honour.