Repositioning the Architect

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The other day I got an email from Robert Ivy's office regarding an AIA Survey:  Repostitioning the Institute - not "the Architect" as this discussion forum is named.  Yet both architect and institute are being examined, as Ivey wrote in the latest AIArchitect newsletter: "this effort will let us emerge in 2013 with a clearer perception of who we are as a profession--and as a professional organization".

Here is a breakdown of clients as reported by the AIA Pressroom in their basic presskit:

The Clients

In comparing firm billings, as reported by AIA members, by client types:

• 18% are from business, industrial, or commercial companies
• 24% are from state or local government
• 17% are from developers and construction companies
• 14% are from nonprofit institutions
• 14% are from private individuals
• 8% are from the federal government
• 3% are from other architects, engineers, and design professionals

That gives us 52% of the billings are from private sources, 32% from government sources, and 14% from non-profits.  (I know that's not 100%, but I'm working with what I have...).  I'd like to see some clarifiction on that non-profit category.  I think it's mainly hospitals, religious type clients as schools would fall under one of the government categories.  So if we split the billings into privately funded/publically funded we could say it's a 66%/32% split.

Now we all know that the GSA "is going green", made famous by their conferences and spending excesses - but GSA is only a part of that 8% federal billings.  Are we over emphasizing sustainability and "going green" when it is not such an important issue to our clients?

The April issue of ARCHITECT has a number of articles featuring various buildings - yet I can think of only one, that on the Bank of Missouri branches - that is representative of what an average person or client would experience.  Consider this quote from the article on the Barnes Museum:  "The sheets of limestone, exported from a quarry in the Negev, south of Jerusalem, are attached to a stainless steel building envelope using a clip system, itself a nod to the hanging artwork inside".  Really?  Really?  How the heck is anyone supposed to make that connection?  I used clips to support granite cladding on an office tower in the mid '80's, and like the Barnes, the clips are hidden.

When we reposition the Institute, or the architect, let's position them so that we become more relevant to our clients and their needs.  Let's not dismiss the everyday buildings people use as unworthy of notice in our publications.
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Klaus Steinke AIA
Principal
Klaus Steinke Architect
Las Vegas NV
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