Blogs

AIA Practice Management Digest - May 2024

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 05-30-2024
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Research in practice As we head to AIA24, where a few of our contributors are speaking this year, let’s consider what research actually means in architecture and the why and how of adding research to your practice or partnering with a firm that does. Letter from the editor By Rebecca W.E. Edmunds, AIA, NOMA Our profession has a loose association with vocabulary. Just Google “misused words in architecture” for a taste of what drives those of us who take the definition of words seriously to distraction. I obsess over these misused words, and I’m not alone in wishing the profession would be more conscientious with the terms it adopts. ...
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An ambition-based approach to research in practice

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 05-30-2024
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By Rebecca Edmunds, AIA, interviewing Felix Kabo, Ph.D I spoke with Felix Kabo, Ph.D., Research Director at CannonDesign about the firm’s initiatives in research and his thoughts on what defines true research in practice. Rebecca Edmunds: Why does your firm devote resources to research? Felix Kabo: I came aboard because I recognized that research is critical to the firm's goals. CannonDesign is committed to a very clear ethos, or a philosophy or approach, called Living-Centered Design. Living-Centered Design basically fuses the best of human-centered and systems approaches to the design process. The firm is investing in research because ...
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Research to innovation & impact: What it takes and why it is worth the investment

By Upali Nanda Assoc. AIA posted 05-30-2024
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By Upali Nanda, PhD, Assoc. AIA, EDAC, ACHE, EVP and Global Sector Director, Innovation, HKS Architects. In 2006, HKS hired Dr. Debajyoti Pati, an experienced PHD, as “Director of Research.” This was a highly surprising move at the time—the title was uncommon in the architecture industry. Even in the years after, only a handful of architecture firms—and one art firm—have a research director role. Before Pati’s hiring, Big R “Research” was primarily the domain of academia. And firms did minimal—small r "research" to inform their projects. Healthcare as a typology was just starting to embrace the idea that design could be evidence-informed, which ...
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The return on investment in environmental design research

By Sean M. O'Donnell FAIA posted 05-30-2024
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By Sean O’Donnell, FAIA, Principal & K12 Practice Area Leader, Perkins Eastman Co-Principal Investigator, “ Addressing a Multi-Billion Dollar Challenge .” In December Perkins Eastman published a final report for a study that explored whether school modernization had a significant impact on educational outcomes. [1] Funded by the AIA College of Fellows through the biennial Latrobe Prize and J+J Flooring, the study, conducted in collaboration with the Drexel University School of Education, is the largest and most ambitious research project our team had undertaken since we began performing research around 2014. In presenting this study, and ...
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The case for experiential research

By Melissa E. Marsh Assoc. AIA posted 05-30-2024
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By Rebecca Edmunds, AIA, interviewing Melissa March, Assoc. AIA I spoke with Plastarc founder and Executive Director Melissa Marsh. The Plastarc practice model focuses on the study of “activity-based working & wellness” for organizations. Rebecca Edmunds: Do you have any special areas of focus or any special areas of research that you conduct? Melissa Marsh: I describe our work as social research and people analytics for the built environment. We are focused on the human experience of space and leveraging research methodologies from both a scale larger than architecture and a scale smaller than architecture. I would argue urban design ...
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A call for organized open-source software infrastructure for the AEC industry

By Renee Cheng FAIA posted 05-30-2024
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By Tomás Méndez Echenagucia and Renee Cheng, FAIA The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry has been notoriously lagging in productivity when compared to other industries [1, 2] . When studying the reason for this, analysts point their fingers at a wide range of issues, from real estate dynamics, to lack of innovation, regulation, risk aversion, inability to work well across disciplinary differences, and lack of digitalization among others. Many of those reasons are somewhat inherent to the AEC industry, given the products it creates. Buildings are quite large and costly, location specific, and land use intensive. They require ...
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Research-related content at AIA24

By Emma Tucker posted 03-26-2024
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If you are coming to the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design (AIA24) this year (June 5-8 in Washington, DC), there is an official PMKC event plus many more great sessions on the topic of research to consider! PMKC events Thursday: Practice, Present & Future: PM Luncheon EV213 | 11:30am-1pm | $95 Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, winner of the AIA Gold Medal, will set the tone at this luncheon exploring practice and career in the 21st century. The founder of Chicago-based Ross Barney architects has won 220+ awards over more than four decades of practice, continuing the Windy City's storied heritage of trailblazing architects. ...
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Practice content at AIA24

By Emma Tucker posted 03-21-2024
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If you are coming to the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design (AIA24) this year (June 5-8 in Washington, DC), there is an official PMKC event plus many more great sessions to consider! PMKC events Thursday: Practice, Present & Future: PM Luncheon EV213 | 11:30am-1pm | $95 Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, winner of the AIA Gold Medal, will set the tone at this luncheon exploring practice and career in the 21st century. The founder of Chicago-based Ross Barney architects has won 220+ awards over more than four decades of practice, continuing the Windy City's storied heritage of trailblazing architects. Like Ross Barney, today's ...
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AIA Practice Management Digest - Febuary 2024

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 02-22-2024
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Business Basics Let’s start the year with fresh thinking on business basics to tackle challenges such as digital threats, small firm benefits, best practices for M&A activity, business development and marketing, and new ways of thinking about fees. Letter from the Editor By Rebecca W.E. Edmunds, AIA, NOMA 2023 has been quite the year with year-end billings at a low after 7 months of decline, a rise in inquiries seems promising for 2024 (see Kriston Capps, “​​ Design Edition: The Architecture Forecast for 2024 ,” Bloomberg, December 31, 2023). Often during slow times, we turn internally and reexamine our business operations and ...
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The Threat is Real: Cyber Attacks Against Architectural Firms

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 02-22-2024
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Contributed by The AIA Trust Many architectural firms are tempted into believing they’re safe from cyberattacks because they don’t consider their data to be “sensitive” enough to attract criminals. Cybercriminals are sophisticated, deliberate and efficient in how they monetize their efforts. If you use the internet for any reason – even if just for basics such as email, submitting invoices or sharing designs–you are at risk–and cyber risk is a problem for every professional services firm. A risk report published by the AIA Trust is filled with real case studies and highlights how very attractive architectural firms are to cyber criminals, the most ...
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Nurturing Growth: Tools for Marketing and Business Development in Architecture Firms

By Sarah Elizabeth Hernandez Assoc. AIA posted 02-22-2024
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By Sarah E. Hernandez, Assoc. AIA, Chief Marketing Officer, Ci In an industry where the creation of physical spaces can impact communities for generations, the strategic roles of Marketing and Business Development (BD) cannot be overstated. These processes and activities are not mere back-office functions; they are the driving force behind the firm’s growth and market presence. The architectural profession has a history of resistance to understanding and embracing the importance of a solid and empowered Marketing and BD team. Now is the time to change your perspective on what these professionals can do for your firm’s viability and success. ...
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From Strategy to Integration: Best Practices for Successful Mergers and Acquisitions

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 02-22-2024
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By Cynthia Anderson, CPA, Entrepreneur & Founder, ThincStrategies In today's changing business landscape, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have emerged as a powerful strategy to accelerate expansion, innovation, and leapfrog the competition. However, executing a successful transaction is no easy feat. The following is a guideline to help you and your firm through each phase of the M&A process with best practices to find the right fit for your team, whether you are a buyer or a seller. Professional firms consider a merger or acquisition based on a few common motivations: Growth: Mergers and acquisitions can speed up firm ...
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The Importance of Employee Benefits for Small Business

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 02-22-2024
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The Importance of Employee Benefits for Small Business Contributed by The AIA Trust For small-business owners, the importance of employee benefits is a significant factor when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. The majority of workers prefer attractive types of employee benefits—like insurance, paid time off, and a retirement plan—more than pay raises. Whether you’re competing for talent or keeping the high performers you already have, small-business employee benefits are essential for making your staff feel valued and supported. To stay competitive through an economic downturn, it’s important to focus your limited resources on the types ...
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Returns on Investment: It’s Not All About The Money

By Tyler J. Suomala posted 02-22-2024
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By Tyler Suomala, Founder, Growthitect Speaking to a room of clients, investors, company leaders, and communities or families always brings a brief moment of anxiety, fear, or hesitation. Especially when the time comes to present your fee. You hope you’ve done everything in your power to justify the number you are about to say. But it doesn’t always pan out the way we want it to, right? Sometimes you get crickets. Other times? Surprised looks, objections, disappointment—you name it. Discussing money with prospective clients involves a lot of nuance. If the conversation isn’t primed appropriately, then it usually won’t end well. But if you’ve ...
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AIA Practice Management Digest - November 2023

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 11-07-2023
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HR in practice The rules for attracting, retaining, managing and mentoring staff keep changing--a factor exacerbated by a talent shortage. This issue shares insights from leaders across the profession. Letter from the editor By Rebecca W.E. Edmunds, AIA, NOMA Who knew that when we emerged from the major events of 2020—the pandemic, the rise of Black Lives Matter, and a reckoning with the demographics of our profession—that the norms of practice operations would be forever altered. Hats off to any of you who saw all these changes coming at once! Some of us felt they were long overdue. As one of those architects with a previous degree ...
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Developing women leaders by building greater workplace flexibility

By Evelyn M. Lee FAIA posted 11-07-2023
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By Evelyn Lee, FAIA Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion from AIA Houston's WIA Equity Series Re|Define. The panel featured mid-career women in practice and other areas, talking about how they defined success and, in large part, how to break down the barriers that have made it so difficult for us to pave a better way forward for women in practice. What was particularly interesting is that we all defined our success under a common theme: flexibility within the workplace. Or, more specifically, success was defined as the ability to create our own schedule and focus on what we are most passionate ...
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The student experience // AIAS Speaks

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 11-07-2023
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Julia Andor, AIAS, NOMA, Assoc. AIA (she/her), 67th National Vice President 2023-2024 and Nicole Bass, AIAS, NOMA, Assoc. AIA (she/her), 66th National Vice President 2022-2023 Young people are entering the field of architecture for countless reasons, and there are also many reasons why they may decide to stay in or leave the profession. Let’s explore the expectations and realities that students face as they graduate and go into the workforce. From our experience as the current and past National Vice Presidents of the AIAS, the most prominent motivator to study architecture comes from a creative spirit and an ambition to solve problems in unconventional ...
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HR policy trends

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 11-07-2023
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By Hannah Brown, SHRM-SCP, Brown Creative Consulting LLC In 2020 Policy in HR was thrown, like most other things, into a reactionary mode with many architecture and interiors firms forced to figure out work from home. Most had never considered remote work as feasible. The combination of physical and mental isolation was taxing and work meetings often become our sole source of socialization leading employers to also become focused on health. Our industry pulled together to make remote work a reality, often looking to employers outside the AEC industry that already embraced remote work with policies in place to reimburse employees for expenses related ...
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A look at work culture

By Rebecca W. Edmunds AIA posted 11-07-2023
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By Iva Kravitz, Assoc. AIA Full disclosure: I’m not an architect, but I’ve spent my career doing strategy, communications and marketing for architects and designers. As a consultant to the profession for 30 years, I have an inside-outside view of the strong and intangible role of culture in work life. I’ve seen small firms thrive with strong culture and happy employees, and large firms succeed despite terrible leadership. Here are a few notes as well as my own observations. Culture basics A lecture I once attended made the excellent point that corporate culture is not “getting together for beers after work once a week”. Rather, ...
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Creating systematic programs to strategically develop aspiring architects within our firms

By Matthew E. Szymanski AIA posted 11-07-2023
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By Matthew Szymanski, AIA, Owner, Architect | Arx Design Co. Traditionally, aspiring architects learned by apprenticing with experienced team members and watching how they: design, communicate, and make decisions. The AXP program approximates this model, but mentors must purposely supplement lessons of professionalism, business development, and emotional intelligence if well-rounded future leaders are the desired result. Today's managers face significant time constraints when trying to provide the consistent guidance necessary to develop new team members. In addition, new remote working arrangements and increasingly flexible/varied schedules result ...
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