Non-Traditional Architecture Firms

A member of our Linkedin group, Entrepreneur Architect, posted a response to my discussion, “Learning From Other Industries: Could an architecture firm be successfully structured to run like a high-end salon?”.

Amy Burke, NCARB is a member of a design group named Hyperform Design Co-op located just outside Denver, Colorado. Hyperform is an informal collaborative with approximately 50 members and shared studio space.

Members of the co-op (architects, designers, landscape architects, artists, etc.) come together as necessary and build teams to meet the requirements of each specific RFP. Between projects, they share resources, network and continue their education with planned events… and clearly they work together for PR and marketing.

Amy shared a link to an article in the current issue of Architect magazine that discusses several start-up firms with unique business structures, including her own group, Hyperform Design Co-op.

(Thanks Amy.)

What are your thoughts? Do you think a co-op like Hyperform can be a successful firm structure? Do you have other examples of non-traditional firm structures?

Let’s talk…

Growth and Evolution = Success

We’ve been making some changes over at Fivecat Studio. Read my post on Living Well in Westchester to learn more about what we’re doing and where we’re going.

An Architects’ Manifesto

I have received this from several sources. Is this the beginning of a movement in the architectural profession?

From CORAgroups.org:

As architects have become increasingly marginalized in influence and worth to our culture, neither academia nor journalism has supported the historic role of the profession as a consistent voice of value in construction.  Rather than provide exposure of social relevance and innovative engagement, these beacons and mirrors of our profession remain focused on a cult of personalities and abstract formal expression. Promoting an exclusive orthodoxy, these previously objective platforms for diversity, contextual influences and craft position the profession of architecture as an elitist endeavor – a disastrous image in a time of economic distress.

Not surprisingly, all levels of government have responded to society’s increasing perception of our profession’s irrelevancy by creating an ever-tightening web of regulatory oversight. The perceived incapacity of architects to provide holistic, relevant building design has allowed government to sanction alternatives to the use of licensed architects.

Read the entire document here.

I would love to know what you think? Let’s talk.

Recruit Your Clients to Help you Better Serve your Clients

Starbucks Coffee Co. has built a website dedicated to the interaction with their customers. It’s called My Starbucks Idea. Have an idea that will improve the Starbucks customer experience? Drop them a line at their website. The best ideas are actually implemented in Starbucks stores throughout the world.

Check out the website here: mystarbucksidea.force.com

How can we recruit OUR clients to help us serve them better?

Architects Can Learn Much from Other Industries

What can we learn from other industries to make the traditional architectural and construction processes better?

Hospitals are filled with checklists and other systems to make sure that every step of a procedure is done correctly. NASCAR racing teams also use checklists and directives from multiple layers of team members, each with their own specialty. Toyota uses their Product Development System, also known as Lean Manufacturing, to make every subsequent product better than the last.

At Fivecat Studio, we are developing a Project Manual, filled with checklists, that will make every design process more efficient and will assure that every project is well built.

What are you doing to be more efficient? What systems are you implementing to be sure your clients are happy? Are you learning from other industries?

Please share…

Fivecat Studio: Interviewed on WVOX 1460AM

Last week, Marsha Gordon, President and CEO of the Business Council of Westchester, invited me to join her at WVOX 1460AM in New Rochelle, NY. I enjoyed speaking with her about Fivecat Studio, the business of architecture and our annual campaign to support local animal shelters, Pillows of Puppies.