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 Architectural Management Consulting
 CONFRONTING THE "DISCONNECTS"
With 25-plus years as an architectural practitioner, educator, and consultant, I bring a broad range of experiences to the task of helping architecture firms improve the coordination and delivery of their services.  Unlike conventional management and information technology experts, my architectural experience allows me to knowledgeably address the unique problems of professional practice today. 

Whether your architecture firm is growing in size or ambition, experiencing internal adjustments, or simply trying to do better what it already does, I can provide both organization-level and project-specific consultation.  Consultation may be directed toward any aspect of practice, from business development to construction administration, although I give particular emphasis to a number of "disconnects" common in practice today.  I've listed a few examples below. 

Please contact me for a free initial consultation on how I can help you address your firm's management concerns. 

-- Matthew Frederick, R.A. 


Disconnect between senior/non-CAD staff and junior/ CAD staff
In  architectural offices today, the primary tool of production – the computer – is most often operated and controlled by employees with the least experience in project management.  Senior staff, who may or may not be CAD literate, experience daily difficulties in project coordination and delivery as a result.
Symptoms include:
  • Difficulty gauging the status of projects because “it’s all in the computer"
  • Difficulty monitoring shortcut practices of CAD operators, such as “cut and paste” practices that create the illusion of highly resolved drawings that lack true design and coordination 
  • An inability to resolve disagreements among staff over CAD conventions, resulting in production inefficiencies, reduced profits, delayed schedules, and strained worker relations
  • Construction administration headaches, cost overruns, and liability exposures caused by CAD miscoordination that is unrecognized until after the drawings are printed and delivered
  • Difficulty estimating workloads and justifying invoices to clients due to unfamiliarity with CAD tasks
How I can help:
At root, these are not merely CAD problems, but management problems requiring CAD knowledge and management experience to resolve.  (This is why firms that have IT or CAD experts address these problems invariably see them persist.) I will work with you and your staff to create dependable standards for layers, colors, blocks, and the like, and can train senior staff in basic CAD tasks so they can more easily look in on employee work.  Additionally, I will provide training in task-oriented project management methods that will help you define and focus the activities of CAD staff.

Disconnect between design intent and technical resolution 
There are so many factors and competing agendas affecting the design of projects today, that carrying a clear concept from schematic design to technical realization can seem a herculean task. 

Symptoms include: 
  • A disheartening sense that your buildings amount to a patching together of unrelated features and details rather than an integrated whole. This may be evidenced in a number of ways: framing plans with more exceptions than rules, needlessly complex material connections, hyper-complicated flashing details, and buildings that your clients like but that you think are ugly.
  • The elimination of a Design Development Phase, with the ostensible goal of saving time.
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How I can help: 
Difficulties in the technical resolution of construction details are only occasionally due to technical factors.  More often they stem from a lack of clarity in design concept and process.  I will work with you and your staff to develop strategies for framing and articulating design concepts so that technical detailing is anticipated early in the design process.  Additionally, I will show you how to maintain "design fluidity" in the face of unexpected impositions from clients, consultants, regulatory agencies, and others as your projects move through the Design Development and Construction Documents phases. 


Disconnect between management structure and design philosophy
Are you aware that some management structures and office hierarchies are inherently incompatible with some architectural philosophies and styles? 

The ideal management structure for your office will depend on whether your architecture is style-driven or concept-driven, modernist or traditional, deconstructivist or classical, functionalist or organic, and so on.  Further, if you head a single-principal firm, the ideal management structure for your office will depend on whether you envision your primary role as business administrator, project architect, technical czar, or coach/mentor.

How I can help:
I will work with you to articulate the values that drive your practice, formulate long-term and short-term goals, clarify your and your employees' roles, devise suitable management structures and processes, and implement changes at both organizational and project-specific levels. 


Disconnect between hiring of staff and actual on-the-job needs
Interviewers of job applicants almost always fail to do the one thing most likely to demonstrate the on-the-job capabilities of job applicants. 

Architecture is an enormously broad field, in which the training, skills, and interests of job applicants can vary widely even though they might look similar.  Too often, it is only after hiring that principals discover that an employee is ill-matched to the job.

How I can help:
For starters, by telling you what the one thing is.  (I won't give it away here!)  Additionally, I will help you create specific methods and criteria for identifying job candidates who will suit the needs of your practice in ability, temperament, and experience.  If desired, I am available to participate directly in the interview and screening process.


Disconnect between fee structure, project phasing, and work tasks
Many practitioners fail to adequately define terms, service phases, and processes in their Owner-Architect agreements, resulting in lost income.

Common symptoms:
  • Junior staff working open-endedly, without awareness of fee ramifications
  • "Eating" billable hours because employee tasks are difficult to quantify or justify when preparing invoices
  • "Eating" percentage-based fees when challenged by clients because the relationship of fees to construction cost is inadequately defined

How I can help:
I will help you more clearly structure your contracts and services to keep you, staff, and clients on the same page.  Goals and tasks to be addressed at each stage of the design process will be better understood by all.


Disconnect between your design values and the reality of practice
Nearly all all practicing architects report frustrations in bringing the design concerns they truly value – space, light, material integrity, organic process, idea-driven architecture – to daily practice while answering responsibly to client needs, consultant demands, and real-world schedules.

Common symptoms: 
  • An internal dialogue in which you wonder why only big name architects get clients who want real architecture 
  • A fear that "educating your clients" will leave you open to charges of arrogance 
  • Immobilizing frustration when your design schemes are eroded by clients, consultants, and review boards who don't "get" the big picture
  • A fear that the opportunity to turn a profit will be lost if someone in the office mentions "design philosophy," "concept", "idea," or "parti"  
How I can help:
By initiating dialogue on these common areas of discomfort, or by refocusing dialogue if it is faltering.  I will demonstrate "meta-thinking" strategies that unify, rather than counterpose, competing ideas, and will demonstrate how to maintain "design fluidity" in the face of unexpected impositions on your design concepts.
 
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