Can I make some assumptions about you?

Because you’re reading this blog, I think it’s safe to assume that you love architecture.

Now, you may be an architecture student. (Or you may want to be an architecture student.)

You might be an architect. Or an architecture professor.

Maybe you just love architecture. (Or all these brown boxes kinda turn you on?)

I think you’re creative. You’re intelligent. Cultured. You care about society, about making it better for people. You enjoy solving challenging problems. You come up with ideas that most people just…can’t. And you kinda like the way it feels to be able to do that.

I have a challenging problem for you to solve.

It’s not an optional problem. You really do have to solve it.

The AIA’s Architecture Billings Index—the profession’s rough measure of monthly architectural output—hit the lowest level in its 13-year history in March, according to numbers released yesterday by the institute. The index continued a slide that began in January, which bodes ill for the architectural economy and the construction sector as a whole, because the design phase is generally first in the building process. Inquiries for new design projects also hit a record low.

Source

This is the challenge: How do you, personally, do your architecture…

and

…get paid for it?

I had a professor tell us once, “Architecture’s great if you don’t have to do it for money.”

Architecture continues to be my answer to the eternal question, “What would you do if money weren’t an issue.”

But, come on now, we all want to get paid. We are brilliant, talented, creative problem solvers. We should get paid for that.

My suggestion? Change your strategy. The old paradigm is suffering. It is up to you to create your new paradigm.

What’s the best way for YOU to do that?

You’re creative. You’ll figure it out. You have to.