What do Architects do?
Over the past few years as the office manager for di’velept, I have had multiple students reach out to interview members of our firm and ask what it is like to work as an architect. For the most part I passed the requests along and didn’t think much of it.
Over time, however, I realized that most architecture student’s perception of the profession is a bit of a running joke to actual architects. I have to admit that despite having worked for years in offices in the construction industry, I did not have much of a grasp on what an architect actually does until I started work at di’velept.
So, what does an architect do from day to day? I surveyed our company to see what our staff had to say about the matter.
Jarod: Architect, Owner, Principal in charge of Projects
What I thought I would be doing:
Architecture school tends to give everyone an overly heightened sense of grandeur. The life of an architect is portrayed as one of sweeping artistic gestures. It gives the perception that Major projects are "designed" in weeks by a single genius. And sure, a single person could design a middle school by themselves in a 5 week block, doing nothing else, but that is just not reality. It takes a team of people. The only type of thinking that is valued in school is that artistic, big-idea mentality.
What I actually do:
What I actually do is significantly harder and more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. I spend big chunks of my time communicating with a huge variety of people, from the di'velept team, to our clients, to the many talented engineers we work with. In order to make a successful project it takes teams of people months or longer to think through and draw all the varied conditions. There are thousands of pages of building and zoning codes that have a significant impact on the way buildings can be designed.
The skills that are valued in the profession are quite different from the skills that are valued in architecture school. Generally, the work of getting real buildings built takes a significant amount of time thinking about the mundane things: where are the sewer pipes and ducts going to go, how do we achieve the proper fire separation, or how are people going to escape from the building in an emergency. We are lucky to have a great team that thinks about all of those things while also caring about the way the buildings are experienced by the people who interact with them.
Jeremy: Architect, Owner, Principal in charge of Projects
What I thought I would be doing:
My perception was a little different than most given that I had a pretty heavy drafting background but I thought I would pretty well be designing stuff all the time. Hand or computer sketching concepts, working out how things would be built and drawing documents for how to build those designs. I think I understood the actual work to be done to document a building but I didn’t realize the complexity required and the breadth of the scope.
What I actually do:
About 15% of my time is spent doing what I thought I would be doing when I was in school. The rest of my time is spent responding to emails, managing people, managing projects and everything that needs to be coordinated to get the right things turned in and done on time. As an owner I do a lot more training new staff, building systems, running a business, writing contracts, managing client expectations, marketing and selling our services, and learning how to fit into the politics that surround projects. I don’t think I was even aware that any of that would be part of the job.
Ethan: Architect, Project Manager
What I thought I would be doing:
I once fancied myself as the wild visionary, the maverick architect, slicing through the smog of convention with a chainsaw of creativity, leaving behind a trail of avant-garde masterpieces that would redefine skylines and shake the very foundations of architectural orthodoxy. I envisioned myself strutting through a neon-lit metropolis, clad in leather and sunglasses, my mind a cauldron of radical concepts and unbridled innovation. The world would tremble at the mere mention of my name, for I was destined to be a starchitect, a deity in the realm of concrete and steel, shaping cities in my own image.
What I actually do:
But alas, reality has a cruel way of tempering such grandiose fantasies. Instead of prowling the urban jungle like a mythic titan, I find myself chained to a desk, drowning in a deluge of emails and memos. My days are a monotonous ballet of coordination and compromise, a never-ending symphony of phone calls and meetings. The chainsaw lies dormant, replaced by a mouse and keyboard, as I navigate the labyrinth of bureaucracy and logistical nightmares. No longer am I the fearless pioneer, but rather a humble troubleshooter, extinguishing fires and patching leaks in the fragile fabric of architectural ambition. Yet amidst the chaos and drudgery, there are fleeting moments of triumph, when a solution emerges from the chaos like a beacon of hope, reminding me that even in the mundane reality of everyday life, there lies the spark of creativity and the promise of greatness.
Marin: Architect
What I thought I would be doing:
I thought I would be drawing house plans and having many conversations with clients. I anticipated many more design charrettes, just getting stuff out of my brain and creating something that would be in a magazine. My expectations were unrealistic (and gratefully not accurate). School was theory based, and I left school with very little education about real world construction and actually putting a drawing set together. Maybe that was intentional on the school's part?
What I actually do:
Talk to my coworkers and help to put together drawings that will assist the contractors and owners through the construction process. I learn every day. I enjoy practicing significantly more than I liked studying.
Tyler: Architect, Project Manager
What I thought I would be doing:
Reflecting on my time at The Cooper Union School of Architecture, one moment comes to mind: a classmate walking through the studio with a survey asking, "Do you plan to practice architecture after graduating?" I was surprised; it hadn't crossed my mind that there could be different career paths after a program that focused explicitly on architecture. However, the more I thought about it the more it made sense: this particular program didn't dictate a singular career path; instead, it embraced the many possibilities within the realm of architecture and design. So, my expectations for the profession were broad, anticipating a diverse and somewhat unpredictable career. For example, discussions on pursuing licensure were a hot topic in my last year of school, yet there was no inherent pressure to follow a conventional path.
What I actually do:
Starting my "traditional" journey as an architect after graduation, one of the first things I realized was how much I work with consultants. A large portion of the success of a project hinged on seamless coordination with these experts, necessitating meticulous attention to the integration of their designs with architectural's. Suddenly, the seemingly mundane classes on MEP and structural systems became highly valuable for my day-to-day responsibilities. My understanding of the role of an architect changed from simply one who designs a building to one who skillfully juggles client expectations, good design practices, end-user experience, code requirements, team abilities, software limitations, budgets, relationships with contractors and so much more. What I actually do as an architect: a lot more.
Stephanie: Designer, Project Staff
What I thought I would be doing:
When I started in architecture school I thought I would be drawing strange architectural structures, think Foster or Hadid...As I went through the architectural program I started to fall in love with the design of smaller spaces that were intentional and well thought out. Upon graduating I had decided my path would be residential design.
What I actually do:
I spend a LOT of time figuring out how to detail itty bitty parts of a building that regular people will never notice. I spend hours on end reading through codes and ordinances that take you down rabbit hole after rabbit hole of information. I am constantly trying to keep track of multiple disciplines that I never once considered while in school. Coordination is a bigger deal than I was led to believe.
My favorite thing I do is the schematic part of the process and laying out spaces in our multifamily projects. In short. I'm not very often drawing pretty pictures of buildings instead I'm mostly getting down to the essence of how they are actually built.
Rebecca: Designer, Project Manager
What I thought I would be doing:
I didn’t actually get my degree in architecture. I thought I’d get this great job and make tons of money because all we were ever taught was about famous architects. I thought there would be a lot more learning of what an actual job would entail and not so focused on design and theory – which is exactly why I left architecture and went into engineering. Engineering was a lot more about calculations, applied applications, and definable answers. Architecture school was a lot of presentations for design and it was all subjective and depended on the professors’ personal tastes.
What I actually do:
Even though the project starts at design it’s really only about 15% of the actual project. I have to figure out how something is detailed, how to converse with clients, how to communicate with consultants. It's a lot more paperwork than I ever expected or was ever warned about.
Lets not even get started on Construction Administration or code review – which come to find out is half of our job. I spend more time figuring out how something is built and will work than actually designing it. There was never a code review class even offered in school, which is HUGE and everyone working on a project should be able to navigate their part of the code. I thought that there would be more collaboration as far as including structural engineering, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, landscape, etc. I thought I would be more “prepared” going into my first job out of college. It was a learning curve for sure.
Kayla: Office Manager
What I thought an architect did before working with them:
Most people know that “architects design buildings”. Prior to coming to di’velept, I had a slightly stronger knowledge of architects. I worked for a construction company for nearly 7 years prior to coming to di’velept. I worked directly with the project managers, helping them with all of the paperwork for each of our projects. The architects were the ones that rejected our pay applications, and regularly cost us extra time and money as we were required to redo work we had already moved on from. Beyond that, I figured they did a lot of math and were only really necessary if you were building something custom and “visionary.”
What I now think an architect does after working with them:
Now that I work with them my view of Architects has completely changed. First, as the bookkeeper, I think I do most of the math in the office. Math is really the engineer’s game. And while architects work hand-in-hand with engineers on basically every project, it’s not something they have to be good at.
Most architects would LOVE to design a super “out-there” building, but that’s not very common. They do a lot of “normal” designs for houses, hospitals, education buildings, commercial buildings, etc. And it’s not just big, new, custom buildings. Architects help with little remodeling projects for homes and offices, additions, and all of the big things as well. They take the ideas from the owner’s head, get them down on paper and create a set of documents that a contractor can use to turn it all into reality. They spend hours checking code and zoning requirements for the site, adjusting the design to meet the owner’s wants with what the City, County or other jurisdictions will allow.
And while an Architect may be a boogeyman for a contractor, that is only because they are holding the contractor to the standards of the owner’s desired design and codes of local jurisdictions. As a project moves into construction, the Architect acts as a guard to the owner’s budget and design, requiring that the project is built as specified in the construction documents.
