Award

perspective editor Natalie Bruckner-Menchelli art director Laurel MacLean by Leslie M. Klein, FRAIC Architecture Canada | RAIC Regional Director for Ontario Southwest Help! My Kid Wants to be an Architect! I t happens to us all. You're at a cocktail party when an intense parent corners you and asks you to meet their gifted child who is interested in becoming an architect. You usually cringe before agreeing to have the young person spend half a day at your office, observing the goings-on and (hopefully) becoming inspired to pursue their dreams (over their parents' objections). Having been asked so many times, I've developed a concise presentation to young people interested in a career in architecture. This helps them to manage their expectations and to understand what we do. My presentation is organized around the premise that there are three steps to becoming a well-rounded and responsible architect. The first step is architecture school. I assure them that a wellrounded architectural education, which includes history, structures, systems, technology and graphic techniques, is essential. I also emphasize that their main goal during this period will be learning to design – to manipulate space in their heads and to learn to communicate their visual ideas in two and three dimensions, manually as well as digitally. The entire architecture curriculum should be seen as support for learning the language of design. The second step comes after graduation, during the period known as internship. Professional associations across Canada that regulate the practice of architecture have established clear guidelines about the range of experiences that every intern must accumulate during this period. p06-07RAIC.indd 6 October 2013 / Volume 27 / Number 5 The main goal is to learn how to manage a project and to understand the process of taking an idea from inception to reality. In addition to learning about construction documents, the approvals process, budgeting, scheduling and coordination, the intern must also understand the role that architects play within the larger building and development industry. This includes relationships with clients, consultants, builders, funders, regulatory bodies and insurers. Completing this step allows the intern to take registration examinations and, once passed, to be recognized as a qualified architect. In my scenario, however, there is a third step. This step involves learning how to run a business. Like other professionals, architects have a reputation for having no business acumen. In my opinion, in order to present ourselves as qualified architects, we need to demonstrate our ability to operate a business responsibly, on behalf of our clients, employees, consultants, suppliers and most importantly, ourselves. Just as we owe it to our clients to ensure that projects are economically viable, we owe it to ourselves to ensure that our offices meet our financial obligations. This includes paying both our staff and ourselves a wage that represents the value of our education, capabilities and contribution to the projects for which we have been retained. Running a business is a balancing act. Our fees must be competitive so that our services are affordable and attractive, but we must earn enough to cover our expenses and have something left over for ourselves. It is not acceptable to work for free – or even minimum wage – even if we love what we do. Nor is it acceptable to ask others to work for free just because we haven't charged our clients enough to pay for the time needed to meet our contractual obligations. Undercutting our colleagues' fees is contrary to everyone's interests: the client's because the services they receive will, by necessity, be short-changed; our employees, consultants and suppliers, because they will be paying for our mistakes; and ourselves, individually and collectively, because the message we send is that our services are really not worth very much. We need to take pride in our work, in our place in the process of creating the built environment around us, and in each other's accomplishments, because one architect's success is every architect's success. With this attitude we can enhance society's view of the value of architects as central players in the creation of our built environment. We can also enhance our chance to be properly compensated for our contributions and ensure that our children and our friends' children will see architecture as a career truly worth pursuing. n contributing writers Angela Altass Bill Armstrong Robin Brunet Godfrey Budd Stacey Carefoot Peter Caulfield Jerry Eberts Laurie Jones Stacey MacLachlan Yvan Marston Dan O'Reilly Susan Pederson Irwin Rapoport Tiffany Sloan Martha Uniacke Breen Derek Lepper contributing photographer production/Studio manager Kristina Borys assistant Studio manager Mandy Lau production coordinator Julie Reynolds Advertising Production Allison Griffioen, Chris Sherwood Electronic Production Ina Bowerbank senior imaging technician Debbie Lynn Craig electronic imaging Mandy Lau, Laura Michaels publisher Dan Chapman Account Manager Alexander Sugden Advertising Coordinator Allie Davison Award Magazine – Head Office Phone 604.299.7311 Fax 604.299.9188 Chairman, ceo Peter Legge, obc, lld. (hon) President Gary Davies Senior Vice President/ Editorial & Custom Publishing Kathleen Freimond (on leave) Vice President/Finance Farnaz Riahi, ca Vice President/Sales Karen Hounjet Vice President/Marketing Holly Pateman Vice President/editorial Tom Gierasimczuk Vice President/specialty sales Rebecca Legge Vice President Samantha Legge, mba (on leave) executive creative director Rick Thibert Director of Circulation Scott Wheatley Director of Information Technology Mike Packer Director of production Kim McLane Director of digital media Raymond Yip managing director, custom publishing Mike Roberts Digital Media Piushi Ariyawansa, Kristen Hilderman, Debbie Jiang, Elaine Linsao, Lisa Manfield, James Marshall, Michael Small, Candice Ui marketingCrawford, Mark Bakker, Casey Joanne Da Silva, Natasha Gowda, Chelsea Hartmann Technical Support Analyst Brian Fakhraie Application Support Analyst Eileen Gajowski AccountingGajowski, Rita French, Eileen Joy Ginete-Cockle, Terri Mason, Sonia Roxburgh, Jocelyn Snelling Circulation Manager Tracy McRitchie Circulation Coskun, Ashley Cleggett, Millie Kelly Kalirai, Ruth Pisko, Isabelle Ringham Executive Assistants Heidi Christie, Jackie Lee Reception Ellenor McClelland Award magazine is published six times a year by Canada Wide Media Limited. Head office: 4th Floor - 4180 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby, B.C. V5C 6A7. Phone 604.299.7311, Fax 604.299.9188. Send covers of undeliverable copies to address above. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40065475. © 2012. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. Award is distributed to architects, interior designers, landscape architects, consulting engineers, specification writers, development companies and major construction companies throughout Western Canada and Ontario. For subscription information call 604.299.1023 or email: awardsubscriptions@ canadawide.com National Library No. ISSN 1202-5925. Printed in Canada by Transcontinental LGM Graphics. Award magazine welcomes your letters, corporate announcements or company information. The statements, opinions and points of view expressed in articles published in this magazine are those of the authors and publication shall not be deemed to mean that they are necessarily those of the publisher, editor or Canada Wide Media Limited. The acceptance and publication of advertisement of products and services does not indicate endorsement of such products or services. The publishers cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. 13-09-13 3:32 PM

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