What architects make ($$$, not buildings)

[editor]

There's a blurb on the Chicago Tribune blogs about the salaries paid to architects.

According to the article architects, designers, and even interns appear to be recession-proof; making more in 2008 than they did in 2005 or 2002.

[TheNiche]

There's a blurb on the Chicago Tribune blogs about the salaries paid to architects.

According to the article architects, designers, and even interns appear to be recession-proof; making more in 2008 than they did in 2005 or 2002.

This doesn't really surprise me for a several reasons.

The decline in construction activity can largely be attributed to the precipitous decline in single-family home starts, especially on the low-end, and they are reflected more quickly in the stats because a house may take only about a quarter of the time to complete as would a large building. Plans for most single-family homes are sold in bulk and really don't require any significant amount of labor on the part of credentialed architects.

In contrast, construction starts on multifamily and commercial properties have declined, but that only really even started after single-family went belly-up, and a lot of projects that have already broken ground are still ongoing, requiring continued participation by architecture firms.

Meanwhile, many of the smaller multifamily and commercial developers have up until recently been continually looking for new deals in spite of the increasingly dismal capital markets. It seems like the last couple of months have resulted in a lot of layoffs, downsizing, and/or repositioning as those firms have given up--but up until that point, they had still been creating a fair bit of business for architecture firms.

And it isn't over yet. Given that many parts of the country are going to be afflicted with declining tax revenue, even construction of government buildings and schools may slow down considerably.

Through all of this, I doubt that wages are going to decline very much (if at all), primarily because my inflation hypothesis seems to be gaining traction, but primarily because recessions don't typically affect wages as much as they affect hiring.

[Drerx8]

Well - my dad is an architect (hence my interest (as a hobby) in it. It is a job that IS dependent on the business cycle - he has done very very well and has done some notable projects such as Acres Homes Multiservice Center, TSU H&PE arena and he was one of the architects on the George R. Brown team. However, I remember when some times were better than others. Its a job that you have to really hustle in.

[texas911]

Architecture lags behind the rest of the economy. The crisis just hit, so big projects are still going, but once those are finished, architects will get hit. Just delayed. And when it hits, it'll be hard. The last time it happened was in the 90's. Terrible time to be an architecture graduate.

[archinspired]

hey what's up guys and gals. i just joined and found this website interesting. i work as an architect and right now times are real tough. many firms are going through major lay-offs. projects have been put on hold due to the eonomy. hopefully it'll get better sooner than later, but i don't see architecture ever to be recession proof.