ARCHITECTURAL FIRM CASE STUDY:
ANDREW ARCHITECTURE
AND
ARCHITECTURE 501 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN TEAM CYAN MAREK PULA RICHARD IGNACZ RAYA JAGHOUB KEGAN WITHAM ISAIAH FELTON NILOOFAR MOHEBBI ASHTIANI ADRIENNE STROHM
FELL
DESIGN
Meeting Space
ANDREW FELL ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN Case Study Submitted in partial fulfillment of course requirements for ARCH 501: Architectural Practice, Spring 2017.
515 Hickory St #101, Champaign, IL 61820
ARCHITECTURE 501: Architectural Parctice Team Magenta: Spring 2017 April 11, 2017
Marek Pula Richard Ignacz Raya Jaghoub Kegan Witham Isaiah Felton Niloofar Mohebbi Ashtiani Adrienne Strohm
TEAM:
Isaiah Felton
Richard Ignacz
Raya Jaghoub
Niloofar Mohebbi Ashtiani
Marek Pula
Kegan Witham
Adrienne Strohm
Work Space
CONTENT Abstract Executive Summary
Project Type Focus
Introduction Main Body
Business Strategy
Organization, Behavior & Design
Legal Aspects of Practice
Marketing Strategy
Project Delivery
Project Management
Financial Management
Risk Management & Professional Liability
Professional Ethics
Human Resource Management
Concluding Statement
Supplemental Data
ABSTRACT This firm case study, brought to you by Team Cyan, aspires to better understand the Architectural profession through the lens of a small firm. It is the goal of this firm profile to study Andrew Fell Architecture and Design to better inform as many individuals as possible to the breadth of personalities that are available. We hope that this study will broaden the horizons of many and encourage them to step out of their boundaries to approach issues in a manner they have not previously considered.
Spiros Law
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Through our discussions with the Andrew Fell Architecture and Design team we hope to outline the strategies and procedures used by this unique firm. This unique study gives unprecedented access into what the culture of a small business is like and how it is owned and operated on a daily basis. An examination of the interpersonal relationships and how they are central to how the firm is able to meet its clients desires. This study looks at business strategies, organizational behavior, office structure, ethical practices, client relationship, project scope, project delivery, and more. Study of these areas can help determine important factors of success for both organizations and their individuals.
Project Type Focus The firm accepts a wide range of work from a diverse array of clients. Almost all of their work is found in Illinois but they have also completed work in other states including Iowa, Tennessee, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, New Hampshire, Wyoming and Colorado. Most of the work completed in Illinois is located in the Champaign-Urbana area. Approximately 45% of the firm’s projects are related to apartment buildings, around 30% are residential, and around 25% are commercial. The firm welcomes nearly every project and is willing to “stretch” resources in order to achieve the continued trust of more and more clients. They especially welcome larger, and generally more interesting projects as well as projects that will allow the designers to be more creative.
Healey Place (Apartments) 601 South First Street Champaign, Illinois 61820
Project Types From different variety of their projects they are probably 45% apartment buildings (new construction and remodels), 35% residential (new and remodel) and 20% commercial (usually on the bottom floor of apartment buildings).
Circles Boutique (Commercial) 114 North Neil Street Champaign, Illinois 61820
Charles Street
505 S 1ST ST
INTRODUCTION
The Clybourne 515 North Hickory Street, Suite 101 Champaign, Illinois 61820
BUSINESS STRATEGY Philosophy and Mission Statement “We strive to not only be a place to design and produce structures and art, but to be a place to laugh, think, plan, scheme, create and sometimes argue. Our goal is to foster a collaborative environment where each person can contribute and be encouraged to utilize his or her own unique strengths for each project.� The firm is very much centered on the family - both the family at home as well as the family within the office. Earning money, while important, is not a main motivator to perform well in the firm. Rather, members of the small firm support one another and contribute ideas so as to benefit the firm as a whole, not just the individual. The firm prides itself on providing a workplace that is comfortable and offers flexibility to enable employees to have a life outside of architecture. These values were established by the firm principal based on his experiences in other firms. The firm also believes that each project should be a true reflection of its function, aesthetically pleasing in its own right and expressive in every aspect of the design. As much as possible, they strive to create structures that are economically, environmentally and socially conscious. This allows their projects to become successful on their own, before any human occupation. The firm does not have a defined business strategy. Instead, it simply strives to receive a wide range of commissions and does its best to meet the needs of the client, many of whom are repeat customers. Work continues
to pour in as the firm consistently delivers excellence in its designs, spreading the firm name and reputation to a multitude of potential clients. The relatively young and inexperienced firm plans to train up the current staff rather than hiring more individuals. This strategy will reduce the “learning curve� associated with adjusting to how the firm uniquely operates. The firm is recognized by many contractors and clients as a firm with strong, interesting and innovative designs. However, the firm is aware that one of its weaknesses lies in the technical aspect of architecture - more specifically, the construction documents where more experience in the industry is ideal. The firm acknowledges its weaknesses and is working to continually adjust and progress through the collaborative, affirming environment it has established.
Office meeting room
ORGANIZATION, BEHAVIOR & DESIGN The experiences of the firm principal, Andrew Fell, have contributed to the development of the firm’s organizational behavior and design. Aspects from management theories to communication and coordination distinctly influence the work-life of employees in comparison to other, perhaps more stereotypical, firms. The desire to establish the family and a positive well-being above the work has been made evident throughout the firm’s history. Under the leadership of Mr. Fell, the firm continues to adjust its practices in order to remain aligned with its founding philosophy and intent.
Firm History: Conception and Growth The firm was founded in 1999 by Andrew Fell in Champaign, Illinois. He was the sole employee in the firm’s first few years (working with one drafting consultant), but the firm has since grown into a ten person team - with five of those employees having been added within the past two years. Andrew Fell is still the principal and owner of Andrew Fell Architecture & Design. He obtained both his bachelor’s and master’s degree in architecture at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Andrew and his wife Deborah, a successful artist, married and had their first child while Andrew was still continuing his university education. Although most students and professors were supportive of the young family, Andrew was still confronted with the mindset that architecture should come first: for his studio project, in the middle of which his wife gave birth to their first child, his professor wrote, “Studio or baby?” Indignantly, Andrew wrote on a piece of paper, “Baby,” and posted it on his professor’s office door. For the next few years, Mr. and Mrs. Fell lived and worked on the east coast. They eventually returned to Illinois, choosing to permanently reside in Urbana to raise a family. Deborah began an art quilting business and Andrew worked for various Champaign-Urbana firms such as Olsen and
Associates Architects, Russell Dankert & Associates, and Gorski Reifsteck Architects. After being disappointed with the way that these firms were inclined to prioritize work above family, Fell decided to set his sights on ownership. In 1999, Andrew opened his own firm. He had one AutoCAD drafter, Sara Reibe, who was hired as a consultant. She soon began working from home in Paxton (Illinois) in order to raise her child. Later, he hired another drafter named Martha Stoakes who works remotely in Iowa as she, too, raises a family with her husband. Besides Andrew, she is the only other licensed architect associated with the firm. Both women visit the office as needed; Sara visits about once a month while Martha once a year. Around 2010, Fell welcomed another employee, Tyler Harries, who now has four children under ten years of age. Tyler also works from home in Chicago with the exception of two days a week (and as needed) when he travels south to work in the office. On the other hand, interns are generally expected to work full-time in the office. Today, interns are hired as needed but they were previously hired each summer to gain business and output momentum. Adrienne Strohm began as a summer intern but was hired as part of the staff in 2013. She now works part-time as she pursues her master’s degree at UIUC but works full-time during the academic breaks. Presently, aside from these five staff members, AFAD has an additional two full-time employees, one full-time intern, one student digital model maker, and one student drafter - all hired within the past two years. Andrew Fell Architecture & Design has completed a variety of commercial, multi-family residential, and single-family residential projects. From 2008 to 2013, the typical amount of yearly projects was around sixty-five to eighty. The firm then began to see a notable increase in the number of projects with 100 in 2014 and 120 in 2015. In 2016, AFAD did not experience an increase in projects with 120 again. However, the scale of their commissioned structures were considerably larger and more intensive than projects of previous years.
Organizational Structure Andrew Fell Architecture & Design operates on a form of principalship. Almost all of the management responsibility rests on Andrew Fell, the owner and the principal. As principal, Fell has eliminated drafting and 3D modeling from his workflow. As a result, he receives commission and delegates individuals to work on specific projects. Since many employees work from home, project management and delivery is oftentimes dependent upon coordination through email. Over the years, management has slowly shifted from Fell as employees have begun to run entire projects. Organizational arrangement directly influences AFAD’s operating style. Because of the desire to focus on a balanced lifestyle rather than high income, the firm allows several of its employees to work from home, also providing them with a greater opportunity to generate clients nationwide based on relationships outside of the professional discipline. The firm desires to increase the income of each employee but will not sacrifice the family life in order to do so. Although communication and delegation is made more difficult, most individuals at Andrew Fell Architecture & Design find refuge in the firm’s relatively disorganized coalition as they see the value in this type of organization. Currently, Andrew Fell Architecture & Design is experiencing peak employment. The company has doubled in size over the past four years growing from five employees to ten. Considering the firm was founded nearly twenty years ago, this is a significant increase in a very short period of time. This is largely due to the fact that projects in the Champaign-Urbana area have been abundant over the past few years. As a result, AFAD found it necessary to hire more individuals to keep up with the overwhelming amount of work the firm received. Resources within the firm, such as a server that was added in 2015, and the flexibility of working from home have helped make this increase in employment possible. This response to increased workload is consistent with its strategic vision of providing employees with a balanced lifestyle while generating high levels of client satisfaction and repeat clients. Regarding the staff dynamics, while AFAD does not provide “lunch and learns,” there are break-out spaces within
the office that allow moral support and social interactions to transpire. Every so often, the whole firm will go out to eat together at a local restaurant, especially as an act of goodwill when someone leaves the firm. The office, located in downtown Champaign, is the only Andrew Fell Architecture & Design office. The firm has a total of ten hired individuals: one principal, two consultants, three interns, and four design associates. Because the firm is small and many work from home, the office consists of a singular studio that stretches responsibility from design to finance. Within the office, the employees are positioned at workstations along the perimeter and since each is responsible for their own projects, adjacencies regarding professional experience do not occur. However, several employees have specialized backgrounds and degrees such as a bachelor in interior design, a bachelor in computer science, and an MBA dual-degree. Each also received either a bachelor’s degree in architecture or a master’s degree in architecture. All employees are expected to have some skills in information technology (IT) as well as AutoCAD and Google SketchUp. Teams can be hierarchically organized when there is a pressing project that needs to be completed by a specified deadline. In this case, employees working in the office remain at their stations and will work on projects simultaneously. All employees (with exception to Fell) do some form of AutoCAD drafting, 3D modeling, and will sometimes interact directly with clients. The contextual dimensions of the employees who work from home affects the diverse proximity to clients. Clients in Iowa and Chicago have been attained through the presence of employees living in those areas. Ultimately, the office structure is consistent with the vision of Fell as worklife balance weighs heavily towards the family realm.
Communication, Coordination & Structure Changes A majority of the firm’s coordination and communication occurs through email and servers supported by a BIM design process. Since the office space allows workstations to be located in close proximity, oral coordination between office employees is never out of reach. Weekly meetings are
very rare and occur once every six months or as needed. Individuals are sometimes shifted around due to availability and schedules (usually when employees are working part-time and attending school full-time). Project assignment changes can occur if an employee falls behind on workload. If this occurs, additional employees are assigned to the same project to make up the work. Clients, contractors and city officials often request revisions, so if the original project associate is occupied with a new set of projects, the project needing revision may switch to a new individual. This allows employees a healthy exposure to numerous projects and issues.
Skill Development Performance reviews are currently not conducted at Andrew Fell Architecture & Design. Each employee is responsible for skill development which occurs naturally through the circulation of a diverse set of projects to many employees within the firm. Interns are essentially exposed to the full experience of an architectural firm from the beginning. While it may be overwhelming for interns, social support is bountiful and provides employees the ability to ask questions without fear of judgment. While AFAD does not formally have a mentor program, Andrew Fell acts as the unofficial mentor. Besides one consultant, Fell is the only licensed architect at AFAD so mentorship initially begins within his professional expertise. As mentioned before, smaller levels of mentorship occur based on the interaction of employees needing help with different design issues.
Physical Office Structure The firm began in a single, one-room office within a converted house on Hill Street near downtown Champaign. By late 2013, space was getting tight, so the firm expanded and cleared space within the connecting storage room. On certain days of the week, there would be up to four people working within the small office. Andrew had bought an old building, formerly belonging to the Blind Man store, on Hickory Street a few years before with plans to renovate it into a new office, but time had not permitted him to do so. However, with a growing number of projects coming in
and the need to hire more employees, the time was ripe to renovate and move. In the fall of 2014, the front half of the office was fully renovated and a second floor for two apartments was added above. The firm continued to grow and in-house staff count reached an all-time high with seven members, both part-time and full-time. With only enough workstations to accommodate three people, the others would need to work in inconvenient locations - like the conference room. Because of this, plans to renovate the back area of the office were expedited. At the beginning of the fall of 2016, the full office was renovated with plenty of workspace and desk space that the firm desperately needed.
Office waiting room
LEGAL ASPECTS OF PRACTICE General Background Andrew Fell Architecture & Design is a relatively small, though growing, firm, and like many private companies is classified as a C corporation. This is the typical classification for a small business in America; all for-profit businesses are automatically classified as C corporations if no other designation is submitted. This organization structure allows for flexibility in ownership, and separates the firm finances from the personal finances of its owners. In the case of this firm, the ownership is split between the principal architect, Mr Fell, and his wife.
Agency The firm, in accordance with its distributed structure where many employees work partially from home, maintains a very close relationship with its consultants. In the case of Andrew Fell’s at-home consultants, including one working twenty minutes away and the other in Iowa, the consultants essentially function as employees. These relationships are built on a great deal of trust between the principal and these employees, established over a long timespan. The degree of trust placed in these long-distance consultants is such that they often run their own projects almost independently of the firm, only checking in in person a few times a year. This arrangement allows the firm to avoid the tax and benefit complications that would come with hiring them as full-time employees. The firm also uses this as a mechanism for managing risk; it allows the firm flexi-
bility in its pay structure in the event of a downturn, allocating resources based on work accomplished. This also gives the contracted employees a degree of freedom not usually found in full-time employment; they can choose to leave or reduce their commitment at any time, allowing these individuals to dedicate more time to family if needed. In this way, the legal organization of the firm, though unconventional, reinforces the family-centered values of the firm. The firm also maintains a relationship with other consultants on a per-project basis, building their fee into its project fee structure. Engineering consultants, for example, are contracted on a per-project basis, and have only a small influence on the design of Fell Architecture’s projects. Other consultants have a more permanent relationship with the practice, and include a legal consultant and an accountant. These consultants, however, do not have the near-employee status given to the firm’s architectural consultants, as they also consult with other practices and clients.
Illinois Practice Act Andrew Fell Architecture & Design employs two registered architects - the firm principal, Mr. Fell, and the aforementioned consultant in Iowa, who stamps local drawings there and for projects in Tennessee where she is also licensed. As mentioned before, she maintains a high degree of agency over these projects, and while Mr. Fell still maintains control over them, this consultant is responsible for ensuring the overall quality and design of these projects. In typical practice, and in the case of the eight non-registered employees/consultants, Mr. Fell maintains control over the designs and manages most projects. While Mr. Fell is not directly working on the development of
all projects and typically does not develop details personally, he maintains a high level of supervision and control over project issues, development, and final drawings. This allows for a high level of work distribution, and gives employees the opportunity to take initiative, while still ensuring that all drawings meet the firm’s standards.
25 E John St 515 North Hickory Street, Suite 101 Champaign, Illinois 61820
Firm’s website
MARKETING AND STRATEGY Overview The firm does no direct marketing research or even direct marketing. Instead, it relies on building strong relationships with clients and friends by ensuring that every project is both interesting architecturally and meets the client’s expectations. The firm also has recently begun to invest in its website design in order to further develop its public image. As a whole, the firm’s marketing strategy accurately reflects the corporate image it tries to embody: distributed, informal, and efficient.
Services Andrew Fell Architecture is willing to provide, and has provided, a large range of architectural services, but specializes in local projects, typically residential. This work breaks down into roughly 30% single-family residential, 45% larger residential developments, and 25% commercial. Many of these projects are not only new construction but also adaptations, additions, and remodels. The firm has completed work in Illinois and Iowa, as well as in Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Hampshire, Mississippi, and Wyoming - an impressive range for a relatively small practice.
Client Relationships
Building healthy client relationships is the most effective method by which Andrew Fell Architecture & Design markets its work. The firm attempts to build more personal relationships with its clients in order to create a posi-
tive architect-client relationship, rather than attempting to deliver the fastest or most comprehensive construction drawings. This means that the firm builds connections slowly but can also count on nearly all of its clients for repeat work or for recommendations to others for future work. It is not uncommon for Andrew Fell to receive new clients without any marketing at all; instead, clients are often referred to the firm by the more established clients. This personal relationship with the client is sustained and strengthened through the architect recognizing the client’s needs, as well as his own. As a result, the firm has gained a reputation for delivering highly creative design within the constraints of the budget and profitability margins set forth by the client. This ability of this firm to work creatively within constraints is one of the aspects most appreciated by its clients. Another way in which the firm encourages a close relationship with clients is by assigning one employee for each client; this one employee handles the majority of client correspondence, meetings, and design discussions, in order to more personally understand the client’s needs and priorities. These client relationships also have an indirect impact on the firm hierarchy; the more clients an employee or consultant is given, the more agency they have to control those project designs, and to delegate work to other employees and consultants.
PROJECT DELIVERY The firm uses mostly design bid build as their method for project delivery. When asked about whether the firm adjusts their project delivery based on the needs of their clients, their answer was yes. Quite often with repeated clients or seasoned real estate developers, they usually will already know who their contractors are so nothing will go out for bidding. It turns into more of a Design Assisted Build, where the Architect and the contractor will work together as the Architect designs the structure. However, with new clients, those who are not real estate developers, and those who may be unfamiliar with the area, would not know whom to hire as their contractor. Therefore, these types of projects would end up going out for bidding. An example of this is the Healey Place. This project was more of a design bid build because although the owner had built other buildings previously, this was the first building in Champaign and therefore, the owner did not know whom to hire as the contractor for the project. On the other hand, a local real estate developer owns the new construction next door to Healey Place. Therefore, he had contractors chosen and in place for the project construction. The rationale when selecting or modifying the standard delivery method is usually dependent on the client’s preference. This is usually determined by whether they have built in the area previously to this project. However, if the client has no preferences or not specifying anything in particular, the Architect will decide the most appropriate delivery method.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT Financial, Human and Time Resource Allocation The owner/principal of the firm oversees everything and assigns different tasks based on the task priority and the capability of the employee. The higher priority tasks are often allocated to highly experienced professionals. Also With the people that work at home, he routinely checks on them usual via email especially when the client is pushing for more work. Controlling employees in the office it is easier since he can simply ask employees for their status or he can get the updates through weekly meetings. Every day he ask employees about what they are working on to make sure everybody is on the right track and team never miss any deadline. It is usually on the principal to delegate. Sometimes when there is something more pressing he asked employees to work on.
Tasks and subtasks Often it depends on the type of project. For a typical apartment building: it will sometimes start as a “competition� (unless the project is from a repeat client) and one of the employees will be asked to put together schematic floor plans, elevations and renderings. Usually this comes together as a booklet. Once the client is won over, then meetings with the client begin, generally with the project manager and maybe one other person depending on the size of the project in attendance. Next, there is a stage of refining floor plans and the basic aesthetic of the exterior by continuous correspondence with the client. Once these are more or less finalized,
construction projects will begin. If a smaller project, the firm will do all the architectural, structural and MEP drawings. If large, a subcontractor will be used. Usually, it comes down to two major tasks: correspondence with the client and making the construction docs. Task Duration Determination, Scheduling and monitoring The principal has a general idea of how long a project should take from experience. If the client is particularly demanding for a shorter time we will try to get the project done faster. If there were multiple clients at the same time and one of the them were not very demanding, the firm will spend more time on more demanding projects in order to satisfy the client and work on the less demanding one on the slower rate.So in this way they try to keep all the clients satisfied.
Budget determination Budget Determination is mostly depend on the what client says. They generally suggest a number that they have worked up and team design based on that.
Scope of the project Through communication with the client. This may take several meetings to refine what the client wants since most of the times during these meetings clients change their idea several times. If they have a general idea, team will design options and they present to them through different meetings several times and at the end the scope of the project will defined.
Communication plans There is not a special communication plan and most of the times a pern who is leading the project is the contact. Contact happens essentially as needed or sometimes clients wants to be updated frequently so in this case the communication will be more.
Decision making hierarchy Usually for smaller projects, employees in the office will have their own projects. They will be in charge of making most of the decisions on their own. If for some reason there is a need for a big decision to be made, it is given to the principal to decide. The principal is welcome to give the control to employees. In fact, he is very trustworthy and likes his employees ( except for the interns) to make all the decisions. You can see equality among all the employees all over the studio. All the employees (except for the interns) have the same title. However, there is only one person who is more of the “second in command� to the principal and he works on some larger projects and will sometimes be more in charge of delegating tasks regarding these projects. So the firm atmosphere is pretty democratic and collaborative.
Project manager and internal organization Principal is always project manager and he is in charge of communication with the client and contractors, the financial management. He barely uses computer for design. He mostly hand-drawn schematic drawings and
employees will do all the works that need to be done on computers like renderings and draftings.
Corporation of internal organization of the firm and project manager Corporation of internal organization of the firm and project manager is good due to less brown-nosing. In such corporations, employees can freely ask questions since they do not feel the need to impress. Therefore, projects manager is not the only one who always answers the questions. Consequently, such firms with no overbearing people have more friendly atmosphere. The drawback is that the project manager does have a lot of responsibility. While they may not be in charge of making all the drawings, they still have to ensure they are correct and do all of the background work with the client. It can be a lot and intense when there’s over a hundred projects a year in a ten person firm.
Work Space
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Risk Management & Professional Liability The firm is very clear when it comes to the liability of the firm. Under each proposal, it is stated that their liability is limited to $10k or the amount of tour fee, whichever ends up being the highest. With a lot of clients being satisfied with that, the firm has dealt with clients that would prefer to up the liability for better protection. There are certain projects that would involve ‘public money’ which would require a $500 or $1million limit per project. What Andrew Fell learnt over the years, is that it is always best to limit the firm’s liability on every project, if made possible. A major concern for Andrew Fell more than anything else, is for an individual to get hurt in one of their projects or for a building to go on fire. In a case where that would occur, a blanket lawsuit, which involves anyone involved, will be held as guilty unless proven otherwise. Besides having to deal with a lawsuit, the cost of attorneys alone would mean “tossing money into the air” and therefore making the firm take a step back. Andrew Fell has stated that the firms attorney charges $28.50 per every six minutes of time. What seems to be outrageous is the fact the attorney would bill the firm for reading an email, which therefore encourages them to limit their attorney-client contact to a minimum. The way that the firm handles professional liability is with a policy of $10,000 deductible and a limit of $1million per occurrence. The firm’s policy renews yearly, but is re-evaluated for coverage, with a policy cost every three years. What the firm also does is periodically get quotes for other carriers in order to compare costs. In order for the firm to collect its fees, they usually do it over mail or email
their bills monthly. Typically the invoices that are two months past due are charged interest. The actual collection for the projects is 96% by check, 2% by cash and 2% made by credit card. If a situation arises where the client doesn’t pay the fees, Andrew Fell is the person in charge of taking care of it all. Mr Fell usually starts off by filing a lien and would hire an attorney to help with the documents. Another action the firm takes, is by withholding submitting permit drawings or revisions to the project until all fees are paid. Speaking in a metaphorical sense, the firm would contact the municipality and ‘withdraw the seal from the set of documents that are already permitted’, which would therefore force the Owner to cease the work until the firm puts them back. “Every risk to a project is a risk to the firm” Andrew Fell said when asked how he handles risk to the firm. However, on a large project such as Haresh’s, the firm hires an outside professional or firm in order to review the set of drawing documents, as Andrew Fell believes that fresh, well trained eyes are a benefit as they bring more to the table.
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS Andrew Fell engages with professional ethics on a much more personal basis than other firms due to its size. One of these issues includes the worklife imbalance specific to the profession of architecture and its negative impact on families. From their combined experience within the field, they have noted that the profession at times seems very anti-family; individuals are oftentimes forced to choose between architecture or family. Additionally, the firm notes that the profession is still male-dominated, but it continues to hire individuals based on ability and performance rather than gender. Currently, six of the ten staff members are female; four are pursuing licensure and one is already licensed. Considering women make up only about 25% of designers in the profession, the firm is unique and progressive in its approach to gender equality. Another issue regularly encountered by the firm is attempting to strike a balance between designing for the owner or designing for the end user. As architects, AFAD recognizes that we most often deal with the higher socioeconomic class. This brings up the issue of representation particularly for lower economic class citizens and how we as a profession make sure their voices are heard. In housing, for example, developers favor quick construction that ensures as many leasable units as possible, while residents (and the firm) would prefer green and aesthetically-pleasing design as well as quality construction. These issues often come to a head in the field and it is up to the architect to design a happy medium for the client and the user. The firm is currently in the process of being more open about these issues and how they approach them. At the moment, they practice a very laid-
back approach to professional ethics, generally asking themselves, “Does this feel wrong?� However, they are working towards creating clearly defined, written policies to ensure their clients know where they stand.
Work Space
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Human Resource No dedicated Human Resource Management department exists in Andrew Fell Architects because of its limited size. Due to this, the firm principal, Andrew handles the majority of issues that may arise but most often issues are resolved between individuals before they are discussed with the principal. Andrew Fell has a yearly review system where all employees come together to discuss the direction of the firm, workflow and how to improve it, the work itself, and even company morale. These reviews are less focused on the individual, and more upon how the individual is a part of the firm.
Hiring/Firing The firm receives a large quantity of resumes on a fairly frequent basis. A list of them is maintained until the firm finds itself in need of more help, after which the principal, will sift through the options available. Often times he will get the opinions of other associates and individuals to see if they deem them a potential new hire. If they do, then they are contacted for an interview. Often, new hires and interviews have been informal as at least four of the staff have been hired based off of reference from another individual without a formal interview. The firm rarely if ever has had to terminate an employee. More often than not, it is summer interns that leave the firm of their own will that account for the majority of employee turnover.
Education New employees are subjected to a trial by fire when they first enter the firm. The firm’s size dictates a distinct lack of support structure available for those new in the profession. This slack is often taken up by the more senior of those working there in a very informal manner. Those just beginning their IDP training are shown the basics of what they need to know to draft and how the firm works. Luckily it becomes easy to fulfill the required hours of the AXP because individuals are often exposed to many different phases of construction. As such, it is unlikely that newer employees will be stuck only drafting. Full time employees have often completed all required education, anyone who has not is often an intern that plays a much smaller role in the firm.
Meeting Space
CONCLUDING STATEMENT Through investigations and contact, Team Cyan has learned much about the practices of Andrew Fell Architecture. The team has surveyed the firm’s history, organization, structure, business development, and finance. Through pressing moments in history, Andrew and his firm grew as he gained employees with true work-life balance which has ultimately shaped the landscape of his small office. Thus, Andrew Fell Architecture serves to assist work from home employees and is void of the typical confinement to a 9-5 office setting. As a result of a small work-force, projects are managed by individuals in a team-like environment delivering high quality designs. Team Cyan has determined that Andrew Fell architecture sustains healthy employee standards and practices, influencing their designs and bringing repeat clients. Many other firms are devoted to high quality products but deter a family life through long-work hours in the office. Through this case study, Team Cyan has found that larger work-force companies are not the only successful firms in a very competitive environment. What struck Team Cyan was that even though AFAD consists of ten employees, the company is successful and thriving in a competitive environment while still having a life outside of architecture.
SUPPLEMENTAL DATA Firm Staff Email Correspondence Project Examples Contact With Consultant
Interview With Andrew Fell