How to Become a Great Architect

I’m writing this post under the assumption that I might be a “great architect” and can therefor explain how I got decent at what I do :) Is it fair for me to make that assumption? You tell me. Others already have, although in my own opinion, I just do what ANY decent architect SHOULD do. Although the last couple sentences seem braggy, this is not intended to be a brag … just advice for aspiring architects. I would certainly love to up my own game of course, so any advice or criticism is always welcome. I love to know what I suck at, so I can learn more and get better at it.

1. Get construction experience. No amount of schooling or on-the-job training can be a substitute for this. Building stuff helps you to understand obvious things like how to put things together, the properties of materials, the sequencing of construction, which materials perform well in certain situations, and where to buy them (and their cost). This also helps you to understand three dimensional relationships. Envisioning space is one thing, but the tangible aspect of building is a whole different level of understanding space. Many architects never really get.

2. Work your ass off. Do as much design related work as possible, so you become exposed to the maximum number of design related problems as possible. Build your repertoire of knowledge. Research new materials and understand their pros and cons. Then go buy them and build with them (with your own hands). Yes, spend your own money to buy construction materials and tools and learn how they work. Read every building code and land use code. Seriously. Read every single one. Over and over again and again until you know it. Watch videos of tradesmen explaining their craft, so you can learn their tips and tricks that took them a lifetime to master. Thoroughly read every contract and understand the language and how it affects you and other parties. Try every software system. Click on every icon and feature to see how they work, so you will have exposure to every tool available to you and be able to decide which ones are most appropriate. With a high level of scrutiny, thoroughly read other architects’ drawings. Understand how they communicate their ideas and compare it to your own. Combine their concepts with your own to make a better version of it. Read every article, blog, website, etc from other experts in the field. There is no shortcut for this hard work. Commit yourself to learning everything out there about your craft.

3. Vet EVERYTHING. Place zero importance on spoken words and all importance on actions. What people say and do is not always the same thing. It is tough to rely on other people for anything. Be diligent to ensure the result somebody claims to deliver is followed through. Be especially wary of building departments. Their interpretation of the rules is commonly not consistent with what the codes actually say. I cannot stress that enough. Hold them accountable for the written words since the spoken word has no enforceable value. Don’t let them enforce rules that don’t exist. Read and re-read every contract. Check and re-check and check again everything you draw.

4. Start early. Wake up early and just start your day. Don’t screw around with pointless tasks. You will accomplish more when other people are still sleeping and cannot interrupt you. Also start tasks as soon as they are assigned to you, and in some cases, start them before they are assigned to you.

5. Be available. By starting work early and getting things done in advance, you will ultimately make yourself more available to the people that need you. Builders and clients will have tons of questions at times when waiting is just not an option. By getting work done early, you will be able to promptly answer these questions when they ask (instead of needing to get back to somebody in a few days). Work can really pile up if you are not prepared, and people are really hiring an architect to solve their problems. If you have not yet solved the problem when someone calls on you (or prepared the info needed to be able to solve a problem), then you really are not giving them what they hired you to do. It is essential that you are available, and this is only possible by being extremely prepared.

6. Extreme focus. With several active projects, many clients, tons of builders, coworkers, building departments, engineers, and product suppliers all requesting information from you, it is easy to lose focus. (Also personal life obviously takes a lot of your time too). It is totally essential that you can focus on one task at a time, quickly solve the issue, and then move onto the next one. Social media, coffee breaks, office chit chat, etc all put your productivity to a grinding halt. Take a break when you actually need one, but make it worthwhile as a task intended to help you improve your focus. When you sit back down to work, prioritize the tasks, set an actual goal, achieve it, set another goal, achieve it, and keep going this way and don’t stop until you’re done. Don’t look up and get distracted. You will find that you can get so much done if you truly do not give in to the countless distractions around us.

7. Pounce on every opportunity. You can sit there and wish for something to happen, or you could just start doing it. Do you want some job, or some new client, or some promotion? Quit reading this right now, and go call that person or go knock on their door and don’t delay or let them delay. Insist that you want this opportunity now. (If you’re still reading this, you just wasted 5 seconds. Go seize that opportunity then come back and read the rest of this.) I’ve heard people say things like: “don’t take on jobs that are not your dream client.” You might be waiting a long time. Every project is an opportunity to get better in many facets of your job. Don’t take that advice unless you are so busy with new clients that the non-ideal work is taking away time from ideal work.

8. Meditate. Having a clear functioning mind is crucial for anything. Some people sit quietly and try to toss aside their thoughts to meditate. In architecture, I have the ability to sit quietly and think nearly all day long since the very art of doing architecture is envisioning a better place. This is similar to meditation. Or maybe it is meditation. After a long session of designing a space or a construction detail, I walk away from it feeling accomplished and refreshed since I’ve literally set all other thoughts aside while “being” in the conceptual world that I’m inventing. Also, get enough sleep, but not too much. Sleeping too much makes you groggy. Everyone is different. 4 hours works for me. 6 hours is my max. 8 is too much for me. Know your sweet spot.

9. Respect your builders. The guys building your projects work hard in crappy conditions to bring your ideas to life. Do everything possible to make their job easier. This will help your idea come to life more successfully. The craftsmen also have a lot to teach you. Be there to support them, and they will be there to support you. They will also keep you employed.

10. Be a good member of your community. As an architect, you are responsible for MAKING the built environment around you that your community lives in every day. Join the clubs and groups that help to shape the community. Offer your expertise every chance you get. Every house, store, office, and park in your neighborhood is designed by someone and used by people. Get to know these people and make sure they know you. Ensure they feel comfortable coming to you when there is a problem that needs solved. Everyone uses buildings and therefor benefits from design. Make sure you let people know that you want to help them.

11. Focus on the fun part of your job. Architects have to wear many hats, but some of those hats can be delegated to other experts. Focus on the parts you like doing, and you will enjoy your job much more.

If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help

Architects Don’t Do A Lot Of Math. (Surprise!)

When you tell someone you’re an architect, the often say, “wow, you must be good at math.” The truth is that architects don’t do much math.

There’s a bit of confusion between the difference between an architect and an engineer. Many people don’t realize the difference or may even think the words “architect” and “engineer” are synonyms. In reality, architects conceive the idea for a building - the big picture. This means coming up with a solution for the most creative balance between aesthetics, code compliance, safety, energy efficiency, comfort, privacy, lighting, integrating with the environment, and coordinating with engineers who are experts in structure, soil, drainage, and mechanical systems. In doing this work, there is very little math for the architect. The math is generally limited to the simple addition of adding up the square footage of rooms, adding up the height of each floor to see how tall buildings are, using multiplication to determine what percentage of the property is covered by buildings, and … well, that’s it. You likely do more math in your job or at the checkout stand at the grocery store. On occasion, architects might do more complicated calculations when trying to determine how many lumens of light hit the surface of a desk or in determining how much heat leaks through the insulation in a wall, but this is rarely needed, and consultants are usually used to do these calcs if a precise answer is warranted. Architects routinely do addition and multiplication. Occasionally, we get crazy and do some division.

So who IS doing all the math? It’s engineers. Structural engineers calculate the weight of the walls, floors, roofs, snow, soils, wind, and earthquakes that interact with the structure of a building. They implement complicated safety factors in their calculations to determine how big bolts need to be, how many nails are needed, how big a beam needs to be, how far a beam can span, how much a beam will bend when snow collects on the roof, how much rebar to put in a concrete foundation, and how thick the concrete in a foundation wall needs to be.

Geotechnical engineers dig a few holes in the proposed area of work and take some soil samples for testing in their lab. They determine how much weight the soil can support without compressing too much. The structural engineers use this info to calculate the size of the foundations needed (since they know how much the whole building will weigh).

Civil engineers calculate how much water will be collected by a roof and flow from the gutters and into a downspout. Then, they calculate how to collect that rainwater in gravel trenches or tanks to systematically disperse the water into the soil before it gets collected by sewers.

These engineers are the ones doing all the math. When I went to architecture school, we didn’t even take a full math class. In the entry level college math class that all college students were required to take, the architecture students were actually dismissed at midterms. So, architects actually took less math than everyone else! Surprised?

Here’s a sample of the sort of calculations that engineers do that architects are not qualified (or insured) to do … check the math if you’d like:

Here’s the sort of math an architect does:

2000 sq ft + 500 sq ft = 2500 sq ft.

That’s not a whole lot of math - contrary to what most people think.

If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help

Upper Floor Additions

The most difficult type of construction project you could ever do is to add another story to a house. Upper floor additions are challenging to construct and very expensive to build. (The videos in this post were recorded in 2021). Check out the videos and read on for more info.

After you demo the existing roof, you typically need to tear apart the lower floor walls to access the plumbing, electrical, and the structural components which must be reinforced and updated. The walls in existing homes are commonly not compliant with the earthquake requirements since they do not have plywood on the exterior (which helps to brace the entire building when the earth shakes and also when wind blows against it). Plywood needs to be added to either the interior or exterior of walls, so this requires either removing the drywall or siding, respectively (and putting it back together when you’re done). You also commonly need to upgrade the insulation, plumbing, and electrical while the walls are opened up.

The foundation of an existing house was also originally built to hold up a one story house - not a two-story house. Additionally, the current code requirements are more stringent for foundations, so it is common that you would need to upgrade the existing foundations to comply with the current code requirements to support the extra weight.

Once you have spent all that money to address the structural items inside the existing parts of the building, then you can start spending money to build the upper floor addition. Once that is done, then you will also need to go back and spend some more money to repair all the stuff within the existing house that got torn apart or damaged in the process. In my experience of doing several upper floor additions every year, the construction cost of rebuilding the existing house is usually equal to (or more) than the cost of building the addition. This makes them the most expensive project type you could undertake.

Another thing to consider, adding a stair to provide access to the new upper floor is a major undertaking. Stairs are expensive to build, and they also take up a ton of space. A stair has a minimum 3’x3’ landing at the top and at the bottom. The stair is usually 14’ long (give or take). Add that all up, and you’ll need to find at least a 20’x3’ space within the existing home to fit the stair. This usually means sacrificing an existing bedroom to become a stairway. So, you need to re-gain that lost bedroom in the new addition to be back where you started in terms of bedroom count.

Although upper floor additions are challenging, we know how to do them. Our experience can help you make informed decisions and take as much pain out of the process as possible. You do need to plan to significantly disrupt your existing house though (and probably move out for awhile during the work).

If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help

Residential Construction Cost Is Soaring

Here’s a line graph that compares various types of construction and the rising cost over the years. Residential construction costs have risen the most and have continued to rise. It wasn’t long ago when a home could be built for $150 per sq ft, but now the average in my market is closer to $400 per sq ft. Even the purchase of an old home (in Seattle) proportions out to around $400 per sq ft or more, so it’s also expensive to move. Just last year, an 8’ long 2x4 was about $2. Now it’s over $8! We have all felt this growing trend in the construction industry, and I am always looking for cost saving, smart design strategies, to make remodels and new construction projects affordable for my clients. The graphs below from respected analyst, https://edzarenski.com/, depict the growing trend (and cost) associated with the residential construction industry which has been growing as more people are spending more time living (and working) at home during the pandemic.

***amended for 2023 figures, most builders of full home projects tend to charge around $400 per square foot for entry level construction quality and $600 and up for high end quality. Smaller projects tend to have less economy of scale and can cost more.***

If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help

Tuxedo T-shirt

This is a tuxedo. It has depth, contrast, and shadow lines from the different materials. Good buildings have depth and contrast from different materials.

This is a tuxedo T-shirt. It is not a tuxedo. The two-dimensional prints are not real. Bad buildings do this when different materials are “co-planar.” Tuxedo T-shirts are funny. Do you want your building to be funny?

Josh refers to the “tuxedo T-shirt” quite often when explaining the rationale behind a design solution. What does he really mean by this? Think about what a tuxedo actually is? A tuxedo is a collection of a few, distinct, three-dimensional elements that contrast one another. Specifically, there is a bowtie made of one material, a shirt of another, and a jacket of another. Each of these three-dimensional items have their own contrasting shape and associated material. The contrast between them creates depth and interest. Each item also has its own function. The function of each item relates to the decision of which fabric is most appropriate for each piece. The shirt is a thinner fabric while the coat is a thicker one. The bowtie is commonly done with an entirely different, contrasting fabric (of color/texture) due to more its ornamental nature.

With a tuxedo T-shirt, all of those different elements are silk screened onto a single piece of fabric to look as closely as possible to a real tuxedo. Although there’s something fun about a tuxedo T-shirt, anyone would agree that a regular tuxedo is far more interesting than a tuxedo T-shirt. This is because of the depth and individuality of each of the different pieces on a real tuxedo. A tuxedo T-shirt has no depth. It is a two-dimensional manifestation of a 3-D object. It is an imposter. It is dishonest. It is a con. It is what is wrong with design.

The tuxedo T-shirt is what happens when materials for a façade of a building are arbitrarily selected without regard to the three-dimensional feature they cover. You wouldn’t expect to see a coat from a tuxedo with one material on the front and a separate contrasting material on the back. It wouldn’t make sense. The coat is one distinct object with one distinct and consistent material. Similarly, if you turn an apple around, you would not expect to see an orange. The materiality of an apple is distinct to the properties of an apple. As you might expect, the stem of an apple is a different material than the skin of an apple. This is because the three-dimensional object, known as the stem, performs a different function than the peel. They contrast each other visually, and they perform a different function. The change in material and shape makes sense.

Buildings use the same philosophy. One part of a building performs a specific function, so that part has a distinct material from other parts that perform different functions. It would not make sense for the corner of a building to have one material on one side but magically change to a different material on another side for no reason. Or even worse, you would not expect a simple flat façade to arbitrarily change to another separate material without any change in the depth between those two materials.

Appropriately selecting materials for the objects we design is part of what we do, and it is also one of our core values. To do our jobs appropriately, we must select materials for the objects (or parts of the building) we design, and it is also one of our required virtues to do this properly, in an obvious manner, and creatively. In order to do our jobs well, we commit to following our core values to guarantee success. We hope you will appreciate our adherence to our standards that we have set for ourselves, and we welcome the opportunity to explain them to you in further detail.

The images below depict examples of tuxedo T-shirts (flat facades) and also examples of more thoughtful facades (with depth) where the materials relate to their purpose and function. You will notice there is no apparent reason whatsoever for the facades on the tuxedo T-shirts to have different materials - they are just “lipstick on a pig” or a decorated shed (the concept coined by famous architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown which means to cover a utilitarian building with decoration to give it more interest than it really has).

If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help

A terrible flat facade with no reason for changing siding

There is no reason to change materials near the roof and no reason for the fake thing that sort of looks like a truss at the top

The bumpout changes material and color. That makes sense. Nicely done by Stuart Silk Architects.

The stone at the entry is set forward and contrasts the siding behind that is setback. The roof plane does its own thing. They all have a different purpose, with different material, with different depth.

The dark metal bumpout contrasts the light wood wall with a change in height, width, and depth.

The dark metal trim contrasts the soft warm wood siding

The solid dark upper level contrasts the open glassy lower level. The concrete wall plane recesses back to create more contrast. The concrete wall plane has no other material on it. Although you cannot see the back of the concrete, you know it is concrete. Although you cannot see around the corner of the upper floor, you KNOW it has the same dark siding. The same dark siding runs below, and conceptually, it would also continue on the roof (the same way the skin of an orange covers the entirety of the fruit without an arbitrary change in material.