Architect & Developer: A Guide to Self-Initiating Projects
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Architect & Developer, A Guide to Self-Initiating Projects is available for purchase through Amazon.com. See more information on Architect & Developer at architectanddeveloper.com The traditional role of the architect is far too passive and uncertain. The profession has positioned itself to sit by the phone until we are called upon and commissioned to do work. Architects have long been charged with creating a better-built environment, but it is the developers who dictate what is actually built in our cities. The decisions made by developers before architects are engaged in a project dictate later success. When all of the initial programming, market studies, and cost estimates are based on market averages, it is unsurprising when the final products in our cities are nothing more than average. In the end, architects have devalued their role to the pencil of the developer’s vision. By combining Architect & Developer, you can command a greater sense of control, faster decision making, an efficient process, and the potential for a much better profit. The largest hurdle to becoming an Architect & Developer is that first project. An entrepreneurial mindset and willingness to take risk is required. What developers do is not difficult, you need only have an appetite for risk.
I sat down with over a dozen separate architects who are self-initiating their work. Some were doing this as a side hustle while holding down a nine-to-five job, some were small studios that were dipping their toes into the development game, and some were full-blown Architects & Developers. I wanted to absorb what they have learned throughout the process and consolidate the information into a digestible format. Architect & Developer includes one-on-one interviews from: DDG Many years ago John Portman coined the term “architect as developer.” He was one of the first architects to overtly develop projects, but not the first architect to develop. Many architects have been quietly developing work for decades. Adolf Loos developed many projects. Throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s Vernon DeMars was developing in Northern California, Brown & Guenther was developing in New York City, and Erwin Gerber was running one of the most profitable architecture firms at the time by developing in the suburbs of northern New Jersey. John Portman wanted to create an identity with his role in architecture and began calling himself an architect as developer. See his book {here} and lecture {here} of the same name. More recently, Jonathan Segal ran with this identity and created an online course known as Architect as Developer {see more here}. Now, whenever I find someone discussing architects who are developing, I see them using this identity. I do not want to be an “architect as developer.” I want to be an architect and developer. I want both. I don’t want my architecture to be a conduit to development. I believe that the term architect as developer is incorrect, and have thus named this book, webpage, and identified architects who I have spoken to as Architect & Developer. See more at architectanddeveloper.com
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