Life of an Architect

Every client wants to know what their project is going to cost and who’s going to build it. That means sending the drawings out and getting contractors involved … Let’s get ready to rumble because “The Construction Bid Process ” is today’s topic.[Note: If you are reading this via email, you will have to click here to access the on-site audio player] For those of you who might not know, a construction bid is the process in which the contractor takes the drawings and specifications as prepared...

Architectural Fees are a mystery to most people and there is no shortage of methods that architects charge for their services. How do you make sense of the options, which method works best for you, and how do you provide a method that suits the needs of both the architect and their clients.

For today's episode, Andrew and I sit down with photographer Poul Ober to discuss the role photography plays in telling an architectural story, as well as the evolving impact photography is having on popular culture.

It happens to almost all of us eventually, and for pretty much everybody, the experience ranges from unpleasant to downright panic-inducing … so get your moving box ready because “Quitting Your Job” is today’s topic, something that I, unfortunately, know a lot about. [Note: If you are reading this via email, you will have to click here to access the on-site audio player] Don't Ever Quit Your Job Like This This is the one job I quit that I have remorse over. Not because it was my dream job...

What is it like to be an architect? Architecture in the real world is a lot different than people think. Does school prepare you for being an architect?

All industries have specific tools that make their business work - and architects are no different in this regard. Today, we will be discussing virtual reality, 3D printers, drafting software and many more modern day tools for architects.

As an architect, every space I walk in to, I look at … intensely. I scrutinize, evaluate, process, and redesign.Every. Single. Space.

For the 9th year in a row, Life of an Architect presents its "What to buy an architect for Christmas" - gift ideas that will please even the most particular and demanding of architects.

What does a day in the Life of an Architect look like? There are a lot of different answers to that question and even if I look at what my day looks like, it has varied over the years as I move through my career and took on different roles and responsibilities.

So how much money do architects make? They're all rich, right? Well, that's the topic today and we are going to take a look at how best to answer that question.

There are many things I do during a typical day – designing “stuff” is just one very small portion – but I still consider myself a designer more so than a project architect. Since I work at a smallish firm, everyone wears many hats and nobody has just one task or label. To be considered a designer just means you need to think about the design of everything – and I mean everything. Not everything I do is BIG picture design – compared with the overall time spent, very little of it is – but I...

With their clarity often confused with simplicity, modern houses require a far greater attention to execution and as a result, seem to surprise everyone with how expensive modern houses actually cost.

If you are interested in becoming an architect, what are the best reasons to pursue your dream? The field of architecture can be extremely rewarding and today we discuss a few of the reasons why.

Fall is just around the corner and that means it's time for students around the country to return to their desk at architecture school. For most, this time is a mixture of excitement and enthusiasm while for others, it's a mixture of anxiety and sleepless nights ...

Architectural offices do a lot more than simply provide a space in which the occupants do their job ... they represent the culture of the office and provide a context in which people imagine what they are capable of doing.

In this fifth episode of the Life of an Architect podcast, Landon and I take on the topic of Architects and cooking and how those two things come together in a way that could be unique.

Architects like to travel, at least that's what all my friends who are architects would like you to believe. While I will agree that this is a true statement, I think it's a fairly generic statement because don't all people like to travel?In this fourth episode of the Life of an Architect podcast, Landon and I take on the topic of traveling - or at least we start a conversation about traveling. When we sat down to prepare our show notes, it quickly became apparent that this was a topic...

Sketching is a hot topic regardless of the people having the discussion, but I have learned over the last nine years of writing this site that sketching is one of the more hotly contested topics. While few architects would dispute the value in sketching, HOW that sketch is generated seems to fall into camps of individuals: Team Analog versus Team Digital and I don't think anyone would be surprised to learn that the age of the individual seems to decide (more times than not, but not a...

In this second episode of the Life of an Architect podcast, we turn our attention towards the college years. I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992, while Landon received his diploma from Virginia Tech in 2016 ... so how has college changed over this time?There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to architecture school:How do I pick which college is right for me? Is it hard to get admitted? Is there a portfolio requirement? Will I have a social life? What sort of classes...

Life of an Architect has finally entered the podcasting world! In the first episode, Bob Borson and Landon Williams discuss why they decided to start a podcast, their objectives for the podcast, as well as possible future topics.