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Two architects talk candidly about how they turned their business around even before the recession. In 2007, Marvin Meltzer, AIA (far right), a partner in an extremely successful New York City multifamily housing practice, began going through the sort of business transition that no one should ever face. David Mandl, his business partner and principal of their firm, Meltzer/Mandl Architects, for over a decade, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. When an engineering firm interested in buying the business began going over the books, Meltzer and David Carpenter, AIA (near right), who had been helping to run the business in Mandl’s

What’s the buzz about “knowledge management”? Simply put, it’s the creation, organization, and distribution of a firm’s collective information and, often, its wisdom.

Can a label help or hinder business success? The obvious answer is that it depends on the message behind the label and what one ultimately hopes to gain from it.

Increasingly, architects are tapping into social media to connect with peers and promote their work. Illustration © Otto Steininger A Social Media Primer Blogs: Firms can use blogs to regularly deliver information about projects, personnel changes, publications, and other news. Posts can include photos and videos. Dialogue is further enhanced through readers’ comments. Microblogs: Sites such as Twitter, Tumblr, and Plurk allow architects to network and quickly communicate bits of information. A Twitterer sets up an account and publishes “tweets” (posts of 140 characters or less) that are broadcast to followers. A few firms have Twitter accounts, including Gensler (700

Making the worst task slightly easier for all Countless times last year, architects were called into a principal’s office and told they were being laid off: the depressed economy brutalizing the blameless. That thousands of professionals have lost their jobs is bad enough, but the psychological harm to the firm and those lucky enough to remain can also be damaging. With the possibility that more layoffs will occur this year, how can firm principals make staff cuts less painful? To what extent can and should you delay the inevitable? When everyone knows the ax is about to fall, how do

There are many ways to get a client to pay, starting with frank communication and looking out for red flags. How do you cope with a client reluctant to pay what they owe? The best advice is to apply certain preventive measures to avoid the problem in the first place. Whether the client is suffering from the slowdown or is simply a deadbeat, paying attention to your business can forestall future headaches. Illustration: © Shout And yet many architects tend to be more interested in the execution of projects than in managing their firm as a business, says Michael Strogoff,

The traditional way in which architecture and engineering firms partner may be transforming. It is becoming widely understood that interdisciplinary collaboration is critical early in the design process if maximum sustainability is to be achieved. To encourage such novel relationships among owners, architects, consultants, and constructors, the AIA has been promoting “integrated project delivery” and has developed legal documents to support it. Illustration: © Alison Seiffer Some architecture firms are responding by shedding traditional relationships with consultants and hiring their own in-house engineers. Some existing AE firms are changing the way they practice by promoting interdisciplinary collaboration earlier in the

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” wisely opined Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra. In these days of economic turmoil, construction industry observers may wish they had made better predictions. Might there have been ways to avoid the downturn, or at least mitigate its effect on architecture firms? According to McLean, Virginia—based consultant Raymond Kogan, AIA, looking ahead by projecting major industry trends can help firms avoid being fatally blindsided by future events. Better yet, anticipating what’s coming can reveal new opportunities for profitable work. Illustration © Robert Meganck Most of the trends that Kogan suggests firms