Architecture firms are hiring engineers and A/E firms are revamping the way they work. Why? Because collaborating sooner and more often makes their architecture better.

It’s a very good time to develop your firm’s collaboration skills
By Andrew Pressman, FAIA
During a challenging period in which a paucity of work may leave key employees with increased amounts of downtime, there is an opportunity to examine, hone, and reflect on the art of multidisciplinary collaboration and teamwork.

Illustration © Harry Campbell

Greening your design culture to gain a competitive edge
By B.J. Novitski
The troubled economy may allow your firm the time it needs to rethink the philosophies that underlie its design work. It’s an especially good time to think about your firm’s green design culture, and to gain a competitive edge in the process.

Illustration © Edel Rodriguez

Client care: how to keep them coming back for more
By B.J. Novitski
“Client care” is more than a general notion of how to interact with clients. It’s understanding what clients truly want and making sure that everyone in the firm keeps that in mind as they do their jobs.

Image © Robert Dale/Images.com/Corbis

Managing the ever-more-distributed workforce
By B.J. Novitski
Despite fast communication speeds, modern companies face challenges of trust and control with off-site workers. Each case is different, but the balance can be adjusted with the use of technology and an understanding of the cultural barriers created by geographic separation.

Photo © NASA TV/Epa/Corbis

Making the Most of Your Firm’s Millennials
By B.J. Novitski
Working with "Millennials"— young people who were born after 1980— can be both frustrating or exhilarating. This month's Practice Matters discusses how Gensler and Perkins+Will are embracing the challenges and opportunities that come from developing the future leaders of our profession.

Photo © Getty Images

Creating a firm culture that supports innovative design
By Andrew Pressman, FAIA
Within the workplace, the swift and easy exchange of ideas is vital to the design process. What may not be so obvious is that there are strategies for cultivating this type of creative environment.

Photo courtesy IDEO

Firms embrace the emerging role of the sustainability guru
By Russell Fortmeyer
The emergence of directors of sustainability at firms of all sizes has occurred more rapidly as the green design market takes off. But who are these sustainability gurus and what kinds of roles are they playing?

Photo: © Mark Mainz/Getty Images

What’s fueling the firm mergers and acquisitions trend? Growth.
By B.J. Novitski
In the summer of 2007, two large American architecture firms made news when they announced they were being sold to larger European firms.

llustration: © Corbis

Not Only Zaha
What’s it like to be a female architect with a soley owned firm in the U.S. today? Record hears firsthand from women in the field.
By Suzanne Stephens
If you go by newspapers and monthly consumer magazines, you might think there is only one female architect designing significant buildings today—Zaha Hadid. To be sure, the London-based, Iraqi-born architect deserves acclaim for her inventive assortment of zoomy structures completed in the last few years. But what about the rest? Aren’t there other talented women architects out there...

Pictured: Sagaponac House, Hariri + Hariri Architecture; Photo © Paul Warchol