A recent in-depth investigation of future architectural and engineering (A/E) management practices shows the virtual demise of the mid-sized (35 to 75 employee) architectural and engineering firm by 1997. Other findings included a tendency toward larger firms and a galaxy of small, specialized “boutique” firms; lean efficiency imposed by higher costs and pressure on fees; new markets brought on by privitization, retrofit and prolific anti-hazard laws and by corporate facility managers eager to unload real estate asset management onto outside teams of architects and engineers and other specialties and a trend to national account marketing.

The study, which was sponsored by the newsletters “Professional Service Management Journal” (PSMJ) and “A/E Marketing Journal,” (AEMJ) explored such areas as the workplace, changing roles of managers, procedures for project management, profitability, the client, new markets and services and how firms will market. The findings are based on in-depth interviews with top executives at engineering, architecture and client firms in the United States and Canada, as well as with consultants and association executives. The interviews were done by Stephen A. Kliment, an architect and publishing consultant.

“The resulting profile of the architectural and engineering firm in 1997 shows that the germ of what will be is already with us,” said Michael Hough, Publisher of PSMJ and AEMJ, “but the direction and intensity of the expected changes are surprising, especially as to firm size, markets, marketing and client attitudes.”

The findings herald a major change in the way architecture and engineering firms do business. Highly cost-conscious clients?EUR??,,????'??+both large and medium-sized?EUR??,,????'??+working through facility managers will, far more than today, look at their real estate operations. These operations will typically comprise 25 percent of all their assets, as something that must be efficiently managed on a continuing and coordinated basis. Architecture and engineering firms will benefit from this trend, more for their managerial skills than for design, which, many feel, will be relegated to a commodity.

With far higher privitization levels, qualified architecture and engineering firms will have million dollar fees for taking over design, construction, operation, maintenance and staff training for public clients in such areas as highways, waste treatment plants, hospital and prison management.

Other findings included:

–Pressure on fees will intensify, as price-based competition gets the upper hand. Profitability will not go above current levels. The cost of marketing will rise as clients demand greater documentation from firms and as highly paid architects and engineering executives become more involved in marketing.

–Architect and engineering firms will adopt from industry the concept of national account marketing.

–CADD will no longer be a selling point, as clients will expect to be sold not on its mere presence in the architecture and engineering firm, but on its benefits to the project. At the same time, CADD will not displace production staff, but step up its productivity, with more time for review of alternate solutions.

–Quality control will be built into CADD and new state laws will put a damper on frivolous litigation.