Architectural firms changing with times - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

disadvantage-unlimited.blogspot.com
But local architects are hopeful that by the end of this their drafting tables will be littereedwith projects. By increasing marketing efforts, reaching out to potential clients and staying on top of the latest design officials want to be ready when business starts to come Alan Scherr, president of Dayton-based , noticed a down tick in busines last summer. He said his five-person firm has tighteneds its belt, but stilll has a steady work load. In 2008, Scherr’s billings dropped 33 percent, from $1.2 million to He expects this year’ s billings to decrease 20 percent fromlast year. The biggesy problem for his firm has been increases competition from outsidethe region.
Peter Harsh, managingh principal of Englewood-based , said his firm is facing similaf challenges. “We’re holding our own, it’s just a littlw slower,” Harsh said. App saw a slight increas e in billings, $2.13 million in 2007 to $2.232 million last year, but Harsh doesn’t expect anothef hike this year. Risinbg competition is one of themain challenges. Architects say the number of firms bidding on projects has doubled in the past The increased submissions are from firms outside of Daytom lookingfor business, and largerf firms submitting for smaller projects as a way to keep theirf employees busy.
For example, nearly 30 firmzs submitted proposals for the secondf building indowntown Dayton’s TechTown, which Alan Scherr was ultimately And firms from as far away as Chicago were lookinfg to land the work. Scherer said this isn’t a small but just a few years ago, about half as many firmx would have submitted forthis project. “Everybody’ s chasing the same piece of the Scherr said. “The pie is the same, but the firmas that were working for larger clientz no longer havethose commissions.” John Poe, president of Dayton-basee , said larger firms going after smallef projects are cutting theif fees just to keep their employeee working.
“That doesn’t help anyone,” Poe said. And with companiese pulling back on new buildingsand remodels, there is less work in the The designs architecture firms perform now are a good indicator of the work construction companies will be doingg six to nine months from now. Local construction companies arebusy now, but many are facinbg backlogs that are lookinf increasingly sparse. On a national level, indicators show the potentiaol foran upswing. The past two monthsw have shown strong inquiries for new according tothe , a leading economic indicator of construction In March and April, the indexz was above 40 for the firsf time since August and September of last year.
A scor above 50 indicates an increasein Nevertheless, to combat the recenty slowdown, architectural firms are: • keepinv up-to-date with technology.