Battered by the Recession, Architects Pursue New Lines of Work

Yeekai Lim started a coffee company in 2009 due to a slowdown in architectural work.

The recession and its aftermath have clearly taken a toll on the architecture profession. In May, during the AIAs annual convention, Kermit Baker, the institutes chief economist, reported that 60,000 payroll jobs had been lost at firms over the past four years, with 36,000 of them being designers and architects. Of that group, about a third have found work outside of architecture, according to surveys conducted by the AIA.

Roughly 6,000 of these architects will likely quit the profession for good, the surveys founda move that could have serious ramifications. This doesnt even account for recent graduates who, unable to find jobs at firms, may pursue work in entirely different fields. According to sources we interviewed, these new career paths vary widely, from culinary endeavors to digital game design.

I hung on to my desk as long as I could afford to, but I realized I wasnt going in nearly as much, says Yeekai Lim, 39, who ran his own practice while also holding down jobs at various firms over the years. In 2009, he decided to pursue his second passion: coffee.

For years, Lim had been experimenting with beans and brewing styles at his California home and had become obsessed with this notion of the perfect cup. This ultimately led him to found Cognoscenti Coffee, which began as a coffee cart. Today, Lim has six employees and two coffee shops: one in Los Angeles and another opening soon in Culver City. Moreover, his business is turning a profit, he says.

Lim hasnt abandoned architecture entirely. He designed his two stores, and hes working for a client on a restaurant in Los Angeles. He doesnt know if he will ever return to architecture full time, but if he does, his coffee company experience will be a boon. Pouring lattes has definitely provided a lot of insight on client-architect relationships, he says. I better understand the service side, which is what architects should be focusing on.

Also drawn to food service was Natasha Case, who, after graduating from UCLA in 2008, went on to design hotels for Disney. But after her six-month contract wasnt renewed due to the recession, Case started an ice cream company in 2009 with a friend. Coolhauswhose name is an amalgam of Koolhaas and Bauhausnow has 10 trucks, two carts, and an L.A. storefront, where customers can choose flavors such as Louis Pe-Kahn and Mint-alism. The companys ice cream sandwiches are also sold in certain Whole Foods Markets. Case says her architecture know-how has been helpful, particularly in regard to packaging design. Im obviously not working in CAD, she says, but theres a huge amount that has translated from my background.

Some architects determined to stick with the profession are expanding the services they offer. Robert Vecchione, of Sarasota, Florida, has run a private practice since 1997. Two years ago, he began advising nonprofit clients on how to drum up additional revenue in the face of declining public funding. He helped the Easter Seals of Southwest Florida, for instance, conceive a plan to sponsor design competitions for toys that can later be sold in stores.

Vecchione encourages clients to take a more studio-style approach to brainstorming sessions. I tell them, you cant just sit there with a pen and paper hunched over a table, he says. Better is to hash out ideas with brown paper, on a wall, and black markers. Like architecture, it should be a visual, creative process, he says.

For aspiring architects, finding a job is no easy feat. Those who recently completed undergraduate architecture programs have the highest rate of unemployment, at 14 percent, of any profession, according to a recent report from the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. (In contrast, the rate for those working in law is 8 percent; for journalists, 7 percent.) These headwinds come against a national overall jobless rate of 8.2 percent.

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Battered by the Recession, Architects Pursue New Lines of Work