OWA | Newsletter

A Resolution to Modify OWA Name to OWDP

by Suzan Swabacker
Several nights ago I spoke with an OWA member. One of our newest, best and brightest to be exact. Her phone call reminded me that a few things about the OWA need to be re-evaluated after 40 years. For example: younger members think the OWA logo is outdated. The logo is part of the bigger issues we need to be talking about however: namely, discrimination within our design profession.

I am strongly advocating for a name change to OWA. Currently the official name for the OWA is OWA+DP: The Organization of Women Architects and Design Professionals. I believe the distinction between the design professions has so blurred over the recent years that it is far more fitting and proper to call ourselves ODP, Organization of Design Professionals. We would welcome all new members without putting them into a hierarchy with Architects on top, followed by other design types. It is myopic for a professional organization dedicated to supporting its members to differentiate between landscape architects, interior designers, planners, signage creators, spec writers and architects unless one is hiring or applying for a job and then specific tasks become important to the person hiring you.

What do DESIGNERS do? According to Wikipedia:
“The designer's work is a creative process performed almost always in conjunction with other specialists. The success of this process depends fully on the combination of the analytical powers, systematic specialist skills and aesthetic awareness of the designer and his/her sense of style and holistic approach. The goal of such work is to fulfill the needs and wishes of both the end-user and the immediate customer as regards function, content and appearance. The designer's efforts to create added value for the end-user also boost the immediate customer's profitability and growth. “ (http://www.svid.se/English/About-design/Designers/)

Currently several OWA members have expressed views that they prefer young architects join. The “welcome wagon” is not being rolled out for other design professions. However, I proffer that architects are a dying breed. To be even more blunt, for those architects who weren’t getting laid off in 2009, they were watching their fellow designers close up shop or get bought out “by the big boys.” Well, all except the interior designers. To quote a principal from HDR in Boston in 2009: “The future looks bleak for architects. However, interior design cannot be done by firms overseas. By its very nature interior design is homegrown. U.S. owners cannot use overseas firms. The interior design profession will keep growing whereas architects could be an endangered species.” This comment resulted from an informational interview that I require from students taking my college classes. Needless to say I found the comments provocative and thought-provoking.

In case you haven’t paid attention, it appears that virtually all CD work is being done outside the U.S. for firms with > 30 people. Here are 2 specific stories:

Story 1: a relative works for a 250+ general construction company that performs commercial construction. Both he and I have worked independently on hotels over our career. We know hospitality well. For his latest project in Southern California, a new 118-room hotel, the architects turned over drawings to the general contractor that were so poorly completed it was causing major cost increases and time delays to the hotel construction. The Owner was not happy. The solution? The General Contractor offered to have the CDs re-done overseas. Six weeks, 60 sheets later, the drawings were completed and sent from India. The cost? $11,000. For 60 sheets of architectural drawings and details! The result? The G/C now offers “free” CD documents to potential clients.
Now days Owners only have to pay the architects thru DD. The Owner gets a real deal for the completion of permit drawings. Design firms cannot exist, much less grow, on DD alone. Oh yes, and the G/C’s younger staff can assist with BIM as well. No architects need apply.

Story 2: We have just completed the interiors for a large fitness center run by the U.S. Navy. First, all designers should know that government work has been “D-B” (Design-Build) for nearly 20 years. This means it is “one-stop-shop”, supposedly lower risk for the government. Who runs the show? The general contractor. This practice has resulted in the general contractor hiring the designers for thousands of projects. Not only is the G/C focused on the bottom line, the reality is that he can build whatever the heck he wants to build. Fewer architects are being hired with the D-B process. The designers the G/C can’t ignore, though, are the interior designers.

Let’s go back to the resolution. Besides showing specific job skills on resumes for different specialties, why would we want to promote architects at the expense of other designers? I love being a part of the OWA. The camaraderie over the years has sustained me through good times and bad, as the saying goes. I have lifelong best friends. I have long wanted more successful members to donate more and leave a legacy to the OWA similar to an “endowed chair” at a university . Given the current temperament, however, the snobbery that is often displayed by we architects to other non-architects, I suspect that the OWA will die out with the baby-boomers unless we make a fundamental change to our membership. A change, such as modifying the name to be more inclusive, not less.

Members, can we not promote an organization for those who do not have an architecture degree? We are all trying to make a living doing something we love which relates to building buildings. Architects are an endangered species. Building permits allow engineers and architects to sign drawings. This is our lone protection. We need to morph into a newer/broader design group. A good start would be to modify our name to ODP, Organization of Design Professionals. This could be accomplished in October at the annual business meeting.

I look forward to an open dialogue over the next few months.

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