I have heard of three major NY, LA, and Miami offices that have had substantial layoffs. (10+ employees). Is anyone aware of similar situations in their firms or cities?
This happened in a local firm last spring - all employees except the IT guy were laid off at once (about 14 people). But at the time several other local firms were hiring furiously, so about half of the 14 had new jobs by the end of the next day. We interviewed a few of them and ended up with one of them (the others chose other firms, which means there were a lot of options at the time!)
Firms don't seem to be as desperately hiring now as then, but on the other hand it is the slow winter season, and there haven't been any more mass layoffs in the area either.
interesting that ny, la, and miami offices are getting hit with layoffs. we've seen layoffs in michigan (detroit area) for a few years now. looks like the recession is now starting to filter into the national economy.
Several, lets say, Starchitect offices have frozen hiring, a major design firm with offices in all three cities has cut all contract employees in NYC and laid off in other offices, and another large international office is now shifting staff around as many residential development projects in the US have been put on hold or cancelled. NY is less impacted, but the slowdown is affecting staffing on a project to project basis right now. In other cities, the layoffs have been more prevalent.
huh. i just talked to a friend of mine who just moved to ny and she said everyone she knew had so much work they couldn't see straight. said she got interviews with all of the firms she applied to, and offers from 90% of the firms she interviewed with. sounded like it wasn't effected by the downturn at all.
both, and all. foreign - turkey, qatar, barcelona, costa rica...
resort fractional ownership as well as urban hotel and high rise residences.
granted SOME of them are already being built, but much of what's on the boards is in development still. lots more to come in the US i think. weak dollar has tourism pundits predicting major shortages in hotel rooms...combine that with a spiraling housing market and rising inventory, and you've got a recipe for savvy developers with capital on hand to build hotels and condo towers to sell specifically to foreigners.
it's a great time to buy a property in the US if you're not AMERICAN.
There are certain "let's say Starchitect offices" and large firms with offices in multiple cities who are known for this type of purging cycle. It's not always indicative of a general trend, if in fact it's the usual suspects. Not that I want to play "guess the firm", but I worked for a certain Starchitect with a long history of this type of thing - it allows the firm to "clean house" after one giant project and start all over fresh (and with an overall less experienced and therefore less expensive workforce) on each new big project.
There does seem to be major hiring going on in NYC in particular right now. On the other hand certain types of projects are drying up in some places. Time will tell.
residential schmential- the housing marked dropped off over a year ago. firms still holding most of their eggs in that basket are now fried, if it took them a year to figure this out, so what?
I'll second ML's comments, there are still many sectors going at full steam round the world.
I just heard the other day a large firm in town laid off a lot of their contract workers b/c they have slowed down significantly. Not so sure about their full-time employees. Our firm is pretty slow right now too, most sit around with nothing to do. I'm grateful I'm working on a project.
tuna, since i know where you work, i think this is consistent with what i'm hearing: the slowdown seems to be affecting retail development now, after having already slowed down residential development.
we're seeing far fewer retail projects. as a 'generalist' kind of firm, we saw the writing on the wall about 8mos ago and started marketing heavily to our contacts in education, health, church, public projects, and other (generally institutional) work - all of which are going strong.
school work seems to be most critical right now. all the over-building of residential significantly shifted populations into areas perceived to have 'better' schools and lower populations - and those places now have over-crowded schools and a huge need.
church work also seems to have held steady. not necessarily nice high-$$ church work, more the mom-and-pop rock church stuff, but work, nonetheless. they still want nice projects.
finally, despite the overall residential slowdown, directly urban residential projects are still being built and still selling. downtown is IT!, driven by the last decade of cultural projects that have achieved a sort of critical mass downtown and created a market where there wasn't one.
i'm not sure on a big picture prognosis because we're still building on greenfields (bluegrass!) like crazy, mowing down horse farms. but there is an interest in infill that goes along with the continued outward expansion.
recession is sometimes a good corrector. people start to think a little harder about what they're making and how their investments will be spent. the willy-nilly tossing up of boxes-with-signs may slow for a little bit here - and that can only be a good thing.
archislave: for the moment there seem to be plenty of opportunities in architecture - lots of hiring going on.
But, in the past architects have seem some very bad slowdowns. In the late 80's/early 90's there was a big bust - few projects for anyone, especially in NYC and other parts of the northeast. As many as 40% of younger architects were unemployed and a lot of them never came back to architecture - which opened up a lot of opportunity for new grads just a few years later...
there's a big firm in orange county that was closing in on 400 employees back in 2006, now i think they're down to around 300, maybe less. it was really affected by the tanking housing market. many of its peer firms have also let go alot of people. at our firm we have implemented a hiring freeze, and bracing for what seems like some scary times to come.
in chicgao burbs I know of 1 firm the went bunk in December (high end residential), and I just got a call (monday) about a firm that had a "reduction in forces" and it junked its bim dept.
I am getting calls weekly from head hunters looking to place people.
I wrote about this a little bit ago...we have lost a few people recently (left on their own)...but several other large/prominent Miami firms have laid off...
We have been interviewing (there are allot of out-of-work arch/designers) but not ready to hire anyone right now.
Our work has slowed considerably, but as mentioned before there has been a tremendous ammount of RFP's coming in (more than usual).
We are waiting to hear on a handful of very large projects in the next few weeks which should secure the office for 18-24mo. Work has shifted to mostly overseas (central/south america, carib., Japan, and midle east)-Workplace, and Hospitality. However, we are seeing a pick up in healthcare too...locally...
if anyone has any recommendations in Panama city, I am about to start a project there, and need some interesting dinner/hang-out places (if there are any)
We're starting to see some significant layoffs in our area -- mostly at firms that have been deeply involved in high-rise residential work. I know of one firm that dropped 40% of their staff in one week -- and that firm historically has been well managed and they were NOT working in the residential sector.
Perhaps more importantly, I'm starting to see resumes from some very well qualified candidates crossing my desk -- these are really good people -- and, six months ago, I'd have to beat the bushes with a big stick to find such candidates. This tells me that hiring is really slow right now and few strong opportunities exist for designers who are looking to make a move. The volume of resumes I'm seeing from upcoming graduates suggests that they're not finding lots of attractive job opportunities out there either.
Our own clients are starting to lose some of their optimism -- they see good deals out there, but don't seem all that confident they can get the deals financed. We're being very, very cautious. We may need to drop 1 or 2 folks from our staff in the next month or so.
Hate to sound pessimistic, but that's the view from my window.
Mar 24, 08 7:12 pm ·
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Layoffs? Layoffs? Don't talk to me about Layoffs?
I have heard of three major NY, LA, and Miami offices that have had substantial layoffs. (10+ employees). Is anyone aware of similar situations in their firms or cities?
hiring in louisville.
This happened in a local firm last spring - all employees except the IT guy were laid off at once (about 14 people). But at the time several other local firms were hiring furiously, so about half of the 14 had new jobs by the end of the next day. We interviewed a few of them and ended up with one of them (the others chose other firms, which means there were a lot of options at the time!)
Firms don't seem to be as desperately hiring now as then, but on the other hand it is the slow winter season, and there haven't been any more mass layoffs in the area either.
interesting that ny, la, and miami offices are getting hit with layoffs. we've seen layoffs in michigan (detroit area) for a few years now. looks like the recession is now starting to filter into the national economy.
Who's laying off in NY? Everyone I talk to seems to be looking for people.
Several, lets say, Starchitect offices have frozen hiring, a major design firm with offices in all three cities has cut all contract employees in NYC and laid off in other offices, and another large international office is now shifting staff around as many residential development projects in the US have been put on hold or cancelled. NY is less impacted, but the slowdown is affecting staffing on a project to project basis right now. In other cities, the layoffs have been more prevalent.
pshaw. wouldn't know it to look out my window...
not to say that it doesn't suck for those involved, but i still see furious building in the hotel and fractional ownership resort sectors.
There is building, but that means that the bulk of the design work was done over a year ago.
i'm using the term building a little more loosely Maestro.
how about this: i still see furious SD and DD in the hotel and fractional ownership sectors. and RFP's too. out the wazoo.
Foreign or domestic. Resort or urban? Just asking.
huh. i just talked to a friend of mine who just moved to ny and she said everyone she knew had so much work they couldn't see straight. said she got interviews with all of the firms she applied to, and offers from 90% of the firms she interviewed with. sounded like it wasn't effected by the downturn at all.
both, and all. foreign - turkey, qatar, barcelona, costa rica...
resort fractional ownership as well as urban hotel and high rise residences.
granted SOME of them are already being built, but much of what's on the boards is in development still. lots more to come in the US i think. weak dollar has tourism pundits predicting major shortages in hotel rooms...combine that with a spiraling housing market and rising inventory, and you've got a recipe for savvy developers with capital on hand to build hotels and condo towers to sell specifically to foreigners.
it's a great time to buy a property in the US if you're not AMERICAN.
There are certain "let's say Starchitect offices" and large firms with offices in multiple cities who are known for this type of purging cycle. It's not always indicative of a general trend, if in fact it's the usual suspects. Not that I want to play "guess the firm", but I worked for a certain Starchitect with a long history of this type of thing - it allows the firm to "clean house" after one giant project and start all over fresh (and with an overall less experienced and therefore less expensive workforce) on each new big project.
There does seem to be major hiring going on in NYC in particular right now. On the other hand certain types of projects are drying up in some places. Time will tell.
residential schmential- the housing marked dropped off over a year ago. firms still holding most of their eggs in that basket are now fried, if it took them a year to figure this out, so what?
I'll second ML's comments, there are still many sectors going at full steam round the world.
looking for 3 people right now
Layoffs? Layoffs? We don't need no stinkin' layoffs!
I'm graduating this April. what would all this economic woes entail?
maestro, you stole my joke!
http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=70965_0_42_0_C
great minds think alike :D
I just heard the other day a large firm in town laid off a lot of their contract workers b/c they have slowed down significantly. Not so sure about their full-time employees. Our firm is pretty slow right now too, most sit around with nothing to do. I'm grateful I'm working on a project.
tuna, since i know where you work, i think this is consistent with what i'm hearing: the slowdown seems to be affecting retail development now, after having already slowed down residential development.
we're seeing far fewer retail projects. as a 'generalist' kind of firm, we saw the writing on the wall about 8mos ago and started marketing heavily to our contacts in education, health, church, public projects, and other (generally institutional) work - all of which are going strong.
school work seems to be most critical right now. all the over-building of residential significantly shifted populations into areas perceived to have 'better' schools and lower populations - and those places now have over-crowded schools and a huge need.
church work also seems to have held steady. not necessarily nice high-$$ church work, more the mom-and-pop rock church stuff, but work, nonetheless. they still want nice projects.
finally, despite the overall residential slowdown, directly urban residential projects are still being built and still selling. downtown is IT!, driven by the last decade of cultural projects that have achieved a sort of critical mass downtown and created a market where there wasn't one.
i'm not sure on a big picture prognosis because we're still building on greenfields (bluegrass!) like crazy, mowing down horse farms. but there is an interest in infill that goes along with the continued outward expansion.
recession is sometimes a good corrector. people start to think a little harder about what they're making and how their investments will be spent. the willy-nilly tossing up of boxes-with-signs may slow for a little bit here - and that can only be a good thing.
archislave: for the moment there seem to be plenty of opportunities in architecture - lots of hiring going on.
But, in the past architects have seem some very bad slowdowns. In the late 80's/early 90's there was a big bust - few projects for anyone, especially in NYC and other parts of the northeast. As many as 40% of younger architects were unemployed and a lot of them never came back to architecture - which opened up a lot of opportunity for new grads just a few years later...
we've lost a few people recently.
i think they've managed to find work elsewhere quickly though...
there's a big firm in orange county that was closing in on 400 employees back in 2006, now i think they're down to around 300, maybe less. it was really affected by the tanking housing market. many of its peer firms have also let go alot of people. at our firm we have implemented a hiring freeze, and bracing for what seems like some scary times to come.
in chicgao burbs I know of 1 firm the went bunk in December (high end residential), and I just got a call (monday) about a firm that had a "reduction in forces" and it junked its bim dept.
I am getting calls weekly from head hunters looking to place people.
I wrote about this a little bit ago...we have lost a few people recently (left on their own)...but several other large/prominent Miami firms have laid off...
We have been interviewing (there are allot of out-of-work arch/designers) but not ready to hire anyone right now.
Our work has slowed considerably, but as mentioned before there has been a tremendous ammount of RFP's coming in (more than usual).
We are waiting to hear on a handful of very large projects in the next few weeks which should secure the office for 18-24mo. Work has shifted to mostly overseas (central/south america, carib., Japan, and midle east)-Workplace, and Hospitality. However, we are seeing a pick up in healthcare too...locally...
if anyone has any recommendations in Panama city, I am about to start a project there, and need some interesting dinner/hang-out places (if there are any)
We're starting to see some significant layoffs in our area -- mostly at firms that have been deeply involved in high-rise residential work. I know of one firm that dropped 40% of their staff in one week -- and that firm historically has been well managed and they were NOT working in the residential sector.
Perhaps more importantly, I'm starting to see resumes from some very well qualified candidates crossing my desk -- these are really good people -- and, six months ago, I'd have to beat the bushes with a big stick to find such candidates. This tells me that hiring is really slow right now and few strong opportunities exist for designers who are looking to make a move. The volume of resumes I'm seeing from upcoming graduates suggests that they're not finding lots of attractive job opportunities out there either.
Our own clients are starting to lose some of their optimism -- they see good deals out there, but don't seem all that confident they can get the deals financed. We're being very, very cautious. We may need to drop 1 or 2 folks from our staff in the next month or so.
Hate to sound pessimistic, but that's the view from my window.
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