Professional Practice: An Introduction to Turning Designs into Buildings

Paul Segal, FAIA

Praise for Professional Practice:

"Paul Segal is one of the only architects I know who not only understands but truly loves both the aesthetic power of great architecture and the practical demands of the real world, and he has spent much of his career teaching younger architects that these things do not have to be incompatible. In this book, he explains clearly, concisely, and eloquently how architecture is not only an art and not only a business—how it has to be both."

—Paul Goldberger, architecture critic and dean, Parsons The New School for Design

“Professional Practice gives our changing industry exactly what it needs, a clear and concise road map to the design and building process.”

—Frank Sciame, President/CEO Sciame Construction and Development

“A precise and vivid account . . . [D]estined to be of equal pertinence to any of the protagonists commonly involved in the act of making buildings.”

—Kenneth Frampton, Ware Professor of Architecture, Columbia University

“It is a pleasure to read a book in which the conscientious practice of architecture is accorded the respect it deserves. A precise and vivid account of the complex process by which buildings come to be designed and realized through the progressive interaction of clients, architects, contractors, and a wide range of technical and legal specialists, this is destined to be of equal pertinence to any of the protagonists commonly involved in the act of making buildings.”
—Kenneth Frampton, Ware Professor of Architecutre, Columbia University

“Professional Practice gives our changing industry exactly what it needs, a clear and concise road map to the design and building process. Paul Segal taps his many years as a successful practicing architect and educator to touch on just about every important challenge facing the profession, and yet leaves us with a healthy dose of new ideas and hope for the future.”
—Frank Sciame, President/CEO Sciame Construction and Development

 

Overview

What you need to know to protect your designs and get them built as you envision them; how to get and keep clients and become their trusted advisor and professional—every architect needs the answers in this concise, thorough, and readable guide.

•Who are the parties in architecture, engineering, and construction?

•How do you market architectural services (get the project)?

•What are the basic project delivery methods?

•What are the forms of owner/architect and owner/contractor agreements and what services do they cover?

•How should you charge for your services?

•How do you set up an office?

•What insurance, legal, and accounting issues must you consider?

•What is project management and who should do it?

•What are zoning and building codes about?

About the Author –

Paul Segal, FAIA, is a partner in Paul Segal Associates Architects LLP, recipients of seventeen AIA awards for design excellence. A graduate of Princeton University School of Architecture, he has taught professional practice to generations of students at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He is a past president of the AIA/New York Chapter and of the New York Foundation for Architecture (now the Center for Architecture Foundation), and past vice chairman of the Preservation League of New York State.

 

ISBN 10: 0-393-73180-4

ISBN 13: 978-0-393-73180-4
February 2006
144 pages / sample forms / paperback