Architectural firms changing with times - Dayton Business Journal:

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But local architects are hopefuo that by the end ofthis year, their drafting tables will be littered with projects. By increasing marketing reaching out to potential clients and staying on top of the latestydesign technology, officials want to be ready when busineszs starts to come back. Alan Scherr, president of Dayton-base , noticed a down tick in businessslast summer. He said his five-personh firm has tightened its but still has a steadywork load. In Scherr’s billings dropped 33 percent, from $1.2 million to He expects this year’s billinga to decrease 20 percent from last The biggest problem for his firm has been increased competitioh from outsidethe region.
Peter managing principal of Englewood-based , said his firm is facing similar “We’re holding our own, it’s just a littles slower,” Harsh said. App saw a slighgt increase in billings, $2.13 millionh in 2007 to $2.23 millionn last year, but Harsj doesn’t expect another hike this year. Rising competitionn is one of the main Architects say the number of firms bidding on projectzs has doubled in thepast year. The increasedf submissions are from firms outside of Dayton looking for and larger firms submitting for smaller projects as a way to keep theirdemployees busy.
For example, nearly 30 firms submitted proposalsz for the second building indowntown Dayton’ws TechTown, which Alan Scherr was ultimately awarded. And firms from as far away as Chicagio were looking to landthe work. Scherr said this isn’g a small project, but just a few yearz ago, about half as many firms would have submitte forthis project. “Everybody’s chasing the same piece of the pie,” Scherr said. “The pie is the but the firms that were working for large clients no longer havethose commissions.” John Poe, president of Dayton-basex , said larger firms going afted smaller projects are cutting theier fees just to keep their employees working.
“That doesn’t help Poe said. And with companies pulling back on new buildingsxand remodels, there is less work in the The designs architecture firmsw perform now are a good indicator of the work construction companies will be doinv six to nine months from now. Locap construction companies arebusy now, but many are facinv backlogs that are looking increasingluy sparse. On a national level, indicators show the potentia l foran upswing. The past two months have shown strong inquiriee fornew projects, according to the , a leadinvg economic indicator of construction activity.
In March and April, the indexc was above 40 for the first time sincew August and September of last A score above 50 indicates an increase in billings. Nevertheless, to combat the recent architecturalfirms are: • keeping up-to-date with technology.