When the economy fell apart two years ago, tens of thousands of architects nationwide
lost their jobs as the planning and financing of new projects ground to a halt.
Apartments have recently
emerged as a source of hope for builders. Now, another bit of information to fuel tepid optimism: a local architecture firm tells us they've been adding employees again.
BWBR Architects in St. Paul hired about a dozen new employees in 2010 as maintenance and small remodeling projects started to trickle in again.
"We typically are not doing developer buildings where somebody builds the building and then flips it to someone else within three, four, five years. The clients of our buildings own their buildings and own them for 50 or 75 or 100 years," says Peter Smith, BWBR's vice president.
As a result of that longer-term focus, Smith says their clients are typically more interested in maintaining the quality of their buildings, and that means small but regular remodeling projects over the course of a building's life. He says BWBR has managed to maintain longer-term relationships with its clients.
Another fortunate factor: "We don't do retail. We don't do housing. Those things tend to have been hit much more severely over the last two years," says Smith. Instead, much of BWBR's work involves projects that require a higher level of sophistication, such as health care facilities, science and research buildings, and correctional facilities.
Completed projects include Maple Grove Hospital, the 3M Innovation Center, the Elmer L. Andersen Health and Human Services Building, and Lawson Commons. The 89-year-old firm is based in the Lawson Commons building in downtown St. Paul. It started 2010 with just under 100 employees and now has 111.
Source: Peter Smith, BWBR Architects
Writer:
Dan Haugen