Pub. 1 2020-2021 Issue 1

24 REFLEXION | 2020 | AIA Utah BY WILLIAM RICHARDS FOR AIA ARCHITECT Why Architects Matter in a Post-Pandemic World A sking why architects matter leads to two related answers. The first is about their intrinsic value to society as creators of healthy, safe, and beautiful buildings and spaces. This value is unchanging and impervious to recessions or depressions (or viruses, for that matter). The second (and the focus of this piece) is about the relative value of architects to clients, particularly during an economic and public health crisis. What is the basis of relative value? If referrals are the most important source of work for architects, then satisfaction eclipses all other measures of success — even financial. Client satisfaction is the heart of any creative brief. A 2016 AIA client insights report revealed that commercial and institutional owner-clients rated building performance and occupant satisfaction among the most important considerations for projects. “High numbers of owners report plans for future investment in healthy building attributes, energy efficiency, spaces for social interaction, and acoustic comfort,” reported AIA, “all features that suggest an occupant- centric focus for owners.” Granted, that was four years ago, during a comparatively healthier economic period, when 54% of office building owner- clients, 46% of health care owner-clients, and 46% of K-12 owner-clients anticipated increased spending on design and construction in the years to follow. But referrals will come again and satisfaction, now and in the eyes of a prospective client, is even more important. In short, there’s a qualitative narrative about perception and optics that is just as important as a quantitative data set in determining value. This narrative (and its many variations) is important when business cycles take their inevitable dip and especially vital during recessions.