commentOnly 38 firms responded to the survey, even though last year over 50 sent in their information. Almost all of the non-respondents were small firms with less than $1 million in revenue last year.
“A lot of firms have been subjected to staff reductions and only now have a few been able to hire some back,” says Bob Packard, managing partner of ZGF. “The range of firms that it impacts is growing though. It depends on the breadth of your work.”
For ZGF, the markets have been a little kinder. It specializes in three of the niches that still show signs of life; health care; work in China and Southeast Asia and universities. Also promising is its new contract to design the national Homeland Security Headquarters near Washington, D.C.
University work is starting to slow, as state budgets are slashed to meet budget demands. “Even so, institutions of all kinds are thinking about the future,” says Packard.
Callison, the largest firm in the Northwest, had some layoffs as well, says Paula Stafford, IIDA, the Seattle firm’s executive vice president. The firm works in a variety of projects, but its bread and butter is the retail market.
Companies aren’t investing in huge new developments, “but rather designing smaller, fast track projects that represent their brands,” says Stafford. That applies to all sorts of retailers from the corner boutique to world wide brands such as Nike and AT&T.
Stafford, too, sees projects picking up in Southeast Asia, especially in the second tier cities.
“Things are picking up in China, Vietnam and Singapore, but I can’t comment on the depth of that work,” says Packard.
Both see a slow commercial market in the Northwest for the next several years.
“We won’t see another world class project, like the Bravern, here for a long time,” Stafford says. “Smaller retail and rebranding projects will be the norm for quite a while.”
Smaller architects are even harder hit. Keith Cavanaugh an architect and developer of Tenpod Development in Portland, is trying to sell one of his buildings, The Rocket. The reason? “I need money to finance my future projects so I’m selling the building to open the “Bank of Keith”.
ZGF also was involved as a developer of sorts, with Gerding Edlen Development of Portland. Together they built Twelve West, a mixed use project consisting of one floor of retail, four floors of office space, occupied by ZGF, and 17 floors of apartments. Hoffman Construction is the general contractor.
The building, expected to be LEED Platinum, is a sustainable design landmark.
“We wanted to hit new levels of achievement and integrate as many LEED features as possible,” says Peter Vandermaler.
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