Product Description

"The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice has been a definitive guide to architectural practice for almost a century. Now the Thirteenth Edition brings that experience to the cutting edge of the profession-with vital information to help architects manage the change from product-based practices to those that are knowledge-based and service-oriented.

For today's firms, best practice means putting the client first-and the new Handbook helps architects deliver. It begins with a brand-new section devoted to understanding client motivation, thinking, processes, and values and to forging stronger client-architect relationships.

Subsequent sections on business, delivery, and services offer a wealth of crucial "redefinition" knowledge and tools for designing, building, and maintaining a successful practice-from business planning and project management to the development of expanded, added-value services. Also included are samples of the AIA contract documents (more than 75 in all), now accessible electronically onCD-ROM.

Compiled by a team of experts from architecture as well as law, business, and other professions, the thirteenth edition of The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice remains an authoritative reference for high-quality professional practice. In a convenient book/CD-ROM format, the Handbook offers architects the information they need to meet the changing demands of the marketplace with insight and confidence."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #697519 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 988 pages

Review
"Our office would not function without at least one copy of The Architect's Handbook. It is an essential resource for our younger designers as well as those of us who have been around a long time." (Susan Maxman, FAIA Susan Maxman & Partners, Architects)

"We find the handbook to be a valuable resource, especially for our younger architects. Since most of our projects are based on the AIA Documents, the handbook serves as the glue that ties all of the loose ends together. We would have a hard time running our office without it." (J. Mark Schmidt AIA CSI CCS Senior Architect Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck Architecture)

"In today's business world, architects are encountering more demanding clients and competitors from both within and outside the world of architectural profession. To help architects deal with these challenges, the thirteenth edition of The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice departs from the viewpoint of earlier editions. It does so by redefining its audience, its content, and-at times-even the fundamental concept of the Handbook itself.
This Thirteenth Edition of the Handbook is written for journeymen architects seeking to introduce new services into their firms, to gain information about clients (including who they are and what motivates them), and to obtain information about best business practices. As a result, the organization of the Handbook has changed from an introspective "architect-firm project" view to a more embracing "client-business-delivery-services" orientation." (from "Practice in Transition", Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice 13e Robin M. Ellerthorpe, FAIA)

"Compiled by a team of experts from architecture, as well as Law, Business, and other professions, the Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice, Thirteenth Edition, provides a picture of architecture practice today by describing its varied components within a comprehensible and coherent framework. Its content and message will help architects refine or redefine their existing practices and build new ones to meet the demands and capture the opportunities of the emerging knowledge-based economy." (Architecture West, Jan/Feb 02)

From the Back Cover
REDEFINING THE PRACTICE OF ARCHITECTURE

CLIENT • BUSINESS • DELIVERY • SERVICES

The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice has been a definitive guide to architectural practice for almost a century. Now the Thirteenth Edition brings that experience to the cutting edge of the profession–with vital information to help architects manage the change from product-based practices to those that are knowledge-based and service-oriented.

For today’s firms, best practice means putting the client first–and the new Handbook helps architects deliver. It begins with a brand-new section devoted to understanding client motivation, thinking, processes, and values, and to forging stronger client-architect relationships.

Subsequent sections on business, delivery, and services offer a wealth of crucial "redefinition" knowledge and tools for designing, building, and maintaining a successful practice–from business planning and project management to the development of expanded, added-value services. Also included are samples of the AIA contract documents (more than 75 in all), now accessible electronically on CD-ROM.

Compiled by a team of experts from architecture as well as law, business, and other professions, the Thirteenth Edition of The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice remains an authoritative reference for high-quality professional practice. In a convenient book/CD-ROM format, the Handbook offers architects the information they need to meet the changing demands of the marketplace with insight and confidence.

About the Author
Primarily aimed at researchers and practitioners from public health, epidemiology and statistics, the book will also be suitable for graduate students of statistics and epidemiology, as well as professionals working in government agencies.

Customer Reviews

WILDLY uneven.
This book is an impressive accomplishment, admittedly. It is a vast amount of information, very thorough, complete, and seems to cover every aspect of professional practice for an architect. I have other editions of this book back to the 1958 copy, and they are fairly extraordinary records of the changes in the profession.

The failures of this book are to some extent caused by its subject matter. Architectural practice has changed in the last decade for some firms, and this book admirably tries to reflect and analyze that change -- although this probably holds true for a very small number of firms. If you're a partner at Skidmore Owings and Merrill and trying to broadly envision where practice is heading, hey this book is perfect for you. But I imagine many firms are not going to have that much use for re-examining the nature of the "client" or "project," a lot of this material would be better served by smaller (cheaper) specialized books.

It's an ambitious goal to attempt a comprehensive overview of architectural practice but its editing doesn't rise to the occasion. In between interesting insights and clear explanations of practice topics you really can't find elsewhere, you find some seriously clunky essays and information that is comically useless.

For example, consider this gem in an essay on architecture and the web: "Email is a personal, direct connection to the Internet. You can send messages, attach drawings, and communicate instantly across the globe with a few clicks of the mouse. Email is much like regular mail. You send mail to particular addresses, and they write to you at yours..." Okay, this for a book published in 2001. Not 1981, but 2001. Are they also going to explain what a telephone thingy is on my desk, or what I'm supposed to do with this fax machine here? It might have been useful to have a page about email's legal status, or how a firm should set policies about email, but what we've got here is a page long description for someone who's been living under a rock and has no idea what email actually IS. Although this is simply one minor example, it is the kind of thing that makes this book wildly uneven and screaming for a competent editor. For the price of this book I think we deserve more.

Worth It!
In addition to the all-new format (thankfully no more binders!), this book really does cover EVERYTHING an architect needs to know to run a business-- from working with clients to developing added-value services-- all in one book. I especially appreciate the new section devoted to understanding client motivation, thinking, processes, and values and the new section summarizing services I can offer to expand my client base. This is definitely the book that every architect needs to keep close at hand!