Changing the profession from the inside out

{"version":"0.3.0","atoms":[],"cards":[],"markups":[["i"],["a",["href","https:\/\/architectsfora.com\/"]],["a",["href","https:\/\/conferenceonarchitecture.com\/schedule\/#poster-2294657"]],["b"]],"sections":[[1,"h2",[[0,[],0,"At A\u002723, three architects hope to demystify firm ownership for women and minorities."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[0],0,"Leah Alissa Bayer, AIA, leads virtual firm "],[0,[1],1,"Architects FORA"],[0,[],0," alongside business partners\nKate Conley, AIA, and Sarah Vaccaro, AIA. At AIA\u2019s upcoming Conference on\nArchitecture 2023, they\u2019ll lead the session "],[0,[2],1,"Buying,\nAcquiring, Elevating: Three Women, Three Paths to the Top"],[0,[],1,". We spoke with Bayer\nabout firm ownership, building a firm that aims to support the careers of its women\nemployees, and Architects FORA\u2019s mission of designing equitable and affordable\nhousing. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[3],1,"In 2021, your practice merged with a firm that was called\nOJK at the time. Can you tell me how that came about? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Interestingly, it was an opportunity that came out of\narchitecture firms supporting one another during the pandemic. My firm had\nslowed in work, but I had started my practice as a virtual firm. I was not\naffected logistically by Covid, but more from the [amount of] work perspective.\nOne of my employees ended up having to take another job because I didn\u2019t have\nenough work for her. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The day she was supposed to start\nin her new employer\u2019s office, she received a work-from-home order, so she never\nactually went into that firm\u2019s office space. The firm owner of that firm was\nfreaking out because he had a very traditional practice and didn\u2019t know what to\ndo, or how he was going to run his firm remotely."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"She was like, \u201cHey, I have an\nidea. The other firm I work for is a remote practice, and I bet she would be\nhappy to help you transfer your systems to a remote format in exchange for\nperhaps hiring her team to work on some of your projects.\u201d [The firm] had a lot\nof work, and they didn\u2019t have enough staff. We [firm owner Jerry King, FAIA and\nI] ended up connecting and talking, and we hit it off. He\u2019s just really a\nlovely human and had a great mission and portfolio of work. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I met with the project manager\nthat had been working with him for about a year, who is now my business partner.\nShe told me a bit about the affordable housing project that she was working on,\nand we decided to make the exchange. I helped [the firm owner] transfer all of\nhis systems to cloud-based systems \u2013 REVIT and BIM. He hired my team to work on\nthis project with Sarah [Vaccaro], and over the next six months, our team loved\nthe work and Sarah and I became very close. We had really similar goals in mind\nfor the future of architecture. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"We were talking one day, and she\nsaid, \u201cJerry asked me if I might want to take over his practice, and I don\u2019t\nwant to because I don\u2019t want to run a business. But you love running a\nbusiness, so what do you think about partnering and taking over his firm?\u201d And\nI was like, \u201cWhat?\u201d [laughs] "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[3],1,"How did you move forward from\nthere to form Architects FORA? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I met Kate [Conley], who was\nworking for another large firm at the time, and the three of us just really hit\nit off right away. We built this huge mind map and started looking at what\nmattered to us in life and what we wanted to pursue. We found that we had\nreally complimentary interests and we were aligned in values and mission, but\nvery different passions in how we practice architecture. We were just like,\n\u201cOkay, if this opportunity doesn\u2019t work out either way, we have to partner and\nrun a practice together because we have this really beautiful synergy. We just,\nin earnest, entered into an agreement and negotiated very, very quickly. We\ntook over the practice a few months later. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"It definitely felt like there were\nsome things aligning that were beyond us. It turned out that Kate and I grew up\nin the same hometown and went to the same dance classes. [laughs] All three of\nus went to college at [California Polytechnic State University] and I never met\nthem. So it was just this really funny crossing of paths until we got to this\nplace. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[3],1,"Architects FORA has a\nmultifamily housing focus, correct? Was that something you were focused on\nbefore coming into this firm? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I was focused on residential work.\nMy practice had been focused more on single-family housing, just because that\u2019s\nan easier market to get into. However, I had a very sustainable focus \u2013 our\nmain project was a total off-grid development in Hawaii. We wanted to pivot into\nmultifamily but weren\u2019t quite sure how to get there. We had a retreat right\nbefore the pandemic, and we were evaluating where we wanted to go next. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"OJK had a 40-year history and\nlegacy of not just multifamily, but also affordable housing design. That\u2019s not\nsomething that I knew very much about until I started working with them, but in\nour retreat we had sort of identified, \u201cYeah, it\u2019s fun to work for the\nmillionaires and billionaires of the world because you can do really cool\nstuff, but it also doesn\u2019t really feel that great as architects to just work\nfor those clients.\u201d "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"We stated that we wanted to serve\nthe underserved, and this this opportunity arose to work on affordable housing.\nIt was just like, \u201cOh, this makes sense. It\u2019s residential, and it\u2019s serving the\npopulations that we want to serve.\u201d So that\u2019s what we carried on. What was\nimportant to Jerry was that the legacy of practicing affordable housing and\nreally investing in underserved populations was continued beyond him once he\nsold his practice. That was critical to his decision of who he sold it to. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[3],1,"Can you tell me about what your\nsession at A\u201923 is going to focus on? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The purpose of the talk is to\nrepresent three different buy-ins. Sarah is the internal transition, which is\nusually treated very differently from an external sale. Kate was sort of like\nan individual just buying stock into a partnership. I represent the perspective\nof coming in with an established practice and merging with an existing\npractice. We\u2019ll talk about what the different considerations are for each of\nthose perspectives, as well as how to structure a sale. Typically, those would\nalso be different ways that you would structure selling a practice. Doing it\nall in one transaction was a little tricky. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[3],1,"What were some of the\nchallenges inherent in the sale process? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"One of them is always going to be\nwhat the price is. An internal transition usually has a reduced buy-in because\nthere\u2019s incentive to want to bring up your existing staff. An external sale is\ngoing to try and sell for the highest price, and that case it\u2019s about trying to\nreconcile [the price] with a firm owner who is looking at selling everything\nhe\u2019s ever done. Finding the right valuation method was an exploration, and we\nended up coming up with a hybrid, mid-range-based value, but then offering\nadditional payout and incentive based off of our revenue over the next three\nyears. If we did well, then he would receive more funds, and it incentivized\nhim to help with that transition over a period of time, as well. So that helped\nus bridge the gap between the different expectations of the parties. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[3],1,"It\u0027s interesting that you had\nalready been running a virtual practice before the pandemic, and Architect FORA\nis completely virtual. How has this model been beneficial? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The marriage between our practices\nwas really my system and way of running a firm, and Jerry\u2019s clients and\nportfolio. The virtual practice is something that I started because of my\ninvolvement with the women in architecture in my local AIA chapter, and just\nhearing story after story about what happens to women in caretaking roles. It really\nuspet me, and I was at an age where I was starting to think about, \u201cWhat does\nfamily look like for me? What am I going to be trapped in based off of these\ntraditional models?\u201d I decided that I wanted to build something that would\nsupport people and prevent them from having to drop out [of the profession] or penalize them for\ntaking time off to raise a family. "]]],[1,"h2",[[0,[],0,"\u0022I decided I wanted to build something that would support people and prevent them from having to drop out [of the profession] or penalize them for taking time off to raise a family.\u0022 "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[3],1,"What would you tell other women\nand\/or minorities in the profession who may be looking to make this leap to\nownership? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The main thing we want people to\ntake away is that it\u2019s really not that hard or scary. It\u2019s totally accessible.\nWhen you hear about firm ownership or acquiring a firm, it sounds like a very\ndifficult and very expensive process. I think that\u2019s a barrier for a lot of\npeople thinking, you know, \u201cOnly those of a certain circumstance that have the\nfunds to do it can do it.\u201d But we were able to enter into this agreement\nwithout putting any money down. The barrier was not anything related to\nfinances. It was really about understanding what we wanted from our careers and\nour future and aligning that with the mission of the practice. You have to care\nabout this practice indefinitely. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I also think the importance of\npartnership is a big component of what we learned. It was very difficult to run\na firm on my own. I had so much anxiety until Sarah, Kate and I partnered, and\nthen, Day 1, I was just like, \u201cOh, I feel so much better.\u201d You really are\nworking so closely with your partners. So whatever the opportunity is that\nyou\u2019re considering, whether it\u2019s buying into an existing partnership or forming\nyour own partnership or completely taking over something, it\u2019s important to\nreally consider who it is that you\u2019re going to be working with day in and day\nout, and whether that\u2019s somebody that you trust and that you know is going to\nsupport you as much as you\u2019re going to support them. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"If the work and the partnership\naspect are in alignment and you\u2019re really excited about it, just jump and do\nit. If we could do it in a matter of months without knowing anything about firm\ntransitions and firm ownership, then truly anybody can do this. You just need\nthe right support system. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[3],1,"What\u2019s the biggest thing you\nhope people take away from your session at A\u201923? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"This is doable and accessible, and\nit\u2019s an option for people. It\u2019s very difficult to change firm culture when\nyou\u2019re not in a leadership position. We\u2019re seeing a lot of challenges with\nexpectations of leadership and what people are demanding as employees, especially\nafter things have been shaken up post-Covid. For a long time, we\u2019ve seen a lot\nof challenges related to a lack of diversity. Without people in positions of\npower and leadership to make the decisions to create firms that work for them,\nit\u2019s just not going to happen. It\u2019s going to be a much slower change. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I think there\u2019s a great\nopportunity with so many firm owners looking to retire in the next handful of\nyears to really step up, take over a legacy and have existing work so you\u2019re\nnot having to start from scratch. The best way to enjoy the firm that you work\nin is to be the person that\u2019s making the decisions on what those policies are.\nThat\u2019s been really exciting for us. Every day we\u2019re sort of like, \u201cOh, can we\ndo that?\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cOh, we "],[0,[0],1,"can "],[0,[],0,"do that. We\u2019re the boss.\u201d [laughs] "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I think if we want to see more\npeople staying in architecture, if we want to see more diverse people, this is\nan important component to making that happen. "]]]]}