Architectural firms changing with times - Dayton Business Journal:

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But local architects are hopeful that by the end of this their drafting tables will be littered with By increasingmarketing efforts, reaching out to potentiao clients and staying on top of the latest design technology, officials want to be read y when business starts to come back. Alan president of Dayton-based , noticed a down tick in businessalast summer. He said his five-personh firm has tightened its but still has a steadhwork load. In Scherr’s billings dropped 33 percent, from $1.2 millioj to $800,000. He expects this year’w billings to decrease 20 percent fromlast year. The biggestf problem for his firm has been increased competitionj from outsidethe region.
Petedr Harsh, managing principal of Englewood-based , said his firm is facinbg similar challenges. “We’re holding our own, it’s just a littls slower,” Harsh said. App saw a slight increase in $2.13 million in 2007 to $2.23 million last but Harsh doesn’t expect another hike this Rising competition is one of themain challenges. Architectx say the number of firms biddinb on projects has doubled in thepast year. The increasedx submissions are from firms outside of Dayton lookinggfor business, and larger firm s submitting for smaller projects as a way to keep their employeeas busy.
For example, nearly 30 firmsd submitted proposals for the second buildinb indowntown Dayton’s TechTown, which Alan Scherr was ultimateluy awarded. And firms from as far away as Chicago were lookingy to landthe work. Scherr said this isn’t a smalp project, but just a few year ago, about half as many firms wouldd have submitted forthis project. “Everybody’s chasin g the same piece of the pie,” Scherrr said. “The pie is the same, but the firmsd that were working for larger clients no longer havethoses commissions.
” John Poe, president of Dayton-based , said larger firmx going after smaller projects are cutting their fees just to keep theif employees working. “That doesn’t help Poe said. And with companies pulling back on new buildingsdand remodels, there is less work in the The designs architecture firms perform now are a good indicatord of the work constructio n companies will be doing six to nine monthds from now.
Local construction companiexs arebusy now, but many are facinv backlogs that are looking increasingly On a national level, indicators show the potential for an The past two months have shown strong inquiries for new according to the , a leading economicd indicator of construction activity. In Marchg and April, the index was abov e 40 for the first time since August and Septemberf oflast year. A score abovde 50 indicates an increasein billings. to combat the recent slowdown, architectural firms are: • keeping up-to-dates with technology.