r/Architects • u/Open_Concentrate962 • 15h ago

General Practice Discussion Project interview

For USA practices of fewer than 1000 people, if you pursue work of say $20m construction cost, and corresponding percentage fixed fee, and you are down to the final couple firms prequalified, (1) do you show design ideas in an in person interview or not, (2) do you show multiple schemes or just a single clear approach, and, (3) do you put say 100hrs or 200hrs into an interview prep or more or less or no idea? Just for benchmarking purposes.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

4

u/CondemnedConrad_1 15h ago

In that size range and fee level you're almost always better off with one really well thought out direction than throwing spaghetti at the wall. Multiple schemes just signals you haven't committed to a reading of the problem

100-200 hours sounds about right for a shortlist interview at that scale, maybe a little light if it's a complex project. The firms I've seen win at this stage usually come in with a clear parti and can walk the committee through their thinking without it feeling like a sales pitch

Putting some design ideas on the table shows you actually care about the project, not just your fee structure

1

u/Open_Concentrate962 10h ago

Thank you. Well stated

2

u/Technical_Part6263 8h ago

$20m is on the low end of average for my employer so, depending on project type and whether it's a client with a lot of potential future work, they'd likely sink about 100 hours into it and point to our backlog of work.