6. Entering competitions is a good way to get a foothold in an overseas market
Answer: True—but proceed with caution
When it comes to international competitions, architects are split on whether they can actually boost your prospects of getting work. Taylor complains that there is often “so little correlation even between submitting the winning scheme and getting the commission to do the job” that competitions are next to pointless. “We rarely enter even paid competitions,” she says.
Others, especially younger and small-practice architects, disagree. Jameson sees competitions as an effective way of getting your name out to “paying clients [who are] interested in what you have to say.” John Reed can attest to the career-making power of design competitions. He won his Sewoon project in a competition four years ago and is in talks to do a master plan for a client in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, on the strength of his competition entry for Prague’s Czech National Library.
The upshot: Architects entering international competitions should keep in mind Taylor’s advice not to pin false hopes on them and shouldn’t let themselves be distracted from work that brings a more definite reward.
7. You must have a full-time local presence in the project city to ensure that construction meets your standards
Answer: True—but that presence can take different forms
Again, architects are divided over the necessity of maintaining a full-fledged office in a city or country they’re working in. On one end of the spectrum is Gensler, whose Shanghai design office, set up in 2005, has a permanent staff of 84, 60 percent of them mainland Chinese and 95 percent paid in local currency (the RMB). The office is set up as a consulting, wholly foreign-owned entity or WFOE, a more privileged legal status in China than that of representative office (RO), but one that requires more paperwork and up-front capital. MacBean says being a WFOE is proof of Gensler’s commitment to growing its presence and staying in Shanghai long-term—something that appeals to clients. “You really have to be here to understand how to work in China,” he says. Like other foreign firms, Gensler collaborates with local design institutes as required by Chinese law.
A somewhat different strategy is adopted by Chicago’s Goettsch Partners, which specializes in developer architecture and claims a roughly 30-30-30 split among Asia, the Middle East, and the U.S. in its current project roster. Goettsch has 83 people in Chicago and just two in Shanghai, with several more joining that office (an RO, for now) next year. Currently, rather than relocate staff, Goettsch has a “travel team” of key U.S.-based design employees who spend about 50 percent of their time in the Middle East or Asia.
As a mid-size firm, says partner Steve Nilles, Goettsch can be nimbler than its larger competitors, but more essential to its success is an “international mindset.” This means being aware of the rest of the world at all times: “The operation [in Chicago] is not necessarily based on U.S. time and U.S. weekends,” Nilles says, and technology means that there is “no break in the action, ever.” Perhaps more importantly, the firm’s self-perception as a global company has helped it attract a workforce drawn from 16 countries and speaking 25 languages. “If we’ve got a job in India and three architects from India, we’ll try to staff the job that way,” Nilles says.
