When Architects Don’t Work

When Lucy Van Pelt hung out her shingle in the “Peanuts” comic strip, offering “Psychiatry – 5¢,” it was supposed to be funny. When unemployed architect John Morfield hung out his shingle at a Seattle farmer’s market, offering “Architecture – 5¢,” he might have had a smile on his face. And passersby may have thought it was cute. But I’m guessing the twice-laid-off architect didn’t think it was so damn funny.

He probably wasn’t doing it for the nickels (for which he’d answer any architectural or building-related question) so much as a creative way to get the word out, in addition to sending resumes and responding to online employment opportunities, that he’s out of work and available for hire.

We didn’t need an article in The New York Times (“Architect, or Whatever,” Jan. 20, 2010) to tell us the store design profession is in hurt. The cycle reminds me of the cartoon of a big fish chasing a smaller fish, which is chasing an even smaller fish, right down the size chain. The biggest fish is the sucking economy, which is squeezing the consumer, who’s going to the store less, which is squeezing the retailer, who’s spending less on capital expenditures, which is squeezing the architects and store designers, which are letting people like John Morfield go.

Store design firms are being inventive and hopeful – see our article from the February issue of VMSD. And the Times article puts a sunny face on all this, too, talking about out-of-work architects who can finally pursue their muse. One woman in the article has turned to what evidently was her first love, ceramics, making pottery while living above her parents’ garage. Another is knitting stuffed animals. Two others have gone into the ice cream sandwich business, naming some of their creations Frank Behry and Mies Vanilla Rohe. (Architects! Get it?) One began a commercial truck driving school. And Morfield has turned his nickel’s worth of advice into a profitable succession of small jobs around town.

“It’s developed into what I was supposed to do,” he told the Times. “It’s a lot of work, it’s scary, but I love every minute of it. If someone offered me $80,000 to sit behind a computer, I wouldn’t do it.”

Hmmm. We’d better jump-start this economy, get retailers building stores again and putting designers and architects back to work behind those computers, or we won’t be able to get any stores built. One thing we don’t need, I think, is another adorably named ice cream sandwich.