Conducting interviews with potential architectural firms will help you pinpoint the most qualified candidate and one that works well with your team.

Choosing an architect is a critical decision that greatly influences how your building project turns out. Although approaches to selecting an architect vary, it’s essential to have a well-defined—and reliable process for making a good

Choosing an architect is a “learned skill,” says Chuck Young, director of facilities and administrative services for WITF, a public broadcasting station in Harrisburg, PA. A former construction representative for a hospital, Young helped WITF put together a process for selecting an architect for a new multimedia technology center.

Young started by contacting the American Association of Architects (AIA), talking to colleagues, and getting referrals. He came up with a list of 80 architects worldwide with experience in broadcast facilities. He narrowed the list to 24 U.S. firms east of the Mississippi River and sent them requests for qualifications. He received 13 responses. A building committee made up of staff, board members, and outside experts (including a retired architect and the CEO of an architectural/engineering firm) evaluated the responses and selected five firms to receive formal requests for proposals.

Interviews took place after the receipt of the proposals. “We took one full day and gave each firm 90 minutes to present themselves and what they could do for WITF and why they should be given the opportunity,” Young says. The committee then “deliberated on its findings and feelings.” They focused on such areas as the quality of the presentations, the enthusiasm the firms showed, how well the firms understood WITF as an organization and its role in the community, the scheduling and cost-control techniques the firms proposed, and their ability to work as part of a team with a general contractor or construction manager.

In the end, the committee selected a joint venture—a Washington, DC, firm with experience in broadcast facilities paired with a large, Harrisburg-based firm. The whole process started in February and was completed in mid-April.

Ken Martin, vice president for business and finance at Messiah College in Grantham, PA, uses a two-stage process for selecting architects for major construction projects. Martin sends out requests for qualifications to six to eight architects per project. He selects these from firms the school has used in the past, those that he has learned about from other schools, and those that he has become familiar with from mailings, phone calls, visits, or publications.

Then Martin, along with the school president, the vice president for planning and facilities, and a subcommittee of the board members choose three to five firms to interview. They narrow the field on the basis of references and experience. “We look at past work, their experience in specific kinds of projects,” Martin explains. “Do they have experience with the type of facility we’re looking for?” Building a lab for a pharmaceutical company is vastly different than building a science lab for a college, he says. Has the architect worked with a private college before, or only public schools? Has the architect worked for a small school, or has it worked primarily with big, multi-campus institutions?

The firms selected for interviews are asked to send not just marketing personnel, but also those who would be the project principals and actual designers. “This allows you to get a feel for the chemistry,” Martin says. His selection group isn’t interested in hearing a generic marketing pitch. The group wants to “interact” and find out how the firm would approach the specific project. “During the interview you can pick up on how flexible the architect is to changes. Do they have a preconceived notion or will they develop the project with you?” He describes the critical consideration this way: “Will the architect put form around the function that is going to meet our needs rather than present the form and expect us to adapt our function to the form?”

Competition is another way to go. When Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, decided to build a new concert hall it chose the architect by holding a design competition. The school considered 10 to 15 architects and invited a half dozen to submit. John Enos, associate provost for facilities planning and information technologies, thinks the competitive aspect adds a helpful twist because it spurs candidates to submit their “best thinking.”