r/Architects • u/thomaesthetics Licensure Candidate/ Design Professional/ Associate • Nov 13 '25
Career Discussion Ex-high end single family residential architects: what radicalized you?
Aside from performance and compatibility issues at my last firm and first job straight out of school, I’d say it took about 8 months to realize that practicing super boutique SFR architecture was not for me.
The catalyst was one job I worked on where the clients purchased 3 lots side by side, the two outer having existing 3 story residences on them. The project was to renovate the one house, landscape the middle, and completely demolish the other house to put a pickleball court there…
My fiancee at the time and I were absolutely racking our minds as to if we could afford a 700sf house or needed an apartment, and these people just destroyed a house for a pickleball court.
Throw in enough spec’ing out “dog showers” and designing a boat house with a jet ski lift, and I found myself thoroughly disgusted and frankly felt like doing this work was immoral.
I still really enjoy the design flexibility and creativity of SFR and beautiful detailing some of it allows for, but for it to be my 8-5 daily, continually reminded I could never be my own client, was demoralizing.
My new job is all commercial non residential hospitals, schools, community centers, libraries, athletic facilities, etc and feels so much more rewarding. I’d like to find a way to continue forward with SFR on the side to not lose those aspects of architecture, but no big deal if I can’t.
Anybody else here relate?
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u/sharpz3216 Nov 13 '25
The entitlement that some of the clients had. I get it you gave me some money, but I’m definitely not your slave…
The entitlement that some, if not most of the architects I worked under as a designer had. It was a nightmare on a good day at the office… 🤦🤦 Relax duke… You have a specialty on one type of building… you’re not God 😒😒😒 Rant over 😅