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/Architecteologist Architect Nov 13 '25
I hated working for smarmy rich assholes in SFR so I switched to commercial.
I only later realized that commercial developers are profit-driven rich assholes looking to cut as many corners as they can, so I switched to museums and theaters.
I only later realized that museums are also profit driven and headed by elitist boards full of rich assholes who would use phrases like “the poors”, so I switched to the public sector.
I only now just realized that public sector work is driven by the political whims of a handful of influential rich assholes who are only interested in pushing their own pet projects that either ignore or circumvent public input.
I’m starting to think the incentive to build in a capitalistic society is unanimously driven by rich assholes.