Sam Crawford Architects (SCA) started 25 years ago as a one-person firm. Today the studio celebrates this milestone with more than 200 completed projects and 25 staff. Their projects, both public and residential, have been shortlisted for 70 awards and have won 32. Sam Crawford shares his thoughts on how he has grown and developed his team and business over those 25 years.

I have run my own architectural practice for 25 years, commencing two years out from university. I have barely worked in another practice. Many of the things that I have learnt may seem obvious to others. I have learnt the hard way. I can only speak from my own experience of business longevity and success.

If I were to sum it up with one word, it would be ‘people’. Or, perhaps, three words:

Employ good people

Good people do great things. Employ the best architects, graduates or students that come your way. Be prepared to pay them well. Challenge and trust them. Seek the best of them. Encourage them to work outside of their comfort zone. Allow them to make mistakes and back them if things go wrong. You are ultimately responsible for all that your team does – the good and the bad. We have learnt together from our mistakes.

Grow your team slowly as your (and their) skills develop. We have grown by approximately one person per year of practice. That has worked well for us. A change of personnel and people bringing new skills and knowledge to the practice over time is a good thing. One or two people may leave each year, and two or three may join. We have found it is critical to maintain organisational memory so that the lessons learned are passed on and not lost. 

SCA is not the same practice that it was 25 years ago 

The cells have largely been replaced, but the DNA is the same. Our ethos is to treat people fairly and with generosity and they will do the same to you. Behave in a manner that you would wish others to behave. Be kind, respectful, ethical and reasonable. Know that you and others make mistakes and have limits. That is human. 

Architects are generalists. We know a little about a lot. It is tempting to think you can do everything. I have recognised that I cannot know or do everything, so I have paid well for good advice – whether that be business, bookkeeping, accounting, marketing and PR, photography, graphics, IT or legal.

Put your time into the things that you are best at, and as soon as you have the funds, pay others to do the things at which you can only ever be average. You are making an investment decision. Consider the benefits of investing in good advice, and the costs of not obtaining it, rather than simply the dollars leaving your bank account.

Remember, you will die

Maintaining a balance between work and personal life will be different for everyone. Look after your mental health, maintain a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Spend quality and quantity time with family and friends. Architecture is a wonderful profession, and can, at times, feel more like a calling than a job. Work to live, not live to work. Remember you will die. Blow off some steam occasionally.

Take holidays regardless of how busy you are. Insist that your team does also. You cannot do your job successfully without the perspective that distance brings. Three years ago, we instituted a nine-day fortnight without a drop in pay. Practice productivity, creativity and profitability have increased. Of course, productivity could have dropped. Without trying it we could not have known. 

Take risks and always do your best work regardless of the fee

Be prepared to take risks. I have never regretted employing a talented person even when I wasn’t sure if I had sufficient work in the pipeline to pay their future wages. Talented people who may lack some of the skills you are seeking will quickly develop them if given sufficient support. 

As we have grown, we identified those who have leadership qualities and provided them with the opportunity to grow and lead, and with the recognition and pay that entails. We now have a diverse leadership team of seven engaged in business development and consulted on all key practice decisions. This has opened up career progression within the team, helping us to retain people and develop capacity.

Do your best work regardless of the fee. Your best work will generally come from great clients. Get your best work photographed professionally to let people know what you are capable of. We seek to publish our projects in architecture media and enter industry and Institute awards. This, in turn, attracts good clients and more good work, which then attracts the best staff and leads to more good work.

Learn, always

You won’t always get it right. Architecture is a practice. Manage imposter syndrome. I get it all the time. I remind myself — you are much more capable than you think you are. But also remember the Dunning-Kruger effect – the cognitive bias in which people with limited competence overestimate their abilities. Conversely, you may not yet have the competence, but as an architect, you likely have the capability to learn. Just make sure you do.

It’s important to be continually open to and engage in learning; from your team, and your colleagues, by travelling, reading, going to seminars and undertaking training. You cannot stand still. The future will pass you by. 

Change is the only constant. After 15 years of practice, we identified that in order to do more public work — work with greater reach — we needed to create a Quality Management System in conformance with ISO 9001. Sounds tiresome. However, rather than undertake a box-ticking exercise to reach compliance, we invested the time and energy to develop a system that helps us to continually improve what we do, and with greater productivity. It has been well worth it.

Collaborate and reap the rewards

Design and building is a collaborative effort. Delivering buildings, landscapes and public spaces requires the skills, energy and collaboration of many and diverse people. Respect and value all of your collaborators. 

A great deal of energy can be expended concerning yourself with what you perceive to be the weakest link in the team delivering your project. It may be your client or their representative. Your time is better spent attempting to understand the drivers of their decisions, good or bad. There will be a reason for what they are doing or not doing. What is it? By understanding this, you can help steer the whole team in the right direction, to achieve the best possible outcome for your client and your community.

Leading an architectural practice is extremely taxing at times — both financially and personally. Yet it is equally rewarding if you stick at it. Collaborating with a remarkable bunch of architects and others in creating buildings and public spaces that bring dignity, equity and delight to your clients and community is a huge privilege; forever challenging, and well worth the effort.

Check out Sam Crawford Architects Parramatta Pavilion from 2022