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Relationships, Trust, and the Long Game
In the second installment of AIA Colorado’s three-part Marketing for Architects series, four panelists representing different sides of the selection process discussed what it takes to secure meaningful work in a competitive market.
Moderated by AIA Colorado Communications & Creative Director Jon Bell, the conversation featured:
The panelists work across development, urban infill, affordable and workforce housing, civic architecture, historic preservation, national parks, custom residential, and high-performance community projects. Despite those differences, several themes surfaced repeatedly: relationships matter more than transactions, expertise must be relevant and credible, and the ability to listen may be one of an architect’s most valuable business-development skills.
Event Recap
Chris Viscardi offered the client and developer perspective, describing how Kentro Group selects architects for projects ranging from commercial development to complex mixed-use and multifamily work.
For Kentro, architects are often engaged early to help test massing, density, programming, and the overall vision for a site. Relevant experience matters, particularly when a project combines complicated uses, but Viscardi emphasized that selecting a firm is ultimately about more than reviewing its portfolio.
Kentro wants to understand who will actually work on the project, not only the principals participating in the interview. The chemistry, experience, availability, and coordination of the day-to-day team can be more consequential than the reputation of the firm itself.
Viscardi also spoke about the value of established consultant relationships. Although owners may have preferred engineers or other specialists, he has learned that an architect’s existing team may produce better results because its members already understand how to work together.
“We’re not typically selecting on where the fee shakes out. Does it have to be fair? Sure. But it’s getting the right team for the project.”
“Every project is going to have some problem. As you develop a relationship with people, you create that trust.”
“There’s no substitute for experience and the most important thing is to work with the right people. If you achieve that, everything else has a way of working out.”
“It’s a small world and people don’t talk about what went right but word spreads quickly about bad experiences.”
Andy Rockmore, AIA, discussed how SAR+ has evolved alongside changes in Denver and the greater Rocky Mountain region. After completing significant market-rate multifamily work between 2010 and 2020, the firm responded to changing economic conditions and growing need by applying that experience to affordable and workforce housing.
For Rockmore, architects must recognize that they are service providers. Firms cannot operate independently from their clients or the market. They must understand where their expertise is relevant, follow changing needs, and apply their strengths in new contexts.
Much of SAR+’s work comes from repeat clients and referrals. When the firm meets a prospective client, the conversation is as much about evaluating compatibility as it is about winning the assignment. Because architects and clients may spend several years together, Rockmore said the relationship must work for both sides.
That client-centered outlook also shapes SAR+’s proposals and presentations. The firm avoids making the pursuit primarily about its own portfolio or identity. Its proposal covers focus on the client’s project, and the client’s logo is never subordinate to the firm’s. These details reinforce a larger message: the architect is there to understand and help solve the client’s problem.
“Don’t do a bad project. Ever.”
“The foundations of business are relationships. It certainly helps to have good work, but it’s the relationships.”
“It is dating in every essence of the term, and it better be right for both of you because you’re about to spend two or three years together.”
“We are all doing business development everyday by the way we carry ourselves, speak, listen, act, work and show up.”
Wells Squier, AIA, described a pursuit environment shaped heavily by requests for qualifications, formal shortlists, interviews, public accountability, and risk management.
Anderson Hallas focuses on public-sector work, including libraries, municipal buildings, public-safety projects, parks, national parks, preservation, and adaptive reuse. The firm balances contemporary new construction with deep historic-preservation expertise.
In a qualifications-based selection, every shortlisted firm may appear capable of completing the work. Differentiation happens when a team demonstrates that it understands the client’s particular circumstances: the project’s purpose, its stakeholders, its pressures, and the problems keeping the client awake at night.
This becomes especially important for public clients who may undertake only one major building project in a decade. They must use public funds responsibly while selecting a team during a relatively short interview. Architects therefore need to communicate both their commitment to the client’s vision and their ability to manage risk.
Squier also described the extensive groundwork behind public-sector business development. Anderson Hallas monitors capital-improvement plans, attends market-specific conferences, pursues on-call contracts, maintains relationships with municipalities, and watches procurement platforms for opportunities. Sometimes the firm has time to position itself in advance; at other times, an ideal RFP appears with an immediate deadline.
“It’s knowing your prospective client to the degree you can research and understand what their challenges are, what their heartaches are, and what the ultimate need of their project is.”
“You’re not going to win every job. You might not be the right fit for every client or every client group.”
“We choose the work we do because it adds value to the world and gets us out of bed every morning.”
Steve Scribner, AIA, discussed how Shape Architecture Studio has built a recognizable niche around high-performance, low-energy design.
The firm’s portfolio includes custom residential work as well as mixed-use, commercial, renovation, and community projects. Scribner cited the Bluff Lake Nature Center as an especially meaningful commission because it combined sustainability, community, nature, and net-zero aspirations. Shape’s work in Leadville has similarly grown through local relationships and projects that contribute to the community.
Shape’s early involvement with organizations including the Colorado Green Building Guild and Passive House Rocky Mountain helped the firm secure its first passive-house projects and establish credible expertise. That clarity now helps prospective clients find the firm.
Scribner described the strongest niche as an intersection of expertise, passion, and viable work. For Shape, sustainability is not an added service or marketing claim; it is part of the firm’s mission. But winning a project still requires the architects to meet clients where they are.
Some clients arrive with extensive knowledge of passive-house principles. Others are more interested in comfort, indoor-air quality, durability, health, or long-term savings. Shape’s role is to listen, understand those priorities, and connect its technical expertise to what the client already values.
Builders also play a central role in Shape’s referral network. Because relatively few homeowners build multiple houses, successful relationships with builders can generate a continuing stream of well-aligned clients and projects.
“If we can make a really cool passive house and people say, ‘That’s what I want,’ that’s how we’re going to change the world.”
“It’s all about empathy and listening and understanding where they’re coming from.”
“Don’t take it personally. Do the work, put your best foot forward and keep moving.”
“We looked the Jim Collins Venn diagram of what you are passionate about, what you can be best at and where you can make money.”
“There was no choice but to hit it out of the park every time.”
The discussion eventually moved from winning a commission to delivering the work after the contract is signed.
Viscardi emphasized constructibility and responsiveness. A detail may make sense conceptually but still present challenges in the field. When that happens, owners need architects who respond quickly, collaborate with the broader team, and keep the project moving.
He also described the current challenge of getting projects financed and started. In a difficult capital market, cost conversations affect every member of the project team. Architects who understand that context can become more effective partners in finding a viable path forward.
The architects described construction administration as an increasingly significant portion of their work. Rockmore estimated that as much as 30 percent of a project’s total effort may occur during construction. Digital project-management tools have made it easier to generate RFIs, but responding to those questions can place substantial demands on architectural teams, particularly when answers already exist in the documents.
Squier noted that public-sector firms may have to propose fees before knowing the likely construction duration. An inaccurate assumption about the number of site meetings or length of construction can significantly affect the fee and the firm’s ability to compete.
Scribner said residential and small commercial clients may not initially understand why the architect should remain involved after the drawings are completed. Bringing a strong builder into the process early can reduce conflict, improve coordination, and allow the architect to address options before they become expensive problems.
“We want our designers to be ingrained and answering the questions. They’re the expert, and that’s where it’s all coming together.” — Chris Viscardi
“If a project takes 10,000 hours, 3,000 of those could be in the field getting it built.” — Andy Rockmore, AIA
“We’re committed to the projects. We need to see them through, and often we’re extending ourselves beyond what we originally assumed in the CA phase.” — Wells Squier, AIA
The panel closed by considering how smaller and emerging firms can overcome two common barriers: limited experience and a limited network of relationships.
Viscardi stressed the importance of reputation. Developers and other clients talk to one another, and both positive and negative experiences travel quickly. Firms build credibility by doing what they promise, communicating honestly, and handling difficulties responsibly.
Squier advised firms to be persistent and use each successful project as a stepping stone. A small renovation or addition can establish the experience needed to compete for a larger ground-up project. That new project can then create referrals within a specialized client community.
Rockmore endorsed partnering with firms that have complementary experience. Strategic partnerships can help a firm enter a new sector, meet new clients, learn different methods, and develop qualifications it could not establish alone.
Scribner described growth as a combination of opportunity and execution. Shape’s work with prefabricated-home manufacturers opened doors to new project types, but each opportunity also carried significant pressure to perform. A fortunate introduction may create the opening; what the firm does with that opening determines whether it leads to lasting growth.
“The best way to earn business is the referral network. You can’t burn bridges, and you have to be upfront and execute what you say you’re going to do.” — Chris Viscardi
“Be persistent. Do the best you can with each project you get and use that as your stepping stone.” — Wells Squier, AIA
“Join with other architects and partner on a project in which you have less experience. You learn a lot, good things and bad things, about how other firms work.” — Andy Rockmore
“Every time we got one of those chances, we felt like we had to knock it out of the park.” — Steve Scribner, AIA
The conversation covered several distinct markets and methods of winning work, but it returned repeatedly to the same principle: successful business development is built on trust.
Portfolios, qualifications, fees, proposals, and presentations all matter. But clients also want to know who will do the work, whether the team will listen, how it will respond when something goes wrong, and whether the relationship can withstand several years of difficult decisions.
For architecture firms, winning better work begins long before the interview and continues long after the contract is signed. Every project, relationship, construction-phase decision, and fulfilled promise becomes part of the case for why a client should choose the firm again.
From Project to Publication
Great architecture deserves to be seen, but great design alone rarely earns media coverage.
That was the central message of AIA Colorado’s first Marketing for Architects session, From Project to Publication, where editors, journalists, storytellers, and content creators shared an inside look at how projects make their way into magazines, newspapers, websites, and social media.
While each panelist approaches storytelling differently, they agreed on one fundamental point: architects need to think about publication long before a project is complete.