Architects feel pinch

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34156, 18 May 1976, Page 7

Architects feel pinch

Although there is little work for many architects in the North Island, the position of those in Christchurch is a little healthier.

Of the eight firms surveyed by the chairman of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (Mr G. F. Willis), five had work for at least the next three months and two said that they were “quite busy” The three companies that had less work were concerned about the position. One was putting staff off. and another had reduced the number of professional staff about

a month ago. The third, which had done mostly commercial work, said that it had much less work than at this time last year. The firms surveyed had mixed practices, some doing mostly commercial work, others residential.

Things appeared much worse in the North Island, said Mr Willis. One Wellington firm had virtually no work at the drawing stage at present, and another had put off staff, with one of the two partners of the business being forced to retire. In Auckland some drawing staff were working a four-day or three-day week, as they did not want to leave the profession and were prepared to

take reduced pay rather than other employment. Restriction on local-body spending was one reason for the lower amount of work, said Mr Willis. The cost of delays to buildings ready for tender could be estimated at 1 per cent a month. A local-body office block that Mr Willis said his firm was designing was estimated to cost $200,000, but the normal increase in costs over the year put its completed value at $240,000. To postpone the building until September, which the local body ;had been forced to do, would add another $30,000 to costs, Mr Willis said. Architects made these estimates for insurance valua- j tion, said Mr Willis. He hoped that the Government had also I made estimates of this type, so that it would be able to assess the cost of delaying local-government and Government building projects.