My name’s Bill Hutchinson. I’m an Architect in Regina. I’m a senior partner in Stone Hutchinson Architects. I’ve been an Architect for about 20 years now.

I like it because you get to use design and you get to solve problems. Those are two things that I was always interested in doing. That’s what Architecture is all about, using design to solve problems.


[Typical Work Day:]

A typical day can vary dramatically from day to day. In fact, I guess the simple answer is there is no typical day. That’s one of the nice things about an Architectural practice. There’s a lot of variety in terms of the work that you do on a month-to-month and year-to-year basis and I guess there really is no typical day.

One kind of day that we might have would be a day when we start first thing in the morning with a design problem. We have a new school to do for the School Board and we have to get started. What we might be doing that particular day is:

going out and meeting some of the client groups,
talking to the parents,
talking to the kids,
talking to the teachers.
What that might entail would be:

meetings with some of the school administrators and school board personnel in the morning to understand what they’re talking about and what their expectations are in this project and we might have a working lunch together.
The afternoon might be meetings with teachers and students from the classes.
We might have supper, again it might be a working supper together, and we devote the evening to meeting with our customers and our tax paying public, our parents, and parent-teacher groups - those sorts of things. So we might have a day like that.
Another day, around here, might be a day on the road. Let’s imagine that we’ve got to the point where we’ve built this thing, where we’re in the process of building this particular school. We have to go out there and make sure that it’s being built properly. So we work very closely with our client, the board, and our partner in the adventure (at this point in time, the Contractor), to make sure that the thing is being built on time and on budget and according to the blueprints and building specifications.

[Education & Training:]

There are two ways to become educated so you can call yourself an Architect. I took the traditional path which was to go through high school, Grade 12 in my case, and then to go through a University Course. I went to the University of Waterloo, there are two degree programs there. There’s an undergraduate program called the Bachelor of Environmental Studies Course that’s followed by a professional course in Architecture. You end up with two Bachelors Degrees. People that go to the University of Manitoba end up with two Degrees as well. Their final degree is a Master’s Degree.

The non-traditional route that a few people take, is to get a technical education. For example, they can go through the Drafting Course at SIAST and with that under their belt, they can get a job in an Architectural Firm using an Architect principle in the firm as a mentor. They can then go on and take the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Syllabus Course, which is an equivalent course of study which takes a few years and you do that while you’re working.

[Listening Skills:]

The first thing that you need to be a good Architect is an ability and an interest in listening to people and learning about their needs. You really have to understand what it is that they’re trying to accomplish, in terms of providing physical space to meet their particular requirements and that could be function, that could be aesthetics, that could be budget and any number of other things too. That’s the basic thing right there.

[Teamwork Skills:]

Teamwork skills are very important, I would say they’re essential. You have to become an effective part of the team and use your listening skills to help create the right sort of environment in which people feel comfortable in sharing their needs and their wants in a building program to you. We have to create a positive working environment so that people do feel comfortable, that’s one of the keys to a successful relationship between a client group and an Architect.

[Change & Adaptability:]

We learned everything on the Drafting Board now that’s changed dramatically. All of the work that comes out of this office for example, today whether it’s the design work, whether it’s working drawings, building specifications, our accounting system, our correspondence, minutes from meetings, everything is done on the computer now. That’s one aspect of change.

There’s another kind of change too and that’s changing materials that are used in buildings and also the kinds of construction processes. Things are built differently today, than they were say twenty or so years ago when I started out and we had to adapt to that technological change as well.

[Ongoing Training:]

Ongoing training is another thing that we have to keep in mind too. We like to think that the amount of information that you get by going through the traditional Architectural Education Courses in Universities gives you perhaps twenty five percent of what you need to be a successful professional. So in between that point of graduating and becoming a partner in an Architectural firm, there’s an awful lot of learning that goes on and it doesn’t stop there.

We like to think that we’re keeping current with technology, changes in building materials and building systems as we were talking about before. Certainly changes in the technological environment, computers and software programs. We also have to take ongoing courses in what’s changing in the legal aspects, how about environmental expectations of our clients and the legal framework surrounding those sorts of issues. So there are all kinds of things.

[Most Challenging Aspects:]

The most challenging aspect of the job is to develop a set of skills that will allow you to touch all of the important basis on an ongoing basis. Certainly you have to have some expertise in design and as far as I can recall, that was the main adventure in school. The main purpose was to give us experience in design so that we could comfortably address a wide variety of design problems. You also have to have the business skills. You also have to keep up with continuing education to make sure that your understanding of the legal and environmental environment is current. One of the major challenges in a business is finding enough work to keep going and to keep things on an even keel around here so that you’re not either too busy at one time or not busy enough at another.

The most satisfying part of my job is definitely a happy client.

[One Thing That You Would Change In This Occupation:]

I think that what I would like young Architectural students to learn is a little bit more about how to survive in the business world. I would like Architectural students to know a little bit more about things like the National Building code and local municipal codes. All these kinds of life safety issues, zoning requirements, what happens down at City Hall when you present a set of plans and the workings that go on in there. We should be more knowledgeable about that when you come out. There’s a tremendous gap in knowledge when you come out.

[Advice For Someone Entering This Field Of Work:]

The advice that I would give any youngster thinking about a potential career in Architecture is talk to some Architects. Wherever you live, if you’re in a major city in Saskatchewan, there are probably several different offices of Architects. Phone them up, ask if you can talk to somebody there. Talk to one of the Principle Architects who runs the firm. Talk to a Junior Architect whose a recent graduate that can give you a recent perspective on what’s happening in the schools. Talk to somebody whose doing one of the Technical jobs, either specification writing or the drawing of the blueprints, to learn what happens with that aspect too.

There are a wide variety of jobs in the career of Architecture in the profession, and I think that any young person would be best advised to canvass offices, talk to people doing different things and find out what’s going on there. I would definitely recommend going to some of the nearby Architectural schools. Certainly, the University of Manitoba has one in Winnipeg. It’s a well-known school in Western Canada. The University of Calgary is another well-established school too. If you’re travelling further in the field, Ontario and B.C. also have schools as well. I would recommend people do all of those things.