A HANDBOOK OF ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE Issued by the American Institute of Architects THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS, INC. THE OCTAGON HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D. C. T PURPOSE OF THE HANDBOOK HIS Handbook is intended as an aid to proper practice and efficient business administration. To the student who intends to make architecture his profession, and to the young practitioner, it will be of service in a field to which experience has heretofore been the only guide; while to the architect whose practice is fully established, it may offer useful suggestions. To the Owner it should be of value as enabling him the more intelligently to coöperate with his architect. It is hoped that the Handbook will give an insight into methods which might elsewhere be sought in vain and that it will aid in improving and standardizing common practice. The book is a collection of practices, each one of which may somewhere be found in use and many of which are everywhere in use. Yet it must be said at the outset that no architect, however highly his administrative methods may be developed, follows all the steps described in it, and that even though there may be many that he does not deem it necessary to follow, he may still conduct his practice with efficiency and with entire loyalty to the owner's interests. The young architect should not be deterred from reading the Handbook because it deals with many methods that are unnecessary in his practice; for as that practice grows and as he delegates his work to others, he will find much to aid him in it. Not only the young practitioner, but all architects, should be warned against adopting any elaborate and intricate system, no matter how well devised, unless required by and adapted to the character and volume of his work. To facilitate the application of the methods outlined in this Handbook, the Institute publishes a document entitled "Agenda for Architects", which appears herein as Appendix A. 393773 |