Architect as Developer

One of the most well-known online courses for architects interested in development is Jonathan Segal’s Architect as Developer course. This course is a pretty good starting place for anyone wanting to learn more about developing as an architect. I know a lot of architects who have taken this course. That said, it isn’t cheap. The course runs $499 with an optional subscription fee of $9.99 for continued access to the Jonny’s World videos where Jonathan gives periodic updates on his projects and answers questions from participants. Is it worth it? Hard to say. The course itself is only 4-hours long. The real meat of information is in the Jonny’s World videos. There are over 70 videos (usually a few minutes each) dating back from 2012. You will learn the most by going through each of these. He doesn’t add videos very often anymore, making the subscription less worthwhile. If you don’t mind dropping $500, then do it. You can learn just as much for a lot less money by reading real estate books. See some of the books I recommend on the Architect & Developer Books page {here}.

See more about the course at architectasdeveloper.com

See a podcast interview with Jonathan Segal {here}.

Real Estate Finance

with Joshua Kahr Columbia Real Estate

This is an actual university course offered by Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). You can watch or listen to the entire course for free on iTunesU on their app or website at itunes.apple.com. Professor Kahr does a fantastic job of teaching architects about real estate. He has also put the lecture series on his own YouTube page along with some Excel tutorials. Check those out {here}. If you are interested in real estate, start with a few lectures from this free online course.

Coursera

You can watch entire semesters of college and graduate level courses from world-renowned universities and professors at your own leisure. Coursera hosts content from many universities which offer free online courses, with an optional paid service for those looking for online certification. Coursera has formed partnerships with Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania (including the Wharton School), the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Stanford University, and so many more. Finding courses that are directly about real estate isn’t easy, but they do have a number of interesting courses including Construction Finance offered by Columbia University and Financial Markets offered by Yale University. This is a fantastic free resource for understanding economics and general finance. When enrolling in a course, keep in mind that the default is a paid model. There is always an option somewhere (it isn’t always easy to find) to audit an online course for free.

See more about coursera at coursera.org

EdX

EdX is similar to Coursera but with partnerships at a different set of universities such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of California, Berkeley, Cornell University, and many more. They have a few courses in business and finance that could help you understand the fundamentals of real estate. There are a few courses more specific to real estate including Socially-Responsible Real Estate Development offered by MIT and Project Finance and Public Private Partnerships Fundamentals offered by the New York Institute of Finance.

See more about EdX at edx.org

C|S Architect as Developer Course

In 2016, Architect & Developer Danny Cerezo of C|S Design began putting together a course on Architect as Developer.  He has put together a number of videos that walk through a pro forma in a very easy to grasp way. Watch Danny’s videos if you are starting out and trying to understand how pro formas are used in real estate. Also, see more of Danny’s work at candsdesign.com

The following is a list of known Architects & Developers from around the world. If you know others not listed, please let me know at james@architectanddeveloper.com

I have put together a map of known projects developed by architects along with some images. You can use the map below, or visit the map in a seperate browser {here on Google}. You can also load this into your phone’s Google Maps App by going to your phone’s web browser and going to bit.ly/archdev. Sign into your google account, and the map will then show up in your Google Maps App! This can be toggled on/off in the app by going to Menu>Your Places>Maps>Architect & Developer Projects.

The most important tool for a developer is the pro forma. This malleable document calculates all the variables that go into putting a deal together with the intent of giving you the ability to make informed decisions regarding the project’s expected financial performance. Once created by hand, there are now plenty of software options that can be used to put these together, from the expensive and polished Argus Developer to the free and sometimes limited Google Sheets. Many developers use the same software I do, the tried-and-true Microsoft Excel. The depth of this software is phenomenal once you learn how to perform complex calculations. Architects tend to shy away from Excel, but if you want to be an Architect & Developer, you will need to spend just as much time in Excel as you do in your design software of choice. You should begin to form a love affair with Excel.

Online Course

Architect & Developer Danny Cerezo of C|S Design has created a great online tutorial of pro formas. Take a look at his videos on YouTube {here}. Also, be sure to download his example pro forma to follow along from his slack page {here}.

Example Pro Formas

There are a few Architects & Developers who have been nice enough to share their pro formas online. Kevin Cavenaugh of Guerrilla Development has a simple pro forma for most of his projects on his website. You can download them below and see more about his work on his website at guerrilladev.co.

Atomic Orchard Experiment {download pro forma}

Box + One {download pro forma}

Dr. Jim’s Still Really Nice {download pro forma}

Fair-Haired Dumbbell {download pro forma}

New New Crusher Court {download pro forma}

The Zipper {download pro forma}

Rig-A-Hut {download pro forma}

The Ocean {download pro forma}

The Shore {download pro forma}

Tree Farm {download pro forma}

Two Thirds Project {download pro forma}

Architect and Developer Zeke Freeman of Root Architecture + Developement shared his pro forma for a project he described in his Business of Architecture interview which included a 203(k) loan. See his interviews {here} to follow along.

Root Architecture + Development {download pro forma}

John Anderson posted an example pro forma on the Neighborhood Development Facebook group. See more information and download the pro forma {here}.

I’m often asked by architects what books they should be reading when interested in getting into development. The truth is there wasn’t anything specific for both an Architect & Developer until I wrote Architect & Developer: A Guide to Self-Initiating Projects {more info}. To really understand the real estate industry, you have to dive deep into real estate books. Unfortunately, there are too many books about real estate, saturating the market and making it difficult to understand what is useful and what is just some guru trying to make a buck with fluff.

I’ve listed a number of books about both real estate and professional practice, which I think would be useful to an education coming from an architectural background. I’ve listed them in order of most useful.

Architect & Developer
by James Petty
After not finding a book that really told me what I needed to know about being both an Architect & Developer, I decided to write one myself. I collected the best information I could find, and interviewed over a dozen architects who had already developed work. I tried to combine stories and hard numbers to really educate the reader. See more information {here}.

Architect as Developer
by John Portman and John Barnett
This is a classic and one of the first books to discuss architects playing a more proactive role in developing their own work. There are only a few pages of juicy text describing the process. The rest talks about Portman’s history and shows o$ some of his work. It is long out of publication so you will have to find a used copy. The prices were reasonable up until his passing, which skyrocketed the prices.

Professional Real Estate Development: The ULI Guide to the Business
by Richard Peiser and David Hamilton
This textbook is gold. Peiser does a great job covering all of the basics of real estate and presents it in a way that is easy to comprehend.
If you only read one in-depth book of how real estate works, this should be it. Peiser goes in-depth on all of the major topics of the real estate industry. The ULI puts out fantastic books that are great for real estate professionals and architects.

Finance for Real Estate Development
by Charles Long
This is another ULI gem, but with a focus on the finance aspect of real estate. Long goes in-depth in various methods of putting the financing together to make a real estate deal work. This is also a textbook, so expect a college-level education. The content is dense but presented well.

How Real Estate Developers Think
by Peter Hendee Brown
This very easy to read book talks to real estate developers around the nation and explains why they do what they do. It is filled with fascinating stories and anecdotes that will a$ect how you see cities. This is less of a textbook and more of a good business read. Not a lot of hard numbers, but a lot of great concepts explained. Brown also features Architects & Developers Heyday LA.

Rich Dad Poor Dad
by Robert Kiyosaki
If you talk to anyone interested in real estate, they will tell you that this is this book is the foundation to any education on finance or real estate. If you have never read this book, you need to. It should be required reading in every high school. The book is short and written in a very comprehensible way. It gets to the point on how decisions we make in#uences our economic lives. This book is about changing your mindset from working for money to having money work for you.

Irrational Exuberance
by Robert Shiller
I love this book. Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Shiller is credited for predicting both the dot-com bubble of the early 2000’s and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. This is the book he wrote leading up to the 2008 crises where he does a deep investigation of the real estate industry. It is filled with information. If you are interested in understanding risk, this is a great book to start with. It is, however, written for those with a higher level of education. It is pretty dense but really fantastic.

The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down
by Brandon Turner
The BiggerPockets blog and podcast has published a few books that give an easy to grasp education on real estate for people starting out. Their books are presented for one-person businesses, not large commercial enterprises. If you want to know more about how to get into real estate without using a lot of your own money, start here. Turner’s target audience isn’t architects, but you can interpret a lot of what he presents to your strategy.

Investing in Real Estate
by Gary Eldred
This is a good book to start with before diving into the textbooks. Eldred gives a good big picture view of real estate.

Real Estate Finance & Investment Properties
by William Brueggeman
This is another good textbook on understanding financial instruments for real estate. It isn’t as good or easy to follow along as the ULI books, but is a foundation textbook for real estate at most universities. If you were going to college for real estate, you would have read this textbook.

The Complete Guide to Real Estate Finance for Investment Properties
by Steve Berges
This book is a great read with easy to understand concepts and terms of real estate. It gives you a good basic premise of real estate finance.

The Real Estate Game
by William Poorvu
This book is written with a lot of stories and anecdotes on people in real estate. This is book is used often in real estate courses in MBA programs. Poorvu gives a lot of examples of how people in the real estate industry use various methods to create the built environment.

Shouldn’t we all be Developers?
by Roger Zogolovitch
This is a manifesto on why we should exploit gap sites as a means of helping London’s current housing crises. Roger has developed some amazing buildings and knows his stu$. That said, I can’t help but be a bit agitated with his view of a heavy-handed government giving him an advantage over market economics. There is too much emphasis on the small-local-developer being a good guy. It is a decent read worth a few hours of your time. See my full critical review of this book {here}.

Professional Practice

Perspecta 47: Money
by Yale School of Architecture
This should be required reading of every student coming out of architecture school (where money is a four-letter word). Perspecta is an academic journal published by Yale’s School of Architecture. In 2014, they released Perspecta 47: Money, which includes many sensational articles on professional practice. It includes interviews with Gregg Pasquarelli, Phil Bernstein, Frank Gehry, and more with various ideas including architects getting into development. I highly recommend picking one up.

Perspecta 37: Famous
by Yale School of Architecture
Another one of Yale’s academic journals, but from 2005. This one has a series of interviews from Robert AM Stern, Greg Lynn, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, and more on the topic of professional practice and growth in architecture. If you’re interested in being more than mediocre, this journal is for you.

American Architects and the Mechanics of Fame
by Roxanne Kuter Williamson
Williamson argues that it isn’t family connections, money, or specific schools that predict fame in architecture. Williamson studied six hundred American architects to find the correlation between apprenticeship and later success. She created one of the most beautiful and telling graphics that traces the genealogy of successful architects up until the book’s publication in 1991. It is fascinating to see how connected successful architects are today to those of the past. It also reiterates the importance of interning for the right people when graduating from architecture school. See the amazing graphic at pettydesign.com

Architect + Entrepreneur
by Eric Reinholdt
I love this book. If you are thinking of starting a firm or recently have, Reinholdt has some great advice on being successful. This doesn’t have much to do with real estate, but it is a great professional practice book that every young architect should read. He also runs a fantastic YouTube page {check it out}.

Architect + Entrepreneur 2
by Eric Reinholdt
Reinholdt’s second book in the series is more focused on finding small passive income streams as an alternative of the strait forward architect. There are a number of ideas here, and if you have the inkling for one of them, Eric is great at persuading you to follow through. He talks about creating and selling Plan Sets for online distribution and creating books to self-publish. Full disclosure: I got the idea of creating my book after reading this. That said, to be clear this book isn’t about being a capital A architect.

The Image of the Architect
by Andrew Saint
Saint does an incredible job of laying out the history of the professional practice of architecture from both a British and American perspective. His writing can be as di”cult as a college textbook at times, but he walks through the full history of the profession. The better chapters are: The Architect as Professional, The Architect as Businessman, The Architect as Gentleman, and The Architect as Entrepreneur. The others could be skipped. Saint also talks about John Portman, John Nash, and Charles Bulfinch and their role in developing some of their own work. What I find most interesting is that as a book published in 1983, all of the same complaints and criticism of practice and the education of architecture is still very much a criticism today.