User:Ausarch karenmcwilliam/sandbox

{{Infobox architect | name = Karen McWilliam | image = Turner 07 FGLecture.JPG | caption = | birth_name = Karen McWilliam | birth_date =

Karen Mcwilliam (1969, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian architect, currently working as the project manager of Elenberg Fraser - a Melbourne-based architectural firm.

Early Life

Karen McWilliam was born in Hawthorn, Melbourne in an Australian family. Her mother is a historian. Her father is a scientist with a passionate interest in architecture, influencing Karen's decision to study architecture. From a young age, Karen assisted her father in attempting to preserve Victorian houses in Hawthorn. This was in reaction to the possible threat of the area being replaced by the development of apartments and flats.

Education

In 1982, Karen received a scholarship to study at Melbourne Girls Grammar School. Throughout her studies, Karen realized her outward and extroverted preferences for interaction and learning. She had strong results in subjects like social sciences, English and Communications.

Karen was enrolled in a Bachelor of Architecture at RMIT University in 1986, after passing a test and interview. She successfully completed this degree despite initial (personal) perception that she did not match the course requirements. Throughout her university career, Karen discovered that she was strong in areas that dealt with management, organisation and lateral thinking. This became especially clear after undertaking her thesis with Doug Evan. These skills were reinforced during her work experience in Practice Management, under the mentoring of Bruce Allen. She later taught Professional Practice classes with Bruce Allen at RMIT University. Karen confessed that she wanted to be involved with the more practical side of architecture, as opposed to being the best designer.

Career and Contributions

In 1992, Karen graduated with an Honours Degree from RMIT University. As this was during a recession, the outlook for graduate positions was considered to be unfavourable. During this time, it was acknowledged that many architects left the industry and never returned to professional practise. Karen began her own career as a receptionist at Neometro, where stayed for four years. Neometro's professional system focused on both the design and construction aspects of multiple level residential projects. From her experience at Neometro, Karen developed her knowledge of development-driven projects, whilst also interacting with and building rapport with clients.

From 1998 until 2005, Karen worked as an associate at Hayball, after being interviewed by Rob Stent, the Institute President of the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) . He later asked Karen to become the Institute Representative on the Registration Board. From this experience, Karen developed a significant amount of academic experience. Afterwards, she became the Councillor for the Victorian Chapter of the Institute, examiner with the Registration Board (2004) and ARBV Deputy Chair (2010 - 2012).

In 2005, she started to work at LAB Architecture Studio, an international architectural firm. She worked here for two years as a project manager. The type of work she undertook at LAB was comparatively different to the type of work she undertook at Hayball at the time. This was largely due to the fact that her work at LAB involved dealing with international projects.

From 2007 until current, she is working for Elenberg Fraser as a Practice Manager. McWilliam states that she enjoys this profession to the extent that it feels hobby-like, as opposed to being associated with the daily grind of a "work." Her role in Elenberg Fraser is to bridge the clients and the architectural design team. Her role includes communicating, negotiating and marketing with clients, and then working with design team to satisfy these set requirements and expectations. Karen specifically manages the economic and financial aspect of her assigned projects, and also the wilder effects that economic fluctuation cause on architectural industries. Diversifying the project type, location and clientele is the target aim of Elenberg Fraser. McWilliam believes that Elenberg Fraser has been not only successful, but growing rapidly for the last seven years. In reference to the possiblity of economic downturn, McWilliam strongly believes that the business needs to be prepared. In order to maintain a high quality of work and smooth functioning, she states,

Being strategic about the type of projects taken on by the practice is a help. Having your own systems and processes down pat for the type of work that you do can allow you to know what your minimum fee is to complete a project – and then not going under it. I’ve heard of other practices putting in fees under what you believe the project could possibly be done for. Ethically we don’t want to buy work and at the end of the day we can’t possibly provide a high level of service if you’ve got no money to pay for that service. Fees have dropped since the last boom time, that’s for sure, but it is not affecting the product – it’s affecting the profit!

From the perspective of a project manager, Karen believes that the generally rising salary reflects the level of respect from community to architects. She states,

“We haven’t earned the right to charge a decent fee or charge a decent hourly rate. Lawyers can charge whatever they want and people will just pay it, but for architects it’s more like ‘Oh my god, where did you get that figure from?’”

Women in Architecture

Karen also believes that women in architecture need to change their own image. Rather than stating that she is ‘a woman in architecture,’ stating that ‘I’m an architect and I happen to be a women’ is the progressive step in the industry.

Karen McWilliams believes in being paid based on an employee’s level of skill and experience. This can be supported by the AIA graduate survey of 2012 and Elenberg Fraser’s own graduate survey. Karen also believes that women in architecture might be prejudged as females, but it’s up to the individual to change that impression. The relationship that is created between the construction and design industries need to be the same whether man or women; they need to contribute the same way.

Her first job interview as an architect 25 years ago was turned down mainly because she was a woman, as the employees believed that a male would conduct better relations with the construction workers. Karen McWilliams believes that the change from the social climate 25 years ago has been for the better, but not completely. An increase of female construction workers could contribute to changing the view on the male dominated industries as Karen believes.

The future of the industry comes down to environmental and economic standards the new generation creates and guards.

Karen confesses that she believes that her generation of architects failed to create their environmentally sustainable design ideas into the built environment. This is due to abandoning envriomental designs in order to accommodate the financial aspects of the project. However, Karen McWilliam believes that the current graduates are the vanguards to not only propose environmental codes but to change social and client expectations that those key design elements are a must within the project. As a graduate from a recession, Karen understands retrenching of architects in tough economic times. To safeguard architecture, the industry requires refining the processes of documentation.One example is certain companies will figure out their minimum fee and go under that. This does not make the quality of the work any less; it is the profit and degrading the respect between client and architect. She also believes that architects do present themselves and their projects as effectually as they could.

See also

• Elenberg Fraser
• Bruce Allen