Can Big Firms Differentiate?

Every building has a story, but most firms only ever show the finished product. In this episode of As Built, we make the case for storytelling as one of the most underrated business development tools in architecture. We talk about why people remember a single photograph or story long after they've forgotten the schematics, how sharing the "how it got built" story helps justify a firm's fees and expertise, and why architects need to get a little more comfortable being human in how they talk about their work.

Ria Vogiatzi Xenou always knew she wanted to be an architect, even after her father insisted she study civil engineering instead. After finishing an engineering degree, she secretly enrolled in architecture school and went on to found a world-renowned architecture firm. In this episode, the founder of ELASTIC traces her path from a first project for a Greek football club to designing resorts for Aman around the world. She talks about surviving Greece's financial crisis by going international, the daily emails that landed her first hospitality project, and the design philosophy she still builds every project around: give guests the experience of a place, not the architect's ego.

Do you like throwing money away? No? Then your AEC firm had better have a marketing strategy. In this episode of As Built, we explain the differences between a good marketing strategy and a to-do list, the real costs of not having one, and how to use your marketing strategy to further your firm.

"Business development" isn't a department; it's a mindset every person at your firm should embody. Patience and Brian discuss why BD can't be isolated to a dedicated team, how to train staff to recognize opportunities without turning them into salespeople, and why handing employees an AI-generated SOP is no substitute for real conversation and buy-in.

Are you a large architecture firm with a deep bench, a commitment to sustainability, and a passion for impactful design? So is everyone else! How does a prospective client actually tell large firms apart when everyone's saying the same thing? The answer isn't a better tagline. It's putting the focus on the people inside the firm. Listen to this episode and find out why you should treat your departments like their own smaller firms, why your firm leaders are probably your most underused marketing asset, and how firms can keep from getting hoisted on their own petards.

Most marketing teams in the AEC industry are stuck paying a tax they never agreed to. Nearly a third spend less than a quarter of their time on strategy and brand building, even though that's exactly what firms hired them to do. In this episode, Patience and Brian break down why this keeps happening, why it's a structural problem and not a people problem, and what firm leaders can do to give their marketing teams the time and trust they need to actually build the brand, not just check boxes.

AI search isn't coming soon - it's here. People are already shifting from using "traditional" search engines like Google to AI agents like Gemini and Claude. How does that impact business development for architecture firms? In this episode, we reveal what answer engine optimization (AEO) means for architecture firms, why it affects far more than just clients (think RFP committees, lenders, press, and job seekers), and what it actually costs a firm to be invisible to AI. They walk through how people phrase AI searches differently than traditional ones, how LLMs decide which firms to trust, and how to make sure your firm doesn't get overlooked.

CannonDesign CEO Brad Lukanic, AIA, LEED AP and Principal Natalie Petzoldt, AIA, LEED AP, EDAC join As Built to discuss how the firm scales without losing its identity. They discuss the Ennead Architects and Cityfi acquisitions, internal programs like Open Hand Studio and AMP, the firm's employee ownership model, and how their guiding maxim "do good, do right" shapes real decisions. They also share how Billie, their in-house AI platform, supports the team without replacing human judgment.

One of the most common questions architecture firms ask themselves is also one of the hardest: should we niche down, or stay generalized? On Episode 128 of As Built, Patience and Brian discuss the fears that hold firms back from committing to a niche, the real advantages of staying generalist, and how to tell the difference between a strategic pivot and chasing a trend. One key insight from the conversation: the decision doesn't have to be a leap of faith. Your firm's project history, client relationships, and staff structure are already pointing in a direction. The goal is to read that signal clearly before making a move. They also address the temptation to niche down when billings are slow, the risk of over-niching into too narrow a market, and why niched firms aren't inherently better than generalist ones. Whether you're leading a firm, managing its marketing, or both, this episode gives you a practical framework for approaching the decision with your eyes open.

Ten years into building one of the most unique AEC firms in the world, City Collective Managing Partners David Cooke, RAIA, MPIA and Justin Kearnan, AIA talk about what it actually takes to move the needle on the problems cities can't seem to solve.  City Collective was built around a simple but radical premise: that the only way to solve a city's toughest challenges is to bring every discipline into the same room. In this conversation, Managing Partners David Cooke, RAIA, MPIA and Justin Kearnan, AIA walk us through the firm's holistic design approach, from writing their own economic pro formas to unlock housing deals, to championing the "missing middle" housing typologies that were effectively regulated out of existence for half a century. They share how City Collective operates as a single design culture across Australia and the United States, why they hire for people with roots in at least two disciplines, and what it looks like to bring sports and community infrastructure into the same equity-driven framework they apply to affordable housing.