<p>I'm confused. I am highly aware that Architecture is more or less the design of buildings and solving problems and the rest, and the engineering is the physics behind it, but would this help if you would eventually like to own a large construction company? </p>
<p>A lot of folks have told me that business is more important, but I've been with my family construction company(large) for about six years doing very involved work, both from a business and design standpoint, and my father has told me that everything he's taught me are the essential knowledge required to run his company(I don't want to learn a whole bunch of crap I'm not going to use). I don't know whether I should take arch/eng, and I need to decide quickly. Somebody please help me!!!!! Thanks.</p>
<p>It depends upon what kind of construction company you are running. What type of buildings do you construct? Houses, office buildings, hotels, industrial buildings? How involved in the design process are you as a construction company. Because most construction documents need to be signed and sealed by an architect, how do you deal with that? Do you have in-house architects or outside. Do clients come to you for the full design/construction package or are you recommended by architects to their clients.</p>
<p>If you can describe how your construction is situated, we can advise you more appropriately.</p>
<p>Well, I'm very involved with the company. But here are the responses to the answers you put out.</p>
<p>Type of construction-
Light commercial(small offices, plazas), medium residential(medium-size developments, large-size homes, some high-end work)</p>
<p>Design process-
I draw engineer-ready prints. For the high-end work, I am quite involved in color selection and room functionality</p>
<p>Architects-
One of the few archs we work with says the number one thing you learn in arch college is how to bs. We don't particularly like working with them because they are inefecient and take much more time than neccessary for simple drawings. </p>
<p>Clients-
For high end and commercial work, the client comes to us for a design and construction plan.</p>
<p>Please advise me, I'm really trying to straighten things up and decide what I should do. Thanks again.</p>
<p>I can mostly talk about the residential work but lets clarify the first two items. Light Commercial - Is this new construction or renovation? Medium Residential - Is this multi-family new construction or just renovation of apartment buildings? The reason why I ask this is to understand what level of design you are working at and what your requirements are for a licensed architect.</p>
<p>I am assuming that the large-size homes are new construction. Are the large-sized homes high-end or spec builder type? Who is the client? Are you the developer and own the land or do clients with land come to you as a design-build firm.</p>
<p>From a design point of view, if the highest level of design you are required to produce is typical builder-quality housing and you, as a construction company are comfortable with that niche in the market, you don't need to go to architectural school to function in that environment. You will more than likely come out of architectural school frustrated with the low level of design that you are producing. I do not mean that as an insult but just putting levels of design in perspective.</p>
<p>I would strongly recommend that you concentrate on construction and business. From the construction side, you want to be as efficient as possible with the greatest knowledge of project delivery systems that you can develop. From a business point of view, you would like to maximize the productivity of your work staff and how to market your products as profitably as possible. The more you know about business the clearer it will be about what directions you want to take your business in. You should be able to better prepare for changes in the economy, how to take advantage of business opportunities when you see them, possibly expand the horizons of a construction company into a development company.</p>