by David Sokol

Results of the Architectural Record/Van Alen Institute Design Competition Survey are in.

Architects starting their practices often see open design competitions as a stepping-stone to the next stage of their careers. A mechanism for advancement particularly abroad, this method of selection is less customary in the United States, owing to a variety of factors. Regardless of country, however, aspects of competitions can leave architects either frustrated or energized—or both.

As an organizer of competitions dedicated to improving the public realm, New York’s Van Alen Institute (VAI) has collected many anecdotes about the opportunities and abuses of this process. David van der Leer, executive director of VAI, says, “We hear from designers all the time that open competitions spread the perception that they will work for free.”

While that feedback has helped VAI with its own competitions, the nonprofit decided it could affect the marketplace of competitions by documenting opinions about advantages and pitfalls systematically. With RECORD as media sponsor and with support from the Graham Foundation, VAI recently created and administered a survey on the subject that elicited 1,414 responses internationally—approximately 79 percent from architects. It published the results of the architectural record/Van Alen Institute Design Competition Survey in mid-April and will present them as part of a Design Competition Conference at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design on April 23 and 24.