A shrinking backlog of projects prompted Springfield's largest architectural firm to cut 10 full-time staff positions earlier this month, one of its principals said Wednesday.
Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc. founder Geoffrey Butler said many of his firm's prospective clients have delayed projects due to tightening credit markets and waning consumer confidence, leaving BRP no choice but to lay off the employees - primarily architects and engineers. Butler said two of the three design professionals in the firm's Phoenix office lost their jobs.
"It's very tough, because they're very, very talented people," he said. "That's a very painful process for everybody."
This is the second round of cuts for BRP this year. In late March, the firm eliminated 8.5 full-time equivalent jobs in its local office, 319 N. Main Ave., following a sharp decline in billings in January and February. Butler said economic conditions have only worsened since the first quarter.
"A lot of our clients are pulling back because they are having difficulty either securing financing or they're concerned about the economy and they're reluctant to proceed with their plans," he said. "When they put projects on hold, we can't continue to work on them. Given that, we had more people than we had work on the boards for them to do."
Butler said he recently attended a conference for architecture and engineering CEOs in Chicago, where he learned that design firms across the country are reevaluating their budgets and resorting to layoffs.
In an e-mail, BRP principal Tim Rosenbury said the firm's Springfield staff is now at 50, about two-thirds what it was at the beginning of the year. Butler said he hopes to hire additional staff as early as next year, if conditions allow.
The next largest architectural firm in Springfield is Lohmeyer Russell Architects with a staff of 14, according to Springfield Business Journal's 2008 Book of Lists.
Founded in 1978, BRP offers architecture, interior design, structural engineering and landscape architecture services. Some of the firm's recent projects include College Station, Wanda Gray Elementary School and the Park Central Square redesign.
See SBJ's Oct. 20 issue for more about the staff reductions at BRP. [[In-content Ad]]
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