A post recently observed that even big GCA firms don't have much work in progress. Obviously for the smaller boutique one-man golf course archies and designers, it must be really tough and trying times. How many architects do we know that have side jobs or professions? What are some of the likely moonlighting jobs or enterprises that help keep body and soul together in these tough times where not much is being built in the golf course world?
A few that come to mind are those with various licenses in the financial services area, like financial consultant series 6 or 7 FCs, or insurance agents, or CPA types. (Didn't Pete Dye continue to work for a while as and insurance guy?) Another obvious are the land surveyors or civil engineers. With all the stim money out there, one might think that there may be extra work in the road construction, or infrastructure arena for engineers or land planners, etc. Also, real estate agents or brokers would seem to fit.
One guy I met seems to have a knack for developing home site subdivisions and planned a very attractive area of home site lots around his own home, and I think may have been the general contractor in building some very good looking shacks.
I don't really intend to be negative, yet I can't help but think that the immediate future doesn't look great for many of the talented archtects we have seen follow their dream and have a fledgling start in the business with one or two projects, where their obvious talent can't readily be expanded with more work to reward that which they have done so far. I just hope that they are able to hang on with a secondary or moonlight sort of career or self employed work project until more opportunities come along. Talent and a hard to obtain OTJ learning curve are a terrible thing to go to waste for lack of work, when nothing is available for you to ply your talent.