ARCHITECT contributor Murrye Bernard recognizes that it’s not uncommon for architects to keep business in the family by forming partnerships with their spouses, children, or siblings. Below, several practitioners offer advice for managing these personal relationships in the office.
Play To Your Strengths
For Stanley Felderman and Nancy Keatinge, partners in life and at Culver City, Calif.–based Felderman Keatinge + Associates, consciously acting as teammates has ensured long-term success. “We have made it a point to emphasize that we work together,” Felderman says of their 15-person design practice, which they founded in the mid-1980s. “I think the key to success is to bring each other into the fold.” In 1994, a pivotal project that solidified the practice was an office for MTV Networks. Though three firms were already shortlisted, Keatinge convinced MTV to give them an opportunity and they ultimately won the project.
“Stanley has been incredibly supportive of me finding my voice,” Keatinge says. “That’s given me confidence, because I do have something of value to share.”
“We come from different places,” Felderman adds. “Nancy’s background is in theater and research, and she puts people and emotion as well as utility and functionality first, and I value that.” With Keatinge focused on these pragmatic aspects of a project, Felderman says he can hone his artistic vision.