Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsThe "MBA in Architecture" Reference Book
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2017
Overall this is an excellent book that every architect/designer should own, especially those studying for their ARE or working towards understanding how to operate the business side of practice. This book might be better described as 'an MBA in Architecture' reference book, no really, I mean that. Get your office to order this and have it on your shelf, it should really be a standard since we don't do a good job of discussing the business of architecture within school and among our peers.
Content (5/5) - This is a must have for ARE studying and general professional use. You'll find yourself referencing this for a variety of things in everyday architectural practice and I believe it's a must have.
Organization (4/5) - The organization of the book is solid and the content follows the index well.
**See Update Below** Contract Docs (5/5) - They give you a proprietary code to download PDFs of the AIA Contract documents to have for reference. This is very simple and arguably one of the most important parts of the book. Buying used makes the code unlikely to work so beware when shopping used to save $$, might not be worth it if the contract docs aren't included.
Layout/Ease of use (2/5) - Page layout is abysmal and difficult to use for long periods of time. The gutter is too narrow and makes reading close to the bind exceptionally difficult, especially on the pages in the middle of the book. The main text could be more narrow to make room for the gutter, Wiley, please change this on the next issue. To make this book more practical for daily professional use and read less like a text book, I would like to see a spiral bound version, otherwise the next one I get will be a PDF version.
**UPDATE** - Disregard comment about Contract Documents, all of the AIA contracts are available from AIAContracts.org website for free. Pay close attention to which version of the contract when you download, otherwise, feel free to purchase this book used as the 'online content' can be obtained for free.
