ZULUETA ARCHITECTURE

How to Become a Licensed Architect in Canada  is a question I get asked a lot given that I got my professional training outside of Canada.  I was a licensed architect in the Philippines prior to coming to Canada. I get fairly regular queries from internationally trained architects, from different backgrounds,  who are close to  migrating to Canada or architects that are already in Canada and needs some insight in getting their architectural license, accreditation and the Canadian experience. Architectural Job First things first, it would be best to get employed working as an architectural designer in an architectural firm. When I was a newcomer to Canada, I landed in British Columbia and that was where I started to look for work. It was very hard to find work in my field at that time. I think it was a combination of lack of Canadian experience plus the economy was not too good. Looking back that was almost 20 years ago now, year 2000. After assessing my situation in BC, I wa

How to Start a Successful CAD Business  There are plenty of opportunities to make money through offering design, drafting services and  CAD services. Here are my tips to get started in the CAD business: 1. Know the market.  What clientele are you targeting? Residential or commercial? The needs of a residential job is very different from a commercial job. Both of these fields will demand your time but in different ways. The residential market is huge.  At one point in time, a homeowner is going to need help with designing their houses. Residential jobs are: interior spatial design, exterior improvements, additions, decks, garages, new houses, basements, etc. With commercial jobs  on the other hand, you will be dealing with construction companies or dealing direct with the building owner. Commercial jobs are: interior spatial design, exterior improvements, tenant improvements. Residential jobs tend to consume more time and the fees tend to be lower.  Commercial jobs can be a b

How to Apply for A Building Permit in BC, British Columbia  (and still be a Happy and Whole Person after wards.) This post is intended to give advice on how to be best prepared for your building permit applications in BC. I find that Building permit applications in BC to be very challenging. I work across the country and I find that in BC, the building permit takes the longest amount of time to get approved. I am not exactly sure why but BC requires more paperwork than in any other provinces. The scale of the job has nothing to do with it. Even a small job will still require quite a list of documents in the building permit application.  I am past the stage of stressing myself out in these projects, including building permit process. Still, does not mean that I do not care about the process. I have not stopped my nature of questioning the relevancy of  some of these requirements that are being asked for, nor posing the questions to a file manager or a plans examiner of the n

How To Design A Restaurant to Building Code.  One of the more popular small businesses that I have worked with are restaurants. The restaurant business, specially for a newbie, poses its own unique challenges and can be quite daunting in the beginning. There are requirements in terms of design, building code and permitting that are very specific to a restaurant project.  This post offers advice mainly to business start-ups and small business owners in planning and designing for a small restaurant, specially their first one.  A small restaurant, for the purpose of this discussion,  are restaurants that have floor areas from 1,000 square foot to 2,000 square foot and has a dining area.  The reference in code will be the Alberta Building Code. Here are the items to consider: SEATING The seating and the number of seats is critical to the success of the restaurant. The more seats you have, the more opportunities to generate revenue. To be allowed a certain number of  people

Tips on What to Do or Not to Do for your Building Permits This advice is for small businesses and business startups. Majority of the people that I work that need help with their building permits are small businesses and business start-ups. I find that a big part of the success of the building permit process lies in the know-how of the people working on the building permit and the preparation that goes with the application itself.  There should really be no guesswork in this process. When I say permitting process, I mean the permitting process to get approved to build so that you can get a building permit. Approval of the building permit lies with the City. County or the Authority of Jurisdiction. The application, the review and the approval process - if it's not planned and prepared properly can be excruciatingly painful. It really leads to considerable delays in the projects. There are jurisdictions that require a huge amount of paperwork and more processing time than