As Powe Architects notches up 10 years in business, Gemma Battenbough took time out with director Len Powe to reflect upon the ups and downs, changing Brisbane and the value of luck versus old-fashioned hard graft.

So tonight you’re celebrating 10 years of business. What have been your ups and downs?

There’s an air of excitement over the past couple of days. The business has been a steady growth, we started with just myself and a draftsman back in 1999. Now, we’ve grown to 15 of and we’re tackling $100 million projects. My wife is the financial controller and the other director in the business. 

It’s been very rewarding to see the steady growth and the confidence that we’ve managed to get from our clients. I’m getting some lovely testimonials, one in particular that brought a tear to my eye, so we must be doing something right!

What are you working on at the moment?

We’re involved in a $100 million mixed-use development called Orderly Square in Brisbane. It’s going through community consultation. It’s over 200 units arranged in two apartment buildings, which sit above 4,500m2 of commercial space, as well as 6,500m2 retail, and about 700 cars - so its quite a big development.

We’re also working on a shopping centre with Stockland in Townsville. We’re also doing a shopping centre in Yeppoon, at Keppel Bay Plaza. So the bulk of our work is retail and mixed use. 

Has the commercial sector wilted?

We’ve got a large commercial project under construction, but apart from that the commercial side is certainly quiet and I think that’s a direct outcome of the funding problems within the industry.

Where do some Australian architecture firms go wrong?

Architects are in the service industry and we should never lose sight of making sure that the services we deliver are actually what our clients need and not what we think they need. That’s fundamental in any business. It’s important to let pride get in the way of providing a professional service to clients. That’s a basic philosophy of our business.

We undertook a client survey ourselves late last year and we asked our clients specifically, were we providing the services they required or were we over servicing them, you often think you’re delivering what you believe your clients require but often you can be missing the mark. With the 10 year anniversary coming up it was a good time to take a step back and take stock. It’s very basic business but it seems to have put us in a good position in the market.

How do you drive a business successfully in today’s climate?

I find the harder I work the luckier I get, funnily enough! Gathering good stable clients around us, clients that have become friends, working hard and listening, is so important.

Has business become harder?

There’s always the next crisis to deal with. At the moment, the global financial situation doesn’t feel that different to when GST was introduced. In the case of GST there was no huge impact on business. But there was that uncertainty and that is what characterises the market at the moment. 

Having said that, clients that have got good financial principles in place, there’s still out there busy. It’s a marvellous opportunity for clients to secure sites and projects that others are incapable of carrying forward. I see it as genuine opportunity rather than a particular crisis at the moment. I think all the good practices will stay in business and the best ones will see it as the opportunity it is and position themselves accordingly.

What changes do you expect to see in the coming 10 years?

The advances we’ve seen in technology that we’ve experienced in the past 10 years is absolutely such an exciting period of time to be an architect. I’m in my mid 50s and if I can keep up with everything that’s going on, make sure our company has all the best technology, software, has good presentation skills, tries to maintain pace with the technology that is available to us at the time, it will be an exciting period to be in business. 

You can’t ignore the fact that population growth will continue, particularly in south-east Queensland. Property around transport nodes will certainly take off in Brisbane, as they have in Melbourne and Sydney, and develop an exciting feel of their own, rather than copying something that has been done before.

That’s the exciting thin about being an architect in Brisbane at the moment — watching the city develop, particularly around the transport nodes.