How are really large buildings (e.g. airports, skyscrapers, etc.) designed from an architectural standpoint? Who is in charge of designing what floors/lobbies/etc.?

Question

How does an architectural firm split the work?

In: 3

Answer 1

There is one overall firm that designs the project and does the renderings that you see in the press release. They will work with a specialist engineering firm around the structure, an interior architect, a landscape architect, and so on. If the skyscraper has an adjacent parking structure, there’s going to be engineers for that; the cladding on the outside will be specified by the site designer. They’ll engage a civil engineering firm to handle any changes to surrounding roads and other infrastructure.

Some of these functions may be handled by different departments of an especially large architecture firm, but the engineers are usually separate firms.