Architects enjoy moment in spotlight as boom continues.

Principals of top architectural firms believe the double-edged sword of the city's construction boom that has brought new projects online and fuelled a battle for limited talent, has also sharpened the industry's respect for designers.

"There is a general float up in the cost of construction, the fees that clients are paying and the salaries employees are now expecting," said Robert Siegel, principal of Robert Siegel Architects. "Architects historically, relative to other highly trained professionals, are not at the top of the food chain, so a little upward lift is a good thing."

Burgeoning work keeps principals on their toes, as architects are less likely to move around than they used to, Siegel said.

"In the past year, it seems most architects are working in good firms on good projects that satisfy them and they are not likely to be lured away or to jump from one firm to another," he said. When it comes to recruitment, most firms are invariably strained.

"Ten years ago, there were more people looking for work than there were jobs. Now there is more work than there are people. It's a simple matter of supply and demand," said Lloyd Rosenburg, CEO of DMR architects. "There are less qualified people looking for jobs so, as the work increases, it is more difficult to find good people."

KSS Architects has formed a roundtable with a dozen architectural firms throughout the country that have all been feeling the affects of a shrinking labor pool, according to Michael Shatken, managing partner of KSS.

"More and more firms are recruiting outside of the country, you are starting to see more people coming from overseas. You didn't see that years ago," he said. "People are using more creative recruitment tools.

The crunch is as much the result of the current economy as it is the industry's past, Shatken said. "There is a lost generation of architects nobody speaks much about," Shatken said. "A lot of people dropped out of the profession in the early 1990's during the recession because there was no work. It is hard to find people with 15,16,17 years of experience because of that gap." If the economy should falter again Shatken believes architects reputations will protect them better in the city now than it did in the past. He has been heartened to see buildings by signature architects given the same kind of recognition as the old buildings of Paris that have the name of their architects inscribed in their cornerstones. In America this respect is generally recognizable by the dollars its advertising campaign brings to each floor.

Mario Procida, developer of On Prospect Park, the residential building designed by architectural superstar, Richard Meir, agrees that having a signature name gives a product respectability.

"We think that having Richard's name is clearly bringing a higher level of visibility from a media standpoint, and from a public standpoint, that has allowed us to create a spectacular product and will clearly help in the marketing of it," Procida said.

Siegel agrees that the industry is treating architects better.

"In general we have more sophisticated clients now than we did in the past. They are more demanding, but they also respect architects for what they provide," Siegel said. "There has been a renaissance in New York architecture, and it is very uplifting to see that."