At some point, you stop being the principal architect and start being the person everyone asks, “What’s happening with this project?”
Not officially. Your title hasn't changed. You're still reviewing designs, talking to clients, running the studio and trying to think about the next project. But somewhere between all of that, you've also become the person keeping track of everything.
Which drawing went out? Did the client approve that? Has the structural consultant replied? Why is the contractor still working from the old detail? Who was supposed to send that information? When is the next submission?
You probably know the answer to most of it.
And that's the problem.
Because the bigger your practice gets, the harder it becomes to keep being the person who knows everything. With four or five projects, maybe you can hold most of it in your head. You know where things stand because you were on the call, saw the email, reviewed the drawing and spoke to the consultant yourself. Then there are eight projects. Then twelve. Then a team of architects working across them. And somehow, you're still the person everyone comes to when they need to know what's actually going on.
A project gets stuck, and someone asks you. A client calls, and you know the background. A consultant sends a confusing email, and someone forwards it to you with, “What do we do here?” You spend the morning making decisions and the afternoon finding out why decisions you made last week haven't moved anything forward.
You didn't set out to become the project's coordination system. But that's effectively what you've become.
The tricky part is that this usually doesn't happen because the practice has no systems. It happens because you were there when the project started. You were on the client call. You approved the first scheme. You spoke to the consultant. You remember why that wall moved and why the client rejected the other option. So when someone needs context, asking you feels faster than finding it somewhere else.
And they're probably right. In the moment, asking you is faster.
That's what makes the habit so difficult to break.
One question doesn't feel like a problem. Neither does the next one. But multiply that across every project, every consultant and every person in the studio, and suddenly a large part of your week is spent answering questions that technically shouldn't need you.
You end up doing project coordination without ever calling it project coordination.
And there is a real cost to that. Not just your time, but the kind of work your time is being used for. Every time you stop to explain where something stands, find an old email, check whether an approval came through or work out which drawing is current, you're stepping away from something only you can do.
Design direction. Client relationships. Business development. Hiring. Reviewing the bigger picture across the practice.
Those things don't necessarily look urgent at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning. A contractor asking for a drawing does.
So the urgent work keeps winning.
The other problem is that your team never quite develops the habit of owning the project information themselves. If the answer always lives with you, there isn't much reason for anyone else to build the full picture. They know their part. You know how all the parts connect.
That works until you are unavailable.
Then someone is searching through emails. Someone else is asking a colleague who was on the call. A consultant is waiting because nobody is sure who is supposed to respond. You get a message while you're out of the office because, apparently, you're still the fastest route to the answer.
This is where a practice can accidentally create a very expensive role: the principal as project coordinator.
And the frustrating thing is that you may not even need another person immediately. You may just need the information to stop depending on one person.
What was decided, when it was decided, what is outstanding, who is responsible, what was last issued and what is actually current should not require a phone call to the principal. The point isn't to remove yourself from the projects. You should absolutely still know what's happening. The point is to stop being the only place where what's happening is stored.
That's where a system like Projectsmate becomes useful. Instead of every project update living across your memory, email threads and conversations, the project has a shared record of where things stand, what's outstanding and what information has moved through the practice. Your team can find the context without needing to interrupt you for every answer.
Because being involved in your projects is part of being a principal architect.
Being the person who has to remember everything about every project isn't.
If your team still needs to ask you what's happening before they can move something forward, you haven't really stepped out of project coordination. You've just given yourself a much bigger title while doing the same job.