Coming out of graduate school I will work for the Gensler architecture firm as an architect intern making about $16 per hour. My focus as an intern will be on urban design and planning. I hope to design master plans for mixed use development. After five years I will move to New York City and work for Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill LLP as a Senior Urban Designer. Senior Urban Designers create plans, documents, presentations, models, and scale visualizations of the buildings and sites. They check all of the coordinate calculations and scales. Finally they coordinate with building teams and the consultants such as the main Structural Engineer on the project.
The requirements to be a Senior Urban Designer at SOM are completion of a five-year architecture program, graduate of a two-year urban design program, at least five years of urban design/planning, and demonstrated knowledge of urban design, urban history and theory, environmental law, and private and public development. Not including cash or stock bonuses I will start out making about $100,000 a year.