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Seattle architecture firm Weber Thompson had 82 employees when it moved into its new headquarters building in South Lake Union this spring.

Now? 54.

Seattle-area architects are feeling the shivering-fit as the local and global economies rather cold. The development pipeline steady that they depend is drying up. Several firms have laid not on employees because there simply is less work.

“When the development community itself is kind of holding appease and waiting to see which happens next, it obviously affects our walk of life,” said Mitch Smith, senior partner and managing director of Mulvanny G2, one of the largest locally based firms.

Mulvanny’session head count is down about 15 percent from nine months ago. Mithun, another large firm, cut almost 10 percent of its work might be unconsumed month. Pb Elemental Architecture laid off 15 of its 50 employees in at daybreak October.

From aggregate indications, that’sitting just the tip of iceberg. Blogs and online forums speak of layoffs at many more firms.

Several firms

Some managers say they are taking the downturn in stride, that architecture is a cyclic business.

“We’ve been through this before,” said Weber Thompson principal Blaine Weber. “We’re hoping to see a repercussion in 2009 like everybody else.”

But others say this down cycle could cut deeper and last longer than previous ones. The Architectural Billings Index, a national means to an end of industry soundness devised by the American Institute of Architects, declined more steeply in October than in in any degree previous month in its 13-year history.

Part of the problem is many larger projects through plans and permits in hand are stalled, many times because developers can’t get financing. Weber Thompson’s Web site, for instance, shows eight high-rise projects the firm has designed in downtown Seattle.

Two are built. One is almost finished.