A good many architects provided to a tenant by the landlord are usually good vendors of the landlord. That is, the landlord relies upon them to expeditiously turn around plans and manage the process. It is also the job of the Landlord's architect to work in a manner (a mind set) that will design the office space with the most conservative use of the landlord's money for construction. With this predisposed mind-set of the architect to not spend his or her client's money, the complete effort is not given.
In a meeting with a good developer client, an architect friend of mine who was explaining to the tenant how he could gain by adding a kitchen (and a few other "non-standard" items) was literally kicked in the shin under the table by the developer/landlord to stop bringing up things which were going to increase the cost of the construction. When traditionally the architect depends on his or her livelihood from the good paying commercial real estate developers and landlords, the architect has little other choice than to do as told and simply provide the basics, no frills, and in many cases no efficiency. This leaves the tenant to either accept the space as drafted or, worse, not know any better.
