In my work, I get to look at a lot of architecture firms websites. Not as many as Bryon McCartney, but quite a bit nonetheless. In the world of marketing professional services, website are one of the first, if not the first thing that your clients are going to look at when they're considering hiring you.
20, or even 10 years ago, websites as a marketing tool were still in their infancy and because the technology as a tool to promote oneself was so new, people were more willing to put up with weird, quirky websites that required them to mess about to find the desired information. Websites in those days were more manifesto than marketing tool, so playfulness and quirky designs were more readily accepted.
However, 20 years of trial and error has led us to a point where we know what works and what doesn't when it comes to get your prospects to take the right action, namely to get in touch with you. Now websites have become the 21-st century equivalent to catalogues or brochures and prospects are significantly less willing to put up with webpages that requires them to think too hard about what they're looking for.
If you look at a car or a camera, they all more or less function the same way, allowing drivers and photographers to easily switch between products with little fuss. Designs that deviate too much or too quickly from the established ergonomic norms are invariably flop and are quickly forgotten.
The same goes for websites. Landing pages and sideways scrolling are now all but dead, yet, we still see recent architecture firms websites employ those incredibly frustrating designs in the hopes that the originality at the expense of the user experience will make them stand out.
People expect websites to work in a few established ways (up and down scrolling, easy to find navigation, etc) and websites that don't provide are left behind after a few seconds.
My point is this: don't try to be clever or creative with your next website's design. Instead aim at being effective by delivering the information, quickly, efficiently and without fuss. Like good copy shouldn't be flowery language that sounds pedantic, but simple language that gets the job done (e.g. get the reader to take the desired action), a good website is one that gets your prospects to get in touch with you for their next project so you can properly vet them and move them along in the sales cycle.
You'll often hear that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover. While this is certainly a noble goal to aim for, most people will and that book in your case is your website, so make sure it looks good, works well and delivers on its intended purpose: helping you selling your services.