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Your project might be doomed if...

Living in Gin

...it's a week before CD's are due and your consulting engineers don't know your name.

...before the general contractor even begins site work, the first thing he does is set up a construction trailer full of lawyers.

...[insert your own horror stories here]

 
Aug 31, 05 12:04 pm
batiment

...you're hired for sd and dd, but not cds. (my current situation. drawings go out in a week).

Aug 31, 05 1:46 pm  · 
 · 
e

...if the general contractor always smells like whiskey.

or

...if you always smell like scotch.

Aug 31, 05 2:47 pm  · 
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el jeffe

...you're hired from cd's but not sd and dd. (my current situation. bid set went out yesterday).

Aug 31, 05 5:24 pm  · 
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el jeffe

for not from

Aug 31, 05 5:24 pm  · 
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vado retro

el- thats how are company survives.

Aug 31, 05 5:30 pm  · 
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liberty bell

...you start dating the Armstrong rep midway through the project even though she's not allowed by her company to date clients but agrees to meet you for coffee anyway.

Hmm, I think I've heard of someone doing that...I wonder how it went?

;)

Aug 31, 05 5:38 pm  · 
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abracadabra

clients, their friends and their accountant start to make design changes. life and death of a project.. more you argue and try to salvage, more you sink. get your money and move out. or, stay in and divorce yourself from the piece and make more money, this time no mercy to the end user..

Aug 31, 05 5:40 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

...you decide you want to contract the project yourself and post questions on contracting on archinect....

Aug 31, 05 5:45 pm  · 
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mwad

LOL

Aug 31, 05 6:42 pm  · 
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batiment

...you havent won lots of awards.

Sep 1, 05 1:35 am  · 
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fordified

your client can't let go of the giant half moon window he drew in his initial child's sketch six months earlier....

Sep 1, 05 10:18 pm  · 
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I personally take it as a sign if I drop the digital camera into the pool. right abra?

Sep 2, 05 12:09 am  · 
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abracadabra

if the camera drops, you must quit.
owners dog barking at you is another sign you must quit.
these are the signs of doom.

Sep 2, 05 9:34 am  · 
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bawmis

the site is in manhattan

Sep 2, 05 7:39 pm  · 
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postal

your PM decides to review the set the day before it goes out for pricing...

and the project to which i am referring to is actually two projects...

and the projects are $4-5 million dollar facilities with an entire new team of engineers...

oh yeah...and you go back to school, and your firm still expects you to work 80 hours a week to get it done because the design/build timeline is horrendously fast tracked...

and the PM has worked there a week, being mentored by an equally incompetent PM...

....um....i'm gonna stop...but anyone in need of a super awesome person in their arch dept....i'm gettin sick of the whole corporate pass the buck system...

oh...and the project...from the solicitation set is a piece of crap to begin with and the construction portion of your firm forgot to consult you on what actually goes into the building, and they forgot to look at the plans and see the design for the exterior facade...so instead of building something that is ugly but at least will make some money...you build something that is ugly and leaks and falls over...but you can't do anything because...well you're labeled an intern...and no one realizes that in a side by side comparison you could kick the crap out of half the department even if you were heavily sedated....

i'm done...

Sep 2, 05 11:20 pm  · 
 · 
Living in Gin

.... If your project principal has some plans and elevations sketched up that he wants you to draw up in AutoCAD, but throws a temper tantrum when you point out that the elevations can't possibly be for the same buildings as the floor plans.

Sep 3, 05 11:45 am  · 
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lletdownl

postal...
your bitching and moaning seems oddly familiar? have i made out with your sister before?
or did we get drunk and whatch the sox beat the crap out of detroit last night... i cant remember

Sep 3, 05 3:30 pm  · 
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galvanize

When the principal whole-heartedly agrees with every suggestion that the client makes during dd. "value engineering" your well thought out design in to oblivion.

Sep 3, 05 8:42 pm  · 
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Dazed and Confused

. . . God hates you.

Sep 3, 05 10:11 pm  · 
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chaglang

-You're 6 months into construction with no building permit. And neither the client, the buildier nor the local municipality care.
-Your contractor builds things before sending you the shop drawings, then threatens you when you reject the submittal.
-The client has 4 people doing the same job on the project - and none of them talk to each other.
-The contractor tries to build the foundation from the architectural set, not the structural.
-When the contractor tried to bill additional services for items already covered in their bid, and you bring this to their and the client's attention, the contractor calls you a 'pencil-pushing bean counter'.
-The client agrees to pay for these addtional services - despite the building being over their absurdly small budget - as a 'good faith' gesture toward the contractor.
-When you tell the client that this is insane, they tell you that 'this is how we do things around here'.

Sep 4, 05 10:45 am  · 
 · 
Living in Gin

... You're halfway through construction documents, and the project manager arbitrarily decides to rename all the drawing files (thus breaking every Xref link in the project), and switch from a 30x42 title block to a 24x36 title block.

Where's a gun?

Sep 13, 05 2:50 pm  · 
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pomotrash

The AutoCAD police come and take away all of your computers as "evidence" because you were operating without a license.
(this actually happened at one firm)

Sep 13, 05 2:56 pm  · 
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Living in Gin

.... The logo on your letterhead says "PER CORELL ASSOCIATES"

Dec 7, 05 5:41 pm  · 
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architecturegeek

.......The client hires you to "dress-up" their existing plans.

Dec 7, 05 7:48 pm  · 
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corntree

Does anyone remember that European firm that designed a rather huge project using a site plan that was 2x scale? The mistake wasn’t discovered until the GC was laying it out.
This sounds like the kind of thing that would happen to me.

Dec 7, 05 9:13 pm  · 
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snooker

Your project includes the use of a Civil Engineer, where you are doing a subdivision where the County Commissioners have to sign the mylar
before the document is official and....well there is a line which should read, " We the under signed" , reads "We the under designed." It gets past everyone except the last Commissioner signing the document.....well your porject is doomed.....

Dec 7, 05 10:56 pm  · 
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wilday

...your client decides that upon completion of a two story residence, he will put a 500 gallon hottub on the roof deck, and just assumes it was designed for this and will hold...(true story)

...someone hires you to add a "modern flare" to their tract house...

Dec 7, 05 11:38 pm  · 
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driftwood

...the only reason you took the project was because the client said you had a cute ass and you got all confused as to what you were agreeing to.

Dec 8, 05 1:13 am  · 
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FOG Lite

....at some point during the second year of construction on a single family residential remodel, while flipping through the on site permit set the contractor asks, "What's this? I've never seen that before."

Dec 8, 05 2:13 am  · 
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sporadic supernova

LOL @ "living in gin" :- .... The logo on your letterhead says "PER CORELL ASSOCIATES" ... funny ...

Dec 8, 05 6:43 am  · 
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sporadic supernova

well in my case ..


If the client and the contractor is from the same family !! ..

fucking frustrating !! .. changes all the time !!!

Dec 8, 05 6:44 am  · 
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cobra

...when the next door neighbor of the proposed building site shows up at a city variance meeting with tears rolling down her face saying the building will ruin her life and threaten her safety

...and when said person is denied her claim she threatens the client will never be allowed to step foot on her property to wash their windows.

Dec 8, 05 2:27 pm  · 
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Louisville Architect

the principal comes back from a meeting and says the client thought it was too "interesting".

Dec 8, 05 2:57 pm  · 
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MysteryMan

When the construction manager cuts off your water at the site.

Dec 8, 05 3:01 pm  · 
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norm

per...
that actually happened to me. i designed a facility to house cooling towers for a private university. it was set into the grade, had a sod roof, and used the earth and plantings to control the noise. the client was into it for a while, as were all the consultants, but then decided it would be too inviting for the students to climb on. so it turned into a new england barn at someone elses hand. oh well. you pay your money and take your chances.

Dec 8, 05 5:09 pm  · 
 · 
David Cuthbert

When your client says things like "Oh really..." with a clueless look on their face

When the contractor calls you to offer moral support

When you recieve a visit from the clients lawyer



Dec 10, 05 9:15 am  · 
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poly

your furniture is larger than the niches you created on site ... you're fucked if the furniture has already been fabricated and payments made ..... god bless ... i am living this nightmare as i write

Dec 11, 05 2:50 am  · 
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gruen

...when the 'board' says "I don't know what it is, but it's really ugly"...

...when there's a flood and your client is washed away...

...when your boss never returns from therapy...

...when, before SD's are even started the client says, "It has to look like an old building with ivy walls, not that modern crap"...

...when the client wonders why the project costs more than a tract home...

...when the client asks, "how much money do I need to get started?"...

ok, shit, i gotta stop...time to go out drinking to ease the pain...

Dec 12, 05 3:02 pm  · 
 · 
Living in Gin

...When you have to explain to your project principal why a 1/4"=1'-0" scale drawing plotted at half-size is actually at 1/8"=1'-0" scale.

Dec 21, 05 3:53 pm  · 
 · 
A

When the city approved your drawings but won't give a permit to your GC because he's "not licensed to work in this state under that name."

I actually got to hear a contractor cry over this one. It's a very Merry Christmas for me! As for the building, that's next years problem now.

Dec 21, 05 5:16 pm  · 
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Rim Joist

...your proposed skillful implementation of wire cloth is met by the client with:
"...what, that mesh crap?...that crap SUCKS!!!..."

Dec 21, 05 5:25 pm  · 
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Per Corel

you don't be using 3dH

Dec 21, 05 5:52 pm  · 
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Ms Beary

When I have 4 projects in CD phase to go out the door all within the next two weeks, and for the life of me I can't even remember what one of them is.

Mar 23, 06 5:49 pm  · 
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Ms Beary

Oh, and two of them are the exact same building on two different sites, 3000 miles apart (CA and FL), which makes it easy. Except one is metal studs and one is wood studs. This I found out today, after I changed all the drawings from wood to metal yesterday after instruction from above.

Mar 23, 06 5:53 pm  · 
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snooker

Now I'm wondering if you might have eaten your lunch and forgot that you ate it.

Mar 23, 06 5:54 pm  · 
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Ms Beary

Ok, I guess I only have 3. Nevermind.

Mar 23, 06 6:03 pm  · 
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southpole

When working on a design built team and you became the G.C.’s drafting boy-

When you are asked to stamp drawings that the company CEO’s wife drafted by hand.

When the owner thinks that he can provide ½ of the materials for the project from his personal account at Home Depo…

Should I go on…


Mar 23, 06 6:08 pm  · 
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snooker

When you have been assigned a person to your project and they tell you they went to school with Brad Pitt.

Mar 23, 06 6:26 pm  · 
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spark

the owner's dog humps your leg during a meeting

Mar 24, 06 12:21 am  · 
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mightylittle™

...when your client asks whether or not your shearwalls can be made of glass.

Mar 24, 06 1:53 am  · 
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