Interesting, I have started drinking a lot of tea lately myself. I used to not like it but it's so good for you. I drink it unsweetened but occasionally add cream.
Unfortunately, however, I do not have access to tea or anything else healthy right now. Do not ever let anyone tell you that traveling for work is "fun". It's not fun, especially when your clients are maniacs, nice people, but still maniacs, who ask you if you "want to keep going" at 8:30 pm, after you've been going since 8 am!
It's really disheartening too, because between these trips and my um, escapades in California, I feel like I'm undoing 5 months of really hard work getting myself healthy. I know it's not necessarily recommended but I do think I'm going to do a mini-cleanse again in a couple of weeks. I crave vegetables and fruits but I'm in the middle of god's country (seriously, it's Amish country) and my food choices are very limited.
It doesn't help that they have Dunkin Donuts every 50' up here. I can't resist a Hazelnut Coffee Coolata.
Wonder K, sounds like you are really suffering. Here's hoping you don't have to resort to an warranted body cleanse. With all the work you've done, I'm sure you'll be able to get back to it without it.
awww, WonderK, when do you get to go home? Hopefully soon you can snuggle up with the WonderKitty and some healthy food and relax.
Reason #37 why biking is great: I seem to have misplaced a good sized chunk of my ass. I'm not sure at what point this happened, but I certainly don't mind it.
Did I ever tell you guys about why Jared actually lost all that weight? I dated a guy who used to live in the same apartment building as him in Indiana, I think it was IU. Anyway, apparently Jared's apartment backed right up to a Subway in the same building, and I guess there was some sort of magic door or window into the Subway from Jared's apartment. He was so fat that he didn't want to go anywhere else to eat, so he ate Subway, all the time. And that, my friends, is how a spokesman is born. :o)
dubK- you seriously can't find a farmers market or roadside produce stand in central PA? If you're gonna be unhealthy, at least find an Amish market that sells pretzel wrapped hotdogs- mustard is a vitamin!
I just did more sustained uphill pedaling than I have in prolly 2 years. The new bike is weaponous and will consume all of my bad thoughts and feelings...
FRO, when you're in a stuffy room for 13 hours a day and at your clients beck and call, I assure you that searching the back roads of PA at 10 pm for a farmer's market or roadside produce stand is about the last thing I want to do.....
namby, this is a weird question, but have you been suddenly more happy recently? i eat when i'm comfortable, in a secure relationship, and just contented. Some people eat more when they're stressed.
Another thing that has been happening to me in the last 2 years... umm... just womanly body changes, for lack of a better word. I've noticed my form shift substantially in the last couple years and while my weight has remained more or less constant, my clothes all fit weirdly and differently now. Could it be something like that.......? I think we're about the same age.
ah yes. More fuel for my theory that the Amish are the only people central PA is really good for, and if you kicked everyone else out, it could be a really beautiful place. Lets go visit Amish National Park!
I guess that's why traveling for work isn't fun. Even if there is something cool to see, you'll miss it unless it comes by the office.....
Good luck gettin the hell outta there! What's the next stop on your tour?
I love Amish country. WK if you can break free for a short ride out of Lancaster proper you should come by some awesome farmer's stands right at the roadside... it's harvest time, too!
Thanks FRO and myriam. The next stop on my tour is home, and then back to Pennsylvania again next week. I will say that I passed some crazy looking places on the way into town the other day.....there was an Inn that was called the "Steamboat Inn" or something, and it was shaped like a giant, 4-story steamboat. Just sitting there behind the parking lot. Fantastic!
myriam - I'm not "Unhappy." But since I am basically uprooting my life and having a lot of changes coming up, I am more anxious than usual, even though I am happy about the changes I am making. I tend to under-eat when I am stressed/unhappy. It might just be the age thing. Weird.
getting mentally prepared for a meeting this evening during which two of us from my office, our contractor/construction manager, and the schools' facilities director will have a heart-to-heart with the board about their attitude toward change orders.
we all understand that owners don't like change orders. but this board has built such an irrational fear of them that it's got the construction team stymied about how to proceed with several things. on a $4m project they ran us through the wringer on why they had to pay $125 to paint an overhead door to match the rest of the building. (i could explain but, trust me, it needed to happen.)
the argument we're bringing, in a nutshell, is that by squeezing us so hard on change orders, they've got us scared to make any decisions during construction which would give them a better building. in fact, as the construction manager puts it, his impression is that they want us to just 'stop thinking about the project and let it happen' after construction starts.
i'll personally be bringing two examples.
1: the superintendent realized a few weeks ago that it would make a future school project much easier/more economical if we extended a water line beyond this school's geothermal fields and parking so that they wouldn't have to be disturbed by the future project. this would cost money; we decided not to pursue because of the potential board confrontation. result: leaving a bigger more expensive problem for the future when it wouldn't really be a problem to do now.
2: because some details where the metal deck meets the block wall were modified in the field due to some structural issues, there is now the potential that sound may be transmitted between classrooms via the small voids at the underside of the corrugated deck. (open ceilings/structure.) we don't KNOW that this will be an issue, but see that it might. the fix is $3,000. the facilities director doesn't want to make the decision because it will fall on all of us to justify the 'why?' when it would be easier to just forget about it and see what happens. so we'll present to the board tonight and see what they would have us do in this situation - and see if it continues to be a blame game like it has been in the past.
one other piece of background: past projects with them, with all change orders tallied; change orders have amounted to under 1% of total construction cost! why the hell do we have to turn ourselves inside out worrying before every board meeting about how they'll nail us to the wall? they should be congratulating us!
steven, having done school work, now i don't know if you are in the private or public sector, i can say that the board is taking it's cues from the naive public, that hates seeing their taxes increase, for schools that may or may not benefit them; if they don't have kids, it's even harder to justify.
the school board should have hired a CM, their facilities guy i bet is probably a glorified janitorial engineer, if not no difference, they should have hired a CM. there is a contingency right?
their other motivation may be in the fact that if this is a public project, any monies not spent are not for the district to use willy nilly, they may have to return that money to the public in the form of rebates?
the school may start hitting you back on the errors and omissions stuff right? as in, you should have detail that deck closure correctly; albeit it may hit your structural guy too, right?
i hated school districts; save a nickel now only to spend the dime later, when that spineless school board is no longer in power....happens all the time, and with increasingly tight fees, it'll only get worse.
so we're havin a company breakfast where all the good bakers have brought in delish things like coffee cake and wonderful looking things. and i am not eating any of it! good for me.
thanks, beta and vado, for not only reading all that but taking it seriously enough to respond.
beta,
public schools. taxes are gonna increase anyway because new school projects are being bonded as we speak and it really hasn't been an issue in this community. besides, the contingency is part of the bonding and we're hardly cutting into the contingency. (remember: 1% total change orders on last job.)
we do have a cm, and he's going into this argument with us. he thinks he's being squeezed as well and isn't being able to perform his job as well as he should. in fact, he's the one who originally said we need to make this argument.
the facilities guy is not, in fact, a glorified engineer. he's an educator/administrator with a very able and knowledgeable head of maintenance assisting him. he knows administration better than construction, but he's been a great part of the team, so no bones there. it's impt to our argument to the board that we (arch, consultants, cm, and facilities staff) are actually working together very well and effectively. thus the issue with the board's leaning on us so hard.
monies not spent are still earmarked for school work. in practice, it will probably be used to buy furnishings.
they haven't been hitting us up for E&O $$$. primarily because before each board meeting we spend a lot of time developing our argument for why these changes were necessary/advisable/beneficial, etc.
the point with the deck closure is that we did detail is correctly, it was susequently revised in the field (not a problem, was necessary, we approved), and that we don't KNOW that it will be a problem now. we just want to follow up as well as we can and make the school board aware of potential issues and how they might be addressed.
all that said, yep, you know what we're dealing with....
Steven, I enjoyed reading your rant above but on the flip side, I'm sorry you have to deal with it!
Unfortunately it sounds like what you need is someone on the school board to stand up and say "I believe we need to build things correctly for the long term and I'm willing to take responsibility for the decisions to make that happen." From your previous posts here, I'm guessing the chances of someone being that brave and responsible are next to zero.
Oh my god, Hitler cat is so totally unbelievably adorable!!! And I'm not a big cat person!
honestly Steven, that kind of content is a TC highlight for me...i find it remarkable that given these circumstances the school looks like quite a nice project (judging from images posted on the Jobsite Pic thread). Kudos to you and the team.
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and Orhan, please keep us posted on Daisy's recovery. such a cute little creature, rupi too... i think of your situation daily and try to send positive thoughts to the pups.
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hi puddles
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Hitler Kat has some beautiful eyes.
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dubK, any big plans for all the frequent flyer miles you must be acquiring?
Once again, we're out of coffee creamer here at the office. At 8:30 AM, this is a major crisis. Why is it a crisis? I'll explain.
In a normal office run by halfway-competent management, this wouldn't be a crisis: Grab a few dollars from the petty cash drawer, and send an intern to the Walgreen's across the street to pick up some more creamer for the office. Problem solved.
But no. Here at Franz Kafka + Associates, we can't get any money from the petty cash drawer because we don't have a petty cash drawer. We can't send an intern to the Walgreen's across the street because that would be a waste of ten precious minutes of billable time. And we can't buy coffee creamer anyway because the principal will only buy it in bulk from the Costco near her house whenever she gets around to it.
Mind you, this is the same principal who had me pay the tolls when I was riding shotgun in her Jaguar on the way out to a site visit. And people wonder why I'm a socialist.
Welcome to my hell... 12 business days left at this shithole firm. Somebody please tell me my new employer in NYC, whoever it turns out to be, will be better.
LiG, no one deserves to rant about the office as much as you do!! I hope NYC works out to be nirvana for you, but if it does, I will really, really miss your beautifully written, sarcastic and hilarious rants!
guess it depends on if the school district is your kids district or not. If it is then fight for the best damn building possible and be happy that your tax dollars are paying for it. if it's not, then try to figure out how this project will land you the next one- will the school board happily say your team a) hit the budget or b) that they got a great building? then you know what you stand to gain...
good luck!
LIG- go buy a personal creamer and keep it on ice at your desk (or get those mini packs from a diner). did you ever get expensed for the tolls?
the budget includes a 10% contingency. the total change orders in these jobs has been amounting to less than 1%, so less than a 10th of that contingency. so we'd like them to say both a) and b), please, thank you. instead we don't hear how well things are going in the schools they've occupied (why would they bother to give good news?), they complain about things that they didn't get because they couldn't afford, and then they beat us down over the less-than-1% changes that come during construction.
i've maybe misrepresented my beef:
the issue is less whether the project should go differently. this project is (and the projects have been) going swimmingly. the only issue is whether we (facilities, cm, and arch) have to take the beat-down each month to keep them going so well. my vote is no.
I got in one of my drawings this morning. There's about a million things that "magically" have been modified. I have about a week of fixing before I can make the updates I needed to in the first place. I'm going to go jump out the window. WFT? Who does this and why?
steven, is the 10% contingency built in to the contract award, or does the client just have that amount set aside? if it is built into the contract, can't the project team just process a contingency adjustment without going to the board for approval?
that's how i try to work all of my contracts (i'm a project manager for a municipal government)... that way i don't have to go get city council approval for small stuff that everyone agrees needs to happen... i usually build a 5 or 10% contingency into the construction contract award... that way i can approve everything... and if we happen to exceed the contingency our purchasing rules allow us to issue a change order of up to $25K without going back to Council...
your situtation sounds like no fun for anyone involved... i'd kill to have a project that only has 1% in change orders... i'm getting really frustrated with the lack of coordination in my architects' drawings that cause us to burn through our contingencies like there is no tomorrow... they're terrific designers, but their drawings have been less than stellar...
Steven, I like hearing your troubles, unfortunately I have no advice for you, sorry. I have heard so many nightmares about school budgets and maintenance and how and when they can or can't spend money. No you whould not be berated for "doing a good job", and obviously with 1% change orders, you and your team are doing a fantastic job.
gin, go get yourself some real cow juice. don't mess with that powdered crap from costco.
not allowed to build the contingency in, and for just the reason that you described archtiphil. the board does NOT feel its appropriate to give us or the facilities director that level of discretion.
and, in fact, we don't want it. i think if that 'fluff' were built into the contract we and the cm would get comfortable (i.e., lazy) and wouldn't be as rigorous about the way we approach changes. the fact that the board approves things is probably good policy...
hope you guys don't mind me continuing to respond. not meaning to discredit anything anyone has said, if it comes off that way. they're all good thoughts and, in the spirit of a good brainstorm, i shouldn't be saying 'no' to any input.
i'm actually building my agenda for this afternoon's meeting right now and this little bit of chatting about it is helping me refine my talking points.
phil, sounds like those talented designers could use an experienced hand in the office to guide them toward making stronger drawing sets.
the place i'm at in nyc has this set up: a handful of people with 4 or less years of experience and an awesome old guy drawing details by hand all day, acting as a resource for construction related questions etc. of course, the guy that runs the joint plays a huge role in all of this too, but he can be out of the office 90% of the time and not worry about the work suffering, because of the way his office is set up...
I think I'm going to take the rest of the day off, while sitting at my desk making CAD-like noises.
How does one handle such petty frustrations? I cannot delegate to younger staff and request they fix their own mistakes. I cannot complain to upper managment that so and so fucked shit up, they just respond with, "I'm sure YOU can fix it, which reminds me, I'm late for margarita time."
My fantasy is to be AP's old guy. I mean, not YOUR old guy, AP, but to be the old pro who has all the experience and knows his (my) shit.
Unfortunately I fear I will never have that breadth of knowledge about any single aspect of architecture, and will remain a half-assed generalist for the rest of my life. Oh well, I'm still having fun.
AP, you're right... and actually the firm in question recently hired an older guy that is supposedly going to be their quality control guy... hopefully he'll tighten up their drawings... i think that he looked over the drawings for a project that we're just about to break ground on and so far the drawings do look like they're better... but it is also a completely different type of construction... we'll see how it goes... we also have a much better contractor on this new job... the contractor on the project that we are having problems with is a major pain in the ass...
also, something that might be of interest to you... the pool that we visited during last year's EP conference (designed by said architects) will be getting a design award on Saturday from the local AIA chapter... [blatant self promotion]i will be getting one too for my EP competition project :)[/blatant self promotion]
I wish we had an old guy that we could get answers from.
tumbles... I spoke too soon. After speaking up and complaining that I didn't feel like spending the next week fixing someone's mistakes, I got handed a design project! New energy is flowing!
Strawbeary- I've been in that situation before. What it turned out was that there had been a change made on a portion of the building I was responsible for, but the Project Manager (who mostly takes phone calls and writes emails and has meetings, rarely ever drafts, out of the office a lot) didn't bother to tell me this. Instead, he went into the files and made the change. Well, then the next time I went into the files I (from my perspective) fixed the issue, correcting it to what I and the rest of the team understood to be what we were going to do. Well at some later point, PM gets in the file, goes "WTF?!" and fixes it. And then I fix it, and then he fixes it..... until I finally burst out with a "What the hell kind of poltergiest has gotten into my drawings, because I've fixed this item five times already?!" And PM goes, "oh, I thought I told you, we changed that to x, it's been me."
So, long story short, make sure that there haven't been some changes that you aren't in the loop on before you go and fix the file.
r, yes there are potentially those types of changes, but also some really stupid things, like drawing the eaves differently on half of the wings of the building and not the other. yes I am leaving them alone regardless.
Thread Central
ooh...shit
did I actually post that?.m.ok, that's the scotch talking.
i would never say such a thing.
and no, i am not mixing my (cheap) scotch with merlot this evening. thank you.
maybe we can get Glenfiddich to sponser the meet-up
Or maybe Johnny Walker - getting architects piss drunk for over 100 years
Straw....don't tell me the contractor is a woman....lingering thoughts...as who ran off with who........
Interesting, I have started drinking a lot of tea lately myself. I used to not like it but it's so good for you. I drink it unsweetened but occasionally add cream.
Unfortunately, however, I do not have access to tea or anything else healthy right now. Do not ever let anyone tell you that traveling for work is "fun". It's not fun, especially when your clients are maniacs, nice people, but still maniacs, who ask you if you "want to keep going" at 8:30 pm, after you've been going since 8 am!
It's really disheartening too, because between these trips and my um, escapades in California, I feel like I'm undoing 5 months of really hard work getting myself healthy. I know it's not necessarily recommended but I do think I'm going to do a mini-cleanse again in a couple of weeks. I crave vegetables and fruits but I'm in the middle of god's country (seriously, it's Amish country) and my food choices are very limited.
It doesn't help that they have Dunkin Donuts every 50' up here. I can't resist a Hazelnut Coffee Coolata.
Wonder K, sounds like you are really suffering. Here's hoping you don't have to resort to an warranted body cleanse. With all the work you've done, I'm sure you'll be able to get back to it without it.
one of the worst gut aches i ever got was after i ate at the essenhaus amish restaraunt in goshen indiana.
awww, WonderK, when do you get to go home? Hopefully soon you can snuggle up with the WonderKitty and some healthy food and relax.
Reason #37 why biking is great: I seem to have misplaced a good sized chunk of my ass. I'm not sure at what point this happened, but I certainly don't mind it.
just follow jared's lead...
Did I ever tell you guys about why Jared actually lost all that weight? I dated a guy who used to live in the same apartment building as him in Indiana, I think it was IU. Anyway, apparently Jared's apartment backed right up to a Subway in the same building, and I guess there was some sort of magic door or window into the Subway from Jared's apartment. He was so fat that he didn't want to go anywhere else to eat, so he ate Subway, all the time. And that, my friends, is how a spokesman is born. :o)
rationalist comment reminds me of this thread
dubK- you seriously can't find a farmers market or roadside produce stand in central PA? If you're gonna be unhealthy, at least find an Amish market that sells pretzel wrapped hotdogs- mustard is a vitamin!
I just did more sustained uphill pedaling than I have in prolly 2 years. The new bike is weaponous and will consume all of my bad thoughts and feelings...
FRO, when you're in a stuffy room for 13 hours a day and at your clients beck and call, I assure you that searching the back roads of PA at 10 pm for a farmer's market or roadside produce stand is about the last thing I want to do.....
namby, this is a weird question, but have you been suddenly more happy recently? i eat when i'm comfortable, in a secure relationship, and just contented. Some people eat more when they're stressed.
Another thing that has been happening to me in the last 2 years... umm... just womanly body changes, for lack of a better word. I've noticed my form shift substantially in the last couple years and while my weight has remained more or less constant, my clothes all fit weirdly and differently now. Could it be something like that.......? I think we're about the same age.
ah yes. More fuel for my theory that the Amish are the only people central PA is really good for, and if you kicked everyone else out, it could be a really beautiful place. Lets go visit Amish National Park!
I guess that's why traveling for work isn't fun. Even if there is something cool to see, you'll miss it unless it comes by the office.....
Good luck gettin the hell outta there! What's the next stop on your tour?
I love Amish country. WK if you can break free for a short ride out of Lancaster proper you should come by some awesome farmer's stands right at the roadside... it's harvest time, too!
Thanks FRO and myriam. The next stop on my tour is home, and then back to Pennsylvania again next week. I will say that I passed some crazy looking places on the way into town the other day.....there was an Inn that was called the "Steamboat Inn" or something, and it was shaped like a giant, 4-story steamboat. Just sitting there behind the parking lot. Fantastic!
myriam - I'm not "Unhappy." But since I am basically uprooting my life and having a lot of changes coming up, I am more anxious than usual, even though I am happy about the changes I am making. I tend to under-eat when I am stressed/unhappy. It might just be the age thing. Weird.
namby
I think I slept on the couch that night ;)
I am the only one on archinect at this hour...sad
I think Im gonna go get some tacos from the truck down the street
Hitler Kat bids you allo!
getting mentally prepared for a meeting this evening during which two of us from my office, our contractor/construction manager, and the schools' facilities director will have a heart-to-heart with the board about their attitude toward change orders.
we all understand that owners don't like change orders. but this board has built such an irrational fear of them that it's got the construction team stymied about how to proceed with several things. on a $4m project they ran us through the wringer on why they had to pay $125 to paint an overhead door to match the rest of the building. (i could explain but, trust me, it needed to happen.)
the argument we're bringing, in a nutshell, is that by squeezing us so hard on change orders, they've got us scared to make any decisions during construction which would give them a better building. in fact, as the construction manager puts it, his impression is that they want us to just 'stop thinking about the project and let it happen' after construction starts.
i'll personally be bringing two examples.
1: the superintendent realized a few weeks ago that it would make a future school project much easier/more economical if we extended a water line beyond this school's geothermal fields and parking so that they wouldn't have to be disturbed by the future project. this would cost money; we decided not to pursue because of the potential board confrontation. result: leaving a bigger more expensive problem for the future when it wouldn't really be a problem to do now.
2: because some details where the metal deck meets the block wall were modified in the field due to some structural issues, there is now the potential that sound may be transmitted between classrooms via the small voids at the underside of the corrugated deck. (open ceilings/structure.) we don't KNOW that this will be an issue, but see that it might. the fix is $3,000. the facilities director doesn't want to make the decision because it will fall on all of us to justify the 'why?' when it would be easier to just forget about it and see what happens. so we'll present to the board tonight and see what they would have us do in this situation - and see if it continues to be a blame game like it has been in the past.
one other piece of background: past projects with them, with all change orders tallied; change orders have amounted to under 1% of total construction cost! why the hell do we have to turn ourselves inside out worrying before every board meeting about how they'll nail us to the wall? they should be congratulating us!
#1 above: talking about the job's field superintendent, not the superintendent of schools.
sorry for the screed.
carry on.
the short answer: don't give them a better building. give them what they want. this philosophy may be found in the New Whateverist Manifesto.
steven, having done school work, now i don't know if you are in the private or public sector, i can say that the board is taking it's cues from the naive public, that hates seeing their taxes increase, for schools that may or may not benefit them; if they don't have kids, it's even harder to justify.
the school board should have hired a CM, their facilities guy i bet is probably a glorified janitorial engineer, if not no difference, they should have hired a CM. there is a contingency right?
their other motivation may be in the fact that if this is a public project, any monies not spent are not for the district to use willy nilly, they may have to return that money to the public in the form of rebates?
the school may start hitting you back on the errors and omissions stuff right? as in, you should have detail that deck closure correctly; albeit it may hit your structural guy too, right?
i hated school districts; save a nickel now only to spend the dime later, when that spineless school board is no longer in power....happens all the time, and with increasingly tight fees, it'll only get worse.
so we're havin a company breakfast where all the good bakers have brought in delish things like coffee cake and wonderful looking things. and i am not eating any of it! good for me.
fight the fight vado!
you should go in there and eat some wheat germ and bacteria cultures on wasa toast.
thanks, beta and vado, for not only reading all that but taking it seriously enough to respond.
beta,
public schools. taxes are gonna increase anyway because new school projects are being bonded as we speak and it really hasn't been an issue in this community. besides, the contingency is part of the bonding and we're hardly cutting into the contingency. (remember: 1% total change orders on last job.)
we do have a cm, and he's going into this argument with us. he thinks he's being squeezed as well and isn't being able to perform his job as well as he should. in fact, he's the one who originally said we need to make this argument.
the facilities guy is not, in fact, a glorified engineer. he's an educator/administrator with a very able and knowledgeable head of maintenance assisting him. he knows administration better than construction, but he's been a great part of the team, so no bones there. it's impt to our argument to the board that we (arch, consultants, cm, and facilities staff) are actually working together very well and effectively. thus the issue with the board's leaning on us so hard.
monies not spent are still earmarked for school work. in practice, it will probably be used to buy furnishings.
they haven't been hitting us up for E&O $$$. primarily because before each board meeting we spend a lot of time developing our argument for why these changes were necessary/advisable/beneficial, etc.
the point with the deck closure is that we did detail is correctly, it was susequently revised in the field (not a problem, was necessary, we approved), and that we don't KNOW that it will be a problem now. we just want to follow up as well as we can and make the school board aware of potential issues and how they might be addressed.
all that said, yep, you know what we're dealing with....
Steven, I enjoyed reading your rant above but on the flip side, I'm sorry you have to deal with it!
Unfortunately it sounds like what you need is someone on the school board to stand up and say "I believe we need to build things correctly for the long term and I'm willing to take responsibility for the decisions to make that happen." From your previous posts here, I'm guessing the chances of someone being that brave and responsible are next to zero.
Oh my god, Hitler cat is so totally unbelievably adorable!!! And I'm not a big cat person!
honestly Steven, that kind of content is a TC highlight for me...i find it remarkable that given these circumstances the school looks like quite a nice project (judging from images posted on the Jobsite Pic thread). Kudos to you and the team.
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and Orhan, please keep us posted on Daisy's recovery. such a cute little creature, rupi too... i think of your situation daily and try to send positive thoughts to the pups.
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hi puddles
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Hitler Kat has some beautiful eyes.
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dubK, any big plans for all the frequent flyer miles you must be acquiring?
Once again, we're out of coffee creamer here at the office. At 8:30 AM, this is a major crisis. Why is it a crisis? I'll explain.
In a normal office run by halfway-competent management, this wouldn't be a crisis: Grab a few dollars from the petty cash drawer, and send an intern to the Walgreen's across the street to pick up some more creamer for the office. Problem solved.
But no. Here at Franz Kafka + Associates, we can't get any money from the petty cash drawer because we don't have a petty cash drawer. We can't send an intern to the Walgreen's across the street because that would be a waste of ten precious minutes of billable time. And we can't buy coffee creamer anyway because the principal will only buy it in bulk from the Costco near her house whenever she gets around to it.
Mind you, this is the same principal who had me pay the tolls when I was riding shotgun in her Jaguar on the way out to a site visit. And people wonder why I'm a socialist.
Welcome to my hell... 12 business days left at this shithole firm. Somebody please tell me my new employer in NYC, whoever it turns out to be, will be better.
LiG, no one deserves to rant about the office as much as you do!! I hope NYC works out to be nirvana for you, but if it does, I will really, really miss your beautifully written, sarcastic and hilarious rants!
Off to a site visit....
steve-
guess it depends on if the school district is your kids district or not. If it is then fight for the best damn building possible and be happy that your tax dollars are paying for it. if it's not, then try to figure out how this project will land you the next one- will the school board happily say your team a) hit the budget or b) that they got a great building? then you know what you stand to gain...
good luck!
LIG- go buy a personal creamer and keep it on ice at your desk (or get those mini packs from a diner). did you ever get expensed for the tolls?
the budget includes a 10% contingency. the total change orders in these jobs has been amounting to less than 1%, so less than a 10th of that contingency. so we'd like them to say both a) and b), please, thank you. instead we don't hear how well things are going in the schools they've occupied (why would they bother to give good news?), they complain about things that they didn't get because they couldn't afford, and then they beat us down over the less-than-1% changes that come during construction.
i've maybe misrepresented my beef:
the issue is less whether the project should go differently. this project is (and the projects have been) going swimmingly. the only issue is whether we (facilities, cm, and arch) have to take the beat-down each month to keep them going so well. my vote is no.
ahhh... yeah it sucks to be berated each month over nothing...
I got in one of my drawings this morning. There's about a million things that "magically" have been modified. I have about a week of fixing before I can make the updates I needed to in the first place. I'm going to go jump out the window. WFT? Who does this and why?
steven, is the 10% contingency built in to the contract award, or does the client just have that amount set aside? if it is built into the contract, can't the project team just process a contingency adjustment without going to the board for approval?
that's how i try to work all of my contracts (i'm a project manager for a municipal government)... that way i don't have to go get city council approval for small stuff that everyone agrees needs to happen... i usually build a 5 or 10% contingency into the construction contract award... that way i can approve everything... and if we happen to exceed the contingency our purchasing rules allow us to issue a change order of up to $25K without going back to Council...
your situtation sounds like no fun for anyone involved... i'd kill to have a project that only has 1% in change orders... i'm getting really frustrated with the lack of coordination in my architects' drawings that cause us to burn through our contingencies like there is no tomorrow... they're terrific designers, but their drawings have been less than stellar...
Steven, I like hearing your troubles, unfortunately I have no advice for you, sorry. I have heard so many nightmares about school budgets and maintenance and how and when they can or can't spend money. No you whould not be berated for "doing a good job", and obviously with 1% change orders, you and your team are doing a fantastic job.
gin, go get yourself some real cow juice. don't mess with that powdered crap from costco.
not allowed to build the contingency in, and for just the reason that you described archtiphil. the board does NOT feel its appropriate to give us or the facilities director that level of discretion.
and, in fact, we don't want it. i think if that 'fluff' were built into the contract we and the cm would get comfortable (i.e., lazy) and wouldn't be as rigorous about the way we approach changes. the fact that the board approves things is probably good policy...
hope you guys don't mind me continuing to respond. not meaning to discredit anything anyone has said, if it comes off that way. they're all good thoughts and, in the spirit of a good brainstorm, i shouldn't be saying 'no' to any input.
i'm actually building my agenda for this afternoon's meeting right now and this little bit of chatting about it is helping me refine my talking points.
so, thanks!
phil, sounds like those talented designers could use an experienced hand in the office to guide them toward making stronger drawing sets.
the place i'm at in nyc has this set up: a handful of people with 4 or less years of experience and an awesome old guy drawing details by hand all day, acting as a resource for construction related questions etc. of course, the guy that runs the joint plays a huge role in all of this too, but he can be out of the office 90% of the time and not worry about the work suffering, because of the way his office is set up...
I think I'm going to take the rest of the day off, while sitting at my desk making CAD-like noises.
How does one handle such petty frustrations? I cannot delegate to younger staff and request they fix their own mistakes. I cannot complain to upper managment that so and so fucked shit up, they just respond with, "I'm sure YOU can fix it, which reminds me, I'm late for margarita time."
My fantasy is to be AP's old guy. I mean, not YOUR old guy, AP, but to be the old pro who has all the experience and knows his (my) shit.
Unfortunately I fear I will never have that breadth of knowledge about any single aspect of architecture, and will remain a half-assed generalist for the rest of my life. Oh well, I'm still having fun.
AP, you're right... and actually the firm in question recently hired an older guy that is supposedly going to be their quality control guy... hopefully he'll tighten up their drawings... i think that he looked over the drawings for a project that we're just about to break ground on and so far the drawings do look like they're better... but it is also a completely different type of construction... we'll see how it goes... we also have a much better contractor on this new job... the contractor on the project that we are having problems with is a major pain in the ass...
also, something that might be of interest to you... the pool that we visited during last year's EP conference (designed by said architects) will be getting a design award on Saturday from the local AIA chapter... [blatant self promotion]i will be getting one too for my EP competition project :)[/blatant self promotion]
I wish we had an old guy that we could get answers from.
tumbles... I spoke too soon. After speaking up and complaining that I didn't feel like spending the next week fixing someone's mistakes, I got handed a design project! New energy is flowing!
Strawbeary- I've been in that situation before. What it turned out was that there had been a change made on a portion of the building I was responsible for, but the Project Manager (who mostly takes phone calls and writes emails and has meetings, rarely ever drafts, out of the office a lot) didn't bother to tell me this. Instead, he went into the files and made the change. Well, then the next time I went into the files I (from my perspective) fixed the issue, correcting it to what I and the rest of the team understood to be what we were going to do. Well at some later point, PM gets in the file, goes "WTF?!" and fixes it. And then I fix it, and then he fixes it..... until I finally burst out with a "What the hell kind of poltergiest has gotten into my drawings, because I've fixed this item five times already?!" And PM goes, "oh, I thought I told you, we changed that to x, it's been me."
So, long story short, make sure that there haven't been some changes that you aren't in the loop on before you go and fix the file.
r, yes there are potentially those types of changes, but also some really stupid things, like drawing the eaves differently on half of the wings of the building and not the other. yes I am leaving them alone regardless.
congrats phil, email me a link to the award newsletter...
this is fascinating. I would kill for a job w/ 1% change orders and a tight, efficient team. I need to work for you Steven and learn a few things.
just in case you don't follow my axed soap opera:
landed an interview!!!! many thanks to my headhunter for suggesting this firm...
yeay!!!!
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