yeah i was gonna say, strawbeary, why *can't* you go to your underlings and say, "you need to fix these eaves--here's how they should be, thanks for your help, bye bye!" dude, that's how underlings learn. they probalby have no idea they screwed up. they should redo it, learn, and move on.
Isn't that the definition of being an underling: when most anyone in the office can dump work on you with no notice or reason and you really have to do it?
yep! although i don't think being asked to fix a mistake you made can legitimately be called "no notice or reason" nor legitimately cause resentment for "really having to do it."
I agree, I just figured that since underlings have to do all sorts of random crap anyways, so even if they didn't like it, fixing that shit wouldn't be any worse than what they already do all the time.
WOW! Big family events. My mom just emailed to say that they have accepted an offer on the hotel, and it will be turned over to the new owners September 1st.
Seems like September will be a month of drama, as it's also when I'm moving.... prepare for further Existential Crisis Freakouts as it approaches.
acutally the underlings here get lots of freedom, to a great degree deciding what they want to do, when, and how. we are pretty loose, and have no quality control. I do crap work, as does the other non-underling/non partner people because we recognize the importance of doing these little things well.
I've mentioned this before, but we don't do redlines, we don't delegate, and we don't operate on a heirarchy system.
for you or for me? It's a fine place, but pretty simple, not an all-inclusive resort like many on the island. I won't be able to make it while it's still theirs, but I imagine that I'd like to go back someday, as it's a beautiful place.
I'm just freaking out because- dad has no job and mom only has a temp-to-perm job that's never gotten around to the perm part, where the fuck will they live, how will they even pay to move back here, they took an offer below asking price so they will have no money, how will they live, and all this is happening RIGHT when I was already having my OWN personal existential crisis freakout, I don't need theirs on top of it. They say that I'll never have to support them, they don't expect that, I'm the kid they should be the responsible ones... but frankly I think I'd have to be a complete moron to believe that the way things are going.
I learned to give all headhunters suggestions a chance no matter if I'm dead set on another direction. The place I landed has been pretty good, and it sounded miserable.
thanks AP... i'll forward the official announcement once it's official on Saturday... so far i just have the "we're just calling to make sure that you will be attending the awards ceremony" phone call...
Also, I'm pretty sure I'm still an underling but I take full responsibility for all my work, errors and all. Thus I get unreasonably pissed when changes are made and incorrectly by others. The PA I usually work with has a real spelling and grammar problem and gives me redlines to do then goes and makes more changes in his own "personal" copy of the file, without telling me.
Steven, I've just read your posts and it reminds me of much of the dealings I've had this week. As well the source of much of my stress. It truly it is a WWTCD?
A few questions to clarify and truly understand your dilemma before thinking I can offer any solution. Is there a contingency built in the project; and who determines its value? Are you doing lump sum contracts? Are change orders done as bill costs, job work or as day work?
The reason I'm asking so many questions is that much of the clients fears can be managed, evident by your relatively coolness about the whole scenario, so I'm curious as to what systems are|were|aren't in place regarding.
last year we had the second annual AIA Florida EP Conference here in st. petersburg... i helped organize some of it and we had David Lewis from LTL as the keynote speaker... you may remember seeing something about it in AP's blog... AP and I met in person at the conference...
this year i'm working on the steering committee again... it's going to be in sarasota this year with the partners from PLY architecture as the keynote speakers...
we just take turns bringing in half and half. its not really a big deal.
i am tired. our blond and young and tanned intern and i went up to suburbia to verify some field dimensions for an upscale jewelry store. i guess i am old but damn i am tired from standing up or maybe its the heat. had a conversation about blood diamonds though with their very cute marketing director. many items cost more than my car.
i did see the raymond weil watch that i bought for my ex girlfriend/future wife back when she was my girlfriend. speaking of which i just talked to her. she got back to cambridge(the real one) after going to see her college friend who had rented a villa in italy with some of her jeopardy winnings. much spa-ing and exfoliating apparently.
i'm 30 and I'm the old guy in the office that has all the answers. However its the answers about where to find files - because i'm the only one anal enough to put them in the correct location.
Big car crash on my street a few minutes ago! She thought he had a stop sign, so she pulled in front of his truck. He had no stop sign in his direction, so he broad sided her. Her car is totaled. Everyone is OK and many cell phones were out. Scary stuff, as from my house all I could see is that her car was up on the curb and practically on the front lawn of Angus' buddy's house - i was worried that a child had been hit!
Be careful, everyone, especially when you're sleepy.
our office has a dangerous intersection where we have a t-bone a month. i make sure that i am never the first one off the light. lb actually when driving back from carmel, we were on meridian by your place and this woman had the gall to make a left turn. i almost rearended her cuz i was yammering away.
Vado's ex/future has inspired me. I think my plan to de-stress this weekend, since the bf will be out of town (his father is close enough to visit on father's day), is to indulge in bath product shopping and pampering, and maybe drinking of some girly cocktails. Ooh, and maybe hitting the beach. That should make everything better, or at least help me to ignore it for a weekend, right?
tumbles sounds like you had fun, I used to pack lunches and head to the beach myself. I stopped after the stress of returning to work was too rough, it was moving from one extreme to another
One of my clients returning from China, bought me a vacuum packed brick of green tea.....so now I guess I have to give up coffee....antioxidents....that is unless someone here is willing to trade it for a Zumthor Book....
Yeah! I just got back from a job site and I am so excited that I actually had something to do with that beautiful structure those guys are putting up. It was so freaking cool! Contractors rock! They turn drawings into real buildings!
...yeah, I always feel that way at the beginning of the project. Right around now, punchlist-and-change-order-haggling time, I'm not so thrilled with the actions of contractors...
tumbleweed - i know there's a few norcal'ers around here, lurking somewhere. there's also a slew of folks i think coming in to Cal/Berkeley in the fall. i don't know any of 'em though. they had a big UC/Berkeley thread a while back i read with casual interest.
i was just down in the monterey area last month - watsonville/sunset state beach actually. north of monterey proper. cool place. would rather live up here though.
not in emeryville, though it's not far. office is in the oakland hills. live actually north of the berkeley line by a few houses. technically in contra costa county. or as we say, CoCoCo.
the morphosis building is quite interesting, all debating aside. though from what i've heard/seen it's not actually open yet. there a small contingency of employees who are already in there, but there's 3000 or so more on the way. plenty to look at though, between the strange massing, the courtyard cement work, the screens and cladding...i still don't have a grasp on what's going on with that thing, and i've been watching them build it for a couple of years!
i'm working on a cafe job right across the street...it should kill once they open and the fed building peeps are around.
unfortunately not around this weekend - going to philly for a crazy wedding weekend.
rooftop afterparty in downtown. aww yeah, mightylittle's going to blow off some steam!
aside from this weekend, open invite for anyone in or coming to the area - hit me up. we'll meet. drink. etc.
i was listenin to npr this morning ( for some reason npr in indy gives a lot of nascar information wtf? is up with that. the two are incompatible!!!) anyway. the guy says oh we are starting to experience drought conditions don't wash your car, don't water your lawn etc, and then right after that the guy says, its gonna be a beautiful sunny weekend for jazzfest and the formula 1 race. my question is where does drought fall in terms of weather. i mean do meteorologists decide about drought and is drought a "weather" condition? because if it is and drought is a bad thing, then you can't have a beautiful weekend because you are in a fucking drought! wtf?
We used to get npr on campus. I thought it strange since this was a non-US location. But I used to love the jazz they played in the afternoon. California style. And that ladies and gentlemen is my sole cali experience
After a little mention by me in this thread you will find that on this site that your blog is now top left where it should be, and that Tropolism, perhaps the laziest archi-blog out there, has dropped away.
Ugh, what an absolutely shitty day at the office today. The lack of coffee creamer was just the beginning. The husband-and-wife tag team of dysfunctionalism that run the firm seems determined to squeeze every last bit of my soul out of me before I leave for NYC.
Remember the whole office relocation thing? Well, after months of delays and zero progress, that project has now reared its ugly head again. It's is now being re-designed for the 47th time, regardless of the fact that the MEP drawings have already been completed and that we're supposed to issue for permit and bid next week. That might be doable if I didn't already have a thousand other projects on my plate. Everybody in the office is doing the workload of three people, but Mom and Dad can't hire people to save their lives. Apparently the firm has developed quite the reputation around town as being a shitty place to work... Must have something to do with the steady stream of disgruntled former employees we keep chasing off to other firms throughout the city. Rumor has it that my replacement quit before he even showed up for his first day.
But that doesn't matter much, because I got a piece of good news today that will make this all worthwhile.
All this month I've been worried that I wouldn't be able to sell my car in time to pay the tuition and housing for the Columbia summer program, and I was facing the possibility of not being able to enroll in the program because I wouldn't have $4000 in my pocket at the time of registration on July 5th. After not being able to start grad school this fall and not being able to afford the travel-study trip to the UK earlier this spring, that would have been the type of letdown that I really don't need right now.
Well, on a hunch, I called Columbia to find out exactly how they do the billing for the whole thing. Turns out I don't need the money in hand at the time of registration, as they send out a bill a couple weeks into the program. That gives me much more time to sell the car once I'm in NYC. As an added bonus, it also solves my housing dilemma, as I've reserved a spot in the dorms.
Snooker has graciously offered a spot in his driveway for me to park the car until I sell it, and I'm hoping I can get away with sneaking a cat into the dorms. Once I get there, I'll have six weeks to do the summer program, find more permanent housing, find a job at a decent firm, and sell my car.
gin why doncha out these guys! as a public service. also, i don't know how you didnt get into the program you wanted because so many people are posting on here lately who have been accepted to these programs but don't seem able to make one fucking decision for themselves. wtf?
Well, I'm trying to remain professional about it for at least the next two weeks. Once I'm settled in NYC and I'm secure in a new job, I might not feel so inclined to protect the identity of my former bosses. I don't mind naming former employers that I've had good experiences with (Perkins+Will for example), but part of me feels an obligation not to badmouth specific people. Things like that have a weird way of coming back to haunt me.
As for grad school: In retrospect, even if I had gotten into Cornell with an offer of a full scholarship and a free BMW, I still wouldn't have been able to enroll in the fall, as I wouldn't have finished my undergrad degree and prerequisites by that point without winning the lottery and quitting my job. I knew that was a possibility last year when I decided to apply, but I figured it was worth trying anyway. (The alternate scenario would be that I had somehow finished my BA degree this summer, but ended up kicking myself for not applying to grad schools when I had the chance.)
With the Columbia summer program, finishing my BA in the fall, and having more time to improve my portfolio and do some networking, I'm much more confident about my grad school prospects for 2008.
Thread Central
yeah i was gonna say, strawbeary, why *can't* you go to your underlings and say, "you need to fix these eaves--here's how they should be, thanks for your help, bye bye!" dude, that's how underlings learn. they probalby have no idea they screwed up. they should redo it, learn, and move on.
Isn't that the definition of being an underling: when most anyone in the office can dump work on you with no notice or reason and you really have to do it?
yep! although i don't think being asked to fix a mistake you made can legitimately be called "no notice or reason" nor legitimately cause resentment for "really having to do it."
I agree, I just figured that since underlings have to do all sorts of random crap anyways, so even if they didn't like it, fixing that shit wouldn't be any worse than what they already do all the time.
WOW! Big family events. My mom just emailed to say that they have accepted an offer on the hotel, and it will be turned over to the new owners September 1st.
Seems like September will be a month of drama, as it's also when I'm moving.... prepare for further Existential Crisis Freakouts as it approaches.
acutally the underlings here get lots of freedom, to a great degree deciding what they want to do, when, and how. we are pretty loose, and have no quality control. I do crap work, as does the other non-underling/non partner people because we recognize the importance of doing these little things well.
I've mentioned this before, but we don't do redlines, we don't delegate, and we don't operate on a heirarchy system.
r- is the family hotel worth staying at before the sale? or is it like the bates motel?
for you or for me? It's a fine place, but pretty simple, not an all-inclusive resort like many on the island. I won't be able to make it while it's still theirs, but I imagine that I'd like to go back someday, as it's a beautiful place.
I'm just freaking out because- dad has no job and mom only has a temp-to-perm job that's never gotten around to the perm part, where the fuck will they live, how will they even pay to move back here, they took an offer below asking price so they will have no money, how will they live, and all this is happening RIGHT when I was already having my OWN personal existential crisis freakout, I don't need theirs on top of it. They say that I'll never have to support them, they don't expect that, I'm the kid they should be the responsible ones... but frankly I think I'd have to be a complete moron to believe that the way things are going.
Congrats TK!
I learned to give all headhunters suggestions a chance no matter if I'm dead set on another direction. The place I landed has been pretty good, and it sounded miserable.
thanks AP... i'll forward the official announcement once it's official on Saturday... so far i just have the "we're just calling to make sure that you will be attending the awards ceremony" phone call...
Also, I'm pretty sure I'm still an underling but I take full responsibility for all my work, errors and all. Thus I get unreasonably pissed when changes are made and incorrectly by others. The PA I usually work with has a real spelling and grammar problem and gives me redlines to do then goes and makes more changes in his own "personal" copy of the file, without telling me.
architphil, what is "EP"? Congratulations, in any case! Good for you working on a competition!
Steven, I've just read your posts and it reminds me of much of the dealings I've had this week. As well the source of much of my stress. It truly it is a WWTCD?
A few questions to clarify and truly understand your dilemma before thinking I can offer any solution. Is there a contingency built in the project; and who determines its value? Are you doing lump sum contracts? Are change orders done as bill costs, job work or as day work?
The reason I'm asking so many questions is that much of the clients fears can be managed, evident by your relatively coolness about the whole scenario, so I'm curious as to what systems are|were|aren't in place regarding.
I have a thing for contract administration -
EP = Emerging Professionals...
last year we had the second annual AIA Florida EP Conference here in st. petersburg... i helped organize some of it and we had David Lewis from LTL as the keynote speaker... you may remember seeing something about it in AP's blog... AP and I met in person at the conference...
this year i'm working on the steering committee again... it's going to be in sarasota this year with the partners from PLY architecture as the keynote speakers...
Wait I'm first on 109 two in a row...sweet.
granted i would prefer if it said TC 109
you coulda named that cat "chaplin" or little tramp, rather than hitler kat. love him though and i am a cat person.
contents of Nestle Creamer:
Corn Syrup Solids, Vegetable Oil, Coconut Kernel, a Milk substitute, something to moderate coffee acidity, some flavour and no Milk whatsoever.
I have a bottle/tub next to my machine - why do we do this to ourselves? The good side is that it has only 0.5g of fat, no cholesterol or sodium
that stuff is disgusting
once again, i don't eat anything that never goes bad (except honey!!!)
we just take turns bringing in half and half. its not really a big deal.
i am tired. our blond and young and tanned intern and i went up to suburbia to verify some field dimensions for an upscale jewelry store. i guess i am old but damn i am tired from standing up or maybe its the heat. had a conversation about blood diamonds though with their very cute marketing director. many items cost more than my car.
i did see the raymond weil watch that i bought for my ex girlfriend/future wife back when she was my girlfriend. speaking of which i just talked to her. she got back to cambridge(the real one) after going to see her college friend who had rented a villa in italy with some of her jeopardy winnings. much spa-ing and exfoliating apparently.
i'm 30 and I'm the old guy in the office that has all the answers. However its the answers about where to find files - because i'm the only one anal enough to put them in the correct location.
Big car crash on my street a few minutes ago! She thought he had a stop sign, so she pulled in front of his truck. He had no stop sign in his direction, so he broad sided her. Her car is totaled. Everyone is OK and many cell phones were out. Scary stuff, as from my house all I could see is that her car was up on the curb and practically on the front lawn of Angus' buddy's house - i was worried that a child had been hit!
Be careful, everyone, especially when you're sleepy.
our office has a dangerous intersection where we have a t-bone a month. i make sure that i am never the first one off the light. lb actually when driving back from carmel, we were on meridian by your place and this woman had the gall to make a left turn. i almost rearended her cuz i was yammering away.
Vado's ex/future has inspired me. I think my plan to de-stress this weekend, since the bf will be out of town (his father is close enough to visit on father's day), is to indulge in bath product shopping and pampering, and maybe drinking of some girly cocktails. Ooh, and maybe hitting the beach. That should make everything better, or at least help me to ignore it for a weekend, right?
i just invented a new term for something that sucks. "dreckolicious"
use it today. i want it to make the lexicon.
tumb- welcome to my everyday life, except I have no plans to go anywhere.....
boring job, amazing place. Once I get my shit together and get licensed though, my job is gonna be way cooler.....
On another note, we just had some local trails closed on account of mountain lions feeding on deer carcasses!
tumbles sounds like you had fun, I used to pack lunches and head to the beach myself. I stopped after the stress of returning to work was too rough, it was moving from one extreme to another
One of my clients returning from China, bought me a vacuum packed brick of green tea.....so now I guess I have to give up coffee....antioxidents....that is unless someone here is willing to trade it for a Zumthor Book....
lb
you didn't say t-bone, but here it is anyways...
yummm meat...
so vado when are you heading to ol blighty? or is she going to indy?
hmmm steak. I could do with one of those this weekend...
tumbles - you come all the way to norcal and there's no archinect m&g?
where were you at, anyways?
it's been hotter 'n hell the past few days here in the 510.
and irhgt after i finished that post - CALIFIORNIA UBER ALLES pops on the ol' iTunes.
love that song.
love that band.
JELLO BIAFRA FOR PRESIDENT '08!!!!
clown suits and riding the bus for everyone if he wins.
Yeah! I just got back from a job site and I am so excited that I actually had something to do with that beautiful structure those guys are putting up. It was so freaking cool! Contractors rock! They turn drawings into real buildings!
...yeah, I always feel that way at the beginning of the project. Right around now, punchlist-and-change-order-haggling time, I'm not so thrilled with the actions of contractors...
vado, i messed up, the hitler cat was originally named Kitler, much more appropriate.
tumbleweed - i know there's a few norcal'ers around here, lurking somewhere. there's also a slew of folks i think coming in to Cal/Berkeley in the fall. i don't know any of 'em though. they had a big UC/Berkeley thread a while back i read with casual interest.
i was just down in the monterey area last month - watsonville/sunset state beach actually. north of monterey proper. cool place. would rather live up here though.
not in emeryville, though it's not far. office is in the oakland hills. live actually north of the berkeley line by a few houses. technically in contra costa county. or as we say, CoCoCo.
the morphosis building is quite interesting, all debating aside. though from what i've heard/seen it's not actually open yet. there a small contingency of employees who are already in there, but there's 3000 or so more on the way. plenty to look at though, between the strange massing, the courtyard cement work, the screens and cladding...i still don't have a grasp on what's going on with that thing, and i've been watching them build it for a couple of years!
i'm working on a cafe job right across the street...it should kill once they open and the fed building peeps are around.
unfortunately not around this weekend - going to philly for a crazy wedding weekend.
rooftop afterparty in downtown. aww yeah, mightylittle's going to blow off some steam!
aside from this weekend, open invite for anyone in or coming to the area - hit me up. we'll meet. drink. etc.
javier's in berkeley...surely there are many others in sanfran/berk area.
tumbles, the Carmel in Indianastan is pronounced "CAR-mul" not "Car-MELL".
Carmel is where the rich people and the "lifestyle centers" are.
We need some rain here, badly.
i was listenin to npr this morning ( for some reason npr in indy gives a lot of nascar information wtf? is up with that. the two are incompatible!!!) anyway. the guy says oh we are starting to experience drought conditions don't wash your car, don't water your lawn etc, and then right after that the guy says, its gonna be a beautiful sunny weekend for jazzfest and the formula 1 race. my question is where does drought fall in terms of weather. i mean do meteorologists decide about drought and is drought a "weather" condition? because if it is and drought is a bad thing, then you can't have a beautiful weekend because you are in a fucking drought! wtf?
Steven, how did your meeting go?
We used to get npr on campus. I thought it strange since this was a non-US location. But I used to love the jazz they played in the afternoon. California style. And that ladies and gentlemen is my sole cali experience
Architechnophilia:
After a little mention by me in this thread you will find that on this site that your blog is now top left where it should be, and that Tropolism, perhaps the laziest archi-blog out there, has dropped away.
diabase: handsome, smart AND powerful.
Ugh, what an absolutely shitty day at the office today. The lack of coffee creamer was just the beginning. The husband-and-wife tag team of dysfunctionalism that run the firm seems determined to squeeze every last bit of my soul out of me before I leave for NYC.
Remember the whole office relocation thing? Well, after months of delays and zero progress, that project has now reared its ugly head again. It's is now being re-designed for the 47th time, regardless of the fact that the MEP drawings have already been completed and that we're supposed to issue for permit and bid next week. That might be doable if I didn't already have a thousand other projects on my plate. Everybody in the office is doing the workload of three people, but Mom and Dad can't hire people to save their lives. Apparently the firm has developed quite the reputation around town as being a shitty place to work... Must have something to do with the steady stream of disgruntled former employees we keep chasing off to other firms throughout the city. Rumor has it that my replacement quit before he even showed up for his first day.
But that doesn't matter much, because I got a piece of good news today that will make this all worthwhile.
All this month I've been worried that I wouldn't be able to sell my car in time to pay the tuition and housing for the Columbia summer program, and I was facing the possibility of not being able to enroll in the program because I wouldn't have $4000 in my pocket at the time of registration on July 5th. After not being able to start grad school this fall and not being able to afford the travel-study trip to the UK earlier this spring, that would have been the type of letdown that I really don't need right now.
Well, on a hunch, I called Columbia to find out exactly how they do the billing for the whole thing. Turns out I don't need the money in hand at the time of registration, as they send out a bill a couple weeks into the program. That gives me much more time to sell the car once I'm in NYC. As an added bonus, it also solves my housing dilemma, as I've reserved a spot in the dorms.
Snooker has graciously offered a spot in his driveway for me to park the car until I sell it, and I'm hoping I can get away with sneaking a cat into the dorms. Once I get there, I'll have six weeks to do the summer program, find more permanent housing, find a job at a decent firm, and sell my car.
Should be doable.... Wish me luck.
gin why doncha out these guys! as a public service. also, i don't know how you didnt get into the program you wanted because so many people are posting on here lately who have been accepted to these programs but don't seem able to make one fucking decision for themselves. wtf?
Well, I'm trying to remain professional about it for at least the next two weeks. Once I'm settled in NYC and I'm secure in a new job, I might not feel so inclined to protect the identity of my former bosses. I don't mind naming former employers that I've had good experiences with (Perkins+Will for example), but part of me feels an obligation not to badmouth specific people. Things like that have a weird way of coming back to haunt me.
As for grad school: In retrospect, even if I had gotten into Cornell with an offer of a full scholarship and a free BMW, I still wouldn't have been able to enroll in the fall, as I wouldn't have finished my undergrad degree and prerequisites by that point without winning the lottery and quitting my job. I knew that was a possibility last year when I decided to apply, but I figured it was worth trying anyway. (The alternate scenario would be that I had somehow finished my BA degree this summer, but ended up kicking myself for not applying to grad schools when I had the chance.)
With the Columbia summer program, finishing my BA in the fall, and having more time to improve my portfolio and do some networking, I'm much more confident about my grad school prospects for 2008.
diabase...I'm blushing as much as deep as this brown skin will allow. Again thanks
I really hope things work out for you LiG. So says the co-president of the vado & LiG fan club.
LiG, i'm psyched to hear that things are falling into place.
Steven, i'm also curious about the meeting...hope they responded well.
Thanks.... If you know of any good NYC firms that are hiring, feel free to keep me in the loop.
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