So, as an intern put in charge of wrangling un-responsive consultants right before a hard deadline, what is the best angle to use to get them off their asses? I'm a Marine Corps vet, so the methods I'm familiar with don't translate well into the civilian world...
You'd be surprised. Call. If they don't call back, call their boss, and explain that if their intent is to not comply with project deadlines, then you might find another firm that will respect deadlines.
Phone calls, not emails, is first. They'll just ignore your emails. Get them on the phone and tell them "I need this by this date." Then after the phone call email them a confirmation.
I ended up getting one of his subordinates on the phone, I've been trying to call the guy for the last 3 weeks for various things, only to get the receptionist and no movement on their end afterwards, but we're issuing today. A few phone calls in the span of 30 minutes took care of it. Got my sheets, and they're out the door! Thanks!
Late I know - Age old problem with few solutions – if someone knows a real answer to this they should publish it. What I learned is that deadlines were their deadlines and if they didn’t care about them, then neither did I. Big on publishing progress bar charts and if a client crashed through a deadline I’d just republish the new dates and not say anything, because when I did there was always a backlash.
Best solution I ever heard was from readings on Falling Water, think someone said Frank never did contracts and the only way you knew if he accepted the commission was when the drawings arrived. May or may not be true, but it’s a hell of a solution.
Yeah, consultants can be a pain. It's like herding cats.
What's worked for me is to set an early deadline (say on Wed or Thursday at noon). Be sure to talk to them about it ENOUGH in advance that they can actually do the work. It does not help to set unrealistic deadlines. Then, check in with them 2 and 1 weeks before the deadline. If you can't get them on the phone, then you need to be very aggressive about getting in touch with them. When you do talk to them, verify the deadline. Then, day before the deadline and day of the deadline check in w/them again. Some of them will hit the deadline, some will not. Day of the deadline, in the morning, you will know who will get you the stuff and who will not. The ones that will not, offer them an extra day or two (Friday deadline, end of day). You will collect a couple more stragglers on that day. The one that is really lame you allow them to submit first thing on Monday and you go to the printer Monday at noon (gives you enough time to verify your list of drawings against theirs).
If you have a consultant that can't meet that kind of rolling deadline never hire them again.
I find that your work to get their info (list of sheets - names and numbers) input and verified on your cover sheet is several hours of work. Helps to get this in advance from the consultants, but you still need to verify it once their drawings are in.
If a client blows a deadline, then it's on them. Be sure to document it though.
Couldn't find the copyright thread.... perhaps you heard that Tiger Woods is opening a restaurant with his name on it and Nike said no way, said they own his name, not him.... wonder if he pays a royalty when he signs a check.
How useful would this as a national system. During my job search I was contacted by a possible employer who, after a couple minutes on the google, had a pretty extensive history of fraud in several states. This also included not paying employees... Had I not done the research, and at the time I'd been in the midst of 6 months of looking for a job post graduation, I would've found myself in a bad spot I believe.
How prevalent is fraud in the design-build and GC world?
Mr Wiggins... having lived in that world I would say it's prevalent.... mostly collusion, fixing bids.... with anything it's all just proportional to the amount of money... the more money the more collusion.... then there is "The dark side"... never had a horse head dropped in my bed but have been visited by guys named Guido plenty of times.
I can tell you about more scams than you can count and I hardly know any of them. Market sector means nothing, the bigger the pile of dough, the more people there are scheming to run away with a chunk of it.
NYC has been cleaned up a bit. When the price per lift - in cash - got upwards of $1,000 Mayor Rudy actually did something. But you still have to grease everyone and their mother to get anything done. It's a speciality. I knew a guy whose first job in the development business was delivering payoffs.
The guys at the top - like Trump - are the very worst. Everything that asshole does is a scam. He bankrupts projects to drive out his co-investors then buys them out at pennies on the dollar. He wheedles (bribes?) officials into 30 year (or more!) tax abatements on luxury residential development. Shit flows downhill. If he ran a clean project none of the rest would ever happen.
My first job in construction was as a superintendent on a city owned building in a union town, worked for a non-union contractor who was getting pressure to use union on the job. One day the contractor/owner gave me a big thick envelope and told me that a guy by the name of ‘X’ was stopping out to the job and I was to give him the envelope. Took a peek in private, full of $100 bills..…big fat guy shows up in an old Cadillac, gave him the envelope….bye-bye union. And that was Podunk Midwest not Detroit or NYC.
It was just this past month there was a major bust in NYC Building Inspectors Office. I'm sure a lot of fellows had there hands slapped, but I doubt if any of them are going to Rikers Island for a weekend visit. As I recall one dude was tagged for big sums of money a couple cars and some cruises. Thinking it was in the line of a half a million.
Holy hell. I've been sans-internet for a week. Thank you for only filling a page and half of TC!
It's spring break, and I spent most of it at my dad's digging for a septic tank that hadn't been pumped since 1974, and had no manhole. Sucked. Luckily, it's all finished now, and I'm in Texas wine/bourbon country now, so I'll relax.
Miles, we can't compete with cash. No way, no how. So we're still looking. Kinda hoping that come April/May, the market will flood with properties, and we'll be able to get something then.
Sarah, my advice to you is to wait at least a year. The economy will tank before the next election and prices will plummet (again). Don't buy when the market is hot, buy when it's not.
While a home is an investment, it's also a home. Miles might be right about the economy tanking, but all things considered, your home is a better place to waste money than most. I would be more concerned about getting the right place rather than timing the market.
I don't see the market going anywhere for 2-3 more years. Construction in the US is one of the few things not greatly impacted by foreign currency swings or international markets. Real estate is hot here and only getting hotter. Remember, the Fed doesn't want to raise rates until there is more consistent inflation. Which is not yet.
I had a lattice-crust pear pie yesterday. Delicious. Hope everyone got some pie. Sorry you missed yours Miles.
I made my mom's chicken pie yesterday for a pi day party. Delicious, but I couldn't stay long because both my boys are both sick. So we watched Avatar instead. But while I was at the party people kept coming by saying the stores were all out of pie! I find that hilarious.
It was the pi day of the century, it extended past the first three number. 3/14/15. None of us will see another one of those in our lifetime. Weird to think about.
miles - there are places that still haven't recovered to pre-recession levels. I think we've got another 2 or 3 years until the market takes a dip - and it's not going to be anything like the great recession. Plus - places that are in "walkable" areas are in high demand and have a tendency to not really go down much during downturns...
Toast, the worry is abroad not here, it's a global equation now and things are not looking good, not even in China.... always ways of surviving dips albeit painful.
As for real estate you are right, wouldn't describe it as "hot"... new family formations are heading into multifamily keeping single family, old & new, flat.... what Sarah seeks won't be soaring any time soon and when things do "tank" only the wealthy are able to buy because people like Sarah will be out of work.
Carerra, that is exactly why we want to buy. Our rent is 1400 a month, plus the 500 we spend on electricity to keep it warm. (It's all electric, no gas)
We figure, with that, we would be better dumping 2000 a month into a mortgage than to be lining our scumming land-lord's pockets. Plus, renting just sucks. It's so transient. White walls, no pictures, no feeling of my space.
It's such a cruel irony that a substantial amount of architects can't afford to design/build their own homes. Our plan is to stop renting within this year, and I tried to convince my wife that we could put together an 800-1000 sq.ft. home more affordably than buying a cookie cutter house in a subdivision... but it's a hard sell, haha. I follow a tiny homes twitter and casually have been showing her really amazing pictures to hopefully subconsciously sink those ideas in.
Once you have kids and need a lot of space it's so hard to build/orchestrate a home for yourself with architect money.
Sarah, my brother didn’t do as well as I did, because he didn’t want to, rented most of his life and wondered to me about buying a house and I ran the numbers for him showing that he couldn’t afford to rent, mainly based on something you didn’t mention – interest & real estate tax deductions. May be the only country in the world that offers that…add to that the perpetual crap construction of apartments, sound problems, privacy and car issues leaving the only reason for renting being – no cash to start, which is easy to resolve if resourceful.
Curt, If Miles answers you; you better go into the bathroom and get a towel to cry in before you read it. Think he’s reading the same stuff I am and it’s frightening.
Trevor, big fan of Tiny Movement and after you read Miles’ impending post you’ll be moving your plans to the countryside, getting off the grid and planting your own food. The reason < 800SF is smart is that getting it off grid is affordable, you can do most of the constructing yourself and do something fun & creative…and become independent. Attaching a link to something smart from my favorite architects….start with one tiny module then add another or two as the family grows….the only problem with tiny is zoning where you will find 1,000SF plus the norm.
Of course you need landscaping. A group of deciduous trees to the south and west will provide shade in the summer and allow sunlight through to the house in the winter, decreasing air conditioning costs in the summer and decreasing heating costs in the winter. The temperature a given distance off the ground under a leafy tree canopy is much less than a temperature measured in the shade of a building the same distance off the ground because of the evaporative effect of the tree. Which is one reason it is so nice to have a patio partially under the shade of a large tree. A line of evergreen trees to the north will act as a wind break significantly reducing heating costs in the winter.
Thread Central
Curt – the paradox is that if I did reach out and hire a “boy” to help me, he would end up accusing me of being a pedophile.
then don't be a pedophile
So, as an intern put in charge of wrangling un-responsive consultants right before a hard deadline, what is the best angle to use to get them off their asses? I'm a Marine Corps vet, so the methods I'm familiar with don't translate well into the civilian world...
Phone calls, not emails, is first. They'll just ignore your emails. Get them on the phone and tell them "I need this by this date." Then after the phone call email them a confirmation.
Great minds, b3ta!
copy your boss and their boss - that'll get their attention
I ended up getting one of his subordinates on the phone, I've been trying to call the guy for the last 3 weeks for various things, only to get the receptionist and no movement on their end afterwards, but we're issuing today. A few phone calls in the span of 30 minutes took care of it. Got my sheets, and they're out the door! Thanks!
congrats!
Late I know - Age old problem with few solutions – if someone knows a real answer to this they should publish it. What I learned is that deadlines were their deadlines and if they didn’t care about them, then neither did I. Big on publishing progress bar charts and if a client crashed through a deadline I’d just republish the new dates and not say anything, because when I did there was always a backlash.
Best solution I ever heard was from readings on Falling Water, think someone said Frank never did contracts and the only way you knew if he accepted the commission was when the drawings arrived. May or may not be true, but it’s a hell of a solution.
Yeah, consultants can be a pain. It's like herding cats.
What's worked for me is to set an early deadline (say on Wed or Thursday at noon). Be sure to talk to them about it ENOUGH in advance that they can actually do the work. It does not help to set unrealistic deadlines. Then, check in with them 2 and 1 weeks before the deadline. If you can't get them on the phone, then you need to be very aggressive about getting in touch with them. When you do talk to them, verify the deadline. Then, day before the deadline and day of the deadline check in w/them again. Some of them will hit the deadline, some will not. Day of the deadline, in the morning, you will know who will get you the stuff and who will not. The ones that will not, offer them an extra day or two (Friday deadline, end of day). You will collect a couple more stragglers on that day. The one that is really lame you allow them to submit first thing on Monday and you go to the printer Monday at noon (gives you enough time to verify your list of drawings against theirs).
If you have a consultant that can't meet that kind of rolling deadline never hire them again.
I find that your work to get their info (list of sheets - names and numbers) input and verified on your cover sheet is several hours of work. Helps to get this in advance from the consultants, but you still need to verify it once their drawings are in.
If a client blows a deadline, then it's on them. Be sure to document it though.
What Gruen left out in the body of his things-to-do was invoicing the consultant for herding their cats.
Frank never did contracts
Neither do I. And just to be clear we're talking about FLW, not that other guy, you know, the worlds most accomplished living architect.
Couldn't find the copyright thread.... perhaps you heard that Tiger Woods is opening a restaurant with his name on it and Nike said no way, said they own his name, not him.... wonder if he pays a royalty when he signs a check.
Great story, too bad it's not true.
Man, I'm batting 0 for 2 today.... actually if you add up everything I did today it's 0 and 12.
Perfect record, you should be proud.
Miles, it is well known that "the other frank" doesn't sign a napkin without a 1M retainer.
Always had contracts, problem was, I was the only one that read them.
no contracts Miles? how has this not been mentioned before
Speaking of contracts...
Utah to create first white-collar crime registry in US
How useful would this as a national system. During my job search I was contacted by a possible employer who, after a couple minutes on the google, had a pretty extensive history of fraud in several states. This also included not paying employees... Had I not done the research, and at the time I'd been in the midst of 6 months of looking for a job post graduation, I would've found myself in a bad spot I believe.
How prevalent is fraud in the design-build and GC world?
Mr Wiggins... having lived in that world I would say it's prevalent.... mostly collusion, fixing bids.... with anything it's all just proportional to the amount of money... the more money the more collusion.... then there is "The dark side"... never had a horse head dropped in my bed but have been visited by guys named Guido plenty of times.
i'm sure it depends on the market sector -
my understanding has always been that residential gc's and especially their sub's can be real sketchy
I can tell you about more scams than you can count and I hardly know any of them. Market sector means nothing, the bigger the pile of dough, the more people there are scheming to run away with a chunk of it.
NYC has been cleaned up a bit. When the price per lift - in cash - got upwards of $1,000 Mayor Rudy actually did something. But you still have to grease everyone and their mother to get anything done. It's a speciality. I knew a guy whose first job in the development business was delivering payoffs.
The guys at the top - like Trump - are the very worst. Everything that asshole does is a scam. He bankrupts projects to drive out his co-investors then buys them out at pennies on the dollar. He wheedles (bribes?) officials into 30 year (or more!) tax abatements on luxury residential development. Shit flows downhill. If he ran a clean project none of the rest would ever happen.
until i the Bloomfield park story i thought nyc and detroit had the monopoly on that behavior
My first job in construction was as a superintendent on a city owned building in a union town, worked for a non-union contractor who was getting pressure to use union on the job. One day the contractor/owner gave me a big thick envelope and told me that a guy by the name of ‘X’ was stopping out to the job and I was to give him the envelope. Took a peek in private, full of $100 bills..…big fat guy shows up in an old Cadillac, gave him the envelope….bye-bye union. And that was Podunk Midwest not Detroit or NYC.
It was just this past month there was a major bust in NYC Building Inspectors Office. I'm sure a lot of fellows had there hands slapped, but I doubt if any of them are going to Rikers Island for a weekend visit. As I recall one dude was tagged for big sums of money a couple cars and some cruises. Thinking it was in the line of a half a million.
this fell to page 2!
happy pie day archinect.
once in a lifetime opportunity to eat a piece of pie at 3.14 15 9:26:53
It's spring break, and I spent most of it at my dad's digging for a septic tank that hadn't been pumped since 1974, and had no manhole. Sucked. Luckily, it's all finished now, and I'm in Texas wine/bourbon country now, so I'll relax.
Damn, missed Pi day. Well, not the day but the moment.
Sarah, did you bail on the house you were interested in?
Sarah, my advice to you is to wait at least a year. The economy will tank before the next election and prices will plummet (again). Don't buy when the market is hot, buy when it's not.
While a home is an investment, it's also a home. Miles might be right about the economy tanking, but all things considered, your home is a better place to waste money than most. I would be more concerned about getting the right place rather than timing the market.
I don't see the market going anywhere for 2-3 more years. Construction in the US is one of the few things not greatly impacted by foreign currency swings or international markets. Real estate is hot here and only getting hotter. Remember, the Fed doesn't want to raise rates until there is more consistent inflation. Which is not yet.
I had a lattice-crust pear pie yesterday. Delicious. Hope everyone got some pie. Sorry you missed yours Miles.
I made my mom's chicken pie yesterday for a pi day party. Delicious, but I couldn't stay long because both my boys are both sick. So we watched Avatar instead. But while I was at the party people kept coming by saying the stores were all out of pie! I find that hilarious.
miles - there are places that still haven't recovered to pre-recession levels. I think we've got another 2 or 3 years until the market takes a dip - and it's not going to be anything like the great recession. Plus - places that are in "walkable" areas are in high demand and have a tendency to not really go down much during downturns...
Sarah, just spent a day raking and generally cleaning the yards... I recommend a tiny yard, no trees, and no landscaping
Toast, the worry is abroad not here, it's a global equation now and things are not looking good, not even in China.... always ways of surviving dips albeit painful.
As for real estate you are right, wouldn't describe it as "hot"... new family formations are heading into multifamily keeping single family, old & new, flat.... what Sarah seeks won't be soaring any time soon and when things do "tank" only the wealthy are able to buy because people like Sarah will be out of work.
I just wrote a huge response detailing why I think we're near the precipice but don't want to bring everyone down. Let's just say I hope I'm wrong.
Carerra, that is exactly why we want to buy. Our rent is 1400 a month, plus the 500 we spend on electricity to keep it warm. (It's all electric, no gas)
We figure, with that, we would be better dumping 2000 a month into a mortgage than to be lining our scumming land-lord's pockets. Plus, renting just sucks. It's so transient. White walls, no pictures, no feeling of my space.
i'm curious miles. write it out in a blog or something.
It's such a cruel irony that a substantial amount of architects can't afford to design/build their own homes. Our plan is to stop renting within this year, and I tried to convince my wife that we could put together an 800-1000 sq.ft. home more affordably than buying a cookie cutter house in a subdivision... but it's a hard sell, haha. I follow a tiny homes twitter and casually have been showing her really amazing pictures to hopefully subconsciously sink those ideas in.
Once you have kids and need a lot of space it's so hard to build/orchestrate a home for yourself with architect money.
Sarah, my brother didn’t do as well as I did, because he didn’t want to, rented most of his life and wondered to me about buying a house and I ran the numbers for him showing that he couldn’t afford to rent, mainly based on something you didn’t mention – interest & real estate tax deductions. May be the only country in the world that offers that…add to that the perpetual crap construction of apartments, sound problems, privacy and car issues leaving the only reason for renting being – no cash to start, which is easy to resolve if resourceful.
Curt, If Miles answers you; you better go into the bathroom and get a towel to cry in before you read it. Think he’s reading the same stuff I am and it’s frightening.
Trevor, big fan of Tiny Movement and after you read Miles’ impending post you’ll be moving your plans to the countryside, getting off the grid and planting your own food. The reason < 800SF is smart is that getting it off grid is affordable, you can do most of the constructing yourself and do something fun & creative…and become independent. Attaching a link to something smart from my favorite architects….start with one tiny module then add another or two as the family grows….the only problem with tiny is zoning where you will find 1,000SF plus the norm.
http://www.lakeflatoporchhouse.com/
afternoon TC!
Also, I have yet to see a project by Lake|Flato i don't like...
found a certain "rick balkins" comment on "life of an architect"
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/sexy-retaining-wall/#comment-455639154
is this our archinect friend?
^ Dunno, but it sure is hard to keep grass alive with only an inch of dirt or less.
Show of hands, who wants me to go off the deep end on the crash of 2016?
Of course you need landscaping. A group of deciduous trees to the south and west will provide shade in the summer and allow sunlight through to the house in the winter, decreasing air conditioning costs in the summer and decreasing heating costs in the winter. The temperature a given distance off the ground under a leafy tree canopy is much less than a temperature measured in the shade of a building the same distance off the ground because of the evaporative effect of the tree. Which is one reason it is so nice to have a patio partially under the shade of a large tree. A line of evergreen trees to the north will act as a wind break significantly reducing heating costs in the winter.
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