learned this week:

1- stamp EVERYTHING!

2- theres no real reason why men get quiet sitting on the throne and someone else comes into the bathroom as if shit and bowel movements were considered espionage.

3- no one really liked rumsfled - i mean rumsfeld anyway...

2 things-

-in a good week, I can live entirely off of "Lunch n' Learn" freebee lunches

-working over 40 hours a week, trying to complete/start several side projects, studying for the GRE, preparing grad applications, portfolio, statement letter, and applying for a new job all at the same time is...a little stressful...(so much so, I ended up screaming at everyone I encountered, even the Lunch n' Learn guy.)

Cool down Thrifty...Cool down. 10..9...8...7...6...oh shit these as-builts are killing me!

It's not new knowledge, but I was just reminded that even when the tile contractor swears up and down all week long that your installer will be there first thing Monday morning, you're still likely to get a call Friday at 4:30 saying "Sorry, looks like Wednesday will be the earliest he can get there".

!!!!!!!DAMMIT!!!!!! is all I can say. This destroys any hope of getting done on schedule. Dammit.

i like photoshop...

that lb is hot

hahaha. lb, this exact thing happened to me 10 minutes ago. 4;30 la time and i got a call from 'all new glass co.' (recommend it for la people) telling me that two rejected reinstall pieces of glass won't be installed as promised on monday but will be in following monday...
i just said "okay" to his surprise. probably poor guy was waiting for a screaming designer session. i could sense a big relief in his telephone breath. i know they deal with a lot of tempermental interior design geniuses working around beverly hills.
i know at this point yelling and screaming will not change anything and i learned this over the years that there is no reason to loose your temper with things you have no power to change.

Orhan

I thought you were talking about me saying you're hot...

but ofcourse mdler. how's tony?

i learned that when something is too good to be true, it just might be true.

awww- does you job suck? or is it only architecture?

perhaps that came out wrong...things are going well, real well, i can't believe that it's real. to be treated like a human being, it's refreshing.

I learned that cynicism is reversible.

I learned that sometimes "winging it" can be adventageous. It worked for me this week - but this method does not always work:)

I learned that you should look at the Garwondler picture page until you get home. No I didn't learn that, I knew that. But I opened it anyway, and quickly hit the back button. My coworkers need not learn that I am the head portion of a freaky Voltron-like superhero.

Now that is hilarious!!! A good lessons learned garpike. That'll teach you!

at work:

i learned that depression is contagious... and the contagen lies within one of our job sites.

i learned that 20% over budget is going to be very difficult to get out of a project, and that i should have listened to myself all those times I said, "i shouldn't even be drawing this."

i learned that if you spend 12 hours collecting data on a punchlist (for just one of the exterior materials), your not going to have fun giving it to the contractor, and that it is not even worth typing up.

i learned that things can always get worse, but the are never as bad as you think.


at home:

i learned that the tree outside my window is gorgeous in the fall. it is hazy outside, but it is absolutely glowing red.

i learned that when cooking with an iron skillet i need to open my windows first. my smoke alarms would not stop for 20 minutes, and once they went off, they chirped intermitently for 3 hours after dinner.

i learned i can cook dinner for an entire week using different pots and pans and spatulas without doing dishes. obviously my wife being in culinary school has caused this ability.


what the contractor should have learned:

call for a punchlist on major items before you are about to hand over the project to the client.

don't substitute something on a job without clearing it with the architect first. a substitution was made on some of the ice and waterhield product that would have voided the rainscreen materials warranty, not to mention that it was already beginning to fall off the building by the time we saw it. now they will be replacing at least half of the material, incurring further delay penalties with the client the whole time. not good.

an rfi can be your friend.

woah, momentum. It's as if you and I shared the same week... except I haven't CAUGHT my GC substituting anything yet... They did start building stuff without approved/reviewed shop drawings, though...

DCA, sorry to hear that. speaking of reviewed shop drawings not being used, we also ran into that this week. we call for cut out pulls at all millwork, but they have installed a wire pull. they also didn't allow room for the microwaves which were added, so now they have to build some things over again. i just don't understand this contractor's approach, or lack there of. it's just pathetic how many things have been done twice on these jobs, and how many things still aren't right after the second time.

i'm just trying to keep positive. hope your GC eventually comes around.

momentum: I'm glad you're keeping a positive attitude. It's also good that you and the owner have enough power over the contractor to make him re-do the work. (It's a simple contractual concept, but it doesn't always happen.)

happiness lies within...but everyone knows that already...

That it is hard to get any assigned tasks done if you are scheduled for back-to-back meetings day after day, week after week. I'll complete said tasks as soon as I stop receiving those annoying meeting invites :)

That I enjoy meeting invites and meetings because it gets me away from my desk and I can turn off my brain and sketch.

that the construction manager on one of my projects is a huge Celion Dion fan...ammo

That getting a divorce can save your job, no matter how much it affects your work.

That doing something good for the firm is a huge pain in the ass.

That at least one of my bosses is completely on the same wavelength as me, and backs me up 100% when the other employees (see lesson #1 of the week) get pissy.

developers will do anything in their power to scrap the low-income housing minimum they are required to put in their projects. And then they will do everything in their power to give these units the worse views in the least desirable buildings in the development.

the architect in many ways is the only person left to fight for these units and the people that will live in them.. However most developers rely on the architect to interpret the code in their favor..

That the money you save going with the low-price excavator will just be spent in spring on lawn remediation.

I learned not to put all my wasted time in the same category on my timesheet.

That it's ok to bill clients for hours you haven't worked if you're over budget on another project and need to put the extra time somewhere. At least that's what my boss says.

I have a lot to learn.

that if I worked at WonderK's office..stay away from her after meal time

overheard:

"So it's going to be like a whole bubble getting deleted, not like a snake coming up through the aperture of a barnacle?"

I learned charge alot when a potential client wants you to visit a site with them on the Saturday before Christmas....then go shopping!

your no.2 sometimes can show more resourcefulness that you can ever except. Much love V

also don't trust a f*cking soul with the career and professional life you've mapped out for yourself.

I've learned that the week goes by really, really slowly when you're hoping for a bonus at the end of it!!!

brazilian food is delicious...since it's only my boss and i in the office...we were invited by a larger office to join their christmas party at a brazilian restaurant for lunch...

cnc is a great tool for cabinetmakers...visited a cabinet shop today where the cabinets are drawn in 3d and sent to the cnc machine to cut the individual pieces.

the fake wear on cabinet faces are called:
-distressed-fake cracks and splits...this is achieved by taking a makita grinder and ginding edges to simulate wear...can also be done with a chain that is banged on the surface...
-burn through-simulation of years of friction and contact with the finish, removing some of the stain and exposing the wood....take a sander and sand down sharp edges and faces...

expect cabinets to arrive 8-12 weeks after placing order...unless you hire a finish carpenter/cabinetmaker to make them on the spot...otherwise, talk to your cabinet maker as early as possible...

one disadvantage of using unprotected mdf in kitchen cabinets is that if they get wet, they can swell...

3 days still makes for a long ass week.

This week I learned that Perkins+Will is owned by a company based in Lebanon called DAR.

how to wash dishes...

Well it wasn't the office but in the field. Talking to a subcontractor, stone/tile installer. He is Italian so everything has a little bit of umph in what he is saying...you know the hands flying.....voice in an excited manner and way to many off color words.....but anyhow. He says, " Ya never, never open a bucket with a lid on it when it appear empty on a job site." .... " The Smell can be real f****** terrible."

That 3 hours at the dining room table with a sketchbook, a marker, a bottle of wine and good music makes for a lot better architecture than fucking around in CAD for 3 days.

...this office is the shit at doing mediocre architecture and could kick your offices ass at it if only we recognized that mediocre architecture is what we actually do here...

I learned the benefits of having consultants:

Good consultants will save your a$$. You can count on their specifications and drawings to be great. They educate you on why they do what they do.

Bad consultants will also benefit your career, even if the path with them is rocky and frustrating. Why? Because you are forced to learn about what they AREN'T doing for you in order to coordinate items that need to show up on THEIR drawings. However, bad consultants will not educate you on why they do what they do. (Can you sense my frustration? But at least I learned a lot more about other trades...)

On bad consultants: I just learned that after working together for a month towards a planning submittal deadline, corresponding several times a day even right at the end, the Planner on the job called the client to throw me under the bus, saying I never gave him CAD files and now it's too late and he can't meet the deadline because of me. So I get an irrate phone call from the owner, I have to calm him down and let him know that I will take care of it.

Said planner is now ignoring my phone calls. Submittal due when? Tomorrow. Fuckers.

That clients suck

That this chair, in the right situation, is lovely around a dining room table:

but that if you sit in one and draft for eight hours it might make your butt sweat.

Liberty who has one of those Starck chairs - Elizabethan in plastic (heh heh)

funny you post the louis chair. i learned this week that my girlfriend hates this chair. Walking by a DWR store, we naturally went in and as I started "ooing" and "awwing" over the smoke colored one and started talking about the polycarbonate, etc... I was cut off by her laughter.. then she went on to say..

"I'm sure this designer is laughing at anyone who would pay this much money for a plastic chair... you said he's French right?... oh hell yeah he's laughing at you."

It's a funny, clever chair in certain environments. And certainly comfortable for a dinner party. But my partner is having his sunroom - where we usually work - rebuilt, so we are working in his dining room instead. Three solid days on this chair is seriously bad for my, um, rear.

I think tomorrow I'll spend the day working at a cafe downtown, and I'll tell you guys if I learn anything interesting there.

Sorry about your lousy consultants, Strawbeary, especially that he went over you to call the client directly.

LB

sorry about your butt

i learned how rad 3 form is.