I am starting a new thread that is about other threads. You can talk about other discussions taking a place in Archinect and make cross references to a particular link, picture, response and whatever else you deem necessary or entertaining or thought provoking about the other thread. thus the name: Thread Central
here are some examples of comments that comes to mind:
* hey did you read on --------- thread ------- thinks frank gehry is good. hahahaharhar..
or,
*i can't believe he said that. how stupid of him. asshole.on top of it he is got hundreds of posts. gimme a break.
or,
* this is the best thread.. fuck the others..
or,
*****Thread Alert******
read the -----thread yet??? there is a dog fight going on between ----- and-----.it is about gondolas and pollution in Venice..see you there.
or,
* yeaah, i don't read that thread either. its kind a boring.
or,
*i am thinking about starting a discussion about ------------- ---- ---- will you guys in Thread Central post in it and say wow it a great thread?. it was about time 'somebody' (insert my name please) picked up on it.. and discuss it?
like whatever..
geezertect
Aug 10, 22 5:11 pm
There are other things you can do to feel like newlyweds, but you've probably already thought of them.
Chicago IS a great architecture town, particularly for fans of post-Civil War to mid-20th century. So much of it couldn't be built today given the skill level of workers, code requirements, and the brutal economics of real estate. It's a shame that the current crime wave may kill the urban renaissance if not brough under control.
SneakyPete
Aug 10, 22 6:34 pm
Actual question: is crime actually increasing or is the news just horny for crime stories? Frequently crime drops and the local news doesn't care because it doesn't bleed, so it doesn't lead.
Volunteer
Aug 10, 22 8:52 pm
I think the weekly shot and injured and the shot and killed body count released every Monday for Chicago is accurate. The police are releasing the figures. Hard to pretend a dead body with bullet holes was not murdered. A lot of the killing is drug related and is related to the southern border with Mexico being wide open. That said the murder rate for Detroit, Baltimore, and St. Louis is higher than Chicago.
SneakyPete
Aug 10, 22 9:55 pm
None of that answers my question. I am not questioning the accuracy of police statistics. The general crime rate has been on the decline for decades and the murder rate peaked in the early 90s. You wouldn't know that from watching the news though. Gotta keep you scared of the inner city people you know. It keeps viewers tuned in.
atelier nobody
Aug 10, 22 9:57 pm
There are also variations by location, though - I have no idea about Chicago specifically, but there certainly are some places that crime has been going up even as the general trend has been down.
Volunteer
Aug 11, 22 7:10 am
Well, I can speak to Baltimore. We used to go to the Inner Harbor for lunch or dinner, sometimes to visit a Tall Ships or other festival. or catch a ball game at the near-by Orlioles Park. Now the Inner Harbor is overrun with juvenile gangs harrasing and attacking and injuring visitors. Most of the restaurants and stores have closed and the place is practically a ghost town. You couldn't pay me enough to take my family there now, so, yes the crime rate is increasing dramatically in Baltimore.
My sister-in-law lives in an upscale DC neighborhood "inside the beltway". They are afraid to leave their home unoccupied for even a day for fear of it being broken into and robbed .
SneakyPete
Aug 11, 22 10:13 am
Anecdotally, I can say for a fact what the crime rate is doing in my city too, if I wanted to sound silly. Even if the stats prove you right eventually, you're pulling shit out of your ass to support your personal biases. As usual.
I was at the inner harbor over the holidays and felt perfectly safe, so anecdotally I'd say the crime rate is lower than ever.
SneakyPete
Aug 11, 22 10:16 am
Facts don't care about you or your sisters feelings is what I'm saying.
Non Sequitur
Aug 11, 22 10:16 am
I've walked far longer than what I should have... at 3am... and drunk out of my mind... through parts of Chicago I probably should not have been in. I survived without the addition of a new orifice. I'd say Chicago is the safest city in the world.
SneakyPete
Aug 11, 22 10:19 am
If crime is spiking it MUST be connected to a belief that lawlessness won't get punished so crime pays. I cannot figure out whenor why, in the last 6 years, anyone would have ever gotten that idea. It simply defies belief.
square.
Aug 11, 22 10:52 am
We used to go to the Inner Harbor..
You couldn't pay me enough to take my family there now
begs the question how you know these things if you no longer go there
i love how the burbites are the squeakiest wheels and fancy themselves experts on current crime conditions in "their" relevant cities when they in fact aren't the ones experiencing day-to-day life there.
Volunteer
Aug 11, 22 7:14 pm
Balimore is drastically losing population as black families are moving to surburbs to seek lower crime, affordable decent housing, and good, safe schools for their children - exactly the same as other families. The fact that the city is heavily minority has nothing to do with Baltimore's rapidly increasing crime rate. There are several majority minority cities that are very pleasant cities to live in or visit. Charleston, SC, and Savannah, Georgia, come to mind. Why is one city safe and agreeable and another a hell-hole? Seems a fair question to ask.
SneakyPete
Aug 11, 22 8:32 pm
Feeling unsafe is a feeling. Saying the crime rate is increasing rapidly is not. You're entitled to your feelings, not your own facts. Even if you go off searching for facts and find you were right with your assumptions, it doesn't mean you were right at the time you made them, and that is not "a fair question to ask."
citizen
Aug 12, 22 5:10 pm
.
SneakyPete
Aug 12, 22 6:45 pm
If you want to see some real crime, check out Sherriff's departments. Tiny Napoleonic fiefdoms who can steal and kidnap with impunity and no oversight or recourse.
archanonymous
Aug 13, 22 6:15 pm
Volunteer - you might want to lay off the faux news and brietbart. Come rejoin reality, it's fine.
Volunteer
Aug 13, 22 8:56 pm
So Baltimore is not undergoing a crime wave, Inner Harbor stores are not closing, and black families are not fleeing the city. Good to know. And Chicago is not having weekly carnage either. More good news. And New York is doing fine also. I feel better already.
SneakyPete
Aug 13, 22 9:27 pm
Setting up straw men isn't a winning strategy, big V.
proto
Aug 11, 22 12:56 pm
[rant] I have a pretty successful senior in HS considering colleges. We had planned to go visit some & talked him up on how important it is to figuring out this next life stage. We have schedules of open houses and such for the various places and are looking at flights. Just searched for a trip to pdx/den. HOLY SHIT. Even the single arrive-at-1am flights are more expensive than precovid for the lot of us to go together! As we bitch about cost of uni, we're running up against just the logistics of travel where you may as well stay for more than a week at the cost of travel. With a challenging class schedule + applying to uni's, timing is important - can't drive it for school days lost. And trying to fly non-stop during sensible hours is ridiculous. We're not even trying to get outside the west. These flights we are considering are 2.5hr max. I haven't even tried to factor in a car yet for getting around locally or overnight accommodations. I priced out a vacation last year (never went for $$ reasons) that equalled this for a Th-Sun weekend! This isn't 9% inflation. More like 400%. (sigh) yeah, i know...#1stworldproblems . [/rant] thx for listening
Donna Sink
Aug 11, 22 7:38 pm
Yes, air travel is unbelievably expensive right now.
midlander
Aug 13, 22 1:00 am
part of my family lives overseas and i haven't visited since the pandemic. RT economy flights are $5,000-$8,000 for anything less than 40 hours one way (all 2-3 layovers)... i used to be able to get a 13 hour direct flight for $800 RT. Unbelievable how much the world has degraded over the past few years.
Bench
Aug 15, 22 8:02 am
Yeah - after a couple of flights this summer and into the fall, I've decided to pass on any further trips for the rest of the year if possible. Beyond the costs, actually getting on a plane without delays is extremely unlikely these days. Everything about it just kind of sucks at the moment.
Wood Guy
Aug 16, 22 3:08 pm
I haven't flown in about eight years but have three trips this fall that will involve flying. I just reserved one a few weeks ago, from Maine to Kansas City, and I didn't think it was too bad--around $650 round trip. Maybe that's high? It vastly beats the alternatives...
Donna Sink
Aug 15, 22 8:48 am
I'm thinking a lot lately about completely re-imagining cities. This article/interview is really good at looking at disability not as an "accommodation" but as a way of reimagining the built environment to work for everyone. really good.
Part of my thinking about how the city will look in the future is that pretty soon the only use for ground level retail is going to be restaurants, bars, and salons because what else gets people to leave their house in a world where everything can be delivered? Every new apartment building uses the ground floor for the workout equipment, so we'll see a lot of that too.
Wood Guy
Aug 16, 22 4:42 pm
Interesting article and ideas. I'm not sure how we could possibly design for every imaginable disability but we can certainly consider those who are not fully functioning young males.
I recently learned that stuttering is an official disability, at least in some situations; it certainly feels like that sometimes, but because I've always dealt with it I don't expect others to accommodate me. But in my younger years, when I could barely speak, phone systems were starting to rely exclusively on voice-activated messaging systems ("say "English" for english, etc.) and I often had to hang up. Now that we have texting and there is usually a press-1-for-English options, I am not as constrained. (I can also talk much more fluently now, but that's beside the point.)
I also think about the move in phones and cars to all-touch-screen action. That works fine if you have smooth, clean, dry hands and good dexterity. My hands are often dirty or wet and I can't use my phone. Last fall one night a car crashed in front of my house and being in a rural area it's very dark. My only available flashlight was my phone, and I could not get it to work because my hands were damp. I even tried the voice-activated option but that didn't work either.
Another example is my father-in-law, now deceased, but as a lifelong carpenter and avid gardener, his hands were solid balls of callouses. Touch screens would not recognize his hands. He could use a stylus on a phone when necessary, but that's not practical in a car.
None of this relates directly to the article but I would like to see a future where more of us who are not physically perfect are not constrained from participating in daily life.
Donna Sink
Aug 16, 22 6:45 pm
Wood Guy, these are all very real and frustrating examples. I’m still angry about learning that some touchless technology, like motion sensor hand dryers, did not recognize Black skin.
bowling_ball
Aug 18, 22 11:25 pm
Donna, hand dryers are cool and that's pretty weird, but much more importantly, pulse oximeters also can't accurately test with black (or tattooed!) skin. It's complicated and thankfully the are much smarter people than me working on these issues, but yeah, it's disappointing
Chad Miller
Aug 16, 22 2:11 pm
I need a vacation.
We're working on a proposal for a client that I'm not certain fully understands what they're asking for or the complexity to do what they want. I'm doing my best to provide what the partners want in terms of proposal material but I'm concerned about possible headache that would ensue if we get the project.
Strange situation to be in for sure.
proto
Aug 16, 22 2:15 pm
hopefully, the proposal is paid?
Chad Miller
Aug 16, 22 3:41 pm
Nope. I've never had a proposal paid for by the client in commercial work. I've done a lot of 'conceptual' designs for a fee as part of the proposal process though.
Non Sequitur
Aug 16, 22 4:03 pm
All our commercial proposals are paid. Why do free work?
Chad Miller
Aug 16, 22 5:21 pm
Are you doing design work in your proposals? If so then that would be my 'conceptual design' which we are paid for. Other proposals without design you don't get paid for them. I personally have never seen a client pay for a typical proposal.
IE - if the RFP calls for some type of design work then it is normally paid. If it's just a normal 'show us your qualifications and work' they aren't typically paid. At least that's my experience over the last 20 years.
atelier nobody
Aug 16, 22 5:55 pm
NS - Canada is a different world from the US. It would be extremely rare to get paid for a proposal here.
b3tadine[sutures]
Aug 18, 22 8:59 pm
If you care about abortion rights, access to said healthcare services, and you're able to help; Clinic Design Services. The link is to a Google sign-up.
Chad Miller
Aug 22, 22 2:12 pm
Well elk hunting starts here soon. That means I'll be trying poke an elk with a sharpened stick soon. I have my fingers and toes crossed as I'm going to need all the luck I can get.
JLC-1
Aug 22, 22 2:37 pm
did you get a tag in the lottery?
Chad Miller
Aug 22, 22 4:01 pm
Nope. Doing over the counter.
proto
Aug 22, 22 7:43 pm
good luck out there!
citizen
Aug 22, 22 9:19 pm
I know a place where the hunting is good
... but don't tell anyone.
Chad Miller
Aug 23, 22 10:11 am
That's where I used to hunt. The elk there are really, really, really, hard. Literally.
Non Sequitur
Aug 23, 22 10:39 am
laughs in Canadian. sorry, eh.
Chad Miller
Aug 23, 22 10:51 am
Dat der is a mooze. Not a elk. ;)
Almosthip
Aug 23, 22 11:36 am
What are we hunting?
SneakyPete
Aug 23, 22 11:37 am
wabbits
Non Sequitur
Aug 23, 22 11:38 am
Loons? we hunting loons?
Almosthip
Aug 23, 22 11:41 am
What ever you get, bring it to Alberta cause we know how to make sausage
Almosthip
Aug 23, 22 11:43 am
Heres another angle for you all to enjoy the beauty of it all
Chad Miller
Aug 23, 22 12:38 pm
I now think I'm going to go to Canada to hunt giant sausage.
Jovan Millet
Aug 22, 22 8:49 pm
All these 2s and Augusts in the dates on old threads are throwing me off... Just responded to a 2-year old thread thinking I was participating in this week's conversation on NCARB. Ugh...Back to studying for my first LEED exam I guess.
Chad Miller
Aug 23, 22 10:51 am
How is the LEED licensing process?
Almosthip
Aug 23, 22 11:06 am
LEED is the worst. ....... (*hides behind her LEED A.P. status).
Chad Miller
Aug 23, 22 11:25 am
You better hid behind that LEED A.P. you hippy! ;)
I've been thinking about getting LEED certified but we always use consultants for that and thus it wouldn't be viewed as 'useful' in our firm.
Almosthip
Aug 23, 22 11:35 am
I got my credentials early in the program, so I dont have to do all the specialty upgrading required every year.
Bench
Aug 23, 22 11:35 am
Its good to know, in the sense that any new information learning would be good. But fundamentally I don't find it to be particularly effective; it becomes more of an applique checklist than anything. I consider passivhaus or similar measurable types of certifications to be more effective in the real world. Or even just trying to get WG's pretty good house principles in place, despite the fact it isn't a certification and therefore cannot have a plaque put on the front door. .. !
Chad Miller
Aug 23, 22 12:06 pm
I agree Bench. In addition, LEED 4.1 only seems to work for larger metro areas. It's very difficult to obtain Silver if you're not in a community with at least 500k population. Gold and Platinum are impossible to obtain for projects not in a major metro area.
It's still a good concept though IF the client has the money.
ivanmillya
Aug 23, 22 6:41 pm
Being honest, I only decided to get into the LEED exam-taking a week ago. I've traditionally been kinda anti-LEED (for a multitude of environmental morality reasons), but I'm starting to come around. Seems like the GA exam won't be too difficult... we'll see!
Bench
Aug 24, 22 8:31 am
I knocked out the GA exam in a few weeks of studying. My office provides the study material to anyone who wants it. Its fairly straight-forward. Annoyingly, I had planned to keep going off that base to get the AP finished, but life got in the way. I'll be starting from the basics again :(
I do recommend getting some sort of structured study material. Its not complicated material, but specific enough that guidance is required.
SneakyPete
Aug 23, 22 12:29 pm
Wood Guy, I sent you an email. Did it get spam foldered or would you simply like to be left alone? I'm good with that, just say so. :)
Wood Guy
Aug 23, 22 3:34 pm
I responded shortly after you sent it. I'll try again. Short answer is I'd be happy to sign a book for you, and I sent you my mailing address. I wish I had extra copies to send but I'm still waiting on them myself!
SneakyPete
Aug 23, 22 7:02 pm
Thank you! I'll look in my email.
Donna Sink
Aug 30, 22 12:43 pm
I need a T-shirt that says "Means and Methods Nerd"
atelier nobody
Sep 7, 22 7:38 pm
The header of my resumé/CV says, "Architect, Geek".
archiwutm8
Aug 30, 22 1:28 pm
Hilarious that my company is losing experienced folks like fireflies and HR are still so shitty about everything.
Everyday Architect
Aug 30, 22 1:56 pm
My experience with fireflies is the more you to try to capture and keep them bottled up, the quicker their light withers and they die. Maybe something for HR to understand?
Joking aside, I think nearly all firms are losing experienced staff right now. Too many other opportunities out there that even those who might be happy in their current positions are being enticed to leave for greener pastures.
Chad Miller
Aug 30, 22 2:43 pm
I'm experienced. While I'd like to make more money I don't want to have to move to a major metro area to do so. Thus I'll stay where I am and have to be happy with getting a 10% raise each year.
Everyday Architect
Aug 30, 22 4:10 pm
I'm not trying to convince you otherwise Chad ... but the pandemic and lockdowns changed things for a lot of people and industries (including ours). YMMV, but there are remote working opportunities out there. I've been working remotely since March 2020 and don't expect to go back to an office anytime soon. I'll make a trip to visit an office once in a while, but I'm thinking that's going to be once every 2-3 months or so. I've gotten assurances from my current employer, and offers from at least one potential employer that I could work 100% remote, no problem. Before the pandemic I don't think I'd be allowed that freedom in any firm I've worked at.
bowling_ball
Aug 31, 22 12:21 am
We just made our first new hire in 2.5 years. 20+ year PM. Was paid peanuts at his now-former firm so wasn't really difficult, but we'd been looking for a good 6 months for the right fit. If you asked him, he'd tell you it's a good time to look. I don't think it'll get any better, any time soon.
Chad Miller
Aug 31, 22 12:50 pm
I think WFH could work for experienced team members.
I personally would need a physical studio at my house to do WFH. I need that separation between work and home life.
Everyday Architect
Aug 31, 22 1:26 pm
I've taken over the spare/guest bedroom as my office. Double bonus because now when my parents want to visit I have a legitimate excuse for them to stay at a hotel instead.
Chad Miller
Aug 31, 22 1:39 pm
Ha!
My wife works from home - she uses a 450sf loft over our garage as her office / library / craft room. I have a 120 sf bedroom to serve as my office and gear storage. :(
Everyday Architect
Aug 31, 22 1:51 pm
Lucky you! I only have 110 SF. If you count the closet it would be 128 SF, but that's full of my wife's sewing/craft storage, a vacuum, and a couple guitars. If I were to return to the office I'd have something like 80 SF of space (maybe) I could claim as my own. Move your gear into the garage and you've got yourself a decent little home studio.
sameolddoctor
Aug 31, 22 2:02 pm
Wait, you mean HR needs to do more than basic paper pushing? Unfortunately that is how its become. The partners and principals need to be responsible for holding onto good people.
Chad Miller
Aug 31, 22 4:32 pm
EA - my garage is full. It houses rafts, skis, various shoes, and my small workshop.
Everyday Architect
Aug 31, 22 5:19 pm
Fine, you've convinced me. You need to build a studio or add on to the garage. If you play it right, the garage add-on could increase the SF for your wife's office/library/craft room and she won't even be upset about it.
bowling_ball
Aug 31, 22 7:43 pm
You folks are spoiled! I've got an old couch and a coffee table in my living room. Not even a dining room table. Sometimes I'll spread out on the floor with a full sized set, until my back starts to hurt at least (or the dog decides to take over)
Chad Miller
Sep 6, 22 10:29 am
You've got a small place BB. You should use your architex skills to make the space work. Cuz you know we can bend the laws of physics to fit more into less
;)
atelier nobody
Sep 7, 22 7:35 pm
All other things being equal, I'd much rather stay where I am until retirement than ever change jobs again, but it keeps getting clearer and clearer how little they're willing to do to keep me here...
atelier nobody
Sep 7, 22 7:37 pm
I'm a single guy with a dog living in a 2-bedroom house, so I have a pretty darn comfortable "home office" set-up. Unfortunately, I don't think I'd really like full-time WFH and it's a toss-up whether I'd be more or less productive...
Wilma Buttfit
Sep 8, 22 9:42 am
Spoiled indeed. I’m just thankful I’m not in the crawl space.
Non Sequitur
Sep 6, 22 9:43 am
6 days behind on TC...
Well then, that's what happens when I disappear to a double pearl jam concert weekend.
citizen
Sep 6, 22 11:12 am
"Behind" as opposed to "sweet blessed relief"? ;O]
atelier nobody
Sep 6, 22 6:18 pm
Isn't there an old saying "Too Many F^&*ING Cooks"?!?!?!?
Chad Miller
Sep 6, 22 6:21 pm
Sure. Care to relate this to something specific?
Non Sequitur
Sep 6, 22 7:03 pm
“It’s bloody raw!”
Chad Miller
Sep 7, 22 10:38 am
You know I don't speak Canadian very well Non. Speak 'Murican please.
atelier nobody
Sep 7, 22 7:27 pm
@Chad - "How many architects and engineers does it take to answer an RFI, Alex?"
Everyday Architect
Sep 7, 22 9:45 am
tduds, what’s going on in Portland?
*Language warning: If you’re in the office you might want to wait to watch the embedded video, or put on headphones.
WTF? You trespass on school grounds and threaten people. That's just stupid. Arrest them.
proto
Sep 7, 22 11:20 am
WTF, indeed…
atelier nobody
Sep 7, 22 7:31 pm
In a big meeting this afternoon, I tried to get management to admit the silent part out loud, for once, about exactly how we should be billing our time to projects. This did not go over well...
curtkram
Sep 8, 22 7:19 am
how should you be billing your time?
Chad Miller
Sep 8, 22 10:06 am
The silent part of how you should bill your time? That sounds creepy and illegal. You must expand upon this atelier.
Wood Guy
Sep 8, 22 10:37 am
I'm curious as well. Is it something like the CFO at my former company, who thought that as manager of a design team of 4, my time should be 100% billable?
Everyday Architect
Sep 8, 22 11:36 am
I’m curious for some elaboration on this too. My hot take on billing time is that unless you are billing hourly to the client, we should stop worrying about it. Charge for the service or deliverable, not for the amount of hours we think it will take to put it together.
Chad Miller
Sep 8, 22 11:48 am
EA - don't we need to keep track of the hours spent on a project though for internal records?
Not to mention our fee is based on the amount of hours we think it will take to perform a service or provide a deliverable.
Not to mention tracking time spent on additional services .
Donna Sink
Sep 8, 22 12:34 pm
atelier nobody, tell us more! I'm also super curious.
atelier nobody
Sep 8, 22 1:02 pm
Basically, management complained about people who bill only a couple hours to a project during a month, as tends to happen when we have a particular question and call a specialist within the company (we're a huge company with many specialists). I said, "OK, so that means when someone calls me with a question and I spend an hour on their project, I just keep billing my time to the main project I'm working on, right?"
Chad Miller
Sep 8, 22 1:10 pm
Why is management upset about that? I bill out down to 15 min increments for projects that I'm not assigned to. It's part of being a collaborative office.
Everyday Architect
Sep 9, 22 8:20 am
If I didn’t account for the time spent answering those types of questions I get on a daily basis, my timesheet would be mostly billed to overhead. I’ve had as many as 16-18 projects represented on one 2-week timesheet. Most of them with only 30 minutes to an hour or so. All billable work, but not anything that was planned for in the PMs’ work plans. As one of my coworkers use to ask PMs who complained about it, “If I’m not billing this to the project, are you going to pay me? Because I’m not working for free.”
Chad, I agree that is how things (should) work currently in most offices, but I’ve seen too many times when the PMs have no real idea of how many hours something actually takes and their fee projections are off. Then when they realize the project isn’t very profitable they start counting beans and micromanaging everyone’s hours based on a fee projection and work plan that wasn’t realistic to begin with. My hot take is mostly about what it might look if we could throw out the status quo and rethink how we bill for services. I’m not necessarily saying it’s a good idea, or one that I’ve really thought through. I may try to elaborate on it more at some later point.
P.S. I’ve done this only a few times (because it’s a dick move), but I’ve never seen a PM who is doing the bean counting micromanaging thing have a good response when they come to complain about my hours and I ask them how many hours they’ve billed to the project and what their billable rate is.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 8, 22 1:52 pm
She Ded
Non Sequitur
Sep 8, 22 1:58 pm
Freddy Mercury been dead longer. Now, what face will I have to carry on my paper currency?
Almosthip
Sep 8, 22 4:48 pm
our new money
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 8, 22 5:16 pm
Is that a looney?
Non Sequitur
Sep 13, 22 7:31 am
I want a wallet full of Gord Downey bills.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 8, 22 5:16 pm
God Save The Queen
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 8, 22 6:06 pm
Benny Hill, you shall be missed.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 12, 22 4:24 pm
More!
Chad Miller
Sep 12, 22 4:29 pm
Pretty much. I couldn't resist telling my partner dead queen jokes. Pretty sure I'm still in trouble.
Non Sequitur
Sep 13, 22 7:27 am
As a de facto servant to the archaic monarchy, curtesy of my political forefathers polite reservations against big boy/girl pants, I almost made a dead queen snip while on a job showing yesterday in a federal building after passing the queen’s portrait (next to Justin T) c/w black ribbon.
Chad Miller
Sep 12, 22 3:14 pm
Whew.
Elk hunting with a bow is challenging but fun!
I've been out for a couple of weekends, five days total. Hiked over 44 miles with around 5,000 feet of elevation change . . . . and saw two elk. It didn't help that the first weekend temps were in the mid 80's F though. Too hot!
atelier nobody
Sep 12, 22 8:23 pm
We were out on a job site visit in the mountains of Southwestern Utah just a couple weeks ago and saw a couple bowhunters out to play. We also saw a 10-point mule deer just lounging in the courtyard of the hotel - apparently the deer know where the hunters ain't...
Chad Miller
Sep 13, 22 9:32 am
Correct.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 12, 22 7:12 pm
Here's a question for you dopey architects, how many times have you heard the following, in your career, from consultants;
We don't start designing, until you finish your design?
Will you stop moving, or changing the layout?
Non Sequitur
Sep 13, 22 7:30 am
You looking for count per year, per project, per day? If so, then answer is yes… although the second one is always client driven. I try to respect my consultants time and not send them half-baked changes until the client is reasonably certain.
SneakyPete
Sep 13, 22 5:39 pm
You're not designing anything if you wait until the architecture is done. You're just specifying and running calcs. You want to make your job easier? Get on board earlier. Otherwise get fucked.
DickCheney
Sep 13, 22 5:49 pm
SneakyPete out here spitting facts. Trains leaving, get on or get off. CHOO CHOO
Chad Miller
Sep 13, 22 6:14 pm
Choo Choo motherf*#ker. Choo Choo.
bowling_ball
Sep 13, 22 8:11 pm
None of the above, because we have these things called "meetings" where we go over these things at the same time. WTF.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 13, 22 8:16 pm
That doesn't preclude changes from occurring however, especially if it's a change coming from the owner.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 13, 22 8:21 pm
To be fair, some of the issues stem from the fact that we have "designers" drawing things that don't work, like ADA toilets, chases that won't accommodate fixture carriers, 4" cmu plumbing chases, or stud walls that don't provide enough depth for plumbing contractors to do their work. Then I have to go through every instance and make sure the damn thing is constructible.
atelier nobody
Sep 13, 22 11:25 pm
If your designers are designing unconstructable garbage, then you have a WHOLE different problem. If I were your consultant I wouldn't want to be redoing my work as you corrected your errors, either.
SneakyPete
Sep 14, 22 12:01 am
Lotta different discussions going on in here that assume different situations.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 14, 22 8:52 pm
It's complicated, and better over a beer.
Non Sequitur
Sep 14, 22 8:56 pm
Everything is better over a beer. I'm currently reviewing elevator tender docs (4mil custom cottage) over a 6.2% Oatmeal Stout from a certified Kosher micro-brewery.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 14, 22 9:00 pm
I'm crushing it this week. Construction team keeps thinking they're going to hit a home run with their "gotcha" questions, and I keep blowing a 98 mph fastball by them.
Non Sequitur
Sep 14, 22 9:10 pm
Can you translate that into hockey terms?
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 14, 22 9:31 pm
I'm the goalie, in a one on one, I stoned some pretender, and saved the game.
citizen
Sep 14, 22 10:57 pm
Wouldn't a proper hockey reference include some broken teeth?
This is project by my former professor, and dear friend, take a look. The simplicity of the idea, coupled with the execution, is sublime.
Nam Henderson
Sep 15, 22 11:52 pm
Hi TC!
Not to brag, but today was my last day at work for 3 weeks. Last time I took that much time off (not counting paternity time) was probably never?
Going back East (Ron DeSantis land, so I just got the bivalent boost) to finally introduce my almost 3 year old, to my folks.
Regarding air travel, prices and drop in gas prices (yeah!/boo?) convinced us to drive...wish me luck. First trans-continental with toddler~
archanonymous
Sep 16, 22 7:46 pm
Have a good drive Nam. I assume through Kansas but maybe you'll decide to go Texas instead? I prefer Texas for getting to the SE from Colorado.
Nam Henderson
Sep 16, 22 11:41 pm
Oh thanks for tip! We are going through Kansas/STL on way there to see family. However been debating coming back through Memphis or Texas route. Any recommendations on places to stay (halfway-ish) between Dallas and Denver? My memories of I-10 through West Texas, when I was younger aren't great...
Nam Henderson
Sep 16, 22 11:52 pm
I've heard cool things about Trinidad but ideally would like to do in 6-7 hr chunks. Especially with toddler.
archanonymous
Sep 17, 22 7:36 am
Amarillo is surprisingly cool.
Nam Henderson
Sep 17, 22 11:24 am
Oh nice, that was one of the spots I'd IDed!
archanonymous
Sep 16, 22 7:47 pm
Another day, another high rise facade fire. Whatcha gon do?
Everyday Architect
Sep 17, 22 12:20 am
Make sure my exterior wall assemblies comply with the code by passing NFPA 285 ... not sure about the rest of you.
archanonymous
Sep 17, 22 7:39 am
Chinese developers laugh at your silly nfpa rules.
Everyday Architect
Sep 18, 22 10:14 pm
Makes me wonder about some of those projects I helped on that were taken to DD and sent to China to finish.
Bench
Sep 19, 22 8:55 am
I missed this, mind posting the story / occurance?
this new “ my wife is a lawyer so I get to tell architects how they should structure their fees” dead horse beat’n enthusiast in the fee thread is an interested fellow. He had a very slight point until he dropped price gouging line. Showed his colours at that point and certainly will make the life of a few architects miserable in the near future.
SneakyPete
Sep 18, 22 11:14 pm
I fail to see any reason to engage with him.
Non Sequitur
Sep 19, 22 8:45 am
I do get an odd DD feeling from this wanker...
Donna Sink
Sep 19, 22 11:45 am
I admit I'm leery of going to look. What if my boyfriend's sculptures aren't very good?!?!? I'll still love him tho.
citizen
Sep 19, 22 12:31 pm
Even better, Donna. Then you'll be the shoulder he cries on. ;o]
atelier nobody
Sep 19, 22 1:10 pm
Not bad, actually.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 20, 22 11:08 pm
§ 8.3.1.1 If in the opinion of the Construction Manager and Architect, the Work is behind where it is supposed to be in the Project Time Schedule or it is likely that the Work will not be substantially complete by the applicable date for Substantial Completion, the Contractor, upon written notice from the Construction Manager and without additional cost or compensation, will increase its work force and, if requested by the Construction Manager, work such overtime to make up for the delay. Should the Contractor fail to increase its work force, work overtime, or proceed to make up for the delay to the satisfaction of the Construction Manager or the Owner, the Construction Manager or Owner, in addition to other remedies under this Agreement and other Contract Documents, will have the right to cause other Contractors to work overtime and to take whatever other action is deemed necessary to avoid delay in the Substantial Completion of the Work and of the Project, and the cost and expense of such overtime and other action will be borne by the Contractor and may be set off against sums due the Contractor.
curtkram
Sep 21, 22 1:53 pm
which contract is that?
Non Sequitur
Sep 21, 22 2:03 pm
sounds like some of the RFP fine-print red flags my association/insurance keeps email about.
ivanmillya
Sep 21, 22 2:28 pm
Nightmare clause, real quick way to make sure your G.C. is immediately antagonistic toward the Architect.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 21, 22 6:41 pm
This is A232 language. Read it again. This is a tool for the owner to compel reprobates to do their fucking job.
curtkram
Sep 21, 22 7:37 pm
CMA sounds awful. I've been doing CMR lately.
ivanmillya
Sep 21, 22 8:33 pm
Beta, I get it, I'm just saying that this clause would make most GC's that I've met *actively look* for reasons to blame the architect for scheduling issues, where they might not have otherwise. It just seems like an antagonistic clause to keep in your contract. Like at that point, why not just work with a GC you trust to do the job more?
Everyday Architect
Sep 21, 22 8:47 pm
That language is NOT from the standard AIA A232 document. I don't know who added it to your contract but it's not something I'd like to see in a contract.
Big picture: there are better ways to get the contractor to finish on time.
(AIA A232-2019 Article 8 in its entirety)
ivanmillya
Sep 21, 22 8:50 pm
You know, I was kinda skeptical, but willing to accept at face value (I've never been in a project that used an A232), but some of the language kinda raised my eyebrow (like "the Work is behind where it is supposed to be" or "the right to cause other Contractors to work overtime").
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 21, 22 9:03 pm
First, public schools have a completely different set of circumstances than private projects. Second, due to the multiple prime contracts this gives the CM greater latitude to control outcomes when the primes are not performing based on schedule.
ivanmillya
Sep 22, 22 6:01 am
Beta have you seen success with getting any contractor to accept a clause like that? I just don't know any contractor that wouldn't run for the hills as soon as they see that general conditions...
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 22, 22 6:56 am
Again, this is school work, with multiple primes. And yes, we're doing schools in four different states.
Now, I should say, I just reviewed another A232, and this change was not added to the general conditions. This leads me to believe that the change cited above was a request made consultation with the owner.
Chad Miller
Sep 22, 22 9:56 am
Like b3ta we do a lot of public schools and have something similar in our contracts. The interesting part is that the aforementioned language is from the school district. This is because public school projects are typically a fast track project and on very strict schedules that must be met.
In 15 years doing this type of work I've NEVER experienced an competent GC with experience in fast track projects freak out or run for the hills with such contract language.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 22, 22 9:04 pm
Ugh. What I found out today, pounding head on concrete.
Chad Miller
Sep 22, 22 1:46 pm
I really don't like some medical clients. Grrrr.
archanonymous
Sep 22, 22 7:46 pm
I don't really like clients.
Chad Miller
Sep 23, 22 9:55 am
I have a few clients I really like! Three of them in 15 years. ;)
SneakyPete
Sep 23, 22 9:29 pm
That feeling when you're the only person working on the documents and the lead keeps tasking you with new design ideas they need renderings of.
Wood Guy
Sep 24, 22 12:08 pm
Where are you in the process?
Even in my world of relatively modest home design, it seems that clients can no longer make any decisions until they see every option at least modeled in 3D, and increasingly that's not realistic enough for them either. I have resisted using rendering software so far but I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out.
SneakyPete
Sep 24, 22 3:04 pm
DD. But it's a super short one. And the 1 1/2" details are going to be important. And I'm the only one who knows the software.
ivanmillya
Sep 25, 22 8:25 pm
@Wood, it's a serious problem for us too. I've spent hours going through multiple design options, rendered in 3d with materials, only for a client to settle on the original proposal... for the layout of a kitchen in the multi-million dollar house we're designing for them. I'd much rather go back to pretending that 3d doesn't exist as far as the client is concerned.
SneakyPete
Sep 25, 22 11:21 pm
What about writing the budget and contract around a limited number of options with further options on a T&M basis?
ivanmillya
Sep 26, 22 6:53 am
Sadly, I do not write the contracts. But... in custom residential, a certain amount of option exploration should be expected. What kills is the need to produce 3Ds for each of those options, as opposed to being able to just sketch up a plan or an elevation. Being able to quantify those 3Ds is something that's currently difficult, but maybe should be something our profession starts getting ahead of.
JLC-1
Sep 26, 22 10:25 am
It would be really difficult to budget a set number of alternatives to explore - I just issued a plan set for a fireplace that was designed and modeled about 20 times without exaggerating, and on the other end we are finishing a fine house that took 3 years to build with virtually no input from owners. We do bill T&M for all residential remodels, but even then it's a drain, I don't want to see another client that changes her mind every pinterest post she sees. I don't think the problem is visualization as much as it is a consequence of websites like houzz, pinterest, instagram that give clients all the wrong ideas. Sometimes we just throw the towel and let them design the nightmare they're going to use 3 weeks a year.
ivanmillya
Sep 26, 22 10:42 am
>> 3 weeks a year
That's the other big issue. A lot of the houses we do are vacation homes on the beach that will be used for a month in the winter, and yet we're expected to program, design, and detail as though they're going to be in active use by a whole family year-round.
SneakyPete
Sep 26, 22 11:06 am
Yeah, those are really good points. I'm in the exact boat of needing to render things that fully sideline the main effort.
DickCheney
Sep 28, 22 10:53 am
Dang I am enveous of a few of you in here. I've been trying to transition to single family for a while because that's where the heart is and I'm totally burnt out on $300M+ large developer, institutional and academic work.
Good to know that endless iterations and options are everywhere.
Chad Miller
Sep 28, 22 11:12 am
I did single family for a few years. The budgets where in the $300-$500k range in northern MN. They where my second least enjoyable project types to work on.
DickCheney
Sep 28, 22 11:59 am
Damn, second to medical Chad? Only teasing ;). Wouldn't mind northern MN, grew up in the Midwest but cold as hell. Ely is a.beautiful place....also have been thinking where to settle down with my wife. Trying not to let the work interest dictate that but that's also a hard sell. I wouldn't mind easy coast fancy cottages, coastal homes or desert homes. Maybe it's just typical to want to switch it up every few years. We are human after all!
Chad Miller
Sep 28, 22 12:38 pm
I lived in Duluth, MN for 14 years. Great place but cold. You learn to love it. My worst three project types to work on are:
1. Medical Office - only because of the clients
2. Single Family - only because of the clients
3. 'Speculative' Retail. aka core and shell work.
proto
Sep 29, 22 2:25 pm
For me, it’s not the typology so much as the scale and the ambition of the project. I like residential insofar as I get to own all the corners. The scale is just right. The individual situations determine how much fun they end up being: the client, their ability to understand & decide, the site, the existing house (if remodel), the timeline & the potential cost climate, etc, etc. All of these (& others) can make or break the process.
Chad Miller
Sep 29, 22 3:28 pm
I prefer the scale of 'normal' single family homes.
I find that 50% of residential clients tend to think they understand the process and complexity of the project because 'it's just a house'. As such they tend to ignore the architect and view them a pencil for them to boss around. This also means they tend to think that a fee is 'too high for such a simple house'.
The other 50% of residential clients are great people who value the architects input and view the design process as a collaboration. Unfortunately most of these clients don't have the money to actually build anything they need.
The theme of this article by Slate has been on my mind over the past 6 months. There was a big rush to buy houses in the last year, with what seemed like an endless increase in value. At some point it seems like that can't be sustainable - the logical end for that train of thought is the intrinsic value of many of these homes is well below the sticker price that was paid... are people going to start taking losses on the home flip over the next five or so years? (or something similar?)
archanonymous
Sep 28, 22 9:39 pm
Probably. I sold mine in March. The profits paid for a pretty sick van that I own outright. Glad I got rid of it when I could.
axonapoplectic
Sep 28, 22 5:38 pm
I have been flying solo on this project for several months now and they’re handing off PA role to a more senior person (apparently because their project got put on hold) and moving me primarily to production. I just want them to do QAQC and mentoring and support my growth as a professional, not take over what I’ve been doing. How the fuck am I supposed to learn anything if I’m not getting a chance to prove myself? This has happened on a few projects now since the start of the pandemic - they dump me on something - give me zero support - I ask for support and then they demote me. It wasn’t like this before.
archanonymous
Sep 28, 22 9:36 pm
I feel your pain. My last job I kept asking for staff (we were flying with 50% what was in the original contract and corresponding workplan) and never got any. I was working 60+ hr weeks for years. When I finally did get some staff about two months later after having a complete mental breakdown, one of the principals sees me in the kitchen and asks, "So, acrhanon, have you been doing better at managing your time lately?"
That was the day I decided I'd go live in a van down by the river and they could all go fuck themselves. So far its working pretty well.
atelier nobody
Sep 29, 22 3:38 pm
I really wish I didn't feel both of these stories so acutely...
Chad Miller
Sep 29, 22 3:51 pm
archanon - I would have punched that principal in the face and replied with 'as of now I am'.
sameolddoctor
Sep 29, 22 6:15 pm
archanon - that bad eh?
archanonymous
Sep 29, 22 9:32 pm
The van is proverbial, but yes, that bad. I don't actually know if I'll ever go back to working in an office. Been doing a tiny bit of contract work as my sanity returns, but not sure what's next. I worked 13,000 hours in 4 years with that firm.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 28, 22 9:07 pm
RIP Gangsta
archanonymous
Sep 28, 22 9:37 pm
such an iconic voice and style
DickCheney
Sep 28, 22 11:43 pm
"As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's not much left"
DickCheney
Sep 28, 22 11:44 pm
Who could have known he was rapping about architecture? RIP to a real one!
Chad Miller
Sep 29, 22 10:58 am
Wasn't he promoting porn sites prior to his death?
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 29, 22 7:35 pm
^$€gg$!!
Jovan Millet
Oct 4, 22 4:37 pm
Fort Myers FL is rebuilding rapidly. We've got power restored to most of the city now (should be 95% by Friday!). On that note, my firm has launched a public education campaign via Instagram to help educate on how to recognize, plan, design, and build in ways that last through these devastating Florida storms. If y'all are interested, you can follow our progress on Instagram at @ajo_flrss.
Yes Babcock Ranch did quite well and I’m proud of them. To their credit, their elevation is significantly higher than a lot of Fort Myers and Naples which lies right on the riverbed, and they didn’t bear the same wind force. Still their lessons on resilience are powerful, telling, and should set an example in the coming years.
Non Sequitur
Oct 4, 22 6:55 pm
someone just set themselves on fire as a protest in front of the USA embassy not more than 200m from my office about 3hrs ago. they did not survive.
b3tadine[sutures]
Oct 4, 22 10:21 pm
I mean the new GoT wasn't bad, what could've caused this? Grey Cup anxiety?
Almosthip
Oct 5, 22 12:25 pm
Thats crazy news.
Chad Miller
Oct 5, 22 1:38 pm
Holy crap.
Wood Guy
Oct 5, 22 2:11 pm
Wow. Do you know what they were protesting?
Non Sequitur
Oct 5, 22 2:14 pm
No further information was released so no idea on political motives or associations. Likely won't know anything more. Probably better that way.
Chad Miller
Oct 5, 22 5:33 pm
Design build - oh how I dislike you.
I'll never understand how clients can think that with interest rates below 12% Design build saves them money. Especially when they also have a GMP and CMGC. Very odd.
On a non related note a certain project is going to get hit with an additional service request.
DickCheney
Oct 5, 22 5:36 pm
Anyone noticing project work slowing a bit? I have heard some waves of this across the office (very large office). Not fear mongering. Just seems like some interesting times ahead with interest rates, and the wonderful Powell about to rail road us. Commercial architecture side here of course. I am sure single family is still doing well.
Non Sequitur
Oct 5, 22 5:44 pm
Nothing yet on my frozen side of the border. Actually dusted off phase 3 of a commercial dev this morning. Looking at 5 new commercial buildings with that one alone. I think it’s the first of our dormant retail/commercial projects to come back.
Chad Miller
Oct 5, 22 6:00 pm
We've slowed down a bit but that's because we didn't get the last three projects we proposed on.
curtkram
Oct 5, 22 8:20 pm
money isn't as cheap anymore. speculative work should be slowing down. takes a while for it to hit us though because the money part often has to be worked out before the design part.
JLC-1
Oct 5, 22 8:32 pm
SFR doing too well; there's wait lists.
archanonymous
Oct 6, 22 8:04 am
I think the frenzy is dying out a bit, but it hasn't hit projects yet. Check back in three months.
Wood Guy
Oct 6, 22 9:15 am
I'm booked out a year (residential) and still getting multiple inquiries most weeks, most of whom don't want to wait that long. That might slow down but I have a niche where my clients usually self-finance their projects so the good times might continue for a while.
proto
Oct 6, 22 12:52 pm
We are, and have been, slow this year (residential). Projects started tailing off in Apr/May.
We just had a GC in the office Mon who said he was going to let his subs know that far less work is coming down the pike & their (lazy) exorbitant bids won't work anymore, if they want to work past winter. It was good to hear because we had projects that died in DD because early pricing was so out of scale.
We're in a marketing push currently with a couple projects to keep the lights going.
DickCheney
Oct 10, 22 2:41 pm
Me: We must work towards work life balance and set boundaries! Also Me: Sits at desk and works while eating 5/5 days.
Chad Miller
Oct 10, 22 5:29 pm
Pfft, I do that at home. Well not work but reading . . .
axonapoplectic
Oct 13, 22 9:32 am
People keep throwing around acronyms like we all know what the hell they are talking about.
Wood Guy
Oct 13, 22 9:58 am
They make perfect sense to those using them. I try to avoid using them but catch myself daily... WRB, PHPP, FSPS...
Chad Miller
Oct 13, 22 10:21 am
WTF are you talking about axonapoplectic!? IMHO these abbr are all well known by all. ;)
SneakyPete
Oct 14, 22 12:28 am
If it ain't in the fuckin abbreviations list of better not be in the fuckin set.
Chad Miller
Oct 14, 22 10:36 am
fuckin isn't on the abbreviations list.
atelier nobody
Oct 14, 22 3:47 pm
I have sometimes invented my own abbreviations just for fun and a little chuckle when people ask me what they mean. On schematic design drawings when I'm guessing rough sizes of structural members without the help of an engineer, for instance, I'll often use the BAB and BAC tags. I also have a custom rubber stamp buried in the bottom of a drawer somewhere that just says NDFP (Not Dan's Fuckin' Problem).
atelier nobody
Oct 14, 22 3:48 pm
Come to think of it, with some of the RFIs I've been getting lately, maybe I need to find the NDFP stamp...
REX did the translucent stone better. Bunshaft beat them both.
Orhan Ayyüce
Oct 13, 22 11:34 pm
The spread is like a translucency porn. I counted 10 pictures of the same night view.
Jason Eltern
Oct 14, 22 11:10 am
very cool.
atelier nobody
Oct 14, 22 3:41 pm
I like it, although I'd have made the plinth and corners out of local stone instead of white, to tie it in better with the rest of the area.
midlander
Oct 14, 22 7:44 pm
fascinating and futuristic, resembles the star wars byzantine architecture of future empires. far better than any of the renderings at the time it was designed. surprising to see such intentionally heavy design from calatrava.
and bite the hands of saudis? that's not the way this works my friend; we celebrate megalomaniacs here, too bad if they have to kill a couple of peasants to get whatever imbecility they want and so graciously fill these pages.
DickCheney
Oct 18, 22 11:05 am
More so concerned with American companies fleecing themselves with dirty money (ZHA also very guilty). Ironic that socially if this happens, the mob comes after them. Somehow the industry is quiet here.
JLC-1
Oct 18, 22 11:59 am
remember Jamal Khashoggi? that "industry" was also very quiet.
Non Sequitur
Oct 18, 22 12:26 pm
It's ok. Soon they will add a few more zeros to the end of that death toll.
Chad Miller
Oct 18, 22 12:39 pm
Is this that LOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG building in the desert where everyone is supposed to live their lives in section of the structure and never leave?
I completely understand the negative reactions to this concept but I think it is probably the most likely model for the future.
Chad Miller
Oct 19, 22 11:30 am
I just ran across and article from Architizer regarding using AI sketchbooks. The author of the article is Nuno Fontarra, a partner at Mecannoo.
"I prefer to develop the projects through traditional hand-drawing, but we all know that many practices rely on having an army of unpaid interns producing endless variations in the hopes of finding something satisfying. AI can now easily generate design variations in seconds."
Trying to legitimize and normalize this type of exploration is abhorrent. How can a firm with offices in the Netherlands, New York, and London still have this attitude?
DickCheney
Oct 19, 22 12:31 pm
Begs the question, why the hell should anyone be generating endless variations paid or unpaid, is a waste of time. If anything this exposes train of thought for some of these firms. Just crank out endless options until you come up with some form that looks "sexy" for the sake of looking sexy.
I also question the implementation of AI in any regard to architecture. If anything for the sake of "efficiency" and even then perhaps only in menial tasks (sheet naming/numbering in Revit as a good example).
Chad Miller
Oct 19, 22 12:54 pm
I wouldn't mind an AI that would do menial Revit tasks. That and door schedules. ;)
will galloway
Oct 20, 22 6:50 pm
they dont say that mecanoo does that. My impression was that they are talking about how hard it is to be iterative to the degree that is needed in order to excel at the level that office like mecanoo are doing. So AI helps to churn and find unexpected adjacencies. It is a good insight and probably the best take on the Midjourney et al experiment that is going on right now. As far as why it is useful to try random shit out, the answer is pretty clear. Its to find stuff that is not obvious. Most of an architects creative work is about that, whether it is understanding program or developing form. Paint by number is a good business model but not so good for making architecture at the high end. AI offers the promise of getting to that level easier. Pretty cool. Reminds me a bit of the ideas Eisenman was exploring in the 90's somehow.
midlander
Oct 21, 22 8:54 am
i think it would be fun for interiors teams to use AI to generate mood boards. break out of cliched looks.
A quick look at their website shows that they do indeed use unpaid internships.
will galloway
Oct 24, 22 2:31 pm
couldnt find whatever you saw. interns yes, but no mention of working for free.
Non Sequitur
Oct 24, 22 2:49 pm
Will, not hard to see when considering that only the intern section of their career options is void of compensation information in the “what we offer” section.
will galloway
Oct 24, 22 4:44 pm
ah, i see. Our office originally followed internship standards from NL because that is where our office first started and Japan standards were crazy (though after covid who knows how it goes). It was not unpaid. Not high, but not unpaid. TBH, I would be surprised if it is unpaid in this case, especially for a high profile office in these times. You could be right, but I'm not certain you have found the slam dunk you are imagining. In projects in Europe we are working on currently the pay for interns is set by national standards. Again not high, but not nothing. Not sure why Mecanoo would not follow the same pattern we do...
Chad Miller
Oct 24, 22 4:44 pm
Exactly Non. Also if you look at the job description for their intern positions it only talks about gaining experience. Not to mention if you google 'unpaid internship' and the firms name you'll see that they don't pay their interns.
It seems quite clear Will that they don't pay their interns. In addition, paying interns a salary that is below the poverty level isn't paying them. Finally, just because the firms you've worked with in Europe pay their interns very little doesn't mean Mecanno dose the same. Their offices may not be located in the country's you've worked in.
Bench
Oct 20, 22 9:25 am
Bye bye Lizzie ... term highlight would be forever known as the PM in office during the Queen's passing, and pretty much nothing else ...?
b3tadine[sutures]
Oct 20, 22 2:11 pm
But the lettuce!
Nam Henderson
Oct 23, 22 11:01 pm
Hi TC! Did I spot the Barbican bldgs in some shots of the latest Andor episode?
Non Sequitur
Oct 24, 22 11:47 am
Hey Wood Guy, I have a product rep knocking off your BS & Beer gig. Just got an office-wide invite to their "Beer & Building Science" event.
Wood Guy
Oct 24, 22 12:15 pm
That's ok, Non--we've been working for the last year on getting a not-for-profit set up, in part to control who can use the name, but in the end decided to just let the idea continue to grow. If anyone asks, I borrowed the discussion group idea and came up with the name, but I don't want to hunt down everyone who uses a similar name without permission.
Wood Guy
Oct 24, 22 3:12 pm
Is it Siga or Rockwool? They have been good, informal trade partner-type folks.
Non Sequitur
Oct 24, 22 3:16 pm
No. This one is by elastochem. Don’t know them or what they do… yet they claim to work with our office. Probably bumped into junior staff while dropping of a binder or something.
atelier nobody
Oct 26, 22 2:05 pm
Just looked up Elasrochem - it seems likely they just want to sell you spray foam as the magic bullet for enclosure detailing and are offering free beer to listen to their pitch. I'd ask what kind of beer they have...
archiwutm8
Oct 26, 22 9:55 am
Going from working in architecture to working with architects and I absolutely loathe working with architects.
what a bunch of wankers, every meeting is just endless nonsense.
Wood Guy
Oct 26, 22 10:09 am
What's your new role? And if you can't stand architects, why did you choose it?
Chad Miller
Oct 26, 22 10:16 am
archiwutm8 if you loathe working with architects . . .
Why did you try and become one?
Why did you take your new job?
Why are you on this site?
b3tadine[sutures]
Oct 26, 22 12:34 pm
Mike Davis died.
Non Sequitur
Oct 26, 22 12:42 pm
fuck.
Chad Miller
Oct 27, 22 2:41 pm
Well my work is done for the week. Time to wait for client and consultant responses.
I suppose I could work on that small house design.
Donna Sink
Oct 29, 22 1:41 pm
Excellent work on the "vault or no-vault" thread, Chad!
SneakyPete
Oct 28, 22 12:59 am
Time to delete your Twitter accounts, y'all.
Chad Miller
Oct 28, 22 10:22 am
You're on twitter - weirdo. ;)
SneakyPete
Oct 28, 22 10:53 am
Nah. Had an account for a hot minute back in 2014. Wouldn't touch it with a dead cat.
Chad Miller
Oct 28, 22 10:54 am
Never had an account. I'm on Facebook though I've still sold my digital soul.
Donna Sink
Oct 29, 22 1:50 pm
Never.
bowling_ball
Oct 29, 22 4:57 pm
Deactivated my (forgotten-about) twitter account yesterday. Got rid of Facebook in about March 2020. Next up will be Instagram some day, but I'll admit that'll be the hardest of all. It feels so good to unplug, even just a little.
Nam Henderson
Oct 30, 22 12:33 am
Fatherhood and pandemic somehow resulted in me basically abandoning Facebook in recent years. Honestly I also think one driver was I had gotten a bit too deep/heated on the neighborhood / city / urbanist / politics Facebook groups. So I was looking for any excuse...Its been great! Though admittedly I still Twit too much.
JLC-1
Oct 30, 22 1:05 pm
love to travel, hate airports and the scam tsa has become.
Wood Guy
Oct 30, 22 2:13 pm
Was it ever not a scam?
JLC-1
Oct 30, 22 2:20 pm
I Hadn't noticed before the assymmetry of service between paying vs non-paying passegers, a 4:1 ratio in denver and houston.
proto
Oct 30, 22 4:54 pm
what is the scam? PreCheck? [just signed up for it this year]
Chad Miller
Oct 31, 22 10:40 am
The scam is that that the TSA are providing additional security. They are not. They are only providing the appearance of security.
Proto, the scam is they're a public agency funded by a national budget, yet they put a lot more resources on their business than in the public service they are supossed to provide to everyone.
On Chad's note, I went through TSA in Denver with a 6" fishing knife unknowingly in my backpack, I only found out when I arrived in Mexico.
tduds
Oct 31, 22 12:40 pm
Hey old friends. Been a while.
tduds
Oct 31, 22 12:40 pm
new page waddup
SneakyPete
Oct 31, 22 12:47 pm
Good to see you!
Chad Miller
Oct 31, 22 12:53 pm
Where did you go tduds?
tduds
Oct 31, 22 3:53 pm
Became a dad, got a promotion, so work and home lives got busier. Also spending too much time on twitter. Incidentally saw an archinect link on twitter and thought I'd pop back in to say hello.
Chad Miller
Oct 31, 22 4:42 pm
Congrats on the baby and the promotion!
tduds
Nov 4, 22 1:01 pm
Thanks!
Bench
Nov 1, 22 9:01 am
Any thoughts on the WELL AP designation? Anyone take it?
Office covers the training and testing; seems like its all the rage now with air filtering after covid. I can't really tell if its actually real-world useful (IE passivhaus) or if its just applique buzz words (IE LEED).
Would love some hive-mind feedback. I'll probably have the down-time over the winter to get into it; seems like i might as well add it to the stable.
bowling_ball
Nov 1, 22 10:36 am
Do these credentials matter to you? To employers? To clients? I probably haven't heard the word "LEED" spoken out loud in five years, and literally not one of clients has requested it in at least a decade (and several hundred projects). Not to discourage you, it's just a question.
Bench
Nov 1, 22 10:46 am
My personal opinion is that the less useful ones (LEED) are generally more benign than they are made out to be, therefore reducing their importance. That being said, we do have clients who inquire about
Non Sequitur
Nov 1, 22 11:00 am
Bench, Well (and others like it) are terms I've only seen thrown around by the gov clients. No surprise that they like to collect acronyms because it makes it look better on paper. Anyways, our interior design department is going through the WELL process right now but does not appear that the bulk of the certification is within traditional practice's scope. Talks about work-life balance, office policies, and proximity of public transport, and other things outside of common services. I label WELL a notch above Feng Shuay.
DickCheney
Nov 1, 22 11:10 am
WELL seems to be the rage for Tenant Improvement and Office Repositioning projects in the commercial and interiors world. Where they lost me was by having celebrities endorsing it on advertisements. Unbelievable lol. I think if they are to pay for the exam and all of that jazz, it does not hurt. I have my own opinions on certifications just as anyone else would. It is marketable for people I feel in certain niches for the profession.
Non Sequitur
Nov 1, 22 11:14 am
^Celebrity endorsements? Fuck, now I hate it even more.
Bench
Nov 1, 22 11:32 am
Ah shit. my reply got cut off above. Basically - i dont necessarily think of LEED and WELL as great programs on their own accord. Rather, we do have clients who inquire about including the designation on projects for their own terms. Fine. Beyond that, its also an easy data point to cite during promotions / negotiations / interviews further down the line.
Beyond that, I do fundamentally believe in good ongoing professional development. Compared to other targets I could go after, these are relatively affordable (compared to, say, PH)
Bench
Nov 1, 22 11:36 am
NS - thank you. That was part of my worry, that it focus on non-tangible elements that I dont necessarily think architects have much control over. Ironically, my interest in it was sparked from one of our primary MEP consultants, who did a lunch and learn on new HVAC systems and their relationship to WELL compliance - which I actually think is a useful application here (also i have a lot of respect for this particular consultant, so anything she is promoting i tend to assume is based in good merit).
curtkram
Nov 2, 22 1:31 pm
I still see LEED crop up in government work on occasion.
Chad Miller
Nov 2, 22 1:43 pm
We're seeing it as requirements for city government buildings and schools. A lot of the smaller mountain towns are requiring it on all commercial projects without really understanding it.
will galloway
Nov 7, 22 3:21 pm
in tokyo we see it with interior projects, especially for large european and global companies in japan. Leed and Well both. They are tipping the balance in some small ways, and we can see the effect on builders and developers who are realizing they need to do things differently. Is it enough to change the world? No, not really. It is a step in the right direction though, which is better than not doing anything at all.
DickCheney
Nov 1, 22 12:31 pm
@b3Tadine, you going to have to try harder to downvote all of my comments.... Did not know the Russian bots made it to Archinect. Mods, get on it.
b3tadine[sutures]
Nov 2, 22 8:43 pm
You know what they call people who up vote their own comments?
Pathetic Sociopaths.
b3tadine[sutures]
Nov 3, 22 12:03 am
Love me, please!
b3tadine[sutures]
Nov 3, 22 5:57 am
Truth be told though...
Chad Miller
Nov 3, 22 10:08 am
Bta - What's with your beef with enigma / dick?
b3tadine[sutures]
Nov 3, 22 5:23 pm
I hate Wednesday. Oh, and people that Karen their own comments.
Chad Miller
Nov 3, 22 5:27 pm
How dose someone 'Karen' their own comments? Asking for a friend.
b3tadine[sutures]
Nov 3, 22 6:47 pm
The comment on this string being one indication of Full Karen, this being the other...
Up votes their own comments.
Chad Miller
Nov 3, 22 6:59 pm
That's just being a narcissist. I always thought of a Karen as someone who was entitled well beyond their actual importance.
I'm curious who this enigma / dick user is. They started off as a nice enough person who was genuinely contributing to the site. Now they seem to be devolving into a weird troll.
b3tadine[sutures]
Nov 3, 22 7:37 pm
They used the Karen phrase. I find it more akin to autofellation, which makes the nom de plume of Dick even more ironic...
I am starting a new thread that is about other threads. You can talk about other discussions taking a place in Archinect and make cross references to a particular link, picture, response and whatever else you deem necessary or entertaining or thought provoking about the other thread. thus the name: Thread Central
here are some examples of comments that comes to mind:
* hey did you read on --------- thread ------- thinks frank gehry is good. hahahaharhar..
or,
*i can't believe he said that. how stupid of him. asshole.on top of it he is got hundreds of posts. gimme a break.
or,
* this is the best thread.. fuck the others..
or,
*****Thread Alert******
read the -----thread yet??? there is a dog fight going on between ----- and-----.it is about gondolas and pollution in Venice..see you there.
or,
* yeaah, i don't read that thread either. its kind a boring.
or,
*i am thinking about starting a discussion about ------------- ---- ---- will you guys in Thread Central post in it and say wow it a great thread?. it was about time 'somebody' (insert my name please) picked up on it.. and discuss it?
like whatever..
There are other things you can do to feel like newlyweds, but you've probably already thought of them.
Chicago IS a great architecture town, particularly for fans of post-Civil War to mid-20th century. So much of it couldn't be built today given the skill level of workers, code requirements, and the brutal economics of real estate. It's a shame that the current crime wave may kill the urban renaissance if not brough under control.
Actual question: is crime actually increasing or is the news just horny for crime stories? Frequently crime drops and the local news doesn't care because it doesn't bleed, so it doesn't lead.
I think the weekly shot and injured and the shot and killed body count released every Monday for Chicago is accurate. The police are releasing the figures. Hard to pretend a dead body with bullet holes was not murdered. A lot of the killing is drug related and is related to the southern border with Mexico being wide open. That said the murder rate for Detroit, Baltimore, and St. Louis is higher than Chicago.
None of that answers my question. I am not questioning the accuracy of police statistics. The general crime rate has been on the decline for decades and the murder rate peaked in the early 90s. You wouldn't know that from watching the news though. Gotta keep you scared of the inner city people you know. It keeps viewers tuned in.
There are also variations by location, though - I have no idea about Chicago specifically, but there certainly are some places that crime has been going up even as the general trend has been down.
Well, I can speak to Baltimore. We used to go to the Inner Harbor for lunch or dinner, sometimes to visit a Tall Ships or other festival. or catch a ball game at the near-by Orlioles Park. Now the Inner Harbor is overrun with juvenile gangs harrasing and attacking and injuring visitors. Most of the restaurants and stores have closed and the place is practically a ghost town. You couldn't pay me enough to take my family there now, so, yes the crime rate is increasing dramatically in Baltimore.
My sister-in-law lives in an upscale DC neighborhood "inside the beltway". They are afraid to leave their home unoccupied for even a day for fear of it being broken into and robbed .
Anecdotally, I can say for a fact what the crime rate is doing in my city too, if I wanted to sound silly. Even if the stats prove you right eventually, you're pulling shit out of your ass to support your personal biases. As usual.
I was at the inner harbor over the holidays and felt perfectly safe, so anecdotally I'd say the crime rate is lower than ever.
Facts don't care about you or your sisters feelings is what I'm saying.
I've walked far longer than what I should have... at 3am... and drunk out of my mind... through parts of Chicago I probably should not have been in. I survived without the addition of a new orifice. I'd say Chicago is the safest city in the world.
If crime is spiking it MUST be connected to a belief that lawlessness won't get punished so crime pays. I cannot figure out whenor why, in the last 6 years, anyone would have ever gotten that idea. It simply defies belief.
We used to go to the Inner Harbor.. You couldn't pay me enough to take my family there now
begs the question how you know these things if you no longer go there
i love how the burbites are the squeakiest wheels and fancy themselves experts on current crime conditions in "their" relevant cities when they in fact aren't the ones experiencing day-to-day life there.
Balimore is drastically losing population as black families are moving to surburbs to seek lower crime, affordable decent housing, and good, safe schools for their children - exactly the same as other families. The fact that the city is heavily minority has nothing to do with Baltimore's rapidly increasing crime rate. There are several majority minority cities that are very pleasant cities to live in or visit. Charleston, SC, and Savannah, Georgia, come to mind. Why is one city safe and agreeable and another a hell-hole? Seems a fair question to ask.
Feeling unsafe is a feeling. Saying the crime rate is increasing rapidly is not. You're entitled to your feelings, not your own facts. Even if you go off searching for facts and find you were right with your assumptions, it doesn't mean you were right at the time you made them, and that is not "a fair question to ask."
.
If you want to see some real crime, check out Sherriff's departments. Tiny Napoleonic fiefdoms who can steal and kidnap with impunity and no oversight or recourse.
Volunteer - you might want to lay off the faux news and brietbart. Come rejoin reality, it's fine.
So Baltimore is not undergoing a crime wave, Inner Harbor stores are not closing, and black families are not fleeing the city. Good to know. And Chicago is not having weekly carnage either. More good news. And New York is doing fine also. I feel better already.
Setting up straw men isn't a winning strategy, big V.
[rant] I have a pretty successful senior in HS considering colleges. We had planned to go visit some & talked him up on how important it is to figuring out this next life stage. We have schedules of open houses and such for the various places and are looking at flights. Just searched for a trip to pdx/den. HOLY SHIT. Even the single arrive-at-1am flights are more expensive than precovid for the lot of us to go together! As we bitch about cost of uni, we're running up against just the logistics of travel where you may as well stay for more than a week at the cost of travel. With a challenging class schedule + applying to uni's, timing is important - can't drive it for school days lost. And trying to fly non-stop during sensible hours is ridiculous. We're not even trying to get outside the west. These flights we are considering are 2.5hr max. I haven't even tried to factor in a car yet for getting around locally or overnight accommodations. I priced out a vacation last year (never went for $$ reasons) that equalled this for a Th-Sun weekend! This isn't 9% inflation. More like 400%. (sigh) yeah, i know...#1stworldproblems . [/rant] thx for listening
Yes, air travel is unbelievably expensive right now.
part of my family lives overseas and i haven't visited since the pandemic. RT economy flights are $5,000-$8,000 for anything less than 40 hours one way (all 2-3 layovers)... i used to be able to get a 13 hour direct flight for $800 RT. Unbelievable how much the world has degraded over the past few years.
Yeah - after a couple of flights this summer and into the fall, I've decided to pass on any further trips for the rest of the year if possible. Beyond the costs, actually getting on a plane without delays is extremely unlikely these days. Everything about it just kind of sucks at the moment.
I haven't flown in about eight years but have three trips this fall that will involve flying. I just reserved one a few weeks ago, from Maine to Kansas City, and I didn't think it was too bad--around $650 round trip. Maybe that's high? It vastly beats the alternatives...
I'm thinking a lot lately about completely re-imagining cities. This article/interview is really good at looking at disability not as an "accommodation" but as a way of reimagining the built environment to work for everyone. really good.
https://www.architectural-revi...
Part of my thinking about how the city will look in the future is that pretty soon the only use for ground level retail is going to be restaurants, bars, and salons because what else gets people to leave their house in a world where everything can be delivered? Every new apartment building uses the ground floor for the workout equipment, so we'll see a lot of that too.
Interesting article and ideas. I'm not sure how we could possibly design for every imaginable disability but we can certainly consider those who are not fully functioning young males.
I recently learned that stuttering is an official disability, at least in some situations; it certainly feels like that sometimes, but because I've always dealt with it I don't expect others to accommodate me. But in my younger years, when I could barely speak, phone systems were starting to rely exclusively on voice-activated messaging systems ("say "English" for english, etc.) and I often had to hang up. Now that we have texting and there is usually a press-1-for-English options, I am not as constrained. (I can also talk much more fluently now, but that's beside the point.)
I also think about the move in phones and cars to all-touch-screen action. That works fine if you have smooth, clean, dry hands and good dexterity. My hands are often dirty or wet and I can't use my phone. Last fall one night a car crashed in front of my house and being in a rural area it's very dark. My only available flashlight was my phone, and I could not get it to work because my hands were damp. I even tried the voice-activated option but that didn't work either.
Another example is my father-in-law, now deceased, but as a lifelong carpenter and avid gardener, his hands were solid balls of callouses. Touch screens would not recognize his hands. He could use a stylus on a phone when necessary, but that's not practical in a car.
None of this relates directly to the article but I would like to see a future where more of us who are not physically perfect are not constrained from participating in daily life.
Wood Guy, these are all very real and frustrating examples. I’m still angry about learning that some touchless technology, like motion sensor hand dryers, did not recognize Black skin.
Donna, hand dryers are cool and that's pretty weird, but much more importantly, pulse oximeters also can't accurately test with black (or tattooed!) skin. It's complicated and thankfully the are much smarter people than me working on these issues, but yeah, it's disappointing
I need a vacation.
We're working on a proposal for a client that I'm not certain fully understands what they're asking for or the complexity to do what they want. I'm doing my best to provide what the partners want in terms of proposal material but I'm concerned about possible headache that would ensue if we get the project.
Strange situation to be in for sure.
hopefully, the proposal is paid?
Nope. I've never had a proposal paid for by the client in commercial work. I've done a lot of 'conceptual' designs for a fee as part of the proposal process though.
All our commercial proposals are paid. Why do free work?
Are you doing design work in your proposals? If so then that would be my 'conceptual design' which we are paid for. Other proposals without design you don't get paid for them. I personally have never seen a client pay for a typical proposal.
IE - if the RFP calls for some type of design work then it is normally paid. If it's just a normal 'show us your qualifications and work' they aren't typically paid. At least that's my experience over the last 20 years.
NS - Canada is a different world from the US. It would be extremely rare to get paid for a proposal here.
If you care about abortion rights, access to said healthcare services, and you're able to help; Clinic Design Services. The link is to a Google sign-up.
Well elk hunting starts here soon. That means I'll be trying poke an elk with a sharpened stick soon. I have my fingers and toes crossed as I'm going to need all the luck I can get.
did you get a tag in the lottery?
Nope. Doing over the counter.
good luck out there!
I know a place where the hunting is good
... but don't tell anyone.
That's where I used to hunt. The elk there are really, really, really, hard. Literally.
laughs in Canadian. sorry, eh.
Dat der is a mooze. Not a elk. ;)
What are we hunting?
wabbits
Loons? we hunting loons?
What ever you get, bring it to Alberta cause we know how to make sausage
Heres another angle for you all to enjoy the beauty of it all
I now think I'm going to go to Canada to hunt giant sausage.
All these 2s and Augusts in the dates on old threads are throwing me off... Just responded to a 2-year old thread thinking I was participating in this week's conversation on NCARB. Ugh...Back to studying for my first LEED exam I guess.
How is the LEED licensing process?
LEED is the worst. ....... (*hides behind her LEED A.P. status).
You better hid behind that LEED A.P. you hippy! ;)
I've been thinking about getting LEED certified but we always use consultants for that and thus it wouldn't be viewed as 'useful' in our firm.
I got my credentials early in the program, so I dont have to do all the specialty upgrading required every year.
Its good to know, in the sense that any new information learning would be good. But fundamentally I don't find it to be particularly effective; it becomes more of an applique checklist than anything. I consider passivhaus or similar measurable types of certifications to be more effective in the real world. Or even just trying to get WG's pretty good house principles in place, despite the fact it isn't a certification and therefore cannot have a plaque put on the front door. .. !
I agree Bench. In addition, LEED 4.1 only seems to work for larger metro areas. It's very difficult to obtain Silver if you're not in a community with at least 500k population. Gold and Platinum are impossible to obtain for projects not in a major metro area.
It's still a good concept though IF the client has the money.
Being honest, I only decided to get into the LEED exam-taking a week ago. I've traditionally been kinda anti-LEED (for a multitude of environmental morality reasons), but I'm starting to come around. Seems like the GA exam won't be too difficult... we'll see!
I knocked out the GA exam in a few weeks of studying. My office provides the study material to anyone who wants it. Its fairly straight-forward. Annoyingly, I had planned to keep going off that base to get the AP finished, but life got in the way. I'll be starting from the basics again :(
I do recommend getting some sort of structured study material. Its not complicated material, but specific enough that guidance is required.
Wood Guy, I sent you an email. Did it get spam foldered or would you simply like to be left alone? I'm good with that, just say so. :)
I responded shortly after you sent it. I'll try again. Short answer is I'd be happy to sign a book for you, and I sent you my mailing address. I wish I had extra copies to send but I'm still waiting on them myself!
Thank you! I'll look in my email.
I need a T-shirt that says "Means and Methods Nerd"
The header of my resumé/CV says, "Architect, Geek".
Hilarious that my company is losing experienced folks like fireflies and HR are still so shitty about everything.
My experience with fireflies is the more you to try to capture and keep them bottled up, the quicker their light withers and they die. Maybe something for HR to understand?
Joking aside, I think nearly all firms are losing experienced staff right now. Too many other opportunities out there that even those who might be happy in their current positions are being enticed to leave for greener pastures.
I'm experienced. While I'd like to make more money I don't want to have to move to a major metro area to do so. Thus I'll stay where I am and have to be happy with getting a 10% raise each year.
I'm not trying to convince you otherwise Chad ... but the pandemic and lockdowns changed things for a lot of people and industries (including ours). YMMV, but there are remote working opportunities out there. I've been working remotely since March 2020 and don't expect to go back to an office anytime soon. I'll make a trip to visit an office once in a while, but I'm thinking that's going to be once every 2-3 months or so. I've gotten assurances from my current employer, and offers from at least one potential employer that I could work 100% remote, no problem. Before the pandemic I don't think I'd be allowed that freedom in any firm I've worked at.
We just made our first new hire in 2.5 years. 20+ year PM. Was paid peanuts at his now-former firm so wasn't really difficult, but we'd been looking for a good 6 months for the right fit. If you asked him, he'd tell you it's a good time to look. I don't think it'll get any better, any time soon.
I think WFH could work for experienced team members.
I personally would need a physical studio at my house to do WFH. I need that separation between work and home life.
I've taken over the spare/guest bedroom as my office. Double bonus because now when my parents want to visit I have a legitimate excuse for them to stay at a hotel instead.
Ha!
My wife works from home - she uses a 450sf loft over our garage as her office / library / craft room. I have a 120 sf bedroom to serve as my office and gear storage. :(
Lucky you! I only have 110 SF. If you count the closet it would be 128 SF, but that's full of my wife's sewing/craft storage, a vacuum, and a couple guitars. If I were to return to the office I'd have something like 80 SF of space (maybe) I could claim as my own. Move your gear into the garage and you've got yourself a decent little home studio.
Wait, you mean HR needs to do more than basic paper pushing? Unfortunately that is how its become. The partners and principals need to be responsible for holding onto good people.
EA - my garage is full. It houses rafts, skis, various shoes, and my small workshop.
Fine, you've convinced me. You need to build a studio or add on to the garage. If you play it right, the garage add-on could increase the SF for your wife's office/library/craft room and she won't even be upset about it.
You folks are spoiled! I've got an old couch and a coffee table in my living room. Not even a dining room table. Sometimes I'll spread out on the floor with a full sized set, until my back starts to hurt at least (or the dog decides to take over)
You've got a small place BB. You should use your architex skills to make the space work. Cuz you know we can bend the laws of physics to fit more into less ;)
All other things being equal, I'd much rather stay where I am until retirement than ever change jobs again, but it keeps getting clearer and clearer how little they're willing to do to keep me here...
I'm a single guy with a dog living in a 2-bedroom house, so I have a pretty darn comfortable "home office" set-up. Unfortunately, I don't think I'd really like full-time WFH and it's a toss-up whether I'd be more or less productive...
Spoiled indeed. I’m just thankful I’m not in the crawl space.
6 days behind on TC...
Well then, that's what happens when I disappear to a double pearl jam concert weekend.
"Behind" as opposed to "sweet blessed relief"? ;O]
Isn't there an old saying "Too Many F^&*ING Cooks"?!?!?!?
Sure. Care to relate this to something specific?
“It’s bloody raw!”
You know I don't speak Canadian very well Non. Speak 'Murican please.
@Chad - "How many architects and engineers does it take to answer an RFI, Alex?"
tduds, what’s going on in Portland?
*Language warning: If you’re in the office you might want to wait to watch the embedded video, or put on headphones.
https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2022/09/06/fight-over-field-at-hosford-middle-school-escalates-as-principal-says-dog-owners-harass-school-staff/
WTF? You trespass on school grounds and threaten people. That's just stupid. Arrest them.
WTF, indeed…
In a big meeting this afternoon, I tried to get management to admit the silent part out loud, for once, about exactly how we should be billing our time to projects. This did not go over well...
how should you be billing your time?
The silent part of how you should bill your time? That sounds creepy and illegal. You must expand upon this atelier.
I'm curious as well. Is it something like the CFO at my former company, who thought that as manager of a design team of 4, my time should be 100% billable?
I’m curious for some elaboration on this too. My hot take on billing time is that unless you are billing hourly to the client, we should stop worrying about it. Charge for the service or deliverable, not for the amount of hours we think it will take to put it together.
EA - don't we need to keep track of the hours spent on a project though for internal records?
Not to mention our fee is based on the amount of hours we think it will take to perform a service or provide a deliverable.
Not to mention tracking time spent on additional services .
atelier nobody, tell us more! I'm also super curious.
Basically, management complained about people who bill only a couple hours to a project during a month, as tends to happen when we have a particular question and call a specialist within the company (we're a huge company with many specialists). I said, "OK, so that means when someone calls me with a question and I spend an hour on their project, I just keep billing my time to the main project I'm working on, right?"
Why is management upset about that? I bill out down to 15 min increments for projects that I'm not assigned to. It's part of being a collaborative office.
If I didn’t account for the time spent answering those types of questions I get on a daily basis, my timesheet would be mostly billed to overhead. I’ve had as many as 16-18 projects represented on one 2-week timesheet. Most of them with only 30 minutes to an hour or so. All billable work, but not anything that was planned for in the PMs’ work plans. As one of my coworkers use to ask PMs who complained about it, “If I’m not billing this to the project, are you going to pay me? Because I’m not working for free.”
Chad, I agree that is how things (should) work currently in most offices, but I’ve seen too many times when the PMs have no real idea of how many hours something actually takes and their fee projections are off. Then when they realize the project isn’t very profitable they start counting beans and micromanaging everyone’s hours based on a fee projection and work plan that wasn’t realistic to begin with. My hot take is mostly about what it might look if we could throw out the status quo and rethink how we bill for services. I’m not necessarily saying it’s a good idea, or one that I’ve really thought through. I may try to elaborate on it more at some later point.
P.S. I’ve done this only a few times (because it’s a dick move), but I’ve never seen a PM who is doing the bean counting micromanaging thing have a good response when they come to complain about my hours and I ask them how many hours they’ve billed to the project and what their billable rate is.
She Ded
Freddy Mercury been dead longer. Now, what face will I have to carry on my paper currency?
our new money
Is that a looney?
I want a wallet full of Gord Downey bills.
Pretty much. I couldn't resist telling my partner dead queen jokes. Pretty sure I'm still in trouble.
As a de facto servant to the archaic monarchy, curtesy of my political forefathers polite reservations against big boy/girl pants, I almost made a dead queen snip while on a job showing yesterday in a federal building after passing the queen’s portrait (next to Justin T) c/w black ribbon.
Whew.
Elk hunting with a bow is challenging but fun!
I've been out for a couple of weekends, five days total. Hiked over 44 miles with around 5,000 feet of elevation change . . . . and saw two elk. It didn't help that the first weekend temps were in the mid 80's F though. Too hot!
We were out on a job site visit in the mountains of Southwestern Utah just a couple weeks ago and saw a couple bowhunters out to play. We also saw a 10-point mule deer just lounging in the courtyard of the hotel - apparently the deer know where the hunters ain't...
Correct.
Here's a question for you dopey architects, how many times have you heard the following, in your career, from consultants;
You looking for count per year, per project, per day? If so, then answer is yes… although the second one is always client driven. I try to respect my consultants time and not send them half-baked changes until the client is reasonably certain.
You're not designing anything if you wait until the architecture is done. You're just specifying and running calcs. You want to make your job easier? Get on board earlier. Otherwise get fucked.
SneakyPete out here spitting facts. Trains leaving, get on or get off. CHOO CHOO
Choo Choo motherf*#ker. Choo Choo.
None of the above, because we have these things called "meetings" where we go over these things at the same time. WTF.
That doesn't preclude changes from occurring however, especially if it's a change coming from the owner.
To be fair, some of the issues stem from the fact that we have "designers" drawing things that don't work, like ADA toilets, chases that won't accommodate fixture carriers, 4" cmu plumbing chases, or stud walls that don't provide enough depth for plumbing contractors to do their work. Then I have to go through every instance and make sure the damn thing is constructible.
If your designers are designing unconstructable garbage, then you have a WHOLE different problem. If I were your consultant I wouldn't want to be redoing my work as you corrected your errors, either.
Lotta different discussions going on in here that assume different situations.
It's complicated, and better over a beer.
Everything is better over a beer. I'm currently reviewing elevator tender docs (4mil custom cottage) over a 6.2% Oatmeal Stout from a certified Kosher micro-brewery.
I'm crushing it this week. Construction team keeps thinking they're going to hit a home run with their "gotcha" questions, and I keep blowing a 98 mph fastball by them.
Can you translate that into hockey terms?
I'm the goalie, in a one on one, I stoned some pretender, and saved the game.
Wouldn't a proper hockey reference include some broken teeth?
here's some teeth
Sweet goalie body.
AIA Film Challenge
This is project by my former professor, and dear friend, take a look. The simplicity of the idea, coupled with the execution, is sublime.
Hi TC!
Not to brag, but today was my last day at work for 3 weeks. Last time I took that much time off (not counting paternity time) was probably never?
Going back East (Ron DeSantis land, so I just got the bivalent boost) to finally introduce my almost 3 year old, to my folks.
Regarding air travel, prices and drop in gas prices (yeah!/boo?) convinced us to drive...wish me luck. First trans-continental with toddler~
Have a good drive Nam. I assume through Kansas but maybe you'll decide to go Texas instead? I prefer Texas for getting to the SE from Colorado.
Oh thanks for tip! We are going through Kansas/STL on way there to see family. However been debating coming back through Memphis or Texas route. Any recommendations on places to stay (halfway-ish) between Dallas and Denver? My memories of I-10 through West Texas, when I was younger aren't great...
I've heard cool things about Trinidad but ideally would like to do in 6-7 hr chunks. Especially with toddler.
Amarillo is surprisingly cool.
Oh nice, that was one of the spots I'd IDed!
Another day, another high rise facade fire. Whatcha gon do?
Make sure my exterior wall assemblies comply with the code by passing NFPA 285 ... not sure about the rest of you.
Chinese developers laugh at your silly nfpa rules.
Makes me wonder about some of those projects I helped on that were taken to DD and sent to China to finish.
I missed this, mind posting the story / occurance?
Bench, https://archinect.com/news/article/150323951/fire-erupts-in-a-42-story-skyscraper-in-changsha-china
this new “ my wife is a lawyer so I get to tell architects how they should structure their fees” dead horse beat’n enthusiast in the fee thread is an interested fellow. He had a very slight point until he dropped price gouging line. Showed his colours at that point and certainly will make the life of a few architects miserable in the near future.
I fail to see any reason to engage with him.
I do get an odd DD feeling from this wanker...
I admit I'm leery of going to look. What if my boyfriend's sculptures aren't very good?!?!? I'll still love him tho.
Even better, Donna. Then you'll be the shoulder he cries on. ;o]
Not bad, actually.
§ 8.3.1.1 If in the opinion of the Construction Manager and Architect, the Work is behind where it is supposed to be in the Project Time Schedule or it is likely that the Work will not be substantially complete by the applicable date for Substantial Completion, the Contractor, upon written notice from the Construction Manager and without additional cost or compensation, will increase its work force and, if requested by the Construction Manager, work such overtime to make up for the delay. Should the Contractor fail to increase its work force, work overtime, or proceed to make up for the delay to the satisfaction of the Construction Manager or the Owner, the Construction Manager or Owner, in addition to other remedies under this Agreement and other Contract Documents, will have the right to cause other Contractors to work overtime and to take whatever other action is deemed necessary to avoid delay in the Substantial Completion of the Work and of the Project, and the cost and expense of such overtime and other action will be borne by the Contractor and may be set off against sums due the Contractor.
which contract is that?
sounds like some of the RFP fine-print red flags my association/insurance keeps email about.
Nightmare clause, real quick way to make sure your G.C. is immediately antagonistic toward the Architect.
This is A232 language. Read it again. This is a tool for the owner to compel reprobates to do their fucking job.
CMA sounds awful. I've been doing CMR lately.
Beta, I get it, I'm just saying that this clause would make most GC's that I've met *actively look* for reasons to blame the architect for scheduling issues, where they might not have otherwise. It just seems like an antagonistic clause to keep in your contract. Like at that point, why not just work with a GC you trust to do the job more?
That language is NOT from the standard AIA A232 document. I don't know who added it to your contract but it's not something I'd like to see in a contract.
Big picture: there are better ways to get the contractor to finish on time.
(AIA A232-2019 Article 8 in its entirety)
You know, I was kinda skeptical, but willing to accept at face value (I've never been in a project that used an A232), but some of the language kinda raised my eyebrow (like "the Work is behind where it is supposed to be" or "the right to cause other Contractors to work overtime").
First, public schools have a completely different set of circumstances than private projects. Second, due to the multiple prime contracts this gives the CM greater latitude to control outcomes when the primes are not performing based on schedule.
Beta have you seen success with getting any contractor to accept a clause like that? I just don't know any contractor that wouldn't run for the hills as soon as they see that general conditions...
Again, this is school work, with multiple primes. And yes, we're doing schools in four different states.
Now, I should say, I just reviewed another A232, and this change was not added to the general conditions. This leads me to believe that the change cited above was a request made consultation with the owner.
Like b3ta we do a lot of public schools and have something similar in our contracts. The interesting part is that the aforementioned language is from the school district. This is because public school projects are typically a fast track project and on very strict schedules that must be met.
In 15 years doing this type of work I've NEVER experienced an competent GC with experience in fast track projects freak out or run for the hills with such contract language.
Ugh. What I found out today, pounding head on concrete.
I really don't like some medical clients. Grrrr.
I don't really like clients.
I have a few clients I really like! Three of them in 15 years. ;)
That feeling when you're the only person working on the documents and the lead keeps tasking you with new design ideas they need renderings of.
Where are you in the process?
Even in my world of relatively modest home design, it seems that clients can no longer make any decisions until they see every option at least modeled in 3D, and increasingly that's not realistic enough for them either. I have resisted using rendering software so far but I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out.
DD. But it's a super short one. And the 1 1/2" details are going to be important. And I'm the only one who knows the software.
@Wood, it's a serious problem for us too. I've spent hours going through multiple design options, rendered in 3d with materials, only for a client to settle on the original proposal... for the layout of a kitchen in the multi-million dollar house we're designing for them. I'd much rather go back to pretending that 3d doesn't exist as far as the client is concerned.
What about writing the budget and contract around a limited number of options with further options on a T&M basis?
Sadly, I do not write the contracts. But... in custom residential, a certain amount of option exploration should be expected. What kills is the need to produce 3Ds for each of those options, as opposed to being able to just sketch up a plan or an elevation. Being able to quantify those 3Ds is something that's currently difficult, but maybe should be something our profession starts getting ahead of.
It would be really difficult to budget a set number of alternatives to explore - I just issued a plan set for a fireplace that was designed and modeled about 20 times without exaggerating, and on the other end we are finishing a fine house that took 3 years to build with virtually no input from owners. We do bill T&M for all residential remodels, but even then it's a drain, I don't want to see another client that changes her mind every pinterest post she sees. I don't think the problem is visualization as much as it is a consequence of websites like houzz, pinterest, instagram that give clients all the wrong ideas. Sometimes we just throw the towel and let them design the nightmare they're going to use 3 weeks a year.
>> 3 weeks a year
That's the other big issue. A lot of the houses we do are vacation homes on the beach that will be used for a month in the winter, and yet we're expected to program, design, and detail as though they're going to be in active use by a whole family year-round.
Yeah, those are really good points. I'm in the exact boat of needing to render things that fully sideline the main effort.
Dang I am enveous of a few of you in here. I've been trying to transition to single family for a while because that's where the heart is and I'm totally burnt out on $300M+ large developer, institutional and academic work.
Good to know that endless iterations and options are everywhere.
I did single family for a few years. The budgets where in the $300-$500k range in northern MN. They where my second least enjoyable project types to work on.
Damn, second to medical Chad? Only teasing ;). Wouldn't mind northern MN, grew up in the Midwest but cold as hell. Ely is a.beautiful place....also have been thinking where to settle down with my wife. Trying not to let the work interest dictate that but that's also a hard sell. I wouldn't mind easy coast fancy cottages, coastal homes or desert homes. Maybe it's just typical to want to switch it up every few years. We are human after all!
I lived in Duluth, MN for 14 years. Great place but cold. You learn to love it. My worst three project types to work on are:
1. Medical Office - only because of the clients
2. Single Family - only because of the clients
3. 'Speculative' Retail. aka core and shell work.
For me, it’s not the typology so much as the scale and the ambition of the project. I like residential insofar as I get to own all the corners. The scale is just right. The individual situations determine how much fun they end up being: the client, their ability to understand & decide, the site, the existing house (if remodel), the timeline & the potential cost climate, etc, etc. All of these (& others) can make or break the process.
I prefer the scale of 'normal' single family homes.
I find that 50% of residential clients tend to think they understand the process and complexity of the project because 'it's just a house'. As such they tend to ignore the architect and view them a pencil for them to boss around. This also means they tend to think that a fee is 'too high for such a simple house'.
The other 50% of residential clients are great people who value the architects input and view the design process as a collaboration. Unfortunately most of these clients don't have the money to actually build anything they need.
Yes I'm bitter. ;)
https://slate.com/business/202...
The theme of this article by Slate has been on my mind over the past 6 months. There was a big rush to buy houses in the last year, with what seemed like an endless increase in value. At some point it seems like that can't be sustainable - the logical end for that train of thought is the intrinsic value of many of these homes is well below the sticker price that was paid... are people going to start taking losses on the home flip over the next five or so years? (or something similar?)
Probably. I sold mine in March. The profits paid for a pretty sick van that I own outright. Glad I got rid of it when I could.
I have been flying solo on this project for several months now and they’re handing off PA role to a more senior person (apparently because their project got put on hold) and moving me primarily to production. I just want them to do QAQC and mentoring and support my growth as a professional, not take over what I’ve been doing. How the fuck am I supposed to learn anything if I’m not getting a chance to prove myself? This has happened on a few projects now since the start of the pandemic - they dump me on something - give me zero support - I ask for support and then they demote me. It wasn’t like this before.
I feel your pain. My last job I kept asking for staff (we were flying with 50% what was in the original contract and corresponding workplan) and never got any. I was working 60+ hr weeks for years. When I finally did get some staff about two months later after having a complete mental breakdown, one of the principals sees me in the kitchen and asks, "So, acrhanon, have you been doing better at managing your time lately?"
That was the day I decided I'd go live in a van down by the river and they could all go fuck themselves. So far its working pretty well.
I really wish I didn't feel both of these stories so acutely...
archanon - I would have punched that principal in the face and replied with 'as of now I am'.
archanon - that bad eh?
The van is proverbial, but yes, that bad. I don't actually know if I'll ever go back to working in an office. Been doing a tiny bit of contract work as my sanity returns, but not sure what's next. I worked 13,000 hours in 4 years with that firm.
such an iconic voice and style
"As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's not much left"
Who could have known he was rapping about architecture? RIP to a real one!
Wasn't he promoting porn sites prior to his death?
^$€gg$!!
Fort Myers FL is rebuilding rapidly. We've got power restored to most of the city now (should be 95% by Friday!). On that note, my firm has launched a public education campaign via Instagram to help educate on how to recognize, plan, design, and build in ways that last through these devastating Florida storms. If y'all are interested, you can follow our progress on Instagram at @ajo_flrss.
This place is getting a lot of attention: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/02/us/solar-babcock-ranch-florida-hurricane-ian-climate/index.html
Yes Babcock Ranch did quite well and I’m proud of them. To their credit, their elevation is significantly higher than a lot of Fort Myers and Naples which lies right on the riverbed, and they didn’t bear the same wind force. Still their lessons on resilience are powerful, telling, and should set an example in the coming years.
someone just set themselves on fire as a protest in front of the USA embassy not more than 200m from my office about 3hrs ago. they did not survive.
I mean the new GoT wasn't bad, what could've caused this? Grey Cup anxiety?
Thats crazy news.
Holy crap.
Wow. Do you know what they were protesting?
No further information was released so no idea on political motives or associations. Likely won't know anything more. Probably better that way.
Design build - oh how I dislike you.
I'll never understand how clients can think that with interest rates below 12% Design build saves them money. Especially when they also have a GMP and CMGC. Very odd.
On a non related note a certain project is going to get hit with an additional service request.
Anyone noticing project work slowing a bit? I have heard some waves of this across the office (very large office). Not fear mongering. Just seems like some interesting times ahead with interest rates, and the wonderful Powell about to rail road us. Commercial architecture side here of course. I am sure single family is still doing well.
Nothing yet on my frozen side of the border. Actually dusted off phase 3 of a commercial dev this morning. Looking at 5 new commercial buildings with that one alone. I think it’s the first of our dormant retail/commercial projects to come back.
We've slowed down a bit but that's because we didn't get the last three projects we proposed on.
money isn't as cheap anymore. speculative work should be slowing down. takes a while for it to hit us though because the money part often has to be worked out before the design part.
SFR doing too well; there's wait lists.
I think the frenzy is dying out a bit, but it hasn't hit projects yet. Check back in three months.
I'm booked out a year (residential) and still getting multiple inquiries most weeks, most of whom don't want to wait that long. That might slow down but I have a niche where my clients usually self-finance their projects so the good times might continue for a while.
We are, and have been, slow this year (residential). Projects started tailing off in Apr/May.
We just had a GC in the office Mon who said he was going to let his subs know that far less work is coming down the pike & their (lazy) exorbitant bids won't work anymore, if they want to work past winter. It was good to hear because we had projects that died in DD because early pricing was so out of scale.
We're in a marketing push currently with a couple projects to keep the lights going.
Me: We must work towards work life balance and set boundaries!
Also Me: Sits at desk and works while eating 5/5 days.
Pfft, I do that at home. Well not work but reading . . .
People keep throwing around acronyms like we all know what the hell they are talking about.
They make perfect sense to those using them. I try to avoid using them but catch myself daily... WRB, PHPP, FSPS...
WTF are you talking about axonapoplectic!? IMHO these abbr are all well known by all. ;)
If it ain't in the fuckin abbreviations list of better not be in the fuckin set.
fuckin isn't on the abbreviations list.
I have sometimes invented my own abbreviations just for fun and a little chuckle when people ask me what they mean. On schematic design drawings when I'm guessing rough sizes of structural members without the help of an engineer, for instance, I'll often use the BAB and BAC tags. I also have a custom rubber stamp buried in the bottom of a drawer somewhere that just says NDFP (Not Dan's Fuckin' Problem).
Come to think of it, with some of the RFIs I've been getting lately, maybe I need to find the NDFP stamp...
What do we think gang?
http://fieldcondition.com/blog...
REX did the translucent stone better. Bunshaft beat them both.
The spread is like a translucency porn. I counted 10 pictures of the same night view.
very cool.
I like it, although I'd have made the plinth and corners out of local stone instead of white, to tie it in better with the rest of the area.
fascinating and futuristic, resembles the star wars byzantine architecture of future empires. far better than any of the renderings at the time it was designed. surprising to see such intentionally heavy design from calatrava.
Why is this not on Archinect yet? Mods get ON it.
https://www.dezeen.com/2022/10...
and bite the hands of saudis? that's not the way this works my friend; we celebrate megalomaniacs here, too bad if they have to kill a couple of peasants to get whatever imbecility they want and so graciously fill these pages.
More so concerned with American companies fleecing themselves with dirty money (ZHA also very guilty). Ironic that socially if this happens, the mob comes after them. Somehow the industry is quiet here.
remember Jamal Khashoggi? that "industry" was also very quiet.
It's ok. Soon they will add a few more zeros to the end of that death toll.
Is this that LOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG building in the desert where everyone is supposed to live their lives in section of the structure and never leave?
https://archinect.com/news/article/150327231/opposition-to-neom-displacement-leads-three-saudi-tribesmen-to-death-sentences
I completely understand the negative reactions to this concept but I think it is probably the most likely model for the future.
I just ran across and article from Architizer regarding using AI sketchbooks. The author of the article is Nuno Fontarra, a partner at Mecannoo.
"I prefer to develop the projects through traditional hand-drawing, but we all know that many practices rely on having an army of unpaid interns producing endless variations in the hopes of finding something satisfying. AI can now easily generate design variations in seconds."
Trying to legitimize and normalize this type of exploration is abhorrent. How can a firm with offices in the Netherlands, New York, and London still have this attitude?
Begs the question, why the hell should anyone be generating endless variations paid or unpaid, is a waste of time. If anything this exposes train of thought for some of these firms. Just crank out endless options until you come up with some form that looks "sexy" for the sake of looking sexy.
I also question the implementation of AI in any regard to architecture. If anything for the sake of "efficiency" and even then perhaps only in menial tasks (sheet naming/numbering in Revit as a good example).
I wouldn't mind an AI that would do menial Revit tasks. That and door schedules. ;)
they dont say that mecanoo does that. My impression was that they are talking about how hard it is to be iterative to the degree that is needed in order to excel at the level that office like mecanoo are doing. So AI helps to churn and find unexpected adjacencies. It is a good insight and probably the best take on the Midjourney et al experiment that is going on right now. As far as why it is useful to try random shit out, the answer is pretty clear. Its to find stuff that is not obvious. Most of an architects creative work is about that, whether it is understanding program or developing form. Paint by number is a good business model but not so good for making architecture at the high end. AI offers the promise of getting to that level easier. Pretty cool. Reminds me a bit of the ideas Eisenman was exploring in the 90's somehow.
i think it would be fun for interiors teams to use AI to generate mood boards. break out of cliched looks.
this made the NYT recently: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/21/technology/ai-generated-art-jobs-dall-e-2.html
will galloway wrote:
"they dont say that mecanoo does that."
A quick look at their website shows that they do indeed use unpaid internships.
couldnt find whatever you saw. interns yes, but no mention of working for free.
Will, not hard to see when considering that only the intern section of their career options is void of compensation information in the “what we offer” section.
ah, i see. Our office originally followed internship standards from NL because that is where our office first started and Japan standards were crazy (though after covid who knows how it goes). It was not unpaid. Not high, but not unpaid. TBH, I would be surprised if it is unpaid in this case, especially for a high profile office in these times. You could be right, but I'm not certain you have found the slam dunk you are imagining. In projects in Europe we are working on currently the pay for interns is set by national standards. Again not high, but not nothing. Not sure why Mecanoo would not follow the same pattern we do...
Exactly Non. Also if you look at the job description for their intern positions it only talks about gaining experience. Not to mention if you google 'unpaid internship' and the firms name you'll see that they don't pay their interns.
It seems quite clear Will that they don't pay their interns. In addition, paying interns a salary that is below the poverty level isn't paying them. Finally, just because the firms you've worked with in Europe pay their interns very little doesn't mean Mecanno dose the same. Their offices may not be located in the country's you've worked in.
Bye bye Lizzie ... term highlight would be forever known as the PM in office during the Queen's passing, and pretty much nothing else ...?
But the lettuce!
Hi TC! Did I spot the Barbican bldgs in some shots of the latest Andor episode?
Hey Wood Guy, I have a product rep knocking off your BS & Beer gig. Just got an office-wide invite to their "Beer & Building Science" event.
That's ok, Non--we've been working for the last year on getting a not-for-profit set up, in part to control who can use the name, but in the end decided to just let the idea continue to grow. If anyone asks, I borrowed the discussion group idea and came up with the name, but I don't want to hunt down everyone who uses a similar name without permission.
Is it Siga or Rockwool? They have been good, informal trade partner-type folks.
No. This one is by elastochem. Don’t know them or what they do… yet they claim to work with our office. Probably bumped into junior staff while dropping of a binder or something.
Just looked up Elasrochem - it seems likely they just want to sell you spray foam as the magic bullet for enclosure detailing and are offering free beer to listen to their pitch. I'd ask what kind of beer they have...
Going from working in architecture to working with architects and I absolutely loathe working with architects.
what a bunch of wankers, every meeting is just endless nonsense.
What's your new role? And if you can't stand architects, why did you choose it?
archiwutm8 if you loathe working with architects . . .
Why did you try and become one?
Why did you take your new job?
Why are you on this site?
Mike Davis died.
fuck.
Well my work is done for the week. Time to wait for client and consultant responses.
I suppose I could work on that small house design.
Excellent work on the "vault or no-vault" thread, Chad!
Time to delete your Twitter accounts, y'all.
You're on twitter - weirdo. ;)
Nah. Had an account for a hot minute back in 2014. Wouldn't touch it with a dead cat.
Never had an account. I'm on Facebook though I've still sold my digital soul.
Never.
Deactivated my (forgotten-about) twitter account yesterday. Got rid of Facebook in about March 2020. Next up will be Instagram some day, but I'll admit that'll be the hardest of all. It feels so good to unplug, even just a little.
Fatherhood and pandemic somehow resulted in me basically abandoning Facebook in recent years. Honestly I also think one driver was I had gotten a bit too deep/heated on the neighborhood / city / urbanist / politics Facebook groups. So I was looking for any excuse...Its been great! Though admittedly I still Twit too much.
love to travel, hate airports and the scam tsa has become.
Was it ever not a scam?
I Hadn't noticed before the assymmetry of service between paying vs non-paying passegers, a 4:1 ratio in denver and houston.
what is the scam? PreCheck? [just signed up for it this year]
The scam is that that the TSA are providing additional security. They are not. They are only providing the appearance of security.
https://www.securitydegreehub....
Proto, the scam is they're a public agency funded by a national budget, yet they put a lot more resources on their business than in the public service they are supossed to provide to everyone. On Chad's note, I went through TSA in Denver with a 6" fishing knife unknowingly in my backpack, I only found out when I arrived in Mexico.
Hey old friends. Been a while.
new page waddup
Good to see you!
Where did you go tduds?
Became a dad, got a promotion, so work and home lives got busier. Also spending too much time on twitter. Incidentally saw an archinect link on twitter and thought I'd pop back in to say hello.
Congrats on the baby and the promotion!
Thanks!
Any thoughts on the WELL AP designation? Anyone take it?
Office covers the training and testing; seems like its all the rage now with air filtering after covid. I can't really tell if its actually real-world useful (IE passivhaus) or if its just applique buzz words (IE LEED).
Would love some hive-mind feedback. I'll probably have the down-time over the winter to get into it; seems like i might as well add it to the stable.
Do these credentials matter to you? To employers? To clients? I probably haven't heard the word "LEED" spoken out loud in five years, and literally not one of clients has requested it in at least a decade (and several hundred projects). Not to discourage you, it's just a question.
My personal opinion is that the less useful ones (LEED) are generally more benign than they are made out to be, therefore reducing their importance. That being said, we do have clients who inquire about
Bench, Well (and others like it) are terms I've only seen thrown around by the gov clients. No surprise that they like to collect acronyms because it makes it look better on paper. Anyways, our interior design department is going through the WELL process right now but does not appear that the bulk of the certification is within traditional practice's scope. Talks about work-life balance, office policies, and proximity of public transport, and other things outside of common services. I label WELL a notch above Feng Shuay.
WELL seems to be the rage for Tenant Improvement and Office Repositioning projects in the commercial and interiors world. Where they lost me was by having celebrities endorsing it on advertisements. Unbelievable lol. I think if they are to pay for the exam and all of that jazz, it does not hurt. I have my own opinions on certifications just as anyone else would. It is marketable for people I feel in certain niches for the profession.
^Celebrity endorsements? Fuck, now I hate it even more.
Ah shit. my reply got cut off above. Basically - i dont necessarily think of LEED and WELL as great programs on their own accord. Rather, we do have clients who inquire about including the designation on projects for their own terms. Fine. Beyond that, its also an easy data point to cite during promotions / negotiations / interviews further down the line.
Beyond that, I do fundamentally believe in good ongoing professional development. Compared to other targets I could go after, these are relatively affordable (compared to, say, PH)
NS - thank you. That was part of my worry, that it focus on non-tangible elements that I dont necessarily think architects have much control over. Ironically, my interest in it was sparked from one of our primary MEP consultants, who did a lunch and learn on new HVAC systems and their relationship to WELL compliance - which I actually think is a useful application here (also i have a lot of respect for this particular consultant, so anything she is promoting i tend to assume is based in good merit).
I still see LEED crop up in government work on occasion.
We're seeing it as requirements for city government buildings and schools. A lot of the smaller mountain towns are requiring it on all commercial projects without really understanding it.
in tokyo we see it with interior projects, especially for large european and global companies in japan. Leed and Well both. They are tipping the balance in some small ways, and we can see the effect on builders and developers who are realizing they need to do things differently. Is it enough to change the world? No, not really. It is a step in the right direction though, which is better than not doing anything at all.
@b3Tadine, you going to have to try harder to downvote all of my comments.... Did not know the Russian bots made it to Archinect. Mods, get on it.
You know what they call people who up vote their own comments?
Pathetic Sociopaths.
Truth be told though...
Bta - What's with your beef with enigma / dick?
I hate Wednesday. Oh, and people that Karen their own comments.
How dose someone 'Karen' their own comments? Asking for a friend.
The comment on this string being one indication of Full Karen, this being the other...
Up votes their own comments.
That's just being a narcissist. I always thought of a Karen as someone who was entitled well beyond their actual importance.
I'm curious who this enigma / dick user is. They started off as a nice enough person who was genuinely contributing to the site. Now they seem to be devolving into a weird troll.
They used the Karen phrase. I find it more akin to autofellation, which makes the nom de plume of Dick even more ironic...