Picture it, you’ve just spent 60+ hours on a model sprint for a friend/client. Because you’re EXACTLY like me in this story – the motives are to A) Solve the problem effectively & thoroughly with B) Throw a little mustard on it to impress with the end result.
You open up the model in Enscape and what you get in plain view in 55+ apartment units is, the door on the right. Looks ‘ok’ in Revit, but outside of that – you’ve got a single mass with no features to tell your brain ‘this is a door’
I’ve written and produced architectural graphic standards for a half dozen firms that I’ve worked at. It’s on the list of things that bug me, because I’ve never been able to produce that ‘meh’ reaction and soldier thru underperforming tools.
I’m more the driven guy who gets frustrated at complacency, and just wants to ‘fix it’ to raise the bar on standards.
This, has sent me down countless rabbit-holes and been the causal factor behind at least 80% of my self-taught YouTube research on tech solutions.
In your office – I’m the guy who’s putting in the off-hours time to try and make things better and easier because for some reason (I know the reason) in my mid-career, its still my position to draw EVERYTHING instead of mentoring others.
Over the course of my career, I’ve been listening, watching, learning & taking notes – mostly on what not to do. Its hardly a wild take to say that there are things in this industry that are as broken as that door on the right.
The list you select that from says 2″ Head – it comes in with a 4″, and the height is based on an overall dimension and not driven from the door panel outward. Easy fix at the source, but the firm locked everyone out of the source files.
The architecture problem shines and has many facets. Its a complicated profession, under enormous outside pressures to perform while under the scrutiny of participants that don’t 100% believe that its vital to a project’s success. And everyone wants 40 options of a design solution fully rendered with a LOD of 500. Cuz that’s easy, and won’t blow the contractually agreed to fee.
Working in silos, the 3-path politics of navigating a large firm, deliverables, expectations vs. outcomes, lapses in institutional knowledge, communication tools, project management (time/fee management), rapidly progressing tech in the face of the old guard, the 80-90% billable hour target, inefficiencies, etc. etc. etc. The list is a long one, and it varies from place to place.
It’s a high-pressure blender for certain. The time it takes to address any of these issues is daunting, and usually evaporates the instant one of the clients uses the word ‘lawsuit’ at the tail end of a project.
While you’re inside the blender? It’s pretty difficult to step outside of it and try and gain an outsider perspective. What might be spinning the blades faster that can or should be corrected? (Up to your ass in alligators works here too)
I’ve been outside the blender for over a year now, and the possibility that I can get back in is anyone’s guess – given the ongoing economic situations. It does offer a unique perspective, and many MANY hours to ponder the situation.
I’m using library and content development as a distraction to the crazies, but it also serves to potentially raise the bar for anyone else who may be interested in it. Still TBD.
Just kidding, I’m no closer to a solution to any of this than anyone else is. If sleep deprivation is any indicator – I’m interested in helping to solve it – but I have no vehicle to pursue a solution beyond just being a guy, sitting in a room.
Contract issues and the Standard of Care? Not a lawyer, I don’t know. I’ve read, written, and been part of the contract discussions at the front end – but I still don’t have the dedicated hours of understanding that I feel it necessary to speak on it.
I do know that there are plenty of downward forces applied to what a drawing set looks like that don’t have much to do with the intended outcome of a constructed work. And these forces have way more to do with things than a busted door family on the ‘doer’ side.
For me, “This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t really an acceptable answer to “Why do we do things this way?”
Father of the assembly line Henry Ford had a reply for this one that I’ve always liked.
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
I agree with that sentiment – and that guy is partly responsible for the thoughts behind the vertically operated design & project delivery process (another archi problem).
I’ve also seen the standard AIA docs rewritten to place more of the blame on architect’s shoulders and limiting input and voice in the delivery process. Obviously I’m not a fan of that. I already operate under the understanding that everything is somehow my fault.
Its not a healthy head space to swim around in.
Can I just say – I really hate the blame game that comes with the construction process. That whole finger-pointing thing when something goes wrong and there’s upset in the team dynamic. I’ve always been the guy to fix whatever the problem is first and figure out who to blame later. Sitting there yelling fault doesn’t solve the problem. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong – I’ll own up to that, but AFTER I fix it, learn something and move forward.
There are endless therapist-quality descriptions of this like ‘saving stamps’, or ‘keeping score’. Personally I call it ‘laying landmines’. Something that you weren’t aware of, isn’t communicated and will blow your ass up at the least opportune time – isn’t something to strive for – no matter the situation.
What’s the solve? Some of it is going to involve rewriting some of the embodied rules, and the only way to do that is by providing a new provable precedent – while dragging the rest of the industry with you.
Whatever this ends up as – it should be focused on broadening a sphere of influence based on a new idea, or the betterment of an old idea.
I’m also in favor of organic growth, over the new tech startup model of VC-funded mega companies that take too much on because its raining cash.
I’m not advocating for the nuking of a good idea, but I’d rather have that camp fire that keeps me warm all night, than the one made with a couple of green branches and lighter fluid that blows off your eyebrows.
I’m not talking about the executive committee that meets 4x a year in various locations to discuss the fate of the employees and the firm metrics.
Oh yeah, firms have ownership groups, board members, officers, and all the things that you’d find in a typical large corporate enterprise. A layer above Principal. It’s not just a room full of mouse-movers trying to inadequately detail something or make a spreadsheet work.
What I’m speaking of has more to do with the pride of ownership and that feeling that one gets from crossing something off a list. Operating in silos or the ‘this group designs, then this group details, and that guy over there will redline, with yet another person uninvolved in the rest of the project will do construction admin duties.’
Without a feedback loop and no youth layer to invigorate the environment, you’re left operating in a silo without much if any input on the end result. I don’t know about you – but when I bust my rear end doing something with years of investment – you like a little pay-off at the end, right?
I’ve never been one to demand a parade, but a portion of pride that I helped accomplish a thing, and a bit of acknowledgment of the effort with something to point at – is enough of a reward for me to want to do it again.
In this type of atmosphere – it can feel damned near impossible to change pigeon holes, if not actually impossible.
I actually wrote a rebuttal once to a job categorization sheet because the way the firm viewed me, was not even close to my experience level, capabilities, or actual job duties. It didn’t change anything – but nothing pisses someone off faster than getting stuffed in the wrong pigeon hole. If nothing else – it was a cathartic exercise and generated lengthy discussion.
For me personally, a project having a beginning, middle and end is important. I’ll go without sleep to champion something toward a solution just to get that sense of completion.
The “IKEA effect” is a thing. They can charge more for something you build yourself because of this intangible impact.
Providing a path for buy-in is important.
As you’d expect while growing thru the career process – I’ve held various positions in a large variety of organizational firm types.
As much of a social recluse as I am, with all the task-driven mentality that one needs to throw on the headphones, put your head down and grind out a project – one could potentially thrive in that kind of environment – as long as the pigeon hole is cozy.
Maybe its the duality that I operate in, but ‘there’s got to be a better way’ voice was always louder than the music when pulling the details together on my 12th different hotel that year.
Looking back over my ‘project list’ in my documented work experience – is a testament to the silo. There’s no possible way to work on as many different projects as I have in the same year without it.
That voice is directly responsible for me designing methods instead of buildings… which further cemented my career into the hole I was placed in rather than providing the wiggle room that I was after. This particular outcome has happened repeatedly. “See a problem, fix a problem” rapidly becomes – “the guy who knows how to fix that.”
The only antidote I can see to this is not volunteering any expertise on any subject or that’s where you’ll land. Kind of the opposite of what you want out of an employee.
I used to tell my boss at the time that I’d be further ahead in my career if I wasn’t so good at my job.
I started keeping my own library of details for editing, systems for detailing, and a bag of personal tools was developed to aid in my completion of work as well as for use by the firm.
Couldn’t design a building – so I started to design a system. Analog Automation, circling back to Mr. Ford and his invention.
In that silo situation I was also ‘temp employee’ for the entirety of my employment. I was building a personal collection of components in my off hours to further prove my value and leverage toward a permanent role. It didn’t work.
I was also championing the cause of automation, and greater use of more effective tools in the delivery process & ditching Sketchup as the answer to everything because it bottlenecked the transition from Design to Development.
That same place has since started an internal Dynamo group for automating design & production (because I was a temp and had a higher target for billings, I wasn’t allowed to participate in without doing so off-book = disincentive), and purchased multiple seats of TestFit for front end development.
I like to wave at opportunities as they fly by.
I wasn’t the only one in the firm trying to make change happen, but in a silo – I couldn’t really tell.
If you’re in the blender and not in this situation – first you have my congratulations on being seen as valuable enough to still be in the game.
As someone who has been in my situation before – this isn’t a fun place to be when the crazies, swirling self-doubts, and questions of value to the career start.
Thankfully (so far) I’ve been able to side-step the ‘dark night of the soul’. Staying busy helps. Staying focused on something helps.
One of the places your unguided thoughts wander is thru the forest of ‘what I don’t want’ to the pasture of ‘what would be great’.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have been a part of great projects, regardless of firm type or particular collection of practices.
However, all the experiences in the ‘ideal’ category have all have had similar traits. Smaller office, autonomy over daily decisions, input on best practices, and limited push-back on process while exploring and embracing new technology and solutions.
Firm A: (actually more have been like this than anything else)
“You’re here at 9 or earlier, don’t leave before 5 – Need 3 days advance notice on appointments.”
Firm B:
“Hey ____, (Managing Partner), I need to cut out of here early tomorrow to renew my drivers license. Is that ok?”
Response: “What the hell are you telling me for? Handle your stuff – don’t miss meetings or calls”
Firm C:
“You’ve been late showing up all week. You’re not going to get a raise that way.”
“Um, you work in Accounting – I was here until 3-4AM on a deadline 3 nights in a row. I didn’t see anyone else here. “ (For the record – that reply isn’t appreciated)
Guess which one I felt more comfortable at? Of course universally that’s all been relaxed now given the pandemic – but there may be a return to value being placed on who gets to the office first because they’re a morning person. I can’t say for certain.
All I do know is that when you spend all night working on a project to hit a deadline, and your timecard starts with 1XX for hours that week – its just a better feeling when you can take an extra day off that week to decompress without a 3-day advance notice in triplicate circulated to 5 offices.
If you take a coding/programming course – you’ll likely come across a story where someone used a coding language to automate a task, that allows them to ‘work’ for 2 hours a day while accomplishing something that’s “supposed” to take 40 hours a week- where they get paid for that 40 hour effort on a weekly basis.
Legend has it that sometimes – they’ve used that process to work for more than one place at a time.
Mandating the “How” rather than the “What” restricts the efficiencies. Now yeah, I get it – if the whole office uses Revit and you’re the guy using CAD – that’s a problem. I was part of a couple different projects that went from CAD to Revit and back again based on the who knew what package to deliver it. Frustrating doesn’t begin to touch it.
But if you do grant a little leeway on tool development to explore alternates, that’s a plus in my book.
In one position? Any time that there was an identified need to do something, and a tool needed – they’d give it to someone (usually me) to play with and figure out before hand. Same place was an early adopter to new technology, believed in internally training people and running pilot projects utilizing these news tools.
The tech/nerd side of me found that endlessly appealing – where you can explore the edges of your career, gather working knowledge of new things, and harness the knowledge of a team all exploring the tools as they produce.
No one person had the title of ‘rendering person’ or ‘grasshopper person’ it was a pool with an experience gradient where everyone was showing each other cool stuff.
On the other end of the spectrum – I’ve also been the guy that just does front-end project proposals because I knew how to 3D model & render… or at another firm – just been the person that details because I knew how things went together.
I don’t know about you – but I get bored when I’m not learning new things.
Contrast that against a firm where a good portion of the daily tools are broken, and they lock you out of the ability to fix them. Alternate paths emerge.
I recall a time when a new family browser being deployed, and after not getting much on how it worked – I went to the website for tutorials. Self-starter, not a problem.
Once there I found out that the firm had locked users out of the ability to create or organize anything or add to their personal collection, I shut off the tutorial and never used the browser. The most powerful part of the tool was closed, and the path to using it was restricted. Who wants to work like that?
One of the best job ads I’ve seen recently was for UpCodes. Where they’re looking for a person who’s “versed in building codes – who can learn programming.”
Know the “What”, learn the “How”.
If you’re mid-career like me, there’s a broader knowledge base that firms may want to tap into… and it doesn’t make much sense for them to send me to Dynamo camp if my strength has been spec-writing for 20 years. I understand that fully.
For me personally – I’m going to want to learn the tools. Not knowing, bugs me.
Now, this also limits employment opportunities. If you’re running a firm that uses ONLY Sketchup and AutoCAD or some other iteration of BIM and that’s where tech exploration ends – there’s a good chance you’re not going to see my resume.
Its a sad state of affairs for certain. I might be able to use an abundance of packages, but that’s not where a particular strength lies – so I won’t pass the first look.
Admittedly its to my own detriment but, I’m gun shy about applying to positions knowing that my experience (however broad it may be to include the work you’re hiring for) won’t pass the 30-second resume test because I don’t share a key specialization.
I’ve done it all – but I don’t have a track record of doing nothing but ______ for 20 years. I know detailing, I research the hell out of everything and love to learn new things – but I’m not going to waste anyone’s time when the ad calls for 15 years experience in K-12.
Not knowing, bugs me. I reiterate that because its important to me.
I started a path toward tech because being ignorant of the new tools didn’t seem like a good move. Besides, the challenge is fun for me. One of those breaks in the silo has to do with this, at least in part.
My reasoning for my tech side is/was this: The more that I progressed into a leadership role within a firm – the more apt I was to delivering a solid project and team chemistry because I understood the nuts and bolts of the process. Even in broader strokes.
I mean, let’s be realistic here.
I don’t expect a 30-year partner to be able to write script or understand how to model adaptive components in an undulating curtain wall configuration controlled by a Dynamo graph… but I feel it’s a strength to understand what it takes to accomplish that and a rough comprehension of timeframe.
Much as with anything in architecture – you’ve got to have a cursory understanding of the systems to discuss and deliver a solid end result. The hell do I know about panel connections to lighting systems or sensors in HVAC? I’m expected to have a knowledge base of the systems to manage a successful project. And you should.
Primarily I’m after that knowledge base so I don’t become the guy that just promised a client something by tomorrow, when it is going to take a team of 3 people every waking minute between now and then to accomplish that task.
I’ve been on the other side of that before and it’s not remotely fun.
The other guy that I didn’t want to turn into is the one that pushes back on new ideas. When you have something you believe can help, makes your life easier and can potentially save a firm and projects thousands of dollars (because you’ve used it at home for months) and present that to someone with a historic record of success – and it gets blown out of the water simply because its not ‘company standard’ – well that’s a really demoralizing thing to go thru.
Flashback to having a company president tell me that using PDFs over email wasn’t a viable alternate to FedEx-ing printed 24×36 rendered images to clients. That particular hot-take didn’t age well and was blown out a week later.
Email vs. the printing + shipping + 2 hours fighting with the plotter over color settings vs. attaching something to an email.
I want to know things. Having a broad knowledge base helps a great deal. Acknowledging that and allowing exploration might be the key to someone’s joy while employed. It’s been a large portion of mine.
Take this section for what its worth. For all these efforts – I’m still between jobs after showcasing the ability to solo-perform entire hotel projects by myself
Now there’s the big barking complaint about working in a young office where no one has a knowledge base for the completion of tasks…. right?
I’ve been a youth. Had to believe, I know. Adults didn’t get to be adults by accident. Everyone progresses thru this career, and I am the first to admit – I don’t know everything. My idea of self includes the phrase “Who the hell am I to tell anyone else how to do something?”
And its not rooted in self-doubt. Its merely me accepting the idea that I don’t know everything and the corollary that expecting someone to know everything isn’t a reasonable stance to take.
Thing is, if there is no younger staff – who the hell do you mentor?
I’ve worked in places that had a vibrant collection of characters young and old with a vitality and purpose. I’ve worked in places where they entire staff base was mid-to-late career where new ideas were seldom unearthed.
Guess which place was more fun to be at and offered a better overall environment? There needs to be an exploration of ideas, discussion and an exchange of ideas to teach, learn and grow.
The firm that was mid-late career? It was fine, but hardly challenged ones pre-conceptions or methodologies. When there was an occasional summer position filled (once every couple years), that person would rove from team to team and pick up redlines or lesser task-related duties on the project, with the direction to “Make it look like this.”
At the tail end of of one summer, with only a few days left on rotation – I FINALLY had an opportunity to work with one of these rarely-hired staffers.
I pulled off the silo headphones and we talked. About all of it. Architecture as a profession, why things were the way they were, best practices, scope, design, detailing, project history, backgrounds, reasons. It was a 4 day AMA on the practice of the profession and it was one of the best stretches that I had working there.
When things were going to wrap and this rare encounter was over, this aspiring architect leaned over to me and asked,
“Why the hell haven’t I been sitting here this whole summer? I learned more in a few days from you that I have since I got here.”
To this day, I still don’t have an answer.
Fresh ideas are important. Learning, and knowing something well enough to teach it is important.
As an example, this is going to have a limited audience, but I’m sharing it anyway.
Guitarist Joe Satriani was learning to play. He felt pretty good about his knowledge base, and put up a flier to teach guitar lessons. Steve Vai showed up for a lesson with an unstrung guitar and a pack of strings. Steve ended up learning so quickly that it pushed Joe to learn things just to have knowledge to impart. The entire experience grew them both (and also why there’s similar sound and techniques).
This exchange of ideas, and the rooted understanding, as well as the ability to say, “I don’t know – but let’s find out.” This, on its own is one of those “Life Things” that’s important to strengthening personal vitality and interaction. Whether its an open channel on a remote call, or its a couple of people in a coffee shop talking about a design competition – the mentoring experience is essential and I miss that like to you wouldn’t believe as I write this.
The current situation has me missing a lot from the day job. Good or Bad. Lately any discussion of what I’m doing goes like this:
“Dammit. Honey guess what I just did?”
“Probably made more work for yourself – why are you even doing this? This is kicking your ass.”
“I want to potentially help someone who’s got the same problem. But I see your point.”
Cheeky, yes . Entertaining, certainly – but a different kind of discussion than the ones I used have at the front end of a project when a day is blown discussing detailing templates & methods.
I know I’ve managed to touch on things in the above offering that 1) Probably will leave senior staffers to black-list my name from employment applications or 2) Have people, aspiring to be architects, running for the hills.
Not the intended outcome by a mile.
Its just a contrasted list on some of my life experiences and what may exist in the dream career, and how the profession as a whole might be negatively impacted by bad ideas. As well as the reasons why its so damned hard to fix.
I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it. There is amazing work that can be and should be done by this profession. Its being missed. People are bailing, or worse – can’t get the work to begin with.
As much as there is no perfection in the practice of architecture (every single project has a story), it doesn’t exist in the firms that endeavor to practice it either, and its unfair to expect it to.
I suppose its part of the human condition, but put enough varying ideas and motivations into a room together and eventually any system that comes of it, is going to have some cracks in it.
After a year being stuck on the outside looking in, I can say definitively for the second time in my life – this is the stuff that I was put here to do. It might not be what I end up doing for the remainder of my time on this Earth, but architecture and the practice of figuring out an ever-changing puzzle at varying levels of zoom carries with it all aspects of being alive. The joys, the pains, the aspirations, the embodiment of passions and defeats… all of it.
As of right now, I’m in a silo of a different sort. Disconnected from the profession, disconnected from the overall discussion, sans mentoring possibilities… Without any voice in the design of the built environment, I’m going to tell you from this perspective – it sucks.
I’m not trying to over-criticize or over-romanticize things either. Its a tough job. I still have misgivings about being thrown under the bus by a PM trying to save face to a client and impossible deadlines to meet. I’m not a fan of being bullied by a GC who later under-performs on the project. Or watching a developer client string along a GC for pricing and then fire them right before permit (that one has happened a couple times).
I’m no fan of getting yelled at, and the perception that you can play ‘kick the architect’ from 2/3 of a project team isn’t something that should continue.
What I am a fan of is engaging. Making Stuff. Learning. Getting dirty. Sharing ideas. The feedback loop. Interacting to make things better, livelier, and more accessible on some level. I miss diving into a pool of ideas and getting inspired by comments when an idea gets caught on the last snarky thing that was said.
That’s the good stuff, and its a blender of chaos that only really gets appreciated from the outside, and seldom when its happening.
I miss the shared experience, the interaction and the purpose. I’m trying to hang on to whatever I can.
Drop a line, comment, email… hit me up on socials. Let’s talk. Let’s change things.
Otherwise, I’ll be over here – making stuff with questionable purpose. Thanks for reading.
JM
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