Wearing Many Hats...or, How to Drive the OCD Micro-Managing Architect Mad

The work has been coming through the office at a nice steady pace the last few months, almost too perfect. As I wrap up one project, the next is cut loose. There may be some overlap, but the intensive CD crunch phase of a project hasn't overlapped with another project's CD phase yet. Let me just say that I am thankful. Because I have to do everything. Marketing? Proposals? Design? Meetings? Billing? I am not yet at the point of needing to hire anyone, and it worries me I'll either wait until it's too late and I'm drowning in tasks, or jump too soon and have someone sitting around waiting for work. Things are still too unpredictable. A project is hot one week, and gone into the Nether the next. Two personal traits of mine that drive me nuts (and I am greatly aware of them), really impact this one area of my practice.

The first is Risk. I avoid it. I hate to even think about it. I see people out there extending themselves, going beyond their boundaries for their businesses and careers. Driven. I am jealous. Every time I take a step out of my comfort zone it feels as if my heart is gonna explode. I get panicky. I start to sweat and have bad dreams. I retreat back into my comfort zone. I know the next step for me, professionally, is to get out from behind the computer and out there and grow this thing. Hire someone to do the drafting and free up some time to do more productive things. But I fear failure so much that I avoid putting myself in situations where that may occur.

The second is Perfectionism. Or as my title alludes to, my OCDism. I have this urge to control every aspect of my practice. Every detail. I obsess over design and drawings. A few years ago when things were busy and I had a draftsman, I found it hard to let go and let them do their job. I can cover a drawing in red ink. Part of me still really enjoys the drafting part, fleshing out the design into a workable, buildable creation.

So while I realize I enjoy the entire process, from landing the job to occupancy, at some point I'm going to have to take some risk and solicit help, or go slowly mad trying to do everything.

The Most Important Thing you can Learn as an Architect

Having a doctor explain a diagnosis and treatment to you. Meeting a mortgage lender for your first loan. The car mechanic who tells you what's wrong with your car and what it will take to fix it. These can be trying and scary conversations to be a part of. You don't fully understand what's happening, or worse, what's going to happen, or how much it may hurt, physically and financially. How the professional your talking with relates the information and eases your fears and preconceptions is very important. You often hear about docs having a good bedside manner. They are referring to these traits.

This post started as a reply to a post on another architect's blog, but I quickly saw I had much to say and that I would make it my own post.

I'm not too sure when I came to the realization that I was in the same league as the above professionals [and I do view a car mechanic as a professional, have you seen all the wires and hoses and stuff under a hood lately?], but I can tell you it was only in the last few years, at least post-licensure. I think society as a whole has moved towards being more informed and involved. There was a time when you had a problem, you sought out a professional, and they [often he], solved it. They then sent you a bill, you paid it, and you went on your way. You really were never invited into the process or understood it fully. Remember when expectant fathers hung out in the waiting room with cigars for news of the birth, was it a boy or a girl? Not now. You go to classes, read books, meet with your obstetrician, get ultrasounds, and participate in the actual birth [like it or not]. I may be oversimplifying it, but I think generally this was the way society worked. You trusted the person you needed to help you with your issue, which may have been fine since you knew them personally.

When I started out in the profession, I was trying to learn everything I could about how things are designed and built, what an architect does, who he is, what the contractors and engineers do, how it all comes together in a finished building. It could be complicated and overwhelming. To this day, I still don't know everything and find myself constantly learning new things. They didn't teach you any of this stuff in school. So for years I tried to keep from opening my mouth too much and letting my inexperience show. I often feigned understanding rather than ask for clarification. I've since learned that this serves no one's best interests. Gradually I learned enough so that I could take on a project by myself, and guide it through the hurdles and mazes to completion. There'd be some new situations to figure out with every project, but the steps are generally the same each time. So I found myself in the role of taking a client's ideas and money and delivering a building. And somewhere along the way I thought of that doctor, banker, or mechanic, and how intimidating the process seemed, and how some made the process...less so. And good or bad the service, the ones who stopped to explain what was needed and what the steps were and why things were going to happen the way they were, well, I enjoyed working with. And there it is: "working with". Much better than "worked for".

I began treating architecture as something my client knew little about, and tried to explain every little step along the way. I still use architectural parlance, but I tell my clients what it means first. I have been trying to write my proposals clearer and more in-depth, yet simpler. I will be doing this and I will be doing that, and these are the steps we will be taking together. My goal is to act as a guide for the client. I want them to buy into the process, to take some ownership of it. While it's nice to hear how great my design is, or how nice the finished building turned out, I would like them to acknowledge the success of the team.

Update of updates

Howdy Blogosphere! Miss me?

Just wanted to jump in here quick and update you all on what's been going on here in the life of the Small Town Architect. No major changes. I still am in partnership with Bump Kin, although asides from a 2,500sf office building for a building material supply company [I know, glamorous], I've had nothing on the books with them for over a year. A year!!! There have been some long, lonely days my friends. They, of course, continue to pursue the bid market work with reckless abandon. I think their record is 1 for 23 right now with 15 or 16 top three places. In the bid market world, second place is technically first loser. They have let the old marketing guy, Golem, go after a few months. He was really out there beating the bushes, but his contacts were in a market (location-wise) Bump Kin hasn't been in in years. I'm still not sure exactly why he was let go, as he was only being paid a paltry salary and he was mainly on a finder's fee basis. He ran his own construction business for years until cancer more or less forced him to step down and focus on treatment. They recently replaced him, with a semi-local neophite (no construction experience, hasn't lived in the area in years, wasn't even looking for this position). The trifecta for someone in marketing huh? Turns out Mr. Kin and one of the other partners met him at his dad's funeral. His dad was a field superintendent with the company for eons who had recently been laid off, smoked like a chimney, and died of cancer almost overnight. So this twenty-something year old life-insurance salesman go-getter from West Virginia returns to the area to help the family and settle the estate, and impresses Bump kin and company so much they give him a job. He's more of an administrative assistant and bid-runner right now, understandably. Bump Kin also finally hired a recently laid-off estimator, something they should have done a while ago, but it's great they finally did anyhow. The guy's been in the industry forever. He's an architecture graduate of my alma mater so we have that in common. He's a bit of an OCD autistic type. Having a conversation with him requires sharp focus and lot's of patience, as he commandeers the talk and switches topics endlessly. He's been here over a year now, but it still feels like his days are numbered, as the Bump Kin gang don't seem to have the two skills I mentioned above, and Mr. Kin has taken to just telling him to stop when he's had all he can take with their conversations.

In other news, my relationship with a former co-worker (or more specifically his employer) has been developing nicely. I've done a 16,000sf municipal maintenance building that's now well under way in construction [again, glamorous I know, you wonder why I don't enter more of my work for AIA awards].

This is option 6, version 1b. Seriously, it's that bad. It was design-build based on a previously designed building. I agreed to a rendering even though it wasn't in the budget. We tried every combination of stone, siding and roofing colors and ratios of materials under the sun. Of course, the final colors are the original scheme (version 1). The "b" is for no solar panels on roof. Needless to say, my budget got shot. Badly. But the company president loves me, cause I defy many of the architect stereotypes. I need a pseudonym for them, not sure I've given them one yet. Maybe CONSTRUCT INC. They are a diversified outfit, with in-house land-planning, engineering, construction management and development arms. I've been in talks all summer with the president about me coming on board as the in-house architect for design-build operation services. Sound familiar? With no work through Bump Kin and unable to pick up much independently, I met with him. Good talks. He's really optimistic about the future of design-build [I'm not seeing it on my end, what clients there are out there want everything cheap because they know they can demand it and get it, so why enter into a design-build contract where you have no competition? Nevermind that it's the sub-contractors who are enjoying the profits these days, not the GCs]. But at some point he backed-off and wouldn't put an offer on the table, now I'm just supposed to be some sort of independent contractor giving him general architectural services on an as-needed basis for an indeterminate amount of time each week for a flat hourly fee. As much as I wanted to decline this and tell him he's got a better deal with me the way it's been [Remember the municipal building architectural budget I blew? My hourly expenditure probably worked out to $25 per hour], I agreed. What the heck, even at one day a week at just under my usual hourly billing rate for drafting/PM services, that gives me one less day a week to worry about being 100% billable. We haven't started anything yet, but there's a big "kick-off" meeting tomorrow, so we'll see what materializes. I think he just wants to be able to tell his clients they have in-house design as a new service.

The little black church I have painstakingly been working with since 07 or 08 has finally signed a contract for design! Yay! I was readying myself to pass this on to my sons to continue years from now. It's been downsized to a one-story building addition, but my fee is slightly generous, so I should have all my time from the past few years covered...finally. Again, there's nothing flashy going on here. This construction budget is razor thin.

And lastly, this little addition came my way. Another church with handicapped access issues. Can you say niche market? We've completed design development, and hopefully will have congregational approval this weekend to start CDs.

I've just started some small medical projects too with CONSTRUCT INC's CM wing. Really small, like meet one week, proposal the next, deliverables the week after that. All in all a good last few months. No where near out of the woods, but I'm not twiddling my thumbs anymore either. I hope all this work steadily continues, nice and neatly spaced out. No dry spells, no balls to the wall.

Thank you for humoring me, I hope to have some more regular, less "newsy", type posts in the coming months.

Long overdue..I'm sorry

Hi out there! It's me...Small Town. I haven't died. I haven't won a billion dollars and jetted off somewhere exotic. I'm still here, slogging away alone. I meant to write, I have. Honest. But you know how life goes. Things come and go. What's fun and interesting one moment, is tiresome and a chore the next. I'm real sorry. Forgive me? It wasn't for lack of ideas necessarily. It's more the fleshing out of them. The research putting together a post can involve a lot more work then it seems it should. Trying to reference a past topic when you forget how far back you mentioned it is tough. As I'm trying to remain anonymous, I've given everyone pseudonyms, and then next time I want to update you about what's going on, I can't remember what I've named someone twenty posts ago. To say nothing of the research that's needed if I decide to address something technical.

And in this economy, projects just linger on and on in this la-la land hiatus state forever. In fact, most of the projects I've written about a year ago are still around, somewhere between a job and dead on the vine. Nothing gets completed anymore, not really. It just flares up one month, then dies the next as owners try to get funding, or react to a loss of funding. I remained flat through the winter and into 2011. Very little new work, certainly nothing exciting. Even giving up on my little practice and looking for a regular gig with another firm proved fruitless. Before this recession, I had about an 80% success rate of getting an interview after sending out my resume to a firm, and a 95% success rate with getting a job offer if I made it to an interview. Nowadays, I can't even get a response when I send out my resume. By April, I was pretty much out of current projects, with maybe four or five small projects "on hold". I was prepared to become the stay-at-home-dad. Then things started happening. "Dead" projects came back. The other GC that has floated me some design-build work, including the [still-on-hold] medical office building, gave me a few decent projects. By June, I was busy, with a backlog of a few small projects even. I've been slogging through them as best as I can. You really have to be careful with workload and deadlines when it's just you, and you're reluctant to hire anyone because with these itty-bitty two week duration projects, you could be laying them off the very next month. Small projects are a BIG pain from this standpoint. There's very little profit built in, and they often take more effort than the big ones. You still have to have design meetings, conduct code reviews, possibly hire consultants, do sections and door schedules and finish schedules. Everything a big project has, a small one has, except for the fee and schedule. But nowadays, everything is small. Even bigger projects owners now want completed in smaller phases.

My work with Bump Kin is nonexistent. I have had one project with an architectural billing of $6500, just last month. This has been the only project in about ten months. They are now deeply entrenched in the bidding market, with no one really looking (or suited to pursuing) work in the design-build sector. There isn't much of a design-build sector left. Owners are seeing $$ in the competitive bid world, and are abandoning design-build. The one big design-build client they have they chose to use another architect on the original project, and now he's in with the owner as they are working on their fourth or fifth project. Thanks guys! [It will be brought up at some point, and that point is nearing. Keep reading].

On the other hand, the "other" GC, who has pretty much kept me going these last few months, loves to work with me. I have sound designs, provide good assistance, and deliver a decent set of drawings, all at a reasonable price. Apparently these qualities are lacking from much of the architects they have dealt with. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, believe me. They tell me this all the time. Personally, I feel that if I am so good, then I should be seeing more business, and I'm not. Of course, over the last few years I've realized that I am not a marketer, and have little interest and no understanding of how to draw in clients and get work. The BIG news, is that they want to form a partnership with me in launching an architectural design firm. Exactly.What.I'm.Doing.Now. The owner is trying earnestly to woo me into his company, which by the way does twice if not three times the volume of Bump Kin. Drawbacks? It's Exactly.What.I'm.Doing.Now. They are located about 180 degrees in the opposite direction from my home, in another podunk. An hours commute. [I live about a half an hours drive from the downtown of THREE pretty good size cities. That's pretty centralized. I can't find a job in any of them. I find jobs in far-flung hamlets that take me down endless two-lane pothole-infested backcountry roads.] His company has several professionals devoted to just developing projects that they can build. They buy and development land. Up until a few days ago, they had in-house structural and civil engineering. That didn't work out, but they feel that architectural design would be a better in-house specialty more suited to what they want to accomplish, which is a full-service one-stop shop. He sees this as the future of his business. It's what Bump Kin envisioned, but couldn't make happen through the recession. I'm really on the fence now. Turn him down and he'll go elsewhere, he's said as much. I'm the only candidate. That's saying something. He's my biggest client right now, so you see where I'm going? We're talking. No numbers have been discussed, but we're talking. He's willing to have a work-from-home arrangement for a few days out of the week because of the long commute. The other big weight is my backlog of work. I'm OK through August, but there's nothing concrete after that. I'm really tired of the uncertainty. So anybody out there have an opinion? I need some career guidance here folks. Please.

So in an effort to get some architecture in here, here's one that's "on the boards":

A Better Idea

As part of the exorbitant cost of your AIA membership, you get a subscription to Architectural Record magazine. Billed as "the #1 source for architecture design, modern architecture, and green architecture from McGraw Hill Construction Network", you would think it a definitive source of information for professionals in the industry. And it kind of is, sometimes...depending on who you are. What I'm trying to get at is that the magazine unabashedly fills it's pages with these glossy images of ultra-modern buildings, with wavy forms draped over steel spaceframes and clad in ribbons of blue-green glass, exposed cor-ten steel and zinc sheathing. Great stuff that's for sure.

All images have been taken directly form Architectural Record's website

But does it truly provide meaningful content for the masses out there slogging daily through the world of architecture: Approving pay apps, writing specs, detailing door jambs [and occasionally designing buildings]? My problem is that only about 5% of any one issue has any relevance to me. Heck, I read...er skim...the pages for the ads mostly. While I would love to get the chance to be on a team developing one of these projects, getting to meet with high-minded deep-pocketed clients and designing with a wide-open palette , it just ain't what I do. Sure, I reside in a very conservative area where most [if not all] of my clients just need a space to handle their needs, and budget is of the highest concern. It's always, "How can we make this more cost efficient?" or "I don't need the Taj Mahal here" [Shucks, you mean no 24k gold-leafed domes? And rarely does anyone say "cheap", because hey, we still want quality]. And as for aesthetics, they want traditional, traditional, traditional [What does that mean exactly?] You know what? I accept these limitations, have even come to embrace them perhaps, in part because I agree with them. Even back in school, I was not a cutting-edge designer. My projects always referenced their surroundings. I wasn't about making a statement, I was just looking to resolve a space-planning puzzle. If I got all the required pieces to fit together in some logical and functioning order and could skin it in some half-provocative way, I was happy. I still see architecture as this puzzle-solving experience. While I would love, just once, for a client to say "Can we make it more modern?" or "Cost is not important", it hasn't happened yet and I doubt it ever will.

So back to my "beef" with the magazine. OK, so I understand that maybe the magazine serves its purpose to some, but what if...I envision a magazine that provides us news, not what the latest Starchitect is doing in some far-flung country or what 90 year old visionary died last month, but news about billings, material prices and shortages, what companies are being sued and by whom. I still want to see critiques and glossy photos of the latest prominent buildings (courthouses, performing arts centers, urban infills), but how about also some features on the more "generic" buildings that we see or work on daily? You know, the rectilinear masonry and stucco-clad office building. What challenges did the team (architect, engineer, contractor and owner) have to overcome? And how about some informative articles on the latest in contract law and risk management? The latest in business management and marketing? Stuff we architects know so little about unfortunately. I don't always have the ability to drop $200 and a day's work to attend a seminar. And codes, the massive and complex set of stipulations we must work with daily? Maybe one article an issue on just one code, explaining its background and development and what is required for compliance. And technology? The proper selection and detailing of the materials that form our projects? The continuing ed articles I typically see are a joke much of the time. They are written by the manufacturers, with little or no questioning by experts in the science. For example, the debate about how to correctly provide thermal and moisture protection of a given building skin is a hot-button issue, has been for a while, with experts weighing in with various opinions. This type of discourse would make an excellent article. The day-to-day issues facing architects are almost limitless. We aren't taught it at school. We're expected to learn it "on the fly" in practice. This isn't a trial-and-error type profession.

I believe Manufacturers would prefer advertising in this sort of publication. The project managers and drafters and spec writers out there are the ones dealing with the products on a daily basis, not so much the designers and the clients perusing the pages while sitting in the waiting room.

So that's my idea for a professional rag. I'd like to continue my rant, really delve into what would make a genuinely useful resource for us architects (and maybe engineers and contractors too). I may revisit this topic again soon. What are your thoughts, dear readers?

Fierce Competition

Are you ready for this? Are you sitting down? Good. I have a signed contract in hand for a BIG project. About 50,000 square feet of medical office building, including the tenant fitout design on the first floor and a small portion of the second floor. [Big hugs and high-fives from my readers ensue.]

This is great, not only as an escape from the hum-drum of small project hell, but for the fact that

I have something to really dig my paws into AND for the fact that I'm no longer as worried about my fate any time soon. It feels as much a stay of execution as a celebration of new work. So I've had a perma-grin for the past week.

There's still a lot of potential work in the wings too, and I somewhat dread a potentially BUSY Fall. I could be [gasp] in need of hiring some help. I'll wait on that end for now, things are still touch and go. The period between contact and contract has been growing, and it's about a year now. I feel somewhat out of practice. I was used to the endless crush of design meetings, designing, drafting, coordinating consultant drawings, spec writing, bidding, etc, etc from 1995 through 2007...and then poof! The carpet gets pulled out from under you. I'm the NFL running back coming back from a torn ACL faced with getting back in the big game and feeling a. little. out. of. shape.

Architecture for me is much more about management than creation. Creation is only a part of it. Architecture is a PROCESS to architects and a PRODUCT to the public. You start with a group of people who need a building to do something in, and you end months (or sometimes years) later with glass, steel, brick, doors, stairs and elevators, parking lots and shrubbery. And there is usually a very familiar step-by-step process that you take, checking off the items on the list until you get to the final product. As an architect, you just have to be aware of the steps, know where to find the answers, know when you need them, what questions to ask, know how to keep all involved focused on the tasks at hand and the deadlines set. It can be stressful, and yet fun. I always have the image of myself atop a huge roaring snorting beast, the reins taut in my grip, pulling and yanking, trying to direct the animal to some distant finish line that it doesn't see.

But anyways. To the point of my post. The local firm that I have tried for years to get a position at, who seem to be everywhere, are once again my competition. They also showed up recently teamed up with a few ex-employees of Bump Kins who have decided to strike out on their own. I did beat them out here, we having made it to the second round and they did not [woot!], but alas "we" lost out to a different firm in the final round. And today I find out that they are teamed up with a small GC and in the hunt for the small waiting room renovation to a local physician's office I am trying with Bump Kin to get. Everywhere I turn, they seem to pop up. They are even currently teamed up with Bump Kin for a renovation to a nursing home. The firm has grated on the nerves of our staff dealing with them, as their downsizing has meant a change in personnel on the project in the middle of design. The PM they now have managing the project is just an architectural intern, and I hear she is in way over her head and this has become endemic of this firm's management these days and if things don't change, they could see their hardwon brand image tarnished.

I live in a region where there is a strong local familial presence, akin to maybe Latinos in the southwest or Poles in Chicago. Every other person tends to have one of the dozen or so surnames that have existed around here for hundreds of years. And I swear they all show favoritism toward each other over...shall we say...non-familial names [like mine]. Several of the local architecture firms are run by gentlemen with one of these surnames and almost all of the local contractors. I'm sure I'm somewhat paranoid, but when you see the same last names popping up all the time, you start to feel like a real outsider, even if you lived here since you were a toddler.

Another Rejection

We (Bump Kin and I) were recently invited to present a design and pricing for a Nature Center for a local religious retreat (Woods and Jesus, what better combination?)

We have done quite a lot of work at the place (cabins, an outdoor pool, meeting room center, etc). It's only like a ten minute drive from the office in fact. While we were somewhat taken aback that we had to actually compete for this work, we agreed to give it our best effort in thinking we should stand a better-than-average shot at the work.

Our presentation to the Building Committee went well and we were one of three teams selected (six total were invited) for the second round with the boardmembers. By this point we had invested over 60 hours of our time (with me personally accounting for 2/3s of it) into the presentation...for a 3500 square foot building.

There are quite a few Retreat folks in our corner, including the guy with the big wallet. We were feeling pretty confident. I was psyched. This project would be fun and could be a nice addition to my meager portfolio.

Yesterday Mr Kin got the news, not from the Building Committee head, but from Mr. Big Wallet, who REALLY regretted the Committee's decision. Once again, we are passed over. Turns out, the Building Committee chairman invited a contractor who has never done work there to present. Turns out, his contact at said firm was his best friend from high school and his roommate in college. Nice, real nice. Why even bother to pretend to solicit proposals from several companies if you've already pretty much made up your mind who's getting the job? Mr. Kin was a little upset. He had always given them open-book pricing, a fair fee, and even sponsored holes and teams in their golf tournaments and held company retreats there. We are THE closest contractor/architect to them. Countless children and grandchildren of our employees have attended their church camp, including most recently my own child. I have no idea what the winning firm may have proposed...No fee? A donation-in-kind?

This economy has totally done away with the "Buy Local" movement. Relationships are quickly becoming meaningless. Everything is dollars now. I hear it from many in the construction industry these days. With even the local companies you do business with no longer caring to see it as a two-way street, it's just a further sign of what we're seeing on the National stage, in the media. It's all about ME.

I only hope when this is all said and done and things get crazy busy again, we all have the wherewithal to jack our fees up and disregard "relationship".