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Preparing Our House for a New School Year

August 25, 2012 at 3:06 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: , ,

Over the last week we’ve been pushing through on some stalled projects to get the house ready for school. The biggest one was getting my wife’s desk moved into the living room so that all of our desks are in one place. The two main benefits are that all the kids will be doing homework where I can watch them and the old office will become a kids playroom with a Wii that some friends gave us. The actual process didn’t go as smoothly as originally planned, nor is it complete yet. Our projects typically move like this. There’s the initial activity, often involving buying the stuff (in this case Ikea table tops and shelves). Then there is the doldrums, when enough has been done to make it mostly usable. Then there is the mad rush to finish it because it’s now in the way of some other project.

And this happens almost every time the project takes longer than a day or two.

It is not unlike how architectural projects go (he said casually linking the theme of the post). There’s the slow build up where we collect pictures and work on the design and get it all laid out. Then the big moment comes when we start to do the work. But there comes a point where the work is mostly done, the space is usable, and there are other things that had been pushed aside that need to get handled. And that’s the point that many projects, especially DIY ones, stall. And getting the energy and time to get that last 10% finished is hard.

For me, what gets it moving again is that the unfinished project is blocking a new project. That’s frustrating of course – now your new project will take longer because you have to finish another first.

To get a project done quickly and completely, I find I have to get people to help me. The extra people keep the work from being too large, and the schedule forces me be ready and prevents excuses.

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Loss, Grieving, and What to Do Next

August 6, 2012 at 8:37 am · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: , ,

This post will have very little to do with architecture, or my business, or people’s problems. This mostly venting and raging, albeit quietly.

Last Friday I had a short meeting with a client at the Kennett Farmer’s Market. Four hours later he was killed in a car accident. The suddenness and immediacy are staggering. My heart doesn’t know what to grieve and mourn.

Should I mourn the man who worked at the absolute edge of his limits to effect change on the world, to create a place where people could be creative and cooperative.

Should I mourn the person who sat at my booth on my very first day and was so enthused by my idea that he inspired me to continue it, and grow it, and make it the foundation of my business.

Should I mourn the gentle soul who carried his burdens with grace and dignity.

Should I be honest and mourn the loss of an interesting project and the income it would have provided.

Should I mourn that there is one less Light in the world.

I know in an intellectual place that our lives are transitory, that we should take every opportunity to tell people that they are important to us. The suddenness of his death makes me feel that truth in my gut. I feel that were I to go suddenly, there are unsaid things still in me. And I know that I’m not doing enough with my abilities and time.

I don’t wish this kind of wake-up call on anyone, but when it comes, we should try to hear what it is telling us. For me, I’m hearing that I need to take care of myself better, to  keep family and friends in my mind, and to finally make the appointment to get our wills drawn up.

And that I need to spend time ensuring that David’s visions continue, carried by his friends into the world.

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The Architect As Counselor or, They Didn’t Teach Us This In School

July 2, 2012 at 4:58 pm · Filed under Architects Do That Too, Farmers Market, Practice, Uncategorized and tagged: ,

Again and again at my booth, I help people who have problems. And a big part of helping them is just listening to them. I often feel like a therapist, with my “uh huhs” and “I knows”. You start to see that the value in therapy – that just talking about the problem helps you see the solution.

In my residential practice though, it is more about counseling rather than therapy going on. Working through the problems and asking questions often exposes assumptions and previous disagreements. It gets more interesting as you try to determine who has the power in the situation. Often it’s not the one doing the talking.

So my job becomes even more interesting as I try to craft a solution that solves both sets of problems. The new clients I met yesterday knew that they needed an architect, but also knew the solutions they didn’t want. The one I came up with seemed to please them both – and that surprised them.

I recall in school one of my professor cautioning against residential design, but mostly because the clients are often scared by the amount of money they are spending, and get tense about the process. She felt that retail clients were much nicer because they weren’t spending their money and they understood about the need to spend money to attract money.

But I do wish that there were a course in school that covered programming, pre-design, and client management. Including role-playing games or real couples for us to work with. Because I didn’t do this kind of meeting in any of my previous offices. If it weren’t for my Quaker upbringing and skills developed raising four children, I would be fumbling about and making a hash of it. Instead, I feel that it’s one of my strengths-that I listen.

Listening is a difficult skill to develop, especially in our profession where the emphasis is on conveying our knowledge. And again I am really grateful for the booth and the skills it is developing in me. I often tell people that one reason I continue to do the booth is so that I can practice for my practice.

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Report from the Markets – May 14th

May 14, 2012 at 6:01 am · Filed under Architects Do That Too, Farmers Market, Uncategorized

Last weekend was my first back-to-back-to-back markets of the summer. The good thing about that is that I only have to pack my car once. And I find it’s easier to stay in the right frame of mind when they’re stacked up.

The best part is seeing familiar faces and catching up on their lives. One person was embarrassed that they hadn’t made any progress on the projects we had talked about. I tried to assure her that I’m not judging – in fact, I haven’t made any progress on many of my projects either.

The really best part is when people just sit down and announce that they’re ready to start on the project we had talked about last summer (or even the summer before).

But this post is about an interesting conversation from the market, and the most interesting one has to be the one where we designed a new duck house.

One of the volunteers from the Newark Co-op was working at the information table next to me, and popped over to talk about her duck house. They already have a duck house that they can move around so that they can park it over the raised beds in the winter for the ducks to fertilize. But its too heavy, and the  handles are awkwardly placed for her to move it herself. So we started to draw up a new design. It used 2×4’s instead of 4x4s, and a single-slope roof so that they can use translucent plastic, and open sides for ventilation. Also, better wheels.

Through the process I learned that ducks can’t climb as well as chickens (they also have chickens), that they don’t need individual nesting spaces like chickens, and that the drakes sleep on the floor. Also, that the chickens like the skylight in their coop. And from this conversation came another. The other woman at the information table said that she can’t wait until she moves out of the city and can have chickens. And she was told that Newark had passed a backyard chicken ordinance that allowed 3 hens per household. So now she’s thinking about chickens.

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