Architect Season

Kaiser

When does Architect Season Open?

Can someone explain to me how this industry allows the piss poor Architects we have these days to continue half a$$ing their way through projects.

Over the last few years the Architectual Business has spiraled into a group of pompass cut and paste idiots.

Outdated specs, details that don't reflect the true nature of what is needed, things as stupid as doors swinging the wrong way on the prints all explained away by " Oh I pasted that from another job we did back in 79' "

I had been asked to bid some work on a hotel last week. All I need is the Arch. pages. So I call the Architect and ask If he would send me some print via E-mail. "no problem" is his response. So I wait, 3 days later I call him and ask for the prints again. he tells me the power has been out but he will have them to me by the end of the day. This morning no prints. I call him again only to hear " there are alot of pages (maybe 9) I can't send that many in an e-mail I can put them in the mail if you give me your Fed-Ex# and pay for the printing, They should be there next week"

Are you frickin kidding me? Does a 45 yr old Carpenter have to explain to a Degreed Architect how to divide the files into a couple of e-mails or Zip the files?

Now I will just drive 100 miles round trip to borrow prints on something that will take 2 hours to take off.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Again I ask, When does Architect Season Open?

__________________
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
Henry David Thoreau

genecarp

Agree with you, however cant explain why. i do know since the hand drawn plans have stopped, because of the computer, the connection the architect has to the feel of the design has decreased. there is something about sitting down and putting pencil to paper that can not possibly be captured with the computer.

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finehomes

This is why I do all my own drawing....

TempestV

We had two architect majors on the crew as laborers. Besides money, they were also looking to learn more about construction. Personally, I think a construction labor or apprentice carpenter internship should be made a requirement to graduate. Maybe we wouldn't get so many drawings that can exist on paper, but not in the real world.

bob_cntrctr

During my years in school, I once shared a townhouse with a very nice young girl, an architecture student. From a well off family, perfect skin & hair, stylish clothes, a love of literature and a flair for creative arts - half way through her education to become a full fledged home or office designer. I'm sure she had never touched a hammer or a wrench. Adjusting the points on my motorbike myself was like magic to her. I built her a desk out of some 2x6's and plywood, and she thought I was a master carpenter. And just a few years later she was going to be specifying the structure of homes and telling carpenters how to frame.

I agree - an architecture degree should have some requirement for hands-on construction experience.

thom

My son is doing his architecture internship now after finishing his masters degree in architecture. He's working for a large firm with a few hundred employees. He worked for me summers since jr. high school. He has the same frustrations with others in the firm. They don't understand who the drawings are for. The architects seem to think that if they satisfy their customer they are doing their job. Unfortunately the customer knows nothing about plans and building and is unable to assess the deficiencies in the plans.

The only way to get this fixed is for contractors to continually point out the failings in the plans to their customers who can then go back to the architects and complain to them.

KentWhitten

You are so, so wrong. It's been way longer than the last few years. I have put up with this myself alone for 25 years.

Most moronic architects can at least find a free pdf printer driver and email these over to you. Again, I feel your pain, they won't do it most times simply for the "intellectual property" thing and no I'm not kidding. Most have never picked up a hammer, most don't understand how an outside wall 4'2" is absolutely retarded design.

I got into a major e-argument on an architecture forum about the architect hero, Sir Frank Lloyd Wright. Falling Water was an absolute structural disaster. The structural engineer told him it wasn't going to work and he did it anyway, convincing the client that it would, and it didn't.

I have noticed one thing about architects. Many of the custom home architects still draw by hand, not that it's bad or anything. Most commercial architects use CAD, whether it is AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, Revit.....anything computer driven, doubtful any hand drawn commercial anymore. I think they have just ran out of ideas and are pulling this free form crap right out of their asses and think they are beautifying the world.

You give me something that looks decent, is easy to build, and there is actual some thought given, then I will respect that person as a true architect. Otherwise, you are spending others money on your vision of art.

When I design, I ask the client "what do you envision?" An architect will say "this is my style. don't like it? find someone else"

__________________
If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place ~Lao Tzu

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Kaiser

Well put Framerman.

I guess what really set me off this morning is the lame excuse after 4 days. I don't believe this Architect was worried about the Intellectual Property thing he suggested I call the Builder who was run off the job 2 weeks ago and have him make me a disc.

Why lie.

__________________
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
Henry David Thoreau

TimNJ

Architects deal in esoteric concepts. Contractors deal in wood and concrete.

I am in the beginning stages of a lawsuit because an architect designed an addition for the owner of the other half of a duplex I own. Long story short, 2 story addition off the back, A frame roof with the soffit, fascia, gutters, and all the water from the newly created valley dumping onto my 1st floor roof.

$18,000 in legal fees so far and we have only just started.

JumboJack

I want to know why they (at least around here in So.Cal.) are over enginering everything...I did a 800 sq.ft. addition last year that had 10 Simpson Strongwalls in it.
And dont get me started on the 16x6 LVL ridge beams.Do they know what a pain in the butt it is to rent a crane just to frame a freekin simple gable roof?I don't know how my 50+ year old house is still standing with a 2x8 up there.

I know some of it is for seismic reasons but come on.If a quake hit that was as strong as they are building for the whole house would fall in to the giant crevasse under it.

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in texas with framing and cornish people will do it for 3.00 a foot. What do yall think about that? Just laber

wireless

It won't work to point it out to the customer. The customer will believe the architect over the contractor almost every single time. After all he went to college and wears a suit!

wellbuilthome

Guys Im changeing plans all the time, I just call the architects and ask . Most of the time the plans just suck . The architects have been payed for months, and they dont realy want to do anty work or even drive over to the job to look, so they send me a letter to fix my problems . Most of the time I just word the letter for them and they stamp it and send it to us . Im working on a job now that has 2x10 rafters with 2x8 coller ties and 2 13/4 x16 microlam ridge. I could land a plane on the roof . Its only a addition .

cleveman

There is a continuous open season on architects here. You can take them year round. You can use a rifle or shotgun, black powder, bow & arrow, you can even take them with snares or hand fish them if you like.

You can use motorized vehicles to pursue them and feel free to communicate with your hunting partners over the radio, cell phone, even email and on-line forums such as this one.

You don't have to eat what you kill, just leave them in the field if you like.

The one thing that is prohibited is taking them at exhibitions and architectural conferences and the like. This is considered a baited field and is just unsportsmanlike.

Displaying trophies is another matter because it is difficult to find a taxidermist to work on them.

Additions to the rules are welcome.

Tscarborough

I feel it is only sporting to shoot them down at jobsite meetings. They puff up and strut making for easy targets when you point your finger and kill them with reality.

__________________
It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

JumboJack

Post of the week.

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in texas with framing and cornish people will do it for 3.00 a foot. What do yall think about that? Just laber

fireguy

Next week we talk about engineers.

Tscarborough

Engineers are considered to be varmints; there is no season and in most jurisdictions a bounty is offered for ears.

__________________
It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

Double-A

I have a beautiful 3 pencil, one slide rule with pocket protector in the den over the fireplace. Bald and potbellied too. Damn, they just don't make em like that any more.

I had him in the freezer for years, but went online and asked how to stuff him. Not bad for my first job. They don't make them like that anymore. I took him right at his desk, complete with desk lamp and articulated t-square.

I took him with a 12ga. "Yes, but that brick is a veneer for aesthetics, not structural."

I was featured on the cover of "Architectural Digestion" magazine holding up his impressive pocket protector. They tell me be goes well over 180 points on the Buffoon and Crackup scale. You can hang a ring on almost everything sticking out of his shirt.

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"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

chris klee

when i started college i started in architectural program. i had a couple instructors that were like what is described. i would question them on stuff as i can actually think reasonable thoughts and soon realized i didnt want to be an architect anymore.
Although, in that program the upper level instructors strongly pushed students to get summer jobs in the construction field so they could at least see how buildings get put together.