Some good news for the 4th

We got word this week that we got the job we interviewed for on Thursday. Hooray! It's another surgery renovation, like what I'm doing for FCH, so it's not unfamiliar territory. However, every hospital is different--they all have different volumes of different types of procedures and different scheduling issues and different personalities that will be working in the departments, etc. So we'll start meeting and designing with them very soon--they're already moving forward with contracts and the project schedule.

This is damn fine news indeed, especially for me. FCH will likely get to the point where there's not enough work for both Intern Kimmy and me, and I'll need to find other things to do while she makes stuff happen on that project. I'll need to be available for Intern Kimmy, and I'll have to do things on it as well, but sometimes I'll need to back off and let her get stuff done or have her do some redlines from me. And let's not forget the kickoff meeting for the outpatient center with Sven at the end of July; that should keep me busy as well.

So, not that anyone's reading this, but there's some good news for everyone's holiday weekend. Rock on!

Really? Someone else likes me?

I got the most unexpected compliment recently from Sven. I passed him in the office kitchen, and he mentioned that he had been talking with the facility development director for Colorado for an HMO whom I had met and worked with in the past year. While another guy in the office is finishing up the master plan that I was working on for them in the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009, I've been working on FCH. Anyway, the state facility development director for this HMO told Sven that they would soon be starting some master planning and space planning and site planning/selection for a new outpatient facility that would include a bunch of departments--clinic space, radiology, lab, physical therapy, and outpatient surgery.

And was Pixie available to work on it?

I was flattered and told Sven that I'd be glad to work on it as long as Bosley didn't have any issue with it. Sven said that when he told Bosley about it, Bosley's response was, "Well, how can we tell them no if they're asking for Pixie by name?" He said that he and Bosley would work something out.

I have a feeling (or maybe it's just a hope) that I'm about to get pretty busy in the next few months. I'll have to get used to it again, but man, that'd be nice.

Extreme Balcony Gardening, part 2

The garden is rocking along, my people. We've had an entire week of sun and temperatures over 80; it's frickin' heat wave. Maddy went out to check ont he garden with me Sunday morning, and of course went over to rub her face on the iris leaves. I don't think I've been keeping it damp enough--the tag I got with it says it likes "boggy conditions." Meanwhile, I need to get some kind of trellis for the Viriginia creeper (the tall thing in the middle of the photo below). I bought it to help screen my seating area from the hoi polloi at the neighboring pool below, but I still have its vines tied up. Not very screeny.





The garden in general is enjoying some good growth and morning sun, and it's become even more verdant and productive.




Wh-wh-what? What is that in my corn? Are those the beginnings of cornulence? Squee! It is! Two of my corn stalks have these cornulent things growing in the tops. Down low behind the corn, you can see my bean plants growing. I planted those a few weeks after I got the corn plants into last year's Earthbox, and so far all six plants are growing. We should have beans at some point.




My tomatoes, as usual, are losing their minds and going all feed-me-Seymour in their new Earthbox. You can see some li'l green tomatoes already at the base of one of the two. Both of my tomatoes this year are grape tomatoes. They tend to produce faster/earlier in the season and consistently all the way through the summer even into early October.




In the foreground here, the circular container has carrots, which are progressing nicely but I don't think are ready yet to be picked. The two long boxes beyond the carrots are my lettuce mix, which sprouted from year-old seeds. They're ready to thin a little this week and throw into a couple of sandwiches or salads.


It's really been satisfying to watch stuff grow and produce this year. Guy thinks I may have maxxed out the balcony in terms of weight limit (the balconies on our buildings are cantilevered concrete slabs about 4"-6" thick). But I'd love to keep growing veggies, even if I don't do a lot of decorative plants. I like knowing that I can keep something growing and living in a semi-inhospitable environment, which is rather a metaphor for life sometimes, isn't it?

A girl in trouble is a temporary thing

While practicing for the interview this week, I finally had a chance to talk to Howie about his behavior over the past couple of weeks. I started by asking him how he thought the economy and Design Associates looked. He described some things he'd seen that were good signs and tings that didn't give him much hope, but overall we were just trying to keep things steady. I asked if there was anything we (Team Howie) should know about, like are we about to do another round of layoffs. His response was no, and so I said, "Well, just checking, because I don't know if you know this or not, but you haven't been acting like yourself lately."

Howie sat back in his conference room chair a bit. "Really?" he said, looking genuinely surprised and interested.

"Yeah," I replied with a slightly pained expression. "You've been a little more impatient lately, and...well, one of the things we all like about working for Team Howie is that you never make it personal or say anything rude or snippy, even when it's our fault for messing something up, but lately it seems you've been a little more impatient, and some of your comments have been, ah, rather sharp. And it's not like you to be like that--ever--so we were wondering if maybe you were nervous about some layoff coming, or maybe if we don't get this project some of us need to start getting our resumes together--"

"No, not at all," Howie replied. "There's no excuse for me to act that way, but yeah, part of it is working for Bosley again after a break from Pomme de Terre. He can be pretty tough to work for."

"Very true," I agreed. "He'll say things occasionally that make me go, 'where the hell did that come from?' so I'm glad to know it's not just me."

"--and that's no excuse, but that's part of it," Howie continued. "Part of it's also that I have to go after work, and...going after work is a slow process, so when I've spent a lot of time doing slow stuff, all I want is 18 things right now."

I said, "I can totally understand that. It's like being stuck in traffic for half an hour on your exit ramp, and finally when the traffic clears--"

"--I punch the gas and go straight into a concrete wall!" Howie finished. This made me laugh pretty hard, because unlike most overly pushy people, Howie is aware of how his M.O. can backfire.

So we talked some more about management and scheduling and trying to stay busy, and when all was said and done, Howie thanked me for mentioning it to him and asking if all was well. I wouldn't say anything to him unless I knew that he knew how to act better, and I'm glad I finally mentioned it. He seems like he's been in a better place for the past couple of days, and hopefully that will hold until we get some more work in the office that allows everyone to breathe a little more.

Whew! Now that that's over with...

Just got done with the interview for another project. Bosley, Howie, and I got back to the office around 1pm, but around 2:30 I just didn't have any energy left, so I headed home. I'll be in better shape to get started again on FCH tomorrow.

The interview went pretty well, better than the last one. We got started late because one of the folks from the client's side was late to the interview meeting, so suddenly we were already five or so minutes behind, and then Bosley got started slow with his overview and introduction. By the time we got to my stuff about how we help hospitals plan for the future and how we do green design, I was having to rush so much that I almost might have well have said, "We build hospitals! Real good, too! I like spaghetti!"

The Q&A went pretty well, for the most part, except that it's apparent that someone at Wheatlands is talking smack about us and word is filtering around. Howie put in a nother call to Wheatland's CEO, who confirmed that all was well with us and them and the contractor on Wheatlands, but we're all still wondering about who's talking to whom about this? Who is it that's going around saying that a bunch of punchlist items didn't get picked up and they got poor post-construction service? Weird. I think I did pretty well, especially since I didn't have my stuff fully memorized and had to rush through it anyway, but I feel like I held my own during the Q&A part and was able to sound semi-coherent when it came to discussions about how we would design their department to the latest and greatest standards as well as questions about relevant codes.

Howie mentioned recently that I'm going to have to be busier than I can stand to be in order to stay busy enough. Makes sense on a certain level--we need a few projects each to re-right the ship of Design Associates and keep everyone employed that we can. The thought of it wears me out though; maybe it's because I've been up since 5am.

Please keep your seatbelt fastened; the architect has turned on the "Working Like Hell" sign

Okay, kids, I'm in the process of working on a few small but interesting projects on my own, plus I'm getting ready to do an interview for a job next week with Howie and Bosley. On top of all this, I need to figure out if/when I'm going to ask Howie WTF is going on that's got him so bitchy lately towards all of his employees. So, while I usually have a semi-decent post for you three times a week, this week might be kinda stale. Just hang tight--things will be back to semi-decent before you know it.

Getting Work 2: Electric Boogaloo

After the getting work post, I got the funniest and yet most poignant email from a marketing coordinator at an architecture firm in Canada. Ontario, as we’ll call this poor, beleaguered marketing person, had some really interesting insights about getting work, many of which explain why architects drink. Ontario summed up the problem with RFPs as they are these days as “…a highly politicized process and more of a formality than an actual adequate and fair means of gauging one firm’s qualifications against another.” Very well put—it is indeed hard to separate oneself from the pack when all the firms are sending you different cover versions of the same song, which is “Pick Us Because We Are Experienced In Your Building Type And A Great Group Of People To Work With, and We Care About Your Company And Its Vision For the Future.”

Proposal calls from clients can often be downright ludicrous. One example of this is a medical system just saying “We’re planning to do a patient tower addition to our downtown campus. In the RFP, provide experience with healthcare facilities and sustainable construction. “ Okay, well, first off, are you adding up or out to your downtown facility’s patient tower? And which of your three patient towers are you doing this to? What’s your timeline? What’s your budget? Are you going after any unusual sources of funding, like stimulus money, CMS or FQHC grants, fundraising? How big of a patient tower? Are you going to have to keep the existing tower (whichever of their three towers it is) operational during construction? These are examples of information that helps a firm decide if it has the experience it needs to do the project right. Sometimes, when firms email or call for this info, the client will respond that they don’t have that info right now and really, it’s not material, we just want your qualifications right now. Well, I’d call that assertion retarded, but that would be an insult to all the wonderful, heroic participants of the Special Olympics. Of course it’s material to the RFP! It helps us tailor the info we give you to something that will actually be of use to you, so you can compare apples to apples! There are lots of healthcare firms all over any state that would be glad to go after that work for you, but if it’s under $20 million, some firms will bow out. If it’s over 100,000sf, some smaller firms may want to partner with another firm so that they’ll have the resources and manpower to get the job done. It makes all the difference in the world, punkin. Tell a Shorty.

The next thing is the format of the RFP. The description of a few of the RFPs that have gone out of Ontario’s firm lately made me spit coffee onto my monitor. One RFP wanted the firms to cover project understanding, project approach, workplan, schedule, and resumes of all the project team members…in five pages. FIVE?! How the hell do you judge anything in five pages? Moreover, how thehell do you pack in al of that info into five pages?! You’d be lucky if you could do it any justice in 20! As Ontario says, “Might as well of just asked for a sticky note.” On the other end of the spectrum, an RFP Ontario worked on required, essentially, that the firms provide in nauseating detail everything they’d do. Ontario says it best here:

“At the other end of the spectrum, some clients request that we provide CVs for each and every member of our team and his mother, and sister, and long-lost relative…..And they want us to describe every nauseating detail about how we’ll hold their hand throughout the entire process, from project kick-start to final occupancy. One proposal I did exceeded 100 pages! No RFP response should ever exceed a Master’s thesis; that should be criminal. What do they think? That paper grows on trees?”

Another ridiculous requirement is asking us to describe what our subconsultants will be doing on the project. Again, Ontario puts it best: “Well, what do they think Structural Engineers do? Teach Kung Fu?”

The worst part of RFPs, really, is the lack of transparency regarding final selection. We see this happen with public and private institutions alike. An institution (.com, .gov, or .org, whatever) will send out a proposal request to a bunch of architects or even publicly post it where anyone can see it and answer it. But when it’s all said and done, everyone can tell that they already had the winner picked; the RFP process was a formality, and any interviews (if there were any) were just about going through the motions. When other firms call to ask why they didn’t get it, the client’s reply is often some variation on “So-N-So Architects brought more to the table/really seemed to click with our selection committee, and they’ve done work with us before/are familiar with our campus due to previous work here.” Ontario has pressed these people for further elaboration and asked what could be done to make Ontario Architects better in future endeavors, and I know at our office Veronica has done the same thing. Even with this pressing, the refrain is, “So-N-So Architects is more familiar with our facility.” Fair enough, but then you knew that going in, so why dangle the carrot in front of the rest of us if there’s no chance? Just sign a contract with So-N-So Architects to be your architectural services provider for the next 2/3/6 years and make them your go-to group.

Now, my firm will sometimes do these RFPs and do interviews when they make the shortlist for these lost causes, and the partners’ reasoning is that if the client ever gets annoyed with So-N-So Architects, maybe they’ll remember us. Again, fair enough, but even our office does about 80% repeat business. The RFP process has become a lot of unnecessary work most of the time, but occasionally we’ll get a job out of it, like Wheatlands or FCH. Psychologists call this the law of intermittent rewards. It’s the same principle that gambling addiction is based on.