We need Architect and they need us. We learn a lot from good ones and they in turn learn from us. But its the ones who are “Artists” only, they are the ones hard to work with. You end up paying for their mistakes, omissions and artistry. This post is for the good ones who read, learn and remember. We got no college degree just common sense and experience.
Ran across a Architect yelling at a plumber when he cut a 4″ hole in his beautiful T&G exposed beam 1st floor ceiling. I told him he will have more to yell about when the exposed drains and vents are run all over the place.
There was a lady Architect who was building her own house. Framing bids were 6 times higher than normal. Not one joist or stud was cut the same as the next. The house had no flat ceilings or rectangular walls. Cost was saved by carpenters who bid it normally and gave up.
Frank O. Gehry the most famous one around, designed a house where the 2nd floor bath walls stop at 7′ high, no ceiling above. If your perfect, and dont and dont make noise on the toilet, friends wont know what your doing. You can throw a wad of TP over the wall and hit them on the 1st floor.
Congratulation to the guys who built these for Frank (see Att.)
Replies
actually i was glad the architects did this to me, i had a lot of fun on this job and it was a great challenge. i was on the detail crew for the structural ironworkers local 433 in Los Angeles working for Herrick. my favorite part was doing repairs for raising gang # 2. it is a wonderfull feeling to be on top of the world
There was an article in the Times last week about the archy directing the actual construction of the Disney Hall...Terry...(can't remember his last name) Said he was a quiet guy who knows his stuff, after having been a carpenter for years before becoming an archy...seems like a natural (and sensible) career progression.
Jennifer
jen i never did get to meet terry, i'm not sure if he is an architect or a software engineer. the one time i went to the office to talk to the guy in charge of directing the actual construction he was on vacation and there was a temp replacement for two weeks who wasn't very chatty. i did find out though that the firm that detailed the design and babysat the software onsite was from new zealand or australia. it was one of the first times a 3-D program was used for constructing a frame in USA. and it had a built in correction where if you change any one thing the corresponding parts attached are also changed on the blueprint. neat job though, kinda like working on a giant roller coaster. it was the plumb up guys that had the roughest time, nothing was square or plumb and they worked closely with surveyors to establish all the points. those guys were constantly walking around with that deer in the headlights look!
Stop with the questions, just build it.........
View Image
Joe H
Funniest post you've ever made!
yeah that max escher would have been a great architect
You know he trained as an architect and flunked out. DW did a report on him for school last semester.
Have seen pics of the Disney Hall...gonna go see it in person one day. How cool would it be to say you worked on something like that? Waaaay cool! Someday want to go to Bilbao, Spain to see the museum that Gehry designed there.
Two years ago we went to Manhattan with my hubby (he had a gig there) I knew what I most wanted to see; the Guggenheim Museum, designed by F. Lloyd Wright. Amazing...and as a bonus, they were having a Gehry exhibit. There were hundreds of his drawings and working models...I was in a trance. Hubs and daughter were bored out of their skulls. Being in the presence of greatness didn't have the same effect on them. Oh well...
Jen
Oughta be prerequisite...IMHO.J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
Wow!
I'd love the challenge of trying to build something like that. The Guggenheim is a bit out of my league, but it gets boring putting square pegs in square holes sometimes.
Being just a carpenter I rarely get the opportunity to work with the architect. One job in particular stands out as an exception. It was in Idylwild Cali. a custom home with a spectacular view of Taquitz. The architect designed the main wall that would house the view basically open, waited till we had it all framed out and could really see the view then decided on windows. I recall spending the afternoon with him discussing the posibilities and he never shot down one of my ideas taking the time to explain the pros and cons. One of the few times I recall the architect coming from a love of building angle
I love building and the crew I was with did as well. Obviously you don't want to pay someone $20 hr. to keep the architect company but we had enough time to have some input on the design. This was a cool house with nary a square corner in it but pretty simple to build as I recall.
Oh yea the architect put himself through school by working as a carpenter.
N
These designs are actually a very clever way of thwarting terrorism. There's no way to tell just by looking whether they've been bombed or not..... ;-)
-- J.S.
I have a friend here in town who is an archy..neat thing is, he actually knows how to work on things. I've only been on one job that he was on as well, but it's a real breath of fresh air to have the guy who does the funny papers know what isn't funny. One thing that we have talked about is all architecture students being required to spend time in the field swinging a hammer. Might save more than a few bad ideas from making thier way into the plans.....
There's this one job I remember, a swim club renovation, we do one about every other year.Normally, demo is started after labor day, and have to be done by memorial day the next year. Anyhow, this one we did, had the weekly meetings standing in the parking lot, overlooking the site, which was downhill from the parking lot. So, throughout the job, meeting time, we walked the job, and finished up at the parking lot, where a lot of...." good job , looks fantastic, " etc . So, there's changes, and delays, the pool people are getting kind of nervous when the finished date is creeping up, and it juuuuussssttttttt kinda looks like the "Grand REopening" might not occur , the last meeting before memorial day, El Diablo is holding their hands, "don't worry" "we'll be done" etc, and we all gathered up at the parking lot looking down at the pool house " See, there's the electrician, hanging the lights, and see the plumber, installing the shower valve trim...............................
* gasp * go the women pool directors.
The architect never put any type of blind in the windows. Yeah, who needs 'em when it was just a narrow hole is 9 feet up. But he didn't realize that the parking area was higher than that,and it wasn't obvious until we saw the plumber trimming out , who could just as well been someone taking a shower. W e ended up making some kind of fancy redwood louvers , el diablo took the architect to the cleaners on the change order, ( overtime).
We never shoulda held the meetings in the parking lot.
Edited 6/6/2003 9:56:02 PM ET by panama red