maybe change in life isn't so great - and one bad spelling pun

The payoffs usually come when you least expect it. While walking a job site today, there was a corner of this residence that my firm designed. It's a large house, on the ocean, and there was an ah-ha moment, for me, personally, the first in a long time. I do recall the last as being at a meeting with the president of the small university my last firm was developing a master plan. It was the moment that she and the group accepted a plan - in that case a dumpster relocation scheme - as the essence of the new direction that the school was moving in.

Ok, so it was dumpsters, but it's important in the devopment of a young archit-etc. Anyway, this house, the one on the ocean, is somewhere between modern and new england colonial. It has a cathedral space at the center and wings with a long flat ceiling. The showoff piece is shown in the photo at right, the center space, and it terminates at the water side with a sharp, knife edge soffit.


In this state, I could see the method of construction, the attention to detail, and to our details. In fact, if you look at the similarities, they are striking. This is a first for me, a visualization of the work that came from my desktop, performed by contractors who respect my work, and relationship with the client. It's still unfortunate that I recall something I heard from an internet post once -

if you ask the guy who is screwing sheetrock on your construction site how much he makes an hour (or his employers rate for him) you will go: WHAT?

then ask him how much he thinks YOU make and you will go WHAT?

now you tell me, who has the more responsibility and necessary education and knowledge for his job?

those guys work there butts off, and deserve what they make, shouldnt we?

but what can we do about it?


Continue drawing, I guess. Or become a developer/cm at the same time. Unfortunately, I have a strong distaste for subdevelopments, and couldn't sleep at night knowing I was contributing to their pervasiveness. For now, also, extra money is going to be saved towards the down payment of a house in Boston. Yikes.