You should call customer service even though you did not initially have a question

I recently made a purchase on behalf of the client for some acoustical burlap which will be used and made into curtains for his office space. The company that I bought it from is called ATS Acoustics; they sell products that help you to maintain and control noise and sound.

The acoustical burlap was featured on a single page, which described the product, its acoustical properties, and a selection of colors to choose from. I did not see any issues with the product that would be a concern and proceeded to order the material. The ordering process was easy enough, at the bottom of the page is where you enter the yardage quantity required. I entered 52.

A few days later, I get an email notifying the order was shipped and I noticed there were two tracking numbers. I called immediately to inquire about this. The customer service on the other end explained the bolts come in 50 yards. They shipped an entire bolt and a separate 2 yards. She said that information should have been borates on the webpage but she apologized if it wasn’t. Then she added if I had questions, I should have contacted them. I told her that ATS should have notified me about the product’s availability to which she repeated; if I had questions, I should have contacted them. At that point I realized it was pointless to continue this conversation with the customer service agent as she was not being helpful about resolving the issue.

I returned to the website and read thru the page featuring the acoustical burlap to see if there was information about the bolt of fabric; there was none. The page did not describe that the fabric comes in 50 yard bolts. Confirming this did not erase the negative opinion I have with ATS Acoustical and the customer service agent.

Money is not the issue here as the material is inexpensive. Though the customer service agent pre-emptively apologized should the bolt information not be indicated on the webpage, her suggestion that I should have called if I had questions made her pre-emotive apology meaningless.

I eventually did my own searched and Googled, “How many yards of fabric on a bolt?” You will find the answer here.

Design for Life with Philippe Starck

I just finished watching a new reality TV show broadcasted on BBC 2 called Design for Life, which features world renowned designer, Philippe Starck who is seeking new design talent in the UK.  Twelve contestants were personally selected by Philippe along with his wife, Jasmin, and a designer who works for Philippe (whose name I can not spell and can’t seem to find on the internet). Although I do not care much for reality shows in America, I did graviate to this one when I read a tweet from Abitare on Twitter announcing the show featuring Philippe Starck.

The format of Design for Life is like many other competition based reality TV shows. The contestants are put to the test, judged, and eliminated until one person remains and is crowned winner.

What interests me about this show is Mr. Starck’s explanation and discussion of how to approach design with fresh new ideas to solve current and everyday issues.

In the first episode, Mr. Starck assigned the contestants a task to buy two items based on 1 of 3 themes; ecology, function, or gender. Each item must be an example of a good design and a bad design based on the themes as outlined, or an example of a male product vs. a female product (for the gender theme).

Of the 12 contestants, only 1 contestant will win an opportunity of a life time to work with Philippe Starck at his Paris office for 6 months. And already 2 contestants have been booted off. I don’t know if each week will eliminate 2 contestants at a time but it’s worth a watch.

For those of you who do not have access to BBC2,  you can catch the first episode here. Or you can click my Vodpod widget on the sidebar.

more about “Design for Life“, posted with vodpod

Don’t throw me under the bus.

Protecting one’s behind is common place in the field of architecture and construction especially in the presence of the client. Some professionals do their best to make the right decisions and maintain an honest and open dialog with the client and project team while others make up excuses to try to hide their incompetance.

Recently, I had to draw up a detail for one of the project I am working on and my boss advised me to send it to the GC (general contractor) for comments. I sent the GC an email with the attached detail asking him to review and comment. The email was cc’d to the client, the owner’s rep, and my boss.

The following day, I see an email from the owner’s rep asking the GC if he reviewed the detail I had sent and if he had comments.

The next day, I see an email from the GC answering the email from the owner’s rep. He replied that the detail was not attached with the email. The GC’s response was cc’d to the client, owner’s rep, my boss, and me.

BULLSHIT!

I acted quickly to search for the email I had originally sent along with the detail. Once the original email and attachment was traced, I clicked on the “forward” button and cc’d all names, and included a message that indicated when the original email was sent on a specific date and emphasized the detail was attached with the email and cc’d the same people on the email.

Later that day, my boss explained to me the GC had called him and asked that I refrain from throwing him (GC) under the bus. I was taken aback by the GC’s audacity and responded, “Then HE shouldn’t throw ME under the bus!” My boss agreed.

The nerve of the GC trying to insuate that it was my incompetance that kept him from reviewing the detail. Please! The GC does not realize who he is working with.

Bascially, the GC neglected this project and was not focused on some of the issues that required his attention. Instead of being honest about it and taking responsibility for his lack of action, he tried to use me as a scapegoat. Not cool!

As a matter of professional practice, I will copy certain members of the project team on most emails I send out. It’s important to keep people in the loop of what you are accomplishing. It’s good practice because your boss will see how well you are doing in managing the project and team; and the client will be pleased that you are meeting project goals and deadlines.

If you’re lucky, your boss or supervisor will come to your defense (that is if he or she reads your emails at all), or if your boss has confidence in your abiltiies, your boss will let you take care of it. This current boss is not quick to come to my defense but I have had bosses who were and it helped to build my confidence.

I’m not suggesting that all GC’s are incompetant and conniving; and this is one example and experience of many that I have had with GC’s. I’ve met good ones who I’d like work with again, and there are GC’s I hope to never see again. Architects are also capable of scapegoating and lying but that’s for another post.

The client is not always right…

One of the projects I am working on is coming to completion. I was hired to work on the Construction Administration portion of the project. Apparently, the client was not satisfied with the person who was working on it.

We moved the client into his apartment on Monday with a crane. That was a stressful day. The client had returned from his trip and was present at the job site. Normally this would be fine but this particular client was just unpleasant to be around. He was yelling at people while they’re trying to do their job and being frustrated with everything. He was completely ignorant and unappreciative of the efforts people were making. He was throwing tantrums at everyone and no one.

This particular client is wealthy and resides in a building with other people of wealth and some of them with fame.

I am told the client must be hopped up on drugs most of the time, which explains his explosive temperament. Personally, I think he’s just bi-polar and will most likely develop some mental disease if he isn’t already.

During the day of the hoist, the client goes about yelling about the movers and how they were doing everything all wrong. Two of the movers were present when the client was yelling. They didn’t say anything. I knew his was not going to be good so as soon as the client left the room I tried to smooth things over with the movers. I told him to just ignore them and don’t pay attention. They shrugged and continues to work.

Well, those movers told their manager and he was pissed off. He wanted to speak to someone. He had no problems speaking to the client and in fact the manager wanted to speak to the client about his bad mouthing the movers and expressing his lack of appreciation for the work they were doing. I knew asking the client to come down was not a good idea so instead, I asked the assistant to come down and speak to the manager instead. The last thing I needed was an explosive argument and the movers to quit. They had just one more thing to bring up and it was crucial that they get it up there.

The assistant helped to smooth things over with the manager and they resumed work.

Later, the assistant told me that she spoke with the client and explained to him the situation. Supposedly he took it well and even apologized. I wish I was there to witness the client eating humble pie.

Today, the client reacted to an email I sent him (which was also copied to relevant people) and asked me to call him. Basically, a furniture maker that we are currently working with did not deliver everything he was commissioned to do. There are still some outstanding items but he was close to getting it finished.

I called him knowing very well the client was going to be disrespectful and unreasonable. After he finished ranting about how poorly I was managing this guy to deliver everything, he wanted to know it taken so long. I knew why it had taken so long but it wouldn’t have mattered. He was upset and anything I would have said would have only added to the flames that was spewing from all his orifices. So I waited until he finished. It was quiet and then he said, “Hello?”

I responded with, “I don’t have an answer for you.”

I guess he was taken aback because there was a half second pause from him. He then said, “That’s not an answer!” and demanded that my boss call him.

I eventually spoke with the furniture maker after I advised him how pissed off the client was. He personally called him and tried to have a conversation with him but the client was unreasonable and wasn’t listening to what the furniture maker offered as a solution.

I’m not sure what the client’s motivation is to behave in such an abusive and childish manner but it’s not constructive or productive. I look forward to closing out this project and never having to deal with that client again.

Closing

Well, it’s official. My boss informed my other colleagues that the office does not have enough work to sustain the current staff. Well, I don’t know exactly what he told them other than that he was forced to relieve them of their employment.

I knew about this at the start of the month when he pulled me into the conference room to discuss a project but informed me that he was closing the office. I could feel the blood rush from my face when the announcement washed over me and sank to the bottom of my stomach. But then my spirits lifted when he offered me to stay on with him. He explained to me that moving forward, we will be taking on a different role with one of the on going projects in the office. (Sorry, I can’t give details of the project.) And with my colleagues being laid off, there was going to be plenty I work for me to take on.

I must admit that despite the pending bad news that awaited my colleagues, I was happy that I was still employed. Happiness soon turned into discomfort upon returning to my seat where I faced my colleague who had no clue what was waiting for them. I must have seemed strange in my behavior.

And in fact, most likely the news of my colleague’s pending departure relieved me of my patience with them while we continued to work together. That’s not to say that they did not get on my nerves previously. The difference is that I was stuck working with them and had to make the best of the situation by being more patient with them. Don’t get me wrong, I like them as people and as friends but I would not want to work with them. Knowing that my colleagues were being let go of was liberating. It meant that I wouldn’t have to deal with their lax work habits.

At the same time, it was awkward sitting there having friendly conversations knowing what I knew. It was also difficult not being able to talk about it with my colleagues; gathering together to exchange thoughts and opinions of the latest office news.

I’m not sure how long they’re going to hang around. As I understand it, they got a severence package.

I’m not sure what the future holds after this point. I did tell a friend about this (I needed to share this with someone), and that I am along for the ride and will see where it takes me. I have always said that I wanted to expand beyond architectural practice. This may be my opportunity to do so.  In a way, the downsizing is a closing of a chapter in my career. Wish me luck.

ICFF 2009 Pratt: Design for a Dollar

Per a request from a reader’s comment, I am posting Pratt’s participation in ICFF 2009.  I just want to clarify that the following material is from their brochure, which I picked up and scanned.  It was late in the day and they were packing up for the day when I came upon their booth and was not able to see everything or speak with all the students.

International Contemporary Furniture Fair 2009

I attended the ICFF 2009 at the Jacob Javits Center.  It’s held every year since I started going back in 2000. It’s free to the trade as long as you have proper credentials.

This year they’ve added a new pavilion called Japan by Design.  It was a separate pavilion that showed various designed products made by Japanese designers. It was interesting to see what the Japanese were doing design-wise.  There wasn’t that much in furniture.  It was mostly designed objects. A couple of things caught my attention.  

*****
There were some beautiful carpets produced by company called Muni Carpet.  The designs of these carpets are based on Classical Chinese carpets and are in fact produced in China under the art direction of owner Kenji Kusudo. To read more about the company and view samples of their carpets, please visit their website.

Muni Carpet
www.muni.co.jp 

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This one was interesting.  The company is called Belbien and they make decorative film adhesives that can be applied to almost any surface.  What really got my attention were their samples of what I thought was wood veneer wrapped around an aluminum tube but it wasn’t.  It was a film adhesive printed to look like wood veneer.  I was impressed.  

Belbien
http://www.belbien.net

*****
This next one was pretty cool.  As you may have read or heard in the news, the Japanese are developing robots. The last bit of news I heard about robots in Japan is that they developed one that can teach young children and express dismay if students misbehave. At one of the booths, there were two stuffed animals that looked like baby harp seals.  One was white and the other was in a cream color.  Both had pacifiers in their mouths. Their fur is soft and is antibiotic. What was amazing about these toys were they were “alive”. They move when they see you and especially when you pet them.  They also make cute little sounds like a baby cooing. These are therapeutic robots called PARO. To learn more about this product, please visit their website.

Now check out the video I recorded at the show of PARO – pretty amazing!

posted with vodpod

PARO: Therapeutic Robots
www.parorobots.com

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I can’t say there were any ground breaking designs in furniture this year.  There were some interesting things presented.  I took some pictures of some of the furnishings that caught my attention.  You can see them below. I have also provided links to each of the designers if you wish to learn or see more of their designs.

Phenomena screen by Sang Hoon Kim

To see more products by Sang Hoon Kim, click here.

 

Cascade by Ango

Cascade by Ango

To see more products by Ango, click here.

I also stopped by the booth of Pratt Institute – their Industrial Design program.  The theme of their presentation was titled: Design for a Dollar. The students were asked to create something that cost one dollar.  There were some interesting interpretations of the theme. One of the objects that caught my attention were orange votive candles, which were made with soy based wax and discarded orange peels.

The International Contemporary Furniture Fair ends May 19, 2009 so get yourself over there.  It’s always worth a visit to see what is going on in the design industry.

An interview with Mitchell Joachim

Here is an interesting clip from the Colbert Report; an interview with Mitchell Joachim, founder of Archinode Studio.  Stephen discusses with Mitchell about ecological design and his ideas of the future of architecture and transportation.

posted with vodpod

What’s happened since my last post..

First, my apologies for not posting in such a long time. Despite the economic downturn, our little office has been extremely busy but not in the way of being profitable. And yet, we have not let anyone go; we’re still an office of four plus the part-time bookkeeper. As you may or may not know, when I was hired in June 2008, the office was 5 plus the PT bookkeeper and an intern. One guy quit shortly after I started. He was one of the employees that was going to be let go of but he escaped. And another guy was also let go of because he wasn’t performing up to standard.

Second, after a couple of months of working at the current office, I realized I did not like working there anymore and despite my growing misery I was not miserable enough to make an effort to look for other opportunities. Subconsciously, I knew the forecast of our economy was starting to look gloomy. I decided to stay put and learned to deal with the constant BS on a day to day basis. It wasn’t all bad. I like my colleagues and I enjoy working with them. And I’m not alone in my frustrations. On top of that, I still keep in touch with the old office and so I had updates of the what was happening there; they’re surviving with some compromises.

Third, so much has happened in less than a year but not in a good way – mainly project dramas, which has been frustrating, exhausting, and in the end amusing. I’ll be writing about those experiences.  I just have to craft the writing.

Fourth, I have been pondering about my professional career as an architect. Do I want to take that plunge? There are exams involved. I think I should and it would be the correct path to take even if I decide to do something else afterwards. At least with obtaining my license, it can mark the beginning or end of that chapter of my life. I don’t like taking exams.

Fifth, I had looked into signing up for a class or two at NYU. I have found that taking classes helped to stimulate my creativity especially when work does not exercise my creative muscle. As a result I become restless and bored with work. I will most likely sign up for summer classes. I’m actually looking forward to it.

Sixth, I am going to make more of an effort to write more for this blog. I have several other blogs but am active on a couple of them. There is so much I want to impart onto aspiring and/or standing architects. And, I don’t want LFA to become one of those blogs that rant about their workplace. It’s not constructive, nor is it professional. And I’m sure there is plenty of those kinds of blogs out there to satisfy mutual feelings. I want to provide helpful advice and information that will help those to overcome their professional obstacles, and nurture their professional development and growth as an architect. My hope in accomplishing this is by sharing more of my experiences in a constructive and professional matter. At times I will be critical but (I hope) at the same time objective in my evaluation of the situation. So please bare with me as I move forward and develop the body of content that I hope will be useful to most.

Project architect vs. Project manager

Some of you may ask or wonder what is the difference between a project architect and a project manager. My initial response would be as follows:
1. It depends on the size of the firm.
2. Which is then determined by the structure and organization of the firm or office.
3. Followed by resposibilities.

Typically, you will see project managers and project architects in larger firms (10+).

An office with at least 20 employees would be organized with a head principal (usually the founder of the company and the one who signs all the paperwork). The princpal is usually busy running around bringing work into the office; always in meetings and talking to clients. Successful principals have busy schedules and do not have time to keep track of the daily aspects of projects. That’s where the project manager comes in. The PM is brought in to manage the daily affairs of a project or two, and supervise the project team. A project team usually consists of at least one draftsperson and one project architect, who is responsible for producing the construction documents, and works with the PM to meet deadlines and provide them with information.

Sometimes the line between project manager and project architect blur together in firms that have around 10 employees. And that’s due to one or more of the following reasons:

1. Small offices may not have the man power to delegate and separate the responsibilities.
2. Small offices may not have the revenue to hire individuals for the distinct roles.
3. The type and size of the projects may not require the levels of personnel to be involved and thus the roles may be combined.

From my experiences I have been a project architect, a mix between a PA and a PM, and most recently a project manager.

As project architect I was responsible for preparing and producing the construction documents as well as communicate and coordinate with our consultants. I had some direct contact with clients. I researched and specified products and materials.

While I was project architect my responsibilities expanded to project management lite, which meant that I took the lead in not only mamaging myself but staff and consultants and to some degree clients too, however I was not creating schedules or watching the budget. I determined the deadlines not only for myself but also for my consultants. As PM coordination with consultants became an exercise of following up with them on items that needed to be addressed. I also managed the flow of information to keep the project moving forward and meeting deadlines.

In a small office setting an individual has an opportunity to get lots of varied experience and advance professionally, which is why I prefer to work in small firms. Not all small firms may offer greater opportunities due to office structure. Sometimes they only need a draftsperson or just someone who can prepare and produce documents.

In a firm where titles are defined, PA and PM work in tandem to accomplish the project goal. The PA is reponsible for producing the design and construction documents as well as coordinate consultant documents. The PM makes sure the project team meets the program and project scope as well as establishing and meeting timelines. The PM also coordinates with the client, consultants, and general contractor and/or construction manager. Other duties include managing internal budgets, project staffing, and construction administration.

For more information about each role, please click on the following links:

Project architect as explained by Wikipedia.
Architectural Project Manager as explained by Wikipedia.