We stretch the truth in public, or just omit relevant information that might be detrimental if admitted at the time.
As I've said before, things in my office are slow enough that people get asked to work at different levels than what we might normally wish to. In my case it means that on one particular I'm working beneath a project manager that is younger than me, got licensed after me, but admittedly is much better at the job than I am. I admit it's a little hard for my pride right now to be in this position, particularly because I'd like to be proving myself to my bosses as a PM on my own projects (which I am, but I could use a new project of my own right about now.), but like I said, this guy is good at what he does so I am learning from working under him.
One hallmark of his style is that he pushes a very aggressive timeline and we are running through schematic design, design development, pricing and contract/construction drawings at much faster pace than I'm used to. Meanwhile he's managing several other projects and a new baby at home - like I said he's good, but he's no superman, you can tell the pace is tough on him and he is tired. But he still produces results.
In parallel to this aggressive design/bidding track that he's got us on, he's also working with the town to get the project approved by the Historical Commission, this is similar to my Special Permit problem that is almost worked out. He somehow managed to get us on the docket for the Historic Commission meeting the day before he's supposed to go on vacation for 2 weeks. His time off was planned well in advance, but our boss, the Principal in Charge of the project got the sudden opportunity to go to Romania for 10 days over that same timeframe. This is great because we were simultaneously pushing out a pricing package, and if all went right we'd have the Commission approval and 2 weeks for the bidders to review the drawings and for me to field their questions. No problem.
Then the Town fails to advertise the hearing correctly and therefore have to delay it by a week.
This leaves me holding the bag.
At first my boss was at a loss for what to do, and I was a little put off that he didn't just ask me to do it right away. Regardless, I told him I could do it. (Authors note, I've never presented at a municipal hearing before). Fortunately for my pride he agreed and the PM gave me a very short briefing on what the issues were while our boss emailed the client to tell them that not only would I be presentation, but that I done this many times before.
This is a lie, my boss knew it at the time, but the truth he was trying to convey to the client was that I could handle the situation and they didn't need to worry.
I spent the next week thinking of that line from Ghostbusters. They're responding to the call at the hotel and the manager is clearly had no faith in Pete Venkman and the boys and Dan Ayroyd says: "Don't worry, do this kind of thing all the time." We, the audience, know it's a lie and hilarity will ensue.
It did for them, and a bit for me as well, though I didn't get covered in ectoplasmic residue in the process.
The day comes, I'm late leaving, then I hit traffic (naturally) and I'm nervous because on top of all this I'm meeting the client for the first time.
I'm late to the meeting, but in time for our presentation slot, and fortunately the client intercepts me in the hall. She's not far from my age and puts me right at ease with a smile and a warning to watch out for the woman on the Commission with the oxygen tank. She slips me a letter from their neighbor saying they had reviewed the drawings and had no objection to the project - to any of you out there reading this thinking about going through a project like this, getting your abutters on board early is a HUGE help.
The petitioner before us is still going strong at 7:20, 5 minutes before I was supposed to start, which I was glad for because it gave me time to see how things worked there. Turns out this Commission is a bunch of concerned citizens who mean well, but really want to meddle in how things happen in their town and don't really want to see things change. All that the petitioner wanted was to put up a picket fence so her kids didn't accidentally chase a ball into the street. Simple, go for it. She spent nearly an hour with the panel talking about fence height (3 feet or 4 feet?), painted or not (of course it should be painted white), where it should be places in relation to the property line, and even the width and spacing of the pickets.
If that seems like a normal function of your government then you should really think long and hard about where your tax money goes!
In the end they kind of punted and gave her permission to move forward only after building a mock-up of the fence on site and submitting photos of it for further approval. Gods help her.
Thankfully, my presentation didn't take as long as hers, and it seems that the panel was already 60% on board based on the preliminary drawings we had submitted to them. The first question was about whether we'd let the copper roof patina (naturally darken and turn green over time), the answer to that is yes. They wanted to know if the client knew the neighbors, which she does, and then she went on to claim that she had spoken to both neighbors and they were fine with the project. After a few more questions answered satisfactorily they moved to approve our project and we were out the door in less than 20 minutes!
Outside my client admitted to me that she hadn't spoken to one of the neighbor's that she had claimed to, and she thought it was hilarious that we pulled this off even though I had never been to her house before! Ah, more little lies. For a second I wanted to let her in on the secret that I had not done this before, but we were looking good in her eyes, no need to ruin that!
You see, even though I went to a lot of school to become an Architect, very little of what I learned was actually relevant to my day-to-day job. In fact, the most important thing that happened to me at school was during my second semester of grad school when our professor assigned us a project and a presentation for each time the class met for 2 weeks. That meant I had 2 days to pick a design solution, refine it, build a model, draw it and then present it. Following that I had 4 days to do the same, then 2 then 4. I learned pretty quickly how to make a little work seem like a lot of ideas in those 2 weeks, and by the end of the semester I knew I could present almost anything with little preparation.
That's a skill Architects share, and one that I had kind of forgotten about. It's good to remember that I still have it.
As I've said before, things in my office are slow enough that people get asked to work at different levels than what we might normally wish to. In my case it means that on one particular I'm working beneath a project manager that is younger than me, got licensed after me, but admittedly is much better at the job than I am. I admit it's a little hard for my pride right now to be in this position, particularly because I'd like to be proving myself to my bosses as a PM on my own projects (which I am, but I could use a new project of my own right about now.), but like I said, this guy is good at what he does so I am learning from working under him.
One hallmark of his style is that he pushes a very aggressive timeline and we are running through schematic design, design development, pricing and contract/construction drawings at much faster pace than I'm used to. Meanwhile he's managing several other projects and a new baby at home - like I said he's good, but he's no superman, you can tell the pace is tough on him and he is tired. But he still produces results.
In parallel to this aggressive design/bidding track that he's got us on, he's also working with the town to get the project approved by the Historical Commission, this is similar to my Special Permit problem that is almost worked out. He somehow managed to get us on the docket for the Historic Commission meeting the day before he's supposed to go on vacation for 2 weeks. His time off was planned well in advance, but our boss, the Principal in Charge of the project got the sudden opportunity to go to Romania for 10 days over that same timeframe. This is great because we were simultaneously pushing out a pricing package, and if all went right we'd have the Commission approval and 2 weeks for the bidders to review the drawings and for me to field their questions. No problem.
Then the Town fails to advertise the hearing correctly and therefore have to delay it by a week.
This leaves me holding the bag.
At first my boss was at a loss for what to do, and I was a little put off that he didn't just ask me to do it right away. Regardless, I told him I could do it. (Authors note, I've never presented at a municipal hearing before). Fortunately for my pride he agreed and the PM gave me a very short briefing on what the issues were while our boss emailed the client to tell them that not only would I be presentation, but that I done this many times before.
This is a lie, my boss knew it at the time, but the truth he was trying to convey to the client was that I could handle the situation and they didn't need to worry.
I spent the next week thinking of that line from Ghostbusters. They're responding to the call at the hotel and the manager is clearly had no faith in Pete Venkman and the boys and Dan Ayroyd says: "Don't worry, do this kind of thing all the time." We, the audience, know it's a lie and hilarity will ensue.
It did for them, and a bit for me as well, though I didn't get covered in ectoplasmic residue in the process.
The day comes, I'm late leaving, then I hit traffic (naturally) and I'm nervous because on top of all this I'm meeting the client for the first time.
I'm late to the meeting, but in time for our presentation slot, and fortunately the client intercepts me in the hall. She's not far from my age and puts me right at ease with a smile and a warning to watch out for the woman on the Commission with the oxygen tank. She slips me a letter from their neighbor saying they had reviewed the drawings and had no objection to the project - to any of you out there reading this thinking about going through a project like this, getting your abutters on board early is a HUGE help.
The petitioner before us is still going strong at 7:20, 5 minutes before I was supposed to start, which I was glad for because it gave me time to see how things worked there. Turns out this Commission is a bunch of concerned citizens who mean well, but really want to meddle in how things happen in their town and don't really want to see things change. All that the petitioner wanted was to put up a picket fence so her kids didn't accidentally chase a ball into the street. Simple, go for it. She spent nearly an hour with the panel talking about fence height (3 feet or 4 feet?), painted or not (of course it should be painted white), where it should be places in relation to the property line, and even the width and spacing of the pickets.
If that seems like a normal function of your government then you should really think long and hard about where your tax money goes!
In the end they kind of punted and gave her permission to move forward only after building a mock-up of the fence on site and submitting photos of it for further approval. Gods help her.
Thankfully, my presentation didn't take as long as hers, and it seems that the panel was already 60% on board based on the preliminary drawings we had submitted to them. The first question was about whether we'd let the copper roof patina (naturally darken and turn green over time), the answer to that is yes. They wanted to know if the client knew the neighbors, which she does, and then she went on to claim that she had spoken to both neighbors and they were fine with the project. After a few more questions answered satisfactorily they moved to approve our project and we were out the door in less than 20 minutes!
Outside my client admitted to me that she hadn't spoken to one of the neighbor's that she had claimed to, and she thought it was hilarious that we pulled this off even though I had never been to her house before! Ah, more little lies. For a second I wanted to let her in on the secret that I had not done this before, but we were looking good in her eyes, no need to ruin that!
You see, even though I went to a lot of school to become an Architect, very little of what I learned was actually relevant to my day-to-day job. In fact, the most important thing that happened to me at school was during my second semester of grad school when our professor assigned us a project and a presentation for each time the class met for 2 weeks. That meant I had 2 days to pick a design solution, refine it, build a model, draw it and then present it. Following that I had 4 days to do the same, then 2 then 4. I learned pretty quickly how to make a little work seem like a lot of ideas in those 2 weeks, and by the end of the semester I knew I could present almost anything with little preparation.
That's a skill Architects share, and one that I had kind of forgotten about. It's good to remember that I still have it.
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