One Saturday morning I got a call from the builder on one of my projects. He was at the airport on his way to Disney with his family. He said, “Josh, I got a call from the concrete guys. They were speaking mostly Spanish, but it sounds like that old concrete window well around the basement window separated from the foundation wall and caved into the hole where the sewer work was just done, and it’s in their way. Hopefully it didn’t crush the sewer pipe. Can you check into it?”
Wow. So many thoughts ran through my head at that point. I just ran over there as fast as possible. I knew we couldn’t have the concrete crew delayed because they were booked out for months and would not be possible to get them scheduled again in the near future. This would screw up the inspections that were scheduled and largely put the project to a grinding halt if the concrete crew could not finish their work. They were already working weekends to keep up.
When I got there, I saw a 7’ deep pit with a 3-sided box of 8” thick and 4’ high concrete sitting at the bottom and lying on top of a newly installed plastic sewer pipe. The concrete likely weighed about a ton. Luckily nobody was in the hole when it caved in.
My task was to get the concrete out ASAP. I knew one of the concrete guys: Ruben. I actually welded a BBQ for him a few weeks earlier as a gift. I knew he could likely get me a jackhammer. In Spanish, I asked him if he could get a jackhammer ASAP. “No problemo, Yosh.” 20 minutes later, I was in a hole with a jackhammer breaking up a ton of concrete that was delicately sitting on a plastic pipe that appeared to be slightly punctured and slowly leaking sewage. Over the next few hours, I broke it up into small enough chunks that I could toss out of the 7’ deep hole. Once it was removed, I dug the dirt around the plastic sewer pipe to expose it and analyze the damage (I also tossed a good amount of dirt out of the 7’ hole and kept it clear of the busy concrete workers). I coordinated with the builder to come out ASAP to fix the pipe, and that was the end of it… well I couldn’t get the jackhammer out of the hole. My arms were rubber from the jackhammer, digging, and tossing chunks of concrete 7’ in the air, so I could not get it out. I stepped on it to climb out myself, but it was too deep to reach it to pull it out. Ruben was gone, but his Spanish speaking helpers were there. “Necesito ayuda por favor.” (I need help please). I jumped back in the hole, lifted the 90lb jackhammer up, and Juan was able to reach it to lift it out. Then he said “adios amigo” and left me in the hole. Then he came back and helped me up:)
This is not what I do every day, but it’s the type of “do whatever it takes” attitude that I employ every day to ensure my vision gets built for my clients. Most people don’t really understand what architects do, and architects even have a tough time explaining it as well. This is the curse of doing technical work: it’s tough to understand, and it’s even tougher to explain. Think about it, I have gathered 20 years of experience, passed 9 state board exams, completed a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and worked in various sectors including construction labor, construction management, designing high end residential, restaurants, offices, schools, and hospitals, so there’s a lot of content to sum up to explain what I do.
In a nut shell, I conceive of an eloquent idea (design) - to solve a matrix of complex problems … and bring it into fruition - by coordinating the technical aspects of various specialized trades and entities - into one coordinated contract (drawings) - that is choreographed into a process (construction) - to yield a comprehensive product (a building) - that successfully incorporates all requirements (client goals, codes, engineering, material specifications, budget, etc). I broke up the sentence with dashes to make it easier to digest. You likely need to read that three or four times to get it, but that’s what I do. To put it more simply: I design a building that you like and ensure it gets built the way it was designed.
Many people assume this process is straightforward and they could do it themselves. The reality is that you can do it yourself - much like you could perform a surgery yourself. You might accomplish the goal or something close to it, but you will definitely have detrimental problems and delays along the way that are not worth it.
Here’s a detailed example of just one thing we do. You may want your window to showcase your view of a mountain. So, we design a “hole” in the wall at the appropriate location to see the view from where you will be seated in the room, to allow light in (but not too much), ensure it does not create any privacy issues with people looking into your home, coordinate the beams and columns required around the window with the engineer to ensure the structure fits within the space allowed, is cost effective, is capable of being built with locally sourced materials, and looks good. Then we ensure it meets the energy code for the situation by specifying a window frame with the appropriate U-value, glass with the appropriate solar heat gain coefficient, is rated by the certified product directory, has the required R-value of insulation around the framing, and has an appropriate emissivity film on the various panels of glass to control heat gain, glare, and minimize discoloration of the glass. We also coordinate the order of that window with various possible suppliers at different price points with usually about 40 different options for frame shape, frame material, hardware options, how it opens, how it gets installed to the framing, colors, screens, and compliance with the building code for emergency egress and tempered glass in some situations. Then we design the trims on the interior and exterior for the sill, jamb, liner, apron, and head to ensure those trims will coordinate appropriately with the adjacent siding or other finish materials. We also design the weatherproofing strategy to ensure the window doesn’t leak, and if it fails, leaks will have a way of weeping out and drying out to prevent mold and rot. The size of the window frame also has to be coordinated with the window manufacturer to ensure they can even build it to that configuration, and we must coordinate all this with the framer during construction with drawings to communicate how to build it all. Yes, you could do these things, but you will not get it right on the first try. Windows are expensive, so it’s not worth the error. This is only one example of a myriad of products and systems that an architect coordinates into a successful building that looks, performs, and functions well.
The real skill of an architect comes during construction. This is where the drawings actually get used to attempt to build a building. There’s a lot of poser architects (actually designers … let’s not call them architects) out there that “hide” behind their drawings by pumping out half baked ideas for the builders to figure out on the jobsite. This happens because the designer doesn’t have the skill to fully think through a solution that can be built, so they really just do part of the work and pass it on to to the builder to figure out the rest. This usually leads to a lot of compromises since the builder has different goals: they don’t care about the vision, and they want to build something fast, easy, and on budget. All of these things breed compromise which leads to the design intent being overlooked and overshadowed by the things that are important to the builder (instead of the client’s best interests). A good architect will communicate the intent to the builder by reviewing the drawings, intent, design details, and product options with them. Then the architect will be present on the jobsite to help layout the work for the builder to ensure the design intent is being put into practice effectively.
There’s many ways of doing any one thing, and employing the wrong method will cause the goal to be missed. With construction, problems are costly and usually cannot be undone. These problems either dramatically affect the process/schedule, or they affect the outcome of the item and all subsequent items that are built upon it. Having the architect on site to communicate solutions with the builder is certainly key to keep the project on the same path as when you hired the architect. It’s funny that many clients seem to hire an architect to design their building, but yet they tell them what to do and how to do it. Sure, the architect needs to know the client’s goals, but the architect knows best for how to achieve them. Getting in the way of that only slows the process and prevents accomplishing the full goal. Clients end up getting in their own way when they don’t let the professionals do their job, and this is unfortunate since the client is spending a lot of money for the architect and the builder - especially since the client, architect, and builder all really want the same thing: an awesome building. Working together, an architect and builder can achieve that.
If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help