Banking with Chase just got a whole lot better.  The only thing that could be better is if I opened up my account online and it was loaded with millions of dollars.  What I’m speaking about is the new improvements to the Chase iPhone app.  You now have the ability to deposit checks from your wherever simply by using their app.

There are two rules.

1. The check can’t be more than $1000
2. You can only deposit a maximum of $3000 per week

The app is extremely simple to use.  All you do is take a picture of the check (both sides) with your phone. The camera is built into the app and is proportioned for the rectangular shape of checks.  On the next day, the money is magically deposited in your account without ever leaving home. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Here are a few screen grabs I found online of the app in action.

I remember watching Bill Cosby do some stand up comedy when I was a kid.  There was a story he told that caught my attention. It was an “A-Ha” moment. He told this story about a neighborhood kid who walked past his house.  There was some fence that this 2nd grader would climb on top and walk across. Each day, he would do this without falling. Then one day in science class, they learned about gravity. After that class, he could never walk across the top of the fence again.

I wonder if ignorance is truly bliss? Can we have too much information processing in our brain? Sometimes, maybe it’s better to just concentrate on what you know and not be brought down with the day to day lessons?

Not sure I know the answer. Any ideas?

photo credit: timailius

The old Seinfeld joke – “When you are moving, all you see are boxes everywhere, and you think: That looks like good box!” I have been involved in several office moves in my career and they all suffer from one commonality: Too Much Junk! Especially samples.

I was a temp at an A/ID office that was moving from Wicker Park to Downtown and we filled two dumpsters. A lot of it was samples. We all love getting things for free, concrete simulated stone, granite counter tops, glass blocks, binders full of paint chips and Formica planks. But home much space do they take up? How often are they used? I spent hours of man power throwing all of these things out. I could have built a house from the debris.

Every architecture office seems to collect tons (literally!) of this material, and has to provide space for it. Granted during the shop drawing review stage we may need to select colors, finishes, but then what? For the needs of documentation we’ll need it to prove we selected “bone white” not “Autumn white” for the trim at the 9th floor. But do we need to keep the actual sample?

There is a hidden cost in accumulating all of this stuff – it takes up space – either in square-footage we pay rent on, or in garbage costs when we end up filling a dumpster with it, or when we pay to have it moved to our new office. Then we find out a few years later they have discontinued that color or texture of that material entirely.

Has anyone found a solution to this? Is the internet and your used monitor trust-worthy enough to forgo a sample entirely? Will clients put up with making all of the color selections themselves? Is it considered cheap to send samples as Christmas gifts to in-laws? Let’s discuss what we can do before I have to fill another box full of brick samples.

“Your opinion counts, unless I don’t agree with it.” Yes, I’ve heard this one before. Talk about choosing your words wisely! This is a craft that I work on constantly. At every meeting, phone conversation or e-mail, I try to give the best opinion I can. Here are some things that go through my mind when I formulate my response.

Be Honest

Don’t lie. Sounds simple enough, but extending the truth doesn’t help anyone. If I’m asked what window style I like, or whether gold trim is back in style, I’ll give you my opinion. It’s just my take on it. Take it as another bit of information to process on your journey to making your decision.

Take Your Time

If I’m being asked a complicated question, like where’s the best place to put a bathroom, I may need to think about it. What factors go into location? Where’s the nearest plumbing wall? Does the spot work with the adjacent uses? Will the flow (sorry for the pun) work for the rest of the house/office/restaurant?

I Don’t Know

I wish I had all the answers, but I don’t. If I’m asked how much something will cost, or how long will it take to build, I may not have the answer. If the question doesn’t fall into one of my specialties, I’ll have to decline.

Know Someone Who Does

BUT!!  I make it a habit, if not a sport, to know where to go for answers. I may not know a lot about one specific thing, but I know a little about lots of things. And, I know a lot of people who are specialists in what they do.

Be Concise

I’m good at babbling. I work very hard trying to be concise. Every great design started with an even better problem.  I strive to focus on solving that problem as efficiently as possible.  Words can get in the way if you’re not careful.

Here are a few points I think about before chiming in.

Photo Credit: piterart

How many square feet is your project? As simple question you say, it’s AxB=C and other geometry equations we all learned in the 4^th grade. But what if your project is going to be leased out? Or owned as condos, but have common spaces? Do elevators count? Commercial spaces can have complex considerations for dividing up the area’s between the common areas, areas belonging to the building owner, and area’s leased to tenants. Thankfully there is BOMA – Building Owner & Manager Association – to set a standard to follow. I’m going to go over the types of building areas and some tips on how to measure them using AutoCAD. In general Area counts can go on a separate layer they you can freeze and turn off when not needed. Use an obnoxious color you can’t miss, so you can remember what they are for, and in AutoCAD set it so it is a “Non Printing Layer” in the layers options.

Gross Square footage:

This is your overall building size following the exterior perimeter of the building following the outer finish. This is used by building codes and authorities to establish your buildings’ square footage. If you are going to rent the building in whole, you could use this measurement, especially if the lease allows modifications to the building exterior, and the renter is responsible for all exterior maintenance. If however, the landlord is covering the maintenance and exterior of the building you would look at shell and core square footage.

Shell & Core:

If the lessee is only responsible for the area inside the building, the gross square footage is measured differently. The lessee area is measured up to the exterior wall, and halfway through windows that make up more than 50% of a room’s wall area. If there is a common area, elevator or other shaft the lease line would end at the exterior of the walls surrounding those areas. If there is another tenant the demising wall each share the wall equally. A way of figuring this out in CAD is to use a polyline and the “in-between” snaps. Start at a corner and follow the lease area as above. You can use the “in-between” snaps to get between the inside and outside of window openings, wall intersections and other areas.  Always make sure to use the “close” command to make it a full polyline object. Using properties one can get an exact area take off.  To get the landlord’s area you must be a little tricky. Start the poly line on the outside corner and follow the perimeter, but when you get back to the start point stop short so it doesn’t automatically close, go to the inside edge of the lease polyline. Follow it back along that line to the start point. Close the polyline as normal then zoom in on the part where you stopped short, edit the polyline so you can move that point back to the “start” area. The polyline object is a big “C” shape essentially. This polyline will now give you the total area of the building’s shell.

Net Square footage:

Net square footage is the area of the space minus the walls, columns, chases and shafts that go through the space. Think of it as the area of the carpet.  This has couple of ways of being measured in CAD too. Start on an inside corner and measure around as above, but at doorways go halfway between the walls. To deduct columns and other objects in the middle of the space, drop the polyline down to the center of the column (Good old “midpoint” snap and “O-tracking”) follow around the object back to where the line dropped down, place a point there and continue back up to where you dropped down, and continue around the space. Another useful tool is “Bpoly” command in AutoCAD that will drop a polyline into an enclosed space – like the “Hatch” command can cover an area. However – there is some planning involved. To get columns and other objects included correctly draw a line that connects them to a wall. Lines between doors must made to enclose the room, and other objects like text, hatches, leaders must be turned off (freezing is probably better though). When all of your objects are linked you can drop the “Bpoly” command, then erase your guides. This may take some trial and error to get it right, but it can be very handy to do take-offs very quickly.

Definitely pick up the BOMA standards guide and review it, it is a great resource and you can help your commercial clients make sure they are renting and leasing the correct amounts of space.

OK, this is late and I’m phoning it in today. So let’s talk about telecommunications in buildings.

Telephone service – (remember those, land lines)is usually not much of an architect’s concern, it’s really a service the client usually obtains, and we get some simple specifications on the minimum size of the telecommunications board and how many phone jacks various rooms need. However that is changing as the pace of internal communications requirements for even the simplest of structures increases.

End users and stakeholders will want Wi-Fi, G4, T1, CATV, LAN, WAN, and any number of other services. As architects, we really need to understand their communications needs, and how they will change over time – and that unexpected resources will appear and disappear over time as driven by technology and marketplace demands. For example WI-FI; In the late 90’s it first became available, and Starbucks realized that people who hang out in coffee shops usually stay longer and buy more stuff if they have something to do. They were early adopters and to cover the wildly expensive job of rolling out WI-FI in their stores they made it a profit center by charging for it-by the minute. Unexpectedly, WI-FI became not only cheaper to put into any computer, and then phones, it became cheaper to install the hubs and software. In a few years everybody had free WI-FI, so savvy customers would come in buy 1 cup of coffee, sit down and warm a seat for a few hours and use the neighboring fast food restaurant’s WI-FI for free. (My IT friends call it borrowing a cup of internet from the neighbors.) Therefore, Starbucks is going to free WI-FI – technology and market overtaking their business plan.

Hotel in a similar vein also treated WI-FI like Starbucks did, but adopted the free model more quickly. WI-FI is like a hot shower, today’s customers expect it to be included in the price of the hotel room, and if it doesn’t work – fast- they will think poorly of the experience. Additionally they want it in their room, not just in the lobby or the business center. On one Hyatt Place I worked on, I worked closely with the IT service provider. The Hyatt Place brand is big on connectivity, MEP players, and Easy access to the TV inputs, computer ports and WI-FI throughout the hotel. Some advice he gave me on placement of the units – have a clear line of sight to the center of the room, avoid being blocked by bathrooms, pipes and ducts can lower signal strength. Additionally assume the signal cannot penetrate floors, even wood ones. Although the signals can, you never know when something might block it. (Like a laundry cart or future renovations) with hubs being cheap, go for quality signal strength. Additionally the computer room the hotel required needed it’s own separate A/C – make sure you coordinate your consultants and get the right specs for cooling equipment.

In a generation or so we may not have phone plugs in our walls, maybe even the light switch will disappear. In the beginning of the 20th century buildings needed copper phone vaults, rooms for operators, telegraph lines, ticker-tape lines, a mail room, and large demands for filling space. In a century, it has all been replaced with computers. We have to stay on top of what the limits of our communications technology is, and what our clients need now, and what they don’t know they’ll need in a decade.

So, you started your own business. You went out and left corporate America. Ventured into open waters. You can do it. Stay focused. Get clients. Meet deadlines. Get paid. If all goes well, but what happens if you get sick? Catch a cold or the dreaded flu and you’re out. Or, you have an accident. Maybe learning to juggle just didn’t pan out. What do you do when you need a time out?

Before Independence

Back when you worked for someone else, it was easy. Okay, maybe not easy, but you were covered. Call in, someone picked up the slack and got it done. Maybe you got an uneasy call a few hours after calling in, asking questions, but someone was there.

After the Leap

Now, it’s all you. You take the calls. Answer e-mails. Sharpen pencils. Make appointments. Networker. You’re head of production and design. You oversee finances. And, sign your own checks…figuratively.

What happens when you need a timeout? Either for yourself or to take care of someone else. If YOU aren’t working, who will? How can you handle the unexpected?

Sick Plan

Though I do refer to some of my plans as being “Sick.” In this case, I’m referring to all the self-employed to have a backup plan…a Plan B.

Depending on your profession, find someone you can rely on. A colleague who has your back. Someone you can trust to promote and defend you while you’re out. A person who won’t back stab. Who won’t look for an opportunity to take over a client. Just come in, do what’s needed and keep you INFORMED. Don’t forget, knowledge is key. So, make a friend out there.

Have consultants lined up, just in case you need to call them in to help at a moment’s notice.

Honesty

Be honest.  Communicate as much as you can to your team and clients! If you disappear, make sure you physically speak to a colleague as soon as you can. Sometimes, we have to miss meetings and deadlines. Finding out why after it happened can be harder for someone to take than just letting them know beforehand.

Stay Healthy

If you can help it, stay healthy. Improve your odds of not getting sick or hurt in the first place. Get rest. Eat sorta right. And all the other stuff people way smarter than me say about being healthy.

What do you do when you have to take a sick day?

photo credit: Scuddr

What is your impact on the global health of the climate? That is a question we are now getting daily from websites, the media, our friends, our politicians. When consumers go to a website that has a carbon calculator, they will see their carbon footprint  generated. A large portion of it will be from what they spend on their electricity, gas and water.

As architects, we need to be leaders and experts on this because buildings use most of our energy and water.  Clients are going to want to know what they can do. The biggest problem is not ignorance, it’s what people know that isn’t true.

I spent this last weekend volunteering at Green Festival in Seattle. The convention was only $10 to get in, but instead I decided to volunteer on the Green Team. The Green Team has two parts, Garbage separation and Education. On day one, I was on the education end. My teammate and I stood behind the garbage cans, recycling bin and compost bin. We instructed attendees how to dispose of their trash. Your standard coffee cup with lid and cuff we split into three parts. The lid, #6 plastic is not recyclable – it goes in the trash.  The cuff (if clean) can go into the recycle bin, and the cup goes to compost (because it is soiled). Many people think that plastics #4 – #6 can be recycled, and generally, they cannot. Excessively soiled paper in with other clean paper that batch of recycled paper is tossed out. Compost with too much plastic, glass, or metal is rejected – ending up in a landfill. To recycle effectively you must know the requirements of the processor receiving your materials.

The next day I served on the back of house aspect of the Green Team. Here our duties are more hands on. Each bag that came in from the floor is opened and the garbage further separated. Our goal at Green Festivals is a 93% to 98% diversion of material from landfill. We physically pull the materials out and sort them, down to the last sample toothpick or the smallest bit of plastic. We had a dumpster for glass, paper, and recyclable plastic. Additionally there was a separate dumpster for corrugated cardboard, and a dumpster for compost, and finally one small dumpster for landfill. We also received garbage from the kitchen too. In the course of my life I have lost most of my sense of smell – that day it was a blessing.

Green Washing

One of the things that irked me was that some of the sample containers vendors were passing out – in huge numbers – are non-recyclable containers. Most of the vendors were putting samples in corn-based sample cups. Perfectly fine, corn plastics we composted. The kitchen was terrible at separating their garbage. We would get bags of food waste – designated compost – and it would be full of plastic, rubber gloves, glass. Only a few bags like that could have contaminated our whole dumpster of compost. It would have been rejected and have to go to landfill. So fortunately, we were able to go through it and correctly separate it. Again the tradeoffs: The convention needs to sell spaces to vendors, so they provide a venue for green businesses, and collect an audience receptive to the ideas of conservation and the new green economy – the tradeoff – some of the sample containers are not so eco-friendly. I have to report though the overall amount of garbage left by the attendees was very low.

What this experience taught me was as architects we have to be thorough. Many product sales people are going to tell us something is recyclable, low impact, carbon neutral, etc. We have to find out what they mean by that. Read the fine print. Understand the tradeoff the product has.

Things we can do

Conservation – If you are not concerned with conserving gas, electricity or your money – get with the program! This is the easiest way to make a change for the positive. Drive less, make fewer trips, do what you can to bike or walk to accomplish a task. One group taking a good approach that I met at Green Festival is 10:10US. Originally started in Britain, the basic goal is 10% reduction in direct carbon emissions every year for 10 years.  They don’t count emissions offsets purchased to absolve you of your lifestyle choices. Very practical and strait forward – I calculated my Carbon Foot Print to be about 13.09 Metric Tons of carbon a year, so I need to find a way to cut out 1.3 tons this year.  I have a low carbon footprint for several reasons: Unemployment (so I don’t commute), I live in an apartment (so I use less power), and I have all electric utilities. It will be larger once I start commuting, how large will depend on where and how.  I’ll have to make that choice: do I drive, take the train, where do I make compromises?

In building design, it’s all about tradeoffs. There is no one building material, structure, or system that will guarantee better building performance. It’s how you put all of the systems together in the site as it is. Knowing the client’s goal is important too. If they want to be purely carbon neutral on paper, you can cut down those trees and they can purchase an offset – If they are purists, leave the trees and get creative. Again the fine print, what are the goals. If they don’t know, it’s our job to explain the implications of choices, the trade offs of costs and benefits to the client’s budget or to the planet.

photo credit: ezioman

All creative people have a process.   The process I speak of is everything it takes to bring a client’s thoughts or idea to a completed design.  Sometimes, it can be easy.  Other times it can be grueling. Inspiration, creativity and progress might happen fast or you might find yourself at a major roadblock.   The process can sometimes be quite a journey.

I love the comment, “You must love designing for a living.” At that point I usually start to laugh or break into uncontrollable tears.

— Andrew Lewis

For me, I tend to look at my work as having 6 major parts in the design process.

1. Acquiring
2. Researching
3. Designing
4. Reviewing
5. Fixing
6. Completing

Much like a sermon series at church, I’ll be visiting one topic each week for the next six weeks and then finishing up with a conclusion. Let’s get started and learn how it all begins.

Acquiring

First, you need to acquire the design project. I include this because the process of getting a project can have a major impact on the completed design. From the moment you begin communicating with a potential client you are already dictating the course of a design.

At any given time you’ll start learning specifics about the project. You have to in order to come up with a quote.  You’ll try and ask as many questions and gather as much detail. Conversations will occur and design is discussed. The risky part of this is that clients will remember everything. It’s important not to make promises you can’t keep or give unrealistic ideas.

You may not have provided a quote yet.  Don’t talk Ferrari if the client can only afford a Chevy.  Showing your expertise without giving too much away can be key to your success.

Your past projects might even dictate why you acquire a project and what the client wants.

From experience, the most common example would be the client who calls you and says, “I really like that {insert name of old project here} project you did! We would love to hire you to create something that looks just like it.” This isn’t necessarily bad. At least someone is appreciating your work.  Not to mention, you’ve begun with some clear expectations of what the final product will look like.  It might even give you a slight advantage when coming up with a quote. From the get-go, expectations have been set and the process has begun.

What I’m trying to say is be cautious when acquiring a project.  What you say now will have lasting impressions on how the project may run it’s course.  Be careful what you say. Be careful what you promise. This is where the foundation is poured.  The rest of the design process will build off of this.

Hello fellow designers and planners, this is my first blog for Blueprint For Design, I hope you find it useful. This article is about using GIS to gather information for planning architectural projects.

First, what is GIS?

Geographic-Information System – those who have not used them before these are systems that store property tax information, map information, and sometimes-utility information. To some extent, this also includes things like zoning maps, Aerial photos, building footprints, and road contours. More and more counties, cities, and other jurisdictions are implementing GIS to make information available across disciplines for the use of the city departments. However, since this is public information we in the design community can make use of it too.

How to find it.

First, one of my favorite tools is epodunk.com, this website will list everything about a town, no matter how small, how remote. Often there will be link to GIS information, and if not find the Town or county website. From here if the county has GIS you should be able to find it. Additionally this site is valuable to find local resources that may become useful later, or for gathering other information about the town that may be useful to you or your client. If no link can be found call the county, they may still have one you can use.

What is it good for?

GIS information is typically available in a special browser. Read carefully what browsers it works best for, some will favor Explorer over Firefox or Chrome. The browsers I’ve used typically ask for property addresses, tax ID numbers or cross streets, and then they zoom in like most map programs. Most will also let you zoom in using a magnifying tool.

Once you find your property see if the browser has a menu to include information like zoning, FEMA map boundaries, utilities, rights of way, and other information. I’ve used several and they all have different options.

Additionally there are queries that using the Tax ID number or a tool with usually an “I”, one can click the boundary, and it will bring up information about ownership, tax value and other public information. This may also be useful to look at the properties surrounding your client’s property, especially brown fields, commercial or industrial structures.

Some browsers also contain measurement tools. These can be useful if the survey the client has given you is limited in scope and you need quick take offs for zoning or other ordinances that may have limiting factors on the position of the building to other structures.

Additionally what is on the GPS is what the tax records indicate. It should a red flag if the two don’t agree on the general shape and size of the parcels. Then you should confirm the age and accuracy of the survey with the surveyor.

Liabilities

Again, don’t take the GIS information as gospel, it should never replace a survey performed by a licensed professional. Any information that becomes part of the contract documents, or cited in correspondence from the GIS should be noted by date it was viewed and what the source information is. New information is constantly being input, so your facts could change. Clearly indicate in notes that it must be V.I.F – Verified In Field – by contractors prior to any work. There is no substitute for a site visit either, but this tool can help pull information together and help you serve your client. These tools can help you know what else to look for while you are there.

Other GIS locations

Here is a short list of other websites that can be useful in the due diligence process.

EPA – locations of known hazard reports
FEMA Flood Maps – official flood insurance maps
USGS – All kinds of maps, and GIS systems.