Of course it’s hard, It’s supposed to be hard – it’s the hard that makes it great!

“If I had the time, I’d draw the plans myself”. I must have heard that from clients 50 times over the years if I’ve heard it once. And to that I say, “good for you – go ahead, get to it”… because architecture is like being a writer with a blank sheet of paper and a client asking you to write a story for him with a beginning, a middle, and a great ending. A story about which the client knows very little. A story that will inherently lead you into the unknown … and beyond.

Or, one could liken architecture to putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle where the pieces not only need to fit perfectly, but the architect must also create the pieces and those pieces must fit together within the context of the building, plumbing, and mechanical codes; that’s after planning commissions and city councils give their stamps of approval; not to mention a submittal process at every level fraught with red tape and monetary obstacles. Don’t forget topos, archeological studies, indigenous plant and animal studies, traffic, external circulation, wind, sun, and waste water, and storm water retention and a myriad

of requirements driven by the unique demands of various building types & uses.

Final construction documents will include detailed structural systems, possibly sound transmission studies, and most probably security and communication issues. In the end, the building should be (planners say “must be”) attractive, functional, and

(of course) affordable.

I won’t even get into the complexities of construction administration / observation because now even I’m getting bored and the fact that I need to explain all this to you is starting to piss me off… so “good for you – go ahead, get to it!”