Weekend Warrior

One thing I rarely do is work weekends any more. I prefer to spend the time with my family. I really enjoy the way my office has the work week setup. We are one of those offices that only works half days on Fridays. That means Monday through Thursday we work 9-hour days. I personally work the early shift, 7:00am to 5:00pm with and hour for lunch. Friday, I still get in at 7:00 but I leave at 11:00am. The other shift is 8:00 to 6:00. Monday through Thursday we have our clients covered 7:00 to 6:00. But in reality, with email and cell phones we work almost 24/7.

Let's talk about communication

In the business of Architecture, communication is key. In my youth one of the gifts I received from my Mom was the obversion of the Telephone. In my 20’s and 30’s, I would do anything to avoid the phone. I’m not always sure why I hesitated to use the phone. Could be something to do with having to express myself in real time without reading the body language of the other person.

It’s about the destination

I recently came back from the CSI Southwest Region Conference. I had the honor of serving the region as President for this fiscal year. The region has taken a different approach, starting last year. We fund, coordinate and manage the entire conference. The only assistance from the local chapter is helping with the local venue location. This started last year in Tucson and it proved to be successful and profitable. That’s why we used the same model for Las Vegas.

Information

I really enjoy history. Little did I know I would be reflecting on my own to talk about the Request For Information (RFI) process. Today, we have so much access to information at our finger tips, anywhere and anytime. Yes, I’m talking about the Smartphone. However, if you rewind just 15 years, or even better 20 years ago. You dialed 411 to get information. The extent of the feedback was a phone number and sometimes an address.

Happy Birthday

Trying to get back into the swing of things. I finished phase 1 of my home projects. And I also completed the work deadline. Today I have successfully made it around our Sun for another trip. I straddle the line depending on what article you read if I’m a Baby Boomer or Gen-X. But it is really just a label, and anyone who knows me I’m not much with labels. Before I jump back into architecture, I wanted to pay a small tribute today. My birth and upbringing are due to 2 amazing people, yet they lived very simple lives.

CSINext April 2018 Meeting

Greetings! We will be conducting our April Chapter Meeting and the presentation will be "Universal Design" Presented by Heather Simpson, LEED BD+C and Nicole Schneider with JLL. Mark your calendars for April 18th at 12:00pm EDT. We look forward to having you attend this free webinar, register today as space is limited!

Break Time

Just a quick note. As you noticed, only one Blog last week. I pulled two 60 hour work weeks in row and I still have one more to go to get to project finished. With that and some personal stuff going on, I will be taking a couple of weeks off from the Blog. But don't worry, I will be back when I return from the the Southwest Region Conference. Cheers!

Get’r Done

One of the nice things about getting ‘more seasoned’ in my career is being able to pace myself. Last week began my tunnel vision for a deadline approaching next Thursday. While this will be a short Blog, for the next couple of days I need to stay focused.

CSINext April 2018 Anniversaries

Each of the following members joined CSI in March. CSINext is please to congratulate the following CSI members on their continued membership.

• 1 Year - Cynthia O Wright, CSI, AIA
• 2 Years - Barbara Taylor, CSI-EP
• 5 Years - William Kwasniak, CSI, CDT
• 7 Years - Andrea Dinice, CSI, CDT, AIA, ASID, DBIA, LEED GA, USGBC

We would like to do a shout out to William Kwasniak, CSI, CDT for celebrating 5 years with CSI! 

Once again, really appreciate everyone's continued membership in CSI.

Welcome CSINext New Members!

CSINext continues to grow! We had another new member join in March. CSINext is please to welcome the following CSI member on joining CSI & CSINext.

• David Graham, CSI - March 2018

Observation

I recently came back from a site observation. Now this was no ordinary observation. My office is in Tucson, AZ and the project is in Gallup, NM. To put it in perspective, it is about a 7 hour drive. One question I always get is, why don’t you fly? The main reason is time, the closest airport is in Albuquerque, which is about 2 hours away. Not too bad, but there are not any direct flights from Tucson to Albuquerque. So, between the flight, and rental car drive, it is close to 8 hours. So it ends up being about the same amount of time, and with the long drive I get to stay caught up on my Podcast. But what I really wanted to talk about is the Site Observation.

I’m a big kid now - Part 3

How many of us remember our senior year of high school? For most, this is a rite of passage. We leave behind our parents and depending on the life choice even our friends. My parents had moved me from one school district to another. Starting in 9th grade, I had to make new friends. I can only imagine what it must be like for the children of military parents. Moving every couple of years. But I was lucky enough that my Dad was no longer in the Air Force by the time I was born. Moving was rare for me, it was only the third time in my life. But let’s get back to high school. 

I’m a big kid now - Part 2

It was just a little over 40 years ago that I set my sights on being an Architect. Well, at age 13, I’m not sure what the profession was that involved drafting. I just knew that I really wanted to be a drafter. My parents moved during the summer between my 8th and 9th grade. The structure of the new school district had 9th grade in the middle school. So, classes were still selected for the student. Just like my 8th grade experience there was 4 weeks of mechanical drafting in wood shop. Wood shop was only one semester, so there was a lot crammed into that class.

I’m a big kid now - Part 1

I was thinking about the day I knew I wanted to be an Architect. I really didn’t know what it meant, but there was something stirring inside me that brought me down this path. As a ‘little’ kid, I had the same dreams as anyone else. By little kid, I’m talking 6 or 7 years old. My earliest memory is wanted to be an astronaut or scientist. I loved looking up at the stars and was fascinated with space travel. I was 5 when man landed on the moon and I watch every moon landing with my family.

Who’s Sick

I don’t know if it is my age or environment. But I use to rarely get sick, now in the span of 6 months, I got hit with this crude going around not once, but twice. Both times have been right after I flew back from Dallas. Maybe I’m just allergic to Dallas and it becomes a cold. Actually, I remember the first time. I was sitting on the plane and the person behind me cough on the back of my head. I was thinking to myself as my hair moved…. ‘Dude, cover your mouth’.

Let's go running

I'm starting the fourth week of this blog. The next couple of weeks are going to be real busy, with work and some personal stuff. I'm going to skip a couple of days and plan to get back on schedule by April. You will still see these twice a week, no need to worry. I ended last week while I was in Dallas, finding some extra time to share what was going on. The trip was fun, great to see old friends, but it is good to be back home in Tucson. While I was in Dallas, I presented to the Dallas CSI chapter my accessibility program. Seems appropriate since I just wrote about my experience in a wheel chair.

The Cloud

I'm a day behind, but it will make some sense in a moment. It has been great spending a couple of days in Dallas. I just got back from visiting my son and his girlfriend. She is really sweet and hopefully my son is smart enough to keep her around. But I didn't want to focus on the people I have seen, but on an observation. While I was driving back on the Bush Turnpike, I notice a truck next me. It was just a regular Ford F150, simple and white with one of the magnets on the side.

The Accessible Route

I'm on my way to Dallas, to give a presentation on the Accessible Restroom. It got me thinking about an odd request or unique experience from a client several years ago. We were doing the substantial completion on a short term living quarters (government term for apartment building). At some point it dawned on the client that I'm a Registered Accessibility Specialist (RAS). It's a Texas thing, I'm not sure why other states have not jumped on a similar band wagon. The client wanted me to put the ADA to the test. 

Get the Picture

A picture is worth a 1,000 words. We all have heard this saying, it goes back to 1918 in a newspaper advertisement in the San Antonio Light. An older version dating back to 1911 "On picture. It's worth a thousand words" by a newspaper editor Tess Flanders. Not quite as eloquent, but you get the picture. No pun intended… Fast forward 100 years and I'm in the business of pictures.

The Meeting

I remember when I started in this business, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (yes, I'm stealing the intro from Star Wars). I got to work in a bubble. I did my drafting, ran the blue line print machine or delivered drawings. Life was simple, but I would look up and all of the managers were gone. Being the only drafter, sometimes the entire office was gone. Where were they? They went to a meeting, but if I had a question and no one was to be found what would I do?