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Modernage Sign - Miami
(c)2007 - architect r cool

Technology Changes in the AEC Industry

Every few years the AEC industry makes a leap in how things are done. Since the time that I've been drawing house plans as a 10 year old to now, being an owner of a mid-size firm, I've witnessed many of these.

• Parallel Bars aka "p-bars" - Before this everyone used t-squares.
• Rapidograph Pens - Before these people were using adjustable width ink pens. When I first started drafting I tried my hand with these but the ink kept running underneath the t-square and triangles. Even with all of their hassle of having to be cleaned all the time the rapidograph pens were still a lot better than the old-fashioned ink pens. (I got my first rapidograph pen (a double zero) when I was about 12. At the time it cost around $25. I promised my parents that I would be able to use it for years and years. Little did I know how quickly the tips wore out, then I discovered "jewel tips"... ohh... they were sooo smoooth.)
• Mylar and Electric Erasers - About the same time of my first rapidograph pen I started to use mylar. I can still remember having to lick white plastic erasers in order to correct mistakes. The speed to erase these mistakes was greatly enhanced when I was given an electric eraser for Christmas. Still you had to lick the eraser before using it.
  
• Blueline Machines - aka "blueprint machines" - This was the change from the old white on blue paper to blue on white paper. These machines were now small enough that architectural firms of any size could own a small blueprint machine. This created an excruciating job for young interns like myself of being stuck in some out of the way closet to run print after print... just about to die from the ammonia fumes. It was a right of passage into the architectural profession though.
• CAD - When CAD first arrived on the scene it was... very expensive to say the least. Firms that had CAD required mainframe computers in special rooms and only had one or two because they were so expensive. Firms had CAD departments and only a few were trained on these machines. In order to get their investment back the staff had to work in shifts. In these days a firm would spend over 100k per "seat" as they were called. At this time the "D" really only stood for "drafting". Time was too expensive for an designing.
  
• Personal Computers - In the early 80's the personal computers became part of the firm. At first you found them only in the accounting department or at the project admin's desk and typically they were using WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. When the Apple Macintosh arrived in 1984 you saw an explosion of personal computer use among architects due to the graphic nature of the user interface and the ability to make documents look good.
  
• Fax machines - Previously things were hand delivered or sent via the post office. Now it was possible to send documents over the phone line. Fax machines at this time were extremely slow and you had to use electrostatic paper that curled, but it was a lot better than having to wait for the postman to deliver a letter.
• UPS and later FedEx - It took days to send documents. If you wanted something to get there fast you had to send things by bus or take it to the airport and put it on a plane. I remember many times where I had to run to the Greyhound station to take rolls of drawings to send to a contractor.
  
• CADD - As the price for the hardware dropped and CPU speed increased, the prevalence of CADD grew. The "DD" now stood for "design and drafting". Despite a drop in price from over 100k to around 20k per seat, firms were still hard pressed to spend a lot of money to put a CADD station at every persons desk.
• Networked Personal Computers - When we were able to start to share files and place commonly used documents on a server by networking personal computers this was a big help. We finally stopped having to use sneakernet with floppies and diskettes.
• Mobile Phones and Pagers - Originally you would find contractors who had phones in their trucks. When they received a call their horns would honk. During this same time the use of pagers was still very prevalent and if you needed to make an immediate call you would have to seek out a public pay phone.
• AutoCAD and Microstation - Soon there were two predominant companies making PC based CADD software. These were strictly 2D programs. There were a few software packages out there that were the fore-runners of today's BIM software, such as Arris, but for the most part everyone was using 2D software and this wouldn't start to change for many years.
• The Internet and eMail - The internet has been a huge help to the AEC industry as it has with all other industries. I don't think much needs to be said about this.
  
• 3D Modeling and Rendering Software - Originally it was a basic wire frame tool but eventually as Hollywood pushed the limits some of this software became available to architects. This software was seldom integrated within the CADD software.
• BIM Software (Building Information and Modeling) - For the last few years we're finally starting to see the realization of what architects have been dreaming about for years. The ability to design and build a virtual model that can also be used as a tool to create a set of construction documents. The most prevalent software today for this is Revit.
  
• Project Collaboration Software - For several years now we've started to see the emergence of collaboration software. The first attempts of these were similar to the first attempts at CAD. It required a company to have their own server connected directly to the internet over a high speed connection. Along with this it took a lot of IT administration to manage. Today we're starting to see the web-based project collaboration software at affordable prices. This software allows for announcements, contact lists, online document distribution, calendars, RFI logs, submittal logs, change order and pay application logs, and more. The one that I'm most encouraged by is called Tangentworks 550. (Other products that do similar things are Autodesk' Basecamp and Constructware, iSqFt, 37 Signals' Basecamp and WebOffice.)
  

Summary:

I feel a bit like I'm listening to my father tell me about the evolution of automobiles over his lifetime, but it's true to a degree. Over my lifetime I've seen a lot of advancements in the AEC industry with how things are produced. It's changes like these that have given me the desire to increase the productivity of architectural firms and the reason that my partners and I created Tangentworks.

Photo of the day

(c)2007 - architect r cool

Every firm needs a Wii

This spring our architectural firm had our 3^rd annual spring vacation trip to Grayton Beach, Florida. As usual it was a great time for all principals, staff and their families to have fun and continue to create the strong bond that allows us to work better together and be more productive.

There was one new addition to the group this year that I want to tell you about. This new addition may be the best addition to our firm that we’ve made in years. It’s not an employee, it’s not a new office policy or even a new piece of software. It’s a toy! It’s the Nintendo Wii (pronounced “we”). If you don’t know what a Wii is see the sidebar below.

The reason that I find this new addition to our firm so incredible is this. As most of you should know by now our greatest asset is our employees, and to have a truly great company you need to have intelligent and happy employees that work well together. While the Wii can’t do anything about making your employees smarter it can help them enjoy coming to work. I realize this sounds a bit odd, but I now have visions of lunch time and after work Wii competitions between project teams playing, tennis, bowling, baseball, golf or even other more silly games like shoot outs with bunnies. Eventually we may be able to start an Architects Wii League and compete with other firms just as we do now for things like softball.

In 1984 I had one of those “our world will never be the same again” moments when I saw my first Apple Macintosh. I had this same feeling when I saw the Wii and the potential it has to make our firm just a bit better than we are today.

Go out and buy a Wii for your firm. You, and especially your staff, will not regret it!

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What is a Wii:

For those of you who do not know what a Wii is, it’s an interactive video game where unlike Playstations or X-boxes you have a controller and sit in a chair and play, the Wii has two separate handheld devices and allows for the players stand and physically interact with the game on the screen. For instance in baseball game one player actually make the movements of a pitch swing and the other play stands as you would at home plate, with your arms up and behind you, and swing at the ball just as you would in a real game of baseball. In the bowling game you hold the controller in your hand just as you would the bowling ball, swing your arm behind you and then release the “ball” as you move towards the pins.

For more information see http://us.wii.com/

Are architects really cool?

The answer to this question is: It depends on the person.

The general public has a preconception about what an architect is by watching television and movies. If you can't think of any off the top of you head here's a list that I found posted on another website. (The original author was someone named "manfromearth".) See how many of these movies you've seen in your life.

Movies with actors/actress playing architects:

* At First sight -1999 ( Mira Sorvino )
* 12 Angry Men-1957(Henry Fonda)
* Backstab-1990 ( James Brolin )
* The Bedroom Window -1987 ( Steve Guttenberg )
* Belly of an Architect-1990 (Brian Dennehy)
* The Black Cat-1934 (Boris Karloff)
* Breaking and Entering-2006 (Jude Law, Martin Freeman)
* The Brass Bottle- 1964 (Steve Randall )
* The Christmas Gift-1986 ( John Denver )
* Click -2006(Adam Sandler)
* .Com for Murder-2003(Roger Daltrey)
* Dangerous-1935 (Franchot Tone)
* Death Wish -1974(Charles Bronson)
* Designing Heaven-2006? (Richard Gere)
* Don’t Look Now-1970 (Donald Sutherland)
* Dream Lover-1994( James Spader )
* Earthquake-1974 (Charleton Heston)
* Falling in Love-1984 ( Robert DeNiro)
* Fear -1996(William Peterson)
* Fearless-1993 (Jeff Bridges)
* Firewall-2006(Virginia Madsen)
* FountainHead-1949(Gary Cooper)
* The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing-1955 ( Ray Milland )
* Hanky Panky-1982 ( Gene Wilder )
* Hiroshima Mon Amour-1959 (Eiji Okada)
* The Holcroft Covenant-1985 (Michael Caine)
* Housesitter-1992 ( Steve Martin )
* Indecent Proposal-1993 (Woody Harrelson)
* Inside the Third Reich-1982 ( Rutger Hauer )
* Intersection-1994 (Richard Gere)
* It's My Party-1996 ( Eric Roberts )
* Jungle Fever-1991 (Wesley Snipes)
* Just Like Heaven-2005 (Mark Ruffalo as a Landscape architect)
* The Jokers-1967 ( Oliver Reed )
* The Lake House-2006 (Keanu Reeves)
* Life as a House-2004(Kevin Kline)
* Mr. Blandings-1948 (Cary Grant)
* The Pallbearer-1996 (David Schwimmer)
* Pares y Nones-1982 ( Antonio Resines)
* Playing by Heart-1998 ( Jon Stewart)
* Poesidon-2006(Richard Dreyfuss)
* Pueblito-1961 ( Fernando Soler )
* One Fine Day- 1996(Michele Pfeiffer)
* Return to Me-2002 (David Duchovny)
* The Second Woman-1951 (Robert Young)
* The Serpants Kiss-1997 ( Ewan McGregor)
* Sleepless in Seattle-1993 ( Tom Hanks)
* Spanish Affair-1957 ( Richard Kiley )
* Super Ex-Girlfriend-2006 (Luke Wilson)
* Tempest-1982 ( John Cassavetes )
* That's Life-1986 ( Jack Lemmon )
* Three to tango-1999( Matthew Perry & Oliver Platt )
* 'Till there was You-1997 ( Dylan McDermott )
* The Towering Inferno-1974 (Paul Newman)
* Three Men and a Baby-1987 (Tom Selleck)
* Two for the Road-1967 (Abert Finney)
* White Noise-2005 ( Michael Keaton)
* World Traveler-2001 (Blly Crudup)

Then of course there are many television shows including:

* The Brady Bunch - Mike Brady
* Mr. Ed - Wilbur Post
* Seinfeld - George Costanza as Art Van de lay

So, now that you remember a few of these, ask yourself... "Are architects cool?"

I think it's safe to say that Hollywood portrays the architect's life as a very exciting one. According to Hollywood we always dress impeccably, drive sports cars, have great houses, travel to exotic places and are always surrounded by beautiful and interesting people.

There is some truth in this, however most architects that I know would envy this type of life, but with the [low] salaries that architects make it's very difficult to have most, or even a few of these things. Most architects that I know do it because they love the profession and what they get to create... and here's a key point... they love doing this despite all of the challenges faced every day in the profession.

More about these challenges later.

So you think you want to be an architect.

Ever since I was about 10 years old I wanted to be an architect. From the 4th grade I was drawing up house plans. I had my first job at an architects office when I was in the 7th grade. Granted it was only for a week, but I learned more about the profession and I made enough money that I purchased my first Mayline 36" parallel bar!

Throughout high school I continued to dream up new things and draw them. In 1978 I started architecture school at Georgia Tech and did quite well in my design classes.

I've now been working full time in the field for 25 years and I continue to wonder why didn't I listen to people when they said: "Are you sure you want to be an architect?" Granted these were other architects trying to warn me about the profession that they also chose for themselves.

So if you're reading this blog because you or someone you know is considering becoming an architect, I hope that I can help you make the right choice for your life. There's lots of pros and cons to this career so stay tuned... and please, if you have any comments, post them.

Welcome,

Craig

Definition of an Architect

Architect -

ar·chi·tect

–noun

1.	a person who engages in the profession of architecture.

2.	a person professionally engaged in the design of certain large constructions other than buildings and the like: landscape architect; naval architect.

3.	the deviser, maker, or creator of anything: the architects of the Constitution of the United States.

–verb (used with object)

4.	to plan, organize, or structure as an architect: The house is well architected.

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[Origin: 1555–65; <>architectus <>architéktōn, equiv. to Gk archi- archi- + tektōn] builder, craftsman

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.