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Good conversation going on. One thing that was not discussed is how many still employed la professional have taken a salary cut. I know of few firms that opted for this option rather than laying off people, some that went half time too. I believe that that was a good move unfortunately there hasn’t been any recovery and thus such firms have had to…[Read more]

Does that sign realy say Population 1,860?? Are you really a member of the tourist board, trying to show how gorgeous SD is? It really looks NICE!! But I am wondering if you had the design consideration we had to deal with in the Hamptons – for each site, “where do you pile the snow in the winter?”

hee hee..

The Highway Commercial in the Hamptons had a successful development with, like you say, a huge buffer setback from the road that was all really attractive landscape. The businesses should not be visible from the street, but give them one nice sign, also attractively landscaped, and as previous poster said, limit points of entry to the site…The…[Read more]

Thanks so much Mike. Your response is very helpful.

The design guidelines I’m working on are part of a 6-year effort by an ad-hoc committee formed at the request of the mayor which has resulted in the renovation of our ‘town square’ park, and a giant TIF project described below. The committee was formed to respond to requests by the community for…[Read more]

Hi Tom,

To answer you questions from personal experience:

* Of the LAs you know, how many lost their jobs after the economy went bad?

I would say that about 15-18% of the LAs I know have lost their job at some point in 2 years.

* How many were practicing before the downturn, but are not right now? / * How many of those who are practicing today…[Read more]

@James ivy – Thanks for the response. Your answer is very helpful. It is also the closest to what I was after in starting this discussion. I wonder though, would it be possible for you to estimate totals for the questions in my post? I’m sorry if I’m imposing.

@ Nick Aceto – It’s unfortunate that they seem like rhetorical questions. I’m reall…[Read more]

Tanya, We work on rural downtowns in Colorado and I’d be happy to help you as much as I can.

What you have is a downtown with a 5 lane highway (4 travel lanes and turn lane) and diagonal parking on each side. That’s probably 100′ of asphalt for the pedestrians to cross in the “downtown proper” and frankly that “downtown” is not a pedestrian…[Read more]

http://scenicdakotas.com/sd-custer.shtml
Scroll down to the video – it shows pretty much the entire main street. The video starts out on the edge of the central business district, then about a block after the Dairy Queen (quite prominent in the video) it turns into highway commercial. Ideas, precedents, publications are all welcome.
Thanks!

In that scenario I could see how design fee could help qualify clients very easily as well.

I think what’s been happening in design-build and what tends to be happening more frequently now in design-only firms is a bit different.

When I was in design-build there were always companies willing to do lots of free work to land the install. This is sort of what led me to go back to school and pursue a design-only career. I often did free…[Read more]

When i meet with a client and discuss my fee, occasionally I will get “ABC Landscaping will do a free design or that they will credit back the cost of the design fee if we contract with them to do the work”. I then explain that “free” design is often worth what you paid for it and that if a contractor is “refunding” the design fee back if he does…[Read more]

Ive been doing consulting with clients, mainly design build firms and pray that no one is doing work for free…some clients may try to talk you into doing free designing/drafting by way of revisions. Be cool and stick by your hours and fee. There is some room to negotiate, but you will soon get the idea of whom is looking to have you do free…[Read more]

I agree that I dont think it matters how talented or skilled a person is. I know people with zero skill or work ethic and great job security at outstanding firms, and I know extremely talented, passionate, hard-working people who should be working unemployed and floundering.

Someone said in another post that this has been more akin to musical…[Read more]

I’d love to find a decent plant reference guide for the SW U.S. but i haven’t found it yet. A decent basic CAD app would be nice too for quick measurements in small spaces.

Some work related Apps I use every day:

Todo: $9.99: It’s a great GTD app. Very customizable. It’s a lifesaver for me.
ReQall: a great dictation app that you can set up to…[Read more]

I’d love to see one!