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There are complaints of how we don’t make enough and now complaints that some make too much. You have to generate wealth to spread it. You have to have money if you are going to hire interns. Last time I checked, a lot of people were complaining that they could not land intern positions. One person firms are not the ones producing…[Read more]

Craig,
the only thing we really disagree on is the changing course or career part. You’re telling people to remain in the LA profession when you also changed careers to become an LA! Here’s a stat I just learned on the Dylan Radigan, MSNBC show this morning: of the percentage of unemployed workers in America today, only 4.8% have college degrees.…[Read more]

Charles’ baby is Poundbury.  Google it and check the prices there.  There are no council estates as far as I know and everyone I have ever seen associated with the place is white.

Oh sorry = kettling is a new term for crowding protestors, for example, into a small area, barracking is generally harranguing someone and dear is expensive. 
 
All the police pictures displayed tonight on a TV programme covering all the cities in the riots and incuding actual cctv recording of people breaking into shops, requesting informers to…[Read more]

“twice the rate..?” Try 3-4x the rate for me and some of my colleagues. Bigger firms can throw more manpower at large projects but I have found that they really cant even compete for small projects in many cases. The larger projects with the manpower can be kind of a drag as a designer to work on as there tends to be a circuitous line of…[Read more]

It’s a rookie mistake to assume that because a firm bills someone out at 2x (preferably more) their salaried or paid rate is being greedy.  It is that additional $ that pays for rent, supplies, computers, plotters, copiers, phone and internet service, the power bill, health insurance, liability insurance (general and errors & omissions), and – oh…[Read more]

I don’t think anything’s been taken down. What discussion page are you unable to locate?

I’m not by a river, but I work out of my house and my van. My overhead is minimal, but my capability is limited.
 
Billing for employees enables the hiring of employees as mentioned above. Big staff allows for bigger projects to move forward faster. 
 
Small offices like mine can not compete on larger projects because we don’t have the capacity to…[Read more]

I work from a van DOWN BY THE RIVER!!!

A 2x multiple on employees is not being greedy. That is going to barely cover your overhead and make a small profit. When I was in design build, we had a minimum 3x mulitple for costs to billing. 4x was optimum.
Single proprietors are able to make do with less, but they do not create many additional jobs that way do they…
A snazzy office doesn’t…[Read more]

Its a risk having a lot of overhead, because your chances of weathering a poor economy lessen, however when times are good it greatly increases the desirability of the firm from an employee’s perspective when times are good.  Why wouldn’t I want to go to work in a nice environment?  I spend a great portion of my life where I work, so why not h…[Read more]

 I wonder how much of the office “swank” was an attempt to market the firm?  I know some subscribe to bringing the clients to the office, and this would require a real “statement”.  I never liked this approach.  Besides the cost, I would much rather meet the clients on their turf then ours.  The last thing I want to do is send the wrong mess…[Read more]

Landscape Architect issue:
 
How does the landscape plan relate/respond to the building, to the surrounding sites, and to the people using the site?
 
We are all hung up on the building, who designed it, whose designs it looks similar to, ….. we sound like a bunch of architects!
 
Where is the critique of the landscape? Is there a program for th…[Read more]

In case you haven’t already, check out his book ‘Drawing and Designing with Confidence’. I found it on abebooks for about $10 including shipping and it has been more than worth looking at.

I don’t remember, Mark, sorry…Too long ago…I would do it, though – he is worth what he charges, IMHO..

I like it. It’s not a spacaship, it’s one giant ipod click wheel… reminds me of the Pentagon too… the concept works well with Apple’s closed-door policies. The design itself isn’t daring, but it’s different than the usual buildings you see in Silicon Valley. I like how the profile of the louvers are most visible through the trees, the…[Read more]

The City Council Members were unreal, you might as well call them ‘kids in a candy store’, I don’t know that they knew what to do with themselves.  Steve Jobs could have proposed a building that was design by Sven and they would have bent over backwards with praise.

So their other option would be to do what, exactly?  Put those profits into a trust fund to keep employees paid and sitting at their desks surfing the internet during downturns?  Other businesses are just as guilty of living large during the boom times.  I think it is human nature, often to our detriment, to live as swanky as the budget all…[Read more]

The thing that struck me about the meeting is that no specific ordinances or criteria were cited uin either a question of the board or by the presenter. It just all seemed qualitative. Although many times projects are made or broken on the qualitative nature of them, they are usually done so by measuring them against specific criteria in the…[Read more]

i really would like to take the class here in the near future. would you mind sharing total expenses you had to spend for the whole experience.