David Cristiani

Does anyone have a statistic on how many firms have closed? Has the profession lost big numbers of firms, whether one person or large, or has it only lost big numbers in staffing?
 
I’m not seeing or hearing of any firms closing down in Massachusetts. There have definitely been a lot of people laid off, though.

 I’ll respect your privacy.

I can’t argue with or disagree with any of that, Nick.

I was exactly thinking of the man whose name we dare not speak, but dared not to speak it … especially when comparing it to a site likely revered by those practicing Fundamental Apple-ism.
 
I’m amused that Apple has huge profits selling items produced over seas just like Walmart.
Apple works very hard to keep their prices high on these Asian…[Read more]

Is it a smart approach to sustainability to convert an existing office campus of 158 acres or whatever it is, into a contrived natural environment? Coud it be argued that keeping this site as an office park (or better yet, increasing its density) would keep undeveloped land from becoming developed around this community? Is there not a principle…[Read more]

Thank you. That does make a lot of sense.
 
PS. Is that a photo of the Palouse as your avatar?

Staffing up and staffing down is a reaction to work load in any service business. I would think that those who get picked up in the up staffing will be happier that they are working even if it is just for a little while. I would expect that the firms that staff up are hoping to have the work to maintain their staffing, but if they can’t, what are…[Read more]

My understanding is that 20%+ of all landscape architects are self employed, but that 50%+ of landscape architecture offices are one person operations. I don’t know where i got the latter information, but I am having a hard time finding it today… not that I spent much time looking.

Are not the majority of landscape architecture offices one person operations?

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]

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]

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]

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]

You have to love the idea of a peaceful park with four or five people relaxing in rural splendor while knowing that 12,000 people are in the building. I’m trying to grasp how that might work.
The only similar thing that I can equate this too is a footbal stadium where thousands of people are inside (OK, there is a difference between 12k and 70k).…[Read more]

… until January there were 55 dem senators with two independents who were liberal vs. 41 senators (two from Maine often voted with dems).  the house had 256 dems and 178 reps … there is no way that he was out maneuvered by the Pepublicans because they had zero power. Things could pass without bipartisan support and nothing could fail without…[Read more]

I think there is a pretty good chance that when the numbers are revised we’ll find that we did go back into recession already.
 
The “lower tax” issue may or may not be to protect rich people, but history shows that when they are lower the money moves more and the government collects more money in income taxes. Wealth is not taxed, income is.…[Read more]

What I was too vague iin saying is that if it is crap, you might as well paint it brown. …. there, that is less cryptic.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, we might as well paint it he same color as a duck. Brown is very appropriate, if you really think about it.  … let’s see, what else is brown?

Most of the rules are in the health code including fencing, but the second story deck is not turning up for me. I’m probably just going to have to wait until I can call tomorrow.
 
The best that I could find was all the way over in Washington state …. 15′ horizontal. 

Jason, the issue is the kamakazi diver rather than the normal walking around the pool issue.
 
Henry, I will call the building inspector for the town that it will be in tomorrow, but I’m trying to get a draft out tonight.
 
Thanks to both of you for your quick responses.