It's been a year....

It's surprising how time passes and you find yourself getting accustomed to your new surroundings. I sold my building in 2013, moved home for a few months, then moved into the rental space next door to my wife's children's play place for a year only to move back to the house and finally renovate my garage into the office studio space. It has certainly been a journey!! Down sizing my office from 6 employees to just me has had it's challenges.

The studio at 498 1//2 Castle Street has been a great shift in not only the way I practice Architecture but how I deal with Family as well.

Coming Home: Building the Home Studio

It's been quite a while and I've gone through quite a bit over the last few years. Gypsy, vagabond, scoundrel, architect. Now I have a place close to home that I can work in and continue my practice. I will share some pics for now and update everyone shortly on all the going's on over the last 5 years of this blog. Wow, cannot believe it's been this long since posting.

 The winter of 2015-16 with my move to the studio housed in our garage. Not too bad until the Spring thaw and all the water!

 The interior of the compact version of  DLA+A. Sort of back to Richard's bedroom at 106 Oak Street in 2003! Funny how life works that way.

My work on the renovations at our home garage to make a "home" for my architectural practice. Not without the humor of the house number and mailbox out front! I also reused my 106 Oak Street shingle over the door for good measure.

I'll be updating everyone on what's been going on. I'm surprised myself with all that has gone on over the last 5 years.

Sometimes Change is Good... at least I hope so!

Over the past few months several interesting developments have, well, developed. It's been about 3-1/2 years since the economy dropped out in this field and while I have been very lucky it has also taken quite the toll. You do become accustomed to the roller-coaster ride of private practice. Change from what you know, even if that is terrible in some way, is just as scary as staying put.

So, as part of the active approach to getting somewhere I have put the building on the market. This also free up some needed capital for my wife's business, KidVenture Dome (it's on Facebook and the website is nearly complete, www.kidventuredome.com ).

The process of really moving out of the building my practice has been in for nearly 10 years is strange. The boxes of files, books, hauling out the scrap file cabinets, tables, etc. starts to alter your perspective (pardon the pun). All the added costs of doing business, the building insurance, loans, bills, certainly do add up. With just myself and one staff member, it's just not sensible.

This change has led me to explore working with a developer as part of a team, consider taking on another job related to my degree or yet another that would be more fulfilling but a bit risky. Could it be true about the midlife crisis? I find that my enthusiasm is not what it was and my tolerance for the "fires" on projects is at an all time low. The self-imposed stress gets to a point where the health risks just are not worth it.

Inactivating my license just does not seem like an option to me in any case. This has been too large a part of my life to give it up completely. What I have noticed is that it (the architecture degree and license) allows for a certain amount of range when considering other jobs. I went to a couple of interviews, did pretty well considering the ever-present questions about how I would cut back or give up practicing architecture. How do you create that break? It is an interesting question.

moving on: onto better times

The die has been cast. I have put the building up for sale and am into "future possibility" mode. The idea of selling the building that I have occupied for 10 years, built my business out of, invested countless nights at and innumerable social challenges is somewhat bittersweet.

I do look forward to the new and unexplored idea of moving to the home property, building a new studio (and in some way regaining a bit of youth in doing so) and restarting the business under a new profile. Some things have worked, others have not. It's best to shed the old unworkable aspects of my practice and focus on what works best for me and my family.

The sale of the building will hopefully accomplish three things: 1) freeing my business from some unneeded overhead, 2) providing some needed cash for my wife's business venture, and 3) cash for redoing some things at the house that badly need fixing.

If we can accomplish some of these goals, it will be good. Stay tuned!

Getting Out and Moving On....

It's been several months but a lot has happened. I've been taking a really hard look at the office and how I work --- what works what doesn't and how to move forward in a positive way. The building the firm is housed in is now on the market,  the clearing out process has started and plans are underway to move my practice to the home base.

This has had several ramifications, many of them beneficial. To start, the reduction of overhead will help reduce the stress of paying the bills each month; the idea that not having so many bills to pay will help me cope with the fact that I DON'T need to take each and every project that may come across my path.

The idea of a new project that involves my own firm is exciting. Stay tuned!

It's been a long time coming....

Finally! Two of the longest running client projects are in the construction phase! It's good to be out of the dog house and running around the yard a bit. With all of the stress of these past 4 months it's nice to be able to move forward and work on other projects. Sometimes it's just best to be able to hang on until the client sees the reality and that it did match up with what you said it would be. This pictured project has been in the works since 2007! All in all, the drama, the drawbacks, the delays, the STRUGGLE will be worth it for not only me but for the client as well.

All the Economic Uncertainty and yet, a Strange Optimism

It's nearing the Fall of 2011 and our "september rush" was met with mixed success. My definition of the "september rush" is one where clients start coming in due to kids going off to school, the winter coming on and the pressing need to get something going before next spring. This year it has begun to pick up. With all the turmoil of the world financial markets, the trashing of retirement accounts and the never-ending recessionary attitude many are just tired of being depressed. Get out, do something and accomplish that project you wanted to do but were just to hesitant to start.

My office has nearly always kept enough hands in enough cookie jars to make sure we are not completely dead or broke (for long). The only time we ever were at the brink was the winter of 2008 when all our projects ended and no new ones came in due to the Recession. That was quite the cold and quiet time until about mid-summer of 2009.

This Fall is seeing a mix of commercial and private projects and we are glad to have them. I'd rather be paid well and have less projects than have a large number of fee-poor projects that lamentably are nothing much more than "brush fires" that need constant attention to keep going.

With the world economic situation you would think everyone is running for cover and not spending any time thinking or working with Architects. Not the case. Instead, we have seen clients that just are tired of waiting and understand that while the world is a crazy place it is by no means a way to run one's life by and everything does have a way of working itself out in the end. Sanity, stability and growth do return and will do so once everyone starts focusing on what is good instead of what is bad and wrong.

Good luck to all and keep moving forwards!