Local Building

[glorybound]

One of our local architects just presented their architectural rendering for their design.



Really?

[voltron7]

Yeah, very basic, but probably took about 0.005% of their budget...guess it depends on their priorities.

[glorybound]

I don't have a good sense of time, or money, but either can't be that important. Maybe I have a different idea of what architecture is. Architecture, to me, is a form of art. It's like a chef serving dog food.

[yyk]

Again, Bobby, that rendering drives the point home. It's a shooting range, a building consisting of a row of boxes. It's not art, it's something that pay the bills while you wait for a golden opportunity to work on something more significant. You are taking this rendering business too seriously

[glorybound]

I don't know, maybe I am not getting it. The good firms ALWAYS do good work, without compromise. The not so good firms get the not so good work; I never see the two mix well. I am not only associating this to architecture or illustrations, it's everything in life.

[Da_elf]

im guessing that image was a joke right?

[glorybound]

no. It's on their facebook page and was on a construction sign, and now is in the lobby of the new building

[Sawyer]

Yea I still see this quality of work alot. We have this talk in the office about art and architecture almost daily. I think we have found architecture can be art but its a client driven commodity. Some clients want a box and that box will bring in xxx amount of money a month. Trying to get them to the table on getting a nicer box its not worth your breath. We have had some clients just love go apes#$t over the renderings - others get offended that you would spend their money on some artys crap. We actually had one client get mad that we printed the rendering in color from our color 11x17 printer (not full size architectural sheets). I wanted to point out they spend a lot of money getting the rendering in color why not spend the .10 extra to print it in color...
And that was not some mom and pop builder it was a national name everyone would know.
At the end of the day we try to build the buildings our clients want. Press them for better design when we can but on more work that I care to think the design portion of the building runs about 5% of the overall program. Just the way it works.

[plastic_]

I can see the clients saying "Finally something colorful and nice, at last!"

[glorybound]

I guess, it's like food. My wife jokes that she could feed me chicken, tell me it's steak, and I wouldn't know the difference. I don't spend money on expensive food because I don't appreciate it, but nor do I go into an expensive restaurant because I know I would be paying for something that I don't appreciate. I get this, Taco Bell vs. Iven's On The Bay (local place), but where are the Iven architects. Do they exist?

[Sawyer]

Yea - the food analogy is perfect. On my cynical days I figure that the high end artistic architects exist to lure in us naive wanna be artists. Maybe less than 1% ever are able to do the artistic work that lured us into the profession but... No one would ever get into architecture if we knew most of our lives would be spent so stressed out over ugly terrible buildings that the clients resent you for each one because you barely got paid but they think you overcharged. But... I am not always that cynical. Look its friday and a bottle of whiskey arrived magically on my desk. THANK YOU WHISKEY FAIRIES!!!

[glorybound]

Actually, I think we have a generation of architects because of the Brady Bunch. Unfortunately, I don't drink, but I might start.

[Neilg]

but where are the Iven architects. Do they exist?

There are countless architects who do beautiful work, have the budget for good images & who know that visualising isnt their job.


I don't understand why you think everyone should want good work. The people paying for that building and the people using it couldn't give a shit what the rendering looks like. They just want to see the shape of it but get scared when they see an autocad plan.

Do you think the head chefs at restaurants with month+ long waiting lists for a table get bothered by mcdonalds?

[Sawyer]

Good point CG. Also dont need to emphasize the crappiness of a crappy design.

[Morne]

Unfortunately, I don't drink, but I might start.

I know the feeling. I recently drove past a billboard of a "fancy new hotel". The image was of shaded sketchup model