The Beginning

April 16, 2007

Tomorrow I make my first site visit (this project is not in New York) at the behest of the owner's representative. The owner's rep is someone the client hires to represent their best interests, this is usually an independant party with experience in the building industry. It used to be that the Architect represented the owner's best interests, however in this age of specialization and litigation that's no longer typically true.

I will call the owner's rep. "Bentley".

Bentley is worried about the state of the existing buildings on site. Ah right, I should mention a little bit about the project. This project is institutional, consists of a 50, 000 sq. ft. addition to an early 1900's era neo-classical building. This building has an existing '60's era addition and there is another smaller freestanding building on the site. The freestanding building and the addition may be demolished.

So Bentley's worried, he's toured the grounds, kicked the tires as it were, and he doesn't like what he hears, or felt as he kicked, whatever. So he wants me to get over there asap and tour the grounds so that I can understand the full extent of the disaster these buildings constitute. This all before any discussion of contract, scope, program, etc.

We haven't even had a kick-off meeting yet, so by most measuring sticks this project has not actually begun. The kick-off meeting is often mostly formal but it does set the tone and mark the "official" beginning. But this trip will make Bentley, and more importantly the client, happy and in the end will probably be helpful. So tomorrow morning I fly out and return in the evening. I'll post some pictures tomorrow. It's going to be a hectic day.