Our friend Gretchen is an architect like Tom. Both of them can always spot the flaws in any building. Gretchen sent us the article (reposted below), because it also aptly describes an architect's personality.
In the article called ‘Dating an Architect‘ the author, who is an architect (LIKE TOM) said the following:
Architects don’t seem to love anything that actually exists. They might say that they really like something … but even then they will systematically point out all of its flaws.What's interesting is that Tom doesn't just "do" architecture and the practice, he LIVES IT. For example, when I make dinner he'll say "I liked it, but it could be better." Or if I wipe the kitchen counter, he'll always see the one tiny smudge I don't see (because I'm not an architect and prone to detail).
While average people like me miss little things, Tom and Gretchen's "Superpower" is that they see all details. Of course, when they hang around people like me, I drive them crazy because I don't see what they see. That just means Tom has to accept me with all my "flaws" LOL.
I will say, that I've come to appreciate a more orderly house and can see flaws in things I've never seen before. I do like the way he puts all the canned goods facing front, and organizes the drinks in the refrigerator. He's also learned that I just don't see the world like he does because Tom has that "Superpower." We all have our superpowers. I help dogs and talk with dead people. Tom tries to make the world "Mr. Monk" perfect - and that's a much harder job than I have! - Rob
Being an Architect is Hell
For most people, they probably wouldn’t have even noticed. They would have taken their shower and moved on to the next part of their day without realizing just how close they had come with …
THIS!!
(look at the picture below if you haven’t figured out that “this” is what I am talking about)
Can you believe it? I’m sure you can see it just as easily as if there was a frog sitting on my head. You do see it, right?
There is alignment chaos going on in this shower and I haven’t been able to ignore it. I took three showers in this space and all I could do the entire time was look this shower niche and wonder:
Did the tile mason know that they were doing a bad job?
Was an architect used? Surely they wouldn’t have intentionally drawn it up this way?
I wonder if all the shower niches look like this or is this one unique?
Did any of this show up on a punch list?
I wonder if this was the first time this person had tiled a shower niche?
Maybe the tile mason got batter as they did more showers in this hotel.
Seriously … the tile mason had to know that this sucked.
…
and on and on and on. Literally every time I took a shower, these
questions rolled endlessly through my head. After I ran through the
questions, I would start telling myself what I would have done if I was
drawing up this shower … you know, in case I didn’t already know.Why does the shower niche engage the mosaic border? Why wouldn’t the top of the niche align with the similar tile on either side. Why switch tiles – they could have made the entire niche out of the mosaic tiles. Why was the top tile left too long?
Argh!!!
To make matters even worse (as if that were even possible) the tiles were out of plane with one another as well.Seriously?!? How does somebody not notice these things? Well, I shouldn’t put it that way because I know who notices these things … architects. In an article I wrote called ‘Dating an Architect‘ I said the following:
Architects don’t seem to love anything that actually exists. They might say that they really like something … but even then they will systematically point out all of its flaws.Architects examine everything they see and look for all the things that were either poorly executed or things that could have been done differently to achieve something superior to what currently exists. This is a character trait that every architect I know shares and let me tel you … it is HELL!!
Every space I ever walk in to, I look at … intensely. I scrutinize, evaluate, process, and redesign. Every. Single. Space. There are times when I wish this didn’t happen … most of the time actually. Being blissfully unaware of unresolved plan geometries – particularly when I am not “on the clock” sounds pretty good but I know it won’t ever be that way for me any longer. I have completely crossed over to the architect side.
During this same trip – and in the same hotel – my
wife would confirm (if you could ask her) that I pointed out all sorts
of things that weren’t very good – at were at least not as good as they
should have been. One of my biggest peeves is outlets that are half in –
and half out – of the wood trim. That is clearly an item that doesn’t
require a whole lot of effort to get correct – all you have to do is
draw the outlets in place. Seems easy enough, doesn’t it?The real issue here is that it is probably more likely that nobody is drawing these things and the coordination isn’t happening. While I can’t say with certainty why this is true, I would venture a guess that it has something to do with paying the architect to do these sorts of things. The other concern is that it is possible that an architect wasn’t even used in the areas I just pointed out.
I am troubled that it is becoming a matter of spending more and more money in an effort to makes things right – or – people just don’t care anymore and close enough is good enough.
Here’s to hoping that I’m wrong,
SOURCE: http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/being-an-architect-is-hell/
