Thoughts on the California drought emergency.

I belong to the American Water Works Association online group in which I am an active participant. In response to a current hot issue, the severe drought in California, I posted something about global climate change having an impact on the drought. Seemed like a no-brainer to me, but not to others. One response was "the issue here was "Water emergency in California due to record drought." 
Why are you discussing global warming?." My response follows:

It is disingenuous to address the issue of drought in California without addressing everything that impacts the drought, and without addressing the entire region's drought crisis. Nothing exists in isolation. The drought is not just an issue of lack of water, it's also about politics, money, and climate change. 

Certainly, as mentioned before, long-ago deceased political and financial wheeler-dealers were a factor in creating the mess we're in. To my knowledge no one here disagrees with that. However, politicians being what they are, they continue to cater to the whims of the business sector (agribusiness, sprawling home developments), common sense not withstanding. Hence the recent back room deals that allow almond and pistachio farmers (big business really) to have a permanent water supply, whereas vegetable farmers do not. Guess what, money crops win and politician's pockets are lined. Such is the state of affairs in this state, and without hesitation I can tell you that it's the status quo in every state of the union. Here it's water, there it's coal, over there it's oil. It's always something, and the crisis du jour happens to be the drought in the southwest. 

Conservation costs money. Once upon a time farming was a mom and pop operation with very little mechanization, thus labor intensive. Profits required larger tracts of land, mechanization, fewer laborers, and a larger planting season. The southwest (and that includes other states than CA) proved the ideal conditions for industrial farming. Industrial farming (or agribusiness) carries a lot of weight financially and politically, hence special deals for this kind of business. But folk snowed in elsewhere in our nation enjoy produce grown in CA, hence our plight is not just CA's plight, it's the plight of the nation as a whole. To believe otherwise is not to be in sync with reality. 

What are Californians to say? 'Mea culpa' and thump our chest in repentance for the crimes others in times past? I certainly won't. My family and I have done our utmost to promote responsible development, including water conservation measures that in our area mean essentially that we do not need Mulholland's aqueduct. For now we're essentially isolated because 99% of the folk I speak with immediately accuse me of being everything from a tree-hugging liberal to a Water Nazi. These folk cry about concern of their manicured lawns as a constitutional right akin to the First Amendment. Same thing when I talk to them about prohibiting special water rights to cash crops (almonds, pistachios). Same thing when I tell them farmers are going to have to start paying the real cost of water, which means substantially higher prices at the market because conservation costs money. It's not just politicians who are living from election to election, thus their myopic view of things. It's all of us really, and that includes EVERYONE in the U.S. who enjoys relatively and artificially low priced produce from CA. 

Change requires not just exhuming Mulholland and his ilk (Eaton, Lippincott, et al), and of course Theodore Roosevelt, and whipping them back to hell for their sins, but also every politician from the 1890s to this very day. More importantly, it means reeducating everyone so that this sh*t isn't allowed to happen again. Wishful thinking on my part, I know. So what will happen in reality? Some dumb politician of whatever inclination is blamed, his butt is thrown out of office and a new one takes his place. And the cycle starts all over again. Without a quantum leap in understanding that everything is interrelated (politics, money, climate change, globalization) all we will do is jump from one scapegoat to another.

It's been over a year since the last post, lots has happened in that time, I will post an update on what has transpired towards the end of April. In the meantime, a link related to the theme of Smart Apartments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZSdrtEqcHU&feature=player_embedded

llamarada de tusas - rebuilding Haiti

There is a saying in Spanish, "llamarada de tusas" (corn husk flame), which alludes to the initial hype... and then we forget.

What worries me most is that there is always a flurry of activity, ideas, money, etc. during a short period of time after a catastrophic event such as with Haiti. The long term consequence of all our well-intentioned albeit short-sighted help is that Haiti will be left with nothing to show except millions of empty plastic water bottles and not much else. Eventually reconstruction will happen, as it always happens in these cases, in anarchist fashion. The debris from the quake will be cleaned up a little, the bricks or concrete blocks trimmed of excess grout and reused with nary a piece of reinforcing steel, the foundation will be the ground trampled under foot, the sewers will be open trenches on the street. History repeats itself. I assure you however, that the national palace and the cathedral will be rebuilt stronger, and likely grander, than before.

All that said, there is a ray of hope with organizations like Architecture for Humanity. Rebuilding Port-au-Price will require a concerted effort that will pay significant attention to a sustainable infrastructure. It's not as glamorous as say, carting a bunch of FEMA trailers and setting them up on blocks as some have suggested in other venues. More importantly, rebuilding will require local participation; we must not, under any circumstances, foster the paternalistic tradition of giving handouts. Public participation is essential at all levels. Not just in regards to the urban planning aspects but also in the creation of cooperatives and micro-enterprises for the actual rebuilding. In the end, it will give Hatians a sense of ownership and the result will be the rebuilding not just of the city, but of the spirit.

Poetry by Pablo Neruda - standard oil co.

The big green picture

I had lunch the other day with a friend and a good part of the conversation centered around urban planning, European city design, Los Angeles, public transportation, the L.A. River, urban infill, and other such issues. When I got back to the office I started a LEED checklist for a new project for which the owner intends to achieve Gold certification. While doing this I started to think again about my Smart Apartments idea and it occurred to me that perhaps a Smart Apartment built without any appreciable change in the standard building practice might have a smaller carbon footprint than a large home built with the latest in 'green' technology, perhaps even if this large home has a LEED certification.

How do we, in the U.S., look at sustainability? I suspect that in many ways we see it as some kind of redemption for our conspicuous consumption. Do we feel much better living in a MacMansion because it is  certified by LEED or any other 'green' entity? Of course, but we haven't made the quantum leap away from conspicuous consumption, we've only sugar-coated it. My next task is to investigate, at least at a conceptual level, what impact does it have on the carbon footprint to reduce the size of a home or office by 10% using standard construction practices Vs. a space with the same programmatic requirements but with a LEED rating. What impact does a smaller car with a standard combustion engine Vs. a hybrid SUV? On a grander scale, what impact on the environment does a compact and efficient city have Vs. a series of independent green developments?

A new year

What a year. Six months ago I joined the ranks of the new world order. The world of consulting instead of commitment, the world of pajama commuting instead of pressed slacks and crisp shirts, the virtual office Vs. Dilbert's cubicle, the birth of perpetual connectivity. These days one doesn't go home after work… work is always with us on the cell, the laptop, and what home isn't wired to the Internet these days? This is the new world order, one that many say enslaves us to our work.

We long for the days gone by when we went home at 6:00 PM to plant our behinds in front of the TV or took off for the weekend, or went on a two week vacation. The fact is that this period of relative leisure that for the most part we, our parents and grandparents enjoyed, existed in a relatively short span in the history of civilization. Our recent generations are a spoiled lot. Before that golden age of relative leisure, the artisan, the craftsman, the laborer and most professionals for that matter lived in a state not unlike our current condition. Of course there were no computers, cell phones or internet; but the iron smith, the taylor and the baker all plied their trade in their home… rarely was there ever a distinction between work and home. One could say they were enslaved to their work, but in fact their life was inseparable from their work, to the point that more often than not they were born into their trade, inherited their their tools and even the name of their trade from their father and passed it down to their offspring.

Thus the new world order is really the old world order, with a twist, because it will not be in a Neo-Luddite kind of way, rather, we will take the best of the old world by embracing craftsmanship and living our chosen trade, and we will take the best of the new world and embrace the best that technology has to offer.

When the economic downturn began I knew losing my job was a possibility. One year ago that became a probability. Six months ago it was fait accompli, and I was prepared. I made a commitment that I would work on my venture until the end of the year, if I survived I would push forward. It is now the end of the year and I report to you that not only did I survive, I thrived. There were three things that made possible this success. First and foremost, as the saying goes, "behind every successful man stands a wise woman", Angela has supported me, guided me, and raised my level of confidence. Second, I was armed with the tools of hard work and dedication inherited from my mom and dad. Mom would have been proud. Third, I had the support of all my friends and family.

This coming year will be better, I know so. There will be challenges but they will be surmounted. The biggest challenge will be to put into practice what I've been preaching, that is, to change the practice of architecture as we know it. That last bit is not a short-term endeavor, nor is it something I can do on my own. I will rely on all of you in big and in small ways, directly and indirectly, to help me mold, refine, polish, and finally achieve those goals.

Happy New Year!

Looking forward: Hidden Sources of Income

Following is a list of services for any office to generate additional sources of revenue. I started generating this list a few years ago and have brought it up in different ways at previous firms I worked for. These ideas might be helpful for any architectural firm.

Specifications

A good spec service costs about $15,000, most of the time this is contracted by the client although sometimes it's a part of the architectural contract. Even wen paid directly by the client, in addition to the direct cost to the client, architects have to spend a substantial amount of time coordinating with the spec writer. I've estimated this cost at about $5,000. By writing the specs in house an architect can capture the profit of writing the specs as well as the cost of the coordination. There are good internet-based spec writing services that costs about $3,000 per year, these offer unlimited spec writing ability and ensure that all references are coordinated, including testing standards. It also checks on a continual basis that all products specified are up to date. The spec writing can be handled by a project manager or a very good job captain. Estimated labor cost to an office is 40 hrs x 120/hr (estimated billable rate for a PM) = $4,800 + 10 hrs x 185/hr (estimated billable rate for a principal or senior associate to review the work) = $1,850 for a total of $6,650 resulting in a profit of approximately $8,000 per set of specifications.

It should be noted that the 40 hours is estimated for someone with only a very basic idea about specification writing. A second set of specs should take half the time.

Interior Design

The interior design services are often contracted separately by the owner, but like specifications they require a substantial amount of coordination by the architect. By offering interior design services the architect collects the fees and pockets the portion of labor that goes for coordination.

Marketing Graphics

Same as interior design and specifications.

Tenant Improvement for downsizing

As companies downsize in this economy they look for firms to handle tenant improvement in their reduced spaces. In many cases these firms relocate to more affordable parts of town. In some cases they do downsize. In some its both. Architects have the capability to handle this job for them, including not just space planning but interior design as well. If architects want to expand their services they could offer a turn-key option including coordinating the entire move or downsize event.

LEED and Green Building consulting

As more clients become aware that going green saves green, architects can offer ways of cost reduction for utilities that also have the side-benefit of increasing productivity of their staff.

Smart Apartments (see my other blog posting about this)

Borrowing the name from the European Smart Cars, the objective is to offer developer clients innovative compact and intelligent Smart apartments that occupy a small footprint while giving the appearance of larger areas. These apartments will encompass green principles and should be designed to easily meet the requirements of LEED Gold Certification.

Innovation

We can, but don't have to, reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of little products or methods of construction that architects could be helping design better. How many times have we heard out in the construction site or from the drafting room "someone should invent a way to..."? We should become that someone. I read about a small firm in Barcelona, Spain, that "has only three completed buildings to its name but holds nine patents for building technology", according to an article in Hanley Woods' Modern Materials supplement. With all the creative talent most architectural firms have, why aren't we innovators? Why don't we lead instead of follow? Why do it? not only does this get us notoriety but also residuals. We don't actually have to physically invent a material like the ETFE that clads the Water Cube of the Beijing Olympics, it can but doesn't have to be that forward-looking, but we can write about methods to simplify existing technology. We can also be innovators in the sense that we can be the first, or one of the first, to apply an innovative technology; then we milk the heck out of the publicity.