There are always improvements and changes I want to make to Architekwiki. Now that it is spring (finally), some cleaning is in order. First is the quarterly update to the ’Best Of’ page. This was pretty easy this time around. The ’Top 5 Most Viewed - All-Time’ list just reshuffled a bit, no additions or deletions. One of the ’Top 5 Most Viewed - Recently’ was eliminated. It was ’Roof Access Ladder’, which had been in second place. Its link is here if you want to view it. The new addition is ’Typical Drywall Partition Details’ at number 4. See it and the reshuffled rankings here. Other changes that I’ve made over the past few days:
I am working on some additional Spring Cleaning for the coming weeks. So look forward to a continued graphic upgrade, and an updated home (About) page. I have bitten off more than I can chew. The truth is that I usually figure out how something should work after I have been doing it for six months. I am going to take a hiatus on publishing the NEWSletter until I can figure out the big picture.
Some Random Thoughts On Time Management:
THE WORK DAY The 8-5 work day is quickly becoming an anachronism. It is still meaningful for a lot of workers, but not for knowledge workers, designers for instance. Being at the office is only good for making it look like something is getting done. When you factor in all the gossip, 'doing office stuff', interruptions, 'having a meeting' events and times when you really don't feel like working, the typical work day is maybe 5 hours of actual work. Maybe. I think it would be more adult-like for everyone to work 35 productive hours a week when and where they want to work them. COMP TIME Compensatory Time is a tool for recognizing and documenting actual hours worked. If the goal is 35 hours of productive work a week, and you actually worked 30 or 40 hours, then the 5 hour difference is tracked as a running balance. Periodically you evaluate whether any action should be taken. A big balance might merit a bonus. A deficit might require a conversation, or it might show that the work is getting done just fine without all the hours. It is basically a salary tool to make sure neither party is being taken advantage of. OFFICE HOURS / BEING AT THE OFFICE The reality is that knowledge workers don't have many reasons to be at the office. Office hours let the letter carrier and sales reps know when they can expect to find someone in the office. Everyone else communicates by phone or email. So set the goal of manning the office from 10 AM to 3 PM. Post a sign. Coordinate schedules to meet the 10 - 3 goal; and let everyone work at the office when they want to. SCHOOL HABITS / OUTGROW OR HONOR? I know I taught myself some lousy time-management habits when I was in school. I wouldn't be surprised if you did, too. If those habits don't work for you, by all means change them. But if those habits represent who you are and how you deal with time, then I think it is alright to decide to honor the habits and not change. I promised myself that when I turned 40 - "no more all-nighters". My last all-nighter was when I was 52. MEETINGS / STANDING MEETINGS Meetings are the biggest time-wasting invention of all time. I have caused at least a few man-years of wasted time with my meetings. Standing meetings should be outlawed. Standing meetings always degenerate into a waste of time. An email is usually more than adequate. When it is easier to call a meeting than to write the email, you are really out of control. Always have a unique agenda to make sure you know what you want to accomplish. Don't copy the agenda from the last meeting. Start from scratch. If the purpose of the meeting is to make comments, send an email. If you want input, send an email. If you want a decision, send out a poll. Just make sure you need to meet to get the result that you need. EFFICIENCY VS EFFECTIVENESS Efficiency and effectiveness are not the same thing. You want effectiveness every time. Some people can get tons of stuff done every day. They burn through the mail, the email, setting up meetings, making decisions, completing assignments. It is possible that they were 100% efficient in the use of their time. If none of this work led to accomplishing their top priorities, then they were 0% effective. Racing to the finish line only counts if you are in the right race. DAILY GOALS The best technique that I have found for staying effective is the 3 Daily Goals. End each day by evaluating what you accomplished toward your 3 Daily Goals. Then write down the 3 Daily Goals you want to accomplish the next day to take you closer to meeting your top priorities. During the day, check the list every hour or so. Get back on track if needed. PRIORITIES I can't tell you what your priorities should be, but I can tell you how to prioritize your design work.
Green Hot Water Heaters
Hot water heaters, as we know them, are quickly becoming a thing of the past. The main change is the elimination of the tank and locating the heater near the need for hot water. The benefits are less hot water piping, less energy used because you don't keep a tank of water hot at all times, an endless supply of hot water when needed, and half the maintenance cost for the system. It is not uncommon for the annual cost of hot water to be 50% or less using this system. This style of tankless hot water heater is suitable for residential and commercial uses and for new or replacement / retrofit. Here is how the system works. Instead of a tank of water kept hot in case you need it, you have what amounts to a mini-boiler ready to spring into action when needed. A tankless hot water heater can provide 5 to 10 gallons of 120 degree water per minute - and can keep it up for as long as needed. These systems are green in several ways. First is the energy savings from only heating the water you use. Second is the savings in materials - the piping, the elimination of the tank, and the replacement of the heater every 20 years instead of 7 (unless you are luckier than I am). Economically, it is an easy sell. Although the initial cost is roughly twice the cost of a natural gas hot water heater. The savings will make this a break-even in 4 to 5 years. Over its 20 year life expectancy, this system will cost less than half of the cost of the tank system. The limitations are: 1) you need natural gas*; 2) the units must be vented; 3) the units are most effective if they are close to the hot water usage; 4) if you need a really large quantity of hot water in a short time, say showering the football team in fifteen minutes, then this isn't the way to go. Rinnai, one of the popular brands has a helpful website at http://www.rinnai.us/tankless-water-heater Another resource comparing several brands is Household Water Systems. You can find links to pricing here. * My understanding is that natural gas is more economical to operate, but electric tankless water heaters are available.
So here is how Construction WorkZone works. Register for free to look up 10 items; or sign up for monthly use - $.99/first month, then $3.95/mo., cancel anytime. The data search looks like the screenshots below. The localized cost modifier seems to be a constant percent when I spot checked it. So you could do that just once on your subtotal. The key features of cost estimating don’t require exact unit costs, which don’t exist anyway. Just look at the bids you receive for proof. SUMMARY - PROs Low Cost Reasonably comprehensive Lots better than guessing Low learning curve SUMMARY - CONs A little more time-consuming than I would like Must transcribe costs, which is error-prone Results not saved for you (so take screenshots??) If you are keeping your billable time in a spreadsheet, or, god forbid, a paper form; I found a really nice alternative, OfficeTime Although there is a one-time cost of $47 for a Mac or Windows desktop version, you will certainly make that up by capturing all your time more easily. This is especially true if you also use the $8 iOS app so you can log your billable time anywhere. The iOS apps synch with the desktop app by bluetooth. Once you turn it on, it just happens when the apps and desktop versions are open and nearby. I use an iPhone, iPad and the desktop and there has never been a hiccup. The app is clean and simple with enough tools to do what you need by using the Timesheet, Project, Categories and Reports screens. New Session The main data entry is by adding or editing a session or expense. A Session is a work session in which you select the project and record the date, start time, time duration of the work session, and the category you want to assign the time to. If needed the session can be resumed later in the day rather than have two similar entries. The app’s settings let you use the last session’s info to avoid repetitive data entry. You can also add a note to each entry to describe the work you did.
Wrap Up
OfficeTime works perfectly for me. I have been using a time-keeping system that is part of the accounting system that I subscribe to. I was in the market for a cheaper solution. I found a free accounting system, Wave; but there is no time-keeping and the invoicing is clumsy. That's where OfficeTime comes in. For a one-time charge that is a 75% reduction in my annual cost, I will have my needs covered. And no monthly fee. I think that for small design teams OfficeTime is a home run. Try it out, there is a 21 day trial of the complete desktop version and free, but limited, iOS apps. Constant logging of time is the only way to go. OfficeTime makes it easy.
I love to plan. I would rather plan a task than do it in most instances. That's the way I am wired. Fairly often I catch myself getting lost in the planning when I could have completed the task by now. I think I recognize this tendency in USGBC. They are more about planning and re-working the plan and improving the plan than actually ... what? What is their goal? Reduce pollution and greenhouse gases? Save the rain forests? Keep landfills from overflowing? I was going to write "save energy"; but if you are using soloar energy or wind energy, you can't save it without nasty batteries - so use all you want. Save water? That's a misnomer because all the water on planet earth is exactly the same amount as it was a million years ago. It recycles. So saving water either means "don't screw it up" for the next guy or don't use so much that the guy at the end of the stream doesn't get a drink too (because there are way more people wanting a drink now than one million years ago). Of course, you can't achieve any meaningful goal with all this saving of energy or water. The seven billion plus of us humans are the problem. We need to start solving the problems we can. The green gurus aren't helping. Not using energy or water doesn't make enough energy or water for everybody. I liken the green approach to not eating so there is enough food rather than growing more food. Malthus said we would all starve because of the growth in population. Instead we figured out how to grow more food. USGBC is Malthus. orig post date FEB 2013 I don't know why I haven't mentioned this app before. It is an outlining app that is really very good. I’ve been using it as both a browser-based web app and an iOS device App. The web app is CarbonFin’s Outliner Online. An account is free and can be used as a standalone web app. One of the nice features is being able to share outlines with others for collaboration; or you can publish the outline so that it can be viewed by browser by anyone with the URL. Even a tablet browser works pretty well with the Outliner Online to give you mobile access.
However, if you are on the iOS platform, the $5 universal App is actually a much better experience than the web app on a computer. Even on an iPhone. Some of the features of iOS App, Outliner by CarbonFin:
The pictures below show some of the options. The picture on the left shows me using Outliner to keep a checklist of management tasks that I was working on. The ability to add a note to the item could be used to capture instructions, background, examples, or descriptions - any text you like. And, of course, Outliner can be used for anything that lends itself to a outline format. Some ways I’ve used Outliner:
When you find yourself working with a Building Committee, you will normally find that they do not have any particular experience of serving on building committees or managing a building project. There are exceptions - public schools, higher education, hospitals and organizations with a facility manager - but your first step is to determine what work they have done so far. You want to know if they have a documented plan for the project as most Owner/Architect contracts state. So, if they have a documented plan and program, budget, and schedule, and they all seem realistic, you are ready to start designing. If they do not have a boni-fide plan, and if you begin designing in order to 'stumble upon' a solution that works for them, then you will almost certainly have some re-designing to do sooner or later. You and the building committee need a coherent plan for their project - a plan that will require little or no re-design. If there is no plan, or if it doesn't make sense, then you will need to back them up and take them through the planning that they need to do. The engineers and contractors on the committee will balk at this. This is where you point out that you are being asked to go 'off-script' and to proceed in a way that is unpredictable and that is not anticipated by the contract. So either way, planning first or jumping into design, you will need a larger fee than has been proposed because the scope of your work has changed. If you are asked to begin designing anyway, you should try to get the fee for Schematic Design changed to an hourly basis to compensate you for the inevitable redesign that you will have to do. You might consider spending some time, in that case, doing the planning that needs to be done so that the redesign doesn't come back to haunt you after Schematic Design is approved and you are back to a standard fee for Basic Services. If you are given the chance to help them with the planning, here is an outline of how you might proceed.
orig post date Nov2012 Here is List “B” of Software Tools. As I said when introducing List "A", my favorite articles in Architekwiki are usually about “Tools”. I like gadgets. Although these are not tools in the traditional sense of physical objects, they serve the same purpose. They are tools of the Knowledge Age. The Best Calculator Scalar is really useful - part calculator and part spreadsheet. Small Firm Accounting - Part 6 - Software Comparison We compare 14 accounting systems to help Kickstart your search. You Probably Need Trello - Lucky Its Free Trello offers a lot of the features you will find in Basecamp, but free. How To Hack Basecamp Personal If you have a Basecamp account, even an old free one, 37signals’ new offering is a really useful project management tool. Vittle The Presentation App This App is a little hard to explain but its features are in a new class. Note Taking Apps Inkflow Plus VS Notability Note taking on the iPad is much more powerful than it used to be. If you missed it, here is List “A”. My favorite articles in Architekwiki are usually about “Tools”. (I like gadgets.) Although these are not tools in the traditional sense of physical objects, they serve the same purpose. They are tools of the Knowledge Age. Here is List “A” of Software Tools. Gmail Tasks Revisited A tool you may already have with some unique features. Useful Mobile Apps Updated A list of apps that make things easier - better - funner. Field Measuring Theres An App For That Field measuring just got more interesting. Lucidchart Diagrams When you need a bubble diagram, org chart, or process flow chart, Lucidchart has you covered. Free. Basecamp - Nozbe Comparison Two great ways to manage all the projects and their tasks. Five Handy Photo Apps It is absolutely amazing what you can do with these apps and your phone’s camera. Favorite Sticky Note Apps For iPad There are a million uses for sticky notes. Now coming to your tablet. Xmas Gifts Another task, besides Budgeting, that is timely for the end of October is planning your gift-giving to clients. The decisions are:
So here is our process. First, determine how much we billed each client. Those we billed over $5,000 in the first 10 months of the year get a gift. Others get a card. Second, we budget 0.002 times the amount billed for the gift(s). Third, we look at the number of gifts and their values and picked one or two items that seem to work. My list of past choices is below. Fourth, bearing in mind that some authority (IRS, probably) says gifts shouldn't exceed $30, we let that inform the decision of who gets what. Often we give a client organization multiple versions of the gift, which are directed to different people that are involved in the project. Sometimes, we direct a gift to "Office Staff", too. Fifth, we have drifted toward online gift purchasing that includes wrapping and delivery. Of course that adds cost. So it is a balancing act. Feel free to modify this procedure in any way you want. I don't have a clue how anyone else does this. Gift Examples:
One last suggestion: keep each year's list where you can find it. Not remembering what you did last year creates some unnecessary anxiety. If this activity puts you in the mood to think about your own Xmas List, check out these ideas. One of the first articles that I wrote was about Google's TASKS feature in Gmail. I was probably segueing away from using it at the time. Now I am back. TASKS is part of the Gmail system whether you use a simple gmail account or a Google Apps account. Like Outlook and Apple Mail, TASKS gives you a place to list TO-DOs. You can start as many Task lists as you want so you can keep things in categories, or, perhaps, organized by project. This is how I think of things and how I use TASKS. I have projects for actual projects, but also Strategic Projects that I am working on for Architekwiki. A project might also be a set of reminders about invoicing or other 'overhead' activity. What makes TASKS unique from anything I have ever used is its ability to connect an email conversation to a task. You simply select 'Add to Tasks' from the 'More' drop-down menu while you are reading the email or have it selected. The task name defaults to the Subject of the email, which I usually add to or replace with something more descriptive of what needs to be done. When you review your task list, you can click on 'related email' to recall the email. So the task listing is both a reminder that follow up is needed as well as the background reference itself. Clicking on "related email" brings up the original email along with all others in the thread/conversation no matter how old or where they are archived. The unique "related email" feature doesn't come at the expense of all the standard features you need in a TO-DO system. TASKS has due dates, notes, sub-tasks (by indenting), sorting, printing, emailing the list, clearing and viewing completed tasks, etc. Another advantage is that you can rely on TASKS to track critical emails without the effort of managing special "stars" or colored "flags" in your inbox. I have used the tactic of moving critical tasks to the top of the list (simply drag) and in some cases created a 'Critical' task list into which I move those tasks (also easy, two clicks). The mobile apps for TASKS gives you access to your tasks no matter where you are, even though this is basically a browser-based tool. If you find that a lot of your TO-DOs and follow-up comes from email exchanges, this is a perfect way to simplify your system for tracking what needs to be done. I recently spent a day attending a mishmash of seminars in order to fill up on Continuing Education Units. So here's what I learned. Continuing Education is just like regular education - effort-in equals benefits-out. If we are counting on continuing education to provide the public with better architects, let's hope architects are already good enough. If the states truly think that continuing education is a necessity, then they should get off their duffs and provide it. The system in place is just a busy-work joke. Ok, rant over. The presentations were on Automatic Entrances, Limestone, Air Barriers, FRT Wood, and Bioclimatic Facades. Automatic Entrances Pedestrian oriented automatic entrances come in two types - swinging and sliding and each of these come in either full energy or low energy. And then there are ICU doors, which are the same as the others except inside hospitals (because no one else uses them?). So you ’get’ the difference between swinging and sliding doors. The sliders take up lots more space, but would generally be preferred except for that limitation. The swinging variety need many more safety features so you don't get hit by the door or it closes on your fingers. If you can tolerate the slow speed of the low energy variety. The low energy doors are too weak to hurt anyone. The nuances make it a good idea to involve a manufacturer's rep in the design/specification process. (A theme, generally.) In Part 1 we looked at how you would integrate a 'Cloud' service into your workflow. In this 2nd Part, we look at how you might use Evernote and how a solution for you might look. For an individual, Evernote might be all you need to save your files. And Evernote is a great addition to any paperless filing system. You don't have to buy anything to store 60 MB per month. Evernote is browser based, but there are free apps that improve the experience on just about every platform. Evernote stores files as attachments to notes. You scroll thru your notes by Tags and Notebooks, or you can use Evernote's very strong search feature. The key to retrieving files is tagging them with meaningful words. A really useful feature is the ability to ’clip’ web pages and screen shots for storage. This makes Evernote a must-have research assistant for product, code, zoning and other kinds of research. The clipping tools are integrated into Chrome, Safari, Firefox browsers as extensions making the process very easy. The premium Evernote account is $5/mo ($45/yr) and the storage limit increases to 1GB per month and you are able to share Notebooks with other users who can add and edit information in the shared Notebook. Individual notes with attached files can be emailed to anyone. The biggest drawback to using Evernote as your main file storage location is that files have to be downloaded to edit them. Files like CAD or Word files start off being saved somewhere else, then moved to Evernote. Once modified, the file is attached to a new note or the same note, but it doesn't overwrite. This creates the opportunity to grab the wrong version for the next edit. I think it works better to think of Evernote as your file archive rather than a server. And it works much better than a server to collect and share research material. Your needs bear on the choices you make. I'll break it down into three scenarios - an individual, a small team of 2-7, and a firm or larger team of more than seven.
THE INDIVIDUAL SOLUTION The individual can almost certainly enjoy a cloud solution without spending anything for it. You probably already have several GBs of cloud storage as part of your Google account (Drive) or your use of Apple products (iCloud). If not, it is a snap to sign up for Dropbox to get started with 2GB free, and then use the Dropbox tools to urge your contacts to get an account, too (1/2GB per referral). Surely your SO, a couple of friends or family members will help you out. Bingo! You have 5GB of storage. Free. Next get an Evernote account if you haven't got one. Now move any inactive files from Dropbox to Evernote a few times a year to keep under your Dropbox limit. You have a sustainable free storage environment thanks to Evernote's total storage per account being unlimited. THE SMALL TEAM SOLUTION The Small Team, 2 to 7 people, Solution looks a lot like the Individual solution with the major difference that you may not be able to make it completely free. That is because of the need for sharing among team members. And to a lesser extent because the number of files will start to increase in number and total storage needed, you may bump into the limits of a free account. So here's what you do. Someone gets a paid Dropbox account for $10/mo ($100/yr). This raises your storage limit to 100 GB for that account, which you treat as the main account. Structure your folders so that projects don't overlap and other business functions are separate too - say finance, business development, management. Make the main dropbox folder 'shared'. Everyone else on the team can choose which folders of that large shared account they need on their free accounts to keep below the free limit. This may sound like a lot of trouble, but we have done it and it really isn't. Unless you are working with 20 MB picture files, but even 100s of BIM files easily fit in 2 GB. And how many BIM projects can you be actively working on at one time? Checking your shared folder selections a couple of times a year will save you $100 per person. Since you have 100 GB of storage for the team, there is no need to move inactive files to Evernote. However, the other reasons for using Evernote still apply. Once again, like Dropbox, make one account a premium account. This person starts all the Notebooks that will want to be shared with everyone else. Easy peasy. THE BIG TEAM SOLUTION The Big Team, more than 7 people, Solution looks just like the Small Team Solution except you are likely to need more paid accounts. There will be more people who need access to just about everything. That just isn't going to work with one premium account. (Although anyone can access all the shared folders through a browser! It just isn't something you want to do constantly because it is slower.) I once evaluated this approach for an organization of 120 people. They identified only 3 people who would need access to everything, and another 7 that would need access to more than 2 GB of files. Here is another article that will help you go paperless. I recently extolled the virtues of going paperless for your record-keeping. What I didn't talk about was how you handle the backend of things, where do all these electronic files reside so that you can access them. The traditional way was to buy a server, set up a local network, connect all your computers to the network, and file everything on the server. To go offsite you, set up a virtual private network on your server that you could log into from anywhere there was Internet access. (This could get tricky.) $10,000 would get the job done, and it would last seven years with a $1,000 or more per year in maintenance and updates. Only large firms need or can afford this solution. Dropbox (or similar) is the new 'cloud' alternative to having your own file server. Dropbox is free for up to 2GB of storage and can be increased to 18 GB by getting friends to sign up too (500MB per referral). 2 GB might be enough storage for your work in progress unless your files include a lot of pictures and video. In any event you may be able to stay in the free arena indefinitely if you archive inactive files in Evernote. See the Evernote discussion in Part 2. You use Dropbox just the same as a file server. Once installed it shows up in your file folders, where you can set up sub folders as you like. Wherever you are, if you can get on the Internet even by 3G, you have access to your files. Smart phones and tablets work the same except access is through the Dropbox app. Or you can get access through a web browser on any computer. The first time that you access a drawing on a constructions site with your phone, you will catch yourself smiling. It is easy to share folders or files. Folders and sub-folders can be arranged the same way you are accustomed to. You can search your files, too, to find what you need, but I find a strong folder structure works best. Dropbox isn't the only choice. It is just the one I use and am most familiar with. Other Cloud services that work similar to Dropbox are Microsoft SkyDrive, Google Drive, Box, Apple iCloud or SugarSync. The list could go on. While technically your cloud data is safe and backed up, I have a 1 Tb hard drive security blanket that also holds everything that is on Dropbox. Your computer's hard drive might work just fine. Another piece of equipment that you might need to be paperless is an all-in-one printer/copier/scanner - forget fax. People are still going to send you paper, but you don't have to keep it. Scan it and file it away. You could use your phone's camera for this. But eventually you will tire of photographing multipage documents, getting the documents to lay flat, and illuminating them evenly and brightly. One last thing to consider, if filing all this digital stuff is a group activity, is an old-school paper attachment or coded directions for filing. This way you can indicate where you want something to go without being the person who does the scanning and filing. Or at least batch up the scanning/filing until you are in the mood. I found that a handwritten coded instruction works very well, often written on a post-it so the original remains pristine. "S/F-FAX/backstage" is an example. This 'says' to Scan and File the document in the Fine Arts Expansion project folder in the 'backstage' sub-folder. This code only works if you know the file folder scheme by heart. Otherwise you might need to paper clip a completed filing checklist to the document. In the next article, I will discuss how Evernote fits into the paperless process, and will give you some solutions for Individuals, Small Teams, and Big Teams. Here is a dependable way to determine your hourly rate as a consultant. This works whether you are a freelance consultant or have a firm with employees. TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENSE First total your yearly business expenses. This is EVERYTHING except design consultants. This includes business consultants, wages, payroll expenses, everything that you spend money on because you have a business. Now divide by 12 to get your average monthly total expenses. TOTAL PRODUCTION EXPENSE Next you will calculate how much you spend on the labor to produce the work that you are able to bill for. You will do this for each individual in your firm (or just yourself if a freelancer). Gather these pieces of information:
Occasionally we have worked for the contractor instead of the Owner. Lots can go wrong in this arrangement, but with the right firm it can also work well - for everyone. One of the things that might be different working for a contractor is that they may have specific requests for how they want information shown. We rarely use a sheet size other than 36x24. This determines the placement of a lot of information. Considerations like this ignore the user of the drawings. One of my favorite contractors is the third generation in his family's business, usually a bad omen; but he is more hands-on than almost anyone I've come in contact with. For an office addition for his (our) industrial client he had a very clear idea of how he wanted our work laid out on the drawing sheets. See the image. His instructions were: "Get both floor plan and ceiling plan on the same sheet along with door and finish schedules so everything is together and I don't have to flip back and forth when I'm working with my subs." As you can see, it worked out very well. Although, compliance with the National CAD Standards was shot all to hell! When you are embarking on a new project, it is crucial to have a plan for the project. You need to know the goals you need to achieve for success. This building planning process has six parts that build upon each other:
From that point of view the whole planning process is about money. Each of the six areas of the planning process, while necessary in its own right, are also needed to answer that bottom-line question about cost. Space needs translate directly into construction costs; and so do the building characteristics and land use. These might also affect design costs. Project constraints and implementation issues can affect design costs as well as other "soft" (non-construction) costs. Finally, budgeting is about bringing all this cost information into alignment with the money that is available to fund the project. It really is all about money. To keep nasty surprises at bay, we've found that, if your budget is comprehensive, then surprises are much less likely to occur. "Comprehensive" means lots of detail; and lots of detail also makes your budget more accurate. Besides the main costs of construction there are many issues that are easy to underestimate or overlook altogether. Construction costs are the "hard" costs. The "soft" costs fall into two categories: Design, Development. All these costs are listed in our template for a comprehensive Project Budget. Strive to incorporate all of these budget concepts into an integrated process for answering "How much will the building cost?" This is a listing of the Apps that I use continually and that you might find useful. This first appeared in February 2013 and just four months later needs an update. Apps at the top of their group are most useful, I find, but that is personal. Text in red indicates an addition to the listings. Several links have been added to articles about some of the apps. All of these are found in the Apple App Store. Most are free. Some of these apps are offered free periodically through an app called AppsGoneFree! If you have any comments enter them below and I will answer by comment. These apps make it easy to work wherever the mood takes you. Photo-related:
Miscellaneous:
This Post Is Obsolete. But Wait. Although 'Basecamp Personal' no longer exists, use Basecamp3 instead in the same way described below. You get one free project. Unlimited members. When this gets hard to manage, the paid account is now just $29/mo for unlimited projects. Or stay free by using Trello™. 'Basecamp Personal' is a scaled-down version of the full Basecamp web application created by 37signals. The main differences with the full version are that you only have one project, you are limited to 5 users, and you only pay a one-time charge of $25. All the other Basecamp versions have monthly subscriptions, multiple projects and unlimited users. Currently you have to be a Basecamp user to purchase Basecamp Personal, but it seems as though 37signals plans to remove this restriction. If you aren't a user now, I think you will be able to get Basecamp Personal soon.
Our project ID convention is to use 3-4 letters in "stock call letter format" (you know AAPL for Apple) to represent the client's name. This is followed by a dash and another 3-4 letters that represent the initial letters of the project name, e.g. FAX = Fine Arts Expansion. (We used an 'X' here instead of an 'E' ... just because.)
The upshot is that we have have most of the benefits of Basecamp for just a one-time cost of $25. Keep your fingers crossed that 37signals opens up the availability to the public. What is needed to start an architectural firm today? This is a thought experiment. If you were starting an architectural firm today, how would you do it? At the time of the American Revolution, what did an architect's office look like? Probably not much different than in 1900, except the projects may have gotten bigger. In 1976, what would the differences have been? Well things have changed on the technological front. There are electric lighting, telephones, electric erasers, adding machines, light tables, automobiles for site visits, diazo and mimeograph printing for plans and specifications respectively. There is still that timeless part about needing a client with a project, however. Programming is more sophisticated. But designing and detailing a project isn't really any different. What about today? In 2013 what would be different? What could be different? What should be different? Except for that timeless part - a client with a project - EVERYTHING! You don't need: an office, a phone system, a plotter, a fax machine, a library, flat files, a conference room, a reception area, a server room, a network, a GBC punch and binder, past project files, etc. What DO you need? You may already have some of this. Computer - $1,000 iPad - later ($750) Smart phone - $200 CAD - DesignSight - FREE Basecamp subscription - $25/project for now Invoicing System - PayPal account Bookkeeping service - Wave - FREE Insurance - later ($500) - once you have work Website/Domain/Email - Weebly - $100 Google Apps with Drive - part of Weebly Dropbox - FREE (for additional shared storage) Wide format printer-copier-scanner - $300 Total to get started - less than $2,000 the first year, and about $200/month expenses. You may not need employees for some time. You can farm out work that you need help with to other self-employed architects, who could be anywhere. India? You really can't overstate how much Internet-based services change the need to be in one place with your design team. Add Google Hangout to your repertoire with its ability to share your screen with up to 10 people and you may just be old-fashioned if you think an office is necessary. So, work on getting that client. That is the only real barrier to having your own firm. Would it work for an architectural team to work from their respective homes or co-work offices? ('Co-work' is the concept where you rent a shared office with other companies -- often for as little as $200/mo.) Or what about working from Starbucks, the local tea shop, the library, a restaurant, your consultant's office, your accountant's office, a co-work sublet, or an office building's shared conference room / equipment. What do you really need? I brainstormed this list of activities that normally take place in the office. I only found four that couldn't be completely addressed by the tools available to you today. For instance wi-fi and LTE devices, Bacecamp, Google Hangouts, Skype, SMS, chat, cloud storage, mobile phones and laptops. Throw Kinko/FedEx or your local repro house into the mix and everything is pretty well covered.
Savings? Looks like at least $1,500 per month -- $18,000 / year
Can't cut loose from having an office? Have a mini-office of one room with two desks and supplies. Or a conference room with scalable tables (ref tables when not a conference table). Go in one day each in rotation. If five people, go in once a week. If seven or eight, go in every week and a half. Etc. - OR - Get an RV and drive it to sites and client meetings. ’Own’ your no-office, nomadic existence. Hold charrettes and bring the ’office’ to them. An intense hands-on experience like a charrette is just made for PR and marketing. Think about it. This economy is going to give you plenty of time to right size yourself for survival. Be creative. "Style Book - Drafting" For our IntraNet, we have developed several standards that everyone can refer to when needed. We call this our Style Book. Modern software like ArchiCad takes care of a lot of these issues for you. If you are still old-school about drafting tools, meaning AutoCAD and the like, standardize your drafting conventions for the last time. Here are our conventions. Modify to suit your taste. DRAFTING CONVENTIONS - LINE TYPES LEVEL LINES – FLOORS, TOP OF MASONRY, TOP OF CONCRETE, ETC. Show these lines as a light centerline type with a `target' at the end. Place these lines to the left of drawings and details unless clarity is served by placing them to the right. The line usually starts near but not touching the referenced item. Extend all lines away from the referenced item so that the `targets' line up. A `Target' is a circle with cross hairs through its center. The perimeter of the circle is a light line about 3/16" in diameter with the upper left and lower right quadrants filled solid. FINISHED GRADE - Show the Finished Grade as a solid 2.5mm (3/32") thick polyline that represents the desired grade at the face of the wall or other item of construction. Extend the Finished Grade polyline about 8' beyond and in the same plane as the wall, except where other construction intrudes. EXISTING GRADE - Show the Existing Grade as a dashed medium thick line that represents the existing grade at the face of the wall or other item of construction. Extend the Existing Grade line about 8' beyond and in the same plane as the wall, except where other construction intrudes. OTHER LINE TYPES - OVERHEAD LINES - Show lines that occur overhead or behind (not beyond) the picture plane as a dashed line with longer line segments - 1/4" to 3/8" each with 1/16" spacing. Pick a CAD line type that delivers these results. HIDDEN LINES - Show lines which occur below or beyond (not behind) the picture plane as a dashed line with shorter line segments - 3/32" to 3/16" each with 3/32" spacing. Pick a CAD line type that delivers these results. PHANTOM OBJECTS - Show the lines of objects that are missing as a dotted line with dots or extremely short dashes space closely together. Pick a CAD line type that delivers these results. Alternatively use a "GHOST" line weight. DRAFTING CONVENTIONS - LINE WEIGHTS LINE WEIGHTS - Line weights convey information and make a drawing easier to understand. The line weights that we use are as follows - name/color/lineweight/screening/color name: HEAVY / 7 / 0.70 / 100 / WHITE (BLACK) MEDIUM / 6 / 0.50 / 100 / MAGENTA LIGHT / 2 / 0.35 / 100 / YELLOW (GREEN & CYAN, TOO) VERY LIGHT / 9 / 0.25 / 100 / LIGHT GRAY VERY VERY LIGHT / 5 / 0.15 / 100 / BLUE GHOST / 8 / 0.25 / 20 / DARK GRAY LINE WEIGHT USE - PLANS: HEAVY for exterior face of exterior walls; MEDIUM for interior face of exterior walls and for both faces of interior walls; LIGHT for doors, windows, overhead changes of plane (long dash), below floor construction (short dash) and notes; VERY (LIGHT for stair construction, plumbing fixtures, casework; and VERY VERY LIGHT for showing internal material changes like veneers or poche' of wall materials or designations for wall types. LINE WEIGHT USE - ELEVATIONS: HEAVY for outline of building and any major offsets in plane; MEDIUM for minor offsets in plane (overhang, freestanding columns, etc.); LIGHT for doors, windows, gutters, downspouts, other changes in plane, etc.; VERY LIGHT for mullions, change of materials in the same plane; and VERY VERY LIGHT for showing poche' of wall materials, jointing patterns, texture, etc. TEXT CONVENTIONS All text except titles should be the same size, font/style and case. Our standards are: 3/32" high, Roman S, and ALL CAPS. Use Light line weight for notes (cyan, yellow, green or red) Generally place notes to the right of what they refer to so that the leader is at the beginning of the note. Notes are preferable to key notes; however, use a keynote if space is not available to place the note without overlapping any other lines. Overlapping lines are NEVER desirable and rarely acceptable. The font/style name for titles is `Bold'. POCHE’
Apply the appropriate material designations at the latest possible moment to avoid having to change the poche' as new information is added to the drawing. FLOOR PLANS - None for Schematic Design. Apply at the end of Design Development. Remove 80% of poche' at the start of Construction Documents, leaving poche' at corners and wall intersections for clarity. REFLECTED CEILING PLANS - NA for Schematic Design. Apply at the end of Design Development (if any). Update at the end of Construction Documents. ELEVATIONS - None for Schematic Design. Apply at the end of Design Development. Remove 60% of poche' at the start of Construction Documents, leaving poche' at corners and wall intersections for clarity. CROSS SECTIONS - None for Schematic Design. Apply at the end of Design Development. Remove any 'in the way' during Construction Documents. DETAILS - NA for Schematic Design. NA for Design Development. Apply all poche' at the end of Construction Documents, poche' only after all lines, dimensions and notes have been completed. |
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