Reflective (AKA: -ish)

Another project down-ish and another project started-ish. I say "ish" because the time I spend on projects is never the beginning or end of them in my opinion. They are almost always well underway before I really see them and they are never complete and occupied when I'm done with them. I prefer a true beginning to end involvement but that's very rarely possible.

These moments of transition always seem to be a time where I look back and assess. Besides, it's the end of the year. Isn't that what we're suppose to be doing now? Here are some majors (professional not personal). The first memory I have of tinkering with computers is 4th grade (23-ish years ago - OUCH!). I've been doing architecture professionally for 11-ish years, now. Wow. We've been in Cleveland now for 2-ish years. And, I've been licensed to practice in the State of Ohio for less than a year.

I can't even count the number of projects I've worked on over the years: a couple by hand (yes on a board and drafting with that ink thing), a ton by CAD, and I come to assess that it's pushing past a dozen in BIM. Mind you, these are not all full CD projects. But, they are projects I've put more than a day into.

I'm kind of amazed by that. Back in the day when I first played with ArchiCAD and hated its remedial interface and wished its libraries were even attempted to be developed and felt it didn't think like an architect, I thought we'd never get to the point where CD's were really being produced in-line with information rich 3D models. I continued to model in one program, render in another, document in multiple programs, draft in yet another, manage in other programs or by hand, and timeline in yet another. The process was so disjointed. (I'll talk in another post about how I think that disjointed process actually CAN help the project.) Of course, now I hear that ArchiCAD is phenomenally better than it was. I haven't been able to play with it again. I use Revit.

But, thinking back to where we've been: I'm constantly amazed at where we are. Let's keep pushing to make the future amazing too, shall we?