Poetry Woman

Architecture, it has been said, is frozen music.  Right now that analogy rings hollow.  Music when performed by a consummate talent has intellectual and emotional content so far in excess of any pile of bricks and mortar that the comparison fails on multiple levels.

When was the last time you would sit with your eyes closed, tapping your foot subconsciously?  When did walking into a space compel you to dance, even though you have two left feet?  Did a building ever bring you to tears?  Or could a room, by itself, symbolize your love for another person?

Today the world lost a spectacular talent.  Singer Phoebe Snow succumbed to complications from a brain hemorrhage suffered last year.  With a vibrant dynamic voice, she imbued all that she touched with her unmistakable idiosyncratic style.  In the early and mid 70's she took the music industry by storm with many vivid and personal interpretations, not just her iconic "Poetry Man".  But then she faded away, while she took care of her daughter who had been severely brain damaged at birth.  I was lucky enough to be there for one of the last live performances before Ms. Snow's hiatus.  Phoebe refused to let her career take priority over her daughter.

But Phoebe Snow came back to public performances after her daughter's eventual passing.  She had, in fact, never been totally silent, doing the occasional commercial vocal and studio-recorded album.  Now she too is gone.

This blog is intended to be about our business - and trust me, this is.  We should all aspire to touch people by our work.  We should do so with thorough commitment and ethical purity.  We should do so with fervor, seriousness, and - yes - humor.  We should learn from the example of others, who inspire us by their wholesome contributions.

We now live on a planet made better by Phoebe Snow.  We owe it to her to honor the experience she has given us.

 

Who's more nuts?

Construction Managers or Owners?

Over the last year or so, many Construction Managers have been caught up in a downward spiral of ever reducing fees?  (Architects have been doing the same thing - but that's a topic for another day.)

Conventional wisdom is that, with a routine CM contract, fees of between 2 and 3 % are needed to spin off enough profit to maintain the business.  How can it be that many proposals are now coming in at 1/2 of that?  What the heck is going on?

• Are Owners now rationalizing some sort of retribution?
• Are CM's buying work to keep staff occupied?
• Have some accounting changes made conventional wisdom invalid?
• Is risk getting reassigned?
• Are there hidden profits not fully disclosed by CM's?

Does any one really know?  What do you think?