We are such terrible business people. The QR technology sounds like another way to get more overworked, paid less, and held liable for trying to create more control. Rather than expand our client base, we obsess over figuring out how to add more services while chasing the same small group of clients. The GA State Capitol building was built using 4 sheets of paper and the Architect received a 3% fee. Today it would take 400 drawings plus a Bush Tax Cut or Health Care Law sized spec book (depending on your polarization) and many of us are only getting 2% fees. Now, the Architect spent more time on site, but what happened? Why are we working much harder today, why do we have much more liability, and why are we getting paid less on top of it all?
I've found that I make much better money per hour designing small residential renovations and unique spec houses than I do designing commercial buildings or custom homes for the end user. The total fee may be larger on commercial, but you spend so much time producing all of the required documents. At the end of the day, if you want to be successful, you're looking at dollars per hour, not total fee. Here's a basic analogy: If you go to the cable company and they offer a bundle of services like phone, cable, and internet, how do they get you to bite? They offer a discount for bundling. Every time we add more services to a proposal, we find ourselves giving a little break to entice the client to buy more stuff. We're creating more work, while getting paid less. The cable, phone, and internet infrastructure is paid for, so discounting services adds more money without more cost. We're offering these discounts for a service requiring manpower, not paid for infrastructure. On the flip side, if you offer the least amount of service to the smallest project, you get to charge the minimum set up fee. This is the price you pay for the cable guy just to show up. He's charging you the same price whether it takes 20 minutes or 3 hours, but he's always charging for the 3 hour scenario. I made the most money per hour designing a 30sf bathroom addition and the least on a 20,000sf medical office.
Look at how the spec book has caused more harm than good. Rather than place responsibility on the contractor, we take it away thinking we're seizing control. Our spec books give instructions for installation, storage, etc. which are the Contractor's responsibility. The moment we start dictating how the work is implemented, we open ourselves up to additional liability. How many lawsuits involve discrepancies between the spec book and drawings? We all know there are books and college courses that teach future contractors how to exploit the discrepancies between our spec books and drawings to charge the client with more change orders $$$. Change orders anger clients and when the contractor can exploit these discrepancies in our documents, they have legal grounds to exploit the owner's wallet and blame us for it. The more documents a lawyer has to sift though, the more $$$ they'll find for their client. I'm sure none of you have experienced this before.
Lawsuits are a matter of perception. If the owner thinks you're to blame, then they will focus their anger on you. The more present, the more involved, and the more you cross the line of Design-Installation, the more risk you create. In contrast to my commercial experience my experience with lesser residential work is that builders love to take over a home project, mostly because they're not used to Architects being involved. They are perceived by the owner as being responsible in this case. When I design a modest home renovation, the home owner can't afford a $20k set of drawings w/ CA services, but they do have a few thousand to spend on a good idea and permit drawings. Because there is a HUGE wealth of these types of projects all around you, there is no need to try to extract every cent out of these people (they can't afford it). I found that the least amount of time I spend, the more money I make, no matter how many services I try to sell them. When you get in and get out as fast as possible and let the builder take over, then all the eyes of perception are on them, not you. I have over 200 built projects and have never been threatened with a lawsuit.
Instead of trying to figure out how to create more work for ourselves that will eventually be absorbed into the same fee we already get, we need to focus on expanding our client base. Residential generated 200% more GDP than Commercial at the height of the boom. Residential designers do not have the expertise to solve complicated structural problems and thus clean up the way spaces flow and communicate when starting with a bad home. Renovating stick framed structures is far more complicated than many of the commercial projects I've worked on. There is a huge need for us in this sector and this is where we could begin to insert ourselves in a very lucrative and bountiful market. People are still getting pregnant and married, but they can't sell their houses. Renovations are the only possibility for most people. Get involved in your neighborhood. I've practically taken mine over. All it takes is a couple of yard signs to look like you're the only game in town. Give them your minimum set up fee for good idea and a permit and you will make better money per hour. It's much faster to create a reputation in the place you live because people love having a neighborhood Architect. We need to provide access to real Architecture for regular people and they will soon appreciate the power of design. Impressing residential clients is like shooting fish in a barrel. Many of you are far more talented than I, so if I can change the attitudes of southerners stuck on tradition and history, then I'm sure we all can make a difference with the masses. When I first moved to my neighborhood, all of the real estate agents were hateful of anything that wasn't a craftsman bungalow. What defined a craftsman was anything with a front entry porch with tapered wood columns on a brick base. Greene and Greene never used these types of columns, nor were the large covered porches used as an entry. Our absence from this sector has created a majority consensus of Architectural History according to the salesmen. If we want to make ourselves important as we should be, we need to figure out how to reach out to the masses. We want to control all aspects of projects, which has limited us to a small group of projects. In order to get involved in more residential work, letting go of control and finding a place where we are more like the consultant (who always makes better $$$/hr), we can get in and out while letting the builder shoulder the majority of the liability. More client base + less work = more profit!
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Eric Rawlings AIA
Owner
Rawlings Design, Inc.
Decatur GA
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-14-2011 16:57
From: Sean Catherall
Subject: Are you ready to start including QR Codes in building model or even the build itself?
Just because we "can" do something doesn't mean we "should".
For example, in the case of distributing updated construction documents via QR code: Who assures that installers check the QR code before installation in a QR code document distribution system and how do they assure that? Who assures that outdated documents are pulled off the site to avoid their inadvertent use and how do they assure that (especially when anyone can have outdated, self-printed documents without managers knowing it)? How can a project manager be assured that all applicable parties have been notified of changes and clarifications? If the QR code is in addition to a more reliable, controlled system for document distribution, how is it more than a gimmick?
Furthermore, is it easier to see and use the content of a document on a smartphone or tablet device than it is to see and use a full-size paper copy, particularly under the conditions encountered on construction sites? Can the document access device be left out for use by multiple workers and trades or does each individual need his or her own device?
Early or timely adoption of a new technology is only valuable to the extent that the technology solves an existing problem without creating new problems. Frequently, simpler (paper) is better.
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Sean Catherall, AIA
Herriman UT
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-13-2011 12:26
From: Michael Tardif
Subject: Are you ready to start including QR Codes in building model or even the build itself?
What Bernie Duncan originally proposed was not QR codes linked to specific product/item ("SKU") information (which, of course, may change between initial design and final installation without the architect's knowledge), but rather to link back to design intent information such as construction documents and specifications, which the architect/engineer controls. There could be considerable value to this to everyone in the design and construction process (architects/engineers, general contractors, trade contractors) because everyone would have ready access to the correct, latest construction documents and specifications at any time, and would no longer have to worry whether the version of a document that they have in their hand is the latest (and correct) revision, or whether the product they are holding in their hand complies with the design intent expressed in the construction documents. Just imagine being able to scan a QR code on a window and immediately being able to call up the specification and/or the installation detail for that window.
Issuing revisions to documents would be as simple as sending out an e-mail notification to all parties advising them to "scan the QR code on [document or specification name/page] to access the latest revision of the document." The same notice could appear beneath the QR code on every page of a construction document (drawing or specification).
Contractors could stick QR codes on materials/equipment/building components as they arrive on-site (or before they leave the manufacturer or fab shop) to link back to the same design-intent information. The architect would not have to be responsible for that, but the contractor, knowing that QR codes have been published, could take advantage of it.
This is basically a technological advance over the concept of tagging building materials with bar codes or RFID tags, which only link the item to a unique identifier that then has to be linked to information in a database elsewhere, which requires significant "information management" overhead. QR codes eliminate the need for BOTH the unique identifier AND the intermediate database, because they can link directly to the data itself.
The cost of embedding QR codes in models, construction documents, specifications, or even actual componments or assemblies, and linking them to an available Internet-accessible database, would be inconsequential, especially once it became a "standard operating procedure." Even the initial cost of setting up the system would amount to very little for most design firms. Large firms already have the necessary network/Internet infrastructure to support it, while smaller firms could purchase the necessary Internet-accessible data storage at commodity pricing, especially as cloud computing solutions become more common. QR codes can be read by most smartphones and smart pads (iPads, Android tablets), so there would be no cost to the "publisher" of the QR codes for access to the data on the receiving end.
Bernie's proposal would be a brilliant original idea if QR codes were not already so ubiquitous (just ask your iPhone-equipped 13 year old, but be prepared for an eye roll). This is just another example of how slow the building industry is to adopt and implement truly useful technologies. As an industry, we should be all over this, but then again, simple bar codes have existed for 30 years, and as an industry we never fully exploited that technology. But now we don't have to - we can leap right over it to QR codes.
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Michael Tardif Assoc. AIA, CSI, Hon. SDA, LEED AP
Director, Integrated Project Delivery Systems
Grunley Construction Company, Inc.
Rockville MD
michaeltardif@grunley.com
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