CompuServe Messages

Andrew: Althogh I've had experiences which directly contradict the sentiment in your post, I will go on record as agreeing with most of your assessment. A few points: //_____________From your message_____________\\ creative engineers _______________________________________________ Oxymoron — <GGG> /_____________From your message_____________\\ But most clients don't see the design phase as being that important. _______________________________________________ True to an extent. The tenants (not necessarily the owners) will have the ultimate power for controlling design. If the tenant decides a building is too hideous for their company image they won't lease space or buy a particular building. A tenant/owner, I have found, is not aesthetically blind but the pocketbook has a way of filtering what they see. Resale value, lease value, and vacancy rate can translate into an owner's desire for a more attractive design. The architectural world has gone through some recent purges as the economy has taken its downturns. I don't think architecture as a profession is dying as you suggest, but I do think there will be some serious changes in the size of firms, the scope of the services we provide and to whom architectural services are provided. My prediction is that architects will continue to allow the simpler (residential), the industrial (warehouses, manufacturing) and other lower profile, lower budget projects to escape their grasp. Important buildings, prominent buildings, legacies if you will, will remain the pride of architectural accomplishment. Joe the housebuilder will sell more dial-a-houses to the masses and Fred the metal warehouse builder will litter our landscape with tornado fodder. Hey, the greeks had the acropolis with their important buildings occupying the high ground and also had thousands of little shacks and huts to house the teeming millions below. They had architects to design the temples and their own Joe the housebuilder for the huts, not much has changed in these few millenia. Bob I've seen your CD in the stores, its on my Christmas list.