Taco Flamingo!

I find that restaurent very emblematic of our society in the US. Everything fast, everything cheap, everything to go. I would sincerely like to try the food. Let the proof be in the pudding.

As far as the design, it seems rather typical of today's buildings especially in the food service. The new buildings are all gawty and angular not unlike many banks that I see going up these days. There is a new bank going up near me (for which my firm "used" to be the architect) and the building looks like a Steak and Shake. Stupid. They ditched us, old reliable to go for a new style. Truthfully, I can guarantee our buildings may not have looked as "cool" but some of the things I see are so dumb. and cheap. Anyhow. I'm jaded.

Back to the flamingo, if it is chain restaurant, then I would guess they might even have an in house Architect. So, the only design work that architect gets to do is making all the prefab pieces fit. They take the same plan over and over and modify it to work in whatever setting they want to drop it into. I could have gone into something like that and probably made a SHITLOAd more money than working in a small firm like I do. I know lots of peope who go that route. But there is no creativity, so repetitive.

America's Society doesn't want creativity. For some reason they want cookie cutter bullshit with as little character as possible. It really is beyond me.

shit.

it's the same with housing. no one wants to pay an architect. why pay an architect to design you a custom home, to fit your needs at a reasonable square footage?? If you design nice 2,400 SF home (which is VERY good sized) and spend $125 per SF to build it, that is comes to $300,000. Architect fee, 10%. Thus making the whole cost $330,000.

People instead buy HUGE homes upwards of 5,000 SF and maybe they only are $100 Sf which comes to Half Million. $500,000. But i guarantee they are built cheap and space is wasted and GOD DAMMIT.

So you've eliminated the Architect fee but you got a crap project for more money than you would spend if you HIRED an Architect.

oh well. thanks for the VENT>

Cheap construction is a problem. It is ultimately a waste of materials/natural resources/energy. It makes eyesores from day one that do not improve with age. God bless communities with more stringent building codes.

As a family of builders/engineers, I've had a number of run-ins with architects on the residential side, especially a few that had some bright ideas for the north shore mansions. We'd have to explain how something looked pretty on a piece of paper but that it was not structurally sound. A number of them did not seem to understand that glass was not load-bearing.

Still I would always involve a experienced architect. It just has to be a cooperative arrangement with the builder.

Of note, no one that has bought one of our houses has ever sold it voluntarily. We also have really low heating/air conditioning bills...

Okay back to the picture. Spleen snapped a UFO. Top left corner.

Apparently this horrible little restaurant concept is attracting OTHER attention.

Oh I believe you. There are PLENTY of Architects who just do not have a CLUE as to how building construction works. We had one guy here in our office who was a licensed Architect and he just drew up some of the dumbest details I've seen in my life. I mean worse than kids coming in right out of college. (also, that guy was right wing religious republican. needless to say, we did not get along.)

I've been lucky. I work at my father's Architecture firm. He is FIRMLY rooted in old school traditions & solid construction. Very utilitarian. Which is fine to a point, but sometimes you need to design something that does not look like a masonry box.

Yes, I get into it with my father too. There are two ways to do things, he says. The right way. And My way. AND THEY ARE THE SAME WAY!!!!

Stringent building codes are both a blessing and a curse in my mind. Sometimes they can be really ridiculous.

The one thing people don't understand is that green Architecture is EXPENSIVE!!!! Very expensive. The hardest thing is getting owners to understand that spending more money now will save you money in the long run. But it doesn't matter. They only care about that initial bottom line figure.

Wait, what is it that you do? Design/Build type stuff? Mostly Residential? We are pretty much Strictly Commercial. It just doesn't pay to do residential.

Oh, another thing. I had a friend was an incredibly talented Architect, great designer and new construction very well. He is trying to become a developer since they more so that Architects get to dictate what type of Architecture will be implemented. Unless you are a Big Name Architect, the Owner dictates a lot of the design. And for us, we work with people who have such tight budgets, and want the WORLD!!!

ah well. I just like to bitch sometimes. Stupid Architects. They are all a bunch of whiners. Just like teachers.

...but among my degrees, I studied more than a little materials engineering.

My dad was a builder/developer that had a 3-year waiting list based entirely on word-of-mouth advertising. He specialized in construction that was green for the time (mostly well-insulated homes that used/blocked passive solar, recovered materials and designed so that major parts are accessible for repairs and upgrades). He always worked to retain mature-growth forest and watershed. He retired a few years ago. I worked on dozens of houses throughout my childhood/teen years and since my dad has a language barrier (thick Finnish accent), I ended up as the company's communications dept from about age 12 on. I helped order the materials, write the checks and talked to irked architects.

However, dad discouraged me from following in his footsteps. Seeing the toll it took on his joints and spine, I think I get why, now. I still managed to learn a lot about what to do right, the first time.