Before we get to the dog days of summer, I’d like to do a little Public Service Announcement. The local college alternative/indie rock station runs these all the time, since they don’t have many advertisers, and the Ad Council (who produces them) is a pretty clever bunch.

My PSA won’t be particularly catchy, but it will save you some cash. The power companies like to provide customers with tips on how to save electricity during Air Conditioning season, and one of the easiest is to use fans. Overhead fans are the least conspicuous and may be the most efficient; this is due to the way they can move air all around a room. Keeping the flow fresh breaks up the layer of warm air that builds toward the ceiling, which can make it easier and quicker for your AC to reach its set point. In addition, fans help distribute the cooler air when it leaves the vents; that means you get relief faster. After your AC reaches its set point and shuts off, a fan can keep you comfy if you’re stuck in a part of your building with poor airflow.

This is just to get your attention. If you want one and have $1,000 for a fan, GO HERE.

In situations where you may be the warmest blooded person in your office, a fan can keep you civil while your coworkers reluctantly shed their sweaters at 83 degrees. And in those dire situations when the AC is either broken or absent, moving air feels cooler on your sweaty skin. My last advantage has nothing to do with temperature. Cheap fans are noisy, and sometimes, that kind of white noise is a blessing. In a busy office, it can make a day full of phone calls much more bearable. At home, the noise blanket provided by fans can make your late night neighbors a lot less annoying. So, haul out your fans and crank up part of the soundtrack of summer!

It is very difficult to hold a client accountable for their role in a project. We all want to make our clients deliriously happy and meet their expectations. Sometimes this desire can stifle our ability to hold client’s accountable to the responsibilities that they signed up for when they signed the contract. Of course, we all want to walk away from a project where the client sings our praises. This puts the client in a powerful position when negotiating issues that arise during a project. At least, when they are working with a firm that really cares about the relationship and outcomes.

Roles and responsibilities are different for every project. We attempt to define these clearly and definitely at the start of the project. We review them with the client at the start. Yet, given some recent hiccups, even this communication may need to be reiterated throughout the course of the project.

I just got back from AAM and was surprised how many of my counterparts also had stories where what they thought was clearly the client’s responsibilities caused problems in the project. One colleague I talked to about this probably has the most accurate view on this issue. He said, in reality clients expect you to take care of everything inside the box of the exhibit. If this is the case, how do we as planning, design and fabrication firms account for all the potential issues that can arise in a project? Do we set a big chunk of the budget aside as a contingency like the construction industry does? Can we ask the client to set aside a portion of the budget for their own use on things outside of normal exhibit design? How do we convince clients that something in the design will need to be deleted if after the design is completed the safety review calls for more sprinklers needed in the space? Who then pays for the redesign of the exhibits? You see it gets complicated.

We had a recent project where we thought we clearly expressed that permitting, inspection fees and such would be the client’s responsibility (see the contract language below). In the end the client disagreed and we had to go through months of negotiation to come to a solution to a problem that was a bit of a surprise after some HVAC and safety issues arose. The architectural fees to access the problems were going to cost $30,000 alone. Yet, in other projects with similar design elements this had not happened. Every location has different rules and it is hard to predict how local codes are going to affect the project.

Building Modifications & Renovations – All required building modifications and renovations will be designed and documented in the Design Documents. Building modifications and renovations will be the responsibility of both parties as follows:

a. Taylor Studios is responsible for new interior construction including: new partition wall framing, finishing, doors, electrical work, and trim; new exhibit specific lighting system(s); new HVAC supply ducts as needed, and new audiovisual control system

b. Client is responsible for: new HVAC air handling units if needed, permits, inspection fees, relocation of any existing fixtures such as water fountains, changes required to the fire protection system such as new sprinkler heads, fire alarms, emergency lighting, and emergency exit signage, and building shell changes such as reworking exterior doors.

In another project a client demanded that we use a certain vendor to create a water wall. When it came time for fabrication that vendor refused to provide the component. The client demanded a solution that included water against our recommendations. We did what the client asked and it did not work in the end. Then there was much negotiation on who was responsible for the new design and implementation. So, as you can see it can be very difficult to meet client expectations and hold them accountable for their role in the decisions.

Do you think it is fair for clients to have responsibilities in a project? How would you hold them accountable? Clients what do you think is fair? How would you improve the communication?

Last week I was in Oklahoma.  The reason for going was personal, but I visited a couple of museums and since I am no longer able to see through the eyes of an everyday visitor anymore, the line gets fuzzy where work begins and ends.  It’s a blessing and a curse.

At one particular museum, I had the privilege of meeting with the head of exhibits.  As we walked around all the galleries, he pointed out barriers which had to be installed because visitors were known to climb on the dinosaurs and other animals!

There was even a buffalo in one exhibit which had an obvious barrier, but visitors would climb up the side then trample over the grasses and smaller animals and insects to take photos on or near the buffalo.

To me conduct such as this is mind boggling, especially when it’s the adults encouraging the behavior.

So, in an effort to possibly curtail bad behavior at museums, nature centers, etc., here are some things not to do in an exhibit gallery (or anywhere else for that matter):

• Don’t climb on the exhibits! Just because there’s not a sign telling you not to do something, does not make it OK to do it.  Most institutions make it pretty obvious what is touchable and what is not.
• Don’t pick at the graphics! Not all facilities are financially able to replace their graphics or other exhibits routinely.  A peeling label or lettering is not an invitation for you or your children to pick at it.  My one year old is an expert label peeler.  I’m not sure what is so fascinating about peeling something, but he is instantly drawn to those opportunities.  I know this, so I proactively watch him and divert his attention elsewhere if there is a peeling opportunity.
• Don’t intentionally try to break an interactive. We have a client in CA who said one of their volunteers witnessed kids hanging on hydraulic flip doors and broke each and every one of them.   In this situation, you would have thought the volunteer would have spoken up, but no, he just sat by and watched the damage be done.

I’m sure there are many more stories to be told.  What have you witnessed people do in a museum or nature center that you couldn’t believe they did?

One of the most often asked questions is how long does a project take to complete. There are many variables that determine the schedule. Here are some to consider.

When Does the Client Want it Done
We just got a request to produce a Bluefin Tuna photo-op model and they needed it installed in New Orleans within 30 days. This is no problem. We can do it. However, we would need to charge more than if we had more time. We are already booked and therefore would have to produce it with over time pay. A rushed project often costs more.

Generally, any project’s schedule can be negotiated to be mutually agreeable.

The Size of The Project
Obviously, a million dollar project takes more resources than a $1,000 project. The larger the project the more time.

How Fast Can The Client get Their Part Done
Client involvement starts right away with getting the contract signed. A few weeks ago we met with a client on a Tuesday and we had a contract signed by Friday. It was a rush project. Design, build and install a donor wall in 60 days. In order to move fast a client must move fast too. Most clients take 30 to 90 days to sign a contract once a project is awarded. This can delay the start of a project.

Often clients underestimate the amount of time they will spend on a project. Clients have to approve many things from design progress, copy, photographs, budgets and fabrication progress. Often clients have committees. Imagine having eight people approve a 200 page design booklet. Most clients commit to a two week review period, yet often struggle to meet these dates. Clients also have to provide details on their resources like their artifacts, collections, building specifications and visitor demographics. If these are not provided on their due dates it can cause large delays in the project. You might consider your own staffing and resources when considering how quickly you would like to produce a project.

If payments, building construction or renovation is behind schedule this can also delay the project.

Most of our projects have these kinds of delays.

What Type of Project
Planning and design generally take longer than fabrication. More decisions and involvement of people takes time. If details are completed in the design phase then production can go quickly. A workshop can be done quickly.

General Project Time Frames
A planning/design/build/install project of $250,000 or more takes an average of 18 months to complete.

A fabrication project of $250,000 or more takes an average of six months to complete.

A planning project takes an average of eight months to complete.

Everything is negotiable, these are some generalizations you can consider.

Price, Quality, Speed – pick two
This is an old saying. It isn’t quite relevant these days as companies can meet all three. However, there is logic in considering these variables and how they are combined.

As we pursue our fortunes in the Chinese market, one of the questions that always pops into my head is, “How do we get the exhibits there?” The easiest answer is air freight, but while that is the fastest and smoothest route, it’s also the most expensive. The other option is ocean freight, which is markedly cheaper, but also much slower. Shipping schedules are set months in advance, and if your company is running late, they will sail without your load.

Before you try to wrap your head around how we get massive ground forms into a semi, let me reveal a little of the magic behind the curtain. Each structure is built knowing that we will be cutting it into chunks. Chunks that can fit through a double door, ideally. The exhibit is a 3D puzzle that comes together amazingly well. So, we know how to fit an exhibit into limited shipping spaces. Packing a shipping container for an ocean transit isn’t too different from packing a short semi-trailer. You don’t want to waste any space, and you want the weight to be well distributed, since the entire container will be moved by some sort of suspension system in the port.

If you don’t live near a port, you might not know that the vast majority of ocean freight is carried within shipping containers. They show up a lot in thrillers on TV whenever there are dark deeds happening in a port, often stacked three to four high. These corrugated steel boxes come in several sizes, but the most common are the 20’ and 40’ lengths. Most of them are made in China, which makes sense, considering how huge the Chinese export market is. The economics of international freight often makes it more expensive to ship an empty container back to China to reuse it than it is to buy a new container in China. This leads to massive numbers of empty shipping containers accumulating in ports where freight came ashore.

More than ten years ago, architects began using empty shipping containers as building elements, since they have standard dimensions and construction. They have been turned into houses, hotels, emergency housing, exhibition spaces, stores, and buildings on military bases. A secondary market has appeared that pre-fits the new containers as various building elements, which avoids some troubling challenges with using old containers. Since the real containers have to be resistant to the elements (including salt water) and insect attack, they are manufactured with tough coatings on the steel and powerful pesticides in the wooden interior floors. No one wants these chemicals in their work or living spaces, so the containers need a bit of work to make them safe to use.

An art center in Seoul, South Korea.

A store in Zurich, Switzerland, for Freitag, a company that makes bags from old truck tarps.

The ‘greenness’ of using shipping containers, either new or old, in architecture will be debated as the trend grows. Keep your eyes open when in cities with major ports and you might spot one of these boxy creations. Have you been inside a shipping container building?