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The Southern Fried Architect- July 2006
(A clear, complete, concise, and mostly correct, view of stuff happening in the design/construction industry)
By:
Dennis J. Hall, FAIA, FCSI, SCIP: Guy who writes this stuff
Nina M. Giglio, CSI, CCS, Assoc. AIA, SCIP: Editor, Spec Winch, and she who fixes this stuff

We’re Back!

After months of being on sabbatical, the Southern Fri ed Architect has returned. Beginning in early 2005, we took a few months off to complete a book for the AIA and when we returned in the fall, we were surprised to learn that at least one high-level mucky-muck at CSI felt that serving as Institute Vice President and publishing this exceptional internet rag was a conflict of interest. So, rather than fight the establishment, we decided just to extend our sabbatical until our term of office was complete on June 30. And now that I am a free man again, we are back up to our ole ways of searching for truth, spreading knowledge, and a little poking the bear.

We are pleased to have back with us the chemically dependent (artificial red-head), Spec Winch who has the challenge of proof-readin’ and fixin’of this stuff. But being a very talented and useful instrument of service (winch) she is up to the task.

AIA, CSI, and NIBS Sign New US National CAD Standard Agreement
In June, representatives from the American Institute of Architects, the Construction Specifications Institute, and the National Institute of Building Sciences agreed to a new three-year agreement to continue the US National CAD Standard upon expiration in September of the current agreement. The new agreement will provide for better administration of the Standard and brings the AIA into a more active role in the marketing of the document. This new agreement will hopefully allow the NCS to achieve the potential that all three organizations envisioned for it in 1997, when they agreed to establish the standard.

CSI Starts Web Discussion Forum
The Construction Specifications Institute has revamped its website to include a new web discussion forum. You can now easily get to the forums by simply clicking the “Forums” button on the left side of the home page at http://www.CSInet.org. In the near future, the forum will be able to automatically send notices of activity related to postings you are interested in. Currently, content is limited, but as more folks use the forum the subjects and depth of information will expand.

CSI Drops Specifications Competition
The CSI Board voted to drop the CSI Specification Competition in June while it examines new expanded options for improving the only national competition for written construction documents. The competition is not included in the Institute budget for the next three years, but our inside sources tell us that there may be ongoing discussions with several other specifications groups about bringing it back as a joint venture with a new format.

Gehry Goes to the Dogs
Our travels take us many places and we get to meet some pretty interesting folks. While at the CSI Convention this year, Frank Gehry, FAIA the convention keynote speaker got his travel plans all messed up and he found himself having coffee with me and a couple other CSI nardowells. Frank had some great stories and recently was commissioned to design two dog houses for a fee of a mere $3 50K each. He is donating his design fee to the Las Vegas Alzheimer’s Association. See “Conversation with Frank” in Section E for more stories over coffee.

Conversation with Frank
By Dennis J. Hall, FAIA, FCSI, SCIP
Early on a sunny morning in March, Michael Owen; CSI President, Teresa Sullivan; CSI Director of Marketing (who had laryngitis), and myself, sat down with Frank Gehry, FAIA for a 45-minute conversation, while we waited for CSI dignitaries to arrive for coffee and pastries prior to the Opening General Session of the 50th Annual CSI Convention and Show. During this time, we talked about design, construction, ice hockey, life as an internationally famous architect, and other stuff. The 77-year old architect was open, candid, and very charming. Below is a little of that conversation.

Up the escalator of the MGM Conference Center came a small, elderly, white haired man, carrying a bamboo cane, wearing black slacks, a black sweater, and a black jacket, and followed by an entourage of PhD’s. I quickly ruled out Johnny Cash and walked up to him and said, “Good morning Mr. Gehry, I am Dennis Hall, welcome to the CSI Convention.” We shook hands and had a short conversation about his preference for sleeping in his own bed vs. hotel beds and headed to a quiet place where the four of us could to sit and talk, out of the main corridor of the conference center.

Frank Gehry is an architectural genius who referred to himself as a “working stiff” and whose office is a converted LA warehouse with autographed ice hockey jerseys hanging on the walls. I asked him if he still played and he held up the cane and said “no.” I think he actually carries it just in case he needs to ‘high stick’ someone, but I decided not to test that theory. Although, I was not quite sure what he was going to do or say when I referred to him as the “chain-link architect” as we discussed some of his earlier work. But he just smiled and said that his recent clients have more money than his earlier ones and the cane never left the floor.

Other than having tremendous design talent and wealthy clients, Frank is a lot like all architects. He designs buildings, creates construction documents, complains about clients, contractors, and learns from his mistakes. His evolution into computer-aided design was actually a response to a contractor building one of his buildings wrong and his thinking that he needed a better way of communicating his designs or “dream ideas” to contractors. From this mistake in construction, he began to look for a better way of creating construction documents utilizing the computer. During our conversation, he used the term “infantalized” several times, to indicate the parent-child relationship between the architect and contractor, and how contractors, because of their control over cost, are displacing architects as decision makers. Frank believes that only when we as architects regain control over cost can we have control over design and the computer is the tool that will let that happen.

As we spoke about construction documentation in the past and today, Frank suddenly said, “I used to write specs.” At this point my head felt numb, but his cane was still right there beside him. He continued by saying, “I wrote specs, hand drafted construction drawings, and administered construction contracts.” He was simply doing all the things that any small practitioner would do, as they perfected their craft. He explained that most people are surprised at the “business like approach” his office takes to projects. I was invited by a few of his associates to visit the office in June while at the AIA Convention and had hoped to be able to stop by, but this practitioner had other obligations that come with staying in business.

At 77, he has no plans to retire. He loves the process of creating architecture, actually more than the architecture itself. He hopes his legacy is not just as an architect who designed a few cool buildings, but an architect who changed the way architecture is practiced. The only question he refused to answer is “what is your favorite building you designed?” His response of “how can you ask a person which child do you love more, I love them all” shows that he is not only a great architect, but also a smart businessman.
After about 90 minutes of conversation, I left liking the man, respecting his work, and feeling the connection of just a couple working stiffs trying to improve their craft and their profession. God bless Frank Gehry.