Thinking Out Loud - 05/15/14

OK, this is a spur of the moment reactionary thought.  Just read Bob Borson's latest post from his world famous "Life of an Architect" Blog.  Bob makes comments about doing the fun stuff "design" versus doing the not so fun stuff "building envelop detailing".  This is a common attitude among many architects.  Bob as usual, wrote an excellent post and it got me thinking.  Through my 35 in the architectural profession, I always heard how "design" was the fun part of architecture and construction documents were the boring part of the profession.  I never really separated the two.  The design part was just the beginning and the construction drawings were just the ending part of that stage of the project.  I consider it just as much of a challenge trying to figure out the specific details of what you want built as struggling to start from ideas and verbiage and create a form on paper.  If designing is the fun part, but doing the drawings to put the specific ideas on paper and work out all the details is the undesirable part, how in the world do some architects like to take their design ideas down to the level of creating the furniture that goes into their buildings?  Broad swipes of fat pens do not define a chair without the detailed drawings, so I would think you want to show exactly how you want the chair built.  Wouldn't that desire also apply to your building or am I just missing something here?  I tell clients jokingly, when asked what I do for a living, that I "draw pictures".  In reality I build my building in my mind, as I can't draw what I don't know how to build.  I would find it embarrassing as an architect to go out in the field and have someone ask me "How the hell am I suppose to build that?" and have my response be "I don't know"  I may not draw the best method and I may not draw the fast method, but be sure what I draw can be built.  We are always designing from preliminary designs to construction documents.  We are problem solvers and regardless of what we are doing we are just solving puzzles, but on many different levels.  I really do enjoy doing construction documents.  Am I one of the few?