I've dealt with architects quite a bit over the years, but this one was new to me. How would you translate this request:
>We need to have the corners of the existing buildings staked.
Perhaps a set of offset stakes or reference points set prior to demolition or reconstruction, so that the new work can be placed relative to the original structures.
Obviously this is a request from Rod Serling, AIA.
Gentlemen, those are both highly reasonable surmises, but I can tell you that the request translated into English somewhat differently. I finally had to telephone when email wasn't providing the Rosetta Stone for this one.
Okay, since there aren't any other takers, I'll spill the beans. As the junior architect I was speaking to assured me, in their office the verb "to stake" does not actually mean to drive a stake, a lath, a nail, or in fact any object whatsoever.
>We need the corners of the existing buildings staked.
translates into English as:
>We need the corners of the existing buildings located and accurately plotted in a cad drawing.
So then, knowing that, what do you suppose they meant by the following:
>We need the corners of the proposed buildings staked.
you got to submit a change order on the scope of work?
Architects are a different breed. I was having a beer in Burlington, VT when the guy next to me started up a conversation. He was a retired architect who worked on the original WTO. Eventually the conversation turned to my telling him what surveyors and engineers think of architects-you know, they can't decide whether they are artists or engineers thing? Needless to say, he didn't get it.
well, clearly, they now want you to lay the building out on the ground. The difference is "existing or proposed".
Arkeetex
The original spelling indicates they are crossbreeds from near the Arkansas/Texas border. That pretty much explains it all.
Easy. They want filet mignons placed at every proposed building corner. That way, the architect and his staff can sit around the building and marvel at how other folks actually take their fantasy and turned it into reality, all while eating a choice cut of meat and sipping fine wine.
After all, surveyors don't provide anything useful, so they figure they might as well request that you supply the main course.
With respect to the original posters original discipline
Architects are the most whiny and crying bunch out of the three disciplines. I've not had one good experience with any of them yet. Engineers are hit and miss but Architects, I think had course work in school to teach them to be a PITA.
Had one job for a school I was doing. There are NO manholes on any of the sewer lines, only cleanouts. So we locate all of them, and I put on the plat and the phone call that they were clean out and no inverts could be obtained (that would be worth a crap). He calls me and chews me out about it. I calmly explained that I couldn't do any better and he should (since he was ram-rodding it) call the superintendent and the contractor to get them excavated, then I would shoot the tops to determine the slope of the pipe.
He didn't do that, instead called me once a day and my paitentence became less and less. To the point that I actually called the super and the contractor and let them know and asked if they would contact him and find out if excavation was necessary.
About a week later, I get an email stating that we all need to meet at the supers office. No biggie, so I show up. He then starts throwing a fit about my survey and my lack of wanting to work with them (did I mention that his office actually provides surveying as well and they didn't get the project). About that time I said in a very stern voice that I didn't have the authority to tell the contractor to excavate anything, that I had instructed him on what to do and how I would fix it and that I had already relayed that to the contractor and the super. After he quit frothing at the mouth and his eyes quit glassing over, the agreement was reached that the contractor would dig down on the two lines he needed where I could get top of pipes and we finished the job. It's the same thing I'd told him about.
Oh, I also brought all of the emails to let my clients (the school) know that I hadn't dropped the ball, but was following the chain of command. I still do work for the school and they still do the architecture work and have had little to know problems since.
My supposition at the time was that they were trying to smear me to get the surveying work as well. It didn't work needless to say.
Now, everyone else in that office is very easy to work with, except the architects and I've found that to be common at every one I've dealt with.
Translation into English
Well, as it turned out, the phrase:
>We need the corners of the proposed buildings staked.
translates into English as:
>We'd like you to take this sketch that shows the approximate dimensions of these two buildings and locates them to scale in relation to the existing buildings and tell us what the spot elevations of the existing ground are wherever you decide the proposed buildings might be.
🙂
With respect to the original posters original discipline
> Architects are the most whiny and crying bunch out of the three disciplines.
I certainly can't agree with that. I suspect that, being in East Texas you probably have more than your fair share of AGGIE architects. That would be where I'd put my money in the case you described.
🙂
With respect to the original posters original discipline
> I certainly can't agree with that. I suspect that, being in East Texas you probably have more than your fair share of AGGIE architects. That would be where I'd put my money in the case you described.
>
As a proud drop-out of the University of Houston Architecture program (I failed the class they use to "weed-out" unqualified candidates, Arrogance 101), I'd have to agree with the "Aggie Theory"
On the other hand, my nine months in Houston led me to realize that when ZZ Top wrote the song "Heaven, Hell, or Houston" they were listing the locations in order of preference as to where to spend eternity. 😉
With respect to the original posters original discipline
We do quite a bit of work for a certain nationwide utility company. The request is usually phrased something like "Please stake both sides of road right of way at the location indicated on the attachments" What they are trying to do is find out if they have enough room behind the sidewalk to place a cabinet or whatever. They don't really need stakes either because they seldom go out and look when we're done, they just want to know how much room they have to work in. Like the architect in Kent's situation, they apparently think that in order to know where something is, we have to "stake" it. Also, the "both sides" is generally not necessary because they know what side of the street they want to be on, they just say that and I can't really think of why.
With respect to the original posters original discipline
> > Architects are the most whiny and crying bunch out of the three disciplines.
>
> I certainly can't agree with that. I suspect that, being in East Texas you probably have more than your fair share of AGGIE architects. That would be where I'd put my money in the case you described.
>
> 🙂
Not only aggie architects but engineers to. I believe they take arrogance 101, 102, 103, and 104.
With respect to the original posters original discipline-For
read Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"
I'm going to go out on a limb and agree with Kent on this one. Like any discipline there are jerks and there are good folks.... I've worked with architects that do have a grip on reality.....
Translation into English
Sounds familiar. I once dealt with an architect who had drawn plans for a school building and parking lot. One side of the building had a serpentine wall. I was charged with staking it out for construction. There was one small problem; no curve info.! I called the architect and after asking for any curve information that they might have, even just a radius, was told they had none. I then asked the $100,000 question:
How do you plan on this getting built? Answer: "Well, we will let the workers/laborers interpret it as they may." What????????
Same problem with the parking lot. It looked like he had fun using his new french curve and had no dimensions or curve info for that either.
I refused to stake any of it.
With respect to the original posters original discipline-For
> read Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"
>
> I'm going to go out on a limb and agree with Kent on this one. Like any discipline there are jerks and there are good folks.... I've worked with architects that do have a grip on reality.....
"The Fountainhead" was also the inspiration for the RUSH "2112" album. Drummer Neal Peart is quite the intellectual and a voracious reader.
Translation into English
>We'd like you to take this sketch that shows the approximate dimensions of these two buildings and locates them to scale in relation to the existing buildings and tell us what the spot elevations of the existing ground are wherever you decide the proposed buildings might be.
Sounds like a normal architects request in LA, though differently worded.
Heights above one story for new construction are determined by the existing pre construction elevations of a 5 foot envelope around the proposed structure footprint.
