One Pane at a Time



One Pane at a Time

“Have I really been doing this for 3 months ? “ I said to myself as I took a knee and then gave up on that to flop on my back in Savasna for the 1^st set of head to knee pose.   We had a new teacher  today and not only could I barely understand a word he was saying, he was on a death march to wipe us all out with super high humidity and excessive heat. He was “one of those” - yoga sadist.  I was having a hard time breathing and continued to lay there counting my inhales and exhales ….one breath at a time…..

I sweat out twice my body weight and finished the class as a negative blob of matter floating through the universe and stayed that way for the next four hours.  During that time I felt like crap which is just the opposite of how I usually feel after class. I took the time of misery to delve into the Energy Compliance Reports for a current project because they are tedious and require focus and that would ensure that I would not throw up……….(which was feeling like it might be the best idea of the day so far.)

Hours went by as they always do and the envelope of this structure exceeded code by 6%. “BFD” I thought as the calculation appeared, “I’ve done some that are 50% + better” I lamented from my deepest ego place. Then I thought , “Hey, stop it – at least it’s not 6% over” which would require my redoing the whole project envelope, adjusting R and U Values and SHG factors until everything matched. So I flipped it into a “hooray” sat the ego guy back in his chair and continued on to the Lighting and Mechanical portions of the matrix and began filling in the watts per square foot – lamping types and btu’s to see where that would lead…….So kids, you want to get into the “glamorous” profession of design now ????

Seriously, if it were not for these mundane technical aspects of a project I’d go bonkers because the design portion (less actual drawing) is done before I return from the initial consultation. Then it’s just a matter of transferring it from my brain to paper and then getting it built and voila’……months or years later you are walking ……….“in my head”.

I used to go around and around with staff on this because it was not until I let them take on a project after their apprenticeships that they would ever “get it” and realize that all those hours in “studio” in school were in fact the cream of their careers before it even started.

The other morning Edy and watched window washers while we sipped coffee on the balcony. The air was warm and Kona Coffee , yum, oh so good (still). As I watched the guys do their thing pane by pane I thought that “work” really does not have to be work when you enjoy what you are doing and get to see the finished product at some point.  Like lots of folks who do what I do only 2% of the projects designed ever get built, so there is a lot of brain matter tied up in those gooey archives.  Filling up the cavities one project at a time.

The current project we are doing is one of six phases we master planned for the site. I am excited to just see Phase One completed ....................... One Phase (pane) at a time.