Hurry Up, Don't Dally

"Technological advances have made almost everything faster in an architect’s office, but the job hasn’t become any easier, according to 80-year-old Leonard Siegal of Siegal/Tuomaala Associates Architects and Planners Inc. After 50 years of running his own firm, Siegal finds his job more challenging now than it was when architectural plans were drawn by hand and correspondence was by mail...Computer-aided drafting (CAD) enables the firm to design more and much bigger projects, but also creates the expectation among clients that everything will be done much faster. ...faster turnaround times are required because the governmental approval process has become much slower. Communities can take a year or two to consider a project’s impact on traffic, municipal services and the environment. That puts pressure on developers, who have placed big bets in time and money that their buildings will be needed two or three years down the road."

Thanks to Richard Layman