I’ve been following development downtown, stuck in the middle in some ways – it’s the ideal place for an architect, some may disagree. I have a whole string of people telling other people to hire us, best case scenario from a marketing perspective – continuing our reputation for emergency architectural services. And, you know that we like it this way.
It’s a view into the way a city works. It’s what they teach you in school, except that you don’t believe it when you’re in school, and it doesn’t make sense when you get out of school, and then here you are, eating hush puppies at an old world countertop, fountain pen in hand, while the rest of the planet spins.
We watch development cycles closely. It’s as close as my bank account, but it amazes me that these spirals move so tightly together. Our office has written our largest and most exciting proposals over the past few weeks, but the new agreements are spacing out farther than we like.
From there, I realize that our would-be clients are out negotiating property deals, getting into arguments that aren’t our fault, and they’ll be back in my office (Lord willing) when the shouting stops, and the news papers publish the score.
In all these phases of natural urban development, I had forgotten the argument phase – it’s not in our scope of services. But, it’s the point when two people see the same opportunity at the same time and it ends up being in the same place.
Last year, we started to see one person at a time with an idea, single file, conversations were polite. Two years ago, we saw people with opportunities but no places to worry over. Three years ago, there were only bad ideas. In 2009, the year before, we were just making things up.
And now, this. It’s progress, it’s movement, we hope for the underdog because we know the big dogs will be back next year, and then we’ll be more prepared.
Andy Osterlund AIA | LEED AP
(919) 889 6823 | osterlundhall.com