In a message dated 11/1/2003 10:14:19 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
I noticed that, although the annex is only a month or two old, the access
hatches on the ceiling were already grimy, the painted screws scarred.  Has
anyone ever seen a good solution for an access hatch?  I wonder how Mr. Liebeskind
or Mr. Calatrava would do with that problem.
I suspect that the universal desire is to make access panels (and we are
talking about access panels here;  "access hatches" are listed separately in
Sweets, and I would say they are more likely to be found in a roof or sidewalk, and
when indoors in a utilitarian space) as invisible as possible and paint them
out.  I should think that a reasonable (except as to cost) alternative would
be to make them out of stainless and not paint them, but then you'd have all
these goddam $1000 stainless access panels screaming out of your ceilings and
walls.

I also suspect that the really GREAT designers like Messrs. Liebeskind and
Calatrava (not to mention Messrs. Wright and Childs) can't be bothered to
concern themselves with matters as pedestrian as access panels, and leave it to
their drones to make sure that the goddam access panels are kept the hell out of
the way.  The problem is that some poor plumbing or HVAC engineer (or more
likely, Liebeskind's or Calatrava's shop drawing checker, or the Construction
Manager's drone) has to reroute the piping and move equipment so that the valves
will be installed in  inaccessible areas (closets, anyone?) where the access
panels have been stuck so nobody important will ever see them.  This will piss
off the Port Authority no end, because THEIR engineers and maintenance people
don't give two shits about Capital "D" Design and want the goddam valves in the
right goddam place, and they sure as hell aren't going to want to use public
money to pay somebody extra to redesign the mechanical system, all because
some weirdo with funny glasses and a black suit doesn't want to see access panels.

As you so accurately noted, it's SSDD [for the uninitiated: same shit,
different day] since Mr. Tuthill and his idiot client who wanted to be his own GC to
save money fought over trying to sell a bunch of crappy old gaslights and
wound up with a house costing way more than he thought it would.

Furthermore, in regard to damage to access panels after they've been used,
nobody is going to spend the rest of his working life (or maintenance
budget)sending painters to chase after the grungy plumbers and HVAC guys and touch-up
the fingerprints and scratches on the access panels, which is why they (the
AP's; although maybe stainless painters, plumbers, and tinknockers isn't such a
bad idea) should be made out of stainless in the first place.  Except for the
above.

Ralph

PS--  Rant?  What rant?