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?