On Mon, 24 Apr 2000, J Cuyler Page wrote:

> The hardest thing I find is working at designing with folks who have never
> had the crit experience, even in its friendly forms, and who have never
> learned that the most important tools of the trade are tracing paper, an
> eraser and the waste basket.
>
> Most of the folks I work with in this isolated and independent place
> have no academic background, and the idea that there may be more than
> one way of looking at a problem is often hard for them to comprehend.
> Any suggestion that an idea of theirs might even be discussed, tends
> taken as a personal afront.  I discovered I had to be very sensitive
> to their ways of thinking and feeling to keep their enthusiasm and
> support and still get on with the work.

In dealing with architects during my years as a county commissioner, on a
whole series of projects, I found that the only way to get an
architectural firm to start thinking about the site and its context was to
reject the first proposal outright, and maybe the second.  They would
always come back with better work.

(Perhaps you're right that a non-architect wouldn't take this so
gracefully.)

The appropriate metaphor is ordering a customized burger at Burger King:
it requires them to make one up fresh, rather than just handing you one
that's been getting soggy under hot lights for a couple hours.

Being difficult sometimes has its rewards.

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com