You are too kind to architecture faculty.  The traditions they are following do
not fade into any distant mist in time.  Hell the profession didn't have much in
the way of formal training a hundred years ago.  This tradition comes from rich
kids playing rich kids games on other rich kids and wasting daddy's money along
the way.  The rage exhibited by the tormenters in these stories is about people
having the audacity to want to study a rich kids's profession in a public
school, without a penis, possibly with a wife and kids .  THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!

(Something needs some editing up there.)

Hey, I had dinner with some real live preservation people this evening!  We told
stories about great buildings and silly problems, interesting problems, strange
people...mostly us...two of us swapped stories about architecture school and it
was great to discover that some one actually might have been in more trouble
than me and we drank beer and it was like taking a bath in in things I care
about and understand.  It was like being with the pinheads...but quieter.

Good news!  The beer organ was apparently not removed with the appendix as I had
feared!  It must have just been frightened into keeping quiet!  Just in time
too!  The snow and ice are gone and someone keeps thinking I need to do yard
work!

It would appear that we have experiences and training traditions that we are not
especially proud of.  Perhaps at least in preservation we can take the stand
that abuse has no value and in fact harms the work.  It is an important
principal to agree to, for we really must  train each other so that we can work
together with greater skill.  A skilled stone mason (not Ken) was recently given
an opportunity to enrich the education of an architectural project manager and
chose to be difficult and secretive.  The loss was not restricted to the two
individuals.  The building suffered and an unknown number of buildings may
suffer for the lack of the experence and the exchange of ideas.  We have much to
teach each other.  Mostly we will do it by teaching each others apprentices,
students and subordinates.

This seems to be a soap box I get up on quite regularly.  It could be worse.

-jc



Ken Follett wrote:

> In a message dated 4/24/00 4:14:33 PM Central Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << Have any of you experienced anything close to this level of rudeness in
> the working world? >>
>
> Heidi,
>
> School of hard knocks has it's own means of sorting people and as it pertains
> to construction industry in general it is usually not rudeness that one has
> to deal with as much as undisguised psychological brutality. It is a part of
> the hardcore builder's tradition, the NY tradition some may say, a twisted
> and sadistic machismo, to treat people like shit, expendable resources --
> either because the person doling out the treatment is insecure in themselves,
> quite often the case in the end, or from a fucked up idea that tough love
> improves the quality and durability of the subject. I've been well trained in
> the kill or be killed mode of project management, been there, done that -- it
> is how a lot of stuff gets built in dense urban environments, and why people
> say construction is a "tough" business or that if you can make it in NYC you
> can make it anywhere -- simply put, if you've been through enough blood and
> manure a little bit more won't hurt so bad. I consider that I was well
> prepared with a childhood that hardened a stubborn resolve to subvert and
> prevail against assholes. It is my deliberate, and I need to constantly keep
> reminding myself, desire to not practice and propogate negative behaviour in
> my life. I don't always win out over myself. It may or may not be so easy for
> Stern, I don't know, not having encountered the guy, but I'm more curious
> than before since the gripes on BP. What I imagine is that he is a product of
> his environment and testes as much as any of us and that he may not be able
> to help himself, may not be strong enough of an individual, not saying
> lacking in strength of ego, but not strong enough to understand and/or change
> himself or to see any other way to behave within the strictures of what he
> sees as his, and his wife's, professional career. I prefer not to talk about
> the specific assholes in my life for fear they may find a way back into it --
> I have this ingrained concept of a super-asshole lurking in the corners of
> the psyche just waiting for one more shot to knock us down. It is often
> difficult for me to deal with people in business and keep my head clear for
> the internal problems I carry as baggage from surviving the sorting system --
> a process that does not have the formality of giving anyone a clue as to what
> day the big reckoning is scheduled for. The histo presto industry by
> comparison to the general construction industry is a relatively peaceful
> sanctuary. I advise all young people to go to school, it is easier and less
> painful to endure.
>
> ][<en