Hey man, the journey’s groovy

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I was having lunch with a friend of mine today and shared with him that Jimi Hendrix is putting out a new album. What? Ahmm, didn’t he die like 40 years ago?

Yes – he did. Apparently there are enough studio tracks that were either never finished or not complely developed to make several posthumous albums. Some might call these the rejects (which is why they didn’t make the original album cut) or at best, possible B sides – so why would you want to listen to them? For me, if you are a fan, listening to those cuts would be like getting a peek at the process behind the genius.

It’s not always just about the finished product.

I also used to have an argument with my Dad all the time about builder homes. I would say that someone could hire me and for less money get a home that was designed better and of higher quality construction. That my end product would fit their lifestyle more suitably than buying a builder home that was neutered to fit the masses. He would always come back at me with “if those builder homes are so bad, why do some many people buy them?” That speaks more to individual motivation rather than the question at hand. Why does someone eat at McDonald’s?

While there are lots of valid reasons why people buy speculative homes (the fact that they are already built probably being the most obvious reason), they are missing out on the best part of having a house designed for them – the process.

Ask anybody who has gone through the process – it’s a lot of fun, (at least it is when you work with me) and everyone develops ownership of the end product. Knowing why a thing is the way it is, or knowing how a decision was determined through the pushing and pulling of priorities creates depth and appreciation. I touched on this a little while back in my post about why my opinion might be better than yours and the message is very similar.

Another friend of mine has a story he has shared with me about how the owners of buildings designed by “starchitects” were polled to find out about their experience. Nobody talked about how over budget all the projects were, or how the roof leaks, or how much longer the buildings took to build. Everyone of them mentioned that the process changed their lives and the impact on how they now saw things. I have asked my friend to tell me this story more than once like a child might ask for their favorite bedtime story –

“Daddy, please, please, please tell me the one about how great it is to work with architects….puh-leeeease!”

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even better stuff from Life of an Architect