Wow, it seems like FOREVER since I posted anything of substance.

Excuse - $275 million projects have a way of taking on a life of their own.

Where did the past year go? One of the oddities of my profession is that I have found myself measuring my life by the projects that occupied my time during particular years. For the past 9 ½ years I have worked at a wonderful firm in Indianapolis that has offered me the opportunities to work on some absolutely fantastic projects. Over that time it seems as if the majority of my work has been on large multi-year projects so that when I think back on the year 2001, I don’t remember 9/11 as much as I do the Clarian Hospital People Mover Stations. 2003 is just a blur of a large Marriott hotel in Louisville. The past 15 months has been no different, starting in February 2007 I have been solely involved with the planning and production of the Expansion to the Indianapolis Convention Center. I am one of the three project architects for my firm and have been largely responsible for the exterior shell and coordination of architectural detailing throughout the project.

As I may have mentioned, I love my job. Architecture is one of those professions where you have tangible evidence of your passing. Time spent most days is measured in working on something that will hopefully be proof of your existence long after you returned to the dust from which you came.

On all of my projects there has come a point when I am on-site watching the construction progress and I cannot believe that they actually pay me to be there. Truth be told, at that moment I would do the job for free. Then reality hits and I’m glad that my firm compensates me nicely for my time. All that said, the past 4 months have been grueling to say the least. I have been at work most days before 7 and often 6 pm finds me still there. Saturday’s were usually given to catching up on items that did not get done in the week and just turned into another 8 to 9 hour work day. This project was one where at various times I had as many as 10 people working directly under my direction, something new in my experience. I have led teams of 3-4 before but never projects of this size and scope and with as many veried levels of experience on the part of the fellow teammates.

This past week we went to press and issued drawings for bids on the majority of the architectural work. Once the work is bid, I will be involved in Construction Administration thru the finish, some time in the fall of 2010.

So, I’m back. Hopefully I was missed.

I plan on posting with a bit more frequency now that I have a bit more free time in my schedule.

Over these months, it looks like I’ve missed a few things, apparently the Democrats declared that Jimmy Cart- oops I mean Barak Obama finally beat Hilary in the Primaries. Somehow I almost feel sorry for her. It has to be galling to see the lead she felt she had evaporate as it did. I saw this editorial cartoon the other day. It seemed appropriate. I truly hope we don’t elect him as president. I fear for our economy if he wins and has a democratically controlled House and Senate. Frankly though, I don’t see McCain being all that much different in terms of the overall effect on the economy. He seems to be as unconservative a candidate as the Republicans could manage. It would seem that we need some political Viagra these days as many like me are suffering from “electile disfunction”. No candidate truly excites me.

Hurricane season is upon us; hopefully this year will be as uneventful as the last few. We will be heading south to the Charleston area in October. I don’t relish spending time 10 feet above sea level if a storm like Hugo is bearing down on the coast.