Kelly,
I have a hard time absorbing your writings, as I am not schooled in the finer points of architecture, but your comments about tweaking caught my attention. Right now, I'm trying to finish a project where I'm working with interior designers, a building architect, and landscape architecture. For me, the owner’s rep that has morphed into the general contractor, the nonstop tweaking is what drives me crazy. I'm convinced that for most designers, knowing when to say when is very hard. They all have the best intentions, but with so many options, so much information available to them, and so many possible product combinations it’s a never ending second guessing game, and I'm not so sure what was originally designed isn’t the best choice.
They just seem to lack patience, patience to let things come together, and the patience to let the client learn to enjoy what they have done. We live in a world of instant gratification and it has taken over our design professions as well. I fought very hard during the construction of Wolf Point to leave a few holes alone. They were not visually stimulating from the tee, quite bland actually, but as you walked up, they got better and better and better. Those that have played here know the ones. It’s a treat to enter into the unknown instead of always having "it all right there in front of you". Patience to let it unfold, patience to let the subtle forms become not so subtle over time, and patience and fortitude to let those you work for discover the inconspicuous yet sustainable functionality.