S4 | EP047 - What the Architect Does on Site

Here's the first thing to get straight.

Right, the line between the office and the field is a little artificial, and it's blurring more every year.

If you're well equipped, you can do a lot of your paperwork right there on site.

Some people walk around with a tablet, write up the field review report on the spot, and email it to all the parties before they've even left.

So the two worlds bleed into each other.

That said, there's a hard limit.

Look, some things you simply cannot do from a desk.

You have to be standing there, looking at the work with your own eyes.

So the real skill is knowing which is which.

Let's walk through what fills your day in the field.

You start by walking the construction and looking at it.

Bring your own copy of the drawings rather than asking for the permit set that lives on site every single time.

It's faster and it's yours to mark up.

You attend site meetings and ideally those happen right on the site because that's the whole point.

When everyone is standing in front of the problem, everyone sees it at once.

Sometimes meetings get held elsewhere, but on-site is where they do the most good.

You also interpret the contract documents and resolve issues out there because the problem is right in front of you.

You can talk it through, run a few scenarios, and get input from the client and the contractor on the spot.

But here is the rule you never break.

Whatever you decide has to be backed up by an officially issued document.

You don't settle a problem over coffee and leave it at that.

Nothing gets left undocumented.

Ever.

Well, you'll observe testing and other procedures, or sometimes wait for the report to land in the binder.

That report matters, but watching the test happen can tell you things the paperwork won't.