RFR/Q

Feastability

By |April 11th, 2017|

Portmanteaus words are a way to add colorful meaning to a thing or occurrence; some terms have become so commonly used they are part of our vocabulary. From the Chunnel to tween and medivac, these words inform us in a twitter-style efficiency. Entrepreneur Magazine often showcases portmanteaus words and the digital age has created many new ones like:

Cellfish – an individual who continues talking on their phone when it is clearly being rude or inconsiderate of other people
Internest – the cocoon of blankets and pillows you gather around yourself whilst spending long periods of time on the internet
Youniverse – a person who has knowledge only of him or herself
Nonversation – a completely worthless conversation; small talk
Screenager –the typical adolescent who indulges excessively in screen entertainment
Masturdating – going out alone to dinner or a movie
Badvertising – poorly crafted marketing
Hangry – hungry and angry (an often used term at my house)
Snark – snide remark, often used to call someone snarky

Our AEC industry has their own:

Hazmat – hazardous materials
Transistor – combination of transfer and resistor
Cineplex – cinema combined with the complex that houses the theater
Cafetorium – the multi-use space of cafeteria and auditorium
Imagineering –  a mixture of imagination and engineering
Workaholic –  an architect who has a job
Pleather – the value engineering result when we can’t afford leather
Meld – when you want welding but you get melting
Bankster – who developers can obtain their gap financing from

And, the latest portmanteaus word for our industry is:

Feastability – a combination of fee, feast and stability

As the [...]

Read More
 0
  • Permalink Gallery

    Myth #1 Busted – We Have Long-standing Relationships With All Clients

Myth #1 Busted – We Have Long-standing Relationships With All Clients

By |February 7th, 2017|

Last year I was honored to be selected to serve on a panel of owner’s representatives at the 2016 AIA Symposium. While the discussions that ensued were informative and thought provoking, it was the dialogue that occurred off stage that stuck with me most. I was repeatedly approached by inquiring architects who wanted to know “Why don’t Owner’s Representatives issue better RFPs and guide their clients through a more refined selection process?” While I am not the owner’s representative industry spokesman, I defended myself (and our colleagues) by explaining that owner’s representatives are not always the culprit of these poorly crafted RFPs.

Upon returning from the conference, I was curious, what percentage of RFPs do we help owners generate? While it is true that owner’s representatives sometimes have a long-standing relationship with certain clients, we aren’t always involved in the procurement of architects, or even general contractors for the matter.  I inventoried the projects we managed in the last three years and determined that 55% have the architect in place before we were brought on board. Of the 45% that had not yet procured the architect, over half had already begun the process and our first tasks were to assist on the shortlisting and interview processes. The fact is that over the last three years we led the procurement process, and thus the writing of the RFP, for the design team at a rate of 18%.

While these statistics might come as a surprise to some, it sounded about right to me; there are certain causal scenarios that we see frequently playout. Master planning, for example, often leads to the procurement of the already contracted design firm for continued services. While the budget might be in [...]

Read More
 1