T h e R u n n i n g A r c h i t e c t

What does lining up at the starting line of a marathon have in common with creating an architecturally designed building?  Plenty!  Frankly too much to mention in one post so let me focus on one common element and that is the lack of preparation.

What? How can that be? Marathoners run all those miles during training, suffer through heat, winds, snow, etc. mile after mile. How can any runner standing ready for the start of a marathon ever feel unprepared? Well, every marathoner I know regardless of their training will tell you they wished they would have run one more long run, or pushed themselves a little harder in the early months of their training. Maybe their dietary habits were not the best. The list is endless. I remember having these feelings overwhelm me as I toed the line for my first marathon in 1993. Now with less than 48 hours to the start on Sunday morning I still have the same worry and anxiety.

OK, that might make some sense, but how does that relate to designing a building? In every design effort there must be an end.  A time to put pen and pencil down and move to the next step. Typically this involves some form of an intermediate due date. Inevitably all design and drawing must be completed, prints assembled, and drawings submitted for permits, bidding, and construction. This is the point  that the architect truly understands that the set of design documents are not perfect and the architect wishes for more time to continue to “tweak” the design. The sense of worry and anxiety are much the same.

What changes is time. The more experienced the marathoner and the more experienced the architect the more likely the worries and anxieties become less of an issue. They never go away.

There is no such thing as a perfect marathon or a perfect design. All the marathoner or architect can hope to ever do is to simply do their best each day or workout and trust that the culmination of effort will allow them to achieve a high level of confidence on race morning or project deadline and that they continue to pursue excellence going forward.

Thanks for reading and continue to Run Happy.

Coach Lee