Unfortunately a very hectic work schedule is keeping me pinned down at the moment. I’ll spare a few minutes to vent off some accumulated hot air regarding my current workload in the hopes of introducing you to the joys of everyday architecture:
1.) Why is it a valid excuse that the maintenance department of a certain school district refuses to entertain the possibility of any lighting other than 2x4 fluorescent fixtures because they don’t want the hassle of dealing with more than one type of bulb?
2.) Related to #1 – Why is the maintenance department even allowed to have the final say on which type of lighting is or is not appropriate for a school clinic? Apparently maintenance concerns over the horrors of dealing with two bulbs overshadow clinical needs.
3.) It has been revealed to me that vinyl coated chain link fence is a wasteful extravagance, even if it is mere pennies more than normal old chain link. And you certainly can’t propose to use vinyl coated fencing right next to a school that has the normal version – that would make the poor rusting normal fence people jealous of the breathtakingly gorgeous vinyl coated version next door. Heavens, we can’t have that…
4.) Cheapness is a virtue never to be questioned, regardless of the utterly depressing environment that cheapness forces onto our kids.
Opening a brewery sounds more and more enticing each day. Anybody have half a million floating around they want to get rid of?
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2 comments:
1) School systems buy florescent tubes by the boat load. With a limited operating budget high end MR16 and even recess cans are expensive. Would we rather the budget is books and teachers or nice lights. Fluorescents also use less energy and given even foot candles on work surfaces. I would argue not for high dollar lighting, but high dollar clearstory and transom windows. Nice lighting vs. fluorescents is not well studied, however the advantages of natural light is well document. Also it can lower energy costs if done correctly. But then you have to deal with the cheapness of the client not to mention higher dollar for windows because it’s Florida and hurricane codes are a tad overzealous.
2) I think it is great that the person, who long term has to deal with the design decision, is in on the decision; maybe not final say. But if you use a bunch of MR16 bulbs, the good ones cost 7 bucks. Once it breaks they are usually replaced with the cheap one which cost 2 bucks, these cheap ones burn out quicker and destroy the connection pins, causing the unit to be replaced; often with a cheaper “like” fixture that has another size pin configuration. Now you need two types of bulbs for the same group of fixtures. The Maintenance Department probably has a low budget for man power and supplies and this quickly becomes cost prohibitive. Basically “if you give a mouse a cookie”
3) This is annoying
4) Being a product of Alabama public schools (both by graduation and by them being my parent’s employers) I would have much rather been taught in a FEMA trailer by an actual educator who is well paid and interested in advancing children’s lives by preparing them to compete with the rest of the world; than have a nice classroom.
I bet sitting under a tree with Ron Clark for a year is better for my son than two years in a palace classroom with a tenure jockey waiting out the clock till they get their 25 years and cut out for Boca.
More and more these days I wonder how much architecture is the answer.
I certainly understand the economics of the situation, but once again it sucks that economics trumps everything else.
The problem with the lighting situation I was referring to was that we proposed dimmable fluorescent cans in the clinic's private office, which also contained a bed for procedures, so that the nurse could vary light levels based on the procedures she was performing. This is a special needs school and she does specialized procedures on many of these kids that most nurses don't have to deal with. The fixtures were well within the project budget and all it means is that the school needs to keep a small stash of very cheap standard fluorescent can bulbs. Instead of the nurse getting adjustable lighting in her procedure room we get an either on or off 2x4 blast of light that is complete overkill for the space. That's my beef, we certainly weren't proposing incandescents or expensive bulbs. We even asked for a 2x2 fixture and got the icy stare of death.
I can at least understand penny pinching in certain situations, but this was just pure governmental fiat in the face of good, and cheap, common sense.
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