It was an interesting day to say the least. A few days ago I took a site visit to a new project we are working on, pretty normal right, only difference this time, was the project is about 275 miles away. It started out with an early morning commute to Love Field, ooof, Dallas. That drive alone is a beating. But the firm I am at, its main office is in Dallas, so most of the flights that we have to do for projects come from there. I think that every major highway on my route was under construction, either that or Siri has a sick sense of humor directing me through every construction project she can find. Luckily I had left early enough to still get to the airport with plenty of time to check in, go through security, and grab a quick power breakfast (donuts and apple juice, that counts, right?)
Boarding is pretty normal and as I get onto the plane, I see that this is going to be a full flight. No elbow room for me. Good thing the flight is only about an hour. The commute to the airport took longer than that, did I mention I had to drive to Dallas?
So after an hour, we get off the plane, grab a rental car, and head toward the project site. A new 5 story office building in an existing mixed use development with a very definite design sense. If I had been the one to come up with the original concept for this development, well… I think I might have gone in a different direction.
But hey, we’re putting a new building in this area, we need to play nice with the existing buildings, right. Well….
After checking out our site, and wandering around some of the rest of the community looking at design cues, details, etc. we meet our clients representative and begin to get a guided tour throughout. As we begin talking about the various aspects of the existing buildings one thing becomes very apparent, we are getting a very good education on everything they don’t like.
Luckily in all of the initial meetings and schematic design process up to this point, our take on the building has been a decidedly more modern approach to integrating into the development. So the day continues, taking pictures of all sorts of details, exploring all parts of the various buildings, and even squeezing in an extremely delicious lunch. More of a normal site visit day, except the lunch part, that was a definite bonus. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of my lunch) The tour ended with a quick trip to another project we did in the area, and head back to the airport.
While driving back to the airport we get a very concerning notice from the airline that our flight has been delayed… Is on time… Has been delayed… Has been extremely delayed… Oh joy!
We get back to the airport, and try to find out what is going on with our flight with very little success, and see if we can get stand-by on an earlier flight. Yeah, no luck there either. I’m beginning to notice a pattern here. So with our flight delayed by about 3 hours, did I mention that the flight itself is only about 1 hour, we decide to get something to eat and bide our time till we can head back home. (No I didn’t take pictures of the airport food either.)
So after a day that began driving to the airport before dawn ended with a nighttime flight back home.
Well, at least I got a good view and an empty seat next to me on the way home. Livin’ the dream.
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