DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
“Let all things be done decently and in order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40
The city that is in a rush to make its self-great, will ultimately allow the worst on the planet to thrive. This was the case in Chicago during the world’s fair. Not only did the city not pay attention to its citizens, but they also sold their soul for fame and fortune, they allowed a demon to fester and flourish. Foreseeable delays and the rush to a phony deadline ended Architecture, some have argued.
On every Project that encompasses a vast array of trades and disciplines, The landscape profession is almost always overlooked or misunderstood. Our product is almost aways last on the list but is aways a first visual impression! By then, the budgets have been exhausted by the General Contractor and the Principal Architect/Engineer. The patient client is no more! They have been worn thin and raw, money does not exist and neither does the schedule. We, the Landscape professionals are the Red-Headed stepchildren of the AEC industry. We are the whipping boy.
When it is finally our turn to perform our tasks, we are typically given a miserable jobsite. The General has trampled everything, spilled all sorts of chemicals, liquids, debris and compacted the earth beyond use. Yet, we need to proceed, as the owner is glaring at his or her watch as we arrive.
Furthermore, our installs typically take time to come true. A mighty oak tree does not realize his size for up to and beyond 40 years, yet we are told by the GC/client that the small plant looks dead, when it is their patience’s that have died long before we arrived.
Yet we must deal with these parameters, project after project… waiting for the General Contractor and the owner. Waiting, for the delays, waiting for better weather… waiting.
Below is another except from a book that I read many years ago. It’s definitely murderous, and the devil was without a doubt in there, but the details from the Architects lagged. The book does a good job of describing the arduous tasks tackled by Engineers, Architects and Builders, as only Erik Larson can describe. I picked up this book to read as a means of getting away from my work. To my surprise it was all about my field of work. Dang it! was my thought. At first, I did not like the book for that reason, but managed to push through to the end as I cannot put a book down once started. I thought the book was 100% about the serial killer, H.H. Holmes in the Worlds Fair. It was about the Fair, with little sprinkles of Holmes, but to me it was about the Devil in the Details, The Architectural Details. And it really illustrates the oversites, pressures and unreal demands of our Profession, it details how we must navigate delays, that are not of our making and deal with the frustrations of having “others” change a vision of a project after a landscape design has been realized.
This will be a series of readings as I dip in and out of the Devilish Details.
***See Nature blog for my disclaimer on my style of reading***
EP01 - Unlike today, where everything runs on electricity and battery, the world was dark, pre-1900s. Chicago was the Black City. Word of the Columbus Exposition spread throughout the world and folks flocked to Chicago to get in on the Money. After all, the world around 1890 was an economic disaster, a depression, work was scares and poverty was everywhere. Chicago was the place to be.
EP02 - Not looking for work and initially declining the offer to partake in the Fair, Landscape Architect, Frederick Law Olmsted could not pass up the opportunity to have his young profession brought up to par with the other Professions involved at the early stages of the Fair. The enormity of the plan and short schedule, Olmsted had the premonition that it would fail before he could get started, however the temptation was too great, knowing the delays were already happening, joining the Fair would be a decision he would later regret.
EP03 - The book goes through several different scenarios of constant drama between the Chief Architects, Engineers, Governing bodies and general public. I selected a few passages here and in the episode that follows to illustrate the common issues that the Landscape team faced, from bad soils, weather, to deaths, Union violence, availability of materials, money, time so… You would need to read the book to understand the gravity of the delays and constant drafting and redrafting of plans and un-ending meetings.
EP04 - The book is fantastic in terms of informing the reader of the catastrophic failures in Architecture/Engineering and the improper planning and execution of projects. The book, to me, was to be about a series of murders, about a monster… but it was about the monstrosity of bureaucratic non-sense and flamboyant Architects, sans Landscape Architects and the builders. With out the Landscape Architect and the Landscape Contractors, i believe the fair would have been a dud. If i’m not mistaken, the only thing that ended up surviving was Olmsted’s park and plants, all else was destroyed or removed from Chicago. What a shame!
EP05 - The fair had several high points; however, history recorded the terrible episodes of this World’s Fair. Today, you can see how this “Fair” or Exposition is no longer popular. France held what i belive to be the ultimate Fair or Exposition universelle, and that is what drove these Architects; The goal was to “beat or best” The Eiffel Tower and its lasting splendor. In the end they could not. The city was doomed to return to its old dark ways. The book eloquently describes how every structure is quickly destroyed or removed after the fair concludes. I don’t know if that is true, I have been to Chicago, but it was before I read this book. I do love the Classical Architecture, when compared to our modern “box” architecture, as I like to call it. So, I don’t know if I agree with Sullivans assessment in that American Architecture died at the Fair. It may have.