Told you so!
Ok so if your one of the 2 people that visit this blog besides me, you already know how much of a tard fuck my boss is. You've already read about how his idiocy had almost brought on a nervous breakdown. Of course this was all due to one project. It's a Rita's water ice, a local franchise, in an existing building that is within a historical district. Buildings inside historical districts are subject to regulations that maintain the historical fabric of the district. These are enforced by an Historic Architectural Review Board, or HARB for short. It just so happens that my boss is on the HARB for said historical district. On top of this the client is only the tenant of half the building which is owned by someone else (that just so happens to be the wife of another client of ours). On top of all this Rita's is a franchise and is subject to all the nasty architectural blunders of most franchise's. Cheap easily maintained finishes, cartoony style, etc. which is in turn subject to review by the franchise itself. You can see how quickly this project got to be more and more of a clusterfuck.
Said client is only funding improvements for HIS side of the building. The other side will sit vacant until the owner finds a new tenant for that portion of the building. HOWEVER, and this is the main point I stressed to my boss, the borough, county, and state does not see this building as two different projects as the client and owner do. I also stressed to my boss that we wern't addressing any handicapped accesibility issues at all. His response? Don't worry about it. My two regular readers will be familiar with the usual laws requiring that a building be brought up to code dependant on how much the renovation/addition/improvements will cost as a function of percentage of the total building worth. For those not familiar... In Pennsylvania, if your construction costs are less than 30% only the renovated area needs to be brought up to code. Over 30% you need to do the same and in addition create an ACCESIBLE route (for handicapped people and fire emergency issues) to and from your renovated area. Above 50% and you have to do all that crap I just mentioned for the entire building. Notice I said ENTIRE BUILDING. Not just your clients tenant space. Oh I should also mention building codes are highly subjectable to the interpretation of whichever code official reviews your drawings.
So... after a marathon, nervous breakdown inducing run to complete the construction drawings at the same time as the HARB presentation (yeah thats right if the HARB didn't pass on our ideas that means I would have to redraw a lot of said construction drawings) my boss goes to a meeting with said client, the zoning officer, and code official to discuss our construction drawings and the results of our previously submitted land development drawings.
Upon my boss's return from the meeting I should have prepared a huge banner for our office with big bold letters saying "I TOLD YOU SO FUCKFACE"
The verdict from the meeting? Well first of all, since my boss doesn't seem to think codes apply to his projects he failed to realize that there was a PENNDOT requirement for visual sight lines when exiting the driveway. If we would have known this from the start this entire project would have beened shit canned right away. There is no way we can provide adequate walk up service windows without completely disregarding this sight line. If my boss knew this at the beginning he could have recommended to the client that he find a more suitable site for his franchise. Saving said client thousands of dollars in useless construction documentation, and saving me from his bullshit stress. Secondly, yeah there's more, upon initial glance at the drawings by the state, we were told that this building was never on their records. This is common with buildings this old. They responded with the usual outcome when this is the case... The ENTIRE building must be brought up to building, fire, and accesibilty codes. So...
I don't usually like to rub things in peoples faces but.... I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO YOU FUCKING TWIT.
Said client is only funding improvements for HIS side of the building. The other side will sit vacant until the owner finds a new tenant for that portion of the building. HOWEVER, and this is the main point I stressed to my boss, the borough, county, and state does not see this building as two different projects as the client and owner do. I also stressed to my boss that we wern't addressing any handicapped accesibility issues at all. His response? Don't worry about it. My two regular readers will be familiar with the usual laws requiring that a building be brought up to code dependant on how much the renovation/addition/improvements will cost as a function of percentage of the total building worth. For those not familiar... In Pennsylvania, if your construction costs are less than 30% only the renovated area needs to be brought up to code. Over 30% you need to do the same and in addition create an ACCESIBLE route (for handicapped people and fire emergency issues) to and from your renovated area. Above 50% and you have to do all that crap I just mentioned for the entire building. Notice I said ENTIRE BUILDING. Not just your clients tenant space. Oh I should also mention building codes are highly subjectable to the interpretation of whichever code official reviews your drawings.
So... after a marathon, nervous breakdown inducing run to complete the construction drawings at the same time as the HARB presentation (yeah thats right if the HARB didn't pass on our ideas that means I would have to redraw a lot of said construction drawings) my boss goes to a meeting with said client, the zoning officer, and code official to discuss our construction drawings and the results of our previously submitted land development drawings.
Upon my boss's return from the meeting I should have prepared a huge banner for our office with big bold letters saying "I TOLD YOU SO FUCKFACE"
The verdict from the meeting? Well first of all, since my boss doesn't seem to think codes apply to his projects he failed to realize that there was a PENNDOT requirement for visual sight lines when exiting the driveway. If we would have known this from the start this entire project would have beened shit canned right away. There is no way we can provide adequate walk up service windows without completely disregarding this sight line. If my boss knew this at the beginning he could have recommended to the client that he find a more suitable site for his franchise. Saving said client thousands of dollars in useless construction documentation, and saving me from his bullshit stress. Secondly, yeah there's more, upon initial glance at the drawings by the state, we were told that this building was never on their records. This is common with buildings this old. They responded with the usual outcome when this is the case... The ENTIRE building must be brought up to building, fire, and accesibilty codes. So...
I don't usually like to rub things in peoples faces but.... I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO YOU FUCKING TWIT.
posted by Kent at 11:19 AM
2 Comments:
YAY I have one more reader. Go me
I just looooove it when the boss feels he can completely get away without adhering to code! My bosses at my last job used to do that crap. Why does it seem like we young 'uns are aware of the codes, and they couldn't give half a rat's ass cheek about them? It's not like the concept of codes is new or anything! ADA codes have been around since before I graduated high school!
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