Presenting the windows

"The mullions in Option B are about 1/16 inch wider than in Option A, and in Option C the horizontals are also 1/16 inch wider. We wanted to make sure you had a lot of choices. Do you have a preference?"

Value Engineering gone awry?

Want to know where you stand?

Paint the Color Chip

One of Mike's PM stories is about his experience on a San Francisco project where the painting contractor was having a great deal of difficulty producing a paint color sample that would satisfy the design architect from the Seattle office. Designers can be pretty fussy when it comes to colors. When the designer came to the job site the first time and compared the painter's sample with his own color chip, he told the painter that the sample was too red. When he returned to the site again, the painter presented a new sample for approval. This time the designer said it was not red enough. Time was getting short, and Mike had the feeling this process could go on for a long time with the designer visiting the site every few weeks and finding the painter's sample a little bit off one way or another. So, he suggested that the designer leave his color chip at the site to allow the painter to achieve a better match. After the designer left the site, Mike had the painter paint the designer's color chip with the same paint he had used for his last sample. When the designer returned to the site for his next visit, he found, of course, that the painter's sample matched his color chip perfectly.

Mike's Abridged Edition

Michaelsen (who likes to call himself Mike and who is now retired) occasionally tells stories about his work as a project manager for a prominent Pacific Northwest A-E firm. In one story he was the architect's field rep on a California project that included an office for an executive. As the project completion deadline approached, everyone worked feverishly to finish the office before the arrival of the executive, who was just coming to check out the project but not yet occupy it. As the woodwork was being completed and the finish was drying, Mike noticed the empty bookshelves and thought it would look better if the shelves were filled with books. They didn't have any books to speak of at the construction site, so Mike measured the lengths of the shelves, went to a nearby used book store and purchased enough books to fill all the shelves. When he returned to the nearly complete office, he found that many of the books were too tall to fit on the shelves. But the contractor still had a table saw on site, so they used the table saw to cut down the books so that they fit perfectly.