A building for a spray foam insulation company. Unfortunately they began a relationship with a contractor who convinced them to "lose the architect". Because we all know about them (architects) and how clueless they are about cost and construction. So now the fox is guarding the chicken coop. I went to the open house and swallowed the bile that formed from seeing what the contractor had talked them into and jokingly said to the owner, "So, did the project come in ten percent under?" And the owner said, No, more like a quarter of a million over." And something about how the contractor really liked what they did for a living. It is amazing to me how someone can spend so much money and end up with a severely compromised project. They couldn't lease the extra space and I won't even consider publishing the photos of the finished project - it was still recognizable as my concept and basic design but the execution was fatally flawed in a philosophical way that led to a failure of the business' full potential. They were so clever they outsmarted them selves and ignored the advice of the person they commissioned to give it to them. Instead they listened to the people that would benefit financially from bad decisions.
