"The Material Inquiry of Construction" by Lawrence Scarpa

Article Title

Authors

Abstract

The event of a job coming into the office and its completion occurred with such rapid succession that the energy of the design was naturally sustained through the end of construction, buoyed by the adrenaline that comes from producing at a blistering pace in combination of the direct physical contact with the actual materials of that construction. Our current state of practice is quite different. The size of firm, number of projects, their complexity, and associated duration has all increased. Rather than completing buildings in months, projects now frequently span four, five, or six years from inception to completion. The operative words are now “vigilance,” “diligence,” and “tenacity.”