At the risk of having my commenting rights removed once more from my own thread, I am going to ask:

What is the worst experience you ever had along your architectural path? 

Let this thread be a collection of traumatic narrations, bitter confessions and acknowledged regrets. 

I'll bite. Only had one truly bad experience in my career so far: Booted from a team by colleagues and friends for "not doing enough work" after asking for some time off (aka not taking on extra work) to recover emotionally and physically from two miscarriages within one year. Note - there was no paid work to do at that moment in time...it was just an excuse to get rid of me so they could do the work alone. Woman on woman in this industry - doesn't get any lower than that in my opinion.

I had a colleague I considered a good friend throw me under the bus to save their own skin. We didn't talk after that. Was a real shame. 

First week at a new job we had an impromptu meeting so I needed to quickly print two schedules I was working on in Excel. I selected the relevant cells and printed "fit to page." My boss looked at them and said "why aren't these columns the same width, are you a fucking idiot?"

...and yeah, I was dumb enough to work there for 4 more years. Starchitect that you all definitely know and talks up how great the firm culture is in interviews and social media.

Only vaguely related to your story but it reminded me of a time that someone presented an elevation that had been colored up in photoshop. The signage was really small so the principal asked him if he could make it bigger & his response was "I tried but this is the biggest font size photoshop has". No one called him a "fucking idiot", but everyone in the room thought he was one.

Mafia client, his security person tried to rip me a new one for showing up on time to a meeting, not the preferred 15 mins early. Then he got fired. The end.

"He got fired" by the mob: the end, indeed. (He's now known as Compact Phil out underneath the Interstate.)

The Museum of Science and Trucking at The Esplanade? It's a quarter billion job!

I designed an addition to an old home in bad shape, for newish friends. The idea was that they would live in the addition and then renovate/restore the original house. I started with a bare-bones addition to meet their budget but they kept adding and adding... and then had me design the renovations to the main house as well. I had a construction business at the time as well, and once they were happy with the design, I put together a construction estimate, which totaled roughly twice what they had wanted to spend originally. Considering the extra work (and my warnings about budget every time they added something) I thought they would find the price reasonable. They did not. We had our last few meetings with a loaded pistol (a Luger or Ruger, I forget which) on the table; he's quirky and it wasn't that surprising, and I've been around guns my whole life so they don't bother me if handled with care. But when he turned beet red, started yelling at me and put his hand on the gun, I got out of there as quickly as I could. Then they tried to stiff me for $7K in design fees, after I had already done all of the pre-design and schematic design at no charge, and gave them a discount on my hourly rate after that. We live in neighboring small towns and have some unique hobbies that make it hard to avoid each other, but we have done pretty well at staying apart for the five years since that happened. I have a temper myself and I have been exercising a lot; if I saw him there is a good chance I would not be able to resist punching him. (She was around for all of it but she's relative milquetoast.)  They are owners of a nationally well-known small business making a niche product which comes up in my circles regularly. I have to keep my lips shut about just how crazy the owners are. 

Ricky, you’re literally the reason why we need excessive regulation of firearms. Leave that for the other thread. Oh, wait, the one you were nuked from? Damn. Must suck to constantly get it wrong every single time. Nice story WG.

Am I? don't think so. Literally nothing you said about the 2A is intelligent Ricky. Leave it to intelligent dirty Canadian communists to show ya'll m'ericans how to do things.

Rick if this was some random person, I would walk out as well, but we were friends, I had showed him my collection of antique rifles, he had shown me his cannabis-growing setup (before it was legal here; he said I was the only person other than his wife to have seen it), we had shared several meals together. Neither they nor us have kids or many visitors. Having an antique handgun out where it's visible was perfectly in character so I didn't think much of it, until he lost his shit on me.

I would give you a more recent example but he keeps placing help wanted ads on Archinect.

Isnt that more reason to name up ...

Throw a dart. NY firm.

A person, that tries to con me into doing freebie work for them - they have 0 funds, and always say the money is coming and I will get get "paid" " but first, you need to quit your day job at XYZ associates to work for us until, the money comes in" Then tries to guilt trip me into doing an entire apt. building at the last minute - 

I'm not anonymous enough for that sort of question... 

The first bad experience that comes to mind is: I’m a fresh-faced idealistic 19yo college student. I go to the wedding of a high school friend, where I’m introduced to a Chicago architect as “This is Donna, she’s in school to become an architect!” to which the middle-aged cynical white guy tosses back his drink and says “Why would you want to do that to yourself?”

Something about that gleeful desire to kill the dreams of young people angered me deeply. I’ve been fighting it ever since.

Yes, I had a principal at SOM talk me down once on how working in a smaller office and being entrepreneurial was a waste of time, and that corporate offices like SOM were the shit. I didn't have the cojones to walk out on him but I should have.

He should have a death match with that Sci-Arc panel who insists corporate offices are sell-outs and students should work for free at artistic practices.

Maybe it was a clumsy way of warning you to look before you leap. I wish someone had popped my cherry at that age. It would have saved me some disillusionment and opportunity cost.

Oh, I was already disillusioned by that age, I was already 10 years in the biz. II really do not think SOM is "the shit", its one of the worse examples of corporate firm + tom wiscombe type ethics....

While I was in school, I was working as a coffee jerk. One of the regulars was a principal at a very well known firm and we'd sometimes chat architecture. One day he comes in with his son, a high school senior, who he is trying to talk out of architecture school. He points to me and says, "see, this is the kind of job an architecture student can look forward to."

Same dickhead probably taught me animation...

I was offered a lead role on a museum expansion by a famous global architect. After doing three other museums. I said no. The end. 

Why is this a bad story? Care to elaborate?

DB2022 - By any chance, was this an expansion to a museum in fly-over, middle America?

All of America is fly over at this point. Cleveland.

- Freshly minted graduate eager to show what I can do in a decent office getting paid above average for the region at the time. Walked into the worst bunch nagging, cynical staff setup ever.  The large black cloud over everyone's head was absolutely stifling.  Lasted two days ... dropped off a thank you note on the morning of the third day and never returned ( thankfully I never saw the principle again )

- First major project where I was offered to lead the project design ( simple outdoor pool ).  Shit contractor and mechanical lead who messed up the concept of being able to "pull the plug" to drain down the pool and winterize it IE not freeze out the pipes.  Epic fail, that lead to a brutish encounters with the client ( ex military dude )  / contractor that simply was beyond what I ever could conceive as disrespectful and counter to any meaningful concerted effort to resolve the problem diplomatically. Me being a pleaser ( at least back then ) changed my view of the profession.  My boss had bid the job too low and kept me around to resolve and just hoped it would get swept under the rug or go away. Absolutely hated the experience and nearly quit the profession. In hind sight it was the single best learning experience ever, but F__K did it suck at the time.

-Lastly getting sued in a subrogated insurance claim ( AKA shotgun lawsuit where everyone is named ) I got drawn into a claim where the roof partially caved in on a SF residence due to snow loads at a ski resort.  Structural Engineered didn't spec the right connections and never inspected the work in the are in question. Fair it was  new resort with zero history for snow loading, but they were from the area and the only guys doing work there so it was expected that they had reasonable experience.  Man did I ever paddle to find every shred of evidence to support my case. I even had the smoking gun ( a copy of an email where the contractor asked about using a particular clip connection that he had modified as the spec'd ones weren't available and the Struc. Eng said it was okay to use ) Still had to pay to get outta that one. Turns out the contractor had been cutting corners on multiple projects and got caught a year or two later.  About two years after that the house that had the roof issue burned down ( homeowner issue ) .. Karma!. Funny thing was the homeowner phoned me to assist with rebuild and had no idea I had been sued by his own insurance company ... Still asked to use the old plans as part of the rebuild, at his insurance companies suggestion?????

I was the job captain on a project with an inexperienced PM and a designer with...um...higher aspirations... I'm having a fine old time figuring out the detailing on all the fancy stuff Mr Wannabe Gehry/Moss is coming up with, but I do keep raising the question of whether the budget will support it and keep being told not to worry my geeky little head about the budget.

Then the client takes our 50% set to some contractors for some preliminary pricing which, surprise of surprises, comes in about 3X the project budget and we get sued. All I can keep thinking is, "please, please, please don't depose me, because if all I do is answer yes/no questions honestly it'll be seen as throwing my bosses under the bus."

Sometimes throwing the bosses under the bus is a time honored way of getting noticed (by outsiders who can do you some good). A dangerous strategy, but if the hotshot "designer" was incompetent and the bosses assigned you as essentially a cleanup functionary, maybe it's time to move on anyway.

Yeah, I didn't stay with that firm a whole lot longer...

It's the worst nightmare - having to deal with the aftermath of a wannabe starchitect's scribbles. In some cases, the only economical way this arrangement could work is a robust supply of Chinese technical architects who have no choice but to serve the whimsies of the in-house Zaha/Gehry while they wait for their green cards.

Oh, there was an interiors firm, the principal let her poodles defecate on the lobby carpet. I think I lasted two weeks. 

The first 15 years of it. 

Have you by chance been working for 15 years? :)

Maybe it was getting fired from my first job. Boss was a tyrant so that's not it.

Or maybe getting fired from my second job. Boss was a condescending dick, so that's not it.

I'm currently being sued as a third party / shotgun approach but haven't lost any sleep about that one. Yet.

There was the time a mafia client stiffed me for $50k in fees. He died in an "accident" a couple months later. Nothing to do with me, but he deserved it. I have funny stories and that was a decade ago.

Recently I was invited for a drink "down by the river" by a client's rep with ties to organized crime, including a well - documented beating he took via baseball bat outside his busy office in front of a street full of people. But we're cool because I made his job super easy. Did I mention he sued my firm before my time there? Because he did, and we won.

Recently drove by an old project of mine (new build 40-unit condo) and the developer apparently went to another architect with our plans and built a copy on the same site. They were nice enough to change up the cladding colors at least. Not worth my time or aggravation to sue as the owner passed away and I don't need the headache.

These are just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others....

Jesus, human who may or may not be a dude, that's intense.

This is one time when my high functioning ASD comes in handy. I can compartmentalize and move on extremely quickly.

I love the mob connections. Done a bunch houses for "mob - like" developers. Thankfully it was there own personal homes so no expense spared, but the contract negotiations were a bit tricky as everything I said was written into a little diary and deal done on a handshake, but always got paid and thankfully I under promised and over delivered. Became my best friends and biggest supporters. Still have their names on my list of references ( now of course that they have become big time legit developers ) Best part was during the build they would have me over on Saturdays when the whole family would come up and work on site... and I mean uncles, cousins, sons, daughters and grandparents. Cousin "Tony" worked the BBQ and cooked for everyone and at 2 pm we all sat down for a huge lunch with wine and pasta and fresh cooked bread and it went on for hours, not sure they got much done in the afternoon. Hilarious, but so fun to see how they enjoyed each others company.

I can't tell you. He violated multiple federal laws. So many it is taking the lawyers extra time. He might have a new record for most laws violated in two weeks. If you put an R after his name, he could be a President.

and he has help wanted ads on Archinect...

Worked in a religious building / ....wasnt happy about it ...pulled through.

I'll chime in with a couple more so you can all laugh with (at) me, since I managed to secure access to a wifi network that I can access from my van down by the river.

I'm sure I'll think of more as I continue compiling memoirs from my time in architecture while relaxing in my van. 

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