The Best-Laid Plans Of Mice And Men Often Go Awry
Recap, Personal Update, and Relaunch of A Better Built Environment
Recap of A Better Built Environment
I started writing this newsletter back in 2020 during the pandemic shutdown. It gave me a platform to explore and share ideas about cities, urbanism, transportation, and design - hence the name A Better Built Environment. I wrote about my experiences and opinions, but more importantly I highlighted the work of inspiring people and organizations, and shared interesting points of view from things I was reading.
After starting a full-time job back in 2021, I found less time to write and this space became stagnant for a few years as I focused on other work. I often thought about starting it back up again, but kept delaying for various reasons. Now the time feels right to get back to writing more frequently - probably due to the career changes highlighted below.
This post is a personal story. I’ll return to focusing the writing on the built environment in subsequent posts so please bear with me.
A Work Update
For the past three years I have had the pleasure of working with the amazing team at CVG as a business consultant for design firms, and as the director of business development. I helped small architecture firm owners improve their business operations and profitability. I also had conversations with hundreds of architects and design business owners from across the US and Canada as part of my role doing business development. It was an interesting role - being removed from the day to day aspects of running a firm and designing projects, and instead enabling other firms to run their businesses effectively so they could do great work for their clients.
Working with and learning from so many inspiring clients across the country as well as all of my colleagues was a true pleasure. I learned a great deal and was inspired by so many people doing great work to make our built environment better.
I’d like to thank all of my colleagues and clients for giving me the opportunity to learn and grow, and for supporting me through the whirlwind of the past three years.
A Place To Call Home
The past three years really has been a whirlwind. We lived in 8 apartments, 5 cities, 2 countries, and moved coast to coast 3 times since the start of 2020. Definitely too many moves.
We now find ourselves back in New York City and the plan is to lay down some roots and stay here for the long term. Rather than moving our location for jobs, we are picking the location we are excited to live in and making our jobs work based on that.
The Next Adventure
Speaking of jobs, at the beginning of March I made the very tough decision to move on from my role at CVG in order to pursue a new career opportunity.
I was offered a job at a startup focused on the development, design, and construction of housing to become the Director of Operations of the architecture team. It felt like a natural fit based on my design background working on housing projects, my experience managing an architecture firm, and the past three years as a business consultant.
After much deliberation, I decided to accept the position. I was excited about the opportunity to return to a leadership position within a company and manage a team again. Plus it would bring me closer to the design process and my interest in addressing housing issues through a company that had big growth ambitions - aiming to change the traditional delivery of housing projects through a more integrated approach.
The Plan Goes Awry
Unfortunately, the new role was canceled before I had the chance to join the team. Some large projects the company was planning for unfortunately were cancelled. With an unstable project pipeline and an unpredictable economy at large, the company made the though decision to not grow their team at this time.
Although this meant my potential role was eliminated before I started, I completely understand the decision to maintain their current team. It is what I would have advised my consulting clients to do in a similar situation. I have no ill will and in some ways feel this is actually for the best.
However, it was tough timing for me considering I had already made the decision to leave my other job. Looking on the bright side, I'm confident this will lead to something else I will get excited about. Potentially even a better fit.
What’s Next
Having resigned from my role at CVG, and no longer with the new opportunity in the cards, it means it is time to reassess where I’m at in my career and what I want to do next. This is the second time I’ve landed in NY needing to find a new career opportunity. Last time it eventually led me to join the team at CVG. This time it’s still an open question.
I have a few personal projects I’ll be focused on in the short term. These include taking on a custom house design project, starting to write more frequently again through this platform, helping a couple small architecture firms improve their business development strategies, helping some families with ADU projects, and collaborating with some friends to find land in the Hudson Valley for a small development project.
I’m excited to see where these projects lead and what other opportunities shape up over the coming weeks and months.
Open for Conversations
I posted an abridged version of this story on LinkedIn last week and it has been amazing how supportive everyone has been. Dozens of people have reached out with words of encouragement and support. I even received a handful of job offers. I’ve had many great conversations since the post went live and would like to thank everyone.
Luckily, I have a bit of time to think about what I want to do next and what the best fit will be. That means talking with friends and colleagues, connecting with companies and organizations that inspire me, and exploring what options are out there. Through these conversations I’m looking to find a place where I can add value, be inspired, and collaborate with a creative team.
If you would like to touch base, jump on a video call to catch up, or know a place where I could add value, please send me a message.
Things To Read This Week
The Impending Demographic Collapse
- by Aziz Sunderji from Home Economics
Looks like population growth is slowing down. If not for immigration, the US would see the population start to decline in just 14 years. This will have a big impact on the housing market.
The Latest in Toilet Design News:
San Francisco Tried to Build a $1.7 Million Toilet. It’s Still Not Done.
Why is building things so hard in America? Seriously, this is one of the main reasons I left the traditional practice of Architecture. The bureaucracy we face to build simple small projects like toilets, or ADUs, is obscene.A Close Examination of the Most Infamous Public Toilet in America
The toilet from the article above has finally been installed. This is a good article analyzing what happened, what needs to change, and how San Francisco isn’t alone in these boondoggles.Modular Portland Loo Toilets Are Finally Coming to New York City
At a price tag of over $5 million, and over a 4 year wait since first being proposed, they are supposed to start installing one of these toilets in each borough this year. Again, the challenges of designing and building things is the main reason I have no interest in working on architecture projects in this city. I’m continually impressed that anything gets built, let along huge skyscrapers and complex public projects when building a tiny pre-fab toiled is this difficult.
Design Inspiration
A great example of how we can quickly and cheaply redesign our streetscape. We don’t have to spend millions to transform our cities. With some stones, planters, and fun use of colorful paint we can make our urban environment more people friendly. There are hundreds of these sorts of interventions popping up around New York City. I hope to see thousands more - especially with congestion pricing being implemented this summer. When we reclaim land from cars we make the city better for every
Photo by Street Plans
Ways to Connect
Email: lucas@lucasgraydesign.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasgray/
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