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Last night I met up with a contractor in Evanston to whom I sent a marketing package last month, complete with portfolio booklet. He called last week and set up this meeting to discuss some renovation work to this house. The homeowners are new to the area and just bought this house a few months ago. Since then they have found it rather difficult to live in, so they wanted to add a master bath. I met beforehand with the contractor and he downloaded a lot of information onto me about the project and what the homeowners wanted to do. Then we went to the house so I could meet them and get a better look at the place myself.

When we arrived we took a quick look at the exterior of the home, to get better acquainted with its style and construction. One of the owners greeted us outside and ushered us inside to see the master bedroom upstairs. They have one normal-sized bathroom servicing the three bedrooms upstairs. They wanted to add the master bath where a current walk-in closet is located. It seemed like a good, easy plan... then the other owner showed up.

Upon the arrival of our second host, we continued the tour to the rear of the home. From there, a lengthy discussion was had about expanding the home out the back to accommodate more space on both the upper and main levels. Our group moved from floor to floor and from inside to outside and then back inside. We floated from room to room, talking and listening to one another. Their main issue is that they realized there wasn't quite enough house for them. The rear stair was too narrow to even get the bulk of their furniture up to the master bedroom. They just found it unlivable. We quickly realized that their project had grown to a home that will better affect their quality of life, so we expanded the scope.

I worked on a proposal for my services and fees this morning. I submitted it to the contractor shortly after (we are working as a team, so he is including my services/drawings as part of his complete package). He responded this afternoon, we discussed it and now he is preparing his part of the proposal for the homeowners' review. He will present it to them either tonight or tomorrow and will hopefully provide me with good news or at least some positive feedback thereafter. I am keeping my fingers crossed (and not getting my hopes up), but this could be a good job for me and I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into something like this again...

Net-working

Last night I went to a networking event provided by "Chicago After Work". It's really a cool setup that they have. They charge you 10$ to get into their event, which they host at a local bar or club - usually a higher-end establishment in a "hip" part of town. Last night's event was held at Luxbar just off Rush St. in the restaurant district of the Near North Side neighborhood. We had the entire 2nd floor to network and meet new contacts - mostly comprised of younger professionals and entrepreneurs.

I had a lot of fun and met a lot of new and interesting people - some of which could even help me out in the industry, and some vowed to and have already acted on that promise. I, in turn, offered to help a few people wherever I could as well and have since sent out a few emails to try to get the wheels turning.

I would like to attend a few more of these events. The organization puts them on once per month all over the city. The 10$ fee is used to not only reserve the space, but you also get your first cocktail for free (a 6$ value at some of these posh locales), plus there are servers constantly walking around serving complimentary appetizers and selling more beverages.

We'll see where this goes and if it produces any real work. For 10$; however, it is worth the investment and the return could be extraordinary. I was glad to at least have had a fun evening with some cool new people who share my ambitiousness.

Truth in Advertising

When I first got up here and started this gig, I decided that in order to get any real work I'd have to pound the pavement and get my name out there. And to me, that meant cold-calling. I have never done any real advertising before, so I knew I had to start from scratch. I decided that no one should be successful in this day and age without a website: good, bad, or indifferent. So I took the necessary steps to create one and I am proud to say that it is published and is a top search result on Google. This lead to the creation of a professional email address hosted off of the site. With the addition of a phone number and a physical street address, I was off to designing and printing business cards. I knew I couldn't just send business cards to people, that isn't flashy enough. So I decided to make marketing booklets.

I did a little research and sent these booklets out to 10 prospective companies that I thought would be good for a fresh young architect like me to collaborate with. Ten is not a very large amount of contacts, but the booklets cost a lot of money to produce, so I had to narrow down to 10 finalists from a larger list - so these were being sent to very exclusive company... haha. I sent them out about a month ago, and made follow-up calls a few days later. It's not easy to go in cold - in fact, it is sort of a pride-swallowing adventure, and I'm not exactly sure why. Regardless, I knew I had to make it happen.

I was a little discouraged when I did not get one single positive response. I actually only was able to get through to three of the companies, all of them telling me they would keep me in mind if anything came up in the future, which I guess is all I could ask for in this economy. Then it happened. Yesterday I got a call from one of the contractors to whom I sent a booklet and never got a reply. As it turns out they need some architectural work and I guess they had my marketing information handy, so they called me. I have a meeting setup to look at their project, and I am very excited about the prospect. This could turn into a long-term relationship.

You see, it does pay to advertise. If this one project turns into just one paying commission, it will pay for ALL of the marketing I have done to date - that is quite a return on investment, and it subsequently allows me to pay for more advertising to go after more work - a nice upward spiral. Plus I may have room for a little bit of a profit, but I am not going to push my luck. I'm proud to say that hard work may have paid off for me, and I hope for continued successes.

First "real" commission

I say "real" because this project is the first project I gained with the new business venture outside of any previous contacts coming into it. I have worked on a few other small things, but they all came to me via an outlet (or is it inlet?) that I had intact when I was still working for someone. Frankly, a few of my other commissions have simply been drafting work for other architects, but I'll take it!

What you're looking at here is a 3D rendering of some concept work I did for a client who wants to open a new fast, casual sushi restaurant. It's a really neat concept and I hope it takes off because if it does, I should be the go-to guy to produce the construction drawings for all of the new spaces it goes into - a nice cash cow if successful. This guy's concept is fresh and unique. I don't want to get into too many details, but basically you stand and wait while the sushi is made to order, as you the consumer designed it. This drawing is of the sushi prep area - the idea being that the sushi chefs would be "displayed" inside a "cube". The vibrant color and bulkiness really help set it apart from the rest of the space, so it becomes a focal point. The consumer can watch their creation being made and they can also see some fresh sushi pieces inside the display case built into the front of the "cube". They pick up their orders around the corner at another fun "slit" carved out of the cube form, but you'll have to visit the CJ Architects website to get a peak at that!

Like I said, I hope this one materializes for a few different reasons. I love enjoying buildings I've worked on and I'd love to grab a meal in this place. It is kind of interesting though that in my short experience as an entrepreneur that this job paid the fastest... I guess I will just have to come to learn how to manage and prepare for that kind of thing as coming with the territory...

Here we go!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first post on the CJ Architects blog! I will try to update this as often as possible to keep current with the world and to allow a peak inside the operation.

I have been working very diligently to get my name (and logo) passed around here in Chicago. This blog is one step in that process, but i hope that it is simply a tool for me to stay connected, release, and share information. If anyone has a topic they would like to hear about, please email me and I will try to develop and publish an appropriate post. My goal is to keep this about architecture, but i will entertain all sorts of topics and probably will want to stray away from time to time.

Thanks for reading and enjoy!