I’ve had clients who wanted to build their dream house but expected it to be built with 1970s budget for such. I’ve had clients up and change the bloody site when I was nearly done.

I’ve worked on a project for over two years during which is morphed from a 1 bedroom 1600 sf executive aerie (overlooking downtown Honolulu) with a possible 600 sf mother-in-law unit below to a three story 5000 sf 3 bedroom, 5 bath with exercise room and two mother-in-law units at which point the client decided living in Phuket would be a lot cheaper.

I’ve worked for other architects who grossly underestimated the cost of their dreams and made changes by the hour. I’ve done restaurants where they’ve changed the name and menu drastically, forcing complete redesigns. I’ve had projects where the foundations were poured and they wanted to change the entire concept. I’ve had clients buy existing projects with approved plans under construction who then changed it all, all the while expecting the work to continue and with no change in finish date or cost.

But then there’s an additional layer of complexity, that of design review boards, where often people who are completely ignorant of design engineering and recently retired professional pains in the rearget to pore over your work and require changes or it doesn’t get approved. Which doesn’t include the official professional design review boards or historical preservation boards or zoning commissions or coastal commissions or City Councils or even just the local building department, which may or may not incorporated personnel who have the least idea of what they are doing. And then there’s the neighbors who all have a stake, of course.

Next one gets to deal with the actual builders who all absolutely know you are just some emo-artist who knows nothing.

Lastly, when was the last time you got sued for over a $1M for a design you did 5 years ago, for an entirely different group of people with an entirely different set of goals?

I updated the article mentioning the original author.