Thank you for these in-depth answers. From the sounds of it, projects and company organization are very similar to how the architecture world works. You’ll have the various consultants and engineers you bring on board for a specific need since it’s too costly to have them in-house 95% of the time. This all makes sense from the business aspect of it.
One of the things I have loved about my career so far is when I’ve had the chance to sit down with the end users of a space and discuss their needs and how I can help them achieve a viable solution that fits within budgets.
A few years back I designed a small rural community healthcare clinic that I had the chance to dig into how the staff would actively use the spaces from more of a research/observation standpoint. By actively participating in their processes I was able to design solutions that worked with their established methodology and also provide guidance on how they could become more efficient based on the proposed design solutions. It was a pretty cool project that I am proud to have in my portfolio. A year out from when they opened the building they were still extremely satisfied with the results and had seen numerous positive changes the productivity and wellbeing of their staff, patient satisfaction, business operations and in general brought a sense of newness to the community.
Unfortunately, those types of projects are few and far between. Project cycles are too long (18-24 months+). Budgets get slashed over and over to the point where any sort of design features gets eliminated and you are left with something that any run of the mill general contractor could go build with a napkin sketch.
Everyone has pointed out some great examples of various companies to research. A lot of theirs stories are quiet informative and fun to read about.
Don’t worry Yo, none of this is discouraging. These are just some honest questions I’ve had regarding the other side of the design world than I currently work in. 