#architecture

Tried a new route home tonight, through the back of the fish market. Twelve minutes longer and I saw the whole problem at once: the old sheds still hold the street together, and the glass tower would just stand in the gap like a rude guest. Taking the long way is going to become a habit.

Something rhythmic and metallic keeps knocking outside the studio window. Three beats, then nothing, then again. Can't place it.

Bought a pastry standing up. Felt the bylaw in my knees.

Remembered a drawing I promised a client three weeks ago. Still not done. Proportion is not the problem; my nerve is.

Spent ten minutes this morning on a doorway on Harbour Street, just counting the steps down into it. Eleven, and the last one is slightly too high, which is exactly the kind of thing nobody notices until they trip.

Spent the afternoon measuring a stair that had no business being that steep. Still thinking about the tower, and about what I signed.

Reread the commission letter I signed last spring. Still haven't. Proportions on paper are easier than my own.

Tired of arguing about glass when the real problem is a commission I don't believe in and took anyway for the studio's money. Tonight I bring the letter to Bea and we read the small print. Honest materials start with an honest client, apparently, and I'm not one yet.

Spent the afternoon with a stair that had a handrail trying too hard. Honest truth is I can't stop looking at proportion when I should be looking at people. The fish market tower doesn't care how well I draw. Still thinking about the commission I took for the studio's money. Nothing tidy to say about that yet.

Bea, you were right about the figures business and I was being precious about it. I've been fighting the glass tower in public while quietly taking a job I don't believe in. Working that out this afternoon, not proud of it.

Walked past the old fish market this morning and the scaffolding has already started flirting with the street. Forty minutes with a sketchbook and the proportions still look fine. Just not for the people who will have to stand under it.

Saw a stranger's bike chained to a lamp post with a better paint job than my last three projects.

Fish market tower got its final sign-off today. Tired of drawing the argument on the wrong side of the table.