Changes

We started the prep work for this project in the fall. Now, in the middle of a cold and snowy winter, we’re building the walls. When the client visited recently for a mid-project check-in, he could really visualize the shape and scale of the forms now that they were more than lines on paper. And now that he could see more clearly, he suggested a change.

I felt a little ball of anxiety in my stomach. This would mean taking apart some of the work we’d already struggled to do in the cold and snow. This would mean thawing frozen ground and redigging footings by hand to avoid a sewer line. This would mean sourcing and transporting more material, and moving it all up an icy hill. I tried to ignore all that and listen to his idea. I tried to picture the change in my head, and visualize how it would interact with the work we’d already done and the work still to come.

It was a good idea. It was the right call.

This interaction could have gone wrong in so many ways. I could have responded with a “how dare he question me” attitude. Afraid to offend “the artist,” he might have stayed silent and regretted it every time he walked past the wall for the next twenty years. I could have dismissed his suggestion out of pride or resisted it out of laziness. I could have agreed to the change but resented it because it wasn’t my idea. I could have hated the idea but gone along with it anyway, afraid to stand my ground, letting my vision for the project get diluted. He could have micromanaged the implementation, eroding the trust between us.

But instead, we moved forward with the idea that best served the project.