Well, that is disappointing. I thought one of you mods wrote that nice little summary. Learning it's generic makes me embarrassed I thought it was so nice.
Also, when someone on the floor above me flushes the toilet I can hear it going down the pipes to get to the sewers. Poopy pipes. Pretty sure an architect is to blame for that.
It's still a nice thought. That's why they put in in there.
Truth
Architecture is like health insurance. People call their health insurer all the time, cursing about shitty coverage. But the insurer is capable of providing excellent coverage, provided the person's employer pays for it.
Architects can design (and builders can build) anything from a shithole to a palace. It all depends on what the customer wants.
It's usually the property owner, developer, or contractor that drive that bus. More often than not, we would rather we would rather include all of those little extras that make a difference. But then we get accused of being too fussy and raising costs too much. We do what we can to strike a balance between function, cost, and looks. Roman architect Vitrivuous wrote about firmness, commodity, & delight back in the days before Bono was born.
The idea is the same here at the DRC. We're trying to keep the balance between keeping the place working, affordably, and looking decent.
(I had to bring us back on topic somehow. This is a help type of a thread after all.)