Vicente Wolf Blog

Vicente,

I would have to say that my ex-huband and I, spent 20 years building a business that his father started 25 years prior to my coming into the picture and now we are no longer together and the business closed after 45 years!!!

I think that the ecomomy is going to go further down and that this is just a momentary up turn.

With that said: there are so many new ways to make money and have fun doing it!!!!!!

One has to know when it is time to move on and into a different direction, but often we are to fearful or are doing so well in our choosen fields that we can not let go and grow!!!

It often takes a jolt-to make us transform stagnant energy in our professional live!!!

So, it could be either the light at the end of the tunnel or the head lights coming at you.
Both could lead you to your next life!!!!!!!!!!

Your are searching and that is what will make it happen!!!!!

Good luck, Vincente

xxoo
Melissa

Vicente,

It’s a sobering to realize that even the one of the best designers in the US could go through a dry spell in this recession.

After months of silence, my phone has rung a few times. Architect friends that own or run larger firms have said that they have begun to receive calls about restarting projects that were suspended in 2007-08, but they are not so confident to have begun rehiring staff. Being a sole practitioner, I have the luxury of being “too small to fail”! A lovely new mid-rise office building is under construction in Clayton MO (1st ring suburb and a business center in St Louis). And new street-side retail is being built to match historic patterns in the University City Loop (my ‘hood!), so there are signs of economic confidence here.

2009 was pretty rough. I was lucky to have some work carry over from 2008, and even one project restart in Jan 2009 at the height of the recession. But there was plenty of down time. Every cloud can have a silver lining though, and mine was that I used the time to become a better manager of our investments and am more confident now about when to be in and out of the market, and how to manage assets through tough times. I had the displeasure of experiencing the outcome of some poor advice by my previous financial adviser. But I used the time to find a new one who is skilled in both fundamental and technical analysis, and who is acting as a mentor as well as money manager, and together we are steadily rebuilding.

I believe that we are in a time of transition in our country’s economic history. We are still an economic powerhouse and have a per capita income that is approximately 10x that of Chinese citizens, but China and the rest of the world are growing at a faster rate than we and our economic dominance will probably never be as complete as it was post World War II. There is a wonderful book called “The Ascent of Money” by Niall Ferguson that traces the way countries went through an arc of economic dominance and decline like Spain in the 16th c, France in the 18th c and Britain in the 19th c. I’m not suggesting the same outcome for the US, but there may be some parallels.

I think that corporations, small business and individuals will not leverage up as much as before and will be more circumspect with their spending going forward. We will probably see inflationary increases in our cost of living and social services due to the devalued dollar and the added cost of government borrowing from the Chinese and others, which can not continue forever. We have government debt of 85% of GDP vs. the Chinese at 20% of their GDP. So we may or may not see the same level of spending on architecture, interiors and art as we saw in the 1983-1999 boom era or the last recovery. I note with interest that several firms in or connected to your “Other Great Blogs” are doing work abroad.

I think there may be a silver lining to this too in the form of some national humility and hopefully a sense that we are all in this together. And regarding architecture, interiors and landscaping, an unlimited budget is not necessarily a guarantee of good taste. In St Louis, various state and federal agencies are completing the rebuilding of the in-town part of Interstate 64-State 40, which was widened in some places at most by one lane for which we received an unending 20 foot high concrete sound fence on both sides for its entire “improved” length. They have turned one of the prettiest green highway corridors through the center of a major metropolitan area into the equivalent of driving through a concrete culvert.

When everyone, private and public, has to think a bit more about the money they spend, perhaps we will get more thoughtful decisions, better buildings and cities. And ironically the spare aesthetic we champion may have a practical as well as design rationale! Or perhaps this is just wishful thinking! I’ve often wondered if the spare interiors shown in European design magazines such as Abitare (are they still in business?) have any correlation to the European commitment to social services and higher personal taxes! Any thoughts on that?

I guess that’s a long response to your question! I’m glad that the internet space is limitless. Otherwise I might fill it up!

Thank you so much for this format and dialogue.
Gary

We are also seeing things pick up suddenly. Even if it is headlights coming toward us, we’ll take it. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? Actually, I saw a huge influx of shoppers in our small town of St. Helena this weekend. It was much busier than I expected it to be and many of the stores were a bit short on workers. I guess it was busier than they expected as well. I am looking forward to hearty farewell to 2009, and a welcome hello to 2010!
christine

I have to say that after a tough end to 2008 and a slow start to 2009, we are rockin n’ rollin! My husband and I are general contractors/builders/designers and business is good in Austin, Texas. We feel very blessed and grateful everyday for the clients we have that have put their trust and dollars with us. Not much going on in new construction, but residential remodels are strong. We’ll be officially launching the design side of our business in 2010!

Hang in there everyone and keep the faith in what you do. Take time to explore other areas of interest, paint, sing, dance. Whatever it takes to see you through the tough times. That’s what I do.

Super busy, thankfully. Hired my old assistant back and might need someone else as well.

The winter was rough, and I was so thankful for my loyal, repeat clients coming back for smaller projects– a few window treatments here, replacing this there, clients whose homes I have done needing work done on their commercial offices. This kept me going along with the other small projects that came in.

Here in Boston where I practice, it seems like most of my friends who practice residential design are busy again. Even my architect friends seem to have work. I think it depends where you live and how hard the housing sector/economy was hit. In Boston, not that bad, by comparison to say Florida or California. Let’s hope things continue to go better for the whole country. I for one, actually LIKE working.

PS Gary, I went to Wash U and lived in the loop during my school years. Love it over there…