Hello from Los Angeles, CA

[Natasha Sadikin]

Hello

My name is Natasha and I'm a complete newbie in real estate development. I am currently an architectural designer (I assist on the whole process from SD, DD, CD, to CA work) at a design firm that specializes in corporate headquarters, educational, and big creative workspace developments. Because of my job, I am lucky to have attended and help presented design presentations to real estate developers. 

I learned a while ago that being an architect doesn't mean we get to design what we want. I noticed that developers were less interested in the 'design' of the project, and focused more on the financial, numbers, "rent-able square footage". Ultimately, we always have to come down to what the client wants. Because of this, I wanted to learn more about the developer's side and combine it with architecture to develop my own projects ( like Jonathan Segal). But before all of that, I know it takes a lot of investments and money, so I'd like to generate passive income on the side from standard multi-family housing rentals, etc. 

My twin sister (we work at the same architecture firm, YAY SIBILINGS!) introduced me to this site and I was quite happy to see the wealth of information that everyone provides. I actually had a 'real estate mentor' before while I was in university, but it scared me since he kept telling me to quit my job/quit architecture.

Oh, I also do photography on the side :) Sorry for the long introduction, but I look forward to learning more from this site and making new connections!

[Natasha Sadikin]

@Joshua McGinnis Hello Joshua! 

I think there are good arguments from both side of the "open-workstation" debate. I feel like, especially working in big corporate firms, people are always aiming for that private office so when you're forced to suddenly revert to the open workstations, its hard to let go. I think there are definitely pros and cons to the open workstation setting (we always incorporate it to all of our designs unless the client has specifically said they wanted private offices). It also sort of depends on what kind of work you do like if you need absolute privacy/silence to focus on your project, that might make sense. At the same time, we get feedback from clients who say that walking down hallways of private offices with doors closed is sort of depressing.

Heck, our firm is comprised of one-long workstation (there's only 9 of us). Personally, I think its great! It definitely gets the collaborative spirit going.The two principals sit at the end of the table and its a lot easier to communicate and talk about projects. I can also just wheel around to someone else's table space and talk about projects, etc. 

IMO, open-workstations are great, but only with a variety of public/private settings works best. We have different sized rooms for people to just go and work in by themselves for a while if our office is getting too noisy (with 4 dogs running around the office, it can definitely get loud!) or if they need to make conference calls. Or even when we have mini-group sessions, we'll just nab a small meeting room and work in there all day. We also incorporate a standing bar area & large picnic-table setting where people can bring their laptops or just pull up construction drawings to review. 

Definitely agreed, I don't want to quit my job. I love it and I think there's alot to learn :) It would just be great to have something on the side to make money since architects don't really make good money, haha. I do mostly portrait (headshots & fineart) photography, but I do some interior architectural photography for the office! 

@Eric Zunkley Thank you very much! It's still a  work in progress