“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”
psalm 19:14, CSB
the old man stroked the wavy gray bristles of his mustache as he looked over the plans. Leon sat patiently, thinking about the granola bar in his briefcase. his stomach rumbled. the old man looked up.
“sorry.”
the old man frowned and resumed his subconscious grooming. “why so much glass.” it was an accusation as much as a question.
“the client hopes the bottom floor and front-facing suites on the upper floors will be retail spaces, so visibility from the street is critical.”
“but the heat. so much heat will pass through these windows. out during the winter, in during the summer. this will make climate control costs erratic and unnecessarily high, and the environmental impact of the climate control system will be enormous.”
“all large windows on the front of the building are double-paned, with a temperature controlled pocket of air in-between. the air acts as insulation, but you can see through it. it also controls humidity to prevent condensation. a great by-product is it will prevent it from frosting in the winter and fogging in the summer. it’s similar to the windows used in airplanes.”
“sounds expensive.”
“within the client budget.”
“the environmental impact?”
“well below code. the insulating effect of the windows more than offsets the climate control costs, and keeps environmental impact to similar-sized windowless spaces. well below code.”
“and that data is in here somewhere?”
“page...” Leon shuffled through his binder. “...37. second page of the environmental impact study. tab 3.”
“hmph.” the old man frowned, but didn’t bother to verify. he peeled a page back on the giant schematic. “this wall. there’s no supports. this opening is too wide for steel this thin.”
“the rafter support is to be made from titanium.”
“that is outrageously expensive.”
“well within client budget, and necessary for the freedom the client wants on the interior first floor.”
“what happens when the budget crunches, and this gets swapped out for steel.”
“the budget details in section 5 of the binder show that there are...” Leon flipped, then counted, silently, tapping with his finger. “...twelve major changes we can make before this central beam structure comes into play, and a suggested alternative in steel lists the specs on support beams that will still leave large open spaces congruent with potential retail space.”
the old man flipped open the binder to tab 5 and scanned the budget. after a few pages, he slammed the binder shut and smiled at Leon.
“anticipate objections and know where to find them off the top of your head. we’ve covered the biggest ones. good persuasion dictates you answer the questioner before the question. say things like ‘great observation’ or “we were also concerned about that until we discovered..’ et cetera, et cetera. and, Leon, eat before you go.”
“yes, Dr. Mohren.”
Dr. Mohren rolled up the blueprints and slid them back into his tube. “you’re ready. knock ‘em dead. call me when you get out. and don’t let Dillingham push you around. you know more about all this than he does. he’s just trying to make it until his pension kicks in.”
Leon chuckled. “thank you, Dr. Mohren. wish you could go with me.”
the old professor smiled and handed the binder back to his star pupil. “i try to teach my students in such a way that i don’t have to.”