21. Bottom of the 9th, Two Outs
“Geonshin. This is bad. Where’s Team Leader Seungjin?”
Geonshin woke up, half asleep. He looked out the window, and the bluish light made it obvious it was still dawn.
“Huh? Team Leader Seungjin said late last night that something came up at home, and he stepped out for a bit. What happened?”
Assistant Manager Sumin’s face turned pale. Her lips whispered.
“The deadline schedule.”
That was right.
It turned out the urgent problem right now was the submission deadline.
Since it was a project they started late to begin with, the fact that the drawings kept falling behind was the root of the problem.
Work on the drawings that should have already been finished had only just reached the final stage, because they were still adapting to the new style of plan.
Most partner-firm work starts fifteen days before submission… at the very least, ten days before.
For areas like fire protection, structure, civil, and interior, where the volume wasn’t that large, they could use rough early drawings or simple results, but electrical, mechanical, landscaping, the outsourced firm that would make the design report, and especially the CG part all had baseline work time they needed.
Here, “the CG part” meant the work of virtually creating a building that did not yet exist, using a bird’s-eye view and a perspective view.
Modern architecture was practically a CG battle. Especially in a competition project, it was no exaggeration to say the bird’s-eye and perspective images were everything.
So they couldn’t do it roughly just because they were short on time, and they absolutely couldn’t omit it either.
But the official submission date for this project was Monday, September 23rd, the day right after the Chuseok holiday ended.
Today was September 16th, leaving exactly one week until the deadline.
And on top of that, with Chuseok overlapping at a timing this late, it was truly like fire had fallen on their feet.
They were already whipping themselves in an extremely tight schedule, but this pushed it to a level where the work was basically impossible.
If this were something an architecture firm could handle directly in-house, maybe it wouldn’t have mattered.
Since deadlines were everything, there was an atmosphere that it was normal to work through Chuseok and even Lunar New Year unless someone died.
When a slight difference in quality decided the winner, taking a holiday off at home was something you felt self-conscious about at the company.
But even so, the quality gap with outside vendors that could not be narrowed was beyond simply pro versus amateur.
And partner firms usually not only rested during Chuseok, but they also used vacation days and took the entire week off as a holiday.
Division 7’s schedule was originally to wrap up partner-firm work before the Chuseok holiday, but looking at it now, they only realized after coming this far that it had been an impossible schedule from the start.
In the end, the partner firms that had verbally agreed to work with them, for those reasons, waited and waited for the drawings until their necks stretched out, then either pulled out, or said they had already booked other schedules, according to Assistant Manager Soomin.
Moreover, architecture firms that had nothing left after losing a design competition often delayed and delayed the money that had to be settled with partner firms.
Because of that, partner firms tended to avoid projects that looked like they had no future. It was already late, so how could they possibly win?
“Even the CG company? You’re saying Director Kim at AkiCG said he can’t do it?”
Team Leader Seungjin’s face, freshly washed and neat for the first time in a while at home, crumpled completely.
“Yes. Actually, we asked them to hand over the drawings last week. And Chuseok happened to be in the middle.”
“Ha. Damn it. I said I’d get it done quickly, but did you also contact Studio 101?”
“They’re already doing another project. I tried a few other places too, but they all said they can’t…”
“Those bastards have no professional pride, damn it.”
Team Leader Seungjin had been enjoying himself, drawing drawings he could finally be satisfied with.
With the thought of making something that had never existed before, he could endure on only three to four hours of sleep a day.
Just as he was starting to see hope that maybe they could win if they finished well, now he had no time to call around to find another firm, explain the plan every time, and all that.
And even if he did, if they still couldn’t find a firm, that time would obviously be wasted too.
“It’s bottom of the 9th, two outs.”
“Huh? Bottom of the 9th?”
Bottom of the 9th, two outs. Bases loaded, down by three runs. Unfortunately, the ninth batter is up. No pinch hitter.
Team Leader Seungjin, thinking about getting support from another office now, remembered President Kang Inseong’s words: “Yeongjo Architecture has no support!”
If they had just one more person…
‘If I quickly finish the elevations and draw the electrical and mechanical plans? Even if Sumin does the landscaping design, we still have to make the design report, and on top of that, the CG?’
As for the drawings, since they could redraw them accurately later during the detailed design after winning, maybe Team Leader Seungjin’s fast hands could even finish the partner-firm portion.
The biggest problems were the design report and the CG work.
Those two were outsourced tasks that were hard to solve internally. This was a matter of quality.
The design report was about thirty pages, and two to three graphic specialists would attach themselves to it and work on it.
If Assistant Manager Soomin and Geonshin worked on it together, they could force it into existence, but in the end, quality would be the obstacle.
Mirim would have had an outsourcing firm make theirs.
‘Can those two really catch up to an outsourcing firm’s quality?’
For CG as well, even before talking about quality, the biggest issue was computer specs. The computers firms used were high-spec machines optimized for rendering.
But what Yeongjo Architecture provided to regular employees were just regular computers and only one machine in the technical support division even had 3D Max installed, so it would be hard to even compete with Mirim Architecture’s bird’s-eye view.
‘If I’m stuck on the drawings, I won’t be able to pay attention to anything else. This is the worst. Damn it.’
One week left until the deadline. Work that should have started last week had piled up, and partner firms had pulled out. Division 7 with nowhere to escape.
But then, the confident ninth batter appeared holding a bat.
Geonshin looked at the schedule chart hanging on the wall and thought.
‘If I say I’ll do it all, they won’t believe me, and if Team Leader Seungjin does the drawings, should I say I’ll do the design report and the CG? With the time left, I think I can do it alone. But I’m not a team leader, and if a part-timer says he’ll do that important work alone, who would believe it?’
Geonshin looked at Team Leader Seungjin and Assistant Manager Sumin.
‘Still, I’ve shown my CG quality, and they’ve confirmed that my hands are fast through model work. In a moment like this, wouldn’t doubting my ability feel like a waste of time. I just wish I could use the computer I have in mind.’
Geonshin decided to push his worry about being doubted to later. First, they had to submit something.
“I’ll do it with Assistant Manager Soomin.”
“What?”
“The things other than the drawing work.”
“What?”
Assistant Manager Soomin was just as surprised. Still, Geonshin thought it would go over better if he said he’d help Assistant Manager Soomin and do whatever it took, rather than stepping up and saying he’d do it alone.
“M-me? The design report and the CG? I have to do the landscaping design too.”
“I’ll help with that too. I thought it’d be better to start quickly than keep looking for firms. But to do CG work, we need a proper computer. Something like what’s in the server room.”
Team Leader Seungjin barely held back the bark that was about to spill from his throat. Even if he got angry, he didn’t have any sharp solution either. And wasn’t Geonshin at least stepping up to solve it?
‘To be in a position where we have to rely on a mere part-timer…’
It was true that Geonshin knew how to handle 3D Max, but making bird’s-eye views for a project this big was a different dimension from interior images of a bridge.
They hadn’t even seen an exterior bird’s-eye view made by Geonshin yet, and could he really produce professional-level quality?
‘I should keep looking, for now. Even if that guy can somehow do the CG and the drawings, there are still countless other things we have to do.’
Find firms as much as possible for what they can handle, and for the rest, cover as much as he can cover… and for the remainder, they had no choice but to believe what Geonshin had shown so far, and bet on it.
“Well. There really isn’t any other method right now. We have no choice but to solve it ourselves. But can we solve it with the computer in the technical support division?”
Geonshin felt like he understood what Team Leader Seungjin was worried over.
In this terrible situation, they still had to pull out the highest quality, right. Geonshin also knew well what was needed for high quality in the design report and panels, and in the CG too.
He also knew that it was in the server room right now.
To do that, they needed a kind of power. To go into the server room and work, Director Yoo-uk’s presence mattered.
How much influence he had in the company, and how much impossibility he could turn into possibility?
Let’s go for now. The ninth batter steps into the box.
“…But where did the director go?”
At the same time, at Gwangseong University.
Today was the day of the final review for the first project of the design studio course for fourth-year architecture students at Gwangseong University.
In architecture, there is something more important than a course exam: the design studio course, where students themselves carry out an architecture project over the semester.
For each grade level, to prepare for today’s review, they spend a week eating and sleeping in the studio classroom as they get their final checks ready.
The reason they put their lives into this course was that, among architecture department grades, the design studio course had the greatest weight.
It had two classes a week, each four hours long, so what more needed to be said. Even getting an A in just this one course could sharply pull up your GPA.
At this time, to ensure a cold evaluation, the professors in charge would invite outside architects and ask them to judge.
In truth, this also became a way to show off how much of a network they had, and it also had the effect of letting students who stood out get ahead in the job market.
Fourth-year design studio, Class A.
Professor Bong Junbeom was in his office preparing for the review. At that moment, after a knock, he heard someone come in. When he turned around, he greeted the other person with a big smile.
“Ah! You’ve come. Please come in. Huhuhuh. Thank you for coming all the way for the student review.”
“Hahaha. It’s nothing. Since it’s Gwangseong University’s matter, how could I not come. My father-in-law is here, after all. And I thought I’d also come take a look at how good the students are these days.”
The person was Ham Seokjun, the design headquarters director at Mirim Architecture. He was the one who started the Gwangseong University sports center design competition, the one who set the board.
Director Ham had come in advance to greet Professor Bong Junbeom, who was slated to be one of the judges for this Gwangseong University sports center design competition.
“It’s exciting to come to a university after a long time and judge students. Hahaha.”
“You’re busy, and you came in person, our kids will really like it. It’s time, so let’s go now.”
“Yes. Understood.”
They left the office and headed to the classroom where the review would be held, when Professor Bong Junbeom saw someone standing in the hallway and greeted them.
“Huh. Is there another person who came to judge besides me?”
The person who laughed heartily and shook hands was Director Yoo-uk.
Leave a Reply