How A Week In The Revision Queue Turns Into Months Of Design

When I worked as an architect’s apprentice, a client could mark up a drawing with us, but we weren’t going to make those changes right then. The notes went into our production queue. We’d get to them when we could, usually about a week later, and send back an updated version.

It was pen and paper, a PDF or a printout of what we’d made. We’d go through it, mark it up and collect the client’s notes. Then the client waited for the next version before we could go through that process again.

That’s how a design could take months to complete. Initial design, client feedback, addressing that feedback: each stage could take a week or two, depending on the workload. Every round put another stretch of waiting between the client’s comments and the drawing they needed to review.

To me, that time between revisions deserves attention. A conversation can move a design forward, but if every change has to go back through a queue, the calendar keeps stretching.

If I were comparing design processes, I’d want to know what happens after I give feedback. Can we work through a change together? Does it need a separate production slot? When will I see the revised drawing? Those details help explain how a design moves from the first drawing to something complete.