I arrived in London in the trough of the 'Great Recession,' moving from foggy San Francisco in the summer of 2009 and ready for a change. While I already knew a number of people in London and had heard horror stories about the state of the economy, nothing prepared me for sending out 80 CVs to get two interviews. I finally found a contract position working on a design-build primary school for a medium-sized office through an architect I met at a meeting of the American Institute of Architects' UK Chapter. The design-build form of contract was not something I had encountered before; I was used to frequent contact with clients, and was surprised to learn that we could contact the head teacher of the school we were designing only through the contractor. At the same time, I was impressed with the UK's clear-cut building regulations compared to the confusing legalese of California.
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