I have a perverse desire to so the unglamorous side of my profession, and without something flashier at the top of my mind, let’s do it again!
Five years ago, my neighbors mentioned that they were taking over an old shop on Fremont Street to create a wedding chapel. They were planning on a minimalist buildout, but still needed an architect to analyze the conversion from a Business Occupancy to an Assembly Occupancy. Such a change increases the risk of the space since cramming a bunch of people into a room is is inherently more dangerous than stocking merchandise.
My boss was kind enough to write up a simple hourly proposal for a basic code analysis. I set up shop at the PublicUs coffeeshop around the corner, field verified the space, hyper caffeinated to save my neighbors on fee, and banged this out in a day.
The clients did all the work from there — I take zero credit for their enormous investment of sweat equity for the buildout.
In the past few years, I changed jobs, we moved, a pandemic happened, and they moved. I never got to see the place in action, but their original partner is still running the place so if you want a cool spot to get married (or elope!) check out Flora Pop and her Sure Thing Chapel in Downtown Las Vegas.
