Good morning, Steve. I'm calling on behalf of head office, to congratulate you on selling the library project, down there in Smallville.

Thanks Bob. I appreciate that.

You've done a fantastic sales job, Steve. Frankly, I have to say, when you first came to me and suggested we start re-cycling some of the old 70's drawings, from the filing cabinet, I was skeptical. You proved me wrong. Well done.

Thanks Bob. It's just a matter of fitting the product with the customer.

For example we did a little background research on Smallville and found out the locals were more interested in tearing down old buildings, than saving them for future generations. That gave us insight into their attitude.

The Downtown shopping district has so many missing buildings, it looks like a hockey player's grin. It's pretty obvious the local government has little or no interest in making it work. The real focus is on the Mall Strip. Once we got an insight into their mind set, we knew we could sell them anything.

There were some questions at first. A few people asked why there were no windows on two sides of the building. You have to remember this is a hockey town, so most of the major public buildings here are arenas. I pointed out that an arena doesn't have any windows. Why should a library? I had to put a stop to that when they started calling it 'the arena project'.

Bob, didn't anyone ask questions, when they first saw drawings of a building right out of 1970's Scarborough?

Well frankly, we thought they would. But you have to realize this isn't the big city. People here aren't pretentious, like they are in Toronto. Your average politician in Smallville doesn't claim to be an architectural authority. They trust the experts, like us, to tell them what's going to work. They'd heard the expression 'retro', and someone told them it was good. So, when I started talking pre-cast concrete and how retro it was, they were sold. The secret is not to over estimate the customer.

Some concerned citizens showed up, the night the design was approved, and complained that the building didn't fit in with the Down Town architecture. Well, I personally took a 5 minute stroll down Main Street, as part of my research, and saw a couple of buildings that had the top floors covered with brick or aluminum siding. In my opinion, this new design fits right in. If anything, it needs more concrete and fewer windows.

Fortunately these concerned citizens wanted a new library as much as anyone. So the opposition was strictly on ascetic principles. Of course we tried to spin things so it looked like they were trying to derail the whole project.

They also complained that the front entrance faced away from the Downtown. What they don't understand is that we're looking ahead. The old, soon to be abandoned, library is right across the street. God knows what they're going to do with it, but we have the new library facing it. Our idea is to subconsciously tie them together. When people walk out the front door of the new library, they'll see this derelict hundred-year-old building. Because of the contrast, they won't notice that the new one they just bought, looked 30 years old the day it opened.

Steve, I heard that some taxpayers saw the design and caught on to your game. How'd you handle them?

We had everyone ready for that possibility, Bob. I'm sure you've heard the expression, 'the best defense is a good offense'. We felt that the secret to overcoming opposition, no matter how polite the delegation acted, was to immediately go on total attack mode. Throw everything you have at them. Accuse them of not participating in the process. Act hurt. Point fingers. Get hysterical about running out of time and losing provincial funding.

What you're trying to do is divert the public's attention away from the building, and into side issues. Accuse the critics of threatening small animals and children. Find some error in judgement or mistake they've made that can be blown all out of proportion. Sick the local press on them. Question their credibility and motives. Take the focus off the design and put them on the defensive. Claim to be willing to accommodate their suggestions, while stressing that time has just run out.

Great Steve. I don't need to tell you how much money we're going to save on construction costs making two sides of the building just cement walls. It's those damn windows that cut into the profit margin. And off course it was a big budget stretcher, not having to come up with an original design. Of course you and the sales team are getting a big bonus for this one.

Thanks Bob. I may have more work for us, down here. Do you remember the plans for a disco bar, we worked on back in the 70's. We put a lot of effort into a project that didn't fly. Well, I think I've found someone in Smallville who's interested in building it. Maybe we could get John Travolta or Olivia Newton-John to make an opening night appearance.

Anyway, I have to go now. Some of the city residents are taking me up to a little town just north of here. Get this Bob. According to the local yokels, Elvis is still alive and lives up there. He runs a farm implement dealership.

So I was thinking-maybe Elvis needs a building design. I can see our next project now. Graceland North, done entirely in pre-cast concrete. I'll call you when I get things firmed up.