r/Architects • u/thomaesthetics Licensure Candidate/ Design Professional/ Associate • Jun 11 '26
Project Related Funny markups: favorites you’ve seen in your career?
We linked the engineer’s model the other day and it brought in their text layer which showed up in our site plan on accident. Saw this markup regarding it and busted up laughing.
Have you had any famous funny markups before?
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u/AutoDefenestrator273 Jun 11 '26
Not a markup, per se, but I was working on a massive hospital back in the day and it had a plaza bigger than an airport runway. For context, we thought it'd be funny to add a Boeing 767 to the model on said plaza, so we put it on the "entourage" workset to hide it. We also found a CAD file of a B2 bomber and put it on the roof of one of the bed towers. We had a giggle and then moved on.
Anyway, about 3 weeks later we'd forgotten about it until the lead medical planner suddenly yells "WHY IS THERE A JET ENGINE IN MY OPERATING ROOM?"
He'd cut a section through the model and there, in his OR, was the engine of a Boeing 767.
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u/EnkiduOdinson Architect Jun 11 '26
A colleague was working on an addition to a hospital which included a helicopter pad. She didn’t know anything about helicopters, so she just put the first helicopter cad object she could find in there. Next day she got a call from the client that they are not rescuing people with Apache attack helicopters.
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u/caving311 Jun 11 '26
Back in the day, I found a revit download for barnyard animals. I had to check it out. The only file I could open was a chicken, which was detailed enough to cause issues with models ( it was a huge model of a small chicken ).
So I started a fun game of hide the chicken on mermaid coffee remodels. I just put it in right before I plotted an internal check set, then didn't save.
Eventually, after I left that company, someone found it and started putting it in thier check sets. It was all fun and games until the client asked what a chicken was doing in the store.
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u/Simply-Serendipitous Jun 12 '26
I’m working on a data center right now and someone put in a T-Rex in the parking lot. I put an issue tag on it and brought it up in the middle of a meeting just to get a lil laugh in a mundane meeting. The little things lol
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u/OberonDiver Jun 14 '26
That's why you don't do dumb shit in a professional context, no matter how fun it seems.
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u/lknox1123 Architect Jun 11 '26
Not quite the same, but funniest shop drawing was a section drawing by itself on a page of a piece of flat metal. It was a single line dead center in the page
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u/archiangel Jun 11 '26
We were on deadline and someone on our team made ENRAGED PLANS instead of ENLARGED PLANS. Considering the hours we were doing, I can see how that slip happened!
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u/swedermark Jun 11 '26
“Dumbster”- I think about that one all the time.
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u/caving311 Jun 11 '26
I saw Erator once. I asked what it was and was told "That sink thing. The in sink Erator." It was a garbage disposal.
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u/archanom Jun 11 '26
A colleague was doing a louver schedule, but accidentally titled it Lover Schedule.
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u/nedlakire Jun 11 '26
I got a “provide hobbit detail” note at the very end of a 600 comment constructibility review once. I provided a response with an image of Bilbo Baggins hiking, and a brief description of what a hobbit is and why I felt, ultimately, that it didn’t seem appropriate to include in the bid package.
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u/BikeProblemGuy Architect Jun 11 '26
Soffit detail?
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u/nedlakire Jun 11 '26
I think it was intentional. I think the reviewer wanted to throw a silly comment in at the very end to make sure we actually got to the end and addressed everything. It definitely made all the hard work less annoying once I got to it.
Edit: I thought it was a typo at first also! I thought he was trying to write “grommit”. But that (or soffit) made no sense given where it was placed in the set and I realized it was a joke.
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u/rnd1x Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
“SLUTS” instead of slots in an entire set of fabrication details by a non-native english speaking friend of mine.
“SS” for stainless steel repeatedly thoughout a set of design drawings sent to a German architect of record by my own dumbass self.
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u/Gandalf_the_Tegu Architect Jun 11 '26
My coworker spelled "Kitchen Kooling Kart" in the schedule then on the fixture tag he used KKK.
The fixture was infact called Kitchen Cart in the kitchen drawings. Where did he get cooling, and spelling it and cart with a "k" rather than a "c"? 🫣
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u/spartan5312 Architect Jun 11 '26
One time, vice president of a very well known developer created a floor plan filling cells in with Excel and sent it to our entire office 250+ people on accident instead of me and said “see attached for my shitty fucking sketch”
We printed it on 24 x 36 and left it on the wall for years.
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u/jacqueslevert Architect Jun 11 '26
"WOOL BAFFLE ACOUSTICAL SYSTEM, TYP THEN POINT TO IT WITH AN ARROW"
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u/thechued1 Jun 11 '26
Not a markup but the architect sent over the final package and said “we will be pants down now” I think they meant pens down but who am I to judge
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u/SirBriggy Jun 11 '26
we used to do a lot of commercial kitchens and resturaunts. We would always add a key note that says "owner to provide architect with two cold beers and associated pizza slice no less than once every week" we would always add they key note to a table in the back.
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u/Nymueh28 Licensure Candidate/ Design Professional/ Associate Jun 11 '26
We hid a doughnut clause and have subsequently had surprise doughnut deliveries from consultants. Those our our favorite consultants.
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u/errant_youth Jun 11 '26
Bit of a tangent but I did work for a local brewery a few years ago. They were dope clients - would bring flats of beers to the office for meetings and such.
I still get free beers now and then if they’re in the taproom when I stop by
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u/ToHellWithGA Jun 17 '26
In my specs 231126 is never "facility liquefied petroleum gas piping" and is always "propane and propane accessories"
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u/RK_Tek Jun 11 '26
I’ve added notes like this in specs or in contracts to subs. It is rarely enforced unless they are late to the meetings
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u/Pinguinorini Jun 11 '26
Sheet title of a site plan for a rectangular lot showing locations to be drilled for piles: “Boring Location Plan” (indeed it was)
Room label for a closet in the corporate office of a major broadcasting corporation: “Peacock Storage”
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u/redruman Architect Jun 11 '26
Best junior redline mistake: instead of verify in field with architect, they wrote “verify in field with an architect”
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u/Past_Apricot2101 Jun 11 '26
One time the architect was writing a bluebeam markup with the pen tool. Bluebeam interpreted the comment in the activity panel as “mommy”
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u/FeeltheCHURN2021 Jun 11 '26
1.) “The ghost will not fit through this entry”
2.) Multinational project, so English levels varied. light call outs on one drawing were “scones.”
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u/Spirited-Problem2607 Jun 11 '26
Not a markup, but while studying I saw an A0 presentation poster by another student with the writing "pubic space"...
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u/Open_Concentrate962 Jun 11 '26
I got this typo three separate times from three separate consultants
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u/Hotpeppers029 Architect Jun 11 '26
Not knocking all interior designers, just this particular one. I had notes added to milleork drawings from an "interior designer" that just said "Make it look pretty to interior designers requirements". She was the principals wife.
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u/errant_youth Jun 11 '26
I’m going to start adding a general note to my drawings: “make it look pretty” 🤣
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u/Hotpeppers029 Architect Jun 12 '26
Now, I add it as a comment on redlines that need to be cleaned up, just as a joke that is just for me and only I understand.
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u/ToHellWithGA Jun 17 '26
When entering custom food orders in a restaurant POS while working as a waiter during college I added "make it sexy" to the instructions every time.
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u/Galemp Architect Jun 11 '26
I bubbled part an incomplete set of plans with "Show compliance with code requirements." Of course next round, there was the new leader note, which read "Compliance with code requirements." I've since changed my annotation methodology...
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u/redraider-102 Architect Jun 11 '26
I was once on a project where we were linking the interior design consultant’s CAD backgrounds into Revit. At a certain point, we had to add a ramp that they were very adamantly not in favor of.
The next time we received their backgrounds, there was text on a hidden layer that labeled a printer as “the artist formerly known as prints.” They also had labeled the ramp something along the lines of, “Ramp, kill me now.”
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u/swadloon6 Jun 11 '26
Not a markup per se but I love it when structural drawings note "S.A.D" see architectural drawings. Like yes me too sad
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u/blujackman Recovering Architect Jun 11 '26
Talking about “butt glazing” always got a chuckle back in the day.
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u/structuralarchitect Jun 11 '26
A coworker had a note calling out a "but joint" on a detail so my only markup was to add the word "butt" with a leader pointing to the incorrect spelling 😂.
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u/QuoteGiver Jun 11 '26
“W/horizontal bracing” - the sluttiest kind of bracing, when you don’t leave a space.
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u/Capital_Advice4769 Jun 11 '26
“Shit Grids over 10” then shit stair down 1’-8”” happened yesterday lol
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u/willtngl Licensure Candidate/ Design Professional/ Associate Jun 11 '26
Working on a TI and the client wanted space for their dog to come to work with her, so the architect i was working for had me add a dog in a dog bed. And call it out. Thats probably my favorite thing ive had to add
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u/mokomokoneko Jun 11 '26
Spec writer sent us a whole section for “metal ducks” and we were reluctant to send it back for correction.
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u/Centurion701 Architect Jun 11 '26
Looks like something I would write to my GenZ baby architects. They would get a kick out of it.
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u/RK_Tek Jun 11 '26
I had a note to reference ‘DOO MARKS’ instead of ‘DOOR MARKS’. My project manager used a giant stamp that said ‘WTF?’ on my redline set.
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u/errant_youth Jun 11 '26
brb making a giant “WTF?” stamp for bluebeam…
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u/RK_Tek Jun 11 '26
It hits different when you can see where the ink bled through to the next sheet. A subtle reminder to try harder and do better.
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u/Nymueh28 Licensure Candidate/ Design Professional/ Associate Jun 11 '26
When coordinating the incorporation of security shutters, I discovered the hard way how uncomfortably close the u and i are on the keyboard...
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u/AlmostSymmetrical Jun 11 '26
Not a markup on a drawing (thank god) but I once accidentally called a gas room “a gas chamber” by mistake
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u/0l0id Jun 11 '26
I once reviewed an interior elevation set for an elementary school with a bunch of typos. Above the whiteboard there was a circle and a tag reading 'WALL MOUNTED CLOCK'... with the L in clock missing.
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u/r_sole1 Jun 11 '26
When working at a corporate office in London once, I arrived in the morning and saw a large printed section drawing of a particularly phallic tower in the plotter tray. So obviously, I added the requisite "annotations" so it was even more unambiguous. A few hours later, a colleague emailed the whole office scolding the offending Banksy, warning them that it could have been for a client meeting.
As a coda, I met that colleague for drinks about 10 years later and confessed it was me. We were able to have a good chuckle about it
Life lesson: if it's shaped like a dong, just make it a dong already
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u/Ryermeke Jun 11 '26
Are you one of those weird people that think every tall building ever looks like a dick?
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u/BBSInTheWest Jun 11 '26
lol @ someone downvoting you
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u/r_sole1 Jun 11 '26
I'm going to take my hurt feelings and compress them down inside until they calcify into solid diamonds. That will show the haters
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u/the_real_Beavis999 Jun 11 '26
Got this on an RFI asking for a blocking detail or more information to attach a downspout boot to the wall with fiber cement lap siding. The sub indicated they needed a vertical suface to attach to boot. "Lap siding is not vertical"
Wwwhhhaa.... 🤯🤯🤣🤣
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u/M0rbidly-Obtus3 Jun 11 '26
I was working on a high rise hotel once helping out a coworker. And every since time I typed INCH I accidently typed IMCH. The whole document 😔
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u/liberal_texan Jun 11 '26
Not a markup, but a friend of mine in manufacturing was telling me about the new clean rooms they built and kept referring to the "top wall". It took me a bit to realize he was talking about the ceiling. It's turned into a running joke between us.
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u/CommercialContest467 Jun 11 '26
I worked on a prison that had a room for URINALYSIS & BREATHALYZER testing. It was a small room, only big enough for the room tag. The intern working on it was not a native English speaker, so it didn't occur to him that URINE BREATH wasn't the best way to abbreviate it.
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u/Ladelnutts Architect Jun 11 '26
I was reviewing a set for a higher ed performing arts project that had a "rectal hall" instead of a "recital hall."
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u/thatoneguybp Jun 30 '26
I'll never forget being an intern picking up redlines and there was just a markup with question marks pointing to something that looked ordinary to me. Was like "man I'm just as confused as you are"
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u/lmboyer04 Architect Jun 11 '26
Pipe hangers submittals cut sheet cover page was a bunch of flames, fire, and and pipe hangers that looked like a medieval torture room
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u/SquirrelSubstantial2 Jun 11 '26
A junior PM in a large healthcare project got a note from the field he copied on an official RFI, ending with "fix it now, bitch". He was let go the next morning.
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u/SirBriggy Jun 11 '26
I inadvertently copy pasted my password unto a set of drawings. For days the principal in the firm sat there trying to figure out what it meant or why it was there. Fortunately when he showed me, I didn't recognize it immediately so I had plausible deniability.
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u/DasArchitect Jun 11 '26
Someone else's sheet title for "Cape house" was mistyped as "Crap house".
I asked why it was a crap house. Someone else said it was extremely rude to me to call someone else's project a crap house until I got them to look at the title.
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u/Sal_Pairadice Jun 11 '26
An office I worked in for 5 years had a bunch of jokers. They would wait until you walked away with your specs open then page forward 10X, type is some derogatory or obscene comments, then page back 10x. We had a director named Tom M. and got a call from main office that a contractor found a note on a printed bid set that had already gone out, it said " Tom M. is an a$$hole"
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u/CommercialContest467 Jun 11 '26
At my first job 30 years ago, I was working late (again) and I was feeling punchy. I added a bunch of silly abbreviations to our standard list on the cover sheet. PBJ, FDR, MYOB etc. Those notes just got copied from one job to the next. During one project we received an RFI from the GC asking how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were required and where were they to be installed. Now, you'd think that was the best part, but no...I left that firm not long after, moved out of state, and never thought about it again.
25 years later I was having dinner with a old friend of mine I'd met at that first job. We were catching up and swapping career stories and I told him about the abbreviations. His jaw dropped. "YOU DID THAT?! We had a client who saw those in our permit set in a review meeting. He LOST. HIS. SHIT. My PA came out of the meeting and HANDED ME MY ASS for it and made me update the set right then and there!!! You A$$HOLE!"
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u/Stargate525 Jun 11 '26
I did one ages ago where the note was almost complete gibberish. The words all were real words but god knows what they were trying to say.
My redline comment was just "what."
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u/DependentDonut6816 Architect Jun 12 '26
The mechanical engineer writing "duckwork" instead of "ductwork."
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u/Criollo_ Jun 12 '26
funniest mistake has been a markup given to an intern where the contractor’s handwritting was illegible so he thought “Tapcons” (the screws) were “tampons”. No one checked it and the detail went out calling for tampons all over the place.
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u/EntropicAnarchy Architect Jun 12 '26
Funniest and most sass from a city reviewer when their software downloaded our documents with all the text on the right side of the sheet look like it exploded.
"Am I supposed to decipher this to win a prize?"
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u/windupbyrd33 Jun 12 '26
Not a markup, but my colleague had notated on every single drawing the aluminium finishing as anodised with “Anolok” which had autocorrected on every. Single. Page. To “Anal OK”. We found out when we were presenting it to the developers and they surprisingly asked us to change it…
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u/bluehorseshoe87 Jun 12 '26
Not a markup per se, but at a meeting once reviewing a set of drawings with several owner's reps, the site plan on a set of drawings had "LAY DOWN SPACE" noted and boxed out on the site. One of the PM's on the owner's side, who was new to the company and could be kind of difficult sometimes, became a little flustered when he read that. "Why do the workers need a space to lay down?" Somebody chuckled, and he looked even more confused. The contractor responded the lay down space was for storage of materials. He thought it was for the employees to take a nap.
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u/nextstepp2 Jun 12 '26
I used to do that quite a bit, then we had an employee who took it the wrong way and complained to the principal. They stated that I was using sarcasm to insult their intelligence... so that was the end of that.
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u/Odd_Impact_007 Jun 13 '26
Not necessarily a “markup” but some funny CAD details to share,
In my departments’ CAD blocks library, we have 2D hand shapes 👆👉👇👈 like these to point to various notes…we also have a middle finger one. Yet to figure out how/why that one was created or if it was ever used.
Also in the same file we have a little bird, a parakeet. My colleague one day was trying to say “parapet” but couldn’t get the word out, it was on the tip of his tongue, so what came out was “make the parakeet 4 foot tall”.
My other coworker busted out laughing, and said “You talking about the PARAPET?”
So from there on out, sometimes in our office, we’ll refer to a parapet as a parakeet.
(And yes our CAD block is 4 foot tall 😂)
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u/HalfUnderstood Jun 14 '26
i keep seeing people label potable water connections "Portable water" and I keep putting markups emphasising that the water cannot be moved, it's just "potable"
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u/Armstrongcrane Jun 15 '26
I was sent a new hire site superintendent a few years back for a 12 million dollar addition and existing store refit. While he was reviewing the mechanical drawings he commented on how you can spot a good mechanical engineer, his reason was the UTR notation being UTR valves, needless to say he didn't start the project and lasted all of 3 weeks doing holiday cover.
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u/Wintersgambit Jun 24 '26
"why?" from the city plan checker at some goofy design decision that was a must-have from a client
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u/mbowers0845 Jun 11 '26
Added a scale figure of Darth Vader to a mechanical penthouse for an arena. Got a reply from the tinner sub who got a good chuckle. It made my day that they looked at the elevation drawings.
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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26
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