Small Project Design

Hello All

Recently, we were discussing ages of slowing down, or even "retiring" (yipe!).  Finally, it occurred to me that I've noticed that Architects "start young", like I did.  So, folks, any stories?

I'll start...  

For a few years, I pondered being a naturalist (bombing-around the Everglades in a fan-boat, a-la Disney movies, + long-term catching frogs, turtles, snakes, etc.), or an Architect, after drawing sketches, building models, hanging-around at the new houses being built nearby, etc.  Finally, it hit me; I was gonna be an Architect !

That was 5th grade.

Maybe 20 years ago, I started asking Architects about age-of-decision, and yeah, I get some pretty-young ages!  Now, when people ask me for guidance / suggestions ("My son / daughter wants to be an Architect."), my first question is about the age at which the decision was made.

And maybe I'm dreaming, but I'm convinced that the younger the age, the more solid the commitment.  At times, I've even suggested that "Architect" is NOT just something fancy-sounding, to be picked-off a list for a college application, etc.

Any thoughts on this?

In retrospect, it crept up on me gradually.  I had my first job in an architect's office the summer after graduating from high school.  But then, I can think back to when I was seven or eight years old and was constructing models of old railroad buildings for my model railroad.  My father and mother built the house we  lived in, so there was always sawdust around and some project going on.

I as a youngster I loved to draw but my parents did not want to draw until I did all my spelling and math and insisted  drawing would not be a living for me. Then I saw a movie that a football played was studying to be an architect. Must have been about 1950, I was 10 and it seemed like a good alternative rather than an artist. 

Hello All

Recently, we were discussing ages of slowing down, or even "retiring" (yipe!).  Finally, it occurred to me that I've noticed that Architects "start young", like I did.  So, folks, any stories?

I'll start...  

For a few years, I pondered being a naturalist (bombing-around the Everglades in a fan-boat, a-la Disney movies, + long-term catching frogs, turtles, snakes, etc.), or an Architect, after drawing sketches, building models, hanging-around at the new houses being built nearby, etc.  Finally, it hit me; I was gonna be an Architect !

That was 5th grade.

Maybe 20 years ago, I started asking Architects about age-of-decision, and yeah, I get some pretty-young ages!  Now, when people ask me for guidance / suggestions ("My son / daughter wants to be an Architect."), my first question is about the age at which the decision was made.

And maybe I'm dreaming, but I'm convinced that the younger the age, the more solid the commitment.  At times, I've even suggested that "Architect" is NOT just something fancy-sounding, to be picked-off a list for a college application, etc.

Any thoughts on this?

I was driving to my great uncles house in our 55 Chevy in Elkins Park, PA and they were building this new building as we drove thru town.  I said to my parents "the steel is in" they didn't think much of the comment from the back seat.  The following month we drove past the same site on a different road and this time the comment was "the steel is up".  The building fascinated me as it was not a square or cube of a building it had a shape of a very steep pyramid. 

We then moved to the suburbs from the inner city and the farm lands were disappearing rapidly with all the new homes and strip shopping centers being built in my back yard, all my personal forts as soon as the footings went in.  As a 7th grader they were building this new intermediate school for the expanding student population.  Again I was fascinated by it because again it wasn't a cube or a square it was almost boomerang shaped and was concrete and glass.  As I road my bike from my junior high to home the building also had this strange magnetism, which caused me to take a right turn on to the site, when ever I wasn't too late getting home.

After several quick trips home from the back seat of the local police for trespassing,  the construction super final decided I wasn't going to be dissuaded from showing up on the site.  The Tobin /Construction  Co. agreement was reached, I would  report to the supers office pick up a hard hat and be told where I could and not go inside the building.  My reward I received a full set of Arch drawings an invitation to the dedication, and the following summer I started my career  working for an Architect in Philadelphia which I did thru high school. 

The two building that started my career were Temple Beth Shalom by Frank Lloyd Wright and Abington Intermediate High by Caudill, Rowlett  Scott, I cant say they were the most in influential, as my first job while attending Drexel Evening College was for Mitchell/Giurgola and all of Aldo's friends who would show up from time to time, Lou Kahn, IM Pei, and a list too long for here, have had much greater influences.

39!

Started graduate school at 39!

I was 27, having worked for some years in construction, and for three years as a store "decorator".  My Dad was a builder and building designer, and had real artistic ability.  I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  I've been licensed and in practice for 41 years now, and have never really looked back.  

I was 27, having worked for some years in construction, and for three years as a store "decorator".  My Dad was a builder and building designer, and had real artistic ability.  I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  I've been licensed and in practice for 41 years now, and have never really looked back.  

Great question! I was about 9 years old, my Dad was an Industrial Engineer and my Mom was (still is) an artist (water color and oil). And, my grandfather taught me how to use the various tools of most of the construction trades. So, I had influence and genes.

I used my Leggo set with my Match Box cars to build "small towns" in our basement on four large sheets of plywood using crayons to color in the streets, sidewalks and grass. I'd finish one concept and then tear it down an start again.

Once an Architect, always an Architect!  :-)

I was 27, having worked for some years in construction, and for three years as a store "decorator".  My Dad was a builder and building designer, and had real artistic ability.  I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  I've been licensed and in practice for 41 years now, and have never really looked back.  

Stories on becoming an architect. Should be interesting.

I, like Will, figured very early on I wanted to head in the architecture field. I use to love drawing houses. Any houses; my house, neighbor's houses, imaginary houses. My dad also used to work in carpentry so he was constantly renovating our small house. Taking some walls down and putting some up. I was also right there watching, learning and doing.  I recall sometime in middle school my parents floated the idea as I was drawing my grandparents house outside on paper that I could be an architect.

I remember participating in one of those "egg drop" contests where the class teamed up to design a vessel to drop from a cherry picker to see who's egg might survive. I cannot recall the design but still have a local newspaper clipping as part of the winning team.

That's when I basically jumped on board. Taking courses thereafter in engineering, design, drafting, etc. whatever was really being offered at the large high school I attended.

It was either that or become a professional baseball player for the Red Sox. But when I got to college ... didn't have much time for sports. What with all those late night studio sessions and model building that needed to get done while my construction management roommate partied all day, every day.

Although my career is certainly just starting. I made the decision to start my own firm much to the comments of 'are you nuts?!' or 'say what now' from fellow peers. Although in all fairness, my wife and i were expecting our first little one AND we relocated AND were building a new home at the same time that I decided to leave a nice comfy job with a big firm in Boston.

But like I've heard many say before ... it doesn't get any easier so why not now?!

Anyways my story and its still being written.

Nice idea Will

PS. in terms of commitment to being an architect. I recall a professor mentioning to a large freshmen class that 'if you're in the field to make money, get out' ... we lost many students in the program after that rough first 'weeding out' semester.

The first architectural drawing I did when I was 15, it was about my bedroom, the drawing was funny as well I drew the windows as elevation above the plan of my bed in my room. I think it was my first traffic signal of road to become an Architect, I called it the vision. 

Haven't thought about this for a while, but it brings back some fun memories.

As a kid I had 3 sets of Froebel wooden building blocks, an erector set, 2 boxes of Skyline (anyone remember them?) & later, around 1960, my grandfather got me several boxes of this new thing called Lego. When visiting one set of grandparents I would build things with my grandmother's mahjong blocks. I remember drawing a floor plan of a fort that I built, populated with my set of Civil War soldiers.

By the time I got to high school, I was doodeling/sketching. Although I was given my father's compass/drafting set (from when he attended Philadelphia Textile Institute), I hadn't had any formal drawing instruction. In 10th grade I took the one drafting course my high school offered. It was me & the football team. I quickly became the teacher's assistant. My teacher taught me the basics of architectural drafting, & while the football team was drawing nuts/bolts & gears, I was first, measuring & drafting my home & then, designing "the perfect" house.

The summer between my junior & senior year (1968) I attended Carnegie-Mellon (it's first merged summer) University, taking their architectural design course for high school students. It was 6 weeks of sketching,  drawing & making chipboard models, I was hooked. I don't remember pulling an all-nighter, but I couldn't believe going to college was so easy. HA, what did I know, I was only 16!

It's been a (mostly) enjoyable nearly 50 years since then, & I don;t regret a minute of it.

When I was in the 3rd and 4th Grade I loved to draw and my dad kept mentioning to me that I should become an architect. When I started Junior High school in the 6th grade, on the first application I had to fill out they asked the question "what would you like to be when you grow up"? I wrote down Architect. I wasn't sure if I even spelled it correctly. I went to an Art High School, an exam school in New York, and my art major was architecture. We had studio courses, taught by a licensed architect, Mr. Lopez,  where we learned drafting. I wasn't sure I could get into a College to study architecture so with the help of my English teacher, I applied to a Community College. At the end of 2 years I applied to a 4 year Art College to study Interior Design. While in school I became interested in Housing Design and was awarded a fellowship to study at Cornell University toward a Masters in Housing Design. After a year at Cornell, My thesis advisor asked "what are you doing here, you should be studying architecture". My dads comments came back to me. My advisor pointed out that Columbia University just converted its architecture program to a masters Program and I should apply there. I applied and the rest is history. Much later in my life, with 30 years of practice behind me, a relative mentioned that my grandfather used to build houses in various towns on the Island of Puerto Rico. Now I understood why my father wanted me to become and Architect. 

True story.  I was six years old and was watching Bozo's Circus in Chicago.  When they picked a kid to be in the 'Grand Prize Game', they asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up.  I thought I had better figure that out in case I was picked for that!  I loved to build forts, play with Lego's and Lincoln Logs and draw buildings.  I picked 'architect' and never looked back!

When I was born in 1951 in Southern Italy, my family had already owned for several years a small manufacturing plant of building materials.  Our house was in the same yard where the small factory was.   At the height of the business, when I was 4 or 5 years old, we were employing up to 15 laborers.  The small plant was producing terrazzo tiles, marble tiles with very large or smaller marble chips, the smaller terrazzo tiles, 8in x 8in, at times had very fine aggregates, and for some of the forms there were cast iron stamps that could create designs of different colors and different shapes.  

The terrazzo tiles could be up to 12inx12in, while the marble tiles could go up to 16inx 16in.  We were also manufacturing CMU blocks and concrete pipes, some with very large diameters up to 4 ft.  I grew basically, around mounds of sand, granite and marble chips and around trucks coming to unload raw materials and coming to load manufactured items.  I grew around the workers who, like the rest of the family, loved and spoiled me, as I was the youngest of 6 children.  So i was building always sand castles, or other shapes...and yes, volcanos, which I would light up with old newspapers.

My father gave me, when I was 5 or 6 a nice set of wood blocks....my first Froebel gifts.....and then it all started....and together with my passion for model trains,,,,I was always building well into my later childhood 9-12, limits and corridors for my trains and would love to see with my head on the floor how the little trains would go very close but never knocking down the walls that I was building around the tracks with my wood block set.  That's how it started....and although my career has not always been rewarding working for others, now at 65 I am re-launching after 14/15 years, my solo practice and intend to make the best of it and have real fun with it!

Best to all and yes, why not, go architects GO!

Back in the days before "child care" was a term, one of our neighbors up the street "looked after" me when my mother went back to teaching after I was about 3 or 4.

Jo Street's husband Bob was a Master Carpenter.  There wasn't much that he couldn't figure out or put together.  I recall several times hearing him mention "architects" in respectful terms, being thankful for their design abilities and the interesting things they designed, that he could build.

Later, I checked out (several times each, I'm sure) all of the F Ll W books from the local library.

My high school drafting instructor had studied architecture, but switched to a teaching major.  He would have been a great architect.

A few years later, before going off to college, and not having anything in the way of a summer job, I took on a small hauling job for Mr. Street.  I was paid $25, or so, to load up our family pickup truck with the lath-and-plaster debris from a remodeling project.  Tough work, but I was making money.  Ah, but there was a dump fee for construction debris ... ate into my earnings.  I told Mr. Street about it, implying that I'd like him to repay me for that.  His response was on the lines of "We agreed on a price.  Maybe next time you'll remember, and check out all of your costs.  When I hire someone to paint what I've built, they know how much their paint will cost."  A great life lesson for $10 or so.

Wow, sure brought up a few memories.  Several years back I participated in career day presentations for High School students.  I did this for about 5 or 6 years, and always identified 4th grade as the year I knew I wanted to be an architect.  My art teacher allowed us to choose the medium and complexity of an art project.  I drew a house plan, and built a model from poster board and Elmer's glue.  My mom was not very happy about the wall to wall carpet choice for my model (I had cut up our wash cloths!).

Rethinking that timeline though, I was probably first influenced by the Lincoln Log set and my grandfather's house, who ironically grew up in Oak Park during FLW's time there.  I may have been as young as 4 or 5, and that's all I would play with.  Jumping ahead to 6th or 7th grade when my grandmother moved in with us, I received my first drafting table (which I still have!).  She was a model turned artist (she was the "modern" swimsuit model for Coca Cola's infamous 50th anniversary campaign of 1936).  She influenced my interest in sketching, drawing, interest in color, etc.

Like many others have said, I was always fascinated by construction sites as well, and also built things from scrap materials I'd find on sites or elsewhere.  My dad was lenient with his tools as well, and of course exposed me to many hands on projects, being the jack of all trades that he is. During high school, I took every drafting class, even becoming a mentor to others, and assisting the teacher with grading papers.  But I knew from my dad's hard work, that I'd be a better architect if I understood how to build, and how things work in general.  So in addition to calculus, physics and art, I took wood and metal shop, welding, basic industrial arts. 

I realize this is maybe not a normal process for young people to follow a career path this soon and intensively, but it's my story!

I think a few days after I was born...! :)

As long as I can remember I always had a fascination with cartography and graphic design, three-dimensional puzzles, lego, lincoln logs, etc. I was blessed with the ability to sketch and create detailed copies of still images with a good degree of accuracy, and did a lot of it - somewhere around 6th grade my mother looked at my sketchbooks and said "you should be an architect". Didn't know what that entailed exactly at the time, but I was able to obtain the Architecture merit badge in Boy Scouts (yep, they have one), then got hold of copies of Architectural Record at my local library in the mid-70's and became quite enamored with what I was seeing - couldn't get enough, in fact. That's when I knew I was hooked.

So I'd day, officially, I was about 13 years old when I "committed",  but have to say I've always felt called !