Since we were not wealthy growing up, one of our fun free activities was going to real estate open houses. Especially while on vacation in the mountains. It's funny because when my friends are checking out condos to rent online for ski vacations, I already know what the condos look like and where they are because I've been in all of them in the area that were built in the 80's-90's.
My inspiration was good books that I read on summer vacation.
"Since we were not wealthy growing up, one of ourfun free activities was going to real estate open houses."
tintt, growing up we used to call our fun free activities, boring activities ... but what does that have to do with lack of wealth? The activities would have been boring for rich and poor kids alike. (I only point this out so I can post one of my favorite grammar memes)
I grew up in a pretty sheltered suburban family that didn't travel much, but I was always fascinated when we'd take rare trips into downtown Cincinnati for shopping or errands or whatever. (Even as recently as the early 1980s, there were still times you had to go to the big downtown department store to find something that you couldn't get at the mall.) Downtown Cincinnati now seems pretty sleepy now that I've spent most of my adult life in NYC and Chicago, but at the time it was the largest city I'd ever been in, and I was completely fascinated by the urban density and the historic architecture.
Sometime around third grade, my parents enrolled me in a summer art program in Cincinnati's Mt. Adams neighborhood, a once-bohemian neighborhood of narrow Victorian row houses with steep, narrow streets that has been compared to parts of San Francisco. One day the class went out into the neighborhood to sketch some buildings, and while I was sketching a trio of ornate row houses I remember thinking it would be cool to actually design buildings rather than just draw pictures of them. It was the first thought I ever gave to becoming an architect, and by middle school I had decided that's what I wanted to become. An argument can be made that major life decisions made in 8th grade may not always be for the best, but in my case I can't imagine doing anything else.
My story is not nearly as great as the above story, but I'll tell it anyway. When I was 16 I had a dream that I was a construction worker literally I was digging holes putting away dirt with a whole mess of people wearing yellow hard hats..lol. So when I went to my friends house, which everybody did (like that 70's show except I was fez and I was not Hispanic I am African American) and I told Cheryl the kitty of the house that I wanted to dig holes in construction as a construction worker and she just sort of laughed and said ok.
How did that change into architecture I have no I idea, I don't know it just did around the age of 16, but the first architects that I saw was Frank Lloyd wright and Paul Revere Williams and this was before I graduated high school with a GED. Anyways after watching FLW and PRWs' work I was taken by the sharp edges of the Robie house and the way all the prairie homes had the most amazing masonry work to them that gave these sharp distinct corners, arches, and had the most pleasing spaces that made me experience them even though I was looking at them thru YouTube. Also with PRW it was more of what he went through to become an architect that inspired me to say that there is no excuse of why I could not also become an architect and that I am privileged to live in these times (even with all the murders), I am grateful to not have such barriers holding me back to succeed it's all up to me.
After that I got in more detail with the profession with a carpentry class from pennfoster, and then college, and after that I have been finding myself at various firms and self educating the living hell out of myself with what ever I can find. I have refined my self education multiple times to include my degree program's books, the FBC (residential), The AIA graphical standards for residential construction, and a host of other things that I don't want to list out. Lately I have been splitting my work days into two days instead of just one. I went to Valencia colleges' architecture program, but I am thinking about just getting a regular A.A degree from Daytona State and transfer to a uni. I have a 3.14 gpa, which is not that great but I am in there at LSU(2.5gpa transfer), Howard university, and there are others. I wish and hope and can only dream that I may one day be able to get into the university of Miami get my B.Arch and MRED and go tear sht down in the field of practice.
Painting was not lucrative, Engineering too mundane- so I took Architecture.... and all the good things I discovered along the way.
Going full artsy isn't accepted to where I grew up and it's value does not have anything to do with functionality or how it helps other people, hence, the Building Arts.
Working with a carpentry crew in La Fonda hotel in Santa Fe, 35' up on a scaffold installing 2x12's on the ceiling. We had adzed and hand planed all the boards in the shop previously. In walks the architect and his entourage, nice and clean, looks 35' up and says "I think they could be a little rougher"! Suddenly we are reworking these boards, overhead, with planes. Hard work! I thought what an asshole. I decided right then to go get an architecture degree so I wouldn't have to work so hard. Also, decided I wouldn't become an asshole like that architect.
Inspirations
Hey guys,
Just wanted to know about what inspired you to get into architecture.........
I was inspired by the answers I received from random strangers in online forum discussions.
I seem to remember one of my professor lamenting that many of the new students cited Mike Brady as their inspiration.
Ricky B inspired me.
mike brady could afford half a dozen kids, a stay-at-home wife, a full time nanny, and a dog. if that's not inspirational, i don't know what is.
A poorly designed bathroom in the house I grew up in.
Since we were not wealthy growing up, one of our fun free activities was going to real estate open houses. Especially while on vacation in the mountains. It's funny because when my friends are checking out condos to rent online for ski vacations, I already know what the condos look like and where they are because I've been in all of them in the area that were built in the 80's-90's.
Guggenheim-FLR
My inspiration was good books that I read on summer vacation.
"Since we were not wealthy growing up, one of our fun free activities was going to real estate open houses."
tintt, growing up we used to call our fun free activities, boring activities ... but what does that have to do with lack of wealth? The activities would have been boring for rich and poor kids alike. (I only point this out so I can post one of my favorite grammar memes)
I grew up in a pretty sheltered suburban family that didn't travel much, but I was always fascinated when we'd take rare trips into downtown Cincinnati for shopping or errands or whatever. (Even as recently as the early 1980s, there were still times you had to go to the big downtown department store to find something that you couldn't get at the mall.) Downtown Cincinnati now seems pretty sleepy now that I've spent most of my adult life in NYC and Chicago, but at the time it was the largest city I'd ever been in, and I was completely fascinated by the urban density and the historic architecture.
Sometime around third grade, my parents enrolled me in a summer art program in Cincinnati's Mt. Adams neighborhood, a once-bohemian neighborhood of narrow Victorian row houses with steep, narrow streets that has been compared to parts of San Francisco. One day the class went out into the neighborhood to sketch some buildings, and while I was sketching a trio of ornate row houses I remember thinking it would be cool to actually design buildings rather than just draw pictures of them. It was the first thought I ever gave to becoming an architect, and by middle school I had decided that's what I wanted to become. An argument can be made that major life decisions made in 8th grade may not always be for the best, but in my case I can't imagine doing anything else.
^ Great story
Fun-free or fun, free. ha! (grammmar has never been my strength)
My story is not nearly as great as the above story, but I'll tell it anyway. When I was 16 I had a dream that I was a construction worker literally I was digging holes putting away dirt with a whole mess of people wearing yellow hard hats..lol. So when I went to my friends house, which everybody did (like that 70's show except I was fez and I was not Hispanic I am African American) and I told Cheryl the kitty of the house that I wanted to dig holes in construction as a construction worker and she just sort of laughed and said ok.
How did that change into architecture I have no I idea, I don't know it just did around the age of 16, but the first architects that I saw was Frank Lloyd wright and Paul Revere Williams and this was before I graduated high school with a GED. Anyways after watching FLW and PRWs' work I was taken by the sharp edges of the Robie house and the way all the prairie homes had the most amazing masonry work to them that gave these sharp distinct corners, arches, and had the most pleasing spaces that made me experience them even though I was looking at them thru YouTube. Also with PRW it was more of what he went through to become an architect that inspired me to say that there is no excuse of why I could not also become an architect and that I am privileged to live in these times (even with all the murders), I am grateful to not have such barriers holding me back to succeed it's all up to me.
After that I got in more detail with the profession with a carpentry class from pennfoster, and then college, and after that I have been finding myself at various firms and self educating the living hell out of myself with what ever I can find. I have refined my self education multiple times to include my degree program's books, the FBC (residential), The AIA graphical standards for residential construction, and a host of other things that I don't want to list out. Lately I have been splitting my work days into two days instead of just one. I went to Valencia colleges' architecture program, but I am thinking about just getting a regular A.A degree from Daytona State and transfer to a uni. I have a 3.14 gpa, which is not that great but I am in there at LSU(2.5gpa transfer), Howard university, and there are others. I wish and hope and can only dream that I may one day be able to get into the university of Miami get my B.Arch and MRED and go tear sht down in the field of practice.
^edit FLW lol
Painting was not lucrative, Engineering too mundane- so I took Architecture.... and all the good things I discovered along the way.
Going full artsy isn't accepted to where I grew up and it's value does not have anything to do with functionality or how it helps other people, hence, the Building Arts.
too late, I can't z1111 sorry you will have to deal with my bad acronym's.
My Dream, that was meant as an edit to my post above. Sorry for the confusion.
Working with a carpentry crew in La Fonda hotel in Santa Fe, 35' up on a scaffold installing 2x12's on the ceiling. We had adzed and hand planed all the boards in the shop previously. In walks the architect and his entourage, nice and clean, looks 35' up and says "I think they could be a little rougher"! Suddenly we are reworking these boards, overhead, with planes. Hard work! I thought what an asshole. I decided right then to go get an architecture degree so I wouldn't have to work so hard. Also, decided I wouldn't become an asshole like that architect.
I used to love drawing but also love math - Architecture seemed to be the perfect mix of both...boring story, I know.
my inspiration for getting into architecture is because i can be an asshole and its ok because im an architect.
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