How many Archinect-ers always wanted to be an architect?
Since when? (Yeah, the I always loved Legos and my uncle was a contractor as a child stories)
If not, what else did you want to be?
Who…
Left architecture but came back?
Wants to leave/is leaving architecture? Why?
How many Archinect-ers are just post-ers/”lurkers” who love architecture, almost went into field/left architecture school, but decided against it and opted for another career? What did you choose?
Who...
Works in the profession but came too close (or “not close enough”) to leaving arch school?
What happened?
Also relevant,
With the design-build profession steadily inclining in commission for non-residential erection, http://www.dbia.org/about/designbuild/, and many with great portfolios of execution, how many have re-thought the credentials they’d like to/have earned for designing and building buildings?
didnt know any architects growing up, thought it was some kind of synthesis of math + art (silly me) and here i am. went into it totally blind (never even had a drafting class in high school) and sometime in undergraduate studio decided i would stick with it.
i certainly waffled at times, though, and there are definitely other careers i would consider. but for now....still here.
7 or 8 (second grade). About a week after I graduated from high school my second grade teacher showed up at my home. She handed me a drawing I had done in her class 10 years earlier. It was a floor plan for a house, showing door swings, furniture, everything. I had apparently used a ruler so I could draw reasonably straight and (mostly) parallel lines. I was stunned. I didn't remember doing this drawing, don't know where I got the idea to "draft" it, or even where I had seen a floor plan to give me some idea of what it should look like. But, sure enough, I had signed my name in the bottom right corner.
I had known I wanted to be an architect since the second grade, but I didn't remember doing that drawing. The teacher said she had heard that I had been accepted to architecture school and she remembered that I had wanted to be an architect (and a cowboy, I think) all the way back in the second grade.
I think I always knew I wanted to be an interior designer. Somewhere though between childhood and picking a major in college I fell in love with politics and history... so I got a double major in International Relations and History. Then I realized I didn't want to be a politician, couldn't stand the idea at kissing people's asses for the rest of my life (i.e. Diplomacy), and really didn't want to be a History teacher. So I went into Association Management for roughly 3 years. 2 and a half years into, it dawned on me I absolutely hated what I was doing (sucking up to asshole board members and cranky general members) and really, really wanted to do interiors. That was 6 years ago. Have since graduated with an interior design degree and have been loving my decision just about every minute. The best part of it is, I am pretty much able to use what I've learned from all my majors/degrees most of the time.
Lol, It’s interesting you should say that, Hungry.
My department head told me that his brother is a doctor; that it was easier for him (the MD brother) to get into school and that it’s easier for him to stay atop all the knowledge he needs to retain and stay in the profession (“because the body is a finite thing”)
How many people wanted to go into a field adjacent of architecture, or any other ‘visual arts’ (esp. Interior Design) but chose architecture over it? Why?
Atsama - I got run out of a bar by a bunch of Boston drunks - we were talking at the bar and they asked me what i did and then the Art Vandelay jokes started flying and got worse and worse so I told them how good the Yankees were.
Grandpa TK was an architect and worked for IM Pei, so it was in my blood. I decided sometime around my sophomore year of HS to go for it after many years of art/graphic arts/drafting classes.
Most of my life I had wanted to be a marine biologist or some kind of scientist. After spending some time in Indonesia volunteering in the environmental department of a major multi-national mining corporation i realized most marine biologist probably make less then scuba diving instructors. I had loved video games all my life and growing up in the suburbs and a very, very rural town video games like SimCity, Final Fantasy VII and Myst were about the only exposure I had to Urbanism and Architecture. I thought about going into game design, but the idea of coding for the rest of my life depressed me. Then 9-11 happened and all of a sudden newspapers were full of the CGI renderings proposed for ground zero. I thought to myself "architects must use similar tools to game programmers and they get to see their creations actually built." After a summer program at U Miami I was sold on the idea of becoming an architect.
Hmm, since I was little I was inclined to art and design. When I was in school, well, I obviously took math, and loved it. I kept designing different furniture for my bedroom while I was growing up. Those, of course, never got done so I just have silly drawings with all the designs laying around somewhere. When I was about 9 I decided I was going to be an Architect. There are some Architects in my family, however I only found out they were Architects later on. Legos, hmm, my brother had Legos and didn't let me play with them. Then I got some one day, yes, they were lovely. Built a few houses. Found out interesting things about basic elements of construction while playing with them. Fun things. I considered Engineering at some point, when I started taking physics in school, and advanced physics in a university at the same time. But, although physics is fun, I couldn't keep myself away from art. So Architecture still won. Besides, you still use physics to do the structural design. Anyway, yes, I've always wanted to be an Architect, however there are still way too many things I want to major in while still being an Architect, like Structural Engineering, Interior Design, even Fashion Design, etc. Once I graduate from university I would like to go for a Master's degree in Structural Design, focused on seismic movements. I live in El Salvador so we get quite a lot of earthquakes.
I want(ed) to do everything. Started school in nyc for menswear design, next a bachelors in english followed by a m. arch III. I'm sticking with this at least until I've been licensed for a bit, but very interested in getting back into the menswear design, writing, ... and yes I must admit I've been pondering the med school.
afrdzak, thats definitely something ive struggled with, everything seems so interesting and accessible.
out of the careers that mix art, design and technology, i dont really feel much of a calling to any one in particular
ive plenty of experience with graphic design, web design, photography, 3d modelling and now architecture. i still don't feel any strong calling to one in particular profession in particular.
i guess architecture by default won out, seemingly the 'king' of the design world.
Since I was 14. I took drafting classes in high school because art scared me - it felt too personal and exposed to show art to other people. So I did drafting (with the shop potheads) and when I went to visit my sister at college I wandered into the Architecture building, saw a little wire model of a geodesic dome, and my world opened up. Have never looked back, or wanted to.
Given the chance, however, and double the money, I think I'd enjoy being a sex therapist. In Aspen. But I'd still design houses on the side. Maybe for my therapy clients!
I started out wanting to be President of the United States....then I came to realize being the President is kinda like winning the Power Ball Lottery....so I did the next best thing I became an Architect. Thank God I didn't become and engineer cause everyone would hate me here,....
wanted to be a doctor ever since junior high. hit organic chemistry in my first year of pre-med and that pretty much put an end to that dream...
it's funny - i had no idea what to think of architecture. i spent a summer after my first year of pre-med working construction (for a design-builder) and spent most of the time thinking 'this guy is an idiot. if he just moved this wall over, it would be a much better space' or some equivalent. we got into arguments over his design, he basically called me out (told me i was too soft to boss around a contractor, so i should go into interior design...). i wouldn't in any way say that this experience tipped the scales, but the feeling of knowing how i wanted to shape the space resonated quite a bit.
the really scary thing: when i applied to an architecture school (had to transfer), i literally picked one school and that one only because my brother had already been accepted there. did absolutely no research, comparisons, etc. didn't even visit the campus beforehand. *sigh* those were the young carefree days....
never liked legos. didnt like the bumps and insistent primary colors.
entered college as engineering major. went to a few grad level architecture reviews out of curiosity and didnt understand anything i heard or saw. felt like a dog watching tv or something.
then one day sophmore yr stumbled across frank gehry's early works and venturi left on a table in the fine arts library. i was like wow these guys are wackos. and they are both in the same discipline? a couple drawing classes after that i decided i was going to grad school...
but if i had to do it over i prob wouldve done something like hedge my bets by getting finance and an architecture degree. and prob do architecture as hobby not professionally. im not a regretful person but sometimes i feel a little dumb for not getting a wharton degree when i all i needed to do was sign a little piece of paper my freshman year. sigh.
when i was looking for the army to pay for me to go to university i said i wanted to study fine arts and they said they would pay for me to go to architecture school. i said fuck that and moved to the east coast to sell encyclopedias...yup architecture was that high on my list...
saved money for 3 years so i could enter uni without army footing bill and went into fine arts. and was surprised to find i didn't like it...since i took physics and math courses while in fine arts program i thought i'd switch to engineering, but they wouldn't take me without chemistry...they said try architecture cuz the standards were lower...ok why not...was almost as odd as fine arts cuz we were being taught by an opera singer, a very famous but eccentric 70's era painter, and 1 architect...totally colored everything since...but the profession grew on me and right now don't think i would want to do anything else...except maybe play guitar for a living...but that ain't gonna happen.
i love architecture, but i didn't always. epiphanies are not always required for this profession...a slow eureka will do nicely.
Mar 13, 08 6:55 am ·
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Have You Always Wanted to be an Architect???
How many Archinect-ers always wanted to be an architect?
Since when? (Yeah, the I always loved Legos and my uncle was a contractor as a child stories)
If not, what else did you want to be?
Who…
Left architecture but came back?
Wants to leave/is leaving architecture? Why?
How many Archinect-ers are just post-ers/”lurkers” who love architecture, almost went into field/left architecture school, but decided against it and opted for another career? What did you choose?
Who...
Works in the profession but came too close (or “not close enough”) to leaving arch school?
What happened?
Also relevant,
With the design-build profession steadily inclining in commission for non-residential erection, http://www.dbia.org/about/designbuild/, and many with great portfolios of execution, how many have re-thought the credentials they’d like to/have earned for designing and building buildings?
i came out of the womb with T-square in hand
Pretty much born into it
Wanted to be a chemist, then a physicist. Realized it took too much math, so I became an architect.
j
didnt know any architects growing up, thought it was some kind of synthesis of math + art (silly me) and here i am. went into it totally blind (never even had a drafting class in high school) and sometime in undergraduate studio decided i would stick with it.
i certainly waffled at times, though, and there are definitely other careers i would consider. but for now....still here.
however, if i had a quarter for everytime someone i meet says to me "i always wanted to be an architect!" i could probably quit my day job!
(or every time i get a brady bunch or art vandelay joke. oy.)
I knew about about 11-12
8
I was 12, my son is 10 and wants to be one too..... I didn't say he was smart!
my uncle wanted to be an architect, but it was too hard, so he became a doctor. he gets a lot more respect though than i'm sure i ever will!
7 or 8 (second grade). About a week after I graduated from high school my second grade teacher showed up at my home. She handed me a drawing I had done in her class 10 years earlier. It was a floor plan for a house, showing door swings, furniture, everything. I had apparently used a ruler so I could draw reasonably straight and (mostly) parallel lines. I was stunned. I didn't remember doing this drawing, don't know where I got the idea to "draft" it, or even where I had seen a floor plan to give me some idea of what it should look like. But, sure enough, I had signed my name in the bottom right corner.
I had known I wanted to be an architect since the second grade, but I didn't remember doing that drawing. The teacher said she had heard that I had been accepted to architecture school and she remembered that I had wanted to be an architect (and a cowboy, I think) all the way back in the second grade.
I think I always knew I wanted to be an interior designer. Somewhere though between childhood and picking a major in college I fell in love with politics and history... so I got a double major in International Relations and History. Then I realized I didn't want to be a politician, couldn't stand the idea at kissing people's asses for the rest of my life (i.e. Diplomacy), and really didn't want to be a History teacher. So I went into Association Management for roughly 3 years. 2 and a half years into, it dawned on me I absolutely hated what I was doing (sucking up to asshole board members and cranky general members) and really, really wanted to do interiors. That was 6 years ago. Have since graduated with an interior design degree and have been loving my decision just about every minute. The best part of it is, I am pretty much able to use what I've learned from all my majors/degrees most of the time.
Lol, It’s interesting you should say that, Hungry.
My department head told me that his brother is a doctor; that it was easier for him (the MD brother) to get into school and that it’s easier for him to stay atop all the knowledge he needs to retain and stay in the profession (“because the body is a finite thing”)
Go figure…
AND
Tuna Kinda introduced another question,
How many people wanted to go into a field adjacent of architecture, or any other ‘visual arts’ (esp. Interior Design) but chose architecture over it? Why?
Atsama - I got run out of a bar by a bunch of Boston drunks - we were talking at the bar and they asked me what i did and then the Art Vandelay jokes started flying and got worse and worse so I told them how good the Yankees were.
Grandpa TK was an architect and worked for IM Pei, so it was in my blood. I decided sometime around my sophomore year of HS to go for it after many years of art/graphic arts/drafting classes.
Most of my life I had wanted to be a marine biologist or some kind of scientist. After spending some time in Indonesia volunteering in the environmental department of a major multi-national mining corporation i realized most marine biologist probably make less then scuba diving instructors. I had loved video games all my life and growing up in the suburbs and a very, very rural town video games like SimCity, Final Fantasy VII and Myst were about the only exposure I had to Urbanism and Architecture. I thought about going into game design, but the idea of coding for the rest of my life depressed me. Then 9-11 happened and all of a sudden newspapers were full of the CGI renderings proposed for ground zero. I thought to myself "architects must use similar tools to game programmers and they get to see their creations actually built." After a summer program at U Miami I was sold on the idea of becoming an architect.
I too played with legos as a kid.
Apu, I spent a summer during jr high playing marine biologist in Maine - great fun, but way too stinky.
Good to know i'm not alone.
Frankly i've always debated going into marine architecture, but I figured that would be really heavy on the engineering side.
'cuse me naval architect/boat designer
Hmm, since I was little I was inclined to art and design. When I was in school, well, I obviously took math, and loved it. I kept designing different furniture for my bedroom while I was growing up. Those, of course, never got done so I just have silly drawings with all the designs laying around somewhere. When I was about 9 I decided I was going to be an Architect. There are some Architects in my family, however I only found out they were Architects later on. Legos, hmm, my brother had Legos and didn't let me play with them. Then I got some one day, yes, they were lovely. Built a few houses. Found out interesting things about basic elements of construction while playing with them. Fun things. I considered Engineering at some point, when I started taking physics in school, and advanced physics in a university at the same time. But, although physics is fun, I couldn't keep myself away from art. So Architecture still won. Besides, you still use physics to do the structural design. Anyway, yes, I've always wanted to be an Architect, however there are still way too many things I want to major in while still being an Architect, like Structural Engineering, Interior Design, even Fashion Design, etc. Once I graduate from university I would like to go for a Master's degree in Structural Design, focused on seismic movements. I live in El Salvador so we get quite a lot of earthquakes.
Eh, I think I'm done. Take care!
- Adriana.
I want(ed) to do everything. Started school in nyc for menswear design, next a bachelors in english followed by a m. arch III. I'm sticking with this at least until I've been licensed for a bit, but very interested in getting back into the menswear design, writing, ... and yes I must admit I've been pondering the med school.
we have too many choices today
"ooh, that looks intereesting, I want that."
Looking the other way
"ooh, that looks intereesting, I want that."
afrdzak, thats definitely something ive struggled with, everything seems so interesting and accessible.
out of the careers that mix art, design and technology, i dont really feel much of a calling to any one in particular
ive plenty of experience with graphic design, web design, photography, 3d modelling and now architecture. i still don't feel any strong calling to one in particular profession in particular.
i guess architecture by default won out, seemingly the 'king' of the design world.
Since I was 14. I took drafting classes in high school because art scared me - it felt too personal and exposed to show art to other people. So I did drafting (with the shop potheads) and when I went to visit my sister at college I wandered into the Architecture building, saw a little wire model of a geodesic dome, and my world opened up. Have never looked back, or wanted to.
Given the chance, however, and double the money, I think I'd enjoy being a sex therapist. In Aspen. But I'd still design houses on the side. Maybe for my therapy clients!
I started out wanting to be President of the United States....then I came to realize being the President is kinda like winning the Power Ball Lottery....so I did the next best thing I became an Architect. Thank God I didn't become and engineer cause everyone would hate me here,....
wanted to be a doctor ever since junior high. hit organic chemistry in my first year of pre-med and that pretty much put an end to that dream...
it's funny - i had no idea what to think of architecture. i spent a summer after my first year of pre-med working construction (for a design-builder) and spent most of the time thinking 'this guy is an idiot. if he just moved this wall over, it would be a much better space' or some equivalent. we got into arguments over his design, he basically called me out (told me i was too soft to boss around a contractor, so i should go into interior design...). i wouldn't in any way say that this experience tipped the scales, but the feeling of knowing how i wanted to shape the space resonated quite a bit.
the really scary thing: when i applied to an architecture school (had to transfer), i literally picked one school and that one only because my brother had already been accepted there. did absolutely no research, comparisons, etc. didn't even visit the campus beforehand. *sigh* those were the young carefree days....
never liked legos. didnt like the bumps and insistent primary colors.
entered college as engineering major. went to a few grad level architecture reviews out of curiosity and didnt understand anything i heard or saw. felt like a dog watching tv or something.
then one day sophmore yr stumbled across frank gehry's early works and venturi left on a table in the fine arts library. i was like wow these guys are wackos. and they are both in the same discipline? a couple drawing classes after that i decided i was going to grad school...
but if i had to do it over i prob wouldve done something like hedge my bets by getting finance and an architecture degree. and prob do architecture as hobby not professionally. im not a regretful person but sometimes i feel a little dumb for not getting a wharton degree when i all i needed to do was sign a little piece of paper my freshman year. sigh.
when i was looking for the army to pay for me to go to university i said i wanted to study fine arts and they said they would pay for me to go to architecture school. i said fuck that and moved to the east coast to sell encyclopedias...yup architecture was that high on my list...
saved money for 3 years so i could enter uni without army footing bill and went into fine arts. and was surprised to find i didn't like it...since i took physics and math courses while in fine arts program i thought i'd switch to engineering, but they wouldn't take me without chemistry...they said try architecture cuz the standards were lower...ok why not...was almost as odd as fine arts cuz we were being taught by an opera singer, a very famous but eccentric 70's era painter, and 1 architect...totally colored everything since...but the profession grew on me and right now don't think i would want to do anything else...except maybe play guitar for a living...but that ain't gonna happen.
i love architecture, but i didn't always. epiphanies are not always required for this profession...a slow eureka will do nicely.
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