I totally understand how you feel. Perhaps you should read Dana Cuff's The Story of Practice, which most schools do not assign for fear of a backlash.

Your have two major assumptions here:
1. Architectural work is always creative
2. Architectural work is all conceptual and theoretical or that no other things matter in the real work

I am afraid that both are engendered by the long education that you have had in architecture school. From my own experience, perhaps the best remedy for this is to bite the bullet and see if you click with the nature of the job, if not quit after you made up your mind on this. Most people come to accept it from my own experience, and do good thereafter.

On the positive side, I can assure you that your mind is made of better stuff than to be stifled after this experience. In fact, it is my speculation that you will be more determined to run the practice better when you have one of your own.

Try to keep yourself awake by asking, what will I do different if I am given the same problem. Even the determined can find nuggets of gold in cartloads of dirt.

Oh I thought “creative depletion” was going to involve a big bottle of ‘Nair’ applied to the techniques of topiary design.

I suppose it could be though. Maybe that would solve your problem. Maybe give you an outlet, you know.

if you are determined, do creqtive stuff in your own time. paint, draw, invent your own projects. this might be a strain when you're already working full-time, but it will help you to build up a conceptual fund to draw on for later work. it also means that when you apply for a new job, you can show some of those projects and demonstrate a will to design and hopefully your prospective future employer will see untapped potential in you. don't settle for work that leaves you feeling dry. treat your current job as something to work through. it wil make you stronger.

or something.

i agree with agfa8x, find time to develop your own projects on the side, approach them in exactly the way you want which satisfies you creative and critical thought needs. Its a tough 3 years when you are only doing CD's at work, but once you start to get your own projects on the side you'll find that you've gained a lot of the experience you need to get a project done while still being able to incorporate your own creative methodologies. Try to get as many site visits in as you can, these have been the most valuable experiences for me during my internship. my first year and half was the same way. the side projects are very important. competitions are good- even if miss deadlines you still have a set of problems to work with and something for your portfolio.

this post came from a discussion on the site 'Architecture Hate Page' several years ago. i'm not saying that i agree, but it resonated enough that i copied it into my quote file:

"What students (of architecture) fail to realize is that they are being trained for a career that does not exist in any practical context. One might as well go to rock star school or lottery winner school. The chance of actually practicing architecture is just as slim. The industry that architects actually work in is the building construction industry. It has little in common with architecture. [Architecture students:] Please update your future[plans] accordingly."

wow. how sad.

it is completely true, however, that most of your time is spend doing the mudane tasks that make an office function. in my experience, very few offices are actually afforded the opportunity to do 'good' work where they are actually given a budget to explore the project beyond the norm. i would agree that outside the office would be the best place to keep the mind from going into creative atrophy.

i would also note the possibilities for change within the office. get yourself into a position of authority and start challenging the principals to do better work. this might require patience and years of gaining the trust of those above you. but, if you dont have the means to start your own biz, than the options are few and you should take what you can get.

I should clarify. I knew coming in that practice would be much different than academia, and in no way assumed it would be all theoretical. I'm just saying that in the tasks that I am doing there is almost no creative part in it which is a true surprise. I was expecting more of a balance b/w the two.

bottom line - it seems to be hard to make money and be creative at the same time.

steven, that is the saddest thing in the world. i hope you don't really believe that studying architecture is so worthless.

there is design work out there, and you can get it.
you may need to spend time working on mundane stuff in order to get there. it's going to take some willpower.
treat it as a mission. the world needs you to do architecture, even if it doesn't realise it yet.

agree with eddie: look for the potential for improvement in your office.

as i noted, it's not MY opinion, just one i thought was interesting and provocative.

on the contrary, i not only practice on my own but i teach architecture - i'm far from forlorn about the prospects for making a career that can be compelling, challenging, and rewarding.