eh hem

To quote Ice Cube...

"The west side is the best side"

Keep it Real!

Actually I think there is a decent amount of necter's posting from the mid-west and mountain states.

i would say though, that the largest single group seems to be from socal. just look at the job postings sometime.

i think the job postings are more representative of the employment situation, not necessarily the archinect demographic. socal always has a lot of opportunities. check out the salary poll for a better idea of where people are posting from.

You're in Chicago, aka the Third Coast, right? So you tell us, what's with the coasts?

-liberty bell posting from Indianapolis

i did not know chicago was the third coast, but perhaps your all right bout the opportunity thing...

now...

how bout those grad schools?

i consider the whole great lakes to be the third coast. thus we have third coast beer.

westsiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!

i hail from the midwest

if you narrow down some european options, i think archinect could help you pick a grad school, though you should go where your mind and heart tell you, not a bunch of people you don't know who don't know you.

le boss, I was just in Traverse City and did not, unfortunately, stumble on any Third Coast Beer...next trip.

And yes, the whole Great Lakes is the Third Coast, with Chicago as LA/NYC, so the west coast of Michigan is known as The Other West Coast.

yes, lb. i'm glad you understand. many of those on the "other" coasts do not recognize this.

I'm from Massachusetts, but I'm still going to quote the Bouncing Souls on this...

East Coast Fuck You

i propose that we forget about this whole "mid-west" thing and start referring to it as the "central coast"

There was a company that made rollerblade wheels a while back called MidCoast... you could always take over that term (they went out of business).

I'm with ya, le boss!

But is Indy included?

well, probably in as much as sacramento is a west coast town. i don't think philly is actually on the coast either come to think of it.

True, true.

lletdownl, as far as grad school: A major part of my grad school "education" consisted of moving to a geographic area I'd never spent time in before. I learned as much from doing that as from the classes I took. So I would recommend you don't let JUST the rankings of a school be your deciding factor. Go visit several and follow your instinct.

Pixel-
the real question is if you're pale and pasty and if you like pizza fierce and tasty? true believer no?

ACFA:
All I can say is that "You may think we're weather martyr's but snow and ice makes us rock harder..."

I always considered the gulf coast as the US's third coast...or is that the 4th coast, with Houston being the capitol?

I too, being from Austin, always heard and considered the Gulf Coast as the 'Third Coast'

i'm within a few hours (lenient here) drive of the coast of the missippi/ozarks/lake michigan...must i go on

i don't know my friends, the beer never lies. however, houston is certainly the la/nyc of whatever coast that is.

I live on the west coast. Of Iowa that is.

yes, and i live on the east coast. of the puget sound that is. and the beer does not lie here. that's for damn sure.

the west in general has better beer

"the west is the best"
-jim morrison

i'll take beantown or (gasp) nyc any day. da east side is da best side, batty boys!

ps-i loathe the midwest and am not looking forward to my cross country drive next month. oy.

meliasonvt - ps-i loathe the midwest...

doesn't everyone?

no, i loathe the south - Florida, Texas, Bama...

wisconsin is just one big barrel of beer and beer bellies and I even saw a bearded woman there once at a nascar race at the mile. no joke.

right on boss n' bell! the central coast is the... uh, awesomentral coast!..?.. need a better line...
i'm representing the hoosier land.

theres more than corn in indiana, theres also Gary

how can you "loathe the midwest", that is obviously ignorance talking... though lots of things suck about the midwest, its not all bad... ie chicago

thiongs generally do not roll away here in the midwest

I'm oddly fascinated with the MidWest, and am in the complete opposite boat of meliasonvt - when I move come January, I'm looking forward to my cross country drive. I think its going to be a great experience to see the rest of the country - lets face it, theres a heckuva lot more of the MidCoast than the East or West Coasts.

i've traveled all over the US and canada and i think there is a give and take with living everywhere. i for one am looking forward to leaving the midwest, but it isn't all that bad. i live between chicago and detroit; it isn't like the midwest is the australian outback. its understandable people on the east and west coasts think the middle of the country is backward, but that view is exaggerated. and chicago is definitely rather conservative for such a large city, but it isn't as though it lacks culture.

http://theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4127&n=3

Chicago? conservative? im not sure about that... something like 70 percent of the city voted for kerry in the last election, and the social welfare systems, though flawed were and are some of the most progressive, as is the cities push towards better energy policies... so im not sure about it being a conservative city, though i suppose we can agree to disagree

i see the shapes
i remember from maps
i see the shoreline
i see the whitecaps
a baseball diamond
nice weather down there
i see the school and the houses
where the kids are
places to park by the factories and buildings
restaurants and bars for later in the evening
then come the farmlands and the undeveloped areas
and i have learned how these things work together
i see the parkway that passes through them all
and i have learned to look at these things and i say

i wouldnt live there if you paid me
i would nt live there no sirree
i couldnt do the things that those people do
i wouldnt live there if you paid me to.

i guess its healthy i guess the air is clean
i guess those people have fun with their neighbors and friends
look at that kictchen and all of that food
look at them eat it, i bet it tastes good

they grow it in the farmlands
and drive it to the store
they put it in the car trunk
and then they bring it home.

im tired of lookin out the airplane window
im tired of travelling, i want to be somewhere
its not even worth talking
about those people down there.

rock on hoosiers.

I live on the North Coast of the Ohio River.....I suppose Cincy is to the MidCoast what, eh, Denver is to the West Coast. Except Gary, Indiana is our version of the Rockies - it's what separates us from the promised land.

Also there is no South Coast, Houston is the capitol of nothing, and Austin is its own independent nation, IMO.

lletdownl-
obviously ignorance?

that's a ridiculous statement. i lived in OK city and KC for several years, and couldn't stand it. have relatives all over the midwest, and nothing is worse than having to travel to see them. once there i have no issues, i just can't stand looking at the same thing over and over and over and over... you get my point. my time spent in west coast and east coast has been better for numerous reasons. my time in the south (AL, FL) was even better than my time in the midwest. nothing compares to my 8 years in europe, though. but that's ignorance for you.

you ain't lived until you have driven through kansas, nebraska, s. dakota, and the nodak lengthwise. it's all corn. but in all honesty, i represent the mountain region

meliasonvt-
your right, i am from KC and it is horrible, im not exactly sure what your point is, your comment is on the suburban landscape of so many midwest cities, mine was on the politically conservative nature of chicago?

oh, nm... fuck i dont care about the midwest at all, just chicago

If any of you doubt that chicago rules, you have not heard "Happy Summertime" by R.Kelly and Snoop. Hip hop is officially down with Millenium park. Oh and the shout-outs to local liquor stores crack me up every time.

But in all seriousness, I think Chicago looks to itself for architects, rather than importing them. There are a number of pretty decent programs here funneling grads into a number of both old/huge (SOM/Murphy-Jahn) and up-and-coming (Studio Gang/Garofalo/Urban Lab) firms, largely with a self-imposed Chicago focus. The city is slowly coming out of the architectural coma it sunk into in the 70s and there are some interesting things brewing here.

Damn, I'm going to miss it...

-andrew

snoop is from LA, no?

*ahem