I briefly lived in Boston in 2000, and the climate there was that of an overpriced "Ye Olde America" theme park for wealthy snobs. They think of the entire city as a Colonial-era museum that musn't be modified under any circumstances, and powerful neighborhood groups will fight tooth and nail to kill any project that threatens the status quo. For all their progressive politics, they're complete reactionaries when it comes to art and design. I ran screaming back to Chicago the first chance I got.
Here's two more cities to add to my list, just to spice things up a bit:
Vancouver, BC
London, UK
I've visted London, but I've never been to Vancouver.
New York is to LA as Boston is to San Francisco. The seemingly incongruous pairing of progressive politics and reactionary response to change/'the new'//anything aesthetically challenging the status quo can be found to a degree anywhere, as can the lameness of nostalgia, but the disparity seems especially strong in places like Boston or SF. Mitchell Schwarzer has written about it in SF...anywhere you go, you gotta find the cracks/exceptions/opportunities within the status quo system...
austin my seem somewhat similar -- but there's much less "historic" architecture to protect. it's more about protecting the quality of experience in the neighborhoods, and when architects pay real attention to the existing neighborhood fabric (vs just doing pastiche) there's a fair bit of acceptance even if the forms aren't "traditional".
too, it's texas, it's my lot, and i ain't blocking your sun so i'll build whatever i want. step, yo
Gin, what are prospects like for staying in Chicago and starting something there? What about other places--the Twin Cities, or San Diego, for example?
For what it's worth I read an article awhile back that claimed that "the #1 threat to Boston's future economic vitality is its culture of perceived superiority." I think that sums things up.
Why are they so goddam conservative when it comes to architecture and design?
While Boston doesn't have a vibrant arts scene--and in fact, it's not for lack of creative types, it's for lack of the funding and networks in place to support them--I totally disgree with the above sentence. Bostonians are not actually that conservative about design. I've worked in a bunch of cities so far now and honestly, it is easier to convince clients in this city to go modern than in any of the previous places (Orange County, Pittsburgh, Paris.) The trouble is not their taste, which oddly is pretty malleable--the key is that they like to think of themselves as avant-garde, because this city has been historically so liberal in terms of progressive social thought, etc, and they can be convinced to go relatively radical in design compared to most of the rest of the USA.
The PROBLEM is that they are TOTALLY TIGHT-FISTED. They are *fiscally* conservative--total yankee ethic--and it's hard to convince them to spend any money to do anything at all. Every little step along the way is a big argument. (This usually works in favor of modernism because it *can* be cheaper than the rigamarole of historic renovation). But they just don't want to spend money on the arts, at all, in general.
My roommate, who works for a major musuem here, and I were talking about this last night. The reason there isn't a big arts scene here is not for lack of creative types; it's for lack of funding. Bostonians give a ton of money...to SOCIAL causes. There isn't a culture of value for the arts here. (I think that's partly the museums' faults, but hey. That's a whole other conversation.) Think about it this way: how many universities here even have a rigorous visual arts program? Of the 300,000 students that come here every year, the vast minority are pursuing art, design, or architecture. Music is set, there's a big music scene here (not for my kind of music, but, oh well.) Anyway... just my two cents. Sorry L.I.G. for threadjacking a bit.
I heard Portland is an awesome city to live in but the architecture is stuck in Post Modernism. Either way I need to get my ass up there to check it out.
Living in Gin, I forgot to mention that along with archinect and BLDGBLOG and the gutter (until this whole Cameron-bashing thing started, which is making me avoid them), another architecture blog I religiously read is
Very well-written and thoughtful. It can give you some insight into the climate of the Portland architecture scene. Current article on live-work spaces is interesting.
I currently am working as an architect in Shangahi and I think this city is a horrible place to start a practice unless you speak Mandarin and are willing to put up with the Chinese way of business (contracts mean nothing, government has the final say of all construction - even while construction is going, poor quality and craftsmanship, and speedy, shitty design). The company I worked for just completed a 1.2 million square foot project with 6 days to work on it. Yes, you have a lot of business but your product is a joke because you have no time to develop after your initial thought.
on st. patrick's night 1990, two men dressed as boston patrolmen wrapped on the door of the isabel gardner museum. the museum, once the mansion of philanthropist and collector, isabel gardner, houses one of the greatest private collections of art ever amassed. the "patrolmen" told the nightwatchman that they needed to use the phone, after allowing the coppers in, the guard and his coworker were overpowered and bound and gagged. in 90 minutes the crooks made off with an estimated 500 million dollars in art; including rembrandt's only known seasceape. if you get tired of being a cadmonkey, theres a five million dollar reward offered.
Start a practice in yer own hometown. Yep. That's the real stuff. Gonna need some big round balls to pull that one off, though, trust me.
Most of these responses suggest some undoubtedly great cities, and ones that are already quite accommodating to architectural practice. Consider, however, trying to bring good design to some place where it doesn't already exist. It's certainly easiest to travel the pre-paved road, but it's not necessarily the best. Look at the work of the late Sam Mockbee -- building great work out of junk, with the help of people with no money and no skills. Few architects connect so significantly and meaningfully with a place. It's a different kind of success, to be sure... and not likely the path to stardom. It's almost like Mockbee was working on a different planet compared with the high-profile commissions and self-indulgent tantrums of some of the mainstream stars. So I'm struck by just how "non-place oriented" most of these responses are -- few mention any significant personal connection to a place itself as a criterion. That's fine, too -- not everyone can or wants to "stay home" -- But as an architect working in the same small town area I grew up in, which is way the hell out in the sticks, I'm finding it to be a very meaningful alternative to what most people will tell you to do.
well, maybe not literally your hometown, but if you look at many of the top architects (pritzker winners and so forth), they have often spent 20-30 years working near their roots before they started to land the fancy international commissions. slow & steady often wins this race.
I would totally work near my roots, if they weren't in Orange County.
I would love to start a practice in a small-town type place, big fish/little pond approach, with meaningful connections made... as long as that small town had the money to support me, and did not have the wal-mart mcmansion culture.
This is probably hard to find but still exists, I'm sure. I've got some ideas of where to look.
Go be a big fish in a small pond! It worked for me! Seemed to work for Glenn Murcutt too, and his work didn't suffer, I think he's up to two employees now ( including himself ), and still no computer.
What? Glenn Murcutt was working in no pond right? He was just out there in the middle of nowhere getting clients from all over Australia. And didn't he live in Sydney to begin with?
Also, I'm learning Chinese. Anyone know of any firms that were started in China by Americans? I do hear that for the numerous starchitect erections being raised, the Chinese aren't really comissioning their own or lesser-knowns at all.
Mud Butte, South Dakota: There is no Planning and Zoning, if you buy the General Store you become the post master, chief of police,
and fire marshall. Competition is next to nothing and yet the world
is your client. I plan on retiring there, if they will have me.
OK. I know that this place called MUD BUTT? has some good things to offer but really, New York City has some good things too.
No one is paying NYC any props here..
For starters, it clearly has a vibrant, multi-cultural and economically diverse creative population. Plus there is Broadway! There is a new project going up down town that is like, 28.7 million sq.ft. big. Lots of money. Crazed Clients. Everyone wants something new. High turnover in the retail sector means constant market for interior build-outs. And NYC has a subway system that beats both the North and South Dakota, publicly funded transportation networks anyday.
Yes the city has a Planning Department- but isn't it more ridiculous if your city doesn't?
'Freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose,' they say.
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already, but Portland has an Urban Growth Boundary, and demand for housing is very high, and therefore housing is very expensive.
NYC??? best place to start a interior design firm maybe, architecture hardly.
Try Houston, largest city (4th in nation) without zoning, which is good for architects who want to develope their own projects. Land is cheaper here then any other city of comprable size and offers all the anemities of culture and diversity.
decent-looking 2-bedroom apts can be had in chicago, you just don't get to live in lincoln park
second that on houston, you "liberal" architects will learn to love free-market economics once you find out that, yes, you CAN actually build whatever you want on your lot
yeah, those houstonians at the astrodome cooking free barbeque for the katrina refugees must've all been originally from the non-racist, non-sexist, all-inclusive united states of canada
recently read Emergence by johnson and could not help but compare the phenomanan of self organizing systems with self organizing human behavior in free-market economies, particularly when witnessed in a no zoned city such as Houston. a very laize fair, grass roots approuch to city organization.
i think that the best thing architects can do is not all congregate in one zone such as NYC, but to stay in your respective regions that you are most familier with, to deliver responsive building types for that region and thus inproving quality architecture through out instead of stepping over one another in trendy areas such as portland, l.a. nyc etc. taking the approach of murcutt, mckay-lyons and the lot. New Regionalism.
A lot of people in more design-centric places are planning to be there just long enough to be able to leverage themselves better once they go home/someplace smaller/less hip. "Making it" in some fashionable place just pads your resume, for when you go back to wherever.
I'm not saying this is good or bad, I just think a lot of people do this.
leverage themselves to other people who are current with trendy designers accounts for less then 1 percent of the general public....why not learn the local conditions and codes better and develope a real client list of local movers and shakers...unless you are the type that once to apprentice with a starachitect/master in which case your resultant work most of the time ends up like bad copies of the master...i.e. followeres of mies and FLW.
in response to your quote of my post from a while back, one way to 'find the cracks/exceptions/opportunities within the status quo system' is by not aiming to survive solely off your practice (for a while anyway), to pair it with something that helps pay the bills and is potentially symbiotic with practice (e.g. teaching) -- so that you don't need to go after every 'bread and butter' job, and can thus ideally be a bit more experimental...of course its not hard to find the downsides of this approach either (though for me, they're out-weighed by the upsides...)
second that on houston, you "liberal" architects will learn to love free-market economics once you find out that, yes, you CAN actually build whatever you want on your lot
Best cities to start a practice in?
I briefly lived in Boston in 2000, and the climate there was that of an overpriced "Ye Olde America" theme park for wealthy snobs. They think of the entire city as a Colonial-era museum that musn't be modified under any circumstances, and powerful neighborhood groups will fight tooth and nail to kill any project that threatens the status quo. For all their progressive politics, they're complete reactionaries when it comes to art and design. I ran screaming back to Chicago the first chance I got.
Here's two more cities to add to my list, just to spice things up a bit:
Vancouver, BC
London, UK
I've visted London, but I've never been to Vancouver.
New York is to LA as Boston is to San Francisco. The seemingly incongruous pairing of progressive politics and reactionary response to change/'the new'//anything aesthetically challenging the status quo can be found to a degree anywhere, as can the lameness of nostalgia, but the disparity seems especially strong in places like Boston or SF. Mitchell Schwarzer has written about it in SF...anywhere you go, you gotta find the cracks/exceptions/opportunities within the status quo system...
austin my seem somewhat similar -- but there's much less "historic" architecture to protect. it's more about protecting the quality of experience in the neighborhoods, and when architects pay real attention to the existing neighborhood fabric (vs just doing pastiche) there's a fair bit of acceptance even if the forms aren't "traditional".
too, it's texas, it's my lot, and i ain't blocking your sun so i'll build whatever i want. step, yo
i lived in boston it was full of rednecks with bawwston accents.
Gin, what are prospects like for staying in Chicago and starting something there? What about other places--the Twin Cities, or San Diego, for example?
For what it's worth I read an article awhile back that claimed that "the #1 threat to Boston's future economic vitality is its culture of perceived superiority." I think that sums things up.
While Boston doesn't have a vibrant arts scene--and in fact, it's not for lack of creative types, it's for lack of the funding and networks in place to support them--I totally disgree with the above sentence. Bostonians are not actually that conservative about design. I've worked in a bunch of cities so far now and honestly, it is easier to convince clients in this city to go modern than in any of the previous places (Orange County, Pittsburgh, Paris.) The trouble is not their taste, which oddly is pretty malleable--the key is that they like to think of themselves as avant-garde, because this city has been historically so liberal in terms of progressive social thought, etc, and they can be convinced to go relatively radical in design compared to most of the rest of the USA.
The PROBLEM is that they are TOTALLY TIGHT-FISTED. They are *fiscally* conservative--total yankee ethic--and it's hard to convince them to spend any money to do anything at all. Every little step along the way is a big argument. (This usually works in favor of modernism because it *can* be cheaper than the rigamarole of historic renovation). But they just don't want to spend money on the arts, at all, in general.
My roommate, who works for a major musuem here, and I were talking about this last night. The reason there isn't a big arts scene here is not for lack of creative types; it's for lack of funding. Bostonians give a ton of money...to SOCIAL causes. There isn't a culture of value for the arts here. (I think that's partly the museums' faults, but hey. That's a whole other conversation.) Think about it this way: how many universities here even have a rigorous visual arts program? Of the 300,000 students that come here every year, the vast minority are pursuing art, design, or architecture. Music is set, there's a big music scene here (not for my kind of music, but, oh well.) Anyway... just my two cents. Sorry L.I.G. for threadjacking a bit.
its gotten more difficult ever since i ripped off the isabel gardner museum
I heard Portland is an awesome city to live in but the architecture is stuck in Post Modernism. Either way I need to get my ass up there to check it out.
Living in Gin, I forgot to mention that along with archinect and BLDGBLOG and the gutter (until this whole Cameron-bashing thing started, which is making me avoid them), another architecture blog I religiously read is
portland architecture
Very well-written and thoughtful. It can give you some insight into the climate of the Portland architecture scene. Current article on live-work spaces is interesting.
make sure u check out zee graves-
"its gotten more difficult ever since i ripped off the isabel gardner museum"
CLASSIC!
oh i just got that! (i think?)
I don't get it. Vado as usual is way ahead of me, as is Pixelwhore.
I think he's referring to the Gardner art heist about 10 years back. They never caught the guy(s) who did it.
I currently am working as an architect in Shangahi and I think this city is a horrible place to start a practice unless you speak Mandarin and are willing to put up with the Chinese way of business (contracts mean nothing, government has the final say of all construction - even while construction is going, poor quality and craftsmanship, and speedy, shitty design). The company I worked for just completed a 1.2 million square foot project with 6 days to work on it. Yes, you have a lot of business but your product is a joke because you have no time to develop after your initial thought.
on st. patrick's night 1990, two men dressed as boston patrolmen wrapped on the door of the isabel gardner museum. the museum, once the mansion of philanthropist and collector, isabel gardner, houses one of the greatest private collections of art ever amassed. the "patrolmen" told the nightwatchman that they needed to use the phone, after allowing the coppers in, the guard and his coworker were overpowered and bound and gagged. in 90 minutes the crooks made off with an estimated 500 million dollars in art; including rembrandt's only known seasceape. if you get tired of being a cadmonkey, theres a five million dollar reward offered.
Start a practice in yer own hometown. Yep. That's the real stuff. Gonna need some big round balls to pull that one off, though, trust me.
Most of these responses suggest some undoubtedly great cities, and ones that are already quite accommodating to architectural practice. Consider, however, trying to bring good design to some place where it doesn't already exist. It's certainly easiest to travel the pre-paved road, but it's not necessarily the best. Look at the work of the late Sam Mockbee -- building great work out of junk, with the help of people with no money and no skills. Few architects connect so significantly and meaningfully with a place. It's a different kind of success, to be sure... and not likely the path to stardom. It's almost like Mockbee was working on a different planet compared with the high-profile commissions and self-indulgent tantrums of some of the mainstream stars. So I'm struck by just how "non-place oriented" most of these responses are -- few mention any significant personal connection to a place itself as a criterion. That's fine, too -- not everyone can or wants to "stay home" -- But as an architect working in the same small town area I grew up in, which is way the hell out in the sticks, I'm finding it to be a very meaningful alternative to what most people will tell you to do.
i agree with you rim joist.
well, maybe not literally your hometown, but if you look at many of the top architects (pritzker winners and so forth), they have often spent 20-30 years working near their roots before they started to land the fancy international commissions. slow & steady often wins this race.
I would totally work near my roots, if they weren't in Orange County.
I would love to start a practice in a small-town type place, big fish/little pond approach, with meaningful connections made... as long as that small town had the money to support me, and did not have the wal-mart mcmansion culture.
This is probably hard to find but still exists, I'm sure. I've got some ideas of where to look.
Go be a big fish in a small pond! It worked for me! Seemed to work for Glenn Murcutt too, and his work didn't suffer, I think he's up to two employees now ( including himself ), and still no computer.
What? Glenn Murcutt was working in no pond right? He was just out there in the middle of nowhere getting clients from all over Australia. And didn't he live in Sydney to begin with?
Also, I hate Austin. I lived there for 12 years too.
Los Angeles...
Great design environment with plenty of people w/ money and land to go around...
Also, I'm learning Chinese. Anyone know of any firms that were started in China by Americans? I do hear that for the numerous starchitect erections being raised, the Chinese aren't really comissioning their own or lesser-knowns at all.
Mud Butte, South Dakota: There is no Planning and Zoning, if you buy the General Store you become the post master, chief of police,
and fire marshall. Competition is next to nothing and yet the world
is your client. I plan on retiring there, if they will have me.
OK. I know that this place called MUD BUTT? has some good things to offer but really, New York City has some good things too.
No one is paying NYC any props here..
For starters, it clearly has a vibrant, multi-cultural and economically diverse creative population. Plus there is Broadway! There is a new project going up down town that is like, 28.7 million sq.ft. big. Lots of money. Crazed Clients. Everyone wants something new. High turnover in the retail sector means constant market for interior build-outs. And NYC has a subway system that beats both the North and South Dakota, publicly funded transportation networks anyday.
Yes the city has a Planning Department- but isn't it more ridiculous if your city doesn't?
'Freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose,' they say.
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already, but Portland has an Urban Growth Boundary, and demand for housing is very high, and therefore housing is very expensive.
ok, I don't know how that affects architects, but whatever.
Lasat time I checked, I saw decent-looking 2-bedroom apartments available in Portland for less than $700 a month. Try finding that in NYC or Chicago.
NYC??? best place to start a interior design firm maybe, architecture hardly.
Try Houston, largest city (4th in nation) without zoning, which is good for architects who want to develope their own projects. Land is cheaper here then any other city of comprable size and offers all the anemities of culture and diversity.
decent-looking 2-bedroom apts can be had in chicago, you just don't get to live in lincoln park
second that on houston, you "liberal" architects will learn to love free-market economics once you find out that, yes, you CAN actually build whatever you want on your lot
The problem is, so can all your neighbors.
As it should be, Gin.
i heard all the cool people are moving to Indy.
I wonder how fast those Houstonians abandon their libertarian principles whenever a church tries to open a homeless shelter in their neighborhood.
yeah, those houstonians at the astrodome cooking free barbeque for the katrina refugees must've all been originally from the non-racist, non-sexist, all-inclusive united states of canada
Well played, Ochona...
recently read Emergence by johnson and could not help but compare the phenomanan of self organizing systems with self organizing human behavior in free-market economies, particularly when witnessed in a no zoned city such as Houston. a very laize fair, grass roots approuch to city organization.
i think that the best thing architects can do is not all congregate in one zone such as NYC, but to stay in your respective regions that you are most familier with, to deliver responsive building types for that region and thus inproving quality architecture through out instead of stepping over one another in trendy areas such as portland, l.a. nyc etc. taking the approach of murcutt, mckay-lyons and the lot. New Regionalism.
A lot of people in more design-centric places are planning to be there just long enough to be able to leverage themselves better once they go home/someplace smaller/less hip. "Making it" in some fashionable place just pads your resume, for when you go back to wherever.
I'm not saying this is good or bad, I just think a lot of people do this.
leverage themselves to other people who are current with trendy designers accounts for less then 1 percent of the general public....why not learn the local conditions and codes better and develope a real client list of local movers and shakers...unless you are the type that once to apprentice with a starachitect/master in which case your resultant work most of the time ends up like bad copies of the master...i.e. followeres of mies and FLW.
"Themistocles says: 'I may not be able to play the violin, but give me a small obscure city and I'll make it great and glorious.' (Plutarch)
yeah. so much pc bitching in "letters to the editor" about de young museum.
anywhere you go, you gotta find the cracks/exceptions/opportunities within the status quo system
um. but how?
e909,
in response to your quote of my post from a while back, one way to 'find the cracks/exceptions/opportunities within the status quo system' is by not aiming to survive solely off your practice (for a while anyway), to pair it with something that helps pay the bills and is potentially symbiotic with practice (e.g. teaching) -- so that you don't need to go after every 'bread and butter' job, and can thus ideally be a bit more experimental...of course its not hard to find the downsides of this approach either (though for me, they're out-weighed by the upsides...)
icbm missile & silo.
hazmat xfer station
spent nuclear rods storage. lots cheaper than shipping them to nevada.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/at_a_glance/reactors/comanchepk.html
*bump*
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