its a evolving situation and in my experience its complimentary with my life situation ( family, friends, activities, kids and the ages of those kids ) I have a young a family but out of diapers so their needs are differenct than a very young clan vs. an older one. In my mind its all about balance and not the job ( the job is only a part of your life not the only thingthats an important point to never forget ) therefore I am very content with where I am at, the work, the stress level and the needs of family,staff and my needs....ie why do it!.

I could be a more successful architect, a better dad, a better skier, a better Mt. biker but the balance is good. I just rank my self in a separate category, as the first guy over 45 with a desk job, three kids and a dog.

my dream job entails working with people who I respect and who respect me...working reasonable hours (usually 40 hrs a week)...doing good work...being in a very relaxed office enviroment

mdler- it's interesting how as we get older our dream jobs become more realistic and responses to our current work situation. whatever happened to being neil armstrong?!?!

almost there....I can taste it.....yummmy

dreams don't last forever and eventually you wake up.

What was my dream job a few years ago has turned into an ugly environment where I find myself longing to breathe. I wear the badge of an architect all over my face and it seems that it is the bull's eye to aim the darts/pie.

Time for new dreams

isnt "dream job" an oxymoron?

Ahh, the hammer of the gods....

i guess i don't know what my dream job is.

well, i like mdler's description - and it was t'weeds comment on the GSD thread (the most recent one), her comment that mdler WAS working his dream job that got me curious in the first place...

my job description matches his pretty closely, but i have to say that i am nearing the end of my desire to continue in this, my first, job for much longer.

i am beginning to realize that i am going to want to go in a more radical direction with my future - namely, what are we going to do to figure out how to make buildings habitable without the ubiquitous HVAC systems that add so much to the ill-health of our planet?

THAT seems to me to be a question that a clever dreamer can lose him/herself in...

t

p.s.

i am currently looking for anyone anywhere (on the planet) who is doing substantive work or research in this direction...i remember seeing an article a month or so ago about some research in Berkeley, i believe, on a modernized cooling-tower app - also there's a thread around here somewhere...hmmm

but this morning i need to focus on my adaptive re-use projects - if anyone is hankering for meaningful work, albeit somewhat conservative, Saint Louis is FULL of the most gorgeous old brick structures waiting for you to have at it!

t...

i don't know if i'll ever be satisfied...

i used to think that having a girlfriend was detracting from the energy i wanted to put toward architecture. in a way it might, but i've found the real reason i've been unsatisfied (i think). and perhaps this is insight into the type of person an architect is, but if it's something i've done before, i don't really find any joy in doing it. and i'm not talking about design, i'm talkin bout responsibilty, tasks, job types, size, phase, level of involvement, everything. i got thrown into doing a proposal for a large gov't faciilty alone, and became the design leg of the design/build proposal. i had no idea what the hell i was doin, but it awakened something in me, the hours flew by, i was getting shit, done, and i was enjoying what i was doing. we didn't get the job in the end, seems like the construction leg was made out of bloated labor numbers, but there was a solid two weeks where i was happy... but i've shifted back to being the technical/production guy on a couple interesting projects and i was excited at first, but i'm slowly losing momentum... (the time used to make this post is proof)...

so hopefully, in a little while, i'll be moving to a smaller firm... i think i'll be able to sustain a bit of the "adventure" that i'm lookin for.

There are a lot of things that I would love to do but I haven't quite figured out how to either combine them to form a singular "career", how to make enough to pay my bills off of them, or how to make them happen. I'm feeling a severe lack of motivation right now but at least I'm young. Still, I could probably use a good kick in the ass.

Here are some of my dreams:

-Start and edit the American equivalent of el croquis or other decent European or Asian design mag.
-Design and construct sets and lighting for plays and/or movies.
-Teach a college level design studio.
-Make lamps.
-Work on a construction site.
-Start an installation type project where I would construct a small corner or piece of a proposed design or drape an existing building with a screen print of a new design to illustrate how an area could be changed/improved.
-Make more (physical) models.
-Travel extensively.

i have my dream job...just not my dream career

I have multiple dreams, and a couple of them at a time will fit together, but definitely not all at once. So it'll have to be a progression of great jobs to make up a dream career. Some of the dreams:

* work for a super-hot multidisciplinary firm such as Pentagram
* sell some furniture or other industrial pieces on a custom but semi-regular basis
* be the Creative Director or Art Director for a really beautiful magazine
* teach design at the college level
* be a regular contributor to design discourse in either book or magazine format

rationalist, we should start a magazine

If you get a marketable idea going, I'll make it beautiful.

Oh, forgot one: design (either from scratch or extensive remodel) a 4-6 unit environmentally friendly housing complex where I can live, and live off the rent of others so that I can support my art and book habits.

rationalist

I like your ideas as well...good luck with the magazine

I think that my dream job would entail making something that makes people happy and which is appreciated...possibly goat cheese or wine

or a job where I could play with LASERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

apparently you get to wear cool glasses if you are a professional 'laser dude'

mdler - lasers make ME happy...for what it's worth

t

maybe if we ALL did that...

My dream job:
- Buy old cool buildings
- Hire an architect to design some kick-ass renovations to them.
- Interject my own kick-ass ideas whenever I feel like it.
- Hire contractors to do the renovation.

(I'd jew them both down in fee and constantly threaten them with law suits to keep them beaten down.)

- Turn around and sell them off for millions of dollars.

All while I am chilling poolside. In Spain. There.

haha, strawbeary - i work for you! go figure...

or your lawyer client who makes millions of dollars a year not wanting to pay their $30k bill then telling you they are going to buy a $300k Aston Martin....

Or your televison star client who makes over $1 million and episode who doesnt think that they need to pay a $15,000 bill....

I dont understand it either. If I could get to the point where I am selling a product which you either pay for and get, or dont and move on, I think that I would be happier (I could be wrong, though)

(I'd jew them both down in fee and constantly threaten them with law suits to keep them beaten down.)


sort of racist...but true

oh no, i was racist wasn't i? sorry. i just wanted to be funny. i hope no one takes offense.

huhhuh...i hear jews have a real good since of humer - i wudn' worry none...