as much as I love Chicago and NY for that matter - have you given thought to the many other exciting places like San Fran, LA, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis to name a few?

I am biased - but Chicago is the best "value" I think for experiance vs. cost

I'd lo ve to hear about Seattle / Vancouver - as thats where I could see moving if I left here. Or Brazil.

I find myself shocked to be agreeing with...... platypus (evilplatypus's good twin?) I've spent time living in all three cities you mention, and while they each have positive aspects, there's plenty of other good cities out there as well.

NYC has been discussed in your other thread.

Boston has great academic connections and some good firms, but personally, I find the architectural climate very conservative, and the cost of living is almost that of NYC. Unless you're going to school there, I don't see it as a good value, but others may disagree.

I lived in Chicago for a long time and eventually got bored with it, but it was great for the first few years. The city has a good balance of a decent architectural community (although the city has a bad habit of handing plum commissions to the same small handful of mediocre corporate firms), good social/nightlife scene, and relatively affordable cost of living.

I would also add Philadelphia to the list... It's a big enough city to have a "scene", but it's also close to NYC that you can take advantage of NYC events without paying $2000 a month for a shithole apartment.

And while Houston isn't my personal cup of tea, others here have said good things about it. It might be worth checking out.

Where do you live now?

I live in LA now and haven't been impressed with it. It takes a lot of effort to enjoy the nightlife (unless you live in hollywood or Santa Monica). The design community is around but not very cohesive. I'm actually thinking about moving to Chicago this fall, then I'll be in NY in 09 for grad school.

Boston's arch scene is not only very conservative, it's also pretentious. everyone seems to be more interested in having an opinion about someone else's work than actually doing interesting work.

i have been typically known as a chicago-hater because the city is full of midwestern fratboys, crumbling infrastructure, and has a serious inferiority complex towards new york and LA. also, the fact that very few firms i've ever heard of are based there helped towards this opinion.

but i think i am gradually changing my mind. i think all of the critiques here of new york and boston are dead-on. chicago is great because it has a lot of the wonderful big city things that people like about new york, but you can get an apartment in a great area for less than half of what you would in manhattan (and still a ton less than brooklyn). also, i think the architectural climate/scene is on the verge of a renaissance. perhaps somol at UIC will help this. chicago has almost as many business and cultural patrons of architecture as new york but has far fewer architects competing for the commissions. and regarding the physical environment of the city - sure its frustrating that it's a lot more spread out than nyc but that opens up a lot more architectural possibilities. rather than being relegated to interiors (as in new york), you may actually get to design a building. awesome.

Huh, that's definitely the very first time I've ever heard someone ascribe the attribute of youth to Boston...

Boston's community is VERY small. If you're looking for diversity / feeling like you fit in even if you're a bit of a fringe character, well, I wouldn't personally say it's the best city I've been in for that. To me it felt very much like the arch. community was strongly oriented around a particular academic milieu and if you weren't part of that milieu... you definitely felt out of the loop. In social situations I got tired of being asked which school I was in or had gone to, as though that's the #1 thing that defines a person.

On the plus side, there is some GREAT work being done in Boston (mostly smaller-scale, high-detail projects) and I learned a ton while working there. The people I did fall in with have become deep friends of mine and I miss a lot of great little pockets of urban life that are scattered throughout the city. On the other hand I could not afford to live anywhere near those little pockets of urban life.

LiG, you are right there have been a number of studies released in the last 2 years or so that show Boston's rent costs on exact par with NYC's (can't remember what they were comparing exactly). In any case they are pretty close to each other in terms of cost of living.

You may not think cost of living affects you but you'd be surprised how far-reaching it is. It is hard to enjoy yourself for say a typical night out when one glass of wine runs you $9 or $10 + tip and in the back of your mind you know your cab home will be another $20 - 25. Cuz there ain't no train at 1am.

But don't let me discourage you. The VAST majority of people I've met who lived in Boston at some point LOVED it and pine for it continuously. It just wasn't for me personally. I actually think it is a great town to raise a family in.

thanks everyone, seems I got to consider Chicago seriously.I love west coast, but don't want to take the risk of devastating earthquake...that's why I don't consider LA, SEA or SF.

in terms of cities, I like NY>Boston>Chicago based on my traveling experiences; in terms of young architect professional development, I agree that Chicago>Boston>NY; where you guys go to lectures in Chicago? I was told riding subway to UIC is not even safe. How is the cultural venues in Chicago?a lot of groups and activities to join? thanks!

half my family lives in Chicago, and they're always involved in something. The museums in Chicago are great, and they have a pretty vibrant art scene.

I'm pretty harsh on Boston, but I really love it here, and I've gotten to collaborate on some very interesting projects.

The arch community is very closed off and tied to the local schools, and it takes a while to break in if you aren't from around here or didn't go to school around here. but - once you are in, you are in.

I agree with toaster to a certain extent. Boston, in general, can be a lot more conservative than people seem to think it is, and the architecture community has a very strong establishment aspect to it. That having been said, I think there is a very strong design community, and a large number of emerging smaller, young offices doing very interesting work. I think if you want to get in with that sort of crowd, it's a good place to be. Proximity to so many architecture schools certainly does breed a sort of cliquiness and elitism among some people, but generally these people suck and can be avoided, and the schools are an amazing resource. In addition, many of the more respected and interesting young designers teach at a number of the schools (and not the big two: MIT and GSD), bridging the academic and practical sides of the community. There are a lot of pretentious people who are better suited to critiquing the work of others than being able to actually produce nice work themselves, but I think this type is giving way to a more engaging, collaborative, young, progressive design community. Boston has its faults, but it's a great city, and the design community, I think, is starting to get quite strong. Without having any experience in NYC or Chicago, I'd recommend Boston.

don't worry about the earthquake coming
LA will be fine
...i might avoid san francisco

The subway to UIC is completely safe. In fact the whole city is generally safe - even in the worst gehtos you are probably going to be fine.

Ha ha ha, Chicago's subway is super safe. Whoever told you that was very silly. UIC is like one stop outside the loop! hahaha.

This statement:
I love west coast, but don't want to take the risk of devastating earthquake...that's why I don't consider LA, SEA or SF.

...leads me to believe you'd be best off in Boston. That's some crazy risk-aversion there buddy. Earthquakes are nothing to be scared of... and you might be surprised to learn that both Chicago and Boston are technically in seismic zones as well...

In CA, extremely strict seismic building codes have vastly cut down on earthquake damage and if you look at Japan as an example you can see that good building practices can conquer earthquakes.

yeh, i heard there'll be a massive earthquake in NY soon as well. but it'll still be minor comparing to the one that is predicted in west coast.
If the big one does happen, it will possibly companied with tsunami, which no bldg code will help.

Isn't there a major fault line running right through Missouri? Maybe you should look into St. Louis.

I'm with positive-p, look into some of the "new scene" cities. I think any major metro is open minded and tolerant these days, especially after knowing a gay couple that moved to Dallas and loves it there. And if you truly aren't looking to settle down I think a place like Texas would give you a better life experience than the cliche NY, Bos, Chicago choices. My experience living down there was completely different than any other place I've lived. Not at all in a bad way, just different, but an experience you couldn't match in the cities you listed.

definitely chicago! for all the reasons already mentioned. though i may be a tad biased, having moved there right after graduation myself. besides the obvious economic benefits (a great apartment with a view of lake michigan for less than 1500), any architect would find chicago an interesting place to live and work. the city is populated by buildings right out of architectural history class - the monadnock and carson pirie scott right in the loop, mies' towers on lakeview, all those frank lloyd wright homes up in oak park, not to talk of the newer stuff like the millennium park or iit building. more importantly for the recent grad, there is a wide range of firms from the larger corporate ones (SOM, Perkins & Will) to the boutique firms (Studio Gang, Brininstool & Lynch) to choose from. It's a win win!!!

Have you ever felt the rumble of a truck driving by on the street outside your apartment?

...there you go, that's exactly the sensation of a 3.0 earthquake.

re: boston- I would also give you fair warning that it's hard to meet new people here without being assertive - and people respond well to that, but it can be a 'speak when spoken to' atmosphere. You won't wind up with too many shallow friendships but when you're in you're in, maybe people are cautious b/c they make a deep investment in friends, maybe we're just socially awkward... so if you choose the Bean, work your connections, archinect included ;)

Being from Seattle, I had to laugh a little at the earthquake comment since every city has it's own idiosyncracies that make life difficult (blistering cold, humidity, flooding, hurricanes, planes crashing into major city landmarks...) However, being a young architect who has lived on both east and west coasts, all I can say is that it can really depend on your personality and lifestyle that determines your success in a city. If you are pretty business like, enjoy networking, social climbing (and no, I don't mean that to sound negative), care about appearances and influence, then Boston can be a great city for you. Some people are great at wearing the right clothes, saying the right things, meeting the right people, etc etc and they love living in and excell in Boston. New York is similar, but much more forgiving and diverse allowing for you to find your own niche. However, cost of living is tremedous obviously. As I have not worked in NYC, I can only go by friends' accounts, but they say that they love living in NY but as young architects, they have to work an amazing amount of hours because they can't afford it otherwise and that takes a lot out of the experience of living there because you don't have much time to do anything but work, eat, sleep.

Since I grew up as a west coast girl, my mentality also did not mesh well with those two cities because I'm much more laid back in my ways of thinking and I hate the thought of only excelling through networking, relying on impressing people etc. Therefore, my vote was definitely for Chicago. It has the vibe and life of a big city, w/ a bit more of a down-to-earth attitude. However, one of the absolute biggest drawbacks of Chicago to me is that it can be very difficult to get your foot in the door if they consider you an "outsider". The "good ol' boy" system is VERY much alive and I personally found them extremely reluctant to consider hiring a woman, especially a woman not originally from the Chi-town area. This was the only city that I sent resumes to where I did not have multiple interviews and when I asked the one (and only!) Chicago firm that did contact me, they said that they themselves usually only looked at local resumes first and only went to people who didn't live/grow up/go to school in the area after they couldn't find anyone "local". So, my advice if you go there... BE PERSISTENT. However, the rest of teh city (social scene, cultural scene, late nigth scene, etc) I found to be quite diverse and plentiful and was extremely comfortable there.

And if you love paying too many taxes, putting up with INCREDIBLY bad traffic, forgetting any hopes of ever buying a house unless you marry rich, and revel in endless months of rain... please, feel welcome in SEattle. :-P