Hello! I'm very curious what make everyone decide to become architects?
Especially if you studied something unrelated in undergrad but went to grad school for architecture
SneakyPete
Dec 1, 20 12:02 pm
Dad was one.
randomised
Dec 1, 20 12:03 pm
What brought me to architecture?
The train!
SneakyPete
Dec 1, 20 12:05 pm
No other career had the proper ratio of 'low required intelligence' to 'high feeling of moral superiority', eh?
randomised
Dec 1, 20 12:56 pm
If you say so, good for you!
SneakyPete
Dec 1, 20 1:34 pm
It was a joke. Hilarious. I know.
randomised
Dec 1, 20 2:54 pm
Would’ve never guessed.
square.
Dec 1, 20 2:55 pm
i thought it was railing against mass-murdering-imperialistic-world-super-powers to anonymous online architects?
randomised
Dec 2, 20 2:09 am
No, that’s just my hobby square.
tduds
Dec 1, 20 12:07 pm
When I was 5 my parents renovated our house. When the renovation was done I told them I was going to be an architect. It wasn't a serious declaration until it was, and next thing I knew I was applying to college for architecture. Never really gave it a second thought.
Luckily I don't hate it and I'm even pretty good at it, sometimes.
apscoradiales
Dec 1, 20 12:38 pm
"sometimes"...lol! when sometimes becomes more frequent, you can always become a chef. probably pays more.
tduds
Dec 1, 20 1:19 pm
It definitely doesn't pay more.
Non Sequitur
Dec 1, 20 12:23 pm
I grew up in a house and frequently visited other types of buildings so there's that. I was a shit student in highschool, never in class, never completing work, barely sober, etc... 90s were fun, anyways, but I liked physics and visual arts so I sorta said "why not?" and applied. I knew nothing about the profession or academia.
I clearly did not get in on the first try because of my non-existant grades. No biggy, I started an art-major undergrad in the same uni with my desired arch program and started to take the arch electives. Lo and behold, while I barely passed classes in highschool, I excelled in university and successfully entered arch school the following year. That year allowed me to get a good look at the academia side of the degree so I knew what was in store and I dug the mixture of abstract narrative / problem solving, technical rational, and graphic expression.
My year of art-history allowed be to jump into 3rd and 4th year electives and eventually free up my studio schedule to take business electives and work part-time in a local office. I came out exceptionally well-rounded and walked-in without issue into my country's top graduate program.
Bench
Dec 1, 20 2:58 pm
And he's humble to boot!
Non Sequitur
Dec 1, 20 3:10 pm
Hey now, I was voted least likely to succeed (probably) in highschool.
archanonymous
Dec 1, 20 3:17 pm
Glad to hear someone else had a few "lost" years and is no worse for the wear.
tduds
Dec 1, 20 3:35 pm
Mine were between undergrad & grad but, yeah, not the end of the world to take a bit to find one's self.
Everyday Architect
Dec 1, 20 3:46 pm
I encourage you to challenge the world's definition of "lost." Lost to what ... the rat race? Have you learned anything from those years? Have you grown in that time? Do you better understand who you are because of those experiences? If you can answer yes to any of those (or other similar questions), nothing has been lost.
archanonymous
Dec 1, 20 3:51 pm
Ha, totally that's why it's in quotes.
Almosthip
Dec 1, 20 4:41 pm
I also did crap in high school. I was suspended my first two weeks of grade 12, because I skipped so many classed in eleven. Not sure how that makes any sense at all. I also got the proficiency in architecture award in grade 11, cause all those skipped classes I was hanging out in drafting studio redesigning my math teacher's house.
tduds
Dec 1, 20 5:18 pm
Funny, I was much in the opposite. I peaked early and then coasted and then had to confront the fact that I was coasting. I was "18" in many ways from the age of about 14 to about 24. Because of that I overachieved
in high school, made it through college well enough, but then sort of languished for a bit before getting my shit together and "growing up" as they say. My early 20s were a wash but I don't regret it at all. If I hadn't gone through all of that I wouldn't be who I am today and I kinda like that guy.
atelier nobody
Dec 2, 20 2:20 pm
I went to the "special" high school, and even then didn't graduate. But, I guess I turned out alright.
Cobb webs
Dec 3, 20 11:44 pm
Academia's obsession with grades this, grades that.. and yet in the grand scheme of things it is insignificant (unless academia is what you decide to peruse). Its the ability to adapt, learn, persistence, and putting in the hard work that will determine your own success. If only education emphasized 'how to think and learn' rather than 'grades'.
I had mediocre grades as well both in HS and undergrad, but I sure as shit didn't let that stop me from applying to the best possible schools I could get into. Underqualified with no job experiences? Doesn't matter still applied for the jobs that I wanted to. Worst they could say is 'no thanks' and maybe a nicely worded rejection letter. Which I still keep as a souvenirs incase I make it big one day. Haha.
archanonymous
Dec 1, 20 12:27 pm
I just really like wearing dark colored clothing.
archanonymous
Dec 2, 20 2:47 pm
...and being snarky.
apscoradiales
Dec 1, 20 12:36 pm
Father didn't want me to be laying bricks at -50C, as he did.
"Get an office job".
Josh Mings
Dec 1, 20 3:36 pm
Grew up in Columbus, Indiana and loved LEGO. That’s all it took
SneakyPete
Dec 1, 20 5:51 pm
Columbus is a cool town.
senjohnblutarsky
Dec 1, 20 3:57 pm
A K'nex set.
SneakyPete
Dec 1, 20 3:58 pm
Construx for me.
Almosthip
Dec 1, 20 4:33 pm
My dad designs and builds boats, he would sit at his drafting tale for hours when I was a kid. I would see his designs and than I would see the finished boat, so beautiful and hand crafted. I like the thought of something I created at drafting table also becoming a tangible object. Started with drafting classes in high school. Grew my passion from there.
Wood Guy
Dec 1, 20 5:55 pm
I moved to a new area and tried to get a job as a finish carpenter, my trade for the previous ten years. One company saw my degree in structural engineering, said they were planning to start a design department and did I want to be their first employee. I was getting tired of construction so I said sure. Five years later I tried to go back to school to get an architecture degree but it didn't work out. Fifteen years later I'm still not an architect but do the same work and love it. So I guess you could say I just fell into it.
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 1, 20 5:59 pm
strange I know, but an accident on a bike as kid is my connection to architecture.
SneakyPete
Dec 1, 20 6:30 pm
a head injury explains everything
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 1, 20 7:50 pm
that's what i got at age five. age ten was the bike accident! the bike pedal gutted me; i was trying to be like Hooper!
citizen
Dec 1, 20 9:03 pm
So... what's the connection? What happened next? Don't leave us hanging like you did at TGI Fridays! Or... wait a minute... did you crash that bike into Norman Fell's table?
midlander
Dec 1, 20 8:03 pm
i have no idea. i always loved going to visit new places and was fascinated by cities and buildings, read every architecture book i could find in the local suburban chain bookstore. and after a short year in high school wondering if should consider alternatives i said no and just did what i wanted.
more introspectively my grandfather and uncles were all engineers and my father had a hobbyist interest in houses and buildings, so i guess i just picked up the interest naturally.
JAK-90825
Dec 2, 20 9:08 am
Ditched my liberal arts education to pursue an education in industrial design with a focus on automotive design. After talking with the Dean of the program, they advised very few opportunities were out there for automotive designers soooo...... I went with Plan B - Architecture!
I loved everything about the program back in school especially the avante garde crap that no client I have worked with since would ever tolerate!
In the real world, 6 years later and licensed, I am working with a firm that specializes in automotive retail/service facilities. In a way, I was able to work in automotive just through a different medium. Full circle!?
apscoradiales
Dec 2, 20 9:28 am
Automotive design? YEY!!!
I wanted to design cars, but when I was young, the only design schools, if you can call them that, were in Italy, and only Italians were accepted.
atelier nobody
Dec 2, 20 2:16 pm
I bungled my way through my teens and early 20s getting most of a humanities degree (comparative religion), dropping out, then doing the kinds of jobs humanities drop-outs do - file clerk and low-level corporate flunky, distinguished and highly-decorated military career of 6 weeks, and the fabulous and ever-popular food service.
As a 27-year-old depressed bagel shop manager, I thought I'd like to do "something creative", but had developed few specific talents to a level that could be monetized. Then I remembered I kind of liked drafting in HS, and had taken an architectural history course for my art history gen ed that I kind of liked, and figured architecture would be a good balance between "something creative" and a "real job".
Much like people who extol the virtues of their arranged marriages, it was only after I started with these low expectations that I realized I really, really love architecture.
whistler
Dec 2, 20 3:41 pm
I lived in an area of town that had a lot of cutting edge west coast modern residences at a time when it wasn't hip or cool just a bunch of young experimental architects doing their thing. Turns out the homes were designed by guys named; Erickson, Thom, Massey, Hollingsworth and Downs, heady stuff if you dig the whole old school west coast modern work. I walked past all these cool homes on my way to elementary school. One home which still stands was owned by the architect and he had not one but two Porsche 911s ( one was really old late 60s and the other was newer mid 70s ) The house could have been a feature in any early James Bond movie / needless to say I was hooked.
I also grew up in an extended family of hot rods modifiers, tradespeople and seamstresses. The notion of "making" or "fixing" stuff was in our family genes. We still get together once a year at my aunts house and marvel at the old hot rods that my aunts, uncles and cousins bring out.
Cobb webs
Dec 3, 20 11:34 pm
I'm the stereotypical cliché... I loved Legos and drawing as a kid but needed an education/ career that I could make a living so architecture was a no brainer.
I don't regret it however knowing what I know now and working in the industry for a few years, I should have chosen a parallel path instead of architecture.
mai
Dec 4, 20 2:30 pm
I should have become a physicist,, as my whole family.....or at least rocket scientist...
sameolddoctor
Dec 4, 20 2:40 pm
Dad was a mechanical engineer and I was always fascinated by engineering drawings. Also had a strong interest in drawing as well as science. A friend told me about the Architecture “entrance exams” which we went to give, for the fuck of it. He didn’t make it, but I got into architecture school!
Thayer-D
Dec 4, 20 3:08 pm
When I moved here as a 10 year old I thought if I had a nice house I would make more friends. Then my mom became a realtor and had house plan magazines lying around. I realized the insides where as cool as the outsides so it became my hobby throughout high school. I thought it would be nice to design buildings that people could use well and would make them happy to look at. Imagine my surprise when I went to architecture school :o
citizen
Dec 4, 20 3:31 pm
We moved into a new subdivision when I was about three. Around five, Mom showed me the tract brochure and our floor plan, then walked me around the house while pointing to the drawing. Somehow it clicked and engaged me-- similar to my interest in maps, but more tangible. From there on it was houses, houses, houses: looking at them, drawing them, "fixing" them in my mind. Drafting table for Christmas when I was seven or eight. Legos, crude models, obsession with houses on TV-- and the frustrating disconnect between interior sets and exterior establishing shots-- liars! High school with a particularly good mechanical and architectural drafting program (I won 2nd place in a drafting contest in my senior year at the local tech JC, thank you very much). Architecture school was a given; what else was there to do?
citizen
Dec 4, 20 3:42 pm
Not that anyone asked for it, but here's a link to my decade-old TV Architecture thread. (Let's call it reanimation rather than necro-posting, shall we?)
svklry
Jan 13, 21 8:47 pm
I'm still a highschooler, but in middle I told my mom I wanted to be an artist and she said, "starving artist" is a term for a reason. So I'm like, what's an industry I can enjoy? Since I was always admiring building designs and constructions I defaulted to architecture. As a junior... I'm debating if I'm even good enough.
Hello! I'm very curious what make everyone decide to become architects?
Especially if you studied something unrelated in undergrad but went to grad school for architecture
Dad was one.
What brought me to architecture?
The train!
No other career had the proper ratio of 'low required intelligence' to 'high feeling of moral superiority', eh?
If you say so, good for you!
It was a joke. Hilarious. I know.
Would’ve never guessed.
i thought it was railing against mass-murdering-imperialistic-world-super-powers to anonymous online architects?
No, that’s just my hobby square.
When I was 5 my parents renovated our house. When the renovation was done I told them I was going to be an architect. It wasn't a serious declaration until it was, and next thing I knew I was applying to college for architecture. Never really gave it a second thought.
Luckily I don't hate it and I'm even pretty good at it, sometimes.
"sometimes"...lol! when sometimes becomes more frequent, you can always become a chef. probably pays more.
It definitely doesn't pay more.
I grew up in a house and frequently visited other types of buildings so there's that. I was a shit student in highschool, never in class, never completing work, barely sober, etc... 90s were fun, anyways, but I liked physics and visual arts so I sorta said "why not?" and applied. I knew nothing about the profession or academia.
I clearly did not get in on the first try because of my non-existant grades. No biggy, I started an art-major undergrad in the same uni with my desired arch program and started to take the arch electives. Lo and behold, while I barely passed classes in highschool, I excelled in university and successfully entered arch school the following year. That year allowed me to get a good look at the academia side of the degree so I knew what was in store and I dug the mixture of abstract narrative / problem solving, technical rational, and graphic expression.
My year of art-history allowed be to jump into 3rd and 4th year electives and eventually free up my studio schedule to take business electives and work part-time in a local office. I came out exceptionally well-rounded and walked-in without issue into my country's top graduate program.
And he's humble to boot!
Hey now, I was voted least likely to succeed (probably) in highschool.
Glad to hear someone else had a few "lost" years and is no worse for the wear.
Mine were between undergrad & grad but, yeah, not the end of the world to take a bit to find one's self.
I encourage you to challenge the world's definition of "lost." Lost to what ... the rat race? Have you learned anything from those years? Have you grown in that time? Do you better understand who you are because of those experiences? If you can answer yes to any of those (or other similar questions), nothing has been lost.
Ha, totally that's why it's in quotes.
I also did crap in high school. I was suspended my first two weeks of grade 12, because I skipped so many classed in eleven. Not sure how that makes any sense at all. I also got the proficiency in architecture award in grade 11, cause all those skipped classes I was hanging out in drafting studio redesigning my math teacher's house.
Funny, I was much in the opposite. I peaked early and then coasted and then had to confront the fact that I was coasting. I was "18" in many ways from the age of about 14 to about 24. Because of that I overachieved in high school, made it through college well enough, but then sort of languished for a bit before getting my shit together and "growing up" as they say. My early 20s were a wash but I don't regret it at all. If I hadn't gone through all of that I wouldn't be who I am today and I kinda like that guy.
I went to the "special" high school, and even then didn't graduate. But, I guess I turned out alright.
Academia's obsession with grades this, grades that.. and yet in the grand scheme of things it is insignificant (unless academia is what you decide to peruse). Its the ability to adapt, learn, persistence, and putting in the hard work that will determine your own success. If only education emphasized 'how to think and learn' rather than 'grades'.
I had mediocre grades as well both in HS and undergrad, but I sure as shit didn't let that stop me from applying to the best possible schools I could get into. Underqualified with no job experiences? Doesn't matter still applied for the jobs that I wanted to. Worst they could say is 'no thanks' and maybe a nicely worded rejection letter. Which I still keep as a souvenirs incase I make it big one day. Haha.
I just really like wearing dark colored clothing.
...and being snarky.
Father didn't want me to be laying bricks at -50C, as he did.
"Get an office job".
Grew up in Columbus, Indiana and loved LEGO. That’s all it took
Columbus is a cool town.
A K'nex set.
Construx for me.
My dad designs and builds boats, he would sit at his drafting tale for hours when I was a kid. I would see his designs and than I would see the finished boat, so beautiful and hand crafted. I like the thought of something I created at drafting table also becoming a tangible object. Started with drafting classes in high school. Grew my passion from there.
I moved to a new area and tried to get a job as a finish carpenter, my trade for the previous ten years. One company saw my degree in structural engineering, said they were planning to start a design department and did I want to be their first employee. I was getting tired of construction so I said sure. Five years later I tried to go back to school to get an architecture degree but it didn't work out. Fifteen years later I'm still not an architect but do the same work and love it. So I guess you could say I just fell into it.
strange I know, but an accident on a bike as kid is my connection to architecture.
a head injury explains everything
that's what i got at age five. age ten was the bike accident! the bike pedal gutted me; i was trying to be like Hooper!
So... what's the connection? What happened next? Don't leave us hanging like you did at TGI Fridays! Or... wait a minute... did you crash that bike into Norman Fell's table?
i have no idea. i always loved going to visit new places and was fascinated by cities and buildings, read every architecture book i could find in the local suburban chain bookstore. and after a short year in high school wondering if should consider alternatives i said no and just did what i wanted.
more introspectively my grandfather and uncles were all engineers and my father had a hobbyist interest in houses and buildings, so i guess i just picked up the interest naturally.
Ditched my liberal arts education to pursue an education in industrial design with a focus on automotive design. After talking with the Dean of the program, they advised very few opportunities were out there for automotive designers soooo...... I went with Plan B - Architecture!
I loved everything about the program back in school especially the avante garde crap that no client I have worked with since would ever tolerate!
In the real world, 6 years later and licensed, I am working with a firm that specializes in automotive retail/service facilities. In a way, I was able to work in automotive just through a different medium. Full circle!?
Automotive design? YEY!!!
I wanted to design cars, but when I was young, the only design schools, if you can call them that, were in Italy, and only Italians were accepted.
I bungled my way through my teens and early 20s getting most of a humanities degree (comparative religion), dropping out, then doing the kinds of jobs humanities drop-outs do - file clerk and low-level corporate flunky, distinguished and highly-decorated military career of 6 weeks, and the fabulous and ever-popular food service.
As a 27-year-old depressed bagel shop manager, I thought I'd like to do "something creative", but had developed few specific talents to a level that could be monetized. Then I remembered I kind of liked drafting in HS, and had taken an architectural history course for my art history gen ed that I kind of liked, and figured architecture would be a good balance between "something creative" and a "real job".
Much like people who extol the virtues of their arranged marriages, it was only after I started with these low expectations that I realized I really, really love architecture.
I lived in an area of town that had a lot of cutting edge west coast modern residences at a time when it wasn't hip or cool just a bunch of young experimental architects doing their thing. Turns out the homes were designed by guys named; Erickson, Thom, Massey, Hollingsworth and Downs, heady stuff if you dig the whole old school west coast modern work. I walked past all these cool homes on my way to elementary school. One home which still stands was owned by the architect and he had not one but two Porsche 911s ( one was really old late 60s and the other was newer mid 70s ) The house could have been a feature in any early James Bond movie / needless to say I was hooked.
I also grew up in an extended family of hot rods modifiers, tradespeople and seamstresses. The notion of "making" or "fixing" stuff was in our family genes. We still get together once a year at my aunts house and marvel at the old hot rods that my aunts, uncles and cousins bring out.
I'm the stereotypical cliché... I loved Legos and drawing as a kid but needed an education/ career that I could make a living so architecture was a no brainer.
I don't regret it however knowing what I know now and working in the industry for a few years, I should have chosen a parallel path instead of architecture.
I should have become a physicist,, as my whole family.....or at least rocket scientist...
Dad was a mechanical engineer and I was always fascinated by engineering drawings. Also had a strong interest in drawing as well as science. A friend told me about the Architecture “entrance exams” which we went to give, for the fuck of it. He didn’t make it, but I got into architecture school!
When I moved here as a 10 year old I thought if I had a nice house I would make more friends. Then my mom became a realtor and had house plan magazines lying around. I realized the insides where as cool as the outsides so it became my hobby throughout high school. I thought it would be nice to design buildings that people could use well and would make them happy to look at. Imagine my surprise when I went to architecture school :o
We moved into a new subdivision when I was about three. Around five, Mom showed me the tract brochure and our floor plan, then walked me around the house while pointing to the drawing. Somehow it clicked and engaged me-- similar to my interest in maps, but more tangible. From there on it was houses, houses, houses: looking at them, drawing them, "fixing" them in my mind. Drafting table for Christmas when I was seven or eight. Legos, crude models, obsession with houses on TV-- and the frustrating disconnect between interior sets and exterior establishing shots-- liars! High school with a particularly good mechanical and architectural drafting program (I won 2nd place in a drafting contest in my senior year at the local tech JC, thank you very much). Architecture school was a given; what else was there to do?
Not that anyone asked for it, but here's a link to my decade-old TV Architecture thread. (Let's call it reanimation rather than necro-posting, shall we?)
I'm still a highschooler, but in middle I told my mom I wanted to be an artist and she said, "starving artist" is a term for a reason. So I'm like, what's an industry I can enjoy? Since I was always admiring building designs and constructions I defaulted to architecture. As a junior... I'm debating if I'm even good enough.
Fame and money :)