In our Snapchat attention-span world, we forget that celebrities often had different careers before they became international superstars. Did you know that Brad Pitt once worked for Frank Gehry, or that Robert Irwin very nearly became an architect instead of an artist? Herewith, a look back at the design pasts of several major celebrities.
5. Alejandro Innaritu, Film Director
When Best Picture-winning Birdman was still just a one-shot dream in his subconscious, Alejandro Innaritu was the executive assistant to architect Josep Iluis Sert, helping him keep his calendar and gather materials for meetings with city planning officials. Innaritu frequently attributes his signature layered, non-linear and often narratively challenging storytelling to the early years spent managing a formidable and unrelenting schedule.
4. Elon Musk, TESLA
As an intern on the design of the flagship building of General Motors’ corporate HQ, Elon Musk picked up substantial design inspiration for his later career as the C.E.O. of TESLA Motors. Musk apparently was especially intrigued by the notion of energy-efficiency and LEED, concepts which he radically adapted and expanded into his signature car company.
3. Jerry Brown, Governor of California
Before becoming a politician, Jerry Brown did a brief stint at Taliesin West, meeting his hero Frank Lloyd Wright and becoming versed in the complexities of the profession. Ultimately, Brown found the tedium of redrawing single-family housing layouts in multiple scales to be far more daunting than mitigating the needs of one of the world’s largest economies.
2. Kerry Washington, Actress
Before she was fixing the problems of political superstars by day and sleeping with POTUS at night, Scandal actress Kerry Washington interned in a certain L.A. starchitect’s office as a model builder, where a visiting producer spotted her behind the eighth scale trees and protective goggles and offered her one of her first acting jobs.
1. Jack White, lead singer/guitarist The White Stripes
“Studio crits were kind of intense,” admits Harvard GSD professor Timothy Wales about his former student and promising M.Arch II candidate Jack White. According to Wales, Jack White would frequently storm into the crit with his model only to smash it up when things didn’t go his way.
11 Comments
Wait...April Fools? Jack White?
dont know what to believe today...
I know. I was certain this article about Jaques Herzog calling the Milan Expo a bore and waste of money was fake. Apparently not! That guy is dour.
Cool.
[Tagged april fool's, jack white, jerry brown, elon musk, kerry washington, alejandro innaritu]
Big head he has , this white jack
Dour. Donna, you're always so generous.
I'm reading this at my desk on April 2, so it must be true now. The tyranny of April Fools day!
Generous? Wait, now I don't know if *you're* joking or not, Steven!
Daily life is challenging on the internet.
Who is this Jack White person?
Pretty sure if Jack White did architecture it was not at the GSD. He's not going to lame old Ann Arbor but UDM and Larry Tech wouldn't work either. but he's all detroit.
nice april fools though.
Love that post, gruen. He truly is all Detroit.
Also, I highly recommend It Might Get Loud as a documentary and rumination on craft, influence, and creating a personal voice.
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