liked designing as a kid.
got interested in cars.
looked at arch schools while in high school.
by the time i graduated high school there was a nice recession going on.
decided to go into mechanical engineering since it was a bit more recession proof than architecture and i could do the whole car/racing thing.
turns out i didn't like being in college at the time.
bailed out after a few tries and worked odd jobs for a couple of years.
i was sitting in my apartment one night watching a pbs special about paul rudolph (i had always admired his work). as i was watching it i slowly remembered that i had considered architecture and had one of those 'shit - why not?!' moments.
moved back home and started attending arch school.
here i am today, with a couple of bids in hand for a project that came in high and the client is freaking out. good times!!

I remember deciding, when I was 5, that I was going to be a graphic artist, although I had never heard of that term before. This was after seeing a cigarette pack that I thought was ugly, and could do a better job with. Funny.

This interest in art/design stayed with me through high school. After I graduated there, I went to a 'renowned' vocational art school, where I spent two years, splitting my full-time studies between printmaking (etching, lithography, bookbinding, etc) and 'commercial art,' for which I won the award for top student in my graduating year.

From there, I moved away for more art school - thought I'd pursue graphic arts in university because it seemed more lucrative than printmaking. Somewhere along the way, I had a class in 3D structure, taught by an architect, and I was hooked. Architecture wasn't an option at that point - I graduated with a B.Des in industrial design.

That was four years ago, and I'm starting my M.Arch this fall (2 year pre-professional, 2 year Masters). I'm not an architect yet - and I may decide to give it up before I ever get there - but design is in my blood, I think, so architecture is always in the periphery of my mind, if not at the forefront.

Always took art classes through school. Got into shop class as a blow-off my Sophomore year of highschool and learned CAD. Got a job as a CADmonkey at an Industrial Design Firm and decided I wanted to design cars.

Got accepted to ArtCenter but couldn't afford it, so I settled with Architecture at TTU in my hometown. Got scared off and tried Pre-Med. Hated it. Met a girl who's dad was a General Contractor. About the time I got married I had done a painting for my wife that was pretty good. Everyone found out I was Architecture for a semester and asked me why the hell I was in Pre-Med. I, like el Jeffe, had a why not? moment and went and changed my major on a whim. Went and quit my job the next day, got a job at the lumber yard (which I quit 2 years later) and I've been happy every since...well relatively.

legos, followe by 4 years of cad class in high school...it adequatly prepared me for the practice.

I followed the yellow brick road....

I didn't know what else to do, so I got a B.Arch.

-legos
-building tree forts in the backyard
-building a cabin with my best friends dad ( ie hand splitting shakes )
-re-building cars
-geography class
-realized I didn't have to take calculus to get into landscape architecture
-realized I could slide into architecture from Landscape Arch pretty easily
-like building stuff
-figured out that I like designing stuff for me but hire better carpenters than my skill set allows

My first year my path was short. I walked from my apartment to campus. But then my next two years I had to drive.

Then in grad school the first year was mostly by bus. Then my final two years I'd commute with roommates in cars.

All of the paths were similarly asphalt.

that's inspiring garpike!

One question though...

freeways or side streets?

95th to Slide
Slide to 82nd
82nd to Quaker
Quaker to the Loop
Loop to Indiana
Indiana to Texas Tech Commuter Parking West Lot C-4
Run like hell to bus
Watch bus leave as I get there...just like every other day
Wait 20 minutes for next bus
Sit on bus for 10-15 minutes before it moves
Laugh at the guy running up as the bus drives off
Ride bus to Business building
Walk to Architecture Building
Elevator to 7th Floor
Get confused and walk to wrong side of building
Swear audibly about symmetrical buildings as I walk to the other side of the building.

A little column A, a little column B.

Early childhood: Legos, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Erector Sets. You name it, I was building stuff with it. Weather permitting, I was building forts and bridges back in the woods behind my house.

First grade: I remember taking a summer art class in Cincinnati's Mount Adams neighborhood. As part of the class, we routinely went out into the neighborhood to sketch the buildings. One day, I remember thinking it would be cool to actually design the buildings, rather than merely sketching them. It was the first thought I ever gave to becoming an architect.

Grade school: While my friends were playing with Transformers and G.I. Joe action figures, I was designing starships, space stations, and alien cities. My classmates thought I was nuts and routinely beat the shit out of me. No wonder I wanted to escape to outer space.

Eighth grade: I remember seeing houses under construction in my neighborhood, and thinking I could do as least as good of a job at designing them as the developers. I made the conscious decision that I wanted to be an architect when I grew up.

Senior Year in high school, 1993: Applied to the B.Arch. program at the University of Cincinnati, and got rejected. (My high school grades were absolutely shitty.) It was the only school I applied to. My family was moving to the Chicago area that summer, so I decided to go with them, take some classes at a community college, and re-apply to UC as a transfer student the next year.

1995: After a couple years of living in Chicagoland, I decided to stick around and go to UIC for architecture school. I applied to the 4+2 BA in Architectural Studies program at UIC and was accepted. In the meantime, I did some networking and landed a sweet student internship at Perkins + Will. My previous job was customer service rep at Circuit City, so this was my first big break into the profession. I'll be forever grateful for the people at Perkins + Will for hiring me when I was barely good for making coffee and sharpening pencils. Over the next three years, they trained me on AutoCAD and taught me how to build models and be a CAD monkey.

1995-1999: I continued working at P+W while taking classes at UIC. However, I was dealing with some serious health and financial issues, and my grades at UIC were in a tailspin. My shitty study habits (holdover from my high school days) didn't help. In January 1999 I quit P+W for a higher-paying job elsewhere, and in November I dropped out of UIC so that I could work full time as a CAD monkey and pay my bills.

2000: Moved to Boston, with the idea of transferring to the Boston Architectural Center to get a B.Arch. degree. But my housing plans fell apart at the last minute, and I moved back to Chicago before enrolling at the BAC.

2000 - 2002: Worked as a CAD monkey at various crappy firms in Chicago, while trying to figure out a way to finish my degree.

2002: Moved to Philadelphia, got accepted into the B.Arch. program at Drexel University. Worked full-time during the day while taking classes in the evenings. Managed to design a monastery addition and chapel on the Villanova University campus, which is the first project I can really claim as my own.

2003: Health problems flared up in a major way, compounded by my workload and school courseload. I ended up getting fired from my job, and remained unemployed for the next 11 months. Dropped out of Drexel, had my new car repossessed, and almost got evicted from my apartment. Came as close as I ever got to leaving the profession and/or suicide. Not a happy time for me, but I finally began getting treatment for my health issues.

2004: Seeking greener pastures, I moved up the road to NYC, and worked a couple of CAD monkey jobs over the next few months. Wound up in a couple of really shitty housing situations, which made me want to run screaming from NYC.

2004 - 2005: Finally broke down and ran screaming from NYC... to Eugene, Oregon. The idea was that I would eventually transfer into the B.Arch. program at the University of Oregon. What I really got, though, was a few months of much-needed sabbatical, living off unemployment checks while hiking around in the Oregon Cascades.

2005: I finally decided to get my shit together, move back to Chicago, rebuild a few burned bridges, and finish my undergrad degree.

2005 - Present: Working as a CAD monkey at a dysfunctional interior design firm while finishing my BA degree at DePaul University's adult education program. Making preparations to start my M.Arch. degree. Applied to M.Arch. programs at Cornell, GSD, Yale, Columbia, and Penn, but didn't get accepted to any of them.

Summer 2007: Moving back to NYC, enrolling in Columbia University's summer architecture studio while finishing up BA degree on a ditance-ed basis and looking for full-time work in NYC.

Winter 2007/2008: Re-applying to M.Arch. programs, and hoping to start my M.Arch. degree in fall 2008.

Stay tuned....

wow, LiG, that’s both terrifying and inspiring...and I thought my story was excessively dramatic. You should just copy and paste that post into a grad app and mail it off. They are always talking about want diversity...

I honestly admire your persistence and attitude. I almost gave up a million and one times and finally graduated (undergrad) at 25. Now, as a former high school drop out who jumped around 3 community colleges, I'm off to Penn...so I guess there is hope.

I know we are all rooting for you this next round...I'm sure you'll make it! Honestly, these struggles will serve you as I'm sure you have FAR more experience wisdom than most.

experience and wisdom

Thanks... So far I'm maintaining a 3.85 GPA at DePaul, and I'm planning to graduate this fall. I think I'll be in a much better position to apply to grad schools next year, especially after having taken the summer program at Columbia. NYC didn't work out for me the first time around, but I think that city has tons of possibilities for me, and that's where I see myself eventually sinking some roots and building my career.

I need to stop complaining. Yikes.

In other news, I wish night courses were an option here. My lord, how that would make things so much easier.

Keep on truckin', LiG.

My Lord. Talk about commitment, LiG. My hat off to you and I wish you the best. Being in NYC right now, I also hope that the city treats you a bit better this time around. So far, she's been pretty good to me...I wish you the same.

like this:

Thanks... No need to salute me, though. I made some stupid choices along the way, and I had a really crappy attitude about school when I first began my studies. Most of my subsequent problems have been the result of that stuff.

slantsix: I used to think night classes would be my salvation as well (hence my attraction to places like the BAC and Drexel), and while it was nice to be able to have some money while in school, the intense workload of full-time work at an architecture firm combined with studio classes led to very fast burnout. Maybe some people can handle it, but to me, there was nothing worse than coming home from pumping CAD at work all day, only to have to spend all night pumping more CAD for school.

Things are a little better now that I'm taking night classes for a general liberal arts degree that doesn't involve design studio, but it's still tough trying to balance work and school. I wish I had the means to quit my job and devote all my attention to school... Hopefully I'll get to do that in grad school.

i visited philip johnson's house when i was 18 or 19 (1998-99) and was enthralled. before, i thought architecture had to be serious, but here was a rich kid having fun, making buildings like little playthings. that's when i thought i'd like to do that too.

keep it up LIG. very inspiring. thanks.

I needed a way to fund my rockstar lifestyle. Turns out, architecture wasn't it. Now I live like a peasant.

I've always looked at LiG with respect, even more so.

It seems my story pales in comparison to his nonetheless, and without ego/ergo

enrolled in fine art classes from a young age, continued through to my adolescent years

mid 80s, career day/halloween wanted to dress as an architect, but had to settle for looking like a pilot like everyone else

93 pre college at Brown... under the guise there would of been an architecture/fine arts program - but i got suckered.

Entered architecture school same year.
summers were archi-filled with jobs, travels, and more school

graduated BAAS, got rejected for grad school so took a govt job as a junior architect, found archinect all in the same year (98)

re-applied, completed M.Arch in 01. Taught grad school the year after.

02 contracted to assist rebuilding efforts after the souffrire eruption

been here since

made adobes when 7 years old
mechanical drafting class in HS
built homes with artist mother
worked with drafting service
worked for a architecture firm
worked for a design build architect
took 9 tests got licensed
making the most revolutionary structure on earth....

Jonas, you left out all the time you spent in the terrorist training camps. Do they teach CAD?

I never even considered architecture until my second year of college.
I was a music major.. didnt want to teach and no money in performance.
One summer I worked for a landscaper, saw the drawings and said... 'I like to draw, Im artistic, I could do that."
Im not sure why I wanted to go into architecture and not landscape architecture, but I wanted to go big.
Once in school, I fell in love, got married to it, now I am considering a divorce. Not really.
Actually it was a good thing I was already married before I began architecture school or I would for sure still be single.

keep at er lig.

in my case i wanted to go to uni, but couldn't afford it. army (canada) offered to pay my way but only if i went to archi-school. i wanted to be artist (architecture? wtf!　sorta thing), so refused. but considered becoming soldier very seriously. just missed being peace keeper (at best)

so...worked as encyclopedia saleseman, then cook, then sous chef in fancy rest.

saved cash, went to art school at uni. ironically, hated it. but luckily took math and physics in uni too, so could apply to archi-school.

turned out i liked it.

undergrad B env des., then joind office in japan...saved enough to pay cash for grad school. learned to really enjoy architecture again and had fun doing M.Arch.

stint in london, now tokyo. doing phd and run small office with friend.

life is good. busy, but good.

jonas....you sure about that last statement....vindpust might differ on you regarding the most revolutionary structure on earth.

on the scale of simple i do.

what does vindpust got?

i call it the solar passive pumice-crete geodesic dome.

everything is very dynamic so i don't doubt lots of things are in there own ways possibly based on dif. individuals perceptions
mine'd be on a Diogenes Level and itself evolving.

Archinecture you are really up there with the double speek type Bush lies tell us your real opinion on people of color and minorities...

to correct you would say it was more like anarchist womens arms training

Like LiG, my path to architecture has been rocky and full of twists and turns. I'm glad to be pointed back to the land of the MArch, and a stressful post-school career!

LiG--amazing. i just have one question. with all the difficult experiences you've had in architecture why did you decide to apply to schools that are the most difficult to get into?

I didn't, I just started Practicing soon as my paper arrived. No time for school, just wanted to get my designs built.

Well, I didn't apply to them because they were difficult to get into; I applied to them because they seemed to best offer what I want from grad school, and are located in the region of the country I want to be in. As it turned out, it didn't really matter, because even if I had gotten accepted with a full scholarship to one of them (fat chance), I wouldn't have had my BA in time to start grad school this fall, anyway.

Next time around, I'll most likely re-apply to most of the same schools, but I'm also adding Pratt, City College, and possibly Syracuse to the list.

good luck to you 'Gin - I remember looking at your portfolio post on archinect on one of the many off beat grad school threads and was taken by the defiant geometry in most of the work. With that I swore you 'd be automatically accepted. Nonetheless these things happen for a reason...2007 perhaps isn't the time for you to be in grad school, instead a chance to wow us at archinect with your tales and perhaps your second built project.

"defiant geometry"... I like the sound of that.

My path to architecture was mostly for the environmental stuff.

I was doing a program in D.C. about sustainability and international development. Being D.C. a lot of it was pretty focused on politics, but it seemed like such an ineffective way to actual affect the environment for all of the obvious reasons.

So architecture seemed like an awesome idea. I enjoyed working in CAD, etc.

I did career discovery in Landscape Archtiecture last summer, and got a serious case of second doubts though. It seemed like nobody had the same motives as me. They were all artists wanting to be artistic, not reduce environmental impact. Even the architecture students weren't really talking about it, in fact the instructors were balking at how restricting LEED standards were, and how green design was just another doomed to fail fad like public housing was in the 60's

:(

I did go through the motions of applying to grad schools last fall, but I didn't get in to any of them. But I really wasn't very sure about going anyway. Put on top of that the huge cost on top of my already outstanding undergraduate debt. Being single with no hope of financial support from my parents. I'm just not sure if it's the right field for me. I still really like it though and read about it.

I went to the (great fantastic) Le Corbusier exhibit at the Mori Museum at Roppongi Hills yesterday. I didn't know that he was a painterly artist as well.

I have great ideas, but I'm not an artist. I just have never been able to reproduce in any medium the thoughts in my head. Photography and Drafting/CAD are really attractive to me.

So tell me Archinect, do I have what it takes to be an architect? Is this the right field for me to be going in to to do the things that I want to do?

...littered with landmines

gin - good luck in 2007/08. everyone says that the second time around is always easier. im sure you'll get in to where you want to go. im also applying in december and i'm glad that i recently found archinect to help me along the way.

travis - i personally feel that if you want to make it through architecture school and become successful later on, you're going to have to let go of this notion that everything has to be done the way you want it to be done. it seems that your natural reaction to any challenge is to become discouraged and spiteful when it should actually push you to work harder. i mean, when gehry's wife told him he was crazy when he came out of the bathroom with a soiled piece of toilet paper and said that it would be the new design for the EMP in Seattle, did that stop him? NO! you seem to have some great ideas brewing in your head about sustainable design and how we should stop talking about it and actually do it! to me, this is what's important about architecture--using great ideas/design to solve problems, and in your case, improving people's lives. i think you pretty much know that you want to become an architect. just quit thinking of everything that is stopping you from becoming one.

hey thanks.

yeah, my problem is, career discovery, put a lot of emphasis on design and drawing capability. I can't draw. Yeah, I know , Gropius couldn't render anything and just had other people do it. The portfolio I sent out to colleges was very much lacking in that section. I had projects I've worked on at SANAA, green project booths I've made at the company with CAD drawing and drafting stuff, but all of the architects/landscape architects I showed my portfolio to, first question was '.....yeah, but where are your drawings?'


why is that so important? Sorry to ask naiive, angsty questions, but I'm not getting into architecture to draw and be artsy (I can appreciate it though). I want to create green buildings, design cities with a lower ecological footprint.

Trust me, I haven't just gotten depressed at the first sign of people not agreeing with me. You read these articles about how the Dean of Architecture at Columbia says 'oh green design is a given in the ethos of students now', but that isn't what I saw at all.

Anyway, I just don't think I'm ready to go get a MArch or an MLA. I need to do some environmental graduate work first. I would have just had a desire to do green, but not have anything to work with.

landmines, indeed.

maybe architecture (or LA) school is not the way to learn to practice green architecture, travis. or at least not mere technique.

but if politics ain't the way to get things done, and architecture and landscraping ain't either, what IS? don seem like there is much left...

this and lego...

bump

i used to(actually still do) burn things and blow shit up with fireworks with an old friend. turns out hes down at VT studying mining engineering now, blowing shit up for money. and somehow, i wasn't all that good with math. damn. now i'm in architecture.

adding and subtracting? i took calculus and have never had to apply it

i like this thread.

my story is also not as impressive as LIG's but here we go

fancied myself a writer when i was little, wrote stories about people living in mountain cabins, surviving in the wild... came up with a cool idea for my characters cave house and drew it. stopped writing and began drawing landscapes with houses, then eventually houses in landscapes, then eventually just houses.

had a some 'how to draw' books as im sure many here did, and found floor plans amazing, so i started drawing those as well, oddly enough, as an 8 year old...

lost interest, didnt think about school again till i was a senior when it was down to a choice of a few school... basically decided wherever i ended up would determine my major.

the finalists:

northwestern - engineering
IIT - architecture
air force academy - history
ku - journalism


was accepted, had my spot reserved and a letter from a congressman recommending me to the air force academy when i found out, one fateful day on my way to work, that i was very allergic to bee stings. When they found this out in May at my final physical, my cadetship options were limited to the point i was no longer interested.
Since IIT was the only school still taking acceptance letters, and had offered me a pretty decent scholarship, i told them id show up.
Got there day one and went to studio.
had no idea what i was doing... just did it

got my first job at a firm a little late, fall of fourth year.

worked at a disgracefully boring firm (which is where i first found archinect to help assuage my boredome)

moved to a better firm part time my 5th year

graduated IIT with a 3.1 after having a 2.4 after 3 years.

was hired full time in may of '06
just had my year anniversary and am planning on moving to europe for my masters in fall of 08!

Grew up in a megalopolis, with an off-beat intellectual family.

Moved to tiny New England town to go to a fancy woman's college. Hated it, left after two years.

Bummed around for a while, working odd jobs in various NE cities.

Moved South to ATL. Went to Art School. Enjoyed school, but realized I was not cut out for solitary life, and felt art was too subjective.

Decided to go to architecture school for M.Arch 1. Applied to local school...got in. Worked for a couple of different firms in ATL. Went back to teach at arch school. Got tired of ATL. Decided to move West.

Moved to SF. Worked for big corporate firm. Got tired of 9-11pm job.

Moved to LA to go back to do second 1 year M.Arch, mostly for fun. Was in fact very fun (though odd to have peers as faculty.)

Started design firm. Started teaching full-time. Both are very satisfying. Well worth the trek.

MiniFogey...i love it!!!!

Travis - see if you can ever hear Kristina Hill give a talk, and try to find her writings; it might cheer you up a bit on ethical & ecological design.

my path:

high school: did well math&science, sucked in art. figured i had no shot to get into undergrad arch; so applied to engineering

college: found our i sucked at engineering. finished bs in civil engineering, w/ a ba in history on the side. took an intro arch studio, got hooked.

applied to grad school in mla/m.arch

got rejected from m.arch but got into mla

loved landscape architecture, got into m.arch; now i'm confused as to what to do.

ah well.