In the January issue of the AssociateNews, titled “IntroduceYourself,”  I prompted readers to tell me their stories of what inspired them to pursue this profession. I received a lot of great responses and encourage you to read through them.

Thank you to those of you who shared your stories.

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From Ron Halfhill, Assoc.AIA
Sunnyvale, CA

“I was a construction laborer during summer vacation in Hawaii, and the project was a well known hotel in Waikiki. Construction work in the tropics is not the most pleasant occupation. Most of the time I was filthy, hot, sweaty, and tired. One day a well dressed man appeared on the jobsite to speak with the superintendent. I asked someone to identify that man. The reply of course was that he was the architect. That was probably the clincher, as I realized I was on the wrong side of clean and neat. Architecture school was the next stop.”

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From Timothy Rice, Assoc. AIA
Horty Elving & Associates, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN

“It's been SO long since anyone's actually asked to hear this story, I hope I can still remember it (but I will try to get it down before I move onto my next bathroom elevation.)

I can directly attribute my going into Architecture to my Great-Aunt. My actual Grandmother (her sister), lived far out on the West Coast, so visits to her place were reserved for holidays and airplanes. My aunt, however, was a short drive to the other side of town, and visits with her were much more frequent and under more "normal" situations. She and her husband were never able to have children of their own, and she lost him when I was relatively young, about age 8. We were her 'adoptive' grandchildren, and we much closer to her than to our own Grandmother. She lived in a small house that she and her husband had built themselves from a set of plans they had mailed away to a catalog for (she even gave me the original plans when I was old enough to understand what they were and how big of an accomplishment this was at the time.) What got me into my chosen professional path was the amazing collection of LEGO blocks that she had amassed and maintained for us. She knew how much we liked them, but she also had the foresight to keep them herself, rather than to give them as gifts and have pieces be scattered throughout our home almost immediately (like my own children do now). As soon as I 'got over' the typical childhood notions of being either a doctor or fireman, I tried to figure out a way of turning what I did with those blocks into a job. She was the first person to explain to me what an Architect was, and what they did. 25 years later, here I am, designing whole buildings (not just the bathrooms) and thanking her each and every day, in my mind. After she died, only a few years ago, my sister bought the small house on the other side of town, and lives there herself now. She asked me soon after she had moved in if there was anything in particular I might want to "save" from the impending garage sale she was planning. Without hesitation I answered "that big box of LEGOs". Now, thankfully, the box is sitting safely in my basement storage room, waiting for the day when my 5 year old son, who currently wants to play video games for a living, will look at the LEGOs he often plays with and wonder if THAT may lead to a different career path.”

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From (Anonymous)

“What made my life turn toward Architecture: Laying in bed as teenager with my bedroom door closed so the party my parents were having would not keep me awake. All the while listening to their discussions through the evaporative cooler venting system and thinking that there must be a better way to layout a home so the children wouldn't be kept up by the voices and laughter.
It's not much but it's the only thing I go back to.”

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From Suzanne Green Stevens M.A., Assoc. AIA
ICA&CA

“No Murrye, my story is worse. I "designed" and drew my first house at the age of 10. It was round, kitchen, laundry and dining on the left, bedrooms to the right, no bathrooms or closets as I recall, no entry!, you just walked right into the living room.

Pool in the back, with the house wrapped around it. A male family friend thought it was nice, but stated that it was very expensive to build round buildings. Unfortunately I do not remember what brought me to this first attempt although I do recall sensing a relative's house as being very "substantial". I noticed the "thick, heavy looking, tall paneled doors" with beautiful hinges. I was in awe of the architectural/decorative details throughout, although I did not know that was what they were called. I loved it. In 7th grade, we were to do research on a profession we might like to enter. I immediately chose architecture/architect. On arriving home, I told my mother I needed to get an interview with an architect for my paper on my chosen profession. Her stern reply? It is very hard for "girls" to be architects. I took that at as a "no" and unfortunately was cowered into picking dress design instead. BLAH . Well, I WAS only 11. After an undergraduate degree in fine art, work as a window display designer and a graphic artist, I went back for my Masters in Architecture at the ripe age of 27. FINALLY I was doing what I had wanted to do since the age of 10...........it just took me 17 years!”

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From Irfan Rydhan, Assoc. AIA
San Jose, CA USA

“I have always been into drawing and art, since I was a child of 5 years old. My mother use to have my brother and I draw cartoons and other pictures to give as birthday cards to our family and friends. Anyways growing up, I wanted to become a cartoon artist, but felt kind of ashamed of that lowly profession (oh, if I only knew now how wrong I was:)), and never mentioned it. Before I went to highschool, my father suggested to me that I try Architecture, because I can make drawings and also make good money as well (like you, I learned the hard way, that's not necessarily the case:)). Anyways after taking some "Architectural Drafting" classes in high school, I actually enjoyed it and have never looked back since. Eventually I graduated with a BA in Architecture from U.C. Berkeley and have worked at several of the top firms in the Bay Area for the past 8+ years. Im now in the process of taking my ARE exams and am looking forward to becoming an "official" full-fledged ARCHITECT!”

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From Rebecca Grijalva
Platt Whitelaw Architects, Inc.
San Diego, CA

“While pursuing a Bachelors degree in Theater Production and Design at the University of Arizona I briefly dated an architecture student. When he took me to his studio classroom one day I immediately felt as though I belonged there. That one moment in time changed my life forever. As a third year student, I thought it was too late to change majors and I didn’t want to ask my parents to pay for more schooling so I tried to forget about architecture and stay with Theater. Ten years later, after quitting theater and a second career in business, I was still trying to figure out what to do so I took a career assessment test at a local university. The test results said my talents were in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, graphic design, interior and lighting design. I enrolled in night classes to test my interest in these different areas. I liked architecture best but the math scared me. Soon after that my husband and I had dinner with one of his former professors and her husband. I spent the entire dinner talking to her husband who was an architect and professor. This exchange solidified my decision to change careers and pursue architecture, so I went on to get a masters degree from Cal Poly. I loved every minute of school and I am excited to go to work each and every day. I get paid to have fun! If there had been a job shadowing program when I was in high school I wouldn’t have wasted fifteen years of my adult life trying to find my “calling”. For the last five years I have headed up a job shadowing program for my firm. For the last twelve years I have volunteered in elementary and middle schools teaching architecture to young people in my free time. Many of my former students are confidently on the road to a career in architecture and other related fields.”

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From Ty Lee, cdt, csi-i, Assoc. AIA
Community Tectonics Architects
Nashville, TN

“Hi, my name is Ty Lee and probably like many, many other people, I believe it started with legos. The funny thing is that as soon as I got my first giant bucket of legos (back in the day, they were all solid forms, no pre-fab figures – i.e. ‘star wars’ legos), I took one look at the instructions and thought to myself, “BORING!” So, I threw them away, and began to shape things the way that I thought were, at the tender age of 7, much cooler.

To further emphasize my love for the arts, my fifth grade teacher used her own personal time outside of school to apply for grants. She received one and took us all to an art show from Chattanooga to Nashville, TN to see an incredible collection of Monets, Renoirs, Picasso’s, . . . etc.

My love for drawing, creating, and designing simply further grew through high school.

I know it all sounds cheesy, but it's how it happened.”

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From Kate McCollum, Assoc. AIA
Broker
Denver, CO

“I enjoyed reading your story about how your became interested in Architecture. I have a similar one. Read on:
My grandparents owned a floral greenhouse which included the farm on which they settled in 1865. The farm included a couple of large barns and an old chicken coop. The chicken coop, by the time I was old enough to notice, never had chickens in it but was filled with lots of old egg crates.

When I was about 9, I wanted to turn the chicken coop into a clubhouse for myself and my cousins to use, since it seemed to be waste of perfectly good space! I asked my uncle, who was in charge of the greenhouse by that time, but he didn't have the vision that I did. Ever since that time, I have sought out homes to renovate and have enjoyed re-designing interiors and exteriors and taking part in hands-on remodeling, including taking a sledge hammer to a cement block basement wall to install a new doorway (the postman just had to inquire a few days later as to what that noise was all about.)

Like most designers/architects, I have designed some projects that never came to be, but I enjoy dreaming of how the new design could have improved the buildings.

On another note: I entered the real estate profession after attaining my bachelors degree in architecture because an architect I knew told me that all the architects were starving! I hope to increase my niche in the architecture field specializing in renovations. Should you have any ideas I might consider, I'd appreciate your input.”

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From Adam Ferrari:

“From a very early age I knew that I wanted to be an architect. I had a natural penchant for coloring and drawing and there was a lot of house construction in my neighborhood. As early as junior high school I told my parents that “I have decided what I want to do in college: play golf.” This career did not pan out as much as expected so I settled on architecture.

While I always sub-consciously wanted to be an architect, I hadn’t the faintest idea as to what an architect does in real life. It wasn’t until just recently, six months out of college and working in my second firm that I came to the euphoric realization that I was meant to be an architect. In school I struggled with the day to day stress of deadlines and homework but I had a fanatical obsession with being on time and never past due. While this never helped my health, many teachers, peers and colleagues were appreciative of being able to count on me. In terms of design skill, I never led the pack nor thought of myself as the next Corbu, Mies or Calatrava, I just did my work efficiently and effectively.

Then I got a job and started finding out what actually happens in the real world and I made the proper adjustments. I realized the importance of marketing and networking. I found out how important a subject that I cared very little about had great implications in the real world: politics. But it wasn’t until another event that I realized my calling and my confidence that this was a career meant for me.

Over a year ago I proposed to my then girlfriend of three years. It was a significant highlight in my life and I was glad she said ‘yes.’ However since then, I have been thrown into the largest single event planning session in my rather short existence. Now I am not the average groom when it comes to wedding planning and details as I have both a say and the ability to multi-task and get it done. I enjoy the very active role I am taking in my wedding and I can foresee the fruits of my labor in the potential party to end all parties. Never have I seen so many different entities, details, facets and complexities come together in one single occurrence; never that is, until I participated in real architecture. While seemingly disparate, the planning of a wedding and the designing/drawing of a piece of architecture are analogous on numerous levels. Dealing with many people (owner, architect, builder) who all want a different result from the event, organizing various vendors (trades) to agree on a price and scope, making decisions on the most minute of details (specs) and of course, agreeing with your significant other (teamwork). The architecture career is challenging. So many details can potentially fail or go wrong when all along everyone has agreed on what they want. Budgets run over, owners get angry, drawings are finished late, contracts are debated and construction can be frustrating. But in relation to a wedding, at least you get (hopefully) the chance to try again if it doesn’t go smoothly the first time; a luxury that is not afforded in wedding planning.”

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From Anya Bartay:

“As I recall, my childhood memories consisted of competitive sessions of drawing, houses, and other buildings amongst my friends. Showing them to my parents, they would always pick the other kid's drawing, not to hurt their feelings of course. They didn't care about mine, ha, ha. I would take Lego Blocks, wooden blocks, sticks, rocks, anything that was stackable, and made these enormous cities that would take up the entire living room floor. We used Barbie's as our people, Match cars for the vehicles, and Tonka Toys to help out in our construction. My mother decided she wanted her living room back, so I focused on drawing, gesturally. At the age of 12, I told my parents that they had better have been saving up for college because I wanted to be an Architect. They assured me that the money would be there. When the time came to go to college, my mother gave my $1,000.00 and dropped me off at Texas A&M University, whooop!

I though that I was pretty smart, having graduated with a 3.8 average in High school, I thought college would just be a continuation of what I was used to. Not! Well, despite my troubles in college, I managed to graduate and started working for a bank. At that time I thought that I could get a job without any AutoCAD skills. Boy, was I wrong. After three months looking, I ended up back in San Antonio, where my parents decided to retire. I still didn't know any Cad, so I applied for other jobs. After coming from an interview with Foley's department store, I ran across an Architect's office and went in. When he asked me if I knew Cad, I lied and said "Yes, of course". After about three weeks, I was hired, and "learned myself" some AutoCAD. I was proficient in about month. Now, I work for A. Epstein and Sons 's International, and lov'n every minute of it!”

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From Ivan Sarrai:

“Hi Murrye; very interesting how some people just know what they want to be at a very early age. I was about six years old. I remember sitting under a tree in our backyard breaking small tree branches into smaller pieces. I began to stick these in the ground and before I knew it I had built about five small structures that resembled homes. I would add and remove homes on and off as time went by. To keep a long story short; that was the beginning of my career. Thanks for sharing.”


The AssociateNews welcomes your feedback on this issue at nac@aia.org.  In addition, we also invite your comments at the AIA Knowledge Center under the “National Associates Committee” heading. To participate in the discussion, one must login by using the “Register” icon at the top of the page.