When I was in seventh grade, my English teacher made us write a letter to ourselves that she would mail to us 10 years later. One of the questions was "what will be your profession?". My answer was architect. However, I am honestly not sure why I said that. I guess it was because I could draw (monsters mainly) and I was good at math. I had no clue what good architecture actually was as it turns out. More importantly, I didn't even know what to look for or how to see it. The only architect I knew up until then was Mike Brady from the Brady Bunch. Well... and Thomas Jefferson.
I was fortunate enough to get into a fantastic architecture program at the University of Texas at Austin. Further, after my Freshman year, the school got rid of some of older faculty that had been there (that wasn't tenured) and brought in quite a few young brilliant minds, mostly graduates from Yale and Harvard. I made it a point to take their classes. They taught their course with the same curriculum as they had experienced at their respective Ivy League schools. I was basically getting an Ivy League education that just fell into my lap.
These courses did very little in the way of teaching me how to put together construction or deal with the nuts and bolts side of the profession. They did teach me how to think and solve problems outside of the box. They exposed me to a whole other world that, until then, I had not seen. I started seeing the design in everything around me... much more acutely.
With this new perception came a newfound curiosity in everything around me. I had gone from someone who would look at the world to someone who can start to see it.
My eyes began to see in the same way that my ears can hear (as it relates to music). But, that is another post.
This has generally been a gift. But, there are times when it can feel like a curse in a way. It becomes very hard to tune things out. And there are times when I wish I could. But, when it is all said and done, I can't really complain. It has helped me see the beauty in things, catch details that are often overlooked, and search for more of this.
Learning how to see has helped me understand what great architecture is and can be and how to look for it. It is a large part of what inspires me to practice, try, learn and look forward to the challenges of the work day and the next project... and to possibly contribute meaningfully to the built environment.
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