If you're an intern, go take this survey.
If you're an architect, go take this survey.
You can find out more about Lulu's project here. Feel free to send your friends, licensed and unlicensed, to the surveys. As long as they're either architectural interns or licensed architects working in the United States, they're eligible to take the survey.
5 comments:
Done. And the answer choices were sweet little intern answers, too.
Paul, did you take the architect survey or the interns survey? Let me know if the links are switched around on the surveys--they worked fine for me, but that may have just been for me.
I took the architect's survey, but there was little about the administrative work in our industry. At some point, our universities are going to have to come to the conclusion that the design work and drawings are about ten percent of what we do. But, when we tell someone what we do, they always say, "I have a nephew/niece/neighbor that draws house plans."
My above point ties in nicely with the take an intern to meetings thingy, too. If we start to bring in interns and let them know straight out of the box that drawings are one thing, but we are still delivering a danged product, the building, we will truncate the learning experience. In my five years of college, never once did we actually discuss the administrative stuff that seems to occupy so much of my time. And having worked in construction and at an arch firm before I went to college, I had many an argument with professors about how things worked in our REAL profession. None of my professors were actually licensed architects and the majority of them had never worked in an architecture office in their lifetimes. I guess that lends credence to the old adage, "Those who cannot play, coach."
I actually laughed out loud at the comment "I have a niece that draws plans." That's exactly why I push for taking interns to meetings aand to meet with clients--it introduces more solidly the reality of what we do every day, not just draw lovely buildings.
I took the survey as well, and I think the point of it was to find out how much architects and interns are learning from/teaching each other. Are they becoming Revit monkeys, or are they really learning all the facets of the profession. What college did you go to? At least half if not more of my studio profs at GA Tech were practicing architects, and it really made a difference in the quality of our work. (I'm sure some would disagree with this, and to each their own. I don't think good design and good construction knowledge is an either/or choice, but concentrating on one all the time over the other sets one up for failure.)
I went to Mississippi State, but worked for a GaTech grad before I went back to college. He was a businessman that practiced architecture, instead of an artist that worked at an architecture firm.
History is a great teacher in our profession. Look back to the end of the nineteenth century to see where we are today. During the Industrial Revolution, architects had few commissions because they were still building monumental masonry structures rather than embracing steel and concrete. Engineers did all of the work that we should have been doing. Now, 100 years after the European/International style of architecture, those are still the buildings that architects revere.
The Old Guard in our profession are still teaching college the same way that Gropius did.
On the Revit thingy, I just cannot embrace that technology until file size is a little more reasonable. Yes, I have it, but having to buy a terabyte of storage for ten projects got a little out of hand.
Oh, the other thing that folks tell you when you tell them that you are an architect is, "I took drafting in high school."
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