>Subject: Re: Do You Know What an Architect REALLY Does?
I'm in 4th year studio here, and sincerely hope I'm able
>>to work in a firm this summer so I will at least have SOME inkling of
>>what's going int the "real world of architecture" before i'm handed a
>>diploma and thrown out there. but I really wish I could
>>learn those thigns before i"m FORCED to know them. ANy suggestions?
>
I don't understand why you're "forced" to know codes and not "forced" to
know how to design . . . but, what I did after Graduation was to speak
frankly with my first employer and tell them I wanted to stay in the office
after hours and on weekends to learn the technical and production skills I
hadn't learned at Harvard GSD. I learned by pouring over the complete
documents and correspondence of old projects, then asking some specific
questions over lunch or informal private "tutorials." In the meantime, I
was providing the firm with contacts, current designs around the country
and the world, and some fresh ideas--all the things I learned in school
which wouldn't have been possible had I been as immersed in production as I
was the first couple of months in the "Real World." Prof. Pract. may seem
arcane and intimadating fresh out of school, but it really isn't very hard
to pick it up. It's very hard to learn to do it well, but the only way to
do that is to work at it for years. That is why they call it Professional
PRACTISE . . . you're always practising for the BIG JOB.
>>Cinda Lester
>>U of Idaho
Jory Johnson
University of Illinois
I'm in 4th year studio here, and sincerely hope I'm able
>>to work in a firm this summer so I will at least have SOME inkling of
>>what's going int the "real world of architecture" before i'm handed a
>>diploma and thrown out there. but I really wish I could
>>learn those thigns before i"m FORCED to know them. ANy suggestions?
>
I don't understand why you're "forced" to know codes and not "forced" to
know how to design . . . but, what I did after Graduation was to speak
frankly with my first employer and tell them I wanted to stay in the office
after hours and on weekends to learn the technical and production skills I
hadn't learned at Harvard GSD. I learned by pouring over the complete
documents and correspondence of old projects, then asking some specific
questions over lunch or informal private "tutorials." In the meantime, I
was providing the firm with contacts, current designs around the country
and the world, and some fresh ideas--all the things I learned in school
which wouldn't have been possible had I been as immersed in production as I
was the first couple of months in the "Real World." Prof. Pract. may seem
arcane and intimadating fresh out of school, but it really isn't very hard
to pick it up. It's very hard to learn to do it well, but the only way to
do that is to work at it for years. That is why they call it Professional
PRACTISE . . . you're always practising for the BIG JOB.
>>Cinda Lester
>>U of Idaho
Jory Johnson
University of Illinois