Most stories go along the line of - I knew I wanted to be an architect when I was five because I love to play with my lincoln logs or I was always drawing. When I was young I wanted to be an astronaut. I remember drawing a picture of a spaceship, not extraterrestrial, but something that looked like it was from NASA and that was in elementary school. I pretty much don’t remember having any other definitive plans until my senior year in high school.
As a junior in high school, I along with several of my friends took technically drafting 1 (TDR 1). Drawing exploded bolts and gears, something I found extremely boring. Once you passed TDR 1, then you could either take TDR2 or architectural drafting. All but one of my friends chose architectural drafting. The lone crazy one who took TDR 2 ended up being my roommate for my first 3 years at Virginia Tech and who was also admitted into the school of architecture. Our one project for the entire year in architectural drafting was to design your dream house. Apparently somewhere along the way I thought this could be a fun profession. I got a whopping 1000 on my SATs and had a 2.8 GPA (that was till out of 4), so as you can see I was no Einstein. Living in Roanoke, Va the logical college to go to was Virginia Tech and my father was an alumni. I don’t know if it ever occurred to me that not all colleges offered all degrees, but I knew Tech did offer an architectural degree. Although I can’t prove it, I think I applied to Tech in mathematics and I later called up admissions and asked to change my major to architecture and was told no problem. I can guarantee you that would not be possible today. there was no portfolio required and I did not have to go through any interview process. I got accepted and took a summer orientation trip up to Tech to visit my home for the next 5 years - Cowgill Hall.
The main administrative building on campus, Burruss Hall, sits on the edge on the drill field. Virginia Tech had been a military based college and still has an active corp of cadets. The entire campus is organized around the drill field. So during my summer orientation I go into the administration office and asked where the architecture building is? I was informed directly behind Burruss Hall. So I look at the map and see “Cowgill Hall”, to which I responded “Cow-Gill, that is a funny name for a building?”. The nice lady responded “Mr. Cowgill didn’t think so!” Cowgill is pronounced (Co-gull).
The first design lab, first year, first day started at 8 AM Monday morning. Freshmen design labs were 8 - 12, M/W/F each quarter. Yes, I am old enough to have gone to college on a quarter system, not a semester system. The professor walks in and says “I want you to design a beautiful cube and bring it back at 8 O’clock tonight”, then walks out. Now I went to design buildings, so you can imagine what I thought! It was about the same for everyone else in my class, WTF? Needless to say that was not a successful project. I had determined before I ever got to Tech I was going to graduate with an architectural degree no matter how long it took, there were no second options. To this day I am still the only person I know who got a D in architecture. I am neither proud nor embarrassed about it. My dad told me he would never take a major that was subjective such as music, english or architecture. He would only take a major that was objective like math and engineering because no matter how much the professor hates you “ 2 + 2 always equals 4”. So my D only meant that my professor and I were not on the same page! My dad never asked about my grades, to him it was very important to have a degree, any degree, so the only thing he would ask at the end of each quarter - “Are they going to let you go back?”
We started over 400 in my freshman class and graduated about 125. Third year was the weaning out year. They typically would bring you in and tell you they had some “concerns” about you and architecture and they would like to help you if you decide to move in a different direction (aka “get out of architecture”). My meeting was short. My professor was Donald R Sunshine. Yes all you Cowgillites will remember the name! Professor Sunshine told me as I entered his office “Tim, we have been having some thoughts about you and architecture” to which I immediately responded “So have I and I am staying!”. Professor Sunshine responded with “Well I guess there isn’t any more to discuss.”, so I turn around and left. Professor Sunshine was also one of the faculty my fifth year advisor ask to sit in on my final presentation. When I finished and my advisor asked if there were any final comments, Sunshine said “I hope you don’t put this crap out in the real world when after you graduate.” to which I responded “No, Sir I will not put the crap out after I graduate!” I would love to see Professor Sunshine now and tell him I managed to stay in the architectural profession for 33 years since graduating and self employed for 26 of those years.
I never planned to open my own office. I don’t remember having a burning desire to do such. The last year of the last firm I worked at things were in transition. The principals were changing and it really wasn’t a fun place to work anymore. There were four of us who decided we were going to leave at some point during the year. Two left on their own in early 1987. I was asked to come into a conference room after lunch where I was told I was going to be let go. I liked my bosses and I still do, but I did not like what the firm had become. I told them no problem, that they had done me a bigger favor than they realized. I was also informed that another person had been let go before lunch, but I had gotten out to quick for them to talk to me. I guess that was suppose to make me feel better? When the four of us had talked about leaving and were discussing what we were going to do, two of us had the opinion that we could do everything that was being done in the office ourselves. The only thing that we were missing was clients! You will read many articles about “the business” of architecture. You have to be decent in both architectural skills and business skills if you want to succeed at self employment. I learned the business part the hard way - trial by fire, but I survived. It was self confidence that lead me down the road to self employment, never a vision I had.
I graduated in June of 1979 and had a job in Chapel Hill, NC within 4 - 6 weeks. Sometime it isn’t what you know, it’s who you know. My dad graduated in mechanical engineering, but was a lighting rep by profession. We had lived in Greensboro, NC for five years and dad called on A/E firms over the entire state. He had become very good friends with an engineer who was working at a firm in Chapel Hill, so that was my foot in the door. I worked there for less than a year, then moved on to a firm in Durham, NC for the next two and a half years and to my third and last firm before I went on my own. The firm sizes were always small. They ranged from six people to fifteen people. I never wanted to work for a large firm because I always thought working for a small firm would give me more exposure in a variety of areas rather than get pigeon holed doing one task.. I have no complaints about that decision. So I graduated at 23 and started my own firm at 31. I did my three years internship, we had no IDP back then. It did take me three tries to pass the exam. I always passed some parts of it, but the last part for me was the 12 hour design test. I may do another post about that wonderful and dysfunctional experience! It wasn’t until I finally passed it did I get shivers and a brief fear thinking “I could have never passed this test”. It all gets back to that subjective thing. I left the first try thinking, I wonder if I passed? On the second trying I thought, Well I think I did my 50%, lets hope the graders do theirs. One the third test I thought, I know I did my 50%, I hope the graders were in a damn good mood when they reviewed my test!. I knew of some failing designs that passed and some passing designs that failed, I was hoping the architectural gods were smiling on me that third time. Remember we could only take the test once a year back then!
So there was no path for me to follow and no shining light to see. I can’t tell you why I became an architect and I am not sure I will ever fully understand it myself, but once I got into architecture there was no looking back. I think I could have excelled at computer science and I think I would have been a damn good attorney, so I had options. Life is a journey and mine has been great! I get a tinge of fear if I think about “What would I do if I couldn’t practice architecture anymore?”. I am adaptable enough I would find something else, but it is not something I look forward too and fortunately it is not something we architects ever have to stop doing!
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