Architecture, a Glorifed Profession

Photo by myself outside Tabla at Madison Square Park.

The modern Indian menu at this restaurant draws a crowd, especially for drinks outdoors in the warmer months. Sample their signature tamarind margaritas and kumquat mohitos.

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I think people have the tendency to romanticize architecture and design because they're not too sure what it means.

I don't blame them. It's a complicated profession and we have a great PR department.

I've run into many people who say they love architecture and how cool it would be to be an architect. I'm a licensed architect in New York, by the way, so I can call myself an 'architect'. Legally, if you're not licensed, meaning if you haven't passed all seven exams, you can't call yourself one.

Having a license means that you can stamp drawings for a building and apply for a permit with the Building Department. You're taking legal responsibility and you can be sued! Some folks work for years doing fine architectural work, but never become licensed for whatever reason. They might not want to take all the exams or they don't see themselves doing work on their own.

Anyhow on my first day at work yesterday, I jumped in to help a swamped coworker prep for a client meeting. Dan had already drawn the upper and lower floor plans for a large, three-bedroom house in Palm Beach. He had exterior elevations sketched out by hand on translucent paper (what we call 'trace', or glorified tracing paper. It's also called 'bumwad', meaning the equivalent of toilet paper or stuff that's pretty disposable).

While Dan reviewed the plans in detail, I started drawing the sketched elevations in the computer. I referenced books on historical buildings at the same time, drawing details and adjusting proportions as best I could to convey the idea.

The project is a tricky one, since we're taking over the project from another office. The windows have already been fabricated and the house is in mid-construction. So there I was, referencing history books and the technical drawings for the windows at the same time. I was stitching together the real and ideal into our vision of what the house could be.

Dan started drawing another elevation of the house, borrowing elements from my drawing. This is one of the benefits of working on a networked computer system - you can borrow from other drawings pretty easily, which is something you couldn't do so well in the old days, drawing by hand. I left at a normal time last night (it was my first day, after all), while Dan stayed into the wee hours.

This morning we finalized the drawings and put a nice presentation together for the client. It was essentially one full day's hard work, but you'd never know it.

Eventually, all the details will have to be figured out. The drawings will be labored over and dimensioned and revised many times. The initial idealized sketch can take a moment. A presentation can be whipped up within in a day or a fortnight to sell the idea to the client.

Then the real work begins.