Graduate School

Graduate School

In these days of reconnecting with former classmates via facebook and linkedin I discovered that many of them later went to grad school. Most of us were fried by the time we graduated and there was little if any discussion of more schooling. I have often thought that if I were to go back to school, it would be to study estuarine biology and ecology. Definitely not more architecture. A large part of my practice involves furthering my education (read: un-billable hours) I spend a great deal of time keeping up with the rapidly changing field of residential design. The science is changing on all levels from products and detailing to sustainability and energy use issues to how we as architects actually convey what we design. Many architects and firms have their heads in the sand and follow the models they were taught back in the last century. I think the architects that will emerge at the top in coming years have to be a different breed.

My version of graduate school, in retrospect, was the half-dozen years I spent carpentering after college. It was a good compliment to architecture school and the required internship. At 10 to 13 dollars per hour – no benefits and weather dependant, it also left me rather in debt (similar to graduate school) while my friends started working at larger firms and made much larger salaries.

Cotton Mill Office in Brattleboro

The new office in the old Cotton Mill has proven to be an asset.  It is a much better place to meet clients than the cafe. It is very quiet and has very few distractions.  The building is filled with industry, artists and dogs but is amazingly peaceful and quiet.  My office is good for one person but may feel tight for two.  the windows are big and face west and north to Mount Wantastiquet.  We (my wife and I) are busy writing a business plan, partly because we need to and partly for the yearly business plan competition put on by the BDCC. it concerns the question of the growth of my business and how to structure that growth.  big scary stuff.

green going overboard

I have been mulling over this subject with a builder friend for a while now and I think I can make my point brief. He is building a very "green" house which is small and pretty and so forth but the cost is astronomical. A simple example of why it is so expensive is that the architect specified clay drain tiles around the foundation instead of PVC. Much more $$. Not that I approve of the use of vinyl - just rent "Blue Vinyl" and you'll see why - My thought is: would the world be better off if they used the pvc and put the price difference into their town's fund to help low income folks winterize and add insulation? That seems to me to be so much more environmentally responsible.

me

I just corrected some links on my website that send people to my blog - (they didn't) I added this head shot of me to my blog because a magazine just requested it. I'm gonna be famous!

Hiring an Architect

I tooled around the web and found a few informative sites relating to hiring an architect. Bob Vila.com, eHow, and Contractors.com Add these to my post "A Good Architect" and it should say about ninety percent of what I would say if left to ramble on for an hour or so. I like potential clients to call people who I have recently worked with to get a sense of what I do. Few people have any idea how involved it can be and why it's so worth it.