More random weblinks for the end of a busy month

As my project team and I wrap up a deadline-laden May, I'm finding it hard to focus and bring it into the home stretch. So the focus of today's random weblink post is, well, focus, along with a side order of motivation, in the creative world.

Motivating creative people--or any people for that matter--is a lot tougher than it sounds, says this coach.  I intend to read his entire series on the different types of motivation and how that works with creative work (when I finally am not working every weekend).  So far, I find myself nodding along with the idea that, while you can't really "motivate" people, you can sure as hell demotivate them.  That's good advice for me as a manager.

Depending on the task, being "unfocused" can help, such as when trying to improvise lyrics in a rap. Allowing the brain to relax can allow for even better results in creative attempts and results.

Speaking of results, we get results based on what we focus on.  This TED talk from a psychologist who works mostly with 20-somethings discusses how important it is that people make the most of their 20s--develop a life, career, interests, relationships, good habits, etc.--because it sets the stage for the rest of their lives.

And finally, a reminder from this Buddhist blogger that what we focus on and give our energy to is what we become.

Random weblinks for another busy week

In the spirit of being lazy with my blog so I can be busy as hell at work, I bring you a few more links today. This week's theme is optimism, especially as it relates to architecture.

Is it finally a good time to be an architect? Maybe, says this article.

More interns are getting licensed and employed these days, or so the figures are showing.

In other news, compliments may have a similar effect on a person as giving them cash. While on the face of it, that doesn't sounds like good news, it means that your firm can't just throw money at you and hope you'll be quiet and happy--they're actually going to have to treat you like a human being. Money in the form of raises, bonuses, and additional paid time off can bost morale, but it only goes so far. Research shows that at some point, people feel like they're being bought off, and morale dips again.

Deadline after deadline...

Please forgive the recent silence, especially because it's going to be quiet here for all of May. My project has three deadlines in the next five weeks, so I'm pretty slammed of late.  (And my staff, God bless them, have been handling the relentless deadlines pretty well, even when I haven't been terribly pleasant.)  So instead of making a real post, I'm just going to post a few interesting links now and then.

Today's theme: abandonment (since that's what I'm going to have to do to Intern 101 until my deadlines are over in June):

First, actual abandoned architectural structures that look like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Speaking of abandoned buildings, this photographer takes pictures of elegant, abandoned buildings in Europe and produces some amazing images.

Then, a British mental hospital that was closed and is being turned into apartments--talk about adaptive reuse! But is this the right reuse for this type of building, especially one with a mixed history in a community?

Tis the season for random postings and craptastic apologies

So, I'm a flake.  Not a snowflake, but a flake-flake. A holy-shit-I-haven't-checked-my-hotmail-account-in-a-month flake.  Some of you have emailed me some resumes to redline and some really good work and career questions, and Someone Who Likes to Blog But Is A Dumbass And Got Busy With Work Deadlines and Holidays has been incredibly remiss in reponding.  Ergo, I'm a flake.

So, I beg your forgiveness with these mostly lighthearted websites/links/stuff to usher in this most festive of months.


If you decide to go to your office party, remember not to act a fool.

If you decide to go to your office party and don't know what to wear, go here.

The fact that I like my profession doesn't make this comic unfunny--it makes it better.

And speaking of comics, if you haven't yet discovered the excellence that is The Oatmeal, go now or never darken my blog again.

In case you need to kill some time between 4:45 and 5:00, here are some pictures of very  bad decisions made in CA.

What should people know about becoming an architect?

A longtime colleague of mine, Lee Waldrep (aka Dr. Architecture), is working on a revised edition of his book Becoming an Architect.  Dr. Architecture is looking for some input from those who know the present and future of this profession best--you!  Below is his present table of contents for his book, but he and I both want to know: what should people really know about becoming an architect? What do you wish you'd known about two, four, six, or even eight years ago?  Feel free to post your input for Dr. Architecture in the comments, and thanks!

Becoming an Architect

Table of Contents

1. The Definition of an Architect.

What Do Architects Do?

Profile of the Profession.

 

2. The Education of an Architect.

Preparation.

Path to an Accredited Degree.

Decision-Making Process.

Resources.

Application Process.

You Are an Architecture Student.

Academic Enrichment.

 

3. The Experience of an Architect.

Gaining Experience as a Student.

A.R.C.H.I.T.E.C.T.

Moving Toward Licensure.

 

4. The Careers of an Architect.

Career Designing.

Career Paths.

 

5. The Future of the Architecture Profession.

Sustainability.

Technology.

BIM-Building Information.

Collaboration.

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)

Diversity.

Globalization.

 

Agent of Social Change.

Distance Education/Learning.

 

Appendix A: The Resources of an Architect.

Collateral Organizations.

Architecture-Related Associations.

Association-Related Careers.

Institutions Dedicated to Architecture.

Community Service.

Recommended Reading.

Websites.

Appendix B: Accredited Architecture Programs in the United States and Canada.

Appendix C: Career Profiles.

...and now it's time for a station break.

As I write this, I'm preparing to go on a cross-country train trip across Canada with my husband for our birthday.  (Yes, we have the same birthday but different years.  And we're both architects.  Kinda sick, isn't it?)  Despite the fact that work has been relentless and my deadline have been almost-brutal, we decided back in the spring to take a week off around our birthday to celebrate and be together.  I won't be checking email, and everyone's going to have to survive without me for a week.  Wah.

An intern at my firm once said, "There's never a good time to take a vacation, so you might as well take one whenever you can."  That's good advice.  There will almost always be a deadline, a problem, a crisis looming that will deep-six even the best-laid plans.  Follow those plans anyway.  Leave the office.  Don't cancel the trip--go.  If you can't afford to leave town, tell everyone you're going camping in a remote area.  Then don't check your phone or email.  I've actually not checked my phone or email for a week, and it was immensely restorative.  My husband and I went to Yellowstone last year for an early birthday trip (the first week of September instead of the last week), and we watched no TV and checked no email.  It was some of the best sleep and rest I'd ever gotten in my life, and we're looking forward to unplugging on this trip as well.

I encourage all of you to take your vacation time, and really take it--unplug and don't be available. Everyone will miss you and be glad to have you back, but they won't die while you're gone. The work will be there when you get back.

A note to my loyal and inspiring readers

Folks, I've received a lot of email recently from you, and the messages simultaneously dishearten and inspire me.  So many of the emails include tales of workplaces and bosses that range from schmucky to horrible to downright abusive and hostile (so much that a few of you might have some legal recourse, if you were so inclined).  I read at least once a week about someone working tons of thankless overtime or being shouted at in meetings due to minor infractions, and it makes me weep that my profession dares to behave this way, as if somehow passing the ARE entitles one to acting like a jackass and treating others like dirt.

But I'm also inspired that in each of these emails is the same grain of hope: "It can't be like this always, right?"  "I know it gets better, so what should I do?"  "How can I solve this problem with my boss/client/coworker?"  Each email contains a sense of positive reality--knowing that the situation in which the writer finds him/herself isn't "just the way things are" and knowing that it's supposed to be better.  The fact that time and again this hope and knowledge reveals itself tells me that the architectural workplace is undergoing a slow sea change.

Now and again I read some headline that's meant to alarm me: "Millennials will take over the workplace by [insert year here]!!!1!!"  My first thought is no, they're not going to "take over", it's just that they will be the majority of the workforce but not necessarily in charge.  And then my second thought is good--I'd like to see the workplace get taken over by a group of people who work hard but also have a realistic sense of work/life boundaries and insist on being treated like human beings.  My hope is that enough of you do recognize that humane treatment of employees and coworkers and good pay is a right, not a perk...and you'll flock to the firms that support these initiatives and desert those that don't. 

But in the meantime, the questions and situations still come.  The resumes ripe for redlining are sitting on my desk, waiting to be looked over and eager for some face time with a red pen.  And in my day-to-day life, my dream project--a rural greenfield hospital with a medical office building--has just kicked off with a vengeance and a fast schedule.  Furthermore, some recent changes in my health have me realizing that I need to incorporate a little more down time into a schedule that is fast getting more and more packed.

So I beg your patience in addressing the questions and resumes that are coming in.  Every email I get is read and considered, and I don't want to fire off a half-wit, half-ass response on this blog when I'm being asked some pretty important and serious questions. If you have emailed me a question or situation, feel free to email and remind me, or even add more details, or update me on how things are going. 

Many, many thanks again to everyone who has read, commented, or submitted a question or resume to Intern 101.  I appreciate your patience and involvement.  I'm not going anywhere; it's just taking me longer to get back to everyone.

A company blog worth reading

While surfing the web with a glass of Riesling this week, I happened upon the employee blog for architecture and engineering giant HDR.  BLiNK is a blog written by various HDR employees on a wide variety of topics: design, culture, planning, photography and art, recent projects, and even using Revit to design a quilt pattern.

As would be expected from a company blog, the posts aren't particularly incendiary.  They are, however, well-written and edited and even thought-provoking, such as the notion that using the auto setting on your camera is akin to cheating, or the acknowledgement that architecture as a profession is about careening from one deadline to the next.  It's interesting to read other people's thoughts about design and culture in a way that's clearly written for nonarchitects or those new to the profession.  I'm not sure how much (if any) veto power HDR has over its bloggers, but the posts are overall an excellent way to engage staff and possibly even engage the general public with architecture.

Women in architecture: a global perspective

One of my readers recently hipped me to Parlour, an interesting blog/website regarding women in architecture. Parlour's articles and discussions are the best kinds of posts in that they are relevant to all culture, not just women.  I especially enjoyed one sociologist's post of why women leave architecture with a tied-in critique of Architect Barbie. Preliminary evidence in the sociologist's study revealed that women generally don't leave architecture to become stay-at-home moms but rather to take on another profession or to turn a hobby into a new job.


I find this relevant to both genders and all age ranges in architecture, but especially to our younger colleagues.  If we cannot rethink how our profession treats its future practitioners such that they can be suitably trained, challenged, and enriched, how can we foresee a future at all?  To be sure, some folks (of any age) leave architecture because they realize they aren't very good at it, but other leave to use their highly-coveted skills in another field altogether for a variety of reasons--more money, better hours, or perhaps more rewarding.  Preventing brain drain may not seem to be a real problem right now when the economy is bad and the market is flooded with qualified applicants, but it could be a major concern a year from now when things have improved.  After all, if all the good architects leave, who's left to run the profession?

What is architecture?, or, if I didn't laugh I'd cry

Someone recently sent me a page from archdaily.com, in which one of their writers defined architecture in a variety of ways, all of them a little cynical and to me quite funny.  A few of the comments on the post/article tried to take on author Jody Brown for his snark, but those comments appear to have been overwhelmed by those who truly find the article funny.  While I can see where the "You're being negative about this profession and you're not as funny as you think with your cynicism" comments are coming from, I think they're missing the point.


Architecture as a profession is a long-ass trail ride.  Projects go on for years, not weeks like they did in school, and when you experience all the steps it takes to get something built in the real world, it can be downright frustrating.  Funding, construction loans, value engineering, bond initiatives, zoning laws, code review/enforcement entities, more value engineering, neighborhood associations...these are just a few of the tings that can make taking a building from paper to bricks-and-mortar reality so painful that you'd rather pull your own arm off, freeze it, and then beat yourself to death with it rather than deal with all this nonsense.  However, the process isn't completely sucky.  I've had user group meetings where we're all laughing so hard that we can barely sit upright, I've been on teams that managed to salvage a great design through two rounds of VE, and I've watched people's faces as they walked through a building I designed and helped bring to life.  There's a lot of reward to go with that pain.


So when I'm in the middle of that pain, I think of things like Jody Brown's article.  And I laugh my ass off.  Then I go design and tweak and work some more to get to the good part of a project.

It's a holiday, so go celebrate!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I encourage everyone to take the day and even the day after off to rest and be with loved ones.  It gets easy to think, "oh, I could get so much done Thursday morning without the phone ringing", but I beg of you to resist the temptation.  You have to defend your time off and hold your ground, whether it's not checking email during a three-day weekend or not coming in on a holiday just because no one will be in the Revit model but you.  Go enjoy the time off!

A cold and a deadline? Why, you shouldn't have!

Folks, it’s been one of those weeks…well, one of those months, really.  Not only do I have a 100% CD deadline a week from today, I have a cold/flu/bubonic death funk to beat the band.  And here I was, all excited to get some Redlined Resumes done and posted.  No such luck.

I beg your pardon while I get through this deadline and illness simultaneously.  Meanwhile, I was sent a great website that provides basic references for architects.  ArchToolbox has all kinds of wonderful little bits on it—basic info on spacing sprinkler heads, this difference between all the cuts of lumber (plain, quarter, etc.), different types of locksets, and so on.  (Man, where was this website 11 years ago when I first started working? :-) )  While it’s not complete with every single thing you ever wanted to know about architecture, it can give you a good start on understanding many of the building blocks of design and construction (or in my case, a good refresher course!).

Happy belated Labor Day, hopefully without the labor!

I just got back from an extended Labor Day weekend, in which I unplugged and checked no email or voicemail, turned off my cellphone, and didn't watch a lick of TV.  It was unbelievably relaxing, and it was just what I needed.  I actually heard someone lament today at they were annoyed that our IT department shut down the servers over the three-day weekend so they could do some upgrades.  My colleague had wanted to work on a deadline over the weekend, and he was rather piqued that he hadn't been able to use a three-day weekend productively.  I thought to myself, what could be more productive that staying the hell home and getting a little extra sleep and having brunch with a mimosa or twothreeseven?


I've emphasized before on this blog that there are times when you're just going to have to pull long days/nights and weekends, but as the book of Ecclesiastes said, to everything there is a season.  There's a time to work a lot, and there's a time to go home and actually enjoy your three-day weekend.  Here's hoping you all did just that.


I've been emailed some great questions and comments as well as post ideas, and I plan to get to them in the next few weeks here.  I welcome more comments and questions, as always.  In the meantime, please be patient as I get through the pileup in my email inbox from a five-day weekend!

101 Things I Didn't Learn in Architecture School

I'm a fan of the little book 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School.  It's compact, simply illustrated (and illustrative), honest, and well-done.  However, a colleague of mine recently sent me this link for 101 Things I Didn't Learn in Architecture School.  First of all, how have I lived my life without knowing that ArchDaily existed?  I think I really do live under a rock.  Second, this list is the perfect counterpoint to Matthew Frederick's lovely tome.  This is the realistic side of architecture in a no-nonsense but civil list.  


My personal favorites:
9. It's architecture, not medicine.  You can take a break and no one will die.
12. The industry underpays.  Push for what you are worth.
49. If you are an architect, you should automatically qualify for psychotherapy and medication.
68.  Archi-babble does not make you sound cool.
98. Being good at software does not make you a good architect.


Have a look at the list and tell me in the comments: which ones ring true for you?  What's missing from the list?

Speaking of dress code...

In case you're all wondering what you should be wearing at work (and everywhere else) these days, here's a handy little graphic to help you understand.  I received this from a recently-licensed intern at my firm, and I only wish I'd known about the Prada glasses earlier.

For your consideration...a few interesting blogs and websites

The July 4th holiday found me in a lazy-as-all-hell mood, so I failed to post anything good or useful...well, at all, really.  So if nothing good is going on at Intern 101, perhaps you'll want to check out some other fun blogs and websites, such as:


The Hamilton Road Project: written by a civil engineer in training who's remodeling his own house, God love him.  (The occasional person in his remodeling photos tell you that he's not an architect--there are people in his pictures, for the love of Eisenmann!)  There's nothing like actually doing the work to really teach you how to draw the stuff you ask other people to build.


Ramblings of the small town architect: A good read, Small Town muses on the profession of architecture.  Though he hasn't posted much lately, his most recent post on the "value" of Architectural Record and similar publications actually made me spit iced tea on my laptop.  Good thing I have a plastic film over the keyboard.


Lovely Listing: Part of the I Can Haz Cheezburger group of websites, this site makes fun of odd, amusing, and sometimes downright terrible buildings, houses, furniture, and photos of real estate listings (hence its name).  Presently on its main page, they're paying homage to/heckling Frank Gehry.


Are there some other good sites I should post about here?  Drop me a line (via email in the sidebar) or tell me in the comments!

Happy Memorial Day 2011!

I hope everyone's taking advantage of this three-day weekend (well, my U.S. readers are, anyway) and getting some downtime.  I once worked both days of the weekend for several months in a row, and I was tempted one year to work through Memorial Day.  It was then that my husband threw a fit, stating emphatically that I had the right to a holiday like everyone else, no matter what my workload, and that he himself would go scream at my boss (we worked at the same office at the time) if I worked that weekend.  Hence, I stayed home and was much better for it.

It's tempting to use our holidays as opportunities to get "caught up" on things, whether work-related or domestic, but we all really need a break to go for a walk, have a cookout, or just stare at the sky and do nothing.  Hope you're all enjoying the holiday weekend, to-do-list free!

Back from New Orleans, and pausing for thought

I presented my seminar on intern mentorship and training Saturday morning at this year's national AIA convention in New Orleans (Mary, Joseph, and Fumihiko Maki bless everyone who dragged out of bed and showed up for my 7am show!), and it appeared to be well-received for the second year in a row.  (Though I have yet to receive the reviews for the presentation...we'll see.)  It would seem that there are people--many firm owners and high-level managers--who are interested in and understand the importance of good intern training and mentorship.  But as I looked out on the 50 or so folks who bothered to show up for a 7am seminar and discussion on intern mentoring, I realized that my words fall on the ears of the already-partially- or fully-converted.  No one's going to get out of bed to see a presentation that they're not really into or don't really care about or agree with.


So, I've been wondering: how do I get the word out to architects and project managers that a) aren't self-selecting to come to these seminars, and/or b) to put a word in the ears of those who might not be as interested in the topic?  I mean, look at the green/environmental issue--I'm sure few people would really consider themselves really into the environmental movement and sustainability, and yet I bet a majority of people in any decent-sized city recycle and have at least one CFL in their house.  Is it a different website?  A book?  (Someone's asked me about writing one, and I've been toying with the idea.)  A Bansky-esque piece of graffiti on the wall of an AIA office somewhere?


I've returned to Denver for yet another deadline, so once I've had a chance to catch up and let the  dust settle, I'll be sharing some of the intern and architect survey results with you.

If it weren't for the last minute, I'd get nothing done.

Apologies for the lack of posts, all.  I'm getting ready to present a seminar on intern training and mentoring at the National AIA Convention in New Orleans in six days, and I'm having to tie up loose ends at work so that I don't leave my colleagues hanging while I'm gone for four days.  When I get back and have a moment to collect my thoughts, I'll post on the results of my interns and architects survey, which turned out to be quite eye-opening.  

Interns and Architects: the Mentorship Survey 2011

I'm presenting a seminar this May at the national AIA Convention in New Orleans about good/better/awesome ways to mentor interns, and I need your help.  Not just your help, but the help of all your friends and coworkers and their friends and coworkers, licensed and unlicensed.  For the next two weeks, I'm running two surveys: one survey asks about the work experience of interns, and the other survey asks licensed architects about how they work with interns.


Here's the link to the survey for interns.


Here's the link for the survey for architects.


If you put your email in the last blank/question, you'll be eligible to win a $50.00 gift certificate for Amazon.com.  (One will be given to an intern, and one will be given to an architect.)  Please feel free to forward this post (or at least these surveys) to everyone you work with as well as all your friends at firms around the country (US and its protectorates only, apologies to my readers outside the US!).  Go!  Go now!  Take the survey!  Oh, and thanks!