Often time people ask me what I do for a living.. I say I’m an architect, and I have a small firm with my business partners and designers in Boston.
Sometimes people say that they always wanted to be an architect but for some reason or another they decided not to follow that career path, but more often people ask me why I became an architect or …… why did I “choose” to be an architect.
I have never thought that I chose to be an architect but rather that It chose me…….. From as early as I can remember, when I was little and asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered …… an architect. Often times the grown up’s would laugh or their rebuttal was to ask or say “don’t you want to be a fireman or policeman” I would simply say “no, I want to be an architect”. They would look at my parents as if I was a crazy kid, but, when I was in architecture school they would remark that it was what I wanted to be when I was little. I guess it is something that was always inside of my core.
Maybe the first sign was when, with my Lego’s ( I don’t think they were called that 50 years ago ) I built a replica of the house we lived in. With the help of my dad, who designed the house, and with the plans that he had drawn up, I figured out the size/scale of my home and the roof lines ( this part was very hard ). This model stayed in place for many months, utilizing almost all of the bricks in the set, much to the annoyance of my brothers. Over the years there were many other structures or architectural replicas built, demolished and rebuilt. Those bricks were my favorite toy of all!
Architecture is a very hard career. It is, from a design standpoint, subjective in nature, where one’s work is always compared to that of others in the profession. To me it is more than just the beauty of the built form, it is the realization of a client’s goals or dreams. It is the problem solving aspects that I find most enjoyable and rewarding. Working within constraints, to achieve something that helps others and which is also aesthetically beautiful, is the biggest thrill of all. I didn’t realize as a child how personally rewarding this career was going to be.
I also didn’t realize how lucky I would become to have a job that I love to do day after day, year after year, no matter how tough the problem is to solve or what the constraints are…..
What did you want to be when you grew up? …. Did you follow your dream…..
– Tom
