Me, first days at MIT
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My Background - Academia
I kind of assumed that people who were interested in my academic and professional life would have gone to LinkedIn. Though dry, most of it is there. Still, as I’ve written about my background in music elsewhere, I’ll include a brief, perhaps somewhat less dry rundown of my academic and professional lives. But first let me say… in all instances the most important thing I’ve taken away from my adventures thus far has been the friendships I’ve developed. How fortunate am I… Academia - Study Despite being told by my high school guidance counselor that I was not bright enough to become an architect, I persevered and got my undergraduate degree at Texas Tech in Lubbock. As any surviving faculty members can attest, I was not a great student. There were some personal reasons for that, but never mind. I’ll let it stand. After eight years of practice in Denver I decided to pursue what had become my passion: teaching. A full time position, however, required a graduate degree. I traveled to Lubbock to seek advice from one of my favorite professors, Dudley Thompson. Dudley, an astonishing person and educator, steered me toward Boston. Bless you Dudley. |
I arrived in Boston and began graduate work at MIT where I had the privilege of studying under some incredible faculty. There was not a dud in the pack, but my life was particularly impacted by Donald Schon and Leo Marx at MIT and David Perkins at Harvard. I fell in love with learning, a passion which continues. After completing two graduate degrees it was time to move on.
Academia - Teaching and Administration
In effort to get some real world experience I took my first teaching position as adjunct faculty at Wentworth in Boston. One thing led to another, and 25 years later I finally come full circle there. In that time I moved through all the professorial ranks, was named the “William Whelan Term Professor,” became a Department Chair, and finally a Dean. You can look at LinkedIn for the details.
During this period I also taught at MIT, Harvard, the Boston Architectural College and served as a guest critic at more schools than I can remember. I wrote numerous articles, three books, was a speaker and/or moderator at various conferences, and received several rather prestigious grants. I became a reader, reviewing journal and conference submissions as well as manuscripts for potential books with several publishing houses. Again, LinkedIn.
Finally, I served in one capacity or another with all of the collateral organizations that oversee architectural education. The NAAB, NCARB, AIAS, AIA, BSA, ACSA… it’s a lot of acronyms. I loved every minute of it. See LinkedIn…
Architecture - Practice
A fresh college graduate and a newlywed, I got my first position as an emerging architect at Fisher, Reece and Johnson in Denver. It was an amazing firm and I can’t imagine a better place to have started just out of college. Much gratitude to John Reece and Hillary Johnson for taking a chance on me.
I went on to join a number of other firms where I worked on a variety of interesting projects and achieved my professional licensure and NCARB Certification. I also worked for a small firm in Back Bay Boston which was notable in that I made one of my best and life-long friends there. Ah, Lisa…
The project I look back on with the most pride from this period wasn’t one of the large or flashy ones, but rather a comparatively small athletic club in Aurora Colorado. I was only two years out of college, a new employee with a young firm, and for a variety of convoluted reasons essentially charged as project manager for the club. I was so far over my head… I could tell you stories. But it got built. The client was happy and the project received a nice write up in the Denver Post.
Interestingly, when the building was in the design phase the client insisted that it be designed in a way that would facilitate its conversion to an office building should athletic clubs ever fall out of fashion. This made the whole affair a lot more complicated. So many more variables to consider. So why is that interesting? Well, as it turns out athletic clubs did fall out of fashion and the building was converted into a clinic. I’ve not been inside, but perhaps someday…
Academia - Teaching and Administration
In effort to get some real world experience I took my first teaching position as adjunct faculty at Wentworth in Boston. One thing led to another, and 25 years later I finally come full circle there. In that time I moved through all the professorial ranks, was named the “William Whelan Term Professor,” became a Department Chair, and finally a Dean. You can look at LinkedIn for the details.
During this period I also taught at MIT, Harvard, the Boston Architectural College and served as a guest critic at more schools than I can remember. I wrote numerous articles, three books, was a speaker and/or moderator at various conferences, and received several rather prestigious grants. I became a reader, reviewing journal and conference submissions as well as manuscripts for potential books with several publishing houses. Again, LinkedIn.
Finally, I served in one capacity or another with all of the collateral organizations that oversee architectural education. The NAAB, NCARB, AIAS, AIA, BSA, ACSA… it’s a lot of acronyms. I loved every minute of it. See LinkedIn…
Architecture - Practice
A fresh college graduate and a newlywed, I got my first position as an emerging architect at Fisher, Reece and Johnson in Denver. It was an amazing firm and I can’t imagine a better place to have started just out of college. Much gratitude to John Reece and Hillary Johnson for taking a chance on me.
I went on to join a number of other firms where I worked on a variety of interesting projects and achieved my professional licensure and NCARB Certification. I also worked for a small firm in Back Bay Boston which was notable in that I made one of my best and life-long friends there. Ah, Lisa…
The project I look back on with the most pride from this period wasn’t one of the large or flashy ones, but rather a comparatively small athletic club in Aurora Colorado. I was only two years out of college, a new employee with a young firm, and for a variety of convoluted reasons essentially charged as project manager for the club. I was so far over my head… I could tell you stories. But it got built. The client was happy and the project received a nice write up in the Denver Post.
Interestingly, when the building was in the design phase the client insisted that it be designed in a way that would facilitate its conversion to an office building should athletic clubs ever fall out of fashion. This made the whole affair a lot more complicated. So many more variables to consider. So why is that interesting? Well, as it turns out athletic clubs did fall out of fashion and the building was converted into a clinic. I’ve not been inside, but perhaps someday…