apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

THANK YOU. I so needed that.

:)

So true. & God bless Rem Koolhaas!

Funny, she should write one about designers... they sound similar. Anyone who has witnessed a twenty minute font conversation can attest. Forget about when "Helvetica", the movie, came out a few months ago.

Oh my god! So funny. There's a big silver dildo blocking my view of New Jersey, too!!

That was pretty funny. And designerny... don't knock those 20 minute font conversations, they make us feel like we know something everyone else is missing out on.

Maybe I'm too sensitive but I didn't think any of that was fun or funny. Then again, I have had a 20 minute conversation about a font.

What she may not know is the whole masochism thing starts in school. Architecture schools promote and train masochists. When a "critique" begins you are to assume that if some aspect of your beloved creation was not put down, there was something right about your structure. The whole thing is primarily about what is wrong with the your beloved creation that you lost sleep over. If you did not lose sleep or were not seen in the studio for most of the 24 hours of a given day (working at home does not get subcultural credit), the reason your beloved creation sucks is you did not really work at it! You are simply lazy. It is a bizarre. Despite all of it, there is a moment of drug-like "high" when something works and you like it yourself. It can be addictive.

I've never met an architect, but this is hilarious.

Whew! so I'm not the only one who LOVES talking about fonts! I am sensitive to the boredom it causes others though...maybe that is what sets designers apart from others in self-absorbed professions. I dropped out of the architecture major...too many (glass) dildos in the class. ha!

Speaking of glass dildos... there was an article several months back (maybe is Comm Arts?? maybe Metropolis, maybe none of the aforementioned) about actual glass dildos. There are some spectacularly gorgeous ones out there.

I think I am sitting in the big glass dildo blocking everyone's view of New Jersey.

It's not that great a view. My plants are on the windowsil and I think the view is one of the reasons for their discouraging growth.

Hilarious! I had to sit through one too many conversations on *post modern architecture,* like how can you have deconstructionist theory applied to architecture, which is all about *construction*?! Oh Derrida, what did you create?

The culture (work as hard as a doctor for 1/10th of the money) makes architects snarky and mean. I know 3 who are nice and also very successful, but most think they are smarter, more interesting and more creative than everyone else on the planet except other architects. So not worth the time.

10 or 15 years ago i would have thought this was funny. but i am an architect that doesn't hang out with architects. have you ever hung out with writers? oy, just as painful.

Hilarious.

I briefly dated an architect. He used to gaze off into the distance and wistfully speak about his hope that one day someone would recognize his style and say "that's a ".

Great guy but, man, all the building talk can bore a girl.

....Glass Dildoes... Concrete Vagina... 'nough said.
LOL

kah, don't get off topic. we're bashing architects for now, not jersey.

It's letting them read Ayn Rand that starts all the problems...

A lot of what she said can be applied to engineering students as well. I have fond memories of playing the "Who got less sleep" game in college.

i really think everyone plays the "who got less sleep" game. i'm a foreign languages and moral philosophy major and everyone talks about how late they had to stay up to finish their dissert.

Oh god, we passed this around at work a month or so ago. I work in the marketing / creative services department of an architecture firm... and some of that just rings so true.

engineergirl -- I used to work with engineers, and I'd take them over architects most any day of the week. ;)

But engineers make money. :)

Amen graphxgrrl. I'm a landscape architect and dread working with building architects like I dread a root canal. Building Architects (90% of the ones I work with anyway) are uber control-freaks who like to meddle in all aspects of design, including the landscape. I want to scream, "EXCUSE ME... where did you get your LA degree again?"

Sorry to any building architects out there. I know you are doing God's Work, but I would love it if you'd put down your copy of The Fountainhead and trust that there are other good designers out there who are far more knowledgeable in their chosen profession than thy. :)

I think we helped build the "big glass dildo" in NJ (that is if it is the Goldman Sachs tower in Jersey City). We said from the first time we saw the drawings that it looked like a penis. Not as much as this one, though:

http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/The-Building-That-Looks-Like-a-Penis-2.jpg

I think we would all be happier if we just sat ON big glass dildos.

Well, a lot of us would at any rate. The fun ones at least.

OH my, I want to be Annie's friend.

Max, we'll let you take the lead on that one;)
KellyLc's remarks are interesting.
Our family has a longtime friend that went to Harvard's Graduate School of Design for landscape architecture & he's a pretty good guy, however, when the discussion turns to LA, the impression I'm left with is this guy is a "know it all" who interestingly claims that builders don't know s**t & do some things ass backwards instead of doing things the right way according to him (e.g.-the site should be created first with all of the attendent plants, etc. before the first nail is driven).
I'm an architectural designer, I recall in architecture classes that one of my professors was quite dismissive of LA. He didn't think much of it.
I suggest we mail glass dildos to all of the "know it all" prissy designers that we can think of.
Lastly, I recall reading about one of the New York Five, Peter Eisenman, who used to tease Shigeru Ban with the name "Sugar Bear". My opinion of Eisenman went downhill from there , & it's too bad Shigeru Ban didn't bitch slap Eisenman like the punk that he is. I know I certainly would of.

Eh. It's like the design game.

I worked in it, but had no time for the BS. Guess that's why I'm not there anymore.

Well Duncan, I think you hit the nail on the head there. I feel like, as a landscape architect, I am constantly on the defensive trying to exalt my profession to those architects who dismiss it. I feel as though good landscape architecture is just as rich and nuanced and complex as any form of building architecture, still many architects maintain the "shrub-it-up" mentality. I can't tell you how many times I have pored over a design so it is modern, cutting-edge, thoughtful, ecologically sustainable, etc., only to get the phone call from the architect who tell me to "just put in some trees and shrubs and make it look natural" because that is the architect's idea of landscape design. It wares on the soul after awhile.
So your friend probably just felt like he needed to go on the offensive before getting belittled yet again. It's tough to go through 3 grueling years of design graduate school only to be asked if you mow lawns by ignorant acquaintances.
But I agree, Duncan (even though I'm a bit guilty myself). Let's all try to respect each other's design talents, push the egos aside, and blaze the trail for a Brave New World of design collaboration! Certainly this will make for better spaces.

LAs and ARCHs Unite! (Just don't call me sugar bear)

Kellylc is right on. I couldn't agree more, in fact, I think I bitched about similar issues on a post at AT this week. At my grad school, the LA program was ranked #1 in the country, while the Arch. program was ranked #7. The Arch's acted so superior, and I wanted to say to them "if you are so superior, why the hell aren't you in the #1 department in your chosen field, genius?" The only cool ones did dual degrees in LA and Arch, which is actually pretty standard in Europe, and I know UVa was trying to lead their graduate programs in that direction.

Duncan, I think your acquantaince's problem was GSD related, not LA related. Anyone with a degree with the name Harvard on it is more likely to act like a know-it-all.

Anyway, that was some of the funniest shit I've ever read. I wish I knew that writer.

Becky,
That's really funny re. your first paragraph there.
There's probably plenty of blame to go around ad nauseum.
I think much of what we're witnessing/disussing is simply an inevitable part of human nature. To be good at this stuff requires that folks become fairly entrenched in their given field which also has it's associated disadvantages (losing perspective, alienation or the disconnect from the public-"they just don't get it", etc.)
The article is true but also really funny. People need to lighten up a bit instead of taking themselves so seriously.
Architects are weird, but there's beauty in some of their "weirdness", I vividly recall in another architecture class when an instructor was explaining to us how men & women give off "different gases" in any given environment. The guy was serious-maybe he had had a long day. I'm not sure, but I really like him a great deal as a person & he is VERY eccentric but so am I as well. This discussion was related to HVAC, air exchanges, temperature & problems associated with commercial versus residential spaces.
I take it in stride and find it all pretty amusing.
Keep smiling:)

Max--
I'm right behind you! Wait...

Part of what alienated the architects from the rest of the design clasess at RISD was the fact that many transferred in after the year of foundation, the year of serious bonding.

Some of the anymosity towards architects in my case is how much they look down on Graphic Design (*some* not all... but when they do, it's SERIOUS.)

Cate--
Um, Graphic Designers sit through exactly those same kinds of crits, as do Illustrators, Fashion designers, photographers... and not everyone develops the uber-egos of some of the worst architects.

That said, one of my best friends in the world (and her husband) are both architects and I love 'em to death.

I don't think architects wrote the book on pretention. But many have had it checked out the library for a VERY long time.

(I think it all comes down to people who take what they do seriously, and people who take what they do *too* seriously. That makes a bore out of anyone, in any profession.)

As a side note:
I was in my fave bookstore & was looking at what I'm assuming was this months edition of Harvard's design mag.
There's an interesting article in there that discusses how architects & the architectural profession in general are at risk of becoming passe' or less important for the simple reason they don't evolve very easily, or, as the article said architects are too "hide bound".
The article also claims that many people in other fields are moving onto the "turf" traditionally held near & dear to architects, such as engineers, etc. & that if things don't change architects will only really be necessary for exterior cladding.
So in simple English, evolve or perish.

Architects can design all the livelong day, but it's developers who get things built. And when it comes to arrogance, well, it's no wonder most new buildings look like giant penises

Hear hear Patrick!

I actually don't like hanging out with many other graphic designers because there are too many of them out there convinced that they're going to change the world with graphic design.

My architecture firm is multi-disciplinary, and some days it's really interesting to watch the landscape, building, planning and interiors people all go at each other in meetings.

All of them are often all too happy to tell me how to do my graphic design work as well. There are times when I can hardly restrain myself from pointing out that I never tell them how to be architects. ;)

Just wanted to clarify, I know many many cool architects, in fact, I was in awe of most of the architecture professors at my school. I think the article was so funny, and often true of architects, but could also be adapted to pretty much every other profession.

The comments at the original site seemed to take the article really seriously and people seemed really offended by it. I don't know if things get lost in translation, or misunderstood in the impersonal nature of the internet. I would want to work at the firm that has the article pinned on their bulletin board - they get it!

Bottom line is, I think my dream dinner party would include Margaret Cho, Chelsea Handler, Kathy Griffin, Simon Doonan, Ross Dalton and Dan Sneirson from Entertainment Weekly, my friend Lucia and Annie the author of the article! Kellylc, graphxgrrl and Duncan, I think you'd roll with it there too!

Just curious... At what point in someone's career do they become an architect? After they graduate with degree in architecture? Once they get a job at an architectural firm? Once they are licensed and insured architects? Or only when they actually design a building and their design is executed and the building is built?