Ms. Strangelove... or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Architecture... 2/

Part 2 - the saga continues...

So now what?

Well, it’s not like the world of architecture and construction was totally alien to me. After all, I had been immersed in it with my Pop’s work. He was a carpenter/cabinet maker, and project foreman, who had eventually struck out on his own. Before I started high school, he had grown his own business beyond custom kitchen cabinetry/remodels and home additions to building new custom homes, sometimes with architects. He had even built an addition to my childhood home, under my curious gaze. When a little older (13-15) I used to work for him during the summers (until I turned 16 and went to work at Burger King… but that’s another story) and was actively participating in the work outside the shop, for the first time. In high school, I had taken a drafting class as part of my art studies but had dabbled in drawings of a variety of fantastical structures before that. I was always a LEGO kid… general sets, Space, and Knights… including lots of my own building designs. I did a four-year stint ('86-'89) as a summer intent for the Water Department of the Rochester Public Utilities (RPU) as a CAD jockey (AutoCAD 2.5? was my first version... on an IBM AT with two floppy drives, a small hard drive, and a 16-color monitor... And I even got to design a pump house!) One of my aunts worked for an architecture firm in Minneapolis. I heard stories of her work. As I got older, I was more curious about building design and construction, even if I still didn't have a full understanding of what Architecture (with a capital ‘A’) was.

So, when life zigs… you zag?

I think the hardest part of changing majors was not academic… it was telling my parents. After all, it was their money financing my education. It was their desire to see me go further than they had (neither had a full college education... Mom attended a year before her and Pops were married)… and their feeling that a college degree in engineering sounded like a pretty solid path to success beyond their own (in retrospect, maybe a bit naive… they were NOT slouches by any means… Pops built one hell of a legacy over his career). Thus, when the “responsible” son seems to suddenly change his mind, there is more than a bit of parental… let’s call it “concern”… Frankly though, Mom was NOT impressed. I had already gone through a good bit of soul-searching on my end to come to the conclusion of changing majors. I had done the homework on what the architecture program looked like… and figured I could handle it. Besides, being an architect wasn’t such a bad idea, was it (oh you naive boy… 🤷🏻‍♂️😂)? I had to drop the news on the phone because it was more than midway through the semester and I had to make some decisions, fast. Not the best conversation to have with your parents over the phone. I could feel Mom's icy glare... ooof. "I can do this"... "it's for the best"... "I'm not wasting your money"... "my grades will be better"...

However, one semester in college and I basically had to start over. I had one ’F’ on my record (yeah, calculus didn’t pan out, even with the generosity of the teaching assistant... and a study-buddy turned romantic encounter… maybe another story for another time… it would be the drag on my GPA to the end). Most of my pre-engineering classes didn’t really apply to the pre-design/architecture track (no calculus requirement!!! only trigonometry and analytical geometry… which was easy-peasy in my eyes). The architecture program at ISU was a 5-year professional degree program (meaning a graduate could become an architect after finishing internship/apprenticeship requirements and passing the licensing tests), so this meant 5 more years instead of 3 (or possibly 4). Ooof. That ain’t cheap, especially for out-of-state tuition. I had the second semester of my freshman year to get a head start on the pre-design requirements, where my sophomore year would be like another freshman year, getting pre-requisites done and preparing my portfolio and application for the architecture program… 1 of 150? spots… out of over 1000 kids thinking the same thing at the start of the year… so the odds weren’t the worst, but also not great, always a chance of failure… a failure that could be very hard for me and my parents to digest.

But onward and upward, as they say… Adelante!!! (also another story… IYKYK).

I managed to make it through freshman year intact mentally (mostly) and physically (even given the partying… some good parties… maybe not Animal House level, but it was also the year of the infamous VEISHA riots... 1988). I used the semester to get ahead on pre-requisites and electives, which would lighten my academic burden down the road. I was far more successful than my first semester of pre-engineering. There was relief for myself and my parents… maybe the kid made the right decision, after all?

After a summer at home and continuing my annual summer internship at the RPU (yet another, but related, story!), I was back at ISU and tackling the pre-design curriculum, full-time. It was a relatively drama-free year (well, except for dating 😂… may need to keep those stories to myself… or a chosen few). I was exposed to “design thinking” for the first time. I literally walked on water for one class (yet another story!) and was expanding my critical reading and writing chops in English electives in addition to art history, drawing, trigonometry and more. I was making new friends… a new set of peers… outside of my dorm buddies. I was gaining confidence in myself… that I could do this architecture/design ”thing”. Maybe I had “a knack”, some talent. I was getting electives out of the way so I could lighten my load later (one of the early decisions I made that actually paid off from the start). By the end of the year, I was applying to the architecture program for ‘89-‘90… at that point, only about 400 of 1000 kids were eligible… so the odds were getting better! Portfolio of work, essay, pre-requisite grades… all in.

In July? of 1989, I received word that… I was accepted! The journey for me would continue. Sadly, one of my new close friends didn’t receive such good news, to our shared astonishment… but other new friends I had made were moving forward with me. Come the end of August, a new journey would unfold before me… one with a moment that would upend my understanding of Architecture… and life itself.

Part 3… meeting Ms. Strangelove… and loving the bomb… I mean Architecture… even as it destroyed my life. 😉