I AM [actually] AN ARCHITECT

Yesterday the Boiled Architecture team spent the day setting the course for our startup.  We used some fun post-it exercises to talk about what we each want from this company.  When everyone put their notes on the board, we found three themes emerged:

Personal satisfaction - We each seek a work environment that we enjoy, enough money to live comfortably, and autonomy and flexibility.

High-quality work - We each have a deep desire to do the kind of high-quality work that results from a careful, collaborative, and cutting-edge approach to architecture.

Legacy - We each want to be part of something bigger than making a living; to be proud of the work we did both on buildings and on the culture of architecture.

By definition of being a startup, we don’t know exactly how we will meet these goals.  We have some ideas, but we don’t yet know if they are viable.

A good architect becomes adept at switching between the macro view and the micro view a hundred times a day.  We understand our buildings in their urban context, and we also choose the correct decorative screw head.  We think about team dynamics and contractual relationships, and we also consider the weight of the doorknobs.

I find this skill serves me well in starting a company.  I can hold in my head an image of Boiled Architecture speaking at national trade conventions about radically collaborative management methods we used on an iconic project, while simultaneously knocking on the door of a run-down clinic to find out if they need an architect on an hourly basis.

We are going somewhere great.  But at this tiny moment in time, we are trying to get in the black.

And after all, isn’t that part heroic too?  Wouldn’t it be the very essence of the American dream for a handful of architects with a vision to set out on their own and put food on their tables that they earned by practicing the craft they love?