Early Career

After I got out of college in 1988 I went to Philadelphia and looked for work.
I wanted to work in a real city and New York seemed too expensive and overwhelming. The recession had already started in the northeast and there wasn’t much available so I went back to Florida.

Several of the interviewers went out of their way to explain that a graduate was not very useful in an office. It was a little disheartening to hear. Looking at it from the other end today, I would have to agree that you really don’t know a whole lot when you get your degree. What someone is hiring is potential. There is so much investment you and the firm that hires you have to make before you are really productive. Those that get good quick have that fire in the belly and teach themselves as much as they can. You must have a hunger to learn and understand what they’re doing.

My first job out of college was with VOA and associates in Orlando, Florida.
I took the highest job offer at the time which was $18,000 a year ($31,000 in today’s dollars). One thing is for sure, you won’t get rich in this business.

The transition from school to work was difficult. For those of you about to graduate, don’t underestimate the tedium of an entry level job. I was a hard worker in school but it wasn't eight hours straight. The days seemed endless and depressing until I got used to it. I was a theorist and the practice where I worked had very little use or interest in theoretical ideas. The head designer at the time, Calvin Peck , hired me after being impressed with my portfolio. He was a good guy and he occasionally asked my opinion on his designs.

In 1988, The VOA branch in Orlando was run by solid production architects. Their projects were technically very competent though not all that imaginative. They hurried things through design development and into production and that lack of time in the design phase meant that the buildings lacked refinement. I remember one designer who worked there hiding an unresolved part of the building in a rendering with landscaping! Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad buildings but they could have been a whole lot better. There was a young talented architect, Marc Van Steenlandt who I worked for who eventually ran the company. When he ran it the work got a lot better. The Chicago branch has always done impressive work. That was the reason I went to work there. That is another lesson I’d offer up to those starting out: The branches of a big firm are usually very different from each other. Research the work being done by the branch you plan to work for.

Another big realization after I got out of college was that my understanding of architecture was superficial. It was almost like a cartoon of a building. You have to learn the nuts and bolts: all the systems of things and how they integrate. After college, you start a crash course in trying to understand how all the components behind everything you see in the built environment go together. I went to job sites and watched things being built to improve my understanding. To put a building together, you have to understand intuitively the sequence of how the parts are assembled. While I was learning all this I floundered in this large firm. I working on a military project (an electronic training school) and bounced from various other projects. I wasn't exactly the best employee and it was 1988 so we were headed into a very bad downturn. I was let go in the first layoffs when the firm dropped around fifteen people to the curb. I was one of the lucky ones to be let go first as those who were laid off later had real difficulty finding work. I won't lie to you though. I took it very hard. To be laid off from your first real job was tough. It decided that at my next job I would strive to be indispensable.

I knew things were bad at VOA and had already applied to work in another firm. Forum Architecture interviewed and hired me a less than a week after I was laid off from VOA in 1989.

Forum was a multi-family and hospitality firm. There were two partners, James Black and Norman Stoehr. Mr. Stoehr specialized in Hotels and Mr. Black multi-family. I was put to work in the multi-family division.

I rode out a very bad recession at this firm. It went from 89 until around 93 I think. The firm went from around twenty-five to four employees. I remember every Friday it seemed for a while, they would lay someone off. You'd hear the secretary changing the security code and if you didn't get a copy of the code you knew you were going to get the ax that afternoon. So you'd sit there for two hours with a lump in your throat waiting to see if you'd be next. I'm glad in a way that I came out in a recession. It taught me the cyclical nature of the business and how bad it could get. I never forgot it and to this day I'm cautious because of it.

It was very useful starting out learning multi-family wood frame construction. Three story garden rise apartment buildings aren't all that complicated and they move fast so you get to see all the phases of construction at one time. I worked my way up in the company. I tried very hard and learned how to put together construction documents. The problem was that it was pretty basic construction. It didn't take any kind of huge knowledge base to do these projects. I liked the people and seven years went buy quickly. Eventually I realized it was way past time to go and do something else. I updated my portfolio and showed it to my father. He decided it was time for me to come back and work with him.