<p>How artistic do you really have to be to be an architect? Is it really as hard and competitive as they say? Also, how much physics/ math is involved?</p>
<p>I'm a HS senior and have absolutely no idea what I want to major in. Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>You need an easy understanding of Math--geometry in particular and basic physics. In practice, you don't use higher math or complicated physics--the structural engineers do that for you.</p>
<p>You should be very very creative--one of the most creative people in your class. You should be 'daringly' creative--and able to express that creativity through some art form. An ability to sketch is a huge asset--but not every architect is a terrific sketch artist.</p>
<p>You MUST be computer literate in CAD--the faster and more fascile, the better. You should be able to build models.</p>
<p>It helps to be an extreme extrovert. You must be able to persuade people you don't know. You must be able to listen to people tell you that your work is rubbish--and know whether they are right or not. A natural confidence and optimisim also helps.</p>
<p>It helps to have a 'hi-conflict' personality--a personality which does not melt in the face of extreme emotional conflict. A personality which does not hold grudges. As a female, you should also be able to go toe to toe in a heated argument with the biggest jocks and bullies in your school. Think of them as future job site supervisors.</p>
<p>The best architects have an amazing spatial sense. They can see plans in three dimensions--which most people cannot do. I can do this very easily. I can move through a space or a building in my mind's eye--and in great detail. My ability has gotten sharper every year--but I went into architecture being able to imagine three dimensions--although it took me two years to get accustomed to 'scaled' dimensions. I was quite hopeless at scale for the first two years.</p>
<p>You can determine your spatial ability (somewhat) by your sense of direction. Do you usually know which direction you are going in? Can you read maps very easily?</p>
<p>We build models for all of our clients becuase we don't believe they can read plans. The men say they can but they can't really. The women usually look dumbfounded. When clients can see what we can see in three dimensions, clients give more intelligent input.</p>
<p>Thanks, that was really informative and helpful!</p>
<p>Looks like architecture isn't right for uncreative me. :(</p>
<p>I better get to searching for something before I send in applications soon. Sigh...</p>
<p>Cheers, my husband and I were amazed at how closely your description fits our son, especially the part about spatial sense. Neither of us has an ounce of it but our boy has always been able to visualize in three dimensions. When he was 6 we visited a famous Buddhist temple and afterwards he sat down and drew an aerial view. He's been drawing buildings ever since. As always, we appreciate your insights.</p>
<p>Patricia, Aside from very specific fields like architecture or engineering, you don't really have to know what you want to major in. Most don't and many, many who think they do change their minds midway through. There is absolutely no stigma attached to checking the "undecided" box on the application.</p>
<p>At this point you should concentrate on finding a college that fits your personality and learning style -- academically and socially and don't worry too much about your far off career. That's what graduate school is for. In fact many architects have general liberal arts undergraduate degrees and start their architectural studies in graduate school.</p>
<p>What was it that attracted you to architecture, Patricia? If you appreciate color and design, perhaps some other sort of related field would interest you. What is that you really enjoy doing? What is the one thing that comes easily to you?</p>
<p>I like math and your basic physics, so I'm considering some kind of job in engineering. I'm not a technical type of person so I think I'll stay away from EE. I am wondering if someone could give me some feedback on this major to help me decide if this is the right one for me. </p>
<p>BTW, that was copied from the engineering forum I just posted.</p>
<p>I think I just had the wrong idea about architecture, thinking that it didn't require much artistic ability so much as the physics of a design. I like math, but I'm no genius. I kind of like your basic physics; I seem to struggle with astrophysics and its technicalities in my AP Physics II class (merged with the IB class).</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks again for your original reply and any additional information you may provide!</p>
<p>Momrath, I've been told by many that it's okay to not know your major and I understand. I guess I'm just afraid of being indecisive and adding extra time AND money to college.</p>
<p>SERIOUSLY consider Structural engineering. We work with structural engineers all the time. We propose wacky ways to hold up buildings and they design the methods. It's a fun collaboration.</p>
<p>I've NEVER met a female engineer on the job--and I would LOVE to! I am sure you would get preferential admission to many many engineering schools--and intern programs. Where do you live? How are your CAD skills?</p>
<p>If you prefer bridges and roads to buildings, consider civil engineering--if you prefer geology to either of those--cosndeir geotechinical engineering--a WAY cool field--also collaborates with architects for projects.</p>
<p>All of these fields would commit hari kari to get a few good women in theri profession. The pay is fantastic--better than architecture--and the work is challenging.</p>
<p>Good luck Patricia!</p>
<p>That sounds great and I'm feeling much more re-assured. I'll look into this option more and hopefully I will have found my niche! The Texas Common Application accepted by a lot of Texas colleges requires you to apply for a school/ major, so I was wondering what to put down. I think I'd like to work closely with architecture. I just hope the work isn't too, too hard. I take mostly rigorous classes in school and am pretty close to top 10% (I would be if I went to a non-IB school), so hopefully I'm up for it.</p>
<p>Next problem: choosing/ paying for college and motivating myself to write my essays...</p>
<p>In general, cheers' description is a good one. I would offer one word of temperance to it, though- you do have to be ALL that coming out of high school. That is what you need to actually be a good architect, and not to be an architecture student. For instance, people don't expect a high schooler to have good CAD skills, because most public high schools don't offer drafting classes. And you'll figure out model building in college, too. You just have to have the ability to learn these things, which can be a hard thing to tell in high school. I know the OP has already discovered that architecture is not for her, but I don't want other readers to get TOOOO discouraged thinking they have to have all those skills right out of high school.</p>
<p>AutoCAD is a very difficult software language to learn, la. In general, boys go to unviersity with higher computer skills and more computer experience. They learn CAD at a much faster rate--is my experience in the office and interviewing. Thus, it makes sense to warn female students and encourage them to acquire 'literacy' before they get to architecture school.</p>
<p>Ditto model making. What boy of the class of 2011 didn't build lego models? Didn't build war hammer figures? Didn't build a ship model? Girls don't build models as children--period-- and again, as model making is such a key skill in year one of architecture school, it makes sense to warn girls.</p>
<p>The odds against female success in architecture start in day one and build from that day. Part of the reason females are drowned out by male talent is that they do not get honest advice. Competitive males do not want them to succeed.</p>
<p>I simply have to disagree with this sexist take on it. I am a female in architecture, and at least half of my graduating class was female, and the differences between those who were good at model building or CAD and CAM software were not based on sex at all. Maybe it was more like this when you went through school, if that was a few decades ago?</p>
<p>And I don't know a single architect or architecture student, male or female, that doesn't go on about their former and sometimes current love of legos. I would advise you to let go of your outdated stereotypes.</p>
<p>That's funny. I raised two sons over the past two decades. There were clever girls at my house non-stop but I never ever saw one pick up a single lego. My bad. I also never saw one sit in front of the ocmputer non-stop learning programming the way the boys did--and I never heard any girls' parents complain about that either. My son just got a venture capital grant from his school for a software company he started. You probably know a ton of girls who started software companies when they were 17? Times sure have changed!</p>
<p>But hey, if current females grads come through the office door with equal training and confidence, I promise I will give up the stereotypes which you find too strident. Or, if my classmates go back to commercial work instead of teaching or residential and interior work, I will change my tune. Absolutely! The next time I am not the only female in an engineering or jobsite meeting, I will let you know. Or, if I meet a women who owns practice like mine, I will send you a pm, cause, thing is, I've travelled and lived all over the world and I haven't so far--even though I have been in LA lots! </p>
<p>Let me know how the gender thing plays out in grad school. Did you know that there was a formal protest at Harvard in 2005? I know that was AGES ago but it seems that male students got the majority of space in Harvard publications.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for all the real helpful advice. You don't have any stereotypical attitudes and isn't that a relief to old cows like myself?</p>
<p>I don't know what was wrong with the girls that came over to your house re: the lego thing. I loved the things, as well as lincoln logs, capselas, etc. This aspect is definitely a nurture thing though, not a nature thing. </p>
<p>You don't need to program computers or start software companies to be a good architect though, so I'm really not sure where that comes into play. And in fact, the people I know who came into college already knowing CAD did not do well in design, because they became too enamoured with drafting, and doing things on the computer, and it stifled their creativity. I'd say it's much more important to be able to draw well by hand. </p>
<p>I know it's harder on the job site, which is why I didn't argue about your advice re: being able to stand up for yourself, which is an important thing. One of my internships was in construction, so I know how that goes. I just think that it's stereotypes we're fighting, not any actual natural disadvantage, and you saying blatantly false things like, "Girls don't build models as children--period" only helps further those stereotypes. Think that you've suceeded in bucking the trend, are fighting against the man, harbor all the anger you want, but until you stop telling these high school kids that girls are at a disadvantage to learning architecture, you're a part of the problem.</p>
<p>Cheers, why all the heavy, dripping sarcasm directed at larationalist? (It’s very nice that your son has been successful with his software company, but is that really relevant to this discussion about what skills are needed to succeed in architecture?) Larationalist was only pointing that she disagreed with the inherent sexism of your “absolute” statements about only males being interested in model building and computer programming. And I have to side with her.</p>
<p>I too have raised two sons. Yes, the older one was really into Legos and is computer savvy too. (After briefly considering a career in architecture, he’s now an Industrial Design major at RISD.) But my younger son? (Not Class of 2011, but he is Class of 2008.) He had little interest in Legos, has never built a ship model, and never built “war hammer figures” (whatever those are!) However, the young girl who lived next door was always over here – playing with my older son and his Legos, K’Nex, and Erector sets.</p>
<p>And just so you know – I am a Civil Engineer whose consulting firm specializes in private development work (mostly retail, office, and other commercial projects) and I collaborate with many other engineers and architects. When I started my career some 30 years ago, I was usually the only woman in the meetings, but now I can easily name several dozen women who work in those professions and are very successful and well-respected. Yes, it’s probably still tougher for a woman to make it in professions like architecture and engineering than a man, but that’s due to the sexism that still lingers around. I sincerely hope that someday we will see an end to such sexist attitudes and that each individual will not be prejudged on account of their sex but will be judged only on their talents and skills.</p>
<p>I can't speak for any other girls and so my anecdote is a study of just one girl who is now in college and going into architecture, my daughter. She most definitely played a lot with legos, k'nex, as well as blocks while growing up and in fact, never played with dolls. As a junior in HS, she wanted to explore some skills involved in architecture and did a year long independent study and she learned drafting, mechanical drawing and AutoCad. Then that summer, she interned with a local architect, who by the way is a woman who owns her own practice. While there, she did do computerized floor plans and she also built a model of a house the architect had designed. Now in college, in a pre-architecture program, besides design work, she also has taken computerized design at RISD, and I don't know the name of the three programs she learned, but they are all computer design programs and she has done many architecture projects on the computer, one of which she was asked to have in a gallery showing honoring a well known architect. She also built a big house model that is currently on my dining room table! She is quite adept at computer skills, math and physics. She was the top student in our HS in those areas. I have never found her to be behind boys one bit in these areas. If anything, I think she excels. We shall see how it goes for her in her future career. She has never felt there was anything she couldn't do in general and surely not as well as any guy. I have never found her to be behind the boys and to be honest, until now, she has often been ahead. Currently she is studying abroad in an architecture program and ironically each student in her program is......female! It just turned out that way. I am not doubting anyone else here and only sharing a personal account.</p>
<p>There are tons of girls in my arch. program (50/50 actually) and every bit as talented and skilled as us guys, in computers, model-making, and everything else. There is no gender disparity. You gotta realize, though, that architecture is a sexist profession at this point in time, since so few women have historically gone into architecture that the ones at the top are almost exclusively guys. But that is changing quickly, whatever attitude those of the old guard have about it.</p>
<p>I know we're a bit on a tangent from the original subject, but I have a quick question regarding the architect-engineer relationship. The architect is the one who designs the building while a constructor builds the design... where does the engineer come in?</p>
<p>The engineer comes in pretty early in the process, to make sure that the architect is not designing something that won't stand up. Architects rarely work alone- on a medium to large project, it is standard to have the following array of consultants: Structural Engineer, Civil Engineer, Mechanical/HVAC, Electrical, Plumbing, a Surveyor, and a Landscaper/ Landscape Architect depending on the amount of open space involved, and frequently a separate Specifications writer. Some projects even have further consultants like Signage/Graphics, Development/Entitlements, Building Code, Framing (usually as a sub-consultant of the Structural Engineer), Lighting, or Waterproofing. Some firms have some professionals in each of these disciplines in-house: for example, you won't see AC Martin hiring a Structural Engineer, because they are an A&E firm, nor Gensler hiring a Signage and Graphics consultant, because they have a studio that takes care of that stuff. Each of these consultants produces their own set of drawings that are part of the Contract Document set, and it is part of the Architect's job to ensure that the work of all of these trades works together with each other and with their own work. This can often be a significant portion of the job, so it is important that Architects not only have good design skills, but are good and willing managers with attention to detail and willingness to compromise.</p>
<p>Engineers do come in at the early stages of design--particularily if the building type demands it; ie towers or land developments.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how everyone works, but in the offices that I worked for in New York and in my office, the architect lays out an initial design concept and then (gently) pressures and cajoles the engineers into finding a way to build it. That cajoling goes on throughout the construction as the contractor comes in with alternative methods of building the same thing.</p>
<p>Eningeers are not normally rule-breaking sorts of people. They are usually highly linear thinkers. They prefer to think and design from 'A' to 'B' to 'C'. It is the architect's job to get them from 'A' (Oh my God! You want to do what??) to 'B' (Well, maybe if we do this and this...). Once they get to 'B' however, the engineering juices take over and amazing innovations start appearing. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the A&E firms are not known for leading edge architecture or engineering design.</p>
<p>What's the saying? Friction polishes the gem....</p>