An architect designs and sometimes supervises the construction of buildings. Anything from tunnels that run far beneath the ground, to skyscrapers that tower above it, architects have always had a hand in building these great structures. Yes, you too can be an architect! But how, you ask? Just read on, and you will find out!
Architects have designed the greatest buildings in history, from the stoic World Trade Center in New York, to the graceful and natural Falling Waters house in Pennsylvania, building styles differ as much as the architects who build them. One of the most famous architects is Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the aforementioned Falling Waters and also the Robie house in Illinois. He is often considered the most creative architect of our time for his use of natural surroundings and building materials found in nature. No other man has made such an impact on architecture as Frank Lloyd Wright.
Architects can work in a variety of conditions, but most work in office buildings that contain architectural firms of about three to six people. However, sometimes the job demands that an architect go out on the actual building site to supervise construction.
This is a minor inconvenience to the architects, but on a general scale, architects have extremely comfortable surroundings that promote less stress among them. Often, and more so nowadays, architectural firms are adopting CAD programs, or Computer Aided Design as the main tool for designing buildings. It provides an easy to use interface over the previous pencil and paper method. As a result, CAD software is growing vastly in usage and many colleges are now offering courses just in CAD.
Often, architects have to make considerations before the actual design phase of any building. The most important of these is cost. If a building is made of cheaper building materials, the architectural firm gets more money from the buyer. Other considerations are the style of the building, which depends heavily upon the surrounding buildings, not to mention the environment, functionality, elevations, and zoning regulations. The zoning regulations limit the size and shape of the building so that it doesn’t interfere with the area around the building and the overall skyline of the neighborhood. Often, zoning regulations are a large problem in major cities, and architects either have to compromise with the zoning authority or have the building not be built at all.
These compromises are an annoyance for architects and make life a little interesting for these public servants.
Usually, in any job, the closer you are to a city, the more money you make. In the case of architects, this is especially true. In booming areas, the demand for architects is incredibly high, often too high for the current amount of architects in the area to fill. And so more architects are brought in fresh out of college, and the demand is met. As long as somewhere in the world there is a demand for buildings, there will always be a demand for architects. This gives architects extremely good job security and makes them very happy. Architects usually make between forty and one hundred thousand dollars a year, depending on such factors like experience and notoriety of the firm and once again closeness to an urban area.
To be considered a professional architect, you must attend four years of school and major in architecture, and then attend two more years of post-graduate school. I would like to go to Duke University because their architecture program is one of the best in the world. However, I will accept going to a smaller school if I don’t have enough cash or my grades aren’t up to par.
Overall, I think architects have one of the better jobs out there. They get to earn money, be very independent, and help people have houses to live and businesses to work at. I like the idea of being a civil servant and that is part of the reason I want to be an architect. But mostly I want to do what I’ve always wanted to do; design houses that will outlast me, my children, and maybe even my grandchildren.
