Architects 2Zebras | by for and about architects of all …

Posted by randydeutsch in architect types. Tags: architects, architecture, architecture school, architecture students, commencement speech, graduation speech, University of Illinois, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Architect and educator Brian Vitale, AIA, Principal and Design Director at Gensler, Chicago spoke recently at the Convocation Ceremony of the 2015 graduating class of the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A graduate of the program, Brians speech was truly memorable and inspiring, and he was, as always, generous in sharing the transcript of his commencement speech.

Thank you! Thank you, for that humbling introduction and to Director Mortensen for the invitation and privilege of addressing the class of 2015. It is absolutely surreal to be standing here addressing you all in an auditorium that I freely admit to having fallen asleep in one too many times as a student, which given my invitation here today apparently did not matter. So thank you again for this honor and allowing me to get that off my chest.

I would also like to congratulate and more importantly thank the faculty. Though a lot has changed over the past 22 years when I was last a student here, many of you havent, and for that I am grateful (and surprised, quite frankly). You have played an instrumental role in my being asked to deliver this speech and I am sure, once this class catches up on the sleep that you all are responsible for depriving them of, they will all eventually appreciate you to. Your dedication, patience and wisdom often go without formal appreciation, but know your influence on us all (even if you all dont realize it yet) is beyond measure.

To the parents, family and friends, you also deserve to be congratulated, because for all the pride that you feel and deservedly so, it was your sacrifice, your friendship and your unconditional support that has made this all possible, oh, and the beer money, lets not forget about that. And if they told you that the money was for model materials at a place called the art coop, they were lying, that place does not actually exist.

Now, to the class of 2015!! Congratulations!! You are the most recent class from a school with one of the longest histories. You all have worked incredibly hard, you have made it through the infamous weeding out year, you have survived many all-nighters, difficult juries, and countless toxic fumes from a panoply of adhesives; your day is finally here! And make no mistake, you all are the stars of this event, far outshining me, which would lead you to assume that you have the best seat in the house, but your vantage point is not as clear as mine, blurred with concerns and nervous about the unknown. What will my first position hold, what kind of firm will I work for, will I be a success, and how hard is that damn A.R.E. exam? The view from where I am standing is much clearer, for I get to look out at you all, and know what the future holds for you, the possibilities that lie ahead and the raw potential that you all are about to capitalize on.

Well, 22 years ago, I was sitting in the same place that you all are, receiving my Bachelors of Science in Architectural Studies otherwise referred to as a BS in Architecture, really. My experience at the University of Illinois was invaluable and had unknowingly prepared me for my eventual career. (So you should all take comfort in that). Throughout these years, I have been recognized with both personal and project awards, I have been published in magazines and books, I have been exhibited in museums, I have had the opportunity to teach and have traveled all across the world collaborating in the design of buildings and working with some of the worlds most amazing people. At this campus alone I have been a visiting professor, built a building for the worlds fastest supercomputer, and now this. This school and its amazing network was my foundation and has served me well, and it will for all of you.

In preparing this speech, everyone tells you to share with the graduating class the path to your achievement; I would rather, however, tell you what I wish I would have known before I started.so you can make your own path. So I want to share with you 3 principles. Some will seem counterintuitive others obvious, but all are crucial to the way architecture is and will be practiced. After that, I have one simple request, and it wont be to fail or take risks or change the world (I mean for god sakes, do those things), but rather something very simple but I believe incredibly powerful and will change the trajectory of your careers.

But first, here are a few musings:

First, BE PROMISCUOUS:

Now parents, before you try to usher me off the stage, what I am asking you all to do is be promiscuous with ideas, concepts, spaces, program, and the people that you have sitting around the table collaborating. Create hybrids, live in the middle of those Venn diagrams we are always drawing, mix it up, then re-mix it, because that is where real innovation comes from.

In Maria Popovas review of Dancing About Architecture she cites the author, Phil Beadle as focusing on creativitys combinatorial nature, quoting, We create the new not generally through some mad moment of inspiration in fictionalized accounts of ancient Greeks in baths, but by putting things together that do not normally go together; from taking disciplines and seeing what happens when they are forced into unanticipated collisions.

Now when you work in this manner, please be prepared for some push back, as many of the firms that you will be employed by will be practicing architecture like it was 1995 and will not understand what you are trying to do, they might even tell you that you cant do it that way, I am here to tell you to stop listening to those people immediately turn around and carry on.

Second: Give up the ownership of ideas:

I know this may be counterintuitive, because if not for our own ideas, what do we have? More is the correct answer. You must worry less about being the initiator of ideas and focus on being the connector of them. Steve Jobs said, Creativity is just connecting things

In order to do this, you must always invite more voices to the table rather than less, and make sure they are varied voices, not from a singular point of view. We at Gensler work this way every day, my job at times is more of editor rather than initiator. I will freely admit it takes courage to do this, because at its core, its process means that you have no idea where a solution is headed, no preconceived notions, there is no certainty from having formulated an answer before the process even begins (which gets harder the longer people practice) but that is precisely the point. Voltaire said, Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. You have to trust the process and then hang on for dear life.

THREE: BE CURIOUS, Really curious:

Throughout your career, you will be looked upon for answers to problems posed to you by clients, your colleagues, and society. As you progress in your career, you begin to rely on your perceived knowledge to answer those very questions. This is how we did it last time can be valuable to a point (like not touching fire a second time), but ultimately, in the case of architecture, deadly. When Picasso said, All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. He was making this very point. We often lose that discovery trait as we gain experience, we stop looking, and we create Best Buys. You must question relentlessly, test and re-test, train yourself to act in this manner and maintain the curiosity of a child for rest of your life and you will always arrive at innovative answers.

AND NOW MY FINAL REQUEST:

A student that had attended an event that I was speaking at recently asked, What do you attribute your success to? or as I took it to mean from his inflection, How the hell did you get to be where you are? And admittedly, I did not have a great answer; hard work, dedication, late nights, an incredible amount of support and some God given talent was my answer. But as I pondered this question, I began to remember a couple of similar events in my career, which I will share with you before I leave you with my request.

During my first week of High School, you can all remember that, I was brought in, with a group of my peers, to meet with our appointed guidance counselor. We sat around a conference table in an uncomfortably small room and listened to Mr. Sime speak about High School, future careers and how to be social, but not too social. When he was through with his speech about this new academic endeavor, he posed a question to the group, one whose content I dont remember (and is not important to the story). What followed was typical, awkward teenage silence, everyone trying very hard not to make eye contact as if that would help in this incredibly small room. I was sitting at the head of the table (where I like to sit), opposite of Mr. Sime and decided to speak up. I answered the question, and his response to my answer was, Brian, you are going to be successful because you had the nerve to speak up, to answer a question when no one else wanted to, to be the first brave enough to share your opinion. Many years later I confirmed with Mr. Sime that he did this every year with every new group of freshman and that he really didnt care what the answer was, but was instilling a life lesson to the group.

Fast forwarding a number of years to my first position after Grad School, it happened again. I was the most junior member at Booth Hansen, a well-known Chicago firm led by Larry Booth, one of the Chicago 7 architects as they were known. Within the first couple of weeks of my employment there, an all office design review was being held in the basement during lunch with the client present. The project was presented, and it seemed to me like very little thought went into it, and that bothered me enough that I mustered up the confidence to speak out and suggested different ways to think about the project. I remember Larry Booth agreeing with me as well as the Client and then Larry asking, Who are you? Later that day I was called into Larrys office, which was pretty cool especially for a young kid like I was, and he was asking me a lot of questions and began sharing with me things he had been working on and books that he had lying around. Afterward, I noticed that I was being treated differently not only by him, but by everyone, people noticed me and asked my opinion of which I was always happy to give. What had happened, by contributing unexpectedly is that I had created an immediate value. Soon thereafter, I was assigned to projects that Larry was working on, presenting with him to clients and becoming a trusted designer. I was now being exposed to opportunities I would not otherwise have been exposed to, I was seen differently by others; my career path was changing and I capitalized on it.

Now I have been focusing on the number 22, the number years that have passed since I was sitting in your seat, because it is also, for many of you the number of years that you have been on this planet. Let me assure you that these years go by in a blink of an eye. So to the Class of 2015, what I am simply requesting of you all as you enter your next venture is to speak up, immediately, let your voice be heard, now, and begin contributing to the dialogue of your firm, community and beyond, as soon as possible. Dont be intimidated, dont be shushed, and most importantly dont think that you are not ready to contribute, I promise you that you are, I have seen it over and over throughout my career. And when you do, it will open up opportunities for you that would otherwise pass you by. Your time is valuable and precious, the profession is changing and it needs your skills, the profession needs your talent and the profession needs your voice now more than ever before. It is now time to turn the tables and let us begin learning from you!

Congratulations, again, Class of 2015, we are expecting great things! Thank you.

If you expect to become the next Frank Lloyd Wright leave now

Those were the first words I ever heard as a college student

Admitted to the school of architecture

Attending orientation with my parents

A senior administrator got up in front and said to a roomful of 200 freshmen future architects and their parents

If you expect to become the next Frank Lloyd Wright leave now

A questionable student retention tactic even then

Had it been a Simpsons episode you would have heard the rear door slam

But as the Simpsons wouldnt be invented for another 10 years, nobody moved

Next the administrator said the 9 most important words I ever heard

Only 3 of you will ever design a building

This was before everybody gets a trophy

Apparently, back then only 3 of us would get trophies

The remainder would go on to toil away in management

Perhaps our prospects would have improved had we worn shoes?

When the administrator said: Only 3 of you will ever design a building

My first thought was: I wonder who the other two are?

It wasnt: I wonder if I should double major and get an MBA?

I wanted to design buildings, and while I also wanted a job after graduation

No one will let you design buildings with an MBA.

Its not as if for me designing buildings was a forgone conclusion

I grew up in a split-level house in the suburbs

The architectural equivalent of living in a van down by the river

We didnt come from either money or good taste

And we clearly didnt know any architects

In your career you will spend 5 years sitting at a desk & 2 years sitting in meetings.

No one ever goes into architecture because they want to sit in meetings

Yet apparently this is what all but 3 of us were signing up for

What all but three students would get to do with their lives

Architecture students are a confident and resilient bunch

Every student in that room must have wondered who the other two are?

And yet, we didnt all go on to design buildings

Some became technical architects, some became managers

The ones with MBAs became our clients

And about half went on to other fields

And so, at my first career crossroad

I chose the design of buildings over meetings

And spent 30+ years a career doing what I love

And in all that time I never had a bad day.

While I never became Frank Lloyd Wright, I became something even more important for me to become: myself

And I got to do this because at every career crossroad

I again and again chose the design of buildings over meetings

I did this because a life NOT designing buildings not acting on our world, not making a positive contribution, not adding value was for me unimaginable

But as importantly, a life NOT designing buildings was somebody elses life

And as long as I remembered this and acted on it everything would work out

And it did, both creatively and financially. And it can for you as well.

You can be one of the three

One of the three who designs buildings

One of the three who creates an innovation

One of the three who experience meaning & purpose in their work

One of the three who makes a difference

One of the three who helps transform the world

But there comes a time in every career, for some sooner, some later

When we no longer see ourselves as one of the three.

Why is that? Why do we give up on our promises and dreams?

There are times when we choose money over our dreams

And work for a paycheck.

Other times when well be frustrated or bored with what we do.

And be dissatisfied with our job.

Our dreams change, or we forget our dreams.

We give up on our dreams. But, as often, our dreams give up on us.

During an internship I designed my first building before I graduated college

And very quickly realized I had achieved my dream of being one of the three.

Michelangelo said: The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Our dreams, in other words, are too small

Theyre too easily achieved

Theyre not enough to sustain a life-long career

So what does it take to sustain a long, fulfilling career?

Upon graduation, I decided to find out and treat my career as an experiment

In this experiment I would do two things:

You can think of your two careers like majors and minors:

It turns out that to sustain a long, fulfilling career

You need to have a bunch of short, fulfilling careers.

Think of each as a 7-Year Career

Most careers look like this.

Which really mean they look like this.

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Architects 2Zebras | by for and about architects of all ...