Among New York City’s architects, designers and builders, October is known as Archtober — or Architecture and Design Month. For the next month, the city’s design community opens its doors for more than 100 events, tours, and exhibitions organized by more than 60 partners across the five boroughs.
We got the opportunity to participate in The Architectural League Student Program to kick-start this exciting month. The event was split into three parts a panel discussion, two studio visits at some cutting edge architectural firms and finally followed by a tour and reception at Weiss Manfredi. We also got the exciting opportunity to network and meet with students from different colleges and talk with them on what they have been doing and learning as well as what their goals and aspirations are.
Participating in the Presentation and a Panel Discussion were Julia Gamolina (AAP B.Arch. ’13) founder and editor of MadameArchitect and business development lead at FXCollaborative; Karina Gilbert, Associate at WXY Architecture + Urban Design as well as Dominic Leong, founding partner of Leong Leong. Each of the participants discussed their journey in architecture and how they developed their careers. They each spoke about what influenced some of their decisions, the importance of communication, on starting a business, on craft and slowness as well as architecture as being part of a larger ecosystem. It was inspiring to hear their stories, which taught the importance of being open to surprising ourselves as well trusting our instincts as we chart our own futures. The key take-way, as Karina Gilbert and others mentioned, was the importance of learning “how to build“, “how to design” and “how to think” as we move forward in charting our futures.
Following the panel discussion and presentations, each student got the opportunity to visit two studios from a list of participating firms. Firms included; James Corner Field Operations, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), Studio Gang, Tod Williams and Bille Tsien Architects, REX Architecture, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) among others.
The studio visits gave us an intimate glimpse into the spaces of these firms, their work culture, their values as well as their projects. We were able to imagine what it would be like to work in these spaces on a typical day or week and what we can expect. We had the opportunity to speak to individuals working at these firms about their experiences, why they chose to work there and the things that excite them on the job.
The event ended with a reception at Weiss Manfredi where we were able to tour and get to know the office. We were also able to share our experiences with our peers who might have visited a different set of studios. As we begin this month on an exciting and a positive note, we look forward to the many up-coming events full of growth and learning!