Expert: John Henry Architect - 9/26/2010

Question
Mr. Henry

I am interested in the field of architecture. I wanted to ask when do you get into it and realized that it what you wanted to do and were you able to draw well and is having skills in drawing and big factor to have before even applying to architecture schools. Also does architecture school train you in such a way to think like an architect or is that something your just born with. Please excuse any confusion of my question or if its a mess.

With respect,
Dave

Answer
Hi Dave,
This is a very good question for me particularly.
You will be surprised at the answer and how I ended up as an architect.
Many things influence you when you are young and impressionable.
I don't think I would have become an architect if I hadn't been exposed to so much classical European and Middle East architecture before graduating from high school.
We lived in Turkey and Greece and toured Europe.  I had no fixation on architecture but was merely exposed to many old cities and monuments, especially those of ancient Greece.
One of our close family friends had graduated from l'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, then went on to ITT in Chicago.  He also left a mark in my mind.
But architecture was not my main 'interest'.
I also played music but decided to go into a serious profession that was expected pretty much: law, medicine or science.
Well after two years of thrashing about in electives I did not like any of the above and gave in I suppose to a 'secret' love: architecture.
I drew a little in high school, tried to paint in oils and gave up.
I was surprised to find I could draw well and it came easy to me in the courses I took when I transferred to Texas A&M.  I was rather prolific on tracing paper rolls in fact.
I felt a guilty pleasure about all this.  But the schools do not test for drawings skills in their applications, so this is something that you can learn, acquire, through practice.  
Architecture school makes you feel very creative and that is the wonder of it.
Because you start with a blank sheet of paper and this can be daunting. You begin with small projects and work up to larger ones at the same time learning the basics about structures, electrical, mechanical/plumbing systems, etc.
You will take history courses and the main time is devoted to design courses or labs.  
No one thinks like an architect until you are finished with the course work and are working for an architect as an intern for a few years.  Not born with the process, but learned.
There is the notion of 'talent' that is not mentioned in the current schools.  'Beauty' is also not a big buzz word.  There is a sort of political correctness going on as well.  All students are believed to be blank slates on which learning and instruction is etched and that person can flower and grow into a professional.
There is more about the process than the intangible ideas above.
But this is because the schools are more mechanistic than artistic and this is due to the large change from the Beaux Arts system most U.S. schools adopted but then rejected in favor of Bauhaus philosophy.
Let me know if you have further questions.
Look back in this blog on comments from others who have posed questions along the same line.
Best wishes,
JH