Every Monday morning, team members in the Philadelphia and Princeton offices gather together via video-conference to discuss firm news and upcoming events and projects. Since 2003, founding partner Allan Kehrt, FAIA, has delivered his Monday Morning Musings, weekly slices of personal insight into the design profession, to the firm. To comment on any of his posts, send an email to us. We look forward to hearing from you. |
| February 18, 2008 Dreamers (encore) We came to this profession perhaps because we wanted a life instead of a job. We most likely didn't understand that life when we started, but now after a time, the life we have chosen has made us passionate about the things man builds. We live that life twenty-four hours a day and it is relentless; we look, we think, we draw, we discuss, we examine, we critique, we draw again, and we build. We understand we are different from others in some fundamental ways; we see the world through different eyes, and hear its sounds through different ears. Senator Robert F. Kennedy said, "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" We dreamers knew what he meant long before his words were spoken; it is what we think and do all day, every day. But the intensity and details of our work are often overwhelming, and it is difficult and stressful at times, and easy to get lost in the mundane, and the ordinary, and the repetitive, and the tedious, and the dull. We should remember through it all that it is the dreamers who make the future, the ones who see things that never were and ask why not? It is the dreams and the passions that give us that life we sought. |
| February 11, 2008 Control The Scotch taped Xerox notice on our fritted glass, the newspapers added to provide privacy in our glass conference room, plastic cigarette receptacles at our entrance, green trash cans at the back door; we simply can't control everything in the environments we build. But we can think about the things that others will add and we can try to imagine clearly how our buildings will be used by those who will inhabit them. They will certainly be humans, and they will bring with them all their normal messiness, and they will almost certainly not view the building as do we. And so we need to think about them in every decision we make. It is their building after all, so we need to anticipant the things that will happen as our buildings age and grow, and the inhabitants add bits and pieces to our work. We can only control so much. Let's control what's important to us. |
