EDUCATION OF AN ARCHITECT

FROM THE ARCHIVES

May 4, 2009, LISA B. WELCH

"What I miss most about my architectural schooling is my ability to believe that everything is possible and that design has unlimited possibilities."
- LISA B. WELCH

I miss my university days.  Not the grueling all-nighters spent in our university's architectural studio sipping vending machine coffee at 3 am while trying to figure out if I should fabricate a portion of my design at full scale in the ladies room (my makeshift workshop space) with my welding tools or out of some exotic wood at 1/4" = 1'-0". 

Not even the nights when I was so exhilarated from being awake for the 3rd night straight without even going home to sleep that, in an effort to entertain my studio mates and myself, I would jump on my drawing board and start dancing to I Will Survive which I would blare from my cassette tape player full-blast (eventually my studio mates had to take all my tapes and hide them).

In fact, what I miss most about my architectural schooling is my ability to believe that everything is possible and that design has unlimited possibilities. There was no right or wrong way to do, think, believe or build anything. I loved where my thoughts would take me. I had envisioned the most fantastical designs...so far out...so unheard of...and soooo everything I imagined architecture to be.

As I sit at my desk designing custom moldings for our discerning clients....I am looking through one of my many sketchbooks from those days and remembering why I am here today...

This sketchbook is from my year-long study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria with Michael Sorkin as my professor and mentor.

I miss those days...but I wouldn't trade them for the days I have now.  Welch Design Studio has become my present day laboratory.  Together with our team we spend our days designing dreams.