AIAcon18 day 3: Interview with Wendy Rogers

My own take on AIAcon18 
in New York City!!!
Day 3

So, Day 3, I can't believe I have to get a shuttle at 3, the time was too short but it makes me want to come back and visit, and sooner than 40 years. .

I went to the AIA committee on Architecture for Education for my first session on Friday, where Wendy Rogers was a speaker on a panel that discussed their winning decisions for the Architecture in Education Awards.  We then went to another Continuing Education Session and then we did the Interview in the Press Room at Javits Center so please excuse the occasional background noise as I am recording every one on an iPhone8 in Voice Memo and also reading the questions, from our phones..  Wendy and I went to architecture school at California State Polytechnic, Pomona together and are good friends and are godparents to each others eldest children.

Wendy Rogers is the CEO of LPA is an integrated design firm with architects, all of the engineering disciplines, landscape architecture and interiors. The have 6 locations, 4 in California and 2 in Texas and about 450 employees covering commercial and institutional projects.
"I think the most amazing thing that is happening right now is the number of young graduates who are starting at the firm who are interesting in getting licensed as it was when we graduated... and we have emphasized that the path to liscensure is a way to get to a certain position in the firm...
we want to be innovating in the field of architecture and we want people to really push the boundaries and understand what we are doing with space and materials and we want really good people beside us to do that ..."
And she was right, AIAcon Chicago was four years ago.


Interview with Wendy Rogers, click here


Well, I have some more interviews coming up after Day 3, because I want them to each be in their own blog post and because I want to keep them around 15 minutes, but because the people I know who I am interviewing were also busy during the convention, they might not be presenting n the same interview format, but they are all good interviews so please make sure to check back to hear all of them.

Mark LePage of EntreArchitect and Fivekat Architects: Posting July 1st
Bob Borson of "Life of an Architect" and Malone Maxwell Borson Architects
Cherise Lakeside of @CheriseLakeside and @fixconstruction
Rosa Sheng of SmithGroup and EquityxDesign


So, Saturday, I went downstairs where I attended the CES, "2+2: Achieving Outstanding Design: College of Fellows and Young Architects", I thought that this was a really good session because it showed the process of building a successful project but I think the words that stand out most from that session were when Joan M Serrano was talking about interviewing with the clients for the Bigelow Chapel for the United Theological Seminary and after she had given them the usual spiel about the firm and other projects and other reasons why they should get the job, and she asked them if they had any questions and one of the Theologians asked her,

Bigelow Chapel
at United Theological Seminary of the  Twin Cities
HGA

"What are you afraid of?"

And she told them and that was when I thought,

This is what we need to have more of in architecture,
the raw honesty, the sensitivity that we can bring to building,
the intimacy that is missing,

it isn't just about a structure, 
it's about the feeling that goes into it, 
that is architecture.

So, I went over to Rockefeller Center because my kids wanted me to take a photo of the building
"30 Rock" (which I will show in the July 1st blog post)

I really like to go to art museums in every city I go to and I really wanted to go to the Guggenheim.

And someone asked me, "why the Guggenheim?"

and I think I said, "I don't know..."

which I should probably just say, "I have a reason but I can't put it in words...or i don't want to"


but I think a lot of people wouldn't get that so anyways, here are my shots of the Guggenheim and the Giacometti show which is perfect in that museum and I had a wonderful time exploring that museum with hundreds of other people but here are my visual recollections

Now just to let you know that some 

great architects 

can make 

some great mistakes, check out these 

serving spaces of the Guggenheim..

"One of the greatest benefits of staying in the Conference hotel is that you can roll out of bed and just go downstairs and attend sessions (and it helps that I am a Hilton Honors member and could use my points to stay in the hotel).  Now when I checked in at 2am, the person said that they had given me a great room so they had basically upgraded me and it was a nice corner room.

However, there was no in-room coffee, which to me is a big problem in order to get downstairs to the sessions... even if you get a food/beverage credit for downstairs to stand in a 20+ people line...so that was my biggest gripe about the hotel.  I know there are some architects who don't drink coffee but let's take some advice from the vendors, if you want the architects at your booth, get a barrista.

Now, I just want to congratulate Oldcastle on repeating their fantastic booth and beverage service from last year and I am sorry that I did not draw on a tile this year, I didn't upstairs at the conference, I might draw something for the last Convention blog post, I am not sure yet.  Another suggestion that I would like to make for architects (I'm sure that nobody that reads my blog would ever do this) but as Nicholaus and I sat there enjoying tray passed apps at the booth, a server approached us and said, "am i bothering you? would you like some sushi?" We said, no, why would you be bothering us with sushi?  "Well, she said, I asked these other people and they said, "Please don't bother us, we are trying to have a conversation"

It's a conference, if you don't want to be interrupted, you should go find a quiet spot

NOT A VENDOR BOOTH WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE JUST TRYING TO BE NICE TO YOU!!!

I told her, just ignore them, most of us are not like that.

It's a conference, if you want to negotiate a contract, which seems to be the only reason why you would not want to have people "interrupt you conversation", you might want to do it elsewhere...

Mitsubishi Electric Press Kit, click here




Thank you for reading "I've never met a woman architect before..." and make sure to read the other blog posts for AIAcon18!!!

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MGHarchitect: Michele Grace Hottel, Architect