I got my first full-time architecture gig twenty years ago. I had graduated Berkeley and entered the Dot.com bust without any computer drafting skills.

So I started by moving dirt.

It was a good detour. I consider my half-year of landscaping the most influential six month stretch of my career. Plus I met some friends I still treasure today. But work in the Oakland hills slowed down so it was finally time to start work in my chosen profession.

I ran down the phone book and came across Ron Bogley Architect and Builder. Ron was still hand drafting so he didn’t mind that I couldn’t AutoCAD. He needed someone at the office working on the drawings while he managed his crew in the field.

Working in the first floor of his house, looking over the back yard, and drawing by hand was an idyllic start to this profession. It was a lonely shock going from being in a crew of boys to working alone, but it helped to have a caring mentor.

We settled into a comfortable rhythm, I’d draw as much as I could, using old sets for reference, and leave some bluelines on his desk in the evening. The next morning, I’d magically have redlines on my desk and we’d keep going.

When I first started, we didn’t even have internet at the office. I remember when we got an iMac with a domed base and an articulated LCD screen.

Even so, the arrival of broadband didn’t make a difference to my life. I only used it for typing up general notes that we’d print onto sticky back. The real work was done standing at the drafting desk, laying graphite on vellum.

But nothing lasts forever. It was a great job in a beautiful city, but there is no margin in small residential and I needed to get my professional license. A couple of years later, I got into Rice University and shipped across country.

If moving rocks in the Oakland Hills was the perfect introduction for my career, then working with Ron was the perfect start to being an Architect. Working in a small firm gave me a chance to do everything – without the computer as an intermediary.

I was lucky to get this job. I got to start my journey before CAD and followed our technological growth into today’s BIM-dominated world. More importantly, working in a very small firm is an antidote to corporate brainwashing. I will always be the happy company man in front of the client, but I know it doesn’t have to be like this. Since my time with Ron, I’ve navigated this profession with an question mark seered in my psyche.

From small to big, every organization is a choice. It’s on us to shape them as they shape us.

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How did you start in this profession? Did it affect your path?

Hit reply and let’s chat!

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Abandoned places are a bit of a trope, but the Romain Veillon’s photos are still stunning. I looked at them a few times to see if they were CGI. Quite the antidote to life in the desert.

Chuck Jones had a simple set of rules for interactions between Coyote and Roadrunner. I should try something like that myself.

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Justus Pang, RA