The Worst Degree?

My Yahoo is my browser home page, and this week there was a posting about the "Best and Worst Degrees for Employment". The Highest Unemployment Area of Study #1: Architecture. See for yourself at http://goo.gl/LCYlK. Yikes! I knew things had been bad, but is it really the worst?

For years now, there has been information about various professional degree programs where the graduate pool is greatly larger than the available jobs. Law Degrees, for example have been increasingly hard to peddle. But is it really this bad now for Architects?  Perhaps it is.

Architecture as a skill, maybe unlike law, is often not viewed as "transferable". In hard times, the "generalist" training of an Architect may not be valued by anyone other than other Architects.

Out of school, we're not writers, teachers, historians, or builders. If we're lucky, we're "Architects In Training" - interns in our chosen field. Now there are way too many of us.

For what seems like ages, I have counseled staff members and aspirants alike - that Architecture most be chosen because you enjoy it, not because you can expect to get rich doing it. Now that jobs are less plentiful, I guess we should factor in the odds of actually making a go of it.

Is there a solution? Tougher entry requirements? Better training in College? Alternate career paths, with better preparation? I'm not altogether sure, but I know I keep searching.

More to follow...

Frozen Music

Goethe is credited with the quote "Architecture is frozen music", sometime in the early part of the 19th century.  Apocryphal, perhaps, but definitely prescient. Yesterday marked the sad passing of two legends - one in Architecture, the other in music.  The two, in their own way, embodied Goethe's vision.

Oscar Niemeyer, now passed at age 104, fascinated us all by his masterful assembly of possibly tortured function into swooping geometric and sculptural forms. His iconoclastic work was the inspiration for all those who wanted to have their buildings viewed as enduring icons. Few have been equal to the challenge. Personally, I suspect that 104 years form now Niemeyer's buildings will continue to be destinations; while those of the current in-vogue sculpturalist Frank Gehry may not.

Dave Brubeck, now passed one day short of his 92nd birthday, was the artist who implanted the musical rhythms of many design studio environments. Along with millions of others, I was a fan.  One anecdote: For a long period of time, Dave Brubeck and his quartet were the musicians at special yearly Christmas-time service at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. One year, I was fortunate to find the perfect balcony seat looking over Dave's shoulder as he played loose compositions selected for the occasion. The experience was very moving.

A moment of silence is appropriate. Followed by quiet satisfaction that we are better people for their contributions.  Say Halleluiah.