The marital relations segment of my architectural education consisted of,
"Fifty percent of all architects are sued successfully every year, (thank god
its the same fifty percent), and you can't hide your stuff in your wife's name
'cause sixty percent of architects are successfully devorced."  (okay, I added
the "successfully" to the devorce bit just now, but it did appeal to my warped
sense of wonder...what happens to unsuccessful devorces?).

In my first studio I asked what seemed to be a stupid question of a professor
that I really did learn a lot from and do admire...(if you are out there
somewhere Gary Stonebreaker, thanks)...how do I know what kind of roof to put
on a building?  Unfortunately, in that instance Gary took the question as
having to do with aesthetics, or design principles, but in fact, with 20/20
hindsight I know that I was asking what has become a real passion in my career,
what is it that makes one roof a good roof and another a bad roof.  How steep,
how much overhang, what materials?  But seeing the Plainview story I wonder,
maybe the thinking processes are so different that neither the questions, nor
the answers are understood.  Maybe to this professor it doesn't matter that a
roof collapses...maybe to this architect the beauty of the building is
irrelevant if the roof collapses.

I did not get a husband, did not learn to letter well, draw funny and slow, and
associate with the likes of you guys.  That's what happens to the people who go
out and look at real buildings instead of staying in studio and looking at
buildings in magazines.  Let that be a warning to all you young roughiens and
ner do wells.  Do what your teachers tell you.  Its easier.

Ken Follett wrote:

> In a message dated 4/19/00 12:03:38 PM Central Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << "Oh you mean like you did with that church in
>  Plainview where the roof collapsed"
>
> BRAVO!
>
>  One of the professors that I most admired was the one who told me that the
> only
>  thing I would learn in 5 years of architecture school that would be of any
> use
>  in the real world was how to letter nicely.  He was right. . . >>
>
> I remember being told in the early/mid 70's the attitude at Cornell toward a
> woman taking architecture was that it was a good way to find a profitable
> husband. Having sort of not possibly been dating a seriously ambitious and
> highly intelligent female architectural student at the time of my hearing
> this, and my not being at the time what looked like a survivable husband let
> alone unprofitable rogue expressing desire to be a penniless poet, and her
> dropping the relationship pleading being stressed out from the rigors of the
> program, I had to take notice. I spent a summer, between loading bullshit,
> rebuilding a rocking chair that I gave to her as a parting gesture. Macrame
> seat & finely painted.
>
> ][<en