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What's a day in the life of an architect like?
I'm a high school senior and I'm interested in becoming an architect. #architecture
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4 answers
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Ravi’s Answer
There are many kinds architects. Architects collect business requirements directly from business stakeholders or in large organization from Business Architects.
Once Architecture is accepted it is passed on to Engineering team for implementation.
I followed following path:
As an Analyst I learned business for few years.
As an Engineer I learned different aspects of IT Engineering and Operation support
This helped me immensely to look at the big picture. How to architect business requirements into existing engineering standards so that product could be successfully delivered at lowest cost and efficiently supported by operations team.
Once Architecture is accepted it is passed on to Engineering team for implementation.
I followed following path:
As an Analyst I learned business for few years.
As an Engineer I learned different aspects of IT Engineering and Operation support
This helped me immensely to look at the big picture. How to architect business requirements into existing engineering standards so that product could be successfully delivered at lowest cost and efficiently supported by operations team.
Updated
ALEXANDER’s Answer
If you mean an Architect that designs buildings, which I think you do, the day in the life is usually one filled with many different aspects from designing something to figuring out some very technical issues to dealing with codes and zoning entitlements, to (what seems to be happening more in more) dealing with major budget overages and trying to find less expensive options to build what your client wants. For me, it is never boring and my days fly by!
Updated
Thomas’s Answer
There are many different answers, and you should seek advice from many different architects. First I want to address becoming an architect. About 50-60% of your freshman arch. class will get their arch. degree. It's a VERY time-consuming major, but it's also one of the most fun majors (in my biased opinion). So if you want to be an architect, you will be. Just be sure first to save yourself some time.
When choosing a college, make sure you know the difference between B.Arch, BS.Arch, M.Arch, and the different routes you can take, as well as which state/country you see yourself living in and what their licensing requirements are. Currently I'm in the middle of my exams and almost done with my hours in NY.
To answer your question:
I do exterior renovations in NYC, so sometimes my day consists of going to construction sites and inspecting facades from suspended scaffolds. Most days I'm at my computer, writing reports, drafting details and elevations, and writing specifications. As a younger person in the firm, I draft on AutoCAD about 40% of the time, write reports/specs/proposals 40% of the time, and I'm on site 20% of the time. As you move up in the firm, you'll write more, draft less, and review the younger staff's work.
Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's boring. Even architects working at Gensler and BIG have their mundane days.
When choosing a college, make sure you know the difference between B.Arch, BS.Arch, M.Arch, and the different routes you can take, as well as which state/country you see yourself living in and what their licensing requirements are. Currently I'm in the middle of my exams and almost done with my hours in NY.
To answer your question:
I do exterior renovations in NYC, so sometimes my day consists of going to construction sites and inspecting facades from suspended scaffolds. Most days I'm at my computer, writing reports, drafting details and elevations, and writing specifications. As a younger person in the firm, I draft on AutoCAD about 40% of the time, write reports/specs/proposals 40% of the time, and I'm on site 20% of the time. As you move up in the firm, you'll write more, draft less, and review the younger staff's work.
Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's boring. Even architects working at Gensler and BIG have their mundane days.
Updated
Jeffrey’s Answer
It can really change day to day, job to job, career level to career level.
For my old company I did a lot of Project Architect work on schools, community and church projects. For each project we had a weekly meeting with the client to go over pressing issues. Some weeks, especially earlier in projects, id be working on renderings and images of projects in order to either sell the client on our design and finish choices, or for the client to pass along to their higher ups or use for fundraising. Later in projects, id spend all day working on projects drawings, looking up code items or yelling at engineers to get me their drawings on time. Once they were in construction, there were weekly construction meetings that took several hours going over the happenings and issues at the job site. Then id go back to the office and do hours of research to make sure the products the contractors were submitting for use met the specifications we had set out for them and explaining why they are wrong.
Some days are fun, being an artist and making a design. Some days are tedious, typing out dictionary long specification sections. And be prepared, because as much as we all hate it, long nights are part of the job from time to time
For my old company I did a lot of Project Architect work on schools, community and church projects. For each project we had a weekly meeting with the client to go over pressing issues. Some weeks, especially earlier in projects, id be working on renderings and images of projects in order to either sell the client on our design and finish choices, or for the client to pass along to their higher ups or use for fundraising. Later in projects, id spend all day working on projects drawings, looking up code items or yelling at engineers to get me their drawings on time. Once they were in construction, there were weekly construction meetings that took several hours going over the happenings and issues at the job site. Then id go back to the office and do hours of research to make sure the products the contractors were submitting for use met the specifications we had set out for them and explaining why they are wrong.
Some days are fun, being an artist and making a design. Some days are tedious, typing out dictionary long specification sections. And be prepared, because as much as we all hate it, long nights are part of the job from time to time