{"id":14037,"date":"2019-11-11T08:45:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/architizer.wpengine.com\/am-i-too-old-to-be-an-architect\/"},"modified":"2022-05-31T04:32:26","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T08:32:26","slug":"am-i-too-old-to-be-an-architect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/architizer.com\/blog\/practice\/details\/am-i-too-old-to-be-an-architect\/","title":{"rendered":"Why It’s Never Too Late to Become an Architect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lora Teagarden is a practicing architect at RATIO<\/a> in Indianapolis and the Founder of L2 Design<\/a>. Her website and blog offers a unqiue insight into professional practice, together with inspiration and tips for aspiring architects.<\/em><\/p>\n

I got this question via email the other day from someone aged around 50: \u201cAm I too old to be an architect?\u201d<\/p>\n

It weighed heavy on me, for a variety of reasons. First, I\u2019m newly licensed myself; do I have the authority to send someone down a new career path? We\u2019ve crawled out of a recession, but I have no idea where we\u2019ll be in six years when this person is done with school. What if life is hard? How do I know if they\u2019ll have the skills to succeed; if they\u2019ll enjoy it?<\/p>\n

And then I realized, I just needed to speak from the heart and tell them a bit of what I\u2019ve learned so far.<\/p>\n

Am I too old to be an architect?<\/h2>\n

The short answer is no. Hard stop. Now let me explain \u2026<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t be easy.<\/b><\/p>\n

Depending on what career you\u2019re moving from, this can be an easy or a hard switch. However \u2026 no matter what career you\u2019re coming from, you\u2019ll more than likely have to go back to school. If you have an undergraduate degree, you could do a three-year Masters of Architecture program (depending on your location), but make no mistake \u2014 this won\u2019t be a cakewalk. If you\u2019re at least a decade removed from school, you may have forgotten about all the study methods and any material that you don\u2019t currently use daily, and you\u2019ve definitely blocked out of your mind the late-night cram sessions. I have news for you \u2026<\/p>\n

Take undergraduate architecture school and times it by at least 10. This is a grueling curriculum but only because the hope is to get down to the essence of the designer in you and build you up from that base with a sturdy foundation to last your career.<\/p>\n

\n\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n\n

You are the land. School is trying to dig at you and blast away at you, putting you under immense pressure to get to the precious minerals of your talents and skills that you have to offer the world. And when you, with their help, find that mineral \u2026 you\u2019re going to have to work harder than you ever have before to build upon those ideas and skills, to constantly improve them. Over the process of your new career (note: I did not say by the end of school), that mineral may start to shine from the efforts of your labor. Being smelted over the fire has its benefits, but you have to be able to stand the heat to get there.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in a career?<\/h2>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter what you do if you aren\u2019t doing it with passion. If you have a truly creative personality, you\u2019re already finding outlets for this talent \u2026 ways to hone and keep pursuing new ideas. If you\u2019re crunching numbers for a living but daydreaming about the details of a design project, take a minute to assess.<\/p>\n

Is it because work is simply burning you out, or is it because you aren\u2019t feeding a passion? Do you enjoy the work you do but just need a mental break, or is the dread of the workday wake-up a feeling so common after months and years gone by that you don\u2019t second-guess it?<\/p>\n

If you have the passion for design but aren\u2019t currently in a design field, chances are you\u2019ve got \u201cants in your pants\u201d and are always searching for new outlets for projects. Heck, I\u2019m in this field and am constantly looking for new creative outlets. The world of design is something that\u2019s all-consuming \u2026 and hopefully in the best ways possible. You will have to learn to strike a balance \u2014 it\u2019s something I\u2019m still learning \u2014 but you won\u2019t regret it for a single minute if you\u2019re living your passion.<\/p>\n

\n\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n\n

We need more passionate, caring people in this world that are working hard to improve the surroundings within which we live. The places we call home are precious, and so are the people we share it with. Architecture has the capability to better both of those things.<\/p>\n

Our value is such that we can either make someone very uncomfortable with a bad design, or so comfortable in a space that they don\u2019t realize the effort put into it. All of the details singing in harmony means the user probably doesn\u2019t notice them. But if one detail is out of tune, it throws everything off. You are the creator of ideas into realities, lines into built forms and spaces into memories.<\/p>\n

Too old to be an architect? If you\u2019re passionate about architecture, nothing will keep you from it.<\/p>\n

Now go build your future.<\/b><\/p>\n

Lora<\/i><\/p>\n

This article first appeared on <\/i>L\u00b2 Design<\/a>;<\/i> top image via <\/i>donnellday<\/i><\/a>; all other images courtesy of L\u00b2<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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