Exploring the Why: How Curiosity Led Me to Architecture
My interest in becoming an architect goes back to my childhood. One of my favorite memories is when my parents gifted me a Girder and Panel Building Set for Christmas. It had columns, beams, and thin plastic panels you could snap together. I could build miniature Miesian high-rises and bridges. As fun as that was though, my true love for building things started with Legos. I would sit for hours creating different structures, cars, helicopters…you name it. Legos opened doors in my imagination.
I’ve always been curious about the world around me and how things work. My mom loves to remind me how I would take apart my toys to see what made them tick. Unfortunately, some of them never made it back together! (so she says). That curiosity, that constant need to ask "why" and figure out how things function is something that’s been with me my whole life—and it's one of my greatest strengths as an architect.
As a kid, I didn't fully understand what an architect did, but I knew they got to make things, to bring something into existence from nothing. That excited me. It wasn’t until high school that I began to see architecture as a potential career. I loved drawing and building, and I realized those interests could translate into something I could do for a living. Drawing has always been a part of my life. My mom was artistic, and seeing her draw made it look like so much fun. Some of my favorite things to sketch were detailed studies of comic book characters. I always had this creative urge, and I think it was that mixed with curiosity that eventually led me to architecture.
Among my most formative experiences was spending a lot of time with my grandparents in Southeast Missouri. They had a beautiful property with ponds, woods, and endless opportunities to explore. My granddad was incredibly handy. He wasn’t an engineer, but he had a deep understanding of how things worked. He taught me the basics of construction, problem-solving, the value of doing a job right, and the absolute necessity of enjoying your coworkers. Working with him wasn’t really "work" because I enjoyed it so much. Those lessons definitely shape how I approach challenges today.
In my junior year of high school, I wanted to take a drafting class, but I had to get the instructor’s permission first. I remember telling him I wanted to be an architect, and I guess that was good enough because he let me in! This was around the time AutoCAD was getting a toe-hold in the industry, so I broke into the digital age of design very early. After high school, I spent some time working various drafting jobs, but I quickly realized that I didn’t want to spend my life doing just that, and where I grew up, in Southeast Missouri, there wasn’t much opportunity for advanced work in architecture. I didn’t see a future in drafting, so I decided to go to college.
I ended up at Kansas State University, but it almost didn’t happen. I was initially rejected, and it was only through the help of a family friend that I got in. Once I started, it was clear that I was all in—I wanted to be a "Capital A" Architect. However, there were countless late nights walking back from the studio, questioning if I had made the right choice. Architecture school is intense, you don’t just accidentally graduate from it. But I always knew that no matter what, I had to push through.
After college, my path to becoming a licensed architect wasn’t exactly straightforward. I worked for my dad in a land title business for a couple of years. I enjoyed the problem-solving aspect of it, but at some point, I realized it wasn’t the kind of problem-solving I craved. That’s when I decided to move to St. Louis, and after a few different jobs, I landed at Vessel Architecture & Design.
What sets Vessel apart is how relational we are as a firm. At other places, I always felt like a commodity—something to extract hours from. But at Vessel, there’s an acceptance of everyone’s ideas, and the projects are more varied. We work on meaningful projects that push us to be creative, rather than just churning out the same work product over and over. I think my experience at different firms has given me a broad perspective on what matters in a workplace. At Vessel, we have fostered a culture that values its people as much as the work.
The technical side of architecture is another thing that piques my interest and plays a big role in my process. Over time, I became the "code guru" here, partly out of necessity, but mostly because understanding the code was a challenge I needed to conquer. It wasn’t something I sought out, but as the projects became more complex, I had to develop a deeper understanding of building codes. The challenge of solving those technical problems became something I enjoyed. Having a deep understanding of the life safety framework allows us to find unique and creative design solutions to our client's complex problems.
Presenting the design to our clients is one of my favorite parts of being an architect. There’s nothing quite like that moment when they put on the VR headset or see the renderings for the first time, and you can tell they’re genuinely moved by how we have listened to them and what we’ve created. The satisfaction of solving a problem and seeing the excitement on the client's face and hearing it in their voice keeps me motivated. I get up every day hoping to do that again.
Looking back, being an architect has been about purpose (asking why) and having the knowledge to execute a solution (the how). Being curious about our clients’ problems and about applying the craft of the profession to solve them are what drive innovative solutions. It’s this blend of creativity and practicality that I love, and I hope to keep doing it for years to come.
