004: Architects and Traveling

Life of an Architect

Architects like to travel, at least that's what all my friends who are architects would like you to believe. While I will agree that this is a true statement, I think it's a fairly generic statement because don't all people like to travel? In this fourth episode of the Life of an Architect podcast, Landon and I take on the topic of traveling - or at least we start a conversation about traveling. When we sat down to prepare our show notes, it quickly became apparent that this was a topic worthy of several episodes. So to that end, we start with some of the up-front bits of traveling - traveling as a young person compared to a more "mature" person, traveling with children, packing, architectural bucket lists, and traveling for work. So much good stuff - so check out the podcast and be sure to stick around to the very end ... the last two minutes are quite memorable. [Note: If you are reading this via email, you will have to click here to access the on-site audio player] Hard to believe that this is what I used to look like ... young. Traveling in Europe as a Student (6:10 mark) 27 years ago, as a fourth-year architecture student, I spent the Fall semester traveling around Western Europe soaking in all the architectural wonders I could find. I was 22 years old and had done very little traveling of any kind … through the good graces of my parents, The University of Texas School of Architecture, and Virginia Tech, I was able to travel extensively at an age when I was barely prepared to do much of anything in the real world. Most of what I learned from that time didn’t have as much to do with architecture as I anticipated … I grew up. Since my college trip to Europe predates the widespread use of the internet, the only way to really communicate with people back home was through letters and postcards. I will admit that my parents kept every postcard and letter I sent home and gave them to me once I got back ... and I have kept all of them to this day. Kate Borson riding a go-cart in a park in Paris Traveling with Children (8:20 mark) During a trip to the Museé d'Orsay, I was reminded of how to look at something by my 5-year-old daughter. Sometimes you have to slow down in order to see what you are looking at - a lesson that I didn't learn until I was forced to learn it when my wife and I took our daughter to Paris. Little kids are great at doing lots of things but walking around fancy museums for hours on end is not one of them. As expected, after about 30 minutes my daughter said she was bored and I wasn't ready to leave. In an effort to extend our stay, I picked her up and started carrying her around with me as we looked at the paintings. Distraction tactics commenced. Au Café dit L'Absinthe by Degas, Museé d'Orsay, Paris, France Sad Woman in a Bar (10:30 mark) This painting in particular, by Edgar Degas, captured the imagination of my daughter and she spent the better part of 15 minutes coming up with a narrative on why this woman looked so sad. Kids are funny that way, their impatience or intolerance with a thing typically comes from not understanding it or from being disinterested in the current activity. The slightest of changes will impact the way they see something, and as a result, their behavior will change your behavior. Bring your kids to museums. Packing (24:40 mark) I am a packing master - and this is the weekend bag that I use as often as I can. I will readily acknowledge that roller-bags are easier to move around but the old-school version of me thinks this is more manly. I have already taken about a dozen trips through the first seven months of the year, and have another Five taking place within the next two months - somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 miles - and my average trip lasts no more than 3 days. Unless I am packing 3" D-ring binders and stone samples, I prefer to carry a bag with some style. Favorite Building in Paris and "The Herd" (21:14 mark)