As a student of architecture you become quite familiar with ‘the crit’. This is where your work is continually scrutinized and critiqued, sometimes brutally. These sessions usually take on one of two formats, the desk crit or the wall crit.  A wall crit involves the whole class and one to four+ critics consisting of professors, recent graduates, local architects, etc. These sessions are somewhat formal and can go many many mind numbing  hours. A desk crit is less formal and involves the student and his or her professor. After at 5+ years of this routine we inevitably become the critic ourselves.

Ok, fast forward 1.5 decades.

As I zigzag the world around me I am engaging in my own personal critique of any building in my path, and its unwitting designer. And I challenge any architect who says that they do not do the same. The crit has been branded onto our souls with a hot iron forged by the very hand of the late Le Corbusier himself. Metaphorically speaking of course.

The following is what I fondly call the ‘road crit’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most will settle for just functional because they believe that is all their budget will allow. But to  stir the human spirit, achieve beauty and harmony all for what you want to pay, the possibilities are endless.  It just takes a little thought and a lot of creativity. Hey! That’s what we do.

Do you think this big box store wanted to spend even a dime more than they had to? No. It would eat into their bottom line, right? But it’s well proportioned, with just the right amount of detail. A thoughtful design with a budget.

 

So, what is it that an architect won’t do for you? Break your budget.