Читать книгу Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm - Patrick MacLeamy - Страница 13

St. Louis still was not my first choice as the city to begin my career, but I had a plan. I would work at HOK for a few years, then leverage that experience to land a position in a more exotic locale, maybe San Francisco. In just a few years I could be opening my own firm on the West Coast. But first, I needed to work under a licensed architect for three years, then sit for two days of grueling licensing exams at the state capital in Jefferson City. After those three years, I'd have a good portfolio to show. Then I could go west and really do something, I thought.

Why did I dream about the West Coast? Maybe because it seemed like the greatest possible contrast to industrial Alton, where I'd grown up. The surrounding area is open prairie and farmland, but Alton is situated where farmland gives way to the Mississippi floodplain, a flat area where steel mills, oil refineries, glassworks, and other heavy industries sprang up to utilize the river for shipping.

I found a place to rent at the Plaza Square Apartments directly across the street from the HOK office. The day of my last class came. I loaded up my Volkswagen in Champaign-Urbana, tied my mattress on the roof with binder twine, and drove three hours down to St. Louis. When I got there, the front of the mattress was covered with bugs. It was an inauspicious beginning to what would turn out to be a 50-year journey.