Thoughts of a Recovering Architect — November 2023

I’ve grappled with the idea of leaving architecture more than once. During my sophomore year, a professor aimed to toughen us up, pushing the limits of our endurance and commitment, sorting the wheat from the chaff. His methods were harsh, such as ripping apart models and forcing students to cantilever their arms for the duration of the class, and they made me question my path. I felt the physical and mental strain, which sparked a series of reflections I plan to share about studio culture and intimidation in future musings.

Amid this turmoil, I found solace in my natural science class, Severe and Unusual Weather. Being from the Midwest, I was fascinated by the awesome force of tornadoes, and I flirted with the idea of chasing storms instead of chasing architectural dreams. Yet, a mix of pragmatism and stubbornness kept me from blowing too far off course.

My brush with leaving the field resurfaced as I approached the end of my master’s in Architecture. The job market was bleak, a remnant of the Great Recession’s aftermath. Urban Planning caught my attention, offering both a delay in entering the job market and satisfying a rising interest, but timing and circumstance were not on my side.

Employment became a patchwork of roles at the university: I dabbled in facility management, assisted in historical preservation research, and returned to retail. Stay tuned for my formative experiences in retail in future posts. I even considered a career switch, nearly venturing into digital medical records management on my mother’s advice. But architecture drew me back, stubbornly anchoring me to its world.

Only when I embraced Design Technology did I finally break free from the traditional architect’s mold, reaching escape velocity and setting a new course for my career and myself.

What I’m Working On

Case Study: Elevation Type Changer by Sheet Series

My favorite problems to solve are those brought to me by staff members facing a specific need. In this case, the architect has been documenting the renovation of 18 small structures in a park complex, each with its own demolition and new construction sheets.

In this scenario, the elevation tags for demolition and new work stack on top of each other, and the staff member sought an automatic filtering method instead of manually hiding the non-relevant ones.

Each view has an assigned phase, and the callouts and tags respond to the phase and phase filters you set for views. For example, existing elevation tags will appear in views set to the existing phase but not in new work phases. This auto-filtering would be nice if we ever used existing views on sheets.

When documenting existing conditions, we don’t have a demolition phase (nor should you, honestly). Demolition happens in the new work phase, and we use phase filters to isolate what we want to see. For example, we set our demolition drawings to the new work phase, and the phase filter will be “Show Previous + Demo.” We set new work views to the new work phase and the phase filter to “Show Previous + New.” Savvy?

This project had only one elevation type assigned to new work and demo views. Duplicating the elevation type to include a demo version was easy, but how could we quickly change all the demo elevations to this new type?

There needs to be some distinguishing parameter between different elevation types to filter them. In this case, we used the sheet number on which we placed the elevations. All of our demo sheets begin with the prefix AD. Using this, we could isolate the elevations referencing AD sheets and change them to the new Demo Elevation type simultaneously.

The steps looked like this:

1. Get all elevation views.
2. Get the sheet number of the sheet the views are placed on.
3. Isolate the elevations on ‘AD’ sheets.
4. Change the elevation type of these elevations.

To get the elevations, I used the All Elements of Category node.

I then used the Element.GetParameterValueByName node taking the elevations and a string (or text) as inputs. I plug in my elevations and the parameter name I’m looking for. Watch what you type; the parameter names are case-sensitive.

The result is a series of sheet numbers. To filter, I must question the data to get a series of True/False (or bool) values. I’m looking at the prefix of the sheet numbers so I can use the String.StartsWith node. This node takes the sheet numbers as one input, and then we tell the node what text we are looking for, “AD” in this case. The default input for IgnoreCase is set to False, which suits our purposes fine.

I can use this series of True/False values as a mask in the List.FilterByBoolMask node. This node takes the series of True/False values and the original list of elevations as inputs. In this case, ‘True’ are the elevations with a sheet number that have an “AD” prefix (IN output), and ‘False’ do not (OUT output).

Family Type is a parameter we can set using the Element.SetParameterByName node. We can plug in our filtered list of elevations into the element input. We give the name of the parameter we want to change and feed it the destination view type. Where do we get this ‘value’ input from?

Dynamo has a convenient View Family Types node with a pick list of existing view types in the project. Here, we will find the new elevation type we created. Run the script, and demo elevation views are now assigned the new elevation type. Now, all we need to do is edit the view templates, and we get what we want in a fraction of the time it would have taken to do it otherwise.

What I’m Reading

The Wheel of Time series has been a recent obsession, rekindling my love of sci-fi and fantasy. The Amazon Prime series served as the catalyst, and before I knew it, I was fourteen books deep, lost in the world Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson crafted.

I’m looking forward to Season 2.

What I’m Listening To

The upbeat tune of San Francisco by The Mowgli’s has become the soundtrack to my Dynamo scripting sessions, offering a rhythmic backdrop to the clicks and codes of my daily grind.

What I’m Playing

Red Dead Redemption 2 allowed me to step into the boots of an aging outlaw, navigating a world where loyalty and morality were as much a part of survival as the next heist. The game’s portrayal of a life untamed made me yearn for the simplicity of the wilderness, if only for a moment before the reality of camping with two little ones brought me back to reality.

What I’m Learning

The quest to perfect the art of the pizza in my wood-fired Ooni oven has been humbling. Each failed attempt is a lesson that some skills are hard-won. If fellow culinary adventurers have figured out how to reach 700 degrees Fahrenheit, I would love to hear your insight.

What I’m Looking At

I shop at Amazon sparingly, but its ‘Inspire’ mode has captured my attention. It is a strange blend of social media and shopping where influencers market wares for commissions, like a modern-day home shopping network channel. It’s a curious observation into modern consumer habits, and admittedly, it’s made me consider the practicality of a mop robot.

What My Kids Are Doing

As a girl-dad, I’m committed to fostering self-assuredness and resilience in my daughters. I aim to equip them with the tools to confidently navigate the uncertain tides of the future, even if their blossoming independence sometimes (read: often) clashes with parental guidance.

What I’m Thinking About

The common thread weaving through this post is personal growth and transformation. From career shifts to literary adventures, gaming narratives to the omnipresent reach of social media, and the fatherhood journey, all echo the theme of evolution. They speak to the universal quest to find our place in a constantly shifting world, to learn, and to grow.