After days of going 'WTF? Where are our pictures and AIA Conference highlights?" the Beach Babe has finally responded. Is everyone just crazy busy at work these days? Sounds like. In this last and final installment of our dispatches from AIA, the Beach Babe takes some tours, meets some people, and then concludes that architects are a breed apart.
Before one of my tours, I had 15 minutes to quickly go through the convention hall. About the only thing of interest, other than meeting my next employer, were the booth designs. I do not even know what these guys were promoting (with the exception of the waterless urinal which captivated me), just that I was amazed by the height and amount of fabric used in these stations. I counted a total of 72 flat screen televisions in the West Hall. Come to think of it, during the tour I later took of architecture offices in Santa Monica (must stay close to the beach or my hair will turn brown), I saw about 300 flat screen monitors. I would like to see the signage budget for the AIA - I've never seen a sign so large advertising taxis. Are architects really that lost? And speaking of the architect office tours, I was able to visit the offices of Kanner, Gensler and Morphosis. All were great hosts, so thank you to them, especially that hottie Trojan I ran into - you know who you are. Each work environment felt so unique, with the baseline exception of the large room with newbies working alongside VPs, all with flat screen monitors and models galore. If I worked somewhere for 20 years and had to share a space with a recent graduate, I would be pretty pissed. Never have I been so appreciative of my four-walled, sunlight-filled private office overlooking Santa Monica. Ahhh.
We're appreciative of all of you who wrote in to give us the highlights and foodie reviews of the happenings during a very exciting week at the National AIA Conference. We look forward to doing it again sometime.
· Dispatches from AIA: Beach Babe and Boring White Dudes [Curbed LA]
· Dispatches From AIA [Curbed LA]