Architecture Expo!

By the time this class was over, I was rethinking my major. Not totally, but a little bit. The Architecture Expo, in comparison to the Business Career Fairs (which comprise four days of pure fury for me each year), was a great deal of fun. It was much smaller, and I felt much less like I was wasting people's time if I was not a shoe-in for their position or I was not actually interested in their firm or company. In fact, I was not really serious about any of the companies I spoke with. Professor Hinders had us interview firms so that we could see what the architecture business was like. I was fortunate enough to talk to two very different firms, one being Farnsworth, and the other be Klein and Hoffman.
I spoke with Klein and Hoffman first. It was sort of my ice breaker and way to get a feel for how my second conversation would go. As I found out, they were not the average architectural firm. They did not simply design buildings. In fact, they were almost purely a restoration firm. They, as they told me, "fix the mistakes that previous architects have already made." They are not a huge firm, although they do a considerable amount of work in Chicago, where they are based. They do projects ranging from the John Hancock Building to smaller apartment buildings. They fix columns, stucco, and essentially anything structural that could be wrong with a building. Both people I spoke with for K & H had graduate degrees in restoration after completing architecture in their undergraduate colleges, which makes sense.
On the other hand, Farnsworth was a much more traditional architectural firm in some senses. One reason I decided to talk to them, however, was that they had an advertisement for LEED certification on their poster board. They have a number of architects who can garnish a building with qualities to taylor your needs for LEED, although they do not do it exclusively. Scott, the gentleman I spoke with, was an Illinois alum and former student of Professor Hinders. How nice.
Overall, it was a great experience for me. I am considering the architecture minor because of it, and I hope I can gain more knowledge about the subjects in the future if I decide to do that. It could be a great supplement to my Finance degree and really help me get into the area I desire.