Summer 1997, 1998
The summers before and after my freshman year in college were spent working with Gary Kohlsaat, a small residential architecture firm. He was transitioning from hand drafting to ArchiCAD so he still had a few projects which could use the help of a high schooler with a couple drafting classes under his belt.
For my work as a draftsman, he pushed me to really improve my lettering, which I did after a 10 hour stint at home on a Saturday. This skill has stayed with ever since, to be utilized whenever I want to signify that I am of the old school, and certainly helped me get my job with Ron Bogley after college. I also learned to how to print bluelines, which came in surprisingly handy a decade later at Rogers+Labarthe when the plotter died right before a meeting. I dusted off their old machine to print off a couple faint copies so we would have something to take notes on.
It was an invaluable experience to work in a real functioning office before starting my collegiate studies. I hope more students have such an opportunity, before spending years of their lives in college without knowing how it actually works in private practice.
As a Cal Poly grad, he gave me some good natured ribbing as he sent me of to the ivory towers of Berkeley, but given my extremely practical career trajectory, I’m certain he got the last laugh!
