I could draw!!  In a small, upstate New York school, I was one of the best students in Art.  Guidance told my parents I could maybe be an architect.  I was accepted at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture because of my ability to express myself through my drawings. 

 

 

Pratt’s professors were tough. Their design critiques were brutal. Submission drawings were marked up or ripped up and models were broken. Students were challenged to go back to the drawing board or find another profession. In 1965, I graduated without honors.

 

My first job was with a small architectural firm in Princeton. I was told I got the job because I could draw!! 

 

The firm was associated, and collaborated with a construction firm on many projects. I was a young designer and was given a project that was going to be built by the construction firm. Early in the design process, I was asked to meet with the chief estimator of the construction firm.  Based on my early schematic design drawings, he asked me what exterior materials I was planning to use. At that time, I was thinking of using metal siding.  Two months later, the chief estimator called me and wanted to meet again. At the meeting, he said I had told him I was planning metal siding for the building exterior and the current design showed brick.  I told him the design had changed. He said the metal siding had already been purchased!!

 

 

That experience introduced me to the Design-Build Project Delivery Method, taught me about Project Management and the importance of construction costs; all valuable lessons that would influence my architectural career and future achievements.

 

In 1969, I left that firm and joined a large NY/NJ firm where I could design larger projects. In 1974, with Allan Johnson, a colleague at that firm, we established Rothe-Johnson Architects in a Metuchen, NJ, basement.