I’ve wanted to start a blog about architecture and travel for years, and after new inspiration at the AIA Conference in Boston, I’m finally beginning. This space is where I’ll share my perspective as a San Francisco–based architect and traveler, and hopefully connect with others along the way.
Blogs are dead, right? Or at least that is what it seems like from the emails and posts I have seen lately from long-time bloggers and travel influencers. With Google adding the AI summary feature to searches, there are less clicks through to blogs and less money generated from ads and clicks on websites. I am not starting a blog to make money, at least not directly. I attended the AIA Conference on Architecture in Boston last week and found some new inspiration and reasons to finally start the blog that I have been thinking about for at least seven years (probably longer). I am writing to share my point of view on architecture and travel, and hope to connect with people that share a similar viewpoint.
A Little About Me
I am a licensed architect in California and am currently practicing as a sole practitioner in San Francisco. I spent the first 17+ years of my career working for others, and I am trying to figure out how to create the career that I want. I started out working in corporate environments, with so much structure and policy in place. It taught me how to navigate office politics, how to treat clients (I even spent 6 years on the client side of architecture), it taught me that work travel is not as cool as it sounds, and I also learned I wanted to work for a smaller company. My next move was to a much smaller architecture firm. In the 10 years I spent there, I saw the company go from 17 people to 100 and then back down to around 70. I saw the culture shift from a small company to more of a corporate culture. Eventually, I left to try to make it on my own. My dad had a small structural engineering firm while I was growing up, and my sister has her own graphic design business, so I had examples of entrepreneurship and knew I wanted to try it.
Previous Attempts at a Blog
I have been working on my own full time for over a year now (plus a couple of years of moonlighting). So why am I writing a blog if I am an architect? I have been thinking about starting a blog since at least 2018. In 2018, I took a 4-month sabbatical and traveled solo around Europe. I wrote in my journal almost every day, but never started a blog. I even set up this website in 2020 and then never posted anything. Honestly, I do not know why I didn’t try writing sooner. I’ve journaled on and off since I could write, and have used journaling as a form of therapy at times in my life, and a way to sort my thoughts and figure out what I want. I love travel blogs and Instagram posts. I’ve sorted and edited photos since college. I recently searched for architect travel blogs, and there weren’t many. At the AIA Conference, I heard a couple of speakers talk about an alternate path they took with either blogging or vlogging and how they found clients that way. Sharing their point of view led clients to them that resonated with their message and wanted to work with them because of it. I’m writing to share my point of view on architecture and travel, and hopefully make connections along the way. Whether that brings in new architecture clients, or just gives me a new creative outlet, it feels good to start.
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