To Architects
Dear architects,
Mindy Kaling, a GENIUS of The Office (American version), wrote an article about the holidays in the NY Times. In it she says this:
(For the record, Alex is a product of my imagination. I realize that no real people are actually architects, and that it is a profession that exists entirely in movies, like art gallery owner or children’s bookshop proprietor.)
ZOMG! Whereas I was sick of your shits, dear architects, Mindy Kaling doesn’t even acknowledge your existence! You are like a unicorn. Kind of. Maybe more like a minotaur. Or a centaur. You are perhaps, some version of man and beast, together in perfect harmony with a penchant for violence and a heightened attention to detail that most do not and will not appreciate. I hope you do not email her angry and mean things. I think she is AWESOME and I would like to be her when I grow up. So be nice.
Your friend,
Annie Choi
You know, I never fully appreciated the grudge against architects until I started my current job, where my least favorite person just happened to mention his 20 years of experience as an architect.
And then it clicked.
Also, Mindy Kaling is The Shit. I love her so hard.
I’d be completely incensed at this crass stereotyping if “Alex” wasn’t so damn well designed in her imagination.
We architects love to be portrayed as well designed, especially in NY Times and in movies.
What originally attracted me to this site was the infamous ‘Dear Architects’ open letter, now a few years old, dead on and hilarious. The Mindy Kaling quote also rings true. Architects are a figment of the popular imagination. The vast majority of us are, in George Clooney/ alias Michael Clayton terms, bag men, janitors and fixers (men and women alike).
I do have to comment on this as I am supposed to be an architect.
There are 2 types of architects in the”real”world.
Type 1. those who call themselves architects because they thing it’s cool, though their job has nothing to do with architecture, they just work in an office moving papers and writing emails. they dress in black, and talk about intellectual stuff, and have scruffy hair, you know, the lot (80%)
Type 2. Those who are ashamed of being architects and try to hide themselves, Either by living in isolation, or by not doing an “architecture job”. In both cases they spent their time planning the perfect project, traveling in search of gurus and losing money but they don’t make it public.
In both cases neither of them are fully qualified as productive and normal architects.
that is bullshit.
Steen: I love Mindy Kaling so effing hard it is probably not healthy. It is nice to see someone smart and talented not suck a major choad in some way.
Jon: Don’t forget Tom Selleck in 3 Men and a Little Baby was an architect. Just saying.
Shtrum: I think the most ‘inaccessible’ profession is still rocket scientist. I dont’ know ANY rocket scientists. I do know brain surgeons though.
Pedro: You are Type 3. Spanish.
Nic: Dude, she was only joking. Read the whole article, it’s actually very sweet.
Ok, I can imagine that Mindy is probably pretty well designed herself.
But having trouble with the schematics as to why she’s dropping all that LA specific context in a story that rolls in the NY Times??? Who the hell cares about LA in NYC and Who the hell reads NYT here in LA? four or five peoples. That sounds wildly arcane & esoteric as if something an architect would think up. Thx, for bringing us closer together Annie! ha ha ha
Never do architects display their ineptitude at constructing things more than when they attempt to write. Serious brain ulcers bleeding out my eyes.
Personally, I use my architect job to hide my true identity as a superhero. Well, I tend to show up late and just help clean up…so more like a mediocrehero, with less spandex.
I use to wear a Eurotard but it brought undue attention to my eunit.
Bryan: J.Lo is totally wearing a eurotard here: http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/39/2010/01/500x_95517504.jpg
Hi Annie, my friend recently (2 minutes ago) introduced to me your letter “Dear Architects”. As an architect, I love your sense of humour and so do the rest of my architect friends in the office (including my boss).
My friends and I were seriously contemplating printing the article A1 size and stick it on the front door of our faculty. But…I still go there, so don’t exactly want to get expelled after 6 years at the school.
Thanks for the wonderful article and can’t wait to read more!
Hi Annie just read your letter “Dear Architects”thank you! you really are our guardian… This will be a big help, an eye opener.