Our next stranger was very positive, relaxed and comfortable in her own skin. She readily agreed to have her portrait taken.
Meet Annette.
What brings you uptown? “I work here. I’m an architect.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “It will all work out. Like, stress out less. It’s going to be fine, kid.”
Did you stress out a lot when you were younger? “Oh yeah. Well, because it’s one of those things where you’re trying to make all the big life decisions like going into college, going into high school… Oh my gosh, I have to figure out the next step of my whole life! Just go with it… it will be fine. {laughs}”
And do you think you have less stress now or do you just better cope with it? “Better coping. {laughs}”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Still the same stuff… like am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing or should I be doing something else? As much as I love where I am and what I’m doing, sometimes you can get complacent especially in a creative field. I like mixing things up and keeping things interesting.”
What are your goals? “I’d really like to have my own company and run my own firm.”
How would you do it different than your current place? “I’m a lot more invested in technology than my current firm. I also like experimental science and research which is not typically aspects that you integrate directly into architecture. I don’t know why…”
Are there a lot of overly traditional mindsets in architecture? “Yeah, you get one or the other. So, you get people who are almost purely sculptors and it’s really tricky to justify their designs. It’s like they’re beautiful, but they’re not actually helpful and there are buildings where they’re very helpful, but they’re just ugly, and they’re not uplifting, and they’re not inspirational, and they’re not any of those other things that good architecture should be.”
Do most architects usually have one or the other of those traits? Is it a rare breed to find someone who does both? “Yeah, it’s rare to find both.”
A practical artist… “Yeah, it’s like finding really good furniture design. It’s also very tricky.”
Functional, but yet beautiful… “Yeah.”
How would your friends describe you? ”I’m usually the weird one. {laughs} Very stable, but I’m very odd. {laughs}”
Technical Notes: We were in a shaded area, and I was a little concerned about not having enough light. I used a reflector, which Annette helped me hold, to increase the light levels.
Dan Russell-Pinson 