A week in LA

Several months back I wrote about what we need to do to survive in the Aftermath, my term for the period after the Great Recession. Back then things were a little less clear. It felt like I was hanging out the door of a slowly moving tractor-trailer trying to stop it by dragging my feet along the ground.

That works, by the way, it just takes a really long time to stop it.

So, I feel we are almost there. If nothing else, we are now able to take the backsliding square in the chest knowing that it's just the way things are. Before we were still full of uncertainty. Now we are completely sure it has been a disaster for our profession and there can be no direction but up.

I just spent a week in Los Angeles with the new Crew Members and it was an amazing week to say the least. As I sat across the table from eight people that are very excited to be a part of our new collaboration, I saw eight strong minds that collectively are ready help us emerge in the Aftermath with a completely new concept as far as architectural firms go and I realized something very important.

I realized that if an idea is a good one, get it out of your mind, tell others and make it a part of their minds. And soon, the collective mind will turn the thoughts and ideas into reality. And I was seeing that happen before my very eyes.

Since I started looking for new crew members in October of last year, I have seen almost 2,000 resumes from people in my profession. Most are very sad stories of being let go and not being able to find work in their chosen field. Most were from people that have a college degree and many years of architectural experience that were hoping to land something before their unemployment benefits ran out. Many had already been unemployed for more than a year. Most I couldn't use because they just wanted me to give them a job, which I could not do.

But a few were like minded. They thought like Fearless Leader and were ready to be part of the collective mind. They might be fearless leaders themselves, just disguised as unemployed architects. And I found them in Los Angeles and San Diego and Las Vegas. There were some in Denver and Dallas, Houston and New Orleans, Portland and Atlanta. And my gut feeling is that they are all over this country, ready to take on the world. And take it on in a new way.

Over the coming months I am going to feature many of our new crew members and introduce to you the ideas they have for the cities they live and work in. As we emerge in the Aftermath to a brighter day I think you will begin to see the power of the mind. The collective mind that is the Curtis Architecture Collaboration.