Finally. The first word is down. After gentle prodding, enthusiastic encouragement, and even a few snarky tweets, the first SPACE blog has begun. I’m Tom Niemeier, founder of SPACE, LLC., just a little ole architecture firm in St. Louis, Missouri. Most likely, I will be writing this blog, although I sincerely hope I can coerce other members of the very talented staff to contribute. So I had to ask myself several times what exactly will I write about…and more importantly, who will read it? Who am I writing for? Other architects? Clients? People interested in architecture? How will I keep things interesting? How will I keep myself interested, after all, I have a few other things on my plate. I’ve been able to answer most if not all of those questions….hence the blog has begun.
First off, I am not going to make any specific attempts to educate you. I figure you will get enough of that in every other part of your life. But yet educated you shall be. This blog will inside peek behind the curtain of a profession that has a bit of romance attached to it. Being an architect IS a big deal. Despite the fact that we have been beat down over the years, and many firms have succumbed to a “just tell me what to draw” mentality, there are those of us who actually LIKE Monday mornings. If one ponders for a moment to consider the effect architecture has on our lives, (good and bad), it is a profession that wields enormous impact on society. Which is why those of us who “get it” try real hard to actually get it right. We have big ideas here at SPACE. Not just for our City as you might expect, but we have some really big ideas for our rural communities too. We have nothing to hold our ideas back except ourselves, and we are not very good at that part. We make no small plans…even for little projects.
Now before I lose all of you who don’t feel a need to understand how architecture can rock their world, consider this…we are a small business, bootstrapping ourselves through the worst economy to hit our industry since the great depression, and we are utilizing every means of staying current and relevant in this rapidly changing world, including social media forms like this blog. If you are a small business, or have any thoughts of starting one, this blog will be a shoot from the hip, trial by fire of what works…and what does not. We’re learning as we go here, all the while trying hard to make this world a better place….one SPACE at a time. Next up…is a reality TV show in our future? It just might happen.