Miami - Jason Tapia, AIA, Principal at Building Center No.3 (BC3), a design firm in Downtown Miami, presented for the second consecutive year at Design Architecture Senior High (DASH) in the Design District. Invited by architecture faculty member, Eric Hankin, this year’s presentation focused on the value of a professional degree in architecture and the alternative career paths available to graduates of these programs.
DASH is a Miami Dade magnet high school with intensive curriculum in architecture, industrial design, visual communications, entertainment and fine art. The architecture program is lead by instructor Eric Hankin. For the last two years Mr. Hankin has extended an invitation to Jason to speak before students in architecture and industrial design. This year over 50 students were in attendance, and asked a number of questions ranging from:
“Where do get your inspiration from as a designer?" to “What motivated you to start your own design firm?”
The presentation was titled, Critical Thinking: The Merits of Architecture Degree. The topic was loosely organized around what skills are taught in architecture school and how those skills can be applied to fields outside of the architecture profession. This year’s presentation featured Cornell University Graduate, Amanda Williams, Artist and Professor of Color Theory at the Illinois Institute of Technology; MIT graduate Jenna Fizel, former co-founder of Continuum Fashion; Columbia graduate, Michael Szivos, founder of SOFTlab; and MIT graduate, Skylar Tibbits, Computer Scientist and Professor at MIT. Each individual completed a degree in or a concentration in architecture but went on to practice and earn success in disciplines beyond the conventional architecture practice. ”The goal was to connect with students interested in an architecture degree but apprehensive about the longer term commitment to the profession. I wanted them see that the degree was not a constraint but rather a launch pad for other creative interests,” said Jason. “I wanted the presentation to be about the important skills all architecture graduates learn; I chose to work in the field and eventually start my own practice, but there are other paths just as rewarding.”
See the presentation below
