I began my career as a Chicago architect at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where I learned architectural history, theory, vocabulary, techniques and materials. But it wasn't until I left school that I saw that being a Chicago architect was as much practical activity as intellectual project. I realized that a satisfying career as a Chicago architect meant that I would need to learn how a design becomes a building. What were Chicago architects supposed to know about developing realistic budgets? How did Chicago architects choose consultants and vendors? Did I know how Chicago architects dealt with bankers and lawyers, learned zoning restrictions and obtained building permits? Our project for Chicago Financial Technologies taught us a lot. The CFT site is adjacent to the works of pioneering Chicago architects and the project combined architecture, development and construction. CFT's owner shared my admiration for Mies van der Rohe and other legendary Chicago architects associated with IIT. As CFT took shape, however, it was clear that I could be a Chicago architect and much more: developer, contractor, and developer. At IIT, one of my professors was the great Chicago architect, landscape architect and teacher Alfred Caldwell, who showed me that school had taught me roughly five percent of what I would eventually come to know. In the Chicago Architects Oral History Project he says, "[K]nowledge is for the sake of knowledge. It isn't to get a job. [Students] cannot be educated until they try to learn something for the sake of the learning, not for the job." Roszak/ADC 1415 Sherman Avenue Suite 101 Evanston, IL 60201 Main  847-425-7555 Sales  847-328-8200 Fax  847-425-7540 email inquiries: info@roszakadc.com copyright© 2003 Roszak/ADC. All rights reserved. Chicago Condos    Chicago Design + Build    Evanston Condos    Glass House    Evanston Architects    Chicago Architects