Special Report from Summer Visualization

SAM ZEIF MArch I ‘18 and SPENCER FRIED MArch I ‘18

We felt like children a long way from home, overwhelmed with quandaries: How will I fit into this roster of pedigreed, tried, and proven intellectuals? Will I be perceived in the same way I perceive them? Will I be asked to draw a self-portrait? What format were their portfolios? A4, 8.5″ x 11″, or square? Am I a square? And then there was George Knight. Immaculate mustard yellow pants, delicately primped and pressed, breaking at the ankles over alligator skin Sperry’s— or at the least that’s how memory has it. A debonair that weakened us in the knees and dared us to reach his heights (6’ 4” as ascertained by anthropic measure). And Trattie Davies- she donned a daunting and devilish all-black ensemble that trumpeted professionalism and no funny-stuff.  She was flanked by her femme fatale minions, Lisa Albaugh and Sam Jaff, each two YSoA years our senior, but many more the wiser. Unbeknownst to us, these figures would become family. Our first impressions were unwarranted and debased. We discovered that behind every façade lay hidden a bounty of funny-stuff, fervor for camaraderie, and a fresh load of talent eager to bust on to the architecture scene. While once entirely incompetent, we now find ourselves slightly more capable. Hell, Trattie says we’re special. And even if that is only a half-truth, we’ll cling to it until the day we graduate, but hold on to each other for much longer.