The one contribution I will have made to the Corpus Christi skyline

I thought I might post something about my short career here in Corpus as an Architect. I say short because we were only supposed to be here a year or so. It is now going on two years that we have been here but the light can be seen at the end of the tunnel as Dave will be done with jet training here next month (insert raging applause here!!!) - I will save that for another post though. I worked at WKMC Architects for approximately a year before I had Brenden and decided that I wouldn't go back to work immediately. The firm is the largest here in Corpus with about 35 employees. I worked in the Financial Studio and got to design banks which is something that I have had no experience in. It was refreshing to learn something new and I liked the challenge. Coming from a job where I did schools and libraries, there was much to learn about banking and security. I worked almost exclusively on the Texas Champion Bank corporate headquarters and while the schematic design was done before I was hired, I was able to do most of the construction documents and detailing of the building myself. The design of banks is definitely much more 'reserved' than schools... or maybe its a California vs. Texas thang. You can get away with a lot more creative solutions and design ideas in California than you can here. Or maybe people just are accepting of buildings that are different. One should take into consideration that banks have to look somewhat stately but for me that translates into boring. I also understand that with banks, people like to deposit their money in a place that looks familiar and conservative on some level. Maybe online banking is a better thing that I thought.. you don't have to go into a brick and mortar building?? I wish I could have worked here longer in some ways to challenge the good ol' boy system in the Lone Star state.. but alas it is not meant to be. The image at the top of the blog is a picture that was done as a 3D rendering in our office for the ground breaking ceremony. The colors came out weird here on the blog but you get the general idea.

On a side note... people here in Texas are obsessed with drive through banking! They wont get out of their giant trucks for nuthin' ! Coming from California where land is scarce and expensive and drive up banking has all but vanished from the landscape, it was surreal to see SO much land devoted to it here. This design has eight or so lanes.. mind boggling! Below is a pic I took the other day. I think the project is around 75% complete....