What kind of architecture do you do? It is the second thing most of us hear when we tell someone what we do, right behind "Oh like Ted Mosby." I am not sure exactly what Ted did, since he seemed to have way more free time than the average architect. But I do have vague memories of him designing a high rise at one point.

Not to make a blanket assumption, but I imagine most of us graduate from architecture school with the dream of working on the types of "high profile" projects we study in school. But what makes any project more or less important at the end of the day?

I was fortunate early in my career to work on the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. At 60 stories and a height of 1,121 feet, it is the tallest building outside of New York City or Chicago and certainly the tallest thing in Philadelphia. With the design architect being Norman Foster, it had all the architectural bells and whistles you can think of, it checked all the boxes of a premier project most young architects would dream of working on. But why? At the end of the day, it is just an office building and hotel. A place where people stay when visiting Philly and a place where employees do their work and go home. I say that with absolutely no shade to anyone involved, me included. That was almost six years of my life working to create something the Philadelphia and Comcast communities could be proud of, something I am proud of.

Every single day, architects across the world wake up and in one way or another affect the lives (for better or worse) of countless people (including you) around them. When you go to your doctor’s office, when you go shopping, when you go out to eat, every single space you walk into was imagined by someone. From the dumpster enclosure that keeps the unsightly realities of garbage hidden to the Michelin Star restaurant in front of it, each piece of the built environment has purpose.

I try to put just as much of myself into every project I am a part of. While changing a skyline is amazing, every scale of architecture matters because every scale of the built environment affects all of us. The Comcast Technology Center was the last super tall building I may ever work on. But I want every space I create to have a positive impact on the people who use it.

So, what kind of architecture do I do? I solve problems. If it is a company expansion that needs a new office tower, I got you. If the problem is a new dumpster enclosure, I am here for you with just as much enthusiasm. Every scale of the built environment starts as a problem that needs to be solved.

By the way... Philadelphia superstition requires Billy Penn to be at the highest point in the city.

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