Nashville, Tennessee is a vibrant city, full of great music, food, and people. This week, I got the chance to go to the National Organization of Minority Architects National Conference with a group of students from Penn State. Collectively, we took part in a six month competition to rebuild the community of North Nashville. At the conference, we awaited to hear the results of the winning school, but we also stopped to have some fun.
Day one was a definite culture shock. I knew that I would hear country music, but it was a lot to take in. I treated this day as a rest day after spending 7 hours in and out of airports.
Day two was a whirlwind of emotions and experiences. This was round one of the student design competition. My group’s job consisted of presenting our work to a panel of judges. Although we were extremely nervous, we stood on that stage and explained our project as best as we could. After completing the competition portion of our day, the group and I listened in on a keynote speech led by Curt Moody and Jonathan Moody, founders and owners of Moody Nolan Architecture. They spoke on their experiences being both minorities in the profession and running their firm as a father-son duo. After the craziness of the day, I let loose at the Host Chapter party which had a lot of dancing and singing.
Day three was a little bit more relaxed than the previous days. First, I sat in on a lecture taught by Erica Williams, Senior Interior Project Designer for Perkins&Will. She talked about the struggle of time management and the architecture profession. She also provided valuable tips for having a healthy work/life balance. After the incredible lecture, I took part in a design project provided by Gensler, one of the leading firms in architecture. The design prompt had us reimagine gas stations as only providing access for electronic vehicles, and designing other forms of function for these gas stations. Following the design challenge, I went to the Awards Banquet to see if Penn State had won the competition. Unfortunately, we didn’t make get to place on the leaderboard, but it was overall a great experience being able to compete.
Day four was our last day in Nashville. I started off my morning by going to a speed networking event to see what firms were at the conference. During this event, I got to speak to representatives from EOA Architecture and AECOM. Both of these firms sounded appealing because they incorporated different groups of people, like engineers, interior designers, and project managers, in with architecture to create a broader range of variety in both their work and demographics. In the evening, I attended the Bro’s Arts Masquerade Ball. I was out on the dance floor all night until my feet hurt. If I was going to have one last night in Nashville, I wasn’t going to let it pass by without dancing the night away.
Overall, my experience in Nashville is one I will never forget. Whether it was the food or the friends that I made while I was there, something about Nashville just felt right.
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