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At the University of Minnesota College of Design graduation ceremonies, on Saturday, May 12, John Cary, who received his BA in 1999 from the same school, delivered the 2012 commencement address. After thanking dean Thomas Fisher and the faculty of the educational institution that “has given me so much,” Cary started with his inauspicious beginnings and launched into the story of his inspirational and accomplished life story and career—the two intricately entwined. His trajectory is sharply focused on the growing field of public interest design, an area that he is personally is helping to define. Here is his message to the graduating class, any graduating class in any field in fact, as well as the design professions in search of defining the 21^st century practice.—SSS

I came to the University of Minnesota in 1995, having graduated from a Jesuit high school in Milwaukee’s inner city. Few people, except my parents who are here today, know that my first semester GPA in high school was a whopping 1.9. If you weren’t book smart or an athletic super star at my high school, you kind of fell through the cracks. At least I did.

Thankfully, I landed in the basement, where an inspiring teacher—who was trained as an engineer and taught drafting classes—introduced me to design. It was through that high school teacher that I got involved with Habitat for Humanity, and helped transform an abandoned house into a family’s dream home—to this day one of the most meaningful projects that I’ve ever worked on.

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The cracks in the Washington Monument seen on the day after the 5.8-magnitude earthquake. Photo: Matt Mcclain for The Washington Post

Every week, it seems, we’re reading about earthquakes—both in faraway places where we’ve come to expect them, but also here at home. Earlier this month a dozen tremors struck 45 miles due east of Oklahoma City, with a 5.6 magnitude the most intense among them. Weeks earlier, the quake-prone Bay Area was put on edge by a series of tremors. And in August, Manhattan subways screeched to a halt and cracks surfaced in the Washington Monument as the East Coast got a rare dose of seismic activity.

While they rattled nerves, none compared to the devastating earthquake that struck Eastern Turkey late last month and again late last week, with the death toll having surpassed 600 and thousands of homes destroyed. Christchurch, New Zealand, was rocked by similarly destructive quakes and countless aftershocks in June. Finally, at a whole different scale, we saw the quake and resulting tsunami ravage Japan in March, not to mention the 2010 earthquakes that leveled parts of China and Haiti.

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The phrase “bridging the gap” has been a hallmark of debates about architectural education and practice for as long as anyone can remember, with architecture’s unique “internship” period widely regarded and relied on as that bridge. It’s the catch-all and catch-up period between education and practice, which most educators and practitioners readily acknowledge needs bridging. For the estimated one-third of graduates that become registered architects, effectively all internships take place in a traditional design firm setting, under the tutelage of a registered architect.

In their vitally important new anthology, Bridging the Gap: Public-Interest Architectural Internships, co-editors editors Georgia Bizios and Katie Wakeford of North Carolina State University, shine a bright light on an exceedingly rare, but promising breed of architectural internships, focused on the public interest. These internships take place beyond the walls of firms, and are instead embedded in nonprofits and community organizations across the country. With 19 co-contributors, Bizios and Wakeford masterfully unite a veritable who’s who of public-interest design advocates—Victoria Beach, Bryan Bell, Thomas Fisher, David Perkes, and Michael Pyatok, among others—with some fresh new voices—Andrew Caruso, Sam Valentine, Katherine Williams, and Esther Yang, to name a few. Collectively, they hail from big firms (like Gensler), community design centers, nonprofits, and universities. Most essayists weave personal narratives with anecdotes about their internship experiences; the stories illustrate the array of settings that architecture graduates can and are working in, but also the struggles they face in the process.

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Architect Jeanne Gang on the terrace of Aqua, an 82-story skyscraper in downtown Chicago. Photo: Anna Knott.

The first time we met, Tim McCormick was standing in front of the colorful community center that Jeanne Gang had designed for his thriving non-profit. The centerpiece of the ground floor was set of large steps, with dark green shag carpet cascading down the entire thing. After the usual pleasantries, I asked McCormick what he thought of the space, and he magically lit up. He couldn’t wait to show off the building.

The Lavezzorio Community Center, designed by Studio Gang. Photo: Steve Hall

McCormick quickly came across as exactly the kind of caring leader you’d want running a community center and nonprofit focused on reuniting foster kids with their biological parents. And though he may have quietly groused about the extra money spent cleaning the abundance of windows in his prized building, he proved to be the type of client that Gang and her team needed to realize this design marvel on Chicago’s South Side.

Just like other Studio Gang clients that I’ve spoken with, McCormick exuded deep pride and gratitude for the extraordinary pro bono contributions made by Gang and her team. The moment that she was announced earlier this week as a 2011 honoree of the MacArthur Fellows Program (more commonly known as the “Genius Award,” to the chagrin of its recipients), I thought not of her acclaimed Aqua Tower or other well-published work, but instead of her roster of pro bono clients, like McCormick, and the people they help each day—and what the award might possibly mean to them.

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In this season of commencement speeches we were happy to read one that holds great meaning for us. It was delivered on May 16th by our friend John Cary, a 2003 MArch graduate from the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. Addressing the class of 2011 at his alma mater, John delivered a talk that is sure to have resonance for socially- and environmentally-conscious graduates, and may even convert others. Editor of the popular Metropolis Book, The Power of Pro Bono, John is a tireless advocate of design for the public good. We hope you find his words as inspiring as we do.—SSS

I am going to challenge you to remember two things you already know:

The first is where you came from.

And the second is why you got into design in the first place.

Sounds pretty simple, no? Yet in life, as in design, the simple things are often the hardest to achieve.

Remembering where you came from and why you got into this work will be a struggle, but it’s one worth fighting for. In doing so, simply by keeping in mind these things you already know, I promise you’ll make a life that you can be proud of.

Let me practice what I preach here. Read more…