graduation speech

The School of Architecture here at the University of Virginia very kindly allowed me to speak at graduation this year. I thought I would share the text of my speech here:


One afternoon about a year ago I was sitting in the computer lab exasperated after spending hours and hours trying to complete some basic task on the computer. I threw my hands in the air and turned to my fellow students sitting in the room with me and exclaimed in abject frustration: “What can I do in my entire life that Google cannot accomplish in two seconds.”

As a group we laughed, and a few smiled knowingly – having come face to face with their own technological deficiencies at some point in the past. In that moment of frustration, a glimmer of hope crept in, and I had an answer to my previous question.

Indeed, if it were all about shear computational prowess there would be little left to do in this world. But in those few seconds, where I had a connection with my fellow students, where I could feel the shaking in my stomach from laughing at my own insufficiencies – those moments of understanding are so magnificent and so powerful that they constitute the very foundation of life itself.

Most of us are here at the School of Architecture because we love places, we love buildings, we love the land around us. We talk fondly of our trips to Barcelona, to Yellowstone National Park, and to Savannah, Georgia. We participated just moments ago in a graduation ceremony on the beloved Lawn. We care deeply about the surrounding world.

I am here this afternoon, not to talk about places, but instead the people that live in these places and buildings. Here at the University of Virginia we talk about the “architecture of urgent matters” and an “architecture of urgent matters” must place people at the center of this effort. Buildings and places are of course important, but what would they be without individuals occupying the spaces, or without a history of the individuals that were part of their creation.

I think Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz had it right in a lot of ways. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. Home is a very interesting concept as it conjures up not only a residential location, a residential dwelling unit if you will, but it combines in this concept a series of relationships, personal histories, dreams, fears, moments of unbearable sadness, as well as times of unimaginable triumph.

My home for the past two years has been the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. Now, Campbell Hall is a decent building, but the reason why I have such powerful connections and feelings for this place is the group of individuals gathered here today. Each one of us is an essential component to the foundation of the School of Architecture community.

It is my view that as students of architecture we have a responsibility to life, a responsibility that includes people who live in our neighborhood and people who live halfway around the globe. I believe we have a responsibility to the lives of the plants and animals that we share this magnificent world with, as well as responsibility to care for the planet itself.

Our lives as humans are so profound that even a few seconds of laughing with friends in a computer lab can become moments of lasting significance. Upon reflection it is incredible, this life that I feel between my fingertips, the life that I see in your eyes, the lives of the people here today celebrating this momentous occasion, and the lives of those who are unable to be with us. After graduation as we disperse and take with us our love of places I would encourage us all to take along a love for people as well. A dedication to life is something that each one of us can accomplish and something that will have a profound and lasting effect on the world around us.