Born Designer

When Alan Cobb, FAIA, LEED® AP, was ten years old, his parents hired an architect to design the new family home, and young Alan watched carefully, intrigued by every aspect as the house was built. While in school he worked in construction as a carpenter, developed shop drawings with a steel fabrication plant, and labored for a masonry contractor – a tremendous array of learning opportunities for a budding architect.

But what truly launched Alan’s career – before it had even begun – was winning an AIA National Design Competition for Energy Conscious Design, a student project that was published in Architectural Review and that led to an invitation to work at the AIA Research Corporation in Washington, D.C. Though this prestigious honor and an AIA installment meant he could have gone virtually anywhere, Alan returned to Michigan to accept an offer of employment at Kahn from William Demiene, AIA, whom Alan says guided the design process but accepted young people and their ideas. more...