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VIDEO: Nothing is higher than an architect

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If you live in a place without air conditioning than you can relate to my current plight: the heat wave is making it difficult for me to sleep at night. When I find myself wide awake and sweating buckets at 3am, I sometimes sit on my couch, place the fan directly in front of me and watch a bit of late night TV.

The other night/morning, the TV gods were kind to me: they offered up a Seinfeld episode where George Costanza is handing out a scholarship, in honour of his late fiancée, to a kid who aspires to be an architect (George’s fake occupation). The recipient later changes his mind and wants to be a city planner, which earns George’s wrath: he revokes the scholarship. The kid ends up in a gang who later confront George by demanding that he give back the scholarship and let the kid become a city planner.

It was late, so I obviously thought it was hysterical. It led me to YouTube where I was able to find a great collection of George pretending to be an architect. I think Spacing readers, probably more than most other blogs in our city, can find joy in this collection of architect-envy.

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5 comments

  2. Great episode, and especially so for urban planners. The best part is when the kid changes his mind: “Actually, maybe I could set my sights a little higher. I think I’d really like to be a city planner.”

    I like to think it was a University of Waterloo alumnus that wrote that part.

  3. Yes, great bit.  Architects rarely make it on to TV (Brady Bunch excepted) so always a treat.  Here is the hierarchy as I experience it:

    Bank/Private Equity – funds the developer and money is king
    Developer – decides what to do with the money 
    Brokers – holy oracle of the god-like “market”
    Architect – plays in ever-smaller sandbox
    Interior Designer – derided as decorators
    Landscape Architect – grass, trees, what’s the big deal?
    City Planner – ignored other than what is legally required
    Engineers – treated like a computer by any of the above

    Cynical I know, but there is a grain of truth to it…. 

  4. HAHA! What a pleasant surprise! I can relate entirely to George. Growing up I always told people that I wanted to be an architect. Now after getting over my idealism, I kind of wish I pursued architecture or anything design related to the city… now I’m depressed! Great post!