{"id":18042,"date":"2019-04-12T14:36:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T18:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/?p=18042"},"modified":"2023-02-27T13:25:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T18:25:45","slug":"the-value-of-a-design-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/2019\/04\/12\/the-value-of-a-design-education\/","title":{"rendered":"The Value of a Design Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bill<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill O\u2019Brien [\u201962 B.Arch.] comes from a long-line of designers. With five generations of builders and architects in his family, it\u2019s clear the O\u2019Brien\u2019s know the value of a design education. As a child, O\u2019Brien looked up to his great uncle Leet O\u2019Brien, who routinely used the O\u2019Brien\u2019s Greensboro home as a second office, when away from his Winston-Salem home, because it had a telephone. \u201cI had a lot of association with Uncle Leet early on, and so I knew in elementary school I wanted to be an architect. And there was no question in my mind that NC State was where I wanted to end up,\u201d says O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien confesses that he may not have been a model student, often moonlighting with side projects. His fondest memories of NC State are the interactions he had with faculty, fellow students, and Sigma Chi fraternity members, many of whom he keeps in touch with through The American Institute of Architects.<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/a>
Bill O’Brien sharing old photographs and memories from his time in Peru.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After graduating, O\u2019Brien joined architect Terry Waugh in Lima, Peru, for extensive work with the La Molina Agricultural University of Peru. Several years after his return to the United States, O\u2019Brien partnered with John Atkins [\u201965 B.Arch.] in 1975 to form the O\u2019Brien Atkins<\/a> firm in Chapel Hill. Now located in Research Triangle Park, O\u2019Brien Atkins has established itself over the last 44 years as one of North Carolina\u2019s largest and most successful design firms with clients worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the exciting things about architecture is that every project is different\u2026 it\u2019s a challenge.\u201d \u2014Bill O’Brien<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

O\u2019Brien says that \u201cArchitecture was a way to do what I dreamed about doing,\u201d which included design but also international travel. \u201cOne of the exciting things about architecture is that every project is different\u2026 it\u2019s a challenge.\u201d O\u2019Brien specifically remembers designing buildings for Centennial Campus. \u201cOur firm did the very first building on Centennial Campus. We had 12 months to design it, bid it, and build it at a time when it took six to eight months just to get state construction approval. We did it in 14 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recognizing that so many of his career opportunities came from his time at NC State, O\u2019Brien enjoys giving back to the College. He is a financial supporter of the College and hires architecture interns at his firm and enjoys guiding them as they learn. \u201cThere\u2019s many, many things that I feel obligated to NC State [for], and so I felt like when I\u2019m in a position to give back either time or financially, I always tried to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Staci Kleinmaier is a professional writer and photographer in Apex, North Carolina. She uses words and images to tell stories. To see her work, visit\u00a0www.stacikleinmaier.com<\/u>.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\"Bill<\/a>\n\nBill O\u2019Brien [\u201962 B.Arch.] comes from a long-line of designers. With five generations of builders and architects in his family, it\u2019s clear the O\u2019Brien\u2019s know the value of a design education. As a child, O\u2019Brien looked up to his great uncle Leet O\u2019Brien, who routinely used the O\u2019Brien\u2019s Greensboro home as a second office, when away from his Winston-Salem home, because it had a telephone. \u201cI had a lot of association with Uncle Leet early on, and so I knew in elementary school I wanted to be an architect. And there was no question in my mind that NC State was where I wanted to end up,\u201d says O\u2019Brien.\n\nO\u2019Brien confesses that he may not have been a model student, often moonlighting with side projects. His fondest memories of NC State are the interactions he had with faculty, fellow students, and Sigma Chi fraternity members, many of whom he keeps in touch with through The American Institute of Architects.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_18045\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"]\"Bill<\/a> Bill O'Brien sharing old photographs and memories from his time in Peru.<\/em>[\/caption]\n\nAfter graduating, O\u2019Brien joined architect Terry Waugh in Lima, Peru, for extensive work with the La Molina Agricultural University of Peru. Several years after his return to the United States, O\u2019Brien partnered with John Atkins [\u201965 B.Arch.] in 1975 to form the O\u2019Brien Atkins<\/a> firm in Chapel Hill. Now located in Research Triangle Park, O\u2019Brien Atkins has established itself over the last 44 years as one of North Carolina\u2019s largest and most successful design firms with clients worldwide.\n

\u201cOne of the exciting things about architecture is that every project is different\u2026 it\u2019s a challenge.\u201d \u2014Bill O'Brien<\/blockquote>\nO\u2019Brien says that \u201cArchitecture was a way to do what I dreamed about doing,\u201d which included design but also international travel. \u201cOne of the exciting things about architecture is that every project is different\u2026 it\u2019s a challenge.\u201d O\u2019Brien specifically remembers designing buildings for Centennial Campus. \u201cOur firm did the very first building on Centennial Campus. We had 12 months to design it, bid it, and build it at a time when it took six to eight months just to get state construction approval. We did it in 14 months.\u201d\n\nRecognizing that so many of his career opportunities came from his time at NC State, O\u2019Brien enjoys giving back to the College. He is a financial supporter of the College and hires architecture interns at his firm and enjoys guiding them as they learn. \u201cThere\u2019s many, many things that I feel obligated to NC State [for], and so I felt like when I\u2019m in a position to give back either time or financially, I always tried to do that.\u201d\n\n \n\nStaci Kleinmaier is a professional writer and photographer in Apex, North Carolina. She uses words and images to tell stories. To see her work, visit\u00a0www.stacikleinmaier.com<\/u>.\u00a0<\/em><\/span>"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill O\u2019Brien [\u201962 B.Arch.] shares his design journey, found memories of the College, his architecture legacy, and the value of a design education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":18044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,7,8],"tags":[34,13],"class_list":["post-18042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-experience","category-giving","category-newswire","category-research-innovation","tag-_from-newswire-collection-277","tag-architecture"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26396,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18042\/revisions\/26396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}