101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

Matthew Frederick

Transferable Knowledge – To live in Chicago is to live among architectural treasures. Our town’s buildings offer history and lessons and beauty in every neighborhood and, downtown, on every block. So, it’s easy to develop strong tastes about architecture here without ever having studied architecture. Matthew Frederick’s book helped me understand a bit more deeply the “how” and “why” of architecture – how architectural decisions lead to certain feelings, why some architectural choices appeal to me more than others. Frederick’s easy-to-digest book also offers helpful lessons for writers, proving that much knowledge is transferable from one artistic discipline to another. For example, Louis Sullivan’s quote, “A proper building grows naturally, logically, and poetically out of all its conditions,” applies equally to writing poems, stories, and plays. “All design endeavors express the zeitgeist.” Indeed. And Frederick’s thoughts on the three levels of knowing – simplicity, complexity, informed simplicity – are especially useful for a minimalist writer to consider. So, this book could alternatively be titled, “101 Things Architecture Teaches Us About Writing.”