GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Atlanta, GA

Georgia Tech was founded in 1885 as part of a national reconstruction plan to build an industrial economy in the post-Civil War Southern United States. Today, Georgia Tech is organized into six colleges and contains 31 departments, with emphasis on science and technology. It is well recognized for its degree programs in engineering, computing, business administration, the sciences, design, liberal arts and, . . . . architecture. The Institute is consistently ranked among the best universities in the United States and the world. For over a decade, Georgia Tech has remained in the top ten public universities in the United States, and is currently listed as the smartest public college in the United States.

I enrolled at Tech in the School of Architecture in the summer of ’63. Admitted with marginal high school grades, my first year was touch-and-go academically. When my dad “cut me off”, that motivated me to clean up my performance. While there for the 5-year program, I matured physically, academically and socially, graduating in 1968, just in time for the Viet Nam draft. I remember Tech as hard work, but fun. I was so proud when my oldest son got his undergraduate architecture degree there too, but him with high honors.

This sketch was done from the top floor corner suite of one of my company’s most successful hotels. We’ve held our office Christmas party there on a few occasions. The dome building in the foreground is the Tech basketball arena, affectionately known by Techies as “the big tit”. All of the buildings behind the arena post-date my time at Tech.