Gawker
The Banana Republic ad with the architects—it's everywhere! And it raised some questions for us. So we asked an architect—we'll call him Frankie Lloyd—who works at "a large firm downtown with an eccentric, megalomaniac starchitect at the helm" how the ad stacked up to his reality. The answers may surprise you!
Gawker: So have you seen those Banana Republic ads?
Frankie: No, I haven't.
Gawker: Okay, pick up a copy of any magazine. Well, any medium to highbrow magazine — the New Yorker or New York mag will work well.
Frankie: Yeah, OK. I saw the one inside the cover of this week's New Yorker.
Wow, the colors of those shirts are very bright!
Gawker: So what is it like being surrounded by nubile 23 year olds in khaki coordinates at all times?
Frankie: I am not really sure, to be honest with you. I think I may be involved
in some different types of architecture than these people.
Gawker: What do you mean, it's not really like that?
Frankie: Well, firstly, these people look really well-rested and almost obscenely casual. If this were a real meeting, the model on the table would have some stray marks on it. More likely, it would be shattered in a million pieces on the floor.
Also, in my experience no architects dress like that - the Liebeskind eyeglasses and black turtleneck/blazer, German expressionist style is still the bottom line at most nyc offices. Most people are executing variations on this basic Sprockets-y theme.
Gawker: Well, you guys do spend a lot of time in the airy conference room overlooking the Hudson, staring at little wooden dollhouses and making flirty-eyes at each other, right?
Frankie: I think this is a myth more dangerous than the "Michael Brady is an architect" myth. The Brady Bunch story is totally feasible if you consider that he was an architect and he got divorced, most likely because he worked too much and cheated on his wife with someone from the office. That part is probably true, but that is where the Brady resemblance to reality ends. Honestly, there is just no way he is at home doing sketches and having Peter and Cindy barge in with their completely pedestrian nonsense and still be able to get any real building done.
Gawker: Which of the ladies in this ad most resembles a lady from your office?
Frankie: There was only one woman with four or five guys in the ad that I was
looking at in the New Yorker. She did not seem to reflect the disproportionately large number of Asian women in the field, so on this basis alone I won't take a stab at this resemblance question.
That having been said, there is a guy with curly hair sitting at the table who looks like a lighting designer I have worked with. Those guys are total lightweights.
Gawker: Do people wear trench coats indoors a lot at your office?
Frankie: People do tend to wear trench coats a lot. I think architects probably
are really into outerwear. In our office at least, for most of the year they blast the air conditioning to keep us awake all day and maintain design productivity. I don't know if this is like an industry-wide practice, but it is very effective.
Gawker: How would you describe your cheekbones, compared to those of the
architects in this advertisement?
Frankie: Yeah, I mean, compared to these people my cheekbones are so highly
undistinguished. I have nothing more to say on this question.
Gawker: How often do ladies put their giant hobo bags on the conference table during a meeting? Do you think that's appropriate?
Frankie: It is somewhat common. One woman in the office rocks one of these when she goes to the construction site. She's kind of homely, but I think the bag helps the general look and it gets her the whistles and catcalls she so desperately craves from construction workers.
Gawker: Do you think these ads will inspire a lot of youngsters to become architects when they grow up?
Frankie: If I were a high schooler with architectural aspirations seeing this, it would probably be too seductive to resist. Five years in a design program, however, at a sufficiently respectable design school will bleed most of the color out of this person's palette and leave them crushed and vulnerable enough to fully engage the profession.
Comments
So people in fashion ads look more attractive than people in real life? Thanks for blowing the lid off this one, Gawker.
I have a friend who's an architect. He does not look like this, though he does have excellent cheekbones.
The only way that this image has any connection to the world of architecture is if it's actually looking through the eyes of an architect, arriving at a meeting with five snooty, intimidating and demanding clients, who are expecting to see a masterpiece but all you have is a spidery doodle on a piece of A4, a few vague ideas in your head that you aren't articulate enough to express, and a killer hangover.
Actually, this looks a lot like a certain large midtown architechture firm headed by an eccentric but architecturally dull starchitecht where I worked briefly. No models, but basically the same.
Mister Architect need to put his feet flat on the floor.
When your heels keep floating up towards the ceiling, people start to talk.
Any of the architects in NYC that look like this (and there are a few - I work with scores of architects) are gay.
The straights ones (sadly, and ironically) look a lot more like Mike Brady.
BTW, the previous comment was not meant to imply that I am or was an architect. But I did work for Art Vandelay.
Okay, flashman for gold star motel.
Hmmmm....everyone dresses like this at my architecture firm. Furthermore, everyone works too much, drinks too much, and cheats on their spouses "with someone from the office."
Call it a happy medium, or just a bunch of business casual alcoholics scribbling on cocktail napkins and banging one another.
The only trench coats, however, are those worn while otherwise nekkid.
I agree with Frank, homely people should dress nicer than us attractive people.
I've never seen an architect that looks this self-satisfied. Usually they have that look about them that strikes me as:
"I'm really smart, and I'd really like a job where I can express myself, but I don't really have any passion or direction in my life, so my innate defense against disappointment and disaster is to try to control as much as possible in my little corner of the world, so I've decided to become an architect."
Then they get the job and realize they were wrong. They have no control.
Let me just say that "it is all about the details" in the world of architecture.
#1 - Architectural books do not have colorful jackets, and are typically thicker than 1/2". Also there would be no room on that back bookshelf whatsoever. In fact, there should be an overflow on top of that shelf.
#2 - Where are the accessories? These girls all wore neckline shirts just to expose their necks? Highly unlikely.
#3 - What temperature is it in the office that one girl is in a sleeveless silk shirt and another is in a trench coat? All girls agree: offices are generally freezing. ESPECIALLY if the guy is wearing a sport coat.
#4 - Is that a cafeteria table?
#5 - Where's the coffee?
#6 - Is this a sale ad? Don't they know architects can't actually afford Banana Republic?!
...and he got divorced, most likely because he worked too much and cheated on his wife with someone from the office.
Wait- wasn't this the plot from "Jungle Fever"? So Spike Lee's message was completely wrong?
The movie wasn't an analysis of interracial relationships but of architects' inabilities to not bone their secretaries on their desks after late nights of take-out Chinese? It's that epidemic?
My whole world is shaken.
The woman in the back has some kind of lesion on her cheekbone.
(Nobody at a real architectural firm would)
Has everyone forgotten that Mike Brady really was in the closet?
Looks like an actual workplace to me, what with the minorities shoved in the back and all.
The black woman's head is cut off for chrissakes.
Architects - not man enough to be engineers, not gay enough to be interior designers. So, yeah, BR just played it safe when selecting the target market.
Oh no, I can never be an architect--air conditioning makes me sleepy.
They play with toy houses in architectural firms? Who knew.
They actually look cute, except for the clothes.
Not my type, but I'd fuck the one guy in the room.
This has to be a tie-in to a new Fox drama. I work with a psychiatrist who looks and dresses like the guy in the photo. Suffice it to say I hate him.
The real clue that Mike Brady wasn't a real architect was the fact that he built their house and only made one bedroom each for the boys and girls. Huge house like that and they were squeezed into those quarters. No wonder they were all fighting for the attic.
polypam, that's just based on the architectural theory of 'existenzminimum.'
And doesn't it allow for so many more dramatic possibilities?
I'm going to start tossing the phrase "pedestrian nonsense" into more conversations.
all that matters is that the brunette at the far right is Luca Gadjuf from germany and she is 1000% german All Babe
most architects i know are too poor and too creative for head-to-toe banana...
Live on coffee and mountain dew, sleep under your desk, make just enough money to make your rent. Have everyone else think your profession is glamorous and high-paying. While deeply fulfilling, it can leave a serious dent in your social life. These guys are way too bright-eyed. They don't look damaged enough by critiques and they don't have near enough stains on their clothing.
...More like Banana Republic SALE RACK.
Draft like a Champion Today.
Notre Dame Football Rules.
Not having seen the ad campaign I can only comment on the included photo.
What makes you think it's an architectural firm? I look at the photo and see an Interiors meeting. Four women, inappropriately dressed (for the office) sitting around looking glamorous... that's interior designers for you.
Also, note the lack of any drawings. Architects cant talk without a few drawings and some trace paper (aka bum-wad).
Also note the table and chairs. KARENA correctly notes the amount of space left on the shelf and the non-architectural books on the table. But if you look closely, the table and chairs appear to be from a school, where brightly colored books and empty shelves would seem to fit.
But Interior Designers wouldn't have a public school for a client. There's the lie of it all.
this might blow the cover, but the 1932 Chelsea-Starret-Lehigh Building that this shoot was taken at, does resemble an interior/high-end luxury store design firm that I worked for, and it was somewhat more of an interiors firm than an architectural firm. adding to that, the model shows a section of a house, therefore, there can be a high possibility that this ad could just be trying to evoke an interiors firm, rather than a purely design based architectural firm.
that's just my five cents.
but yes, I've worked with people like this...bland...
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