To be an Architect: a heartfelt memoir
My voyage of discovery to study architecture in its original setting, absorbing its history and culture. En route I met many people and learned a lot about human nature.
Category: Peter H. Green. Writer
Becoming an Architect: My Voyage of Discovery
“How did you decide on becoming an architect?” a colleague asked me not so long ago, Back then, I hadn’t given my rocky path to the profession much thought. “It was a voyage of discovery,” I would have to reply today. I learned that discovering its scope and then restoring …
Grandpa’s advice: “Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty!”
“Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty!” Grandpa’s advice appeared in a mid-1930s Chicago Herald-Examiner series, If I were twenty-one… Since many will seek new careers as America recovers from the pandemic, this is advice any young man or woman should follow today. A self-made man My grandfather, Frank …
Engineer on horseback: New memoir
An engineer on horseback, my grandfather rode his horse over a hundred miles home from western Montana to meet his newborn daughter. Frank J. Herlihy, civil engineer, designed and supervised construction of rail bridges for the Milwaukee Road. In 1913 he got news several days after the fact of the …
A Virtual Christmas
Mom and Dad spent a virtual Christmas in December 1944 through their frequent letters. To avoid infecting others with the rampant corona virus, many of us in America will again have to forego our traditional holiday visits with distant sons, daughters and grandchildren, other relatives and friends. Front line workers …
Wear a Mask, Vote and Set Us Free
Many people still refuse to wear a mask in public during the pandemic. Without others’ respect for public health and CDC guidelines, senior citizens, including my wife and I, feel like hostages to the deadly virus. The scourge has already altered our free society and robust economy beyond recognition. Support …
Why we go to war: to fight the bullies
It’s important today, when we have bullies at the highest levels of government–spreading fear and distrust and discrediting our loyal troops–to remember why we go to war: to fight the bullies. With a wife and two children, my dad nonetheless enlisted in the Marine Corps during World War II to …
Dad’s scoop: news of Japan’s surrender, August 14, 1945
On August 14, 2020, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, ending World War II. My dad, Private First Class Ben Green, a seasoned ad man who had assumed management by default of Armed Forces Radio Station WXLI, Guam, slapped the news on the air a 3:58 PM …
Architect’s Dream — Summer in Europe
An architect’s dream trip to Europe I made in 1959 came to mind, as forced confinement stimulated my urge to record my memoirs. The extended pandemic and the new travel ban Europe has imposed on the U.S. are making me nostalgic for the days when such a trip was easy, …
Join the architectural elite? Forget it
An architectural elite: the Bauhaus Did you ever wonder why so much of twentieth century architecture looks the same? In fact, its stripped steel and glass look was hard to ignore – it was rising all around us in the major cities. It started when the 1930s German architect Walter …