My name is Charles Matthews. I am an architect who started working in and around architecture and design since 1986 formally, but if I look back on my life, I began being interested in construction from the time I was in about fourth grade when I was about 9 years old. It was at that time that my father began to build the house that I would grow up in.
There were a number of arrangements that at the time I didn’t know about nor did I care… I was just a kid. Although his formal profession for many years had been a math teacher in high school, my grandfather was hired as a general contractor to build the house. Although he had no formal training, he had what he had picked up over the course of his life. The house was being built in the late seventies / early eighties, and we were in rural Mississippi. There were to my knowledge no OSHA laws that anyone checked on or enforced, no enforced building codes, no inspections. But even now over 40 years later, the house in all its glory still stands. I will go into more detail at some future point about the house as it is an extremely unique one.
I enjoyed playing around the construction site. Because we grew up on the same piece of property the house was being built on, I had easy access to walk around and play on and in all of the house… the rafters, walking around the framing, jumping into and our of holes dug for footings and piers (of which I found a really cool frog once). The soil was red clay and it was an extremely rich, fun time. I was also given a job of picking up nails that had fallen. I worked on that job for about 30 minutes, then was back to my swinging from the rafters. Literally.
I believe that time in my life gave me a feeling of comfortability with being at a construction site. Seeing the attitude of my grandpa toward the people he worked with- the smiles and congeniality that he used at the job in order to get along well with everyone (as best as possible) and solve problems was and still is a good example to this day.
Don’t get me wrong, there were problems that came about and at times hard words said. But, the overall impression of that time in my life was one of warmth, love, care and concern for those who would be living in the house… men working together to solve problems and challenges. There was a spirit of ‘can-do’ that eventually resulted in the job being ‘done’.
Next year will mark my tenth as a licensed architect. It is my hope that as I continue to progress, that I can bring the same good attitude, positive hope, help and perseverance to all of the work I do.