Anne Hee-Sung Choo, AIA

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: On January 5, Anne Hee-Sung Choo, AIA, became the 80,000th member of the AIA. The recently licensed Choo is a South Korean-born architect who planned on being a musician as a child. She has played piano, violin, and danced ballet for most of her life. Now, she is a project architect in the science and technology practice area of the San Francisco office of Flad and Associates.

Education: BS in architecture from Seoul National University in 1995; Diplôme de deuxième cycle en Architecture in 1999, and Diplôme d’architecte (DPLG) in 2001 from the École d’architecture de la Ville et des Territoires à Marne-la-Vallée, France.

Date of licensure: March 2006

First job out of college: It was in a very small firm in South Korea that was doing competitions, so you do very experimental designs. That was the first job. I think it was because I was a fresh graduate from college. I think they often ask interns to produce new ideas. I think that’s why I was involved in that kind of work.

Favorite book: One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez. I just loved that book because everything, every unreal thing was written as if every thing can be real. I think when you do architecture, when you first conceive something, you need to be able to see unreal things happening and then try to make these unreal ideas for real concrete buildings. When you imagine in your head, everything is possible.

Why you became an architect: When I was preparing to go to college, I read an article in Time magazine. I don’t really remember the article, just the photo of a very exotic building. I just suddenly decided to do architecture on seeing that photo. Before then, I was hesitating between [being a] scientist and musician. I decided not to be a musician because I began to realize that, mentally, I was already not fully “unrealistic” to be a professional performing artist. So I thought I would be a scientist. I loved reasoning. Then I read “too realistic” science books and that scared me off. So, I think I was unconsciously looking for something that could satisfy both my desire for art and desire for reasoning. And when I saw the article on architecture with a picture of a beautiful building, I just instantaneously decided to become an architect. Before then, I never was aware of architecture as a profession. It was just a few months before I applied for college. However, I was briefly a graduate student in Orchestra Conducting at the Korean National University of Arts after I finished my bachelor’s degree. I just had to do it to make sure that I [would] not miss not becoming a professional performing artist, and it turned out to be a good experience and somewhat assuring.

Why you joined the AIA: When I graduated college and entered the professional world, I felt that I needed some more education. I felt stagnant, not really learning anymore but just working. I knew that the technology in architecture was progressing because I saw it in school, but when you’re in the office it’s hard to have contact with new ideas and evolving technology. I thought I needed to get more continuing education if I didn’t want to be just where I [was when I] graduated.

Inspiration: My role model was always my father, who died about 15 years ago. Even though I don’t remember much anymore, I remember that he wanted me to be always doing what I really wanted, and be always confident, and not lie to myself, because sometimes you compromise in yourself, not even knowing it. I was trying not to do that.

On taking the ARE: I think I spent more than three years to get everything done. ARE is not an easy exam. To pass each part, you need to study quite a lot. Then you take the exam and you’re exhausted, so you need a month or two months of time to attempt the next exam. It took me a lot of time.

On becoming AIA Member Number 80,000: I was really honored, but the thing is, when I first heard it, I thought it was a joke or something. Really. I thought [it was] some kind of advertising call saying you just won some kind of lotto and you get a prize or something. But I was really happy to be the 80,000th member. I hope the AIA can have our 100,000th member pretty soon so that we can have another digit in our member numbers!