The Big Gay Architect has been really busy. Or Twitter seemed to think so last week.
Very rarely do I find myself tagged in social media posts, so seeing my name pop up is something of a treat. And last week was no exception. According to the folks at Clerkenwell Design Week, I just revealed plans for a neuroscience center in Denmark. Yes. Denmark.
Somewhere between the residential work that’s the bread and butter of my practice, I managed to churn out some amazing plans and renderings for this project. Not to mention squeezing in time for international travel. Not bad for a one-man show.
But no wonder I’ve been feeling so tired.
As I was winding down my very grumpy week and preparing for a four-hour drive to Austin, seeing Clerkenwell’s tweet show up in my notifications certainly elevated my mood. And for all sorts of reasons, starting with this being a fantastic social media faux pas.
If you’re on Twitter, you’ll get to see all types of miscues, typos, and outright cock ups. Even better when it’s some celebrity or politician posting something so inane you can’t help rolling your eyes and wondering what they were thinking. Not to mention waiting to see how long before their communications director or publicist yanks the post down and attempts to blame it on someone else.
Except that nothing ever disappears from social media. As part of the first architecture marketing presentation we did in 2010, we tried to emphasize to the audience how much what happens in Vegas no longer stays in Vegas. The minute that oh-so-funny pic hits Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, be ready for that to make a return trip. Most likely when you least expect.
And I will admit taking a screenshot of the post took about two seconds. And only minutes before I was gleefully sharing that with my office mates. And my friends. And an architecture colleague in Northern Ireland. And my Instagram account. I mean, how do I pass that up?
Clerkenwell was shooting for a shared post about work Bjarke Ingels Group was doing in Denmark. Except someone was in a hurry and didn’t catch that while BIG might be a nice abbreviation for Bjarke, Twitter wasn’t having it. And that @BigGayArchitect made such a lovely substitution.
I knew it wouldn’t take long before the post would disappear, and by the end of the weekend, it was indeed gone. I did help that along by being a good social media architect and pointing out their boo-boo. Not that I didn’t also tell them thanks for the shout out, then tag everyone’s social media handle in my IG post.
Certainly a nice way to end a busier-than-I-knew work week. And if I ever get to Copenhagen, I’ll have to take a moment to see how my work is coming along.
