Charles were you ever of a member of this architectural society?
http://archleague.org/My ex used to be a big supporter of this group, used it for lots of networking.
They have great exhibits and lectures...
My oldest son wants to be an architect so I broke out my old texts and architecture books to look at....this thread brought back lots of memories.
I found him flipping thru one of my texts by charles Jenks, "Meaning in Architecture", basically a text on semiotics in architecture and a whole lot more, very dense and difficult text.
My architectural history teacher would use this text from time to time, I tried to read the whole book but it is like reading, Prolegamena to any future metaphysics", by Kant....tough stuff.
I showed him my Corbu and Mies photo books lest he be discouraged!
I still have an old K&E letter tracer we used to use, remember those?
AutoCad just started when I was in college, but we still had to know how to use these tools.
Remember pulling charrettes? So much hard work involved, many people don't know how truly difficult it is to become an architect.
Saabs and Volvos were the car of choice!