Two years of pre-professional schooling, four years of undergrad, six years of architecture project work.
How Did We Get Here?
My name is Daniel Koehler and I am a graduating Architecture student at the University of Maryland.
I think some part of me always wanted to get here, even when I didn’t know it. When I was about five years old I told my grandmother that I wanted to build a zoo. I was completely fascinated by all the different animals I learned about and all the different ways that they lived. I wanted to build a place to share their stories with the world.
As I grew up my interests evolved, as all of ours do, but a couple of those early inspirations stuck around. I still love animals, as so many of us do, but more importantly I grew to love great stories. I wanted to hear them, I wanted to know them and someday I knew that I wanted to tell them.
That want shone through in a lot of different ways. From reading and writing, to sports and even cooking, all of my interests stemmed from the idea of telling great stories. Then, as a junior in high school, it all came full circle. I was introduced to architecture as a profession and a field of study, and I was amazed by all of the stories that this work can tell.
As an architect, it is my mission to tell those stories. Stories of wonder and amazement, joy and happiness, struggle and triumph. Stories that make the world more fun or more interesting. Stories that are best told by literally stepping inside them.
Through this website I hope I can elaborate. The work you see here is a compilation of the best stories I’ve been able to tell, at least so far. I can only hope it will grow and evolve throughout my career, until the projects shown here are something we can all be entertained by. In concept, for now, and eventually in person.
So if you appreciate my sentiment here, and you believe in some of the work that you see, please reach out. Maybe we can finally get around to building that zoo that I promised my grandmother.
