Ken Linehan Celebrating 25 Years
Path to Architecture: Entry #2 - Celebrating 25 Years at FK with Ken Linehan
Longevity is part of our foundation at FK. Recently, we celebrated Ken Linehan, who reached his 25th anniversary at our firm, and we are so proud of his achievements.
Ken knew he wanted to be an architect at age eight. It all began when he ended up working with his step-father on a day off from school, putting up wallpaper and painting a dining room. The day got interesting when he accidentally pushed an electrical outlet back into the wall. A large spark shot across the room, hit the curtains, and a plume of smoke came out of the wall where the outlet was. He realized that he loved making the space beautiful, but being an electrician or a firefighter was out of the question.
We sat down with Ken to discuss his background, journey to architecture, and this milestone at FK.
Here’s what we found out.
Ken, what was your journey to get here?
I started at NYIT at the Central Islip Campus in the fall of 1990. In all honesty, the campus was the 2nd largest psychiatric hospital in the United States. They let the patients out in the mid-’80s and turned it into a college campus. I lived there but took classes at the two other campuses, one in Westbury, Long Island, and one in New York City. I have stories, many stories about that place. Go for it, Google: Central Islip State Hospital, and see what comes up. Our studios, previously the tuberculosis ward, looked like our studios on the 2nd floor, trusses and all, just missing the patients. I went directly into the architecture program with about 400 other students; we were told that only about 10% would survive. They were correct, and I graduated with my degree in Architecture in 1996 with only 35 others. I was the only one to leave the New York area and was called out during my walk across the graduation stage for it. The professors were excellent; most of them were from Richard Meier’s office, Michael Graves Office, and KPF. Steven Holl and Charles Gwathmey were typical critics. I got the end of post-modernism and the start of deconstructivism in my blood. I met my wife Kelly at school in November of 1995 after a Halloween party. A picture of me from that night leaves me stunned she still agreed to a date with me.
I also have an MBA from Rollins College. Working while earning my MBA was tough. I don’t think I felt more apart from my family than during that program. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great program, but I don’t think I knew the time commitment associated with it when I applied.
There were obstacles; of course, there were obstacles. I never had an excellent command of anything grammar-related. I was that kid who would stammer all the time. It came through in my speaking and writing; it still happens today. Architecture was a way to break out of that verbal and written mix-up in my head. This inability to write and speak set me back, and I ended up taking an additional year of school because of it. But things happen for a reason; if this didn’t occur, I would not have met my wife at NYIT. I didn’t have any issues on the math and science side. I was tutoring advanced physics and calculus my second year without taking any classes.
I took some classes at MIT the summer after my freshman year at NYIT to see what else was out there. I love Boston. I lived at the Baker House by Alvar Aalto before it was renovated. The showerheads were so low, around five feet, and it was tough as I’m pretty tall. My roommate, also from NYIT, was the spitting image of Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. We spent the summer exploring all aspects of that city. There was nothing better than watching the fireworks from the top of that building on the 4th of July.
After my third year, when I was 20, I was a bit of a vagabond. My parents were in Florida, and I didn’t have a place to live in the summer. I worked full time, slept on friend’s couches, and picked up some sub-leases for a few months. This lasted for the next three summers.
I did learn some valuable lessons. I realized that working with my hands was important, but figuring out how to put things together was just as important. I watched my step-father, John, work endlessly and hard to get ahead. They say you always want your kids to have a better life. I didn’t want to be physically taxed, and architecture was logical to use my creative side and build a career. Now, 40 years later, I know that I would be in a different place without starting that small fire when I was eight.