Murtadha’s Triad Story: A dream to be an Architect that builds community.
Watching my dad, a former contractor, designing and building houses around my neighborhood and my hometown, formed my first perception of what a builder can do and how they can impact peoples’ lives. He used to take me to work; show me around and explain what the process is to build a house. Also, I remember watching the foremen executing the plan and converting the design from ink into a real house that families would live in.
From my early years, I knew that I wanted to be the type of builder (designer) who works with different people from different backgrounds helping them achieve their dreams, impacting their neighborhood, and ultimately impacting their city.
Because of the civil war in Iraq in 2005, my family and I had to flee to different countries, and I ended up attending Highschool in Egypt. After graduating from Highschool in 2009, I moved to Ukraine to start my bachelor’s degree with only one year of studying the Russian language (the formal language of Ukraine at the time). For a lot of reasons beyond my control, I ended up studying civil engineering. After my graduation, I moved to Dubai, UAE to start my career as a designer (structural engineering).
After a couple of years working in Dubai, I decided to join my family who came to Columbus in 2012. This took several years to make happen. When I first came here, in January 2018, I worked as a BIM specialist, project coordinator and then structural designer in a local structural engineering firm. Even though I worked in the engineering field for a while, my thoughts, mind, and my passion were all about becoming an architect. Because I believe this country is the land of opportunity, I decided to go back and chase my childhood dream. But didn’t know where or how to start.
Having a B.S. Degree in engineering with no experience in architectural design, with the English language being my third language, I had obstacles (at least in my mind) to becoming an architect. But Triad widely opened the doors for me and allowed me to break through those barriers and focus on the passion I have to be an Architect.
The reasons I chose Triad is because Triad and I have values in common: Diversity is on the top of the list. Not just because I am defined as diverse by nationality, but I am diverse by educational background, and previous experiences. Also, I am diverse by cultures and the number of places I have lived in. This main reason made me more comfortable and confident being part of this small community. Another value I share with Triad is giving back to communities. From the first day I entered The United States, I have been giving back to my community, the refugee community. With Triad and the type of projects we do along with the volunteering work that we do, it feels like Triad is a non-profit organization, even though it’s not.
Now, at Triad, I enjoy the friendships, flexibility, growth, projects diversity, and the amount of volunteering work.
- Friendships: I feel that everyone at Triad, from the leadership, to managers, and designers, we are friend and not just a coworker that I see and collaborate with from 9 to 5. We have coffee together; we spend time during the weekends together; and we do non-work-related activities together.
- Flexibility: Flexible working hours is a huge asset at Triad and this asset is aligned with my needs and lifestyle as I am going back to school (perusing graduate degree in Architecture).
- Growth: Since the first day I stepped into Triad’s office until now, my knowledge keeps developing every day, my skillset keeps growing and my perception of this industry keeps evolving.
- Projects Diversity: In this short period of time from the first day I started (9 months ago), I have worked on different types and sizes of projects from new construction, to additions and renovation projects, all with different types of clients between the public and private sectors.
- Volunteering: Volunteering work is one of the impressive aspects surrounding Triad. Even though I don’t participate in all of them, I do feel proud of this small organization and the impact it has on the community.
Finally – this is me, my story and how I came to Triad but now, I am part of “WE ARE TRIAD!”
