Jun 5, 2024 _ news

Licensed to Build: Emre Erenler

We’re delighted to announce that Emre Erenler has passed all his architecture licensing requirements and is now an officially licensed architect.

Becoming licensed takes dedication, focus, and stamina. It is a rigorous, often multi-year endeavor requiring at least 3,740 hours of experience in six different practice areas (e.g. Project Management, Programming & Analysis, Construction & Evaluation, etc.) and passing a set of six corresponding exams. Committing to a study and test-taking schedule helped Emre tackle one exam per month to keep his momentum rolling. “AIA Minneapolis had great exam books and Black Spectacles and Young Architect both offered great insights,” he says.

Given the arduous process for becoming a licensed architect, what made Emre want to pursue licensure? “Being educated and working overseas for most of my career, licensure helps me be part of the community here in the US and ensures the level of capabilities that I can bring to my work, “says Emre, who practiced architecture in his native country Turkey for ten years before moving to the US. He brought with him a passion for adaptive reuse and seeing existing buildings as trusted, familiar friends. “Priorities in a densely populated city like Istanbul, with its 18 million people and limited space, are different. In the old city, it’s common to design a new building close to another building from the 15^th century, or to repurpose an almost 200-year-old salt repository to be an advertising agency,” he says. “For me, every site and every building has the potential of adaptive reuse.”

Congratulations Emre! Learn more about him here.