If you had told me a few months ago that I’d be packing my bags for New York to work at Morphosis, I probably wouldn’t have believed how the pieces fell into place.
I’m Jacobo, an architect fresh out of ETSAM in Madrid. Spending years in those classrooms is an intense ride, but looking back, it was genuinely a wonderful experience. Architecture is a beautiful discipline, and after countless studio marathons, endless iterations, and diving headfirst into design challenges, I finally feel completely equipped to take everything I’ve learned and test it in the real world.
Getting the Arquia Foundation scholarship was already a huge milestone, but my sights were locked on one place: New York City. The challenge? Arquia’s studio roster was divided between NYC and Los Angeles, and the initial slots weren’t lining up the way I had imagined.
Here is where listening to the right advice changed everything. The Architect-US team urged me not to narrow my options and pushed me to take an interview with Morphosis’s Los Angeles studio. Even though it wasn’t the city I had prioritized, I went for it. The conversation clicked immediately, but there wasn’t a direct placement open at that exact second. Then came an unexpected plot twist: another firm in New York suddenly canceled their internship slot. Because that first interview with Morphosis had gone so well, the stars aligned—Morphosis opened up a spot through their New York office specifically for my Arquia placement.
Because this reshuffle happened so late in the game, the visa situation suddenly became high-stakes. The firm had a strict onboarding deadline, meaning even a small bureaucratic delay would have killed the entire opportunity. That pressure could have easily turned into a logistical nightmare, but the Architect-US team moved with incredible precision. They handled every detail of the J-1 process so efficiently that what should have been a nail-biting scramble went off without a hitch.
Now comes the bittersweet, chaotic ritual every traveler knows well: emptying my room, deciding what fits into two suitcases, and packing up years of life in Madrid into cardboard boxes. Looking around at half-bare walls while holding an approved visa makes it all feel shockingly real. In just a few days, it’s time to board that transatlantic flight.
Stepping into a studio that constantly pushes architectural boundaries like Morphosis, set against the backdrop of New York’s sheer urban energy, is the most thrilling challenge I could have asked for. Next time I write, it’ll be straight from Manhattan—stay tuned!
