Licensure: The Long and Winding Road
Bryan Wendell Hudson
Licensed 2009
Written August 2009

I never really thought about what my story would be. I don’t want to be long winded but there’s so much to say… At any rate my, first experience with the Architectural Registration Exam (A.R.E.) came thru INOMA in ’93 on a Saturday test prep event. I actually got to practice the graphic section of the test. This was my first year in studio. I didn’t finish it but got a certificate for being the only student to show up and participate. It would be 9 years before I was eligible for the computerized version.

Fast forward to March 2002 to, NOMA founder, Wendell Campbell and Associates’ offices. This was the earliest stage of our current recession and the first time I was eligible to test. Site Planning was taken and failed. Since I was designing parking lots and structures I thought it would be a slam dunk. Not only did I fail, but I got laid off… I had to ask myself, do I eat and pay rent while looking for a job or study and find money to pay for the test. Well I chose to eat…(I’m sure a lot of you have dealt with this situation or may be now…) I didn’t take another test for sixteen months because in my new job that I started six months later, I was working 16hr days with no time to study. The next three exams I took with similar results to the first with the exception that the format changed again. I finally scored my first pass with Construction Documents in 2006. It would be another nine months before I passed yet a newer version of Site Planning. After that success, I finally started to get some confidence. In 2007, I had two more down with a promise made to one of the NOMAC members to be done by the following year’s NOMA conference.
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