Name: Bruce Rosenbaum
Job title and company: Founder, ModVic
Degree(s): BBA and MBA
Professional interests: Direct marketing, design and steampunk
What are you working on now?
Creating a Steampunk Art & Design Center right outside Boston
How do you explain to your mom what you do for a living?
I would tell her that I do steampunk design, and she would ask me, “What is steampump?” She never truly understood what I did but supported me every step of the way. In every one of our phone conversations, she would tell me “Hang in there, kid; it will come.” She died last April at the age of 80. Her words are coming true.
What inspired you today?
Sitting in front of my Steampunk Victorian Pump Organ Command Computer Workstation writing the answers to your interview questions—it inspires me to do my creative best every day.
What architectural buzzword would you kill?
Upcycling
When you’re working, do you discuss or exchange ideas with your colleagues?
Yes. Steampunk design is all about collaboration. Fusing art and science, form and function, past and present requires many different skill sets. Working with others is key to creating the highest quality, most functional art and design.
What are you reading?
The Invention of Hugo Cabret (not many words) [by Brian Selznick]
Do you sketch by hand or digitally?
I employ artists [who] do both.
Has your career taken you anywhere you didn’t expect?
Yes. I’m a marketing guy by training; now I’m working with incredible left-brain/right-brain artists, craftspeople and designers.
Where is the field of architecture headed?
[Toward] repurposing with purpose: making meaningful spaces by integrating the past with the present and futureCan design save the world?
Steampunk design, maybe
What do you hope to contribute from your work?
Getting people to think differently about how they look at the objects [and] spaces around them; to help people problem solve and be inspired to innovate and, in the process, help to improve themselves
Who or what deserves credit for your success?
My mother and father [who are] my models for resilience and kindness—two of the most important ingredients for happiness and success in life
Your least favorite college class?
Stats. There are lies, big lies and statistics.
If you could give the you-of-10-years-ago advice, what would it be?
Watch out for the next major recession in 2007/2008; everyone will be affected. Don’t start a Victorian restoration company right when it is happening. Plan accordingly.
Your favorite Boston-area structure?
Boston’s South Station building
Who would you like the BSA to interview next?
An architect who is repurposing with purpose
If you were on a late-night TV show, what would your 30-second plug be?
My company does steampunk functional art and design—fusing modern technology into period objects, a perfect blend of past and present, art and science, form and function.
If you could sum up your outlook on life in a bumper sticker, what would it say?
Hang in there, kid; it will come.