The beginning

My hometown is known for having more bars per square mile than any other in the country. This was not why we moved there. My father got a job as an architect with a company that made modular buildings, so we landed in Oswego, New York in 1969, just before I turned 5. After the company went out of business a few years later, Dad opened a one-man architectural firm in a converted room in the front of our three-story house on the east side of town. The street-level sign, “Carl Baumann, Architect”, had a red arrow pointing up the cement stairs to the front door.