In terms of leaving a legacy, there can be few careers as satisfying as an architect's. Walter Brangman has been an architect in Bermuda for 45 years and designed both residential and office buildings. His latest project has been a new four storey office building at the intersection of King Street and Reid Street. After this one, he says he will not be seeking any more work. "I'm going into unofficial retirement," he said, smiling.

Looking at Bermuda today, in some ways his greatest achievement has been to bring up three sons with his wife, E. M. Lovette. One son is an accountant at Ernst & Young, another runs his own auto, fire and security company and the third has followed his father into architecture.

Mr. Brangman says he has always tried to encourage his sons and their friends to be positive and not to make excuses for things not happening.

"There are too many young black men in the community with aspirations that are not as positive as they should be," says Mr. Brangman.

He is concerned by the amount of apathy among young men and wants them to start believing in themselves. "There's a lot of evidence of Bermudian women achieving success, such as young women driving around in SUVs, but there's not enough male role models."

Mr. Brangman feels that black businessmen need to take a higher profile role in Bermuda to give some encouragement to the youngsters.

He is a believer in leading by example, so has decided to put his own head on the block. "My story is a story of willingness to work," he said.

It's also a story of rising to the top of a profession via an unconventional route. At age 11 he left school and was apprenticed to his father's carpentry business.

"For me it was a blessing. I was excited to be working with the men." He worked sunrise to sunset, helping make cedar souvenirs for tourists and lounge chairs and wardrobes for the locals.

But by the time he reached 18, he realised he needed a greater challenge. He left Bermuda and went to Canada where he went back to school and "once I studied architecture, I found it fascinating."

Mr. Brangman returned to the Island in 1958 with an architecture qualification. "There were great opportunities when I returned and I still see opportunities today."

Becoming an architect requires a lot of dedication, according to Mr. Brangman. He comments that teachers often encourage children who are good at drawing to consider architecture as a career, but the road to becoming an architect is long and fairly arduous, he warns.

He also advises young people interested in getting involved in the architecture business to get licensed.

"Right now we're in a contruction boom and folks who have not fully trained can find work and they can perform work with no responsibility."

If there's a slowdown in the construction boom however, he believes unregistered architects might find that their work flow dries up.

"A fully trained architect, on the other hand, will always find a niche somewhere in hard times."

Mr. Brangman feels that the biggest threat to the local profession is the international architects. "They get the biggest projects and local architects don't get a sniff of it."

There are plenty of local architects whom Mr. Brangman admires including Stanley Kennedy, John Gardner of Cooper & Gardner, who did the Daniel's Head eco colony at Cambridge Beaches, and David Benevides who is known for his residential work on the Island.

Asked what he thinks about the controversy surrounding architectural designers who are not registered architects, Mr. Brangman says that Government needs to revisit the issue. "We want everyone who is involved in architecture services to to be licensed according to a set of standards."

"Stephen West and Henry Ming are examples of people who should be registered. In my view they've made a great contribution to Bermudian society and they should be recognised for their work."

But for the new generation, he feels that it is important to get fully registered: "If you are content just to be doing drawings, other people will come along and overtake you."