Architecture schools owe students more than design

I Completely agree!

I have found a place in BIM management and technical production that I learned after leaving school. 5 years turned to 7 as the professors found my design work average, occasionally (literally) stomping my?and others' models they were displeased with.

After having each of us spend thousands on a 486 computer in '94 and an AutoCAD license, I sought to use AutoCAD to do more... Building from the inside out for what we need rather than what we want, looking at ways to use computers to model in 3D, isolate clearances and define building in a "Form follows function" format... draft without the board and pen! Oh, how they hated that! (Oh how I paid double for it!)

But despite the investment it was just a ploy to get more students for the school. They shut me down every chance they got. Even winning the AIA competition in '95(i think) for rendering wasn't enough.

Oh, And That "cube" exercise- I really irritated one of my Profs, Mr. 'F', when I had this highly elaborate facade with circular and patterned cuts and chipboard extrusions into the void... from the front : ) but the back and the sides were flat 2D cutouts. Lots of craftsmanship and time in that exercise. It reflected my feelings on the exercise and the limited time we had to complete it. Mr. 'F' had his 'favorite' group (to hate), he reminded us with is havorite expression "You are a slacker Mr Allen, waiting till the last minute to get things done and you ran out of time"... Yeah, there were a lot of us 'slackers' buried under tons of "Cor curriculum" like Chemistry, History, English, Math, Business classes, and Architectural history taught by 'F'; who by the way was one of two architectural historians in the country at the time… every undergrad history class was taught with expectation of a graduate level class(Took a couple of those twice (Facepalm!) I also stayed in Band for the first 5 years of college to help defray the cost of my education, all of which added up to 19+ hour semesters.

The idea seemed to be finding any reason to fail us or humiliate us so we would have to repeat a semester or eventually leave. The year before I came in, it was almost like they had a quota... In a semester at midterm finals, they created two impossible projects for second year, if I recall, amidst all the core curricula. I didn't see it but the people in their 4th year whom I caught up to in my 2nd year said more than half the class didn't make it and only about half of those came back.

Only those deemed 'good' designers weren't 'slackers' to mr. 'F', even though most of them worked on schedules much like the rest of us- catching up in the last-minute all-nighters. It came easy to them, and believe me, I am not knocking them though I may be a little envious. Design is important, you can see what strikes a chord internally with the masses, but there is so much more to Architecture beyond pretty pictures and floor plans. (Frank Lloyd Wright's work is beautiful with its low slung prairie style up north, but it leaks a lot with snow and buildup.)

My only saving grace was a kindred spirit in Jackson named Chris Risher. Revered with a godlike status among the professors in 5th year, he saw my work as exciting, bold, beautiful., and 'well proportioned'. My favorite memory was this side project in 5th year, we had with watercolors and representing images in color, tone, greyscale, etc. using Red, Yellow and Blue pigments in separate washes only. They had us fill large mason jars with the minutest amount of color leaving the water tinted and mostly transparent. The idea was we would wash a little on and let it dry then apply another coat and build up the color. Most folks had followed instructions to the T. When Roy and Chris came around – "Wow that is a lot of color, looks really nice. Can we see your water?" I pulled out the jars filled with opaque colors, Roy smirked, and Chris gave out a little guffaw and "Yeah, good!" comment. I nearly fell out of my chair- smiling and laughing outside and inside. Still makes me happy when I think about it. I really wish all my professors, architecture in particular, sought to find the merits in our work, and I wish they had work with us to find ways to use what we knew and fill in gaps of things we didn't know. Stakes today are even higher with education institutions being for profit, more focused on profit than education.

Though I am done with my IDP, not sure if I need to get licensed after all these years :/ I keep intending too but work hours are long, and the pay finally is getting good; not sure a 5K bump is worth it.

Sharon Roe, Chris Risher, and Roy Decker stood out in my 'curriculum vitae'. Greg Watson , temp prof., was a lot of fun and educational in his brief stay. Chris died April 7th, 2017. I regret not trying to visiting him in Jackson to see if I could sit and have a few drinks with him.

Sharon Roe, a guest from UMN, was the only professor to ever ask us what we might find valuable that she could shar and could benefit from. I said, "It would be great if we could see how others think like an Architect, in hopes of how we might apply our version of it." Which she did! Finally, 4 years into the program, I and several fellow 'slackers' gained some critical insights into thought process in design. This was like the best margin notes you could ever find the half-blood prince's potions book. Mrs. Roe shared the richness of valuable relationships and understanding of the habitability and interaction with the space; Most critically keys to look for with 'client' interaction. It was like a light went on for us. Professor Roe, and Professor Decker were two professors that showed an interest in sharing what they knew, the two of them stood out the most as striving bolster our understanding of Architecture, passive systems, and the thought process.

I am not sure what Happened to Mrs. Roe. Towards then end of 4th year. It seemed 'F' didn't like her, and at the time, Architecture's dogmatic persona was chauvinistic and male dominated profession. It felt like something broke and things just 'got wrong' somehow. Given it was Mississippi and it was still the heyday of the good ole boy days, in my opinion someone at the higher ups doubled down on the Chauvinism.

Despite 7 years in Architecture, ?we never got into envelopes, or water penetration, or thoughts on constructability, insulation or efficiency. ?There were two semesters of math and calculations in static structures, but not anything on integration and application pf that knowledge. There was one rare 'design a brick' and a 'create a concrete door' project but the door was a couple classes ahead of me in 5th year, and the materials and construction were barely tangential to the design aspect.

The 'non-slacker' 'good designs' were the Hadid'esque roofs and walls that would cost a fortune, if it could be built; Beautiful flights of fantasy that are commonly impractically intense material hogs. I love those buildings, but when we look at the world, it's filled with boxes and apartments and little pink houses, for you and me.

I would have gone to building sciences at another college had I not exhausted my funding limits and acquired my substantial debt from my 9 years in school.?Not the greatest GPA when you take the hit from a couple of semesters of ? of your hours with a 0.0 because the design failed, or they felt you didn't have it, or you made an intractable mistake on an adjoining wall detail. The heart of the issue- Building science, construction detailing, and a codes class would have prevented that! ?Still, I learned a lot form my other classes and love opportunities to keep learning.

Ah, to Live and to keep learning!