I have attended architecture school for five arduous but rewarding years, and it all boiled down to a 30 minute critique on a project that was supposed to summarize the wealth of knowledge I acquired at Cal Poly Pomona. It's funny how architecture school works. I'm not saying that I'm dissatisfied, ungrateful, or upset at my critique or how my undergraduate life ended--quite the opposite, actually.

Photo by Zack Green - Presenting my project, "All Hail the Strip Mall", to Andrew Kovacs, Alvin Huang, Frank Clementi, Jimenez Lai, Herwig Baumgartner, Bryan Cantley, and Paul Gasiorkiewicz

In the beginning of the school year, a little over 60 students chose one of four tracks to follow, each led by one faculty member. Axel Schmitzberger focused on "invisible infrastructures", which are often underrated and surreptitious parts of the built environment (e.g. warehouses, storage, etc.). Michael Fox utilized technology to influence how buildings work and how it can alter or create programs, such as drone testing facilities. Alex Pang's studio designed housing, while Sasha Ortenberg studied utopian architecture in a modern context. While certain projects lent themselves towards the more polemical side, Cal Poly Pomona's department of architecture requires the projects to be comprehensive, rather than theses.

Photo by Zack Green - Senior project adviser Axel Schmitzberger introduces Cal Poly Pomona's senior projects and the present jurors.

The senior project reviews once again took place in a small warehouse-like space within downtown Los Angeles' City Market. Display boards decorated the chain link fences and student-made partition walls, and models of all sizes brought attention to the impressiveness of Cal Poly students' craftsmanship. The various pockets of space, made up of the partition walls, held a number of projects, all of which were grouped based on the tracks to which they belonged.

Photo by Zack Green - Daniel Lawrence presents his project, "Intense Cycles International Headquarters", within a corner of one partitioned pocket of the room. 

Every once in a while sleep-deprived students scurried towards the chain link fences to adjust their hanging drawings, while others posed happily for the camera next to their work. Another handful of students sat in lonely corners of the room or smoked cigarettes outside as they collected their thoughts for their final presentation.

Photo by Lara Barnes - Jose Mero poses in front of his impressive display of drawings.

After myriad sleepless nights, tears, and disposed X-acto blades, I am glad to say that it all worked out in the end, and I am proud of my colleagues for producing the best projects they have done thus far. I was fortunate enough to have an appropriate panel of critics that could understand my project and intentions. Some of them are, in fact, the people I look up to most, and I was so honored to have them see and speak about my project. Each of the seven panels were filled with heavy hitters who offered constructive feedback and insight on all the projects. Some of the jurors included David Freeland (Freeland Buck), Jimenez Lai (Bureau Spectacular), Alvin Huang (Synthesis Design), and Herwig Baumgartner (B+U). These critics, their responses, and the overall success of our projects undoubtedly created a sense of satisfaction after the intense five years of undergraduate architecture school.

Photo by Zack Green - Craig Aguilar ends the long day of reviews with his formal study on points, lines, and planes within his housing project.