I went to there! Although this was before the school had a building. And computers had 500Mb harddrives. Some of the rich kids had portable CD players, etc...

On first look, it looks pretty good. Solid, consistent graphical style. Nice renderings, cool diagrams. I like the page proportions. Much more mature than the silly American portfolios I've seen here. ha!

Onto the bad (of course):

-The project graphic on the right hand side reads poorly. I understand the intent, but it took me a minute. I suggest graying out the parts not relevant to the current page.
-The sequence of projects presented makes little sense. Some of the stronger stuff is in towards the back.
-You seem to have very little professional work to show. You should have 2 years of internships to show for. The whole benefit of the school is the co-op program. Where's the work? Is IKEA in Croatia it? I totally expected to see a crappy Toronto condominium thrown in the mix.
-Writeup for IKEA project is a bit weak. Try to make it sound like you are not applying for a babysitting job. "I was given responsibility of producing" becomes "in charge of producing", "I proposed of my own initiative" just disappears, etc...
-page 7. Frame model. Take that out. Or stick it in the very back. Why that shows up as a second project in the portfolio is beyond me.
-Arch for Humanity Comp. Sloppy writeup. Starts of fine. Goes nowhere quickly. What are 'local industrial sectors'? The rendering of that project on page 8 looks like a proposal for US embassy in Iraq. Rest of the project looks fine.
-Markham train competition. Sloppy writeup yet again. Bunch of buzz words that buzz around each other without saying a thing. Project seems lovely, if not horribly overzised. Renderings and diagrams are nice though.
-Last page: It would be nice to be able to read the mentioned article. Or maybe not (judging by the strength of other text).
-Details shown on page 4 will not help you land a job. Lose insulation inside a steel frame construction? Thermal bridges. Weird, unidentifiable elements. It's not your fault your technical instructor has one built project (made entirely out of glass block) behind her, but still...
-page 14. Post-Fordism. Interesting topic. I do not see any insight on the topic based on the three diagrams provided. It would be nice to see more than one page dedicated to this.
-some projects get up to 5 pages of space, some get 1. If you don't pay close attention you can easily lose track where you are.

Hope that felt close enough to a proper UW crit.

All the best!

Edit: I see that you've had internships in NYC, London, Toronto and Edmonton. Where are all the projects you worked on? They should be at the very top of this thing. No need to be ashamed of them.

When you were in NYC, my old classmate (R.A.) was probably your boss. He should carry the shame of their PoMo legacy. Grin.

Yes that did feel like a UW crit! I feel properly humbled now.

I agree with most of what you’re saying. As for the co-op stuff, I have the work, but it’s a lot of group work that I’m always reluctant to show. The Ikea work was something I did myself, but I take your point.

I’m glad you liked the proportions, although having just read some grad school guidelines I’m considering making it a more conventional 8.5 x 11. It seems to be the preferred dimension, and gives me some room to expand the text. I’m going to see if it’ll help me clarify the intent of the project graphic on the right hand side. (It’s clear when its printed and bound, but as an online pdf, I can see how it needs work).

“Last page: It would be nice to be able to read the mentioned article. Or maybe not (judging by the strength of other text).”
Haha, harsh, but I admittantly wrote the description text in one go, it needs a second round. (which is to say -don’t judge the article just yet!)

“-page 7. Frame model. Take that out. Or stick it in the very back. Why that shows up as a second project in the portfolio is beyond me.”
Hmm, no love for the Framing project, I see. I’ll try to expand this one, because I think it is a good project, and a good model at the very least.

I’m pretty sure I know who you’re referring to (R.A), but I never did work with him much in New York. He used to ask me if I’ve been to Rome yet, and when he found out I hadn’t, lost complete interest in me.

Anyway, thank you for your comments, they were helpful.

Don't be reluctant to show 'group work' done in professional setting. All professional work is 'group work'. The sooner you realize that, the better off you'll be.

At some point of your career, your portfolio will only be showing photographs of completed works with description of your role for each one of them. The fact that you are not the only person involved on the project is kind of implied.

Also, at some point of your career your portfolio will completely lose all academic projects. Noone cares about them, unless they were noteworthy competition entries.

As of now, your portfolio hints at a limited professional exposure. You're selling yourself short.

I saw your blog. You have very strong writing skills. It makes the text in your portfolio that much sadder. Second round will fix that, I'm sure :)

Also, you are right. I have no love for the Framing project. All I learned in that one is how to make a teammate cry and how to accidentally smack someone's testicles (two separate incidents). Yup.

On page 4, the center (centre?) cad image, there is a fracture in the drawing. looks like it has a cut or is shifted. really jumped out at me, so maybe others notice as well.

Well I'll start working on these things, and I think I'll have the next iteration out soon. Will include more professional work - for sure.

The framing project is a definitely a unique experience. We had a few breakdowns, and at least one near death experience (a friend fell asleep while operating the table saw). But we all came out with limbs and friendships intact, so I look back on it fondly... kinda.

Figaro: Good eye, that needs to be fixed.

Don't forget the spell check ;)