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Ryerson m.arch review
Hi. I was wondering if anyone is planning to join the m. Arch program at ryerson.??
I would be happy to know the insights about the school, and toronto area. About the fabrication labs at ryerson, school culture and pros/cons.
I only applied to this school because of its focus on sustainability and computation. Other schools like waterloo and mcgill did not have this focus.
Anyone?
hey wall-e. I know you sent me a dm with the same question. I didn’t get to it yet but I might as well answer here instead. I’ll reply to your email later as well.
the first thing to know is retrain was for the longest time known as technical school, barely above the local arch tech colleges (which the GTA has many). It produced competent drafting staff, most of the times, but that was it. It has improved in recent years but it still carries some/most of the past tech influences. It’s also a very local school and almost unknown outside on Ontario.
I don’t know what you’re focus is, but I cannot imagine McGill or Loo not having faculty aligned with your goals as they are the top schools here. Also worth noting that Carleton has CIMS labs which is well known, certainly more than RYU.
Retrain = Ryerson. Autocorrect fail or Freudian slip?
Hi. Thank you for your quick reply.
Sadly, they donot have. Mcgill removed the one year post professional program as well this year. But coming back to ryerson, I think I like the location of the school as well. I read there is lots of firms there as well. I read in your previous comments about the competition among Arch intern positions, which is good I think. I really want to know how is it like living in toronto and working for a firm? Both small firm and large firm like SOM?
2. I am not familiar with the architecture in the city, but i did see some new projects coming up by big. Which are the firms to check out for amazing architecture works?
3. Is timber construction coming fast at Canada? One of my focus is to work on timber construction using fabrication tools, robotic fabrication etc. What are your thoughts about that?
Might as well stick to the forum, to the benefit of everyone. Anyways, post-prof programs are research based, not professional degrees in line with accreditation reqs like the M.arch.
Ah, my whole reply got cut-off... boo urns but I'll summarise what I previously wrote.
RYU is as central as it gets for toronto but the city is expensive as fuck and most people live well outside of the urban centres. We also have winters here and it takes a special person to want to go through 1+ of snowy public transit twice a day. Most large offices are downtown too, but the GTA is very big so don't get tricked thinking you can work/live in Missasauga and still be in toronto.
Anyways, job market is stable at this time but there are loads of big 100+ people offices there so there is no problem getting a gig as one of their cogs (see previous comments about drafting staff). Many smaller high-design offices too but there is loads of competition and few jobs available so you will be facing a battle from students from far better schools. I do not put much faith in BIG's project. It's ridiculous for the Toronto climate and looks like a failed 2nd design studio project. Hard pass. Mass timber is growing, but that's mostly in BC. Ontario has different codes and is much much slower at changing them. It will come, but not anytime soon.
Timber is also expensive right now.
Thank you so much. It gave me a good overview of the situation there. Which city do you live in?
Also do you think one can graduate and move to other city like Vancouver after completing their program. I saw Michael green works at Vancouver and definitely would love to work there
Ignoring the distance issue, it's not uncommon for people to jump between provinces. There is reciprocity agreements between all arch associations so continuing your intern process is not that difficult as long as you eventually settle on one jurisdiction for a license. My office is based in Ottawa (On) but we are licensed to practice in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.
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