I've worked for firms in all three cities. What are you trying to find out?

I would just like to know what places you, or anyone would recommend to someone to intern for a summer. Did u work at any design build places in philly?

I worked for Kitchen & Associates in Collingswood, NJ while attending classes at Drexel... The particular project I worked on was nice, but it wasn't typical for the office. They do lots of neo-traditional assisted living facilities, education work, chain retail/food service, and light industrial... Decent stuff, but nothing spectacular. They don't use AutoCAD except for a few projects... When I was there, they were using ARRIS but making a transition to ArchiCAD. Office culture was generally close-knit and friendly, although like most firms, it sometimes has a dark underbelly. I don't think they do design-build.

i think it would be nice to build models all day for a paycheck.

r u kidding me? building models is for non architecture undergrad majors? No one cares what u people do.

That sounded bad, let me clarify:

Students looking for summer internships are at different levels based on previous experience, both educational and professional. Building models is a good place to start. However, for students with years of professional experience in architecture, building models isnt that appealing. Especially because that is where most of us started.

one option is to work the faculty angle, not sure how Penn is but Umich had lots of stuff going on durring the summer and I was able to work with a few of the prof on different stuff. I totally understand the go work for a firm thing, but it was nice to be doing cool work on a relaxed schedule too, looks good in the portfolio too

I rather be building a model any day rather than doing code reviews, R.I.F., cost estimate and you usual punch list and R.F.P. and not to mention pay request and spec writing.
Here is the problem I see with your inquiry- define experience?
I had by first job in a architects office in 8th grade sorting plans, and filing magazines, I work during high school transferring shop drawing note, being a runner, assembling sets and helping out with bidding process. During undergrad I built models and continue to help the project architects with material research and picking up red lines, during grad school I began to have a more hand on the SD and DD parts of projects and filled the role of project coordinator in small jobs. Since graduating from grad school I have worked on several project from the initial proposal to the final punch list and post occupancy analysis,
Yet I still built model pick up redlines and file my own papers. If you have several years of experience it will be evident in your work, and will be utilized if you choose to work in the right environment. Having the attitude of being to good to built models is a red flag in my book, and my advise will be look for a summer job in a large firm, where you can become P.A. assistant, that way you will be drown in 81/2 x 11 paper rather than chip board.

I agree there are worse tasks than buidling models. I picked "not building models" as an example......Referring to jobs were they would not utilize skills gained from working at firms. I have no problem building models, i just dont want to only build models all summer.

gee, southpole, aren't you sick of architecture, yet?

SOM in New York has a summer intern program. I believe it starts beginning of June.

I have heard a little bit about their summer program at the Chicago office, but not the nyc office. It's probably safe to assume its similar.