simply had my thesis presentation postponed about 3 months, along with about 15 other classmates (out of a class of 90 or so, i think). great move - those 3 months allowed for a slight redirection and focus that made it an achievement i'm proud of.
it was a bit of a tough pill to swallow at first, ego and all....
don't you have an advisor (hypothetically)?

i completely agree with el jeffe - stick it out. take a few months to turn the project into something that is worth the effort. if you quit now, it'd be more wasteful than taking a bit more time to complete it (plus you'll also get a hopefully stellar project for your portfolio).

narrow your focus. That will at least force you to come up with something unique and specific. Too many are too broad and end up being a watered down version of research that someone started 50 years ago.





*no clue what I am talking about, but I think it makes sense

oh, and make a great building. Personally, I can't ever understand months of research that are never tested.

I had a friend who...thought he was done with school when he discovered the Prof....failed every student he advised. He had a job,
a working wife and a different location....but he had to return to school to finish his thesis...and yep a bunch of from the office came to his aid. We cranked out alot of drawings. Today he is a Partner is a what I would consider a very good architectural firm...Now the Professor is most likely working in a Burger King, assigned to French Fries.

Here's a lame questions: I'm not familiar with how your pick your thesis, but how would you know your thesis is original? "not already taken"

question*

Good posts...thanks for the advice. As for the last question, I guess it's hard to know that the thesis is original except for the fact that there is little supporting research out there (which is probably part of the problem). My advice if you were trying to pick something...choose a topic you are GREATLY interested in and make it yours. Sure other people may have researched it, but after many sleepless nights you will figure ways to make it unique.

i'd definitely try to finish. i didn't have trouble with not passing my undergrad thesis, but i never was satisfied with it. in my mind it was a 'fail'.

the extra time would have been worth spending because a) the project is still something in which i'm interested and the ideas explored still inform my work and b) i've carried that disappointment with me for almost 15 yrs now.

Steven - I don't think any of us are satisified with our undergrad thesis projects. It haunts me that some current student will pull it off the library shelf and assume that's all I'm capable of.

Given how all of us as designers are constantly refining our skills, of course I think you should give it another shot. Like my thesis, if I were to do it over again I'd have done it much differently - and much better in my opinion. Many architects I've met have said they absolutely needed to go on to grad school because undergrad hadn't given them near enough. The more time spent the better. A setback might be a blessing in disguise.

true, a. even at the time of (near?) completion i felt that i hadn't done the project justice.

it looked complete, but i knew that it wasn't.

but i've also been resistant to revisiting it. i could do the project again, but i wonder how much i would be able to re-invent it. it would be very dissatisfying to simply pick up where i left off. i'd want to truly run the whole trajectory of its development again.

i've considered making it a project for one of my design studios in the future, just to see what someone else would do with a similar challenge. but that may 1) cause me to be even more disappointed in my performance and 2) overly critical of what they produce, given that i'd have preconceptions hard to overcome.

[sigh.]

Honestly,

When you get to the point where you just need to finish, make some dodgy logical leap that leads you to crank out a wall full of drawings and a big-ass model. They will say “nice model”, “that logical leap is a bit dodgy” “good luck out there kid” Then you’ll have the rest of your life to figure out a way to do it better. I’m not being cynical here, you just have to do it at some point. Hopefully every project gets closer to closing the gap.

Find a way to make it big-box retail. Then you can just show up with a big box and let them emote at it for twenty minutes and you’re done.

newstreamlinedmode, great advice
the sooner you try to make that leap, the more time it gives you to understand yourself where you want to be headed

just get it done

the acedemic protion of your architectural education is more or less irrelevant

i completely disagree.

after 12 yrs in the profession, years of feeling myself becoming more and more part of the construction industry, i finally decided to go back to school and shock my ability to think like an architect back to life. i think it worked.

stay in bed