for whatever reason there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot of talk about their program, even when searching the archives...lots of UCLA talk, but not much from berkeley.
can we get some pros and cons?
past students - happy you went there, feel prepared?
current students - happy with your choice?
future students - what excites you about the program/place?
I just got accepted to Berkeley's Grad. Arch and Planning Programs....I'm interested in the same thing....no one talks about Berkeley anymore.....I'm interested in the NOW!
If you call yourself "Green Design" and are into runes go there. They will love you and you will love Berkeley. I don't know about the design but there is certainly a lot of green in that part of the world if you know what I mean.
Seriously, I went there undergrad and thought it was great. The grad program in a bit more laid back (people older on average, people with families) but they seem to let you do weird stuff if you want to and the thesis is a whole year right? Of course the building science stuff is taken very seriously and done very well.
For academic stuff there are amazing programs there in Art History and Rhetoric and Philosophy ect. If you go try to get out of the department a bit.
Whether is nice, lots of good, cheap food, no Republicans, I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't afflicted with the need to subject them selves to the Ivy League.
I'm a current undergrad at Berkeley. Hmm, what's wrong with the Berkeley M.arch program? Because I was planning on going there... well apply to it and hope to get in, at least.
went to berkeley undergrad a year or two ago - fell in love with the wood shop, with ananya roy lectures, with cafe strada at midnight, with india ink and watercolors and handstands half-naked, with all the mad max metal/wood recycling spots, with point reyes and the beach... i dunno, it sure was nice.
I'm 98% sure that I'll be starting at Berkeley in the fall. Will be in the geography department working on a phd, but don't want to get isolated from the architecture/landscape/planning fields. Please keep me in the loop! And if anyone has any Oakland-Berkeley apartment news, let me know!!!
I would say just don’t go to the same school for grad and under grad. When I was there the undergrads were a bit more hard core than the grads but this may have changed.
I second the shop recommendation (it’s a pretty good metal shop too) and the surplus metal yards and the student culture that keeps track of them.
Berkeley has so many good resources both technical and intellectual (I should have added the geography department to my list of recommendations) that if they could just get rid of some of those silly old postmodernists, go back to reading Christopher Alexander as an interesting artifact of the seventies and cybernetics rather that the holy Koran, and ditch some of the self-righteous hippie-ness they could really do some great things and have a chance of really proposing a new way to do architecture instead of just another micro-period style which is all the ivy leagues seem good for these days. Berkeley could be about to rock.
I enjoyed Berkeley. But I just don't understand why anybody would want to continue their MArch there. Why learn the same stuff from the same profs for another 3 years when there is a whole world of architecture out there to experience. Some people are even think a 5 year program is too much of one thing.
I also did my undergrad program there… pretty much a flexible program. The overall description of the program is, you really make of what you want your experience to be. To get the most out of the program, YOU have to dig in and get it yourself rather than depending on the school to do that for you... and trust me, the school will not do much for you. I also agree with standman that coming out of the undergrad program there, I would never go back. Most likely, you would get paired off with the same professors from your undergrad years and to me, that doesn’t seem so appealing, nor was I was impressed too much with the overall design faculty there. In terms of accessibility to other fields of studies, it's a great school and they seem to encourage the mix of other fields incorporated into design.
graduated from berkeley 4 years ago. currently attending a graduate school, "harvard, TX". All I can say is that big disorganized architecture programs have way more resources than small disorganized architecture programs. But since they are disorganized you have a bitch of time getting your grubby hands on it.
Berkeley will give you all the rope you need to hang yourself -- and then they'll kick back, smoke a blunt and laugh at you... Great school, would go again if I was 18, but not after having gone there. makes no sense to go to same grad as undergrad unless there is someone at the alma mater you worship (general comment about any program).
A HUGE variety of programs and courses in the College of Environmental Design, if you don't want to just jack off on architecture, Berkeley is one of the best places to go for that. Take classes w/ Joe Slusky (visual studies), Chip Sullivan (LA), Paul Groth (Enviro Des.)....the list is endless...
well berk is constantly changing, they have new studio instructors all the time and they are noramlly pretty damn good compare to other schools. u just have to deal with the harsh crits and comments from them. pretty much most of the profs are from GSD so if ur project sucks, then u will have major butt kicking in reviews. and i mean BIG butt kicking. no joke. i mean when i went there for undergrad i thought the profs are so so... not that great but when i go to grad school and had studio with the worst prof ... berkeley is pretty damn good in terms of teachers and students. just have to be open minded and smoke alot and of coz work your butt off . apart from that it's all good. good weather, good food. alot to do.they acutally have pretty nice thesis projects too, they actually make sense compare to making blobs and blobs.. and also blobs...
These are great comments so far....I appreciate the honesty. How would you rank Berkeley's digital design capabilities? I was impressed with Penn's visual studies courses, and performative architecture research. That school really emphasizes it's digital resources....the laser cutters, routers, 3d printers.....and at the same time is really about environ. design/planning too.
newstreamlinedmodel - What do you mean by "the thesis is a year"?
Digital design capabilities are at its baby boom age at the moment. With such a bad review from some arch board (I forget which), they've ramped up their digital emphasis starting around 2002. (I've actually started in 2001 and was interesting to see a sudden change from handdrafting to cad drafting in a period of one semester. Professors like Anthony Burke and Lisa Iwamoto can be seen as major pushers in terms of digital renderings (burke is from columbia... hence the connection with 3d) and printing (iwamoto is from gsd... responsible for pushing cal with laser cutting and 3d prints). But not all changes go through smoothly. With Wurster back in service (after seismic retrofitting and reopened between 2002? 2003?), you can certainly see the struggle with them trying to push technology into their program. But from what I see, when the school comes short, students help themselves or each other with resources and tips in terms of digital production... I know I've given plenty of help during my stay.
Berkeley students - past, present and future
for whatever reason there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot of talk about their program, even when searching the archives...lots of UCLA talk, but not much from berkeley.
can we get some pros and cons?
past students - happy you went there, feel prepared?
current students - happy with your choice?
future students - what excites you about the program/place?
is there anyone here who went to or is currently at berkeley? what about those of you thinking about it for this fall?
Here's a little help bumpin' the thread back up to the top. I've got nothing to say about the program itself though, pity.
Only that I live on the border next to Berkeley. (Work in SF)
I can add this...It's raining in Berkeley right now. Does that help?
If you've got questions about the local culture, dining, music scenes, etc... now that I can speak to.
i live in berkeley
i go to berkeley high school
the end
b.arts or m.arch? i'm guessing m.arch?
I want to go to berkeley....
I just got accepted to Berkeley's Grad. Arch and Planning Programs....I'm interested in the same thing....no one talks about Berkeley anymore.....I'm interested in the NOW!
MArch06, people don't talk about Berkeley because it isn't UCLA.
I go to Berkeley.
garpike, you went to UCLA, huh? favorable experience?
If you call yourself "Green Design" and are into runes go there. They will love you and you will love Berkeley. I don't know about the design but there is certainly a lot of green in that part of the world if you know what I mean.
Seriously, I went there undergrad and thought it was great. The grad program in a bit more laid back (people older on average, people with families) but they seem to let you do weird stuff if you want to and the thesis is a whole year right? Of course the building science stuff is taken very seriously and done very well.
For academic stuff there are amazing programs there in Art History and Rhetoric and Philosophy ect. If you go try to get out of the department a bit.
Whether is nice, lots of good, cheap food, no Republicans, I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't afflicted with the need to subject them selves to the Ivy League.
I'm a current undergrad at Berkeley. Hmm, what's wrong with the Berkeley M.arch program? Because I was planning on going there... well apply to it and hope to get in, at least.
went to berkeley undergrad a year or two ago - fell in love with the wood shop, with ananya roy lectures, with cafe strada at midnight, with india ink and watercolors and handstands half-naked, with all the mad max metal/wood recycling spots, with point reyes and the beach... i dunno, it sure was nice.
Ok, so far....no republicans, cheap food, nice woodshop, lots of weed, a liberal attitude for nakedness...what's not to like?
I'm 98% sure that I'll be starting at Berkeley in the fall. Will be in the geography department working on a phd, but don't want to get isolated from the architecture/landscape/planning fields. Please keep me in the loop! And if anyone has any Oakland-Berkeley apartment news, let me know!!!
Studio Ghost
I would say just don’t go to the same school for grad and under grad. When I was there the undergrads were a bit more hard core than the grads but this may have changed.
I second the shop recommendation (it’s a pretty good metal shop too) and the surplus metal yards and the student culture that keeps track of them.
Berkeley has so many good resources both technical and intellectual (I should have added the geography department to my list of recommendations) that if they could just get rid of some of those silly old postmodernists, go back to reading Christopher Alexander as an interesting artifact of the seventies and cybernetics rather that the holy Koran, and ditch some of the self-righteous hippie-ness they could really do some great things and have a chance of really proposing a new way to do architecture instead of just another micro-period style which is all the ivy leagues seem good for these days. Berkeley could be about to rock.
I enjoyed Berkeley. But I just don't understand why anybody would want to continue their MArch there. Why learn the same stuff from the same profs for another 3 years when there is a whole world of architecture out there to experience. Some people are even think a 5 year program is too much of one thing.
standaman-
did you do your undergrad or grad there? as a former student, what would you categorize as strong and not strong?
Javier, who will you be working with? M.Watts?
i heard it wasn't progessive... still all about stanley saitowitz, richard meijer and peter eisenman? please - correct me if i'm wrong.
I also did my undergrad program there… pretty much a flexible program. The overall description of the program is, you really make of what you want your experience to be. To get the most out of the program, YOU have to dig in and get it yourself rather than depending on the school to do that for you... and trust me, the school will not do much for you. I also agree with standman that coming out of the undergrad program there, I would never go back. Most likely, you would get paired off with the same professors from your undergrad years and to me, that doesn’t seem so appealing, nor was I was impressed too much with the overall design faculty there. In terms of accessibility to other fields of studies, it's a great school and they seem to encourage the mix of other fields incorporated into design.
thanks tacobell. the first honest comment from a berkeley alum i've heard so far.
are you in grad school now?
graduated from berkeley 4 years ago. currently attending a graduate school, "harvard, TX". All I can say is that big disorganized architecture programs have way more resources than small disorganized architecture programs. But since they are disorganized you have a bitch of time getting your grubby hands on it.
Berkeley will give you all the rope you need to hang yourself -- and then they'll kick back, smoke a blunt and laugh at you... Great school, would go again if I was 18, but not after having gone there. makes no sense to go to same grad as undergrad unless there is someone at the alma mater you worship (general comment about any program).
A HUGE variety of programs and courses in the College of Environmental Design, if you don't want to just jack off on architecture, Berkeley is one of the best places to go for that. Take classes w/ Joe Slusky (visual studies), Chip Sullivan (LA), Paul Groth (Enviro Des.)....the list is endless...
well berk is constantly changing, they have new studio instructors all the time and they are noramlly pretty damn good compare to other schools. u just have to deal with the harsh crits and comments from them. pretty much most of the profs are from GSD so if ur project sucks, then u will have major butt kicking in reviews. and i mean BIG butt kicking. no joke. i mean when i went there for undergrad i thought the profs are so so... not that great but when i go to grad school and had studio with the worst prof ... berkeley is pretty damn good in terms of teachers and students. just have to be open minded and smoke alot and of coz work your butt off . apart from that it's all good. good weather, good food. alot to do.they acutally have pretty nice thesis projects too, they actually make sense compare to making blobs and blobs.. and also blobs...
um. take mark anderson's class.. is super good.
and... also.. take annaya roy's theory class. it's tough but it's really amazing
anyways. bunny boy, i love TX GSD and of coz the BIG D
These are great comments so far....I appreciate the honesty. How would you rank Berkeley's digital design capabilities? I was impressed with Penn's visual studies courses, and performative architecture research. That school really emphasizes it's digital resources....the laser cutters, routers, 3d printers.....and at the same time is really about environ. design/planning too.
newstreamlinedmodel - What do you mean by "the thesis is a year"?
Digital design capabilities are at its baby boom age at the moment. With such a bad review from some arch board (I forget which), they've ramped up their digital emphasis starting around 2002. (I've actually started in 2001 and was interesting to see a sudden change from handdrafting to cad drafting in a period of one semester. Professors like Anthony Burke and Lisa Iwamoto can be seen as major pushers in terms of digital renderings (burke is from columbia... hence the connection with 3d) and printing (iwamoto is from gsd... responsible for pushing cal with laser cutting and 3d prints). But not all changes go through smoothly. With Wurster back in service (after seismic retrofitting and reopened between 2002? 2003?), you can certainly see the struggle with them trying to push technology into their program. But from what I see, when the school comes short, students help themselves or each other with resources and tips in terms of digital production... I know I've given plenty of help during my stay.
this is great, thanks guys!
I was all hand drafting in my day. NO REGRETS!
hand drafting!!!!
yeah yeah yeah
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