put together a good portfolio, cover letter, etc...

sound sincere


they have to hire someone, might as well be you

offering to actually PAY THEM for you work there might help

hey, it'll be like school! you'll bust your ass working days, nights and weekends on things that are completely irrelevant for people who have less technical and practical knowledge of architecture than you

and you'll have to pay tuition

Do you think they really get thousands of applications? I checked other sites and their website and didn't find the posting. Another thing, I think people get intimidated by the name and don't bother applying.
I know two people without architectural backgrounds who worked for Pete and they pretty much worked like dogs building models. But they both got into M.Arch I programs (Princeton and GSD.)

if you go for an interview, have a good idea of how to explain your approach to design, design process, and 'philosophy' and let the explanations of the project be more about your general approach than the projects individually. they're busy and you won't get a lot of time.

i applied too bigness... they replied back and told me they had no summer positions left but if i was interested in an internship in october to let him know.

wow clem, nice one. if u still at uni i would consider taking a break, but obviously there are financial aspects involved...

have you got any of your work online?

wow clem, nice one. if u still at uni i would consider taking a break, but obviously there are financial aspects involved...

have you got any of your work online? just curious to see how u did that

slip of the fingah!

i dont think i've ever heard a non-paying starchitect firm turn down any reasonably qualified internship applicant. everyone acts so jive about getting hired, but i've just never seen someone get turned away

i dont think i've ever heard a non-paying starchitect firm turn down any reasonably qualified internship applicant. everyone acts so jive about getting hired, but i've just never seen someone get turned away

slip of the fingah!, again!

I got turned away after my interview. But no hard feelings, I felt like that I would have not fit in there.

to anyone who interviewed - just out of curiosity, what did the interview go like, if you don't mind me asking? what kind of questions were asked? did you discuss your portfolio?

and as a general question, any other undergrads taking a shot?

they asked me if i knew what flashing was

i said, why yes, it's metal you place around windows to keep them from leaking, among other uses

they said there was no place for me there, flashing at OMA is what your free time does before your eyes once they sit you down to a workstation and ask you to get busy on rhino

oh wait, that never happened, i don't own enough black pants to even get in the door at OMA

see, when u said flashing i though about public nudity.

i might hav a place there

see, when u said flashing i though about public nudity.

i might have a place there

double fingah madness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

doubal fingah it's all the rage, u won't get into ome if you dont mastah the skill

doubal fingah it's all the rage, u won't get into ome if you dont mastah the skill

actually, when I interviewed a while back, there weren't any black pants to speak of. just lots of jeans and t-shirts, even the top people. a lot like a(n active) studio at any school of architecture.

bascially everyone on God's green earth knows what they're about, teasing innovation out of constraints and obstructions. Programmatic formalism, not 'hyper-rationalism' as they now claim. The part about constraint as a generator is pretty universal, most people are into this in some way. talk about that.

be prepared to have an interviewer who is either intensely interested or intensly (and visibly) bored.

"teasing innovation out of constraints and obstructions."


that and mies. loads of mies.

mies + jerde kind of.....

centrall, what came of the interview, if u dont mind?

I botched it plus I arguably didn't fit the requirements for the position so no. Fortunately I like the job I have a lot.

As a side note, I like their office a whole lot but, I mean, I couldn't possibly argue that it's possible to for public space to 'be' public 20-some stories off the street, not with all the diagonal lifts in the world. It takes XL balls to be that programmatically formalist with a straight face.

I think one day architectural critics will find the equivalent of an oma downing street memo wherein 'the intelligence was being fixed around the policy' becomes 'the research was being fixed around the concept'.

it tricky ground...i'm not defending them, although i'm a big fan of their work (well, their way of handling certin aspects of their projects)

i guess sometimes u have to bend truth. remember that sometimes decisions are made on the base of intuition/other unexplainable skills. so if an office builds thier reputation around uber-rationalism, they will go out of their way to postrationalize the hell out of any design decisions along the way. the design process is not a straightfoward one, it's not like solving an equation. it's always a two way streets, always a feedback loop.

yup. i've recently been to visit the gallery here in louisville exhibiting the museum plaza models and boards.

i agree.

hey, that's just the top level of the national gallery in berlin, only 60 meters up in the air:)

i havent really looked at the project, but isnt a public space more about what happen inside it rathr than how u get there?

big -

it's both of course, BUT, one would never claim that the elevator lobby of a headquarters for a bank is 'public space' even if it has the most clever and intriguing circulation patterns. I think the notion of 'public' has been mutilated beyond recognition by projects which stretch it's definition to ridiculous bounds. It's equivalent to what the Bush administration has done to the meaning of 'democracy'. architecture critics are worse than the most absurd pundits on fox news for chearleading these charades.

Check the absurdity of an architect who wants to enter politics in europe as a member of the socialist party who makes an expensive store full of expensive clothing for expensive shoppers and has the juevos to claim exclusivity can be public. Remember the 'war is peace' line from 2003 ? same thing really. In france 200 years ago, this stuff lost you your head, ironic or no.

go to a post office just before taxes are due to see real public space. real people queueing for 45 minutes to mail a letter is public, mannered ironic exclusivity can't be.

see, i didn't even know it was a bank. you can't really mutilate the notion of public space, because at large, the spaces will survive the people who designed them, and the people who wrote about them. time and users wil determine if that space was a public one, all the bullshit is shortlived when compared to the timeframe in which a city or a building lives.

i had no idea he was going into politics, it actually surprises me a bit, i always thought ihe was going to stay out of a game where he had to pick a side. he does that a lot in Architecture, but in Architecture there are no elections, no chance of being the minority or not being elected. he doesnt look like the sort of person who would take loosing very well.

sorry about asking this, and it is in no way a malicious question: why did you apply to oma?

rem can just go around the world until he finds someone to elect him

it's a philosophy architects are exceedingly good at

I got the feeling that Rem is very distant from OMA NY. Ramus is the big man state side.

I remember seeing one of the employees wearing a trucker hat. It baffled me that they would substitute that for all black. Besides that the rest of the office is very cool, a huge mural that I bet 2x4 did was up, a lot of plywood. They told me they were moving due to the massive hiring.

when would they want resumes in by for that job - advert was posted last thursday? just saw it. planning on moving to nyc next september from ireland for a year so may as well give it a shot...

I had an interview with OMA NY the last round. Basically I wanted the job so badly that I completely psyched myself out...walked in scared. I was in and out in less than 25 minutes. I became really self conscious when the guy interviewing me looked bored before I even shook his hand. I stumbled through my portfolio as quickly as possible and didn't really do my work justice. Big surprise, they're not pursuing my candidacy. My advice: (1) don't let the name scare you. If they have you in for an interview that means they think your stuff is worth looking at. (2) This interview will not be like any other interview you've had. They will look bored. They will not take you into a private room. They will not talk with you for more than 25 minutes.
Give yourself the chance you deserve. Good Luck!

call me naive but.... are their intern positions NOT PAID???

they said it would not be a profitable experience...take that however you want to

i had an interview in r´dam a couple of years ago, when they were putting together the CCTV team, it was the best and most intense interview i ever had. about 1.5 hrs, thorough critical look at my folio,
and they seemed really interested....however, i didnt get the job!

yesterday an ad for a 3d guy at OMA r'dam was posted on archined.nl, and i realised - i really dont wanna work there now. i enjoy my freetime too much. i would do it straight outta school, but not now.

if someone applies, post up if that internship isn't paid. it doesn't sound like the typical unpaid internship (=model building).

By the way anyone knows what kind of salaries OMA pays for relatively young architects?

OMA rotterdam pays around 450/euro month for standard interns. They hire you for full time positions and suck everything out of you. Most "interns" are still technically in school, but postpone classes for a while in order to get experience in a firm.

i would say if you even have to ask about compensation it's a dead ringer you're not getting a job

wow that's so lame. that makes their architecture go from awesome to really lame.

Interviewing for an intern position at OMA is more like interviewing for fluffer duty on a porn set.

what's fluffer duty?

OMA's architecture is awsome?

the one's behind the scenes to keep the machine running. basically you'd be da bitch.

they pay $1000/ month, and their idea of "non-hierachical" is a bunch of kids on foam cutting machines, don't do it

well once i get my masters i'll actually be designing something important right? no more foam cutting for me?

wow! 1,000/month was a lot more than what they told me in my interview today. They offered me an "on call" job where I'm only there when they really need me.....that scares me.

but not working for someone like OMA will doom me to being a loser who does boring work my whole life right

there are many more options than being a tool of OMA