Does any other school shut down their studio at midnight? I mean are forced to leave and sometimes hide from the security guard so you can keep working? Or crack a window so you can break in to studio to work.
ha ha, that actually happened to me when i was @ my community college. all buildings on campus closed @ 10. a few of us stayed in the studio one night working on our final project, for our final jury there. around 12 a security guard came and kicked us out. we had to pack up all of our stuff, go home, and keep working. that was also the night i cut myself for the first time, ha ha. it wasn't too bad of a cut, merely sliced a thin ribbon of skin off the end of my finger. it just wouldn't stop bleeding, and i didn't want to bleed all over my final model (although, in retrospect, that would have been pretty cool...) so i drove myself to the e.r. so they could take care of it. i presented the next day with my left index finger completely covered in gauze and a white bandage. made for a good pointer.
but to get back on topic, no, i haven't heard of this happening @ a university.
yeah my studio had special nite it was open 24hrs...you had to sign your name to a list and if there was enough people they would keep the studio open all nite...but like you said we found other ways in. the schools reasoning behind it was that the builing is not zoned for resisdental and everyone sleeps at some point - usually in the studio...and since they couldnt moniter us they would close the studio. the school also told us to organize our time...how can i organize my time if i spend every winking moment working diligently on my project. WTF? once they told us we couldnt use power tools in the studio so we set up a table 5' outside the door.
NYIT-Manhattan closes at midnight, but we can make arrangements for 24 hr studios mon-thurs. It might have something to do with the fact that its in the middle of the city and we have to have security personelle active after closing time.
here at temple u we have 24/7 access even though north phila isnt too fantastic of a place. stuck at the top of the engineering building we are the lighthouse of campus. and we have people to prove that it is possible to LIVE at studio, and even find a way to stay relatively clean.
Well we have card keys and we have a list. I think the students here are becoming expert burglars because we gotta hide and break in to studio. The security guards gotta enforce the law. Oh well I guess I gotta start creating collapsable models so I can lug them around campus.
Mark_M -
I know how you feel. I realized why architects wear all black when I got busted hiding unnder my desk at 4 am wearing a bright red T while that creapy goth kid wearing all black didn't.
to repeat/elaborate on what I put in your school blog--
My school attempted one year to do that midnight-cut off thing, and it was a complete disaster. They abandoned the effort after one year. They instructed the security officers to lock up the studio doors at midnight, and I believe they reopened at 6am. People tried to argue with/buy off the security guards every night. The ridiculous thing is that they still gave us a workload that required essentially 24/7 work! It was insult added to injury, honestly. Insulting that adults were not trusted to manage their own time effectively, and suffer their own consequences if they didn't; and injury because if the administration were truly concerned that we weren't getting enough sleep--the supposed reason for the lockup--they should have worked with us on other ways to combat this. (Perhaps have a workshop on time-management tips; speedy model-building time-savers; talk to us about whether the workload was too much, and be willing to admit that that could be part of the problem, and maybe it wasn't just students' immaturity requiring them to pull all-nighters; etc.)
A huge problem for me was that I frequently had to work the closing shift at my job, which meant I was there till almost 2am. I didn't get to studio till after 2, and then worked the night and crashed for a few hours around dawn. Midnight lock-up forces everyone to work to the same imposed time-table, which may or may not be good for them. I know many night owls who preferred the wee hours in studio, as it was the only time it was quiet enough in there for them to get any work done. Midnight "curfew" is patronizing, insulting, and can obscure real problems by shifting blame to the students.
The issue that NYIT Manhattan administrators had with 24 hour studios was liability. The architecture students inhabit 3-4 floors (10 and 11, mainly, and some of 4 and 6 now). What happens to the other floors? They won't lock up the fire stairs, and they won't turn off the elevators to other floors. So they lock the building and take attendance to hedge against liability. Imagine if someone got hurt and there was no one there to accept responsibility for it? I mean, just before the school would open up for breakfast (unlocking the front doors at about 7 am), you would see 75 per cent of the people sleeping...wherever.
Also, consider that at NYIT Manhattan we don't have dedicated studio space of our own...all of the studios are open with general space. This is the first year in Manhattan wince the floor 10 and 11 refurbishment that anyone had their own drafting table. And, that's only the thesis students.
Apurimac - sometimes I’m not sure I believe that the studio professors always want top-notch work. I think you posted elsewhere that you couldn't see how some students remained in the program based on work ethic and project quality. I tend to agree (for the most part) - and the administration is as much to blame as anyone for letting students slide. And, I also agree that you have to, “…pour more blood, sweat and tears into the project.†We are just forced to be more resourceful.
weAREtheSTONES - I said it before in my school blog, and I was only half kidding...Manhattan students seem like second class citizens at NYIT. Funny, we pay the same tuition. But, whatever.
Anyway, the necessity of 24 hour studio at NYIT Manhattan is compounded by the fact that very few students live close to the school. Sure, there are some dorms, and I know of a few of the ARCH students who live in them (and around Manhattan in private housing), but generally, people commute from all over the place.
Once (Fall 2004, Design I), we all really pushed our final designs and had four 24 hour studios in a row. We moved the review date into the final exam period. I remember some of the studio-mates walking out of the studio we had cordoned off, zombified, to take exams the morning and afternoon of the final review (it was a night studio). To boot, the shop had closed for the semester, so we all brought in some power tools to make stuff in the studio. Later, the disaster that we had created in said studio space was labeled "vandalism" by the administration and we had to clean up ourselves. Fair enough, but don’t project whatever feelings of frustration about the tight resources onto our resourceful attempts to make up for it. Better than trying to carry models in rush-hour subways…
The biggest problem – curtailed shop hours. Granted, the shop in Manhattan consists of 3 band saws, a drill press, and a belt sander (and it has actually expanded greatly since I started going here in Fall 2003), but it would be nice to have it open more often. It speaks to myriam's claim of non-conforming schedules. Only recently has it been opened 6 days per week. Previously, it was only open 4 days, and for only about 4 hours per day. The best is end-f-semester, when they have but one band saw blade to share amongst 3 band saws…and the claim is made that there is no more budget for blades.
USC gave us keycard access to the studios 24/7, but they did occasionally, unexpectedly and with no notice given, lock the building. See, the keycards worked for our specific studios, but not for the main doors.... When this happened, we were told we were supposed to call DPS, and they would let us in. Well, when anybody actually tried calling DPS, they basically got laughed at, because how did DPS know we were really going there to work and not to steal? This didn't happen often, but it was hell when it did. Mostly, you had to walk around and find a studio with someone in it, and bang on the window to get they're attention, and convince them to let you in.
DAAP is basically open 24 hours, but after hours you can only get in with student ID card swipe or knowledge of the un-locked doors. There are no security guards, but the janitorial staff usually comes around some time between 11 and 2. They don't care that we're there. They just joke with us and ask how we're doing.
The school said they were going to try turning the lights off at midnight this year in an effort to save energy, but I haven't seen evidence of any attempts to do that.
texas tech was 24/7 while i was there, and i beleive it still is. key codes on most doors, and even if they did lock the building, all you had to do was pull one of the doors hard enough, and it would open.
as far as safety goes, there isn't much out of the ordinary happening in Lubbock, TX.
Wow, I feel lucky. IIT has 24/7/365 studios, shop open 7 days a week, etc. The only time we had a problem was last year when they opened the "new" building (a warehouse from the 1940s) without any renovations, not even a key card reader on the door, so for about 3 months all the third years had to leave by 11pm or find somewhere in one of the other buildings to work.
We are in the middle of Chicago, however, so occasionally bums come in and sleep on our pass-out couches. Public safety comes in and kicks them out, then, but it doesn't happen often.
Wow, and i was thinking i was the only NYIT kid in these forums. L8rpeace, i think your right about the admin. The thing is though i've had hardass professors (Gernot, Gamburg) that demanded nothing short of excellence from all of us and they hounded us for it. What blows my mind is even some of the kids from their classes i pretty much knew had failed have managed to keep on keepin' on. I guess one must find the reward in his own work, and I do, but it aggravates me to work so hard just to eek out what seems like an existance and watch some people manage to slip through the cracks. It also pisses me off when my favorite hardline professors turn out (seemingly) to be paper tigers.
well, truth be told, I heard the NYIT Manhattan ARCH department is going to be allocated more studio space some time soon on 61 st - probably 2 floors at about, oh, 25k sf or more. I don't know if that space will be open around the clock, or when we'll get it. It's empty now - the old EMS right next door to the current 61 st. building.
I personally have had great professors, Apurimac. From DFI, Gernot, Imas, Cumella (now departed), Imas (again), Ke through DIV with Palazzolo (last semester, now on sabbatical). That's just in studio. I guess the professors are all as tough as you demand them to be, and your demands are best spoken through work and interest. I just hate that a certain apathy transcends the studio space in the student body (from time to time) to other classes, like the ARCH history, technology, and elective courses.
I used to think that I must find the reward in my own work; by and large it's true that you can really only control your own actions. People who slip through the cracks won't be able to fully appreciate education after graduation. But, sometimes I see certain segments of the student population hold things back with apathy, and that's more sad than anything. Then the problem of people slipping through the cracks begins to affect me, and that ain't right.
I mean, when I need to weld, or I need constant access to shop equipment, I have to get on a train and head down to NJ to do work...at least a 4 hour commute to and from there, plus a walk of 3 miles from the train station. I know, this sounds like the "I walked miles through the snow with no shoes uphill to school" line, but I swear it's true. And, it's really tough with big models. Maybe I should get a car...that's a fun accessory when you live in Manhattan. So yeah, facilities (or lack thereof) are something of a constant obstacle.
Just out of curiosity, who is hardline that turned into a paper tiger, if you don't mind me asking? Obviously you don't have to answer if you aren't comfortable doing so.
Well, looks like you've been lucky and had a who's who of our best professors. My two favorite professors, the ones that were the most liberal with the "Fs", the ones who were the most demanding and critical were Gernot and Gamburg. I had gernot first year, and I could've sworn he failed this one kid, I mean he did NO work, at least no quality work and produced constant Fs (gernot liked to read out everyone's grade aloud). Yet I see this same kid in the mix for 3rd year studio during the initial group phase when all the studios were mixed together, he's not in my studio though he's with another prof.
My other fav hardliner was Gamburg, I mean this guy simply did not fool around and he was an awesome prof. Yet last year, as I was in another studio for Des II, his Des II studio was next door so I often knew what was going on and checked out the class as I liked Gamburg's style and I loved to hear the other kids moan about how hard his class was. There was one guy who bailed, and i mean bailed the last 2 or 3 classes, including final crit. I thought that was an absolute kiss of death seeing how gamburg stuck to our tough attendance policy of 3 strikes and your out. He'd obviously missed more than 3 classes and a final crit, yet who do I see in the mix for Des. III this year, the same guy. Must've submitted one hell of a portfolio.
Apurimac, I'll admit that I feel a twinge of angst when I see certain rules broken, because it appears that not everyone is held to the same standards, for whatever reason. Yet, I know things come up for some people, and there are circumstances beyond everyone's control that cause people to miss deadlines and studios and such. I truly believe that any extenuating circumstances are excusable. Often, they turn out to be 'the dog ate my homework' type of things, and those transgressions probably come back to bite people in the ass later on, after school is done. But, when different sets of standards really start to affect me, that's when it is the most troubling.
Spring 2005, I remember having an early crit for the cemetery project (DII). So I got the chance to walk around and try and help others while they toiled away for final review. There was trash everywhere...like food, open, right next to garbage cans and stuff. I remember thinking, was it fair to be chastized for working hard/being resourceful for DI, Fall 2004, when this mess was being accepted?
It's true that facilities also affect the work. I had a professor who said that he understood some of the physical limitations placed on the work after seeing other facilities around the city. Wow. That hurts. The lack of facilities impinge upon my ability to do better work, to push projects farther?
Anyway, different standards in facilities aside, it's also troubling sitting through classes where people don't care. I know there's a huge emphasis on studio, but other classes where people don't participate or read...to the point that assignments are changed, schedules reworked, and the entire level of the class is dumbed down...it bothers me. It begins to affect MY education, and that's unacceptable.
Since I noticed that a few NYIT students have participated in this discussion I thought there might be room for another. I have to say that I only had about a dozen overnighters at my school and I can't say its an experience I'd like to remember. Unfortunately the lack of space creates a terrible atmosphere to work in, especially in the larger studio, currently off limits to underclassmen this year.
In regards to 24hr. studio sessions at NYIT they are granted only if requested by students, which is a reasonable system. If convenience for the student were the concern of the school they would be open 24/7/365 like ladsnine's school; I doubt that will ever happen at NYIT seeing as how stingy they are about actually granting the architectural department the necessary resources to run the department smoothly.
After my last 24hr studio experience the only time that I stay in overnight is if I absolutely have to for a final presentation. I prefer to endure the one hour drive from my house to school to putting up with the filthy mess that crowds these already crowded studios.
However awful facilities are in this or any school, it really shouldn't reflect on our work (if we're critical about it). I believe that this issue serves well for our future as professionals, you can't make excuses for generating half-assed work when resources are not easily available, its just inexcusable. Of course, that's just my opinion.
second semester last year they began enforcing a 2am shut-down of studios at wentworth, where i go to school. they have security guards come through and shoo people out, then lock the place up for the night. it's definitely a huge pain when you're up there, especially shortly before a crit, and going strong and are then kicked out. i've hidden out in the stairs and under a desk a few times before with people, but the policy is just stupid i think. nothing happens after 2am that wouldn't happen before 2am and when the workload is just as heavy there's no way to justify it i think.
So what can we as students do? Our chief of police is hard nosed and not ready to budge. I think at our school the cons out way the pros. Too many people wander through the building and doing "extra curricular activities." We are in college and I know architecture students are not the only zombies awake at all ours of the night. At least we are doing productive work. We have been thinking about doing a presentation about the work we do and how big these projects can really get. What do you guys think?
other than that one brief experiment, our studios were beautifully, gloriously open 24/7/365. not too secure, but most of us somehow worked out a lockable locker situation or simply learned not to leave our cds in studio. i think someone's laptop got stolen once.
mark, i think the liability thing is a bit of a red herring. I'm not really sure that your university would be any more liable for what happens to someone in the building at 2am than they would be at 2pm, in the passing time between classes, at 7:34pm after dinner time, etcetera. they probably just haven't really looked at the liability issue closely enough because it's a convenient excuse and they don't care. if i were you, i'd ask a lawyer friend if that excuse is for real or not.
myriam, while the liability with people in the building may be the same at 2 am and 2 pm, it is decidedly different when people are in the building versus when people are not in the building. I think that's the point here. and, there is a greater inclination towards activity that will increase risk when fewer people around (read, 2am) as opposed to when there are more people around (2 pm). so, while the university's liability may be on par, the risks associated with liable inducing activity increase at certain times. so do the costs of preventative measures, which as risk aversion tools (security technolgy and personel).
Mark_M- I think I would bring them several examples of projects, and log how much time each of them took, so you could say, "An 'A' project takes xxx hours, a 'B' project takes xxx hours," etc. And maybe talk to them about how other schools of architecture work this, so that they can see that they are behind the curve and offering lesser facilities to their students than the schools with which they hope to compete.
my uni is open 24 hrs. although they have locked the smokers balcony on the top-6th vfloor, as i guess after 72 hrs without sleep in one room, you may get a few thoughts you shouldnt get when looking over the rail.
for security there are security guards on rotation who check your student card. they arent very forgiving to people who dont have them. although my university recently started outsourcing the security service, so i am not sure what will happen. they used to be students getting paid well, now it will be crazy angry old people.
Our studios were 24/7 at UH, until the usual after hours studio antics got out of hand. Then policy changed to closing at 12, reopen at 6 for the remainder of that semester. And of course they didn't decide to do that until right before Thanksgiving. Yeah, many desparate and homeless people. Fortunately, the next semester it was back to normal.
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24/7 STUDIO?
Does any other school shut down their studio at midnight? I mean are forced to leave and sometimes hide from the security guard so you can keep working? Or crack a window so you can break in to studio to work.
Not at my school - it was open 24/7, including over summer, winter, and other holiday breaks...
ha ha, that actually happened to me when i was @ my community college. all buildings on campus closed @ 10. a few of us stayed in the studio one night working on our final project, for our final jury there. around 12 a security guard came and kicked us out. we had to pack up all of our stuff, go home, and keep working. that was also the night i cut myself for the first time, ha ha. it wasn't too bad of a cut, merely sliced a thin ribbon of skin off the end of my finger. it just wouldn't stop bleeding, and i didn't want to bleed all over my final model (although, in retrospect, that would have been pretty cool...) so i drove myself to the e.r. so they could take care of it. i presented the next day with my left index finger completely covered in gauze and a white bandage. made for a good pointer.
but to get back on topic, no, i haven't heard of this happening @ a university.
they gave out keys to the building at my school
24/7 at UF. studio doors had a 3-4 digit code (no keys)...spent many a night there...
24/7 at MSU - Bozeman, door code
Been away from school for a long time but it is still 24/7 here at the office which happens to right down the hall from my bedroom.
Mark_M LTU?
Coope Union and Parsons close at 2am during the week.
24/7 at umich as long as you have your mcard.
yeah my studio had special nite it was open 24hrs...you had to sign your name to a list and if there was enough people they would keep the studio open all nite...but like you said we found other ways in. the schools reasoning behind it was that the builing is not zoned for resisdental and everyone sleeps at some point - usually in the studio...and since they couldnt moniter us they would close the studio. the school also told us to organize our time...how can i organize my time if i spend every winking moment working diligently on my project. WTF? once they told us we couldnt use power tools in the studio so we set up a table 5' outside the door.
NYIT-Manhattan closes at midnight, but we can make arrangements for 24 hr studios mon-thurs. It might have something to do with the fact that its in the middle of the city and we have to have security personelle active after closing time.
yeah thats the same school i was talking about - NYiT - but that was in CI and OW - probob. the same thing in manhattan
Wierd school NYIT, they demand top-notch work but give you sub-par facilities, oh well just gotta pour more blood, sweat and tears into the project.
speaking of sub-par facilities...
here at temple u we have 24/7 access even though north phila isnt too fantastic of a place. stuck at the top of the engineering building we are the lighthouse of campus. and we have people to prove that it is possible to LIVE at studio, and even find a way to stay relatively clean.
Meow____Hampton University
Well we have card keys and we have a list. I think the students here are becoming expert burglars because we gotta hide and break in to studio. The security guards gotta enforce the law. Oh well I guess I gotta start creating collapsable models so I can lug them around campus.
meow, LTU is actually 24/7 now, beginning last spring. Doors all have card access.
...yeah...its the only good thing that new fangled car salesman (aka, Dean LeRoy, FAIA) has done for that place.
Mark_M -
I know how you feel. I realized why architects wear all black when I got busted hiding unnder my desk at 4 am wearing a bright red T while that creapy goth kid wearing all black didn't.
to repeat/elaborate on what I put in your school blog--
My school attempted one year to do that midnight-cut off thing, and it was a complete disaster. They abandoned the effort after one year. They instructed the security officers to lock up the studio doors at midnight, and I believe they reopened at 6am. People tried to argue with/buy off the security guards every night. The ridiculous thing is that they still gave us a workload that required essentially 24/7 work! It was insult added to injury, honestly. Insulting that adults were not trusted to manage their own time effectively, and suffer their own consequences if they didn't; and injury because if the administration were truly concerned that we weren't getting enough sleep--the supposed reason for the lockup--they should have worked with us on other ways to combat this. (Perhaps have a workshop on time-management tips; speedy model-building time-savers; talk to us about whether the workload was too much, and be willing to admit that that could be part of the problem, and maybe it wasn't just students' immaturity requiring them to pull all-nighters; etc.)
A huge problem for me was that I frequently had to work the closing shift at my job, which meant I was there till almost 2am. I didn't get to studio till after 2, and then worked the night and crashed for a few hours around dawn. Midnight lock-up forces everyone to work to the same imposed time-table, which may or may not be good for them. I know many night owls who preferred the wee hours in studio, as it was the only time it was quiet enough in there for them to get any work done. Midnight "curfew" is patronizing, insulting, and can obscure real problems by shifting blame to the students.
Hopefully your school will wake up like mine did.
The issue that NYIT Manhattan administrators had with 24 hour studios was liability. The architecture students inhabit 3-4 floors (10 and 11, mainly, and some of 4 and 6 now). What happens to the other floors? They won't lock up the fire stairs, and they won't turn off the elevators to other floors. So they lock the building and take attendance to hedge against liability. Imagine if someone got hurt and there was no one there to accept responsibility for it? I mean, just before the school would open up for breakfast (unlocking the front doors at about 7 am), you would see 75 per cent of the people sleeping...wherever.
Also, consider that at NYIT Manhattan we don't have dedicated studio space of our own...all of the studios are open with general space. This is the first year in Manhattan wince the floor 10 and 11 refurbishment that anyone had their own drafting table. And, that's only the thesis students.
Apurimac - sometimes I’m not sure I believe that the studio professors always want top-notch work. I think you posted elsewhere that you couldn't see how some students remained in the program based on work ethic and project quality. I tend to agree (for the most part) - and the administration is as much to blame as anyone for letting students slide. And, I also agree that you have to, “…pour more blood, sweat and tears into the project.†We are just forced to be more resourceful.
weAREtheSTONES - I said it before in my school blog, and I was only half kidding...Manhattan students seem like second class citizens at NYIT. Funny, we pay the same tuition. But, whatever.
Anyway, the necessity of 24 hour studio at NYIT Manhattan is compounded by the fact that very few students live close to the school. Sure, there are some dorms, and I know of a few of the ARCH students who live in them (and around Manhattan in private housing), but generally, people commute from all over the place.
Once (Fall 2004, Design I), we all really pushed our final designs and had four 24 hour studios in a row. We moved the review date into the final exam period. I remember some of the studio-mates walking out of the studio we had cordoned off, zombified, to take exams the morning and afternoon of the final review (it was a night studio). To boot, the shop had closed for the semester, so we all brought in some power tools to make stuff in the studio. Later, the disaster that we had created in said studio space was labeled "vandalism" by the administration and we had to clean up ourselves. Fair enough, but don’t project whatever feelings of frustration about the tight resources onto our resourceful attempts to make up for it. Better than trying to carry models in rush-hour subways…
The biggest problem – curtailed shop hours. Granted, the shop in Manhattan consists of 3 band saws, a drill press, and a belt sander (and it has actually expanded greatly since I started going here in Fall 2003), but it would be nice to have it open more often. It speaks to myriam's claim of non-conforming schedules. Only recently has it been opened 6 days per week. Previously, it was only open 4 days, and for only about 4 hours per day. The best is end-f-semester, when they have but one band saw blade to share amongst 3 band saws…and the claim is made that there is no more budget for blades.
USC gave us keycard access to the studios 24/7, but they did occasionally, unexpectedly and with no notice given, lock the building. See, the keycards worked for our specific studios, but not for the main doors.... When this happened, we were told we were supposed to call DPS, and they would let us in. Well, when anybody actually tried calling DPS, they basically got laughed at, because how did DPS know we were really going there to work and not to steal? This didn't happen often, but it was hell when it did. Mostly, you had to walk around and find a studio with someone in it, and bang on the window to get they're attention, and convince them to let you in.
DAAP is basically open 24 hours, but after hours you can only get in with student ID card swipe or knowledge of the un-locked doors. There are no security guards, but the janitorial staff usually comes around some time between 11 and 2. They don't care that we're there. They just joke with us and ask how we're doing.
The school said they were going to try turning the lights off at midnight this year in an effort to save energy, but I haven't seen evidence of any attempts to do that.
texas tech was 24/7 while i was there, and i beleive it still is. key codes on most doors, and even if they did lock the building, all you had to do was pull one of the doors hard enough, and it would open.
as far as safety goes, there isn't much out of the ordinary happening in Lubbock, TX.
Wow, I feel lucky. IIT has 24/7/365 studios, shop open 7 days a week, etc. The only time we had a problem was last year when they opened the "new" building (a warehouse from the 1940s) without any renovations, not even a key card reader on the door, so for about 3 months all the third years had to leave by 11pm or find somewhere in one of the other buildings to work.
We are in the middle of Chicago, however, so occasionally bums come in and sleep on our pass-out couches. Public safety comes in and kicks them out, then, but it doesn't happen often.
Wow, and i was thinking i was the only NYIT kid in these forums. L8rpeace, i think your right about the admin. The thing is though i've had hardass professors (Gernot, Gamburg) that demanded nothing short of excellence from all of us and they hounded us for it. What blows my mind is even some of the kids from their classes i pretty much knew had failed have managed to keep on keepin' on. I guess one must find the reward in his own work, and I do, but it aggravates me to work so hard just to eek out what seems like an existance and watch some people manage to slip through the cracks. It also pisses me off when my favorite hardline professors turn out (seemingly) to be paper tigers.
well, truth be told, I heard the NYIT Manhattan ARCH department is going to be allocated more studio space some time soon on 61 st - probably 2 floors at about, oh, 25k sf or more. I don't know if that space will be open around the clock, or when we'll get it. It's empty now - the old EMS right next door to the current 61 st. building.
I personally have had great professors, Apurimac. From DFI, Gernot, Imas, Cumella (now departed), Imas (again), Ke through DIV with Palazzolo (last semester, now on sabbatical). That's just in studio. I guess the professors are all as tough as you demand them to be, and your demands are best spoken through work and interest. I just hate that a certain apathy transcends the studio space in the student body (from time to time) to other classes, like the ARCH history, technology, and elective courses.
I used to think that I must find the reward in my own work; by and large it's true that you can really only control your own actions. People who slip through the cracks won't be able to fully appreciate education after graduation. But, sometimes I see certain segments of the student population hold things back with apathy, and that's more sad than anything. Then the problem of people slipping through the cracks begins to affect me, and that ain't right.
I mean, when I need to weld, or I need constant access to shop equipment, I have to get on a train and head down to NJ to do work...at least a 4 hour commute to and from there, plus a walk of 3 miles from the train station. I know, this sounds like the "I walked miles through the snow with no shoes uphill to school" line, but I swear it's true. And, it's really tough with big models. Maybe I should get a car...that's a fun accessory when you live in Manhattan. So yeah, facilities (or lack thereof) are something of a constant obstacle.
Just out of curiosity, who is hardline that turned into a paper tiger, if you don't mind me asking? Obviously you don't have to answer if you aren't comfortable doing so.
Well, looks like you've been lucky and had a who's who of our best professors. My two favorite professors, the ones that were the most liberal with the "Fs", the ones who were the most demanding and critical were Gernot and Gamburg. I had gernot first year, and I could've sworn he failed this one kid, I mean he did NO work, at least no quality work and produced constant Fs (gernot liked to read out everyone's grade aloud). Yet I see this same kid in the mix for 3rd year studio during the initial group phase when all the studios were mixed together, he's not in my studio though he's with another prof.
My other fav hardliner was Gamburg, I mean this guy simply did not fool around and he was an awesome prof. Yet last year, as I was in another studio for Des II, his Des II studio was next door so I often knew what was going on and checked out the class as I liked Gamburg's style and I loved to hear the other kids moan about how hard his class was. There was one guy who bailed, and i mean bailed the last 2 or 3 classes, including final crit. I thought that was an absolute kiss of death seeing how gamburg stuck to our tough attendance policy of 3 strikes and your out. He'd obviously missed more than 3 classes and a final crit, yet who do I see in the mix for Des. III this year, the same guy. Must've submitted one hell of a portfolio.
If they closed our studio alot of students would have
been homeless
Apurimac, I'll admit that I feel a twinge of angst when I see certain rules broken, because it appears that not everyone is held to the same standards, for whatever reason. Yet, I know things come up for some people, and there are circumstances beyond everyone's control that cause people to miss deadlines and studios and such. I truly believe that any extenuating circumstances are excusable. Often, they turn out to be 'the dog ate my homework' type of things, and those transgressions probably come back to bite people in the ass later on, after school is done. But, when different sets of standards really start to affect me, that's when it is the most troubling.
Spring 2005, I remember having an early crit for the cemetery project (DII). So I got the chance to walk around and try and help others while they toiled away for final review. There was trash everywhere...like food, open, right next to garbage cans and stuff. I remember thinking, was it fair to be chastized for working hard/being resourceful for DI, Fall 2004, when this mess was being accepted?
It's true that facilities also affect the work. I had a professor who said that he understood some of the physical limitations placed on the work after seeing other facilities around the city. Wow. That hurts. The lack of facilities impinge upon my ability to do better work, to push projects farther?
Anyway, different standards in facilities aside, it's also troubling sitting through classes where people don't care. I know there's a huge emphasis on studio, but other classes where people don't participate or read...to the point that assignments are changed, schedules reworked, and the entire level of the class is dumbed down...it bothers me. It begins to affect MY education, and that's unacceptable.
Since I noticed that a few NYIT students have participated in this discussion I thought there might be room for another. I have to say that I only had about a dozen overnighters at my school and I can't say its an experience I'd like to remember. Unfortunately the lack of space creates a terrible atmosphere to work in, especially in the larger studio, currently off limits to underclassmen this year.
In regards to 24hr. studio sessions at NYIT they are granted only if requested by students, which is a reasonable system. If convenience for the student were the concern of the school they would be open 24/7/365 like ladsnine's school; I doubt that will ever happen at NYIT seeing as how stingy they are about actually granting the architectural department the necessary resources to run the department smoothly.
After my last 24hr studio experience the only time that I stay in overnight is if I absolutely have to for a final presentation. I prefer to endure the one hour drive from my house to school to putting up with the filthy mess that crowds these already crowded studios.
However awful facilities are in this or any school, it really shouldn't reflect on our work (if we're critical about it). I believe that this issue serves well for our future as professionals, you can't make excuses for generating half-assed work when resources are not easily available, its just inexcusable. Of course, that's just my opinion.
second semester last year they began enforcing a 2am shut-down of studios at wentworth, where i go to school. they have security guards come through and shoo people out, then lock the place up for the night. it's definitely a huge pain when you're up there, especially shortly before a crit, and going strong and are then kicked out. i've hidden out in the stairs and under a desk a few times before with people, but the policy is just stupid i think. nothing happens after 2am that wouldn't happen before 2am and when the workload is just as heavy there's no way to justify it i think.
So what can we as students do? Our chief of police is hard nosed and not ready to budge. I think at our school the cons out way the pros. Too many people wander through the building and doing "extra curricular activities." We are in college and I know architecture students are not the only zombies awake at all ours of the night. At least we are doing productive work. We have been thinking about doing a presentation about the work we do and how big these projects can really get. What do you guys think?
other than that one brief experiment, our studios were beautifully, gloriously open 24/7/365. not too secure, but most of us somehow worked out a lockable locker situation or simply learned not to leave our cds in studio. i think someone's laptop got stolen once.
mark, i think the liability thing is a bit of a red herring. I'm not really sure that your university would be any more liable for what happens to someone in the building at 2am than they would be at 2pm, in the passing time between classes, at 7:34pm after dinner time, etcetera. they probably just haven't really looked at the liability issue closely enough because it's a convenient excuse and they don't care. if i were you, i'd ask a lawyer friend if that excuse is for real or not.
myriam, while the liability with people in the building may be the same at 2 am and 2 pm, it is decidedly different when people are in the building versus when people are not in the building. I think that's the point here. and, there is a greater inclination towards activity that will increase risk when fewer people around (read, 2am) as opposed to when there are more people around (2 pm). so, while the university's liability may be on par, the risks associated with liable inducing activity increase at certain times. so do the costs of preventative measures, which as risk aversion tools (security technolgy and personel).
I prefer not to speak to lawyers.
Mark_M- I think I would bring them several examples of projects, and log how much time each of them took, so you could say, "An 'A' project takes xxx hours, a 'B' project takes xxx hours," etc. And maybe talk to them about how other schools of architecture work this, so that they can see that they are behind the curve and offering lesser facilities to their students than the schools with which they hope to compete.
my uni is open 24 hrs. although they have locked the smokers balcony on the top-6th vfloor, as i guess after 72 hrs without sleep in one room, you may get a few thoughts you shouldnt get when looking over the rail.
for security there are security guards on rotation who check your student card. they arent very forgiving to people who dont have them. although my university recently started outsourcing the security service, so i am not sure what will happen. they used to be students getting paid well, now it will be crazy angry old people.
Our studios were 24/7 at UH, until the usual after hours studio antics got out of hand. Then policy changed to closing at 12, reopen at 6 for the remainder of that semester. And of course they didn't decide to do that until right before Thanksgiving. Yeah, many desparate and homeless people. Fortunately, the next semester it was back to normal.
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