I went to the Summer Academy in Architecture, University of Texas at Austin in the 90s it was pretty good

i like your name. are you looking for something like an intro to architecture or just a summer study design course?
I went to the columbia (gsapp) programme. it was great!! i cant say how much i enjoyed it and how much i learned. its awesome too because soo-in yang was our TA:

the living

hey bucku! I like your name as well.

I want a prepatory thing for grad school or a good portfolio building program incase I wait a year for grad school.

I'll look into Columbia.

is the name of the program at the GSD. I did it way back in 92.

I'd be interested in hearing more about the summer program at Columbia. If I don't end up going to grad school this fall, I'll most likely be living in NYC anyway. I've checked out their website, and it looks like it might be worth it. They even offer evening studios, so it wouldn't interfere with a daytime job.

To me, all of these programs sound really introductory. I just need to see some of the student work.

i enjoyed the columbia programme very much. i dont really know what to tell you about it except that it is a great opportunity to be exposed. not only is the programme and the learning exciting but they usually have a great lecture series as well as numerous professional office visits. the exercises consist of material studies as well as various analytical studies that help you read beyond what something is into what it could be. the staff is great as well. the woman the heads it up is genious and very great to learn under. you have studios four days a week with the friday being some sort of field trip. plus, its new york. i live in atlanta and for me the seven weeks-the programme is 5- i was in nyc were awesome.

bucku - did you get any cool computerey columbia training?

Career Discovery at the GSD is an amazing program. I had an incredible summer there (last summer, 2006) and it's probably the main reason why I'm here. My undergrad degree was in finance and I worked for an investment bank, thought I was interested in Real Estate Development and stumbled on CDisco. It changed my life. I now look forward to a (most likely) considerably less lucrative career and you can't even imagine how much it makes me smile to understand the meaning in that.

I'll be applying to M.Arch I programs this coming December. As Jeff Klug said, sometime around our mini-graduation commencement thing, "You all walk out of here with a far better understanding of design than when you arrived. Some of you know you hate it ... <smile> ... I hope you don't! " haha, i really liked that. And Jeff was very right. They attract really incredible planners, designers, and policy makers to lecture (Maurice Cox(!?!?!?!?!), Michael Van Valkenburg, Rebecca Barnes, Felipe Correa, visited the Boston Redev. Authority where we met the chief arch. boston, and many, many more.)

I'm still filled with enthusiasm from that summer and I made some extremely close friends. I just hope the big bad M. Arch doesn't try to milk that enthusiasm from me!

I came with very little design and drawing experience so as far as a portfolio builder I would be embarassed to submit the work I did back then. That said, my overall aesthetic and understanding of beauty were so cultured those 10? weeks that I can't even imagine what a portfolio I attempted to put together now would have looked like without them.

One thing, try to get more sleep than I did! As a lifelong insomniac I finally understood what sleep deprivation was.

I can't possibly give a higher reccomendation for this program. It was a profound lifechanging experience for me and some of my friends. I think about it daily and miss it very much.

p.s.

Almost all my drawings were done by hand. There were computer workshops but I skipped most of them. I learned CAD in about 2 weeks after Disco was over. CAD is a tool for design not a path to design, I wouldn't worry about a program's emphasis on it.

there was no computer training there. i really doubt that any intro school will take the time to try to train you on anything in that short a time. the programme focused on hand drawings and intense modelling. they really like to see analysis/mappings/anything that can be read on a more sophiticated level than just a perspectve drawing. they like to see the data or different ways of displaying it so that you can read it in a different way than it actually means it.
basically, if you are familiar with tschumi's screenplays or manhattan transcripts, it may be considered similar. the method that is.
my project consisted of a long series of photographs moving down a specified path. from there i abstracted the idea of perception and consealing/revealing and methods for doing such. they like you to have a sort of concept and a material and you start to breed what you can learn from the material with what you can learn from a particular analysis. like i said... strenuous.

Bucku and I were Danielle Smoller's studio together at Columbia. As I've said elsewhere on Archinect, if you attend the program, try to be in her studio. She's an amazing critic! Very incisive. Also, if Soo-in Yang or David Benjamin are teaching, they are also wonderful critics.

Is it Danielle Smoller or Diane Smoller? I hope I didn't put the wrong name on my application form.

And of course, GSAPP's website is slow as molasses right now....

Damn, it's Danielle Smoller. Good thing the mail hadn't been picked up yet.

Good luck, LiG. But get some sleep before you go... And remember to go out while you're in New York!

The Jumpstart Program at UCLA was great - Did it last summer. Interesting projects, smart teachers, beautiful campus, got a recommendation out of it. I'll be going to UCLA in the fall now. You should totally look into it. I think it is cheaper than the Harvard program too.

In contrast to the Harvard program, we did both hand drawing and digital drawing at Jumpstart, using Rhino and Illustrator. It was a really good mix.

I second 222.
For anyone in California - it was a good time.

Or even outside of California! I live in NY and came out for the summer. It helped me make the decision to move to LA. I wish they had a better website though. Hey Clairito - wanna offer to redesign it with me this summer? Maybe they will pay us. Hm, too bad I don't really know anything about making websites. We could at least compile a better image gallery for them. And better, less tacky, student quotes.

Actually, to be serious, I enjoyed the program but had nothing to compare it to. When I was applying to grad school, however, I showed my portfolio to a coworker. He looked at the work I had done this summer and read the syllabus and was really impressed. Apparently his roommate had done the Columbia program this past summer and was unimpressed with both his roommate's work and the course syllabus.

squaresquared: Thanks, I'm really looking forward to it. After years of laying out cubicle farms and drawing restroom elevations, it will be nice to let the creative juices flow again (assuming I still have any left).

I've lived in NYC before and I already have a few favorite eating and drinking establishments. My church (the Cathedral of St. John the Divine) is across the street from Columbia, so I'm already very well-aquainted with the Hungarian Pastry Shop. Yum.

i agree with 222- jumpstart UCLA is the way to go. it's really comprehensive.

LiG you been praying you get in...h hah hah ahh ahh hah

did anyone mention GMMC? Worth checking out - its about the same price less plane fare; and you get a few weeks with Glenn Murcutt

LIG, so sorry, i realized that i had written diane smoller the whole time :(

lig, i thought you had already applied to grad schools, or am i wrong? either way, i used it as more of a prep and as a chance to get to learn at a grad school while i am in/was in undergrad.

bucku, soo-in is a friend of mind! were you at columbia summer 2006? i was in the schermerhorn studios...

I applied to grad schools, but barring some miracle, I probably won't be attending grad school this fall. Although I have a considerable amount of professional experience in architecture, I think a summer studio would help me re-discover my creative side, provide some additional projects for my portfolio, and hopefully be a good source of a recommendation letter and/or job lead. As a bonus, I can also apply the summer course toward my undergrad degree.

FROCCLI: No worries about the name. Luckily I was able to catch the error before the mail went out yeaterday.

look into Making + Meaning at Sci-ARC. intense intro to design studio. basically, you build stuff all day long. no real classes, no sitting around for very long listening to someone else speak about architecture (a few lectures in the afternoons, and few drawing workshops), just build, build, build.
i did it before applying to grad school and it was an amazing experience.

FROC, no i went to the summer studio two years ago. summer 05.
soo-in was an awesome guy. i am glad to see him have the success that he has had as of late. I bought his book "life size" volume 2 as well. its pretty fun. so doe she help with the summer program any more that he would be able to help these folks who are going to apply there?

LIG, the primary reason i went to the summer program was for the exposure. lately as i am applying for more professional jobs it catches all their eyes and i think impresses them. i got more out of it architecturally than that but having another name under mine, even for a summer i think is worth it. hopefully it will help me get into grad schools in a year or two.

I have a couple more questions about these summer programs:

1) Can I assume they operate on pretty much an open-admissions basis? That is, they're open to all on a first come, first serve basis, space permitting?

2) Let's assume that Cornell is my top pick for grad schools next year, and let's also assume that I enroll in a summer program, do some good projects and get a nice recommendation letter out of it. Does it really matter if I do Cornell's summer program or Columbia's? Cornell's program would be the obvious choice, but Columbia's is much more practical for me in terms of scheduling, location, and cost.

living in gin-

at least for the summer architecture program that i did at cornell, i think it really helped. if you do well in the program, you'll really stand out. but this is for undergrad mainly (and the summer program is limited to high school students). they also did not write recommendations for us. Basically..getting an A in the summer studio gives you a really good boost in your recs cause they see that you can excel at cornell. grad school might be a little different..

a lot of my freshman peers attended other summer programs as well (AA, CMU, USC, etc). It probably doesn't matter if you do cornell or columbia. columbia's a good school as well

Thanks... I don't think it would be a big issue, but it was worth asking anyway.

FYI, Cornell's program looks like it's open to both high school students as well as college students. The application and registration process is different, but it looks like you end up in the same courses.

How much $ are we talking here, for these programs?

Columbia's is about $2200. Cornell's is $875 per credit hour, which translates to $2625 for either the lecture or studio (3 credits each), or $5250 for both (6 credits). I think GSD's summer program is in the range of $5000+ as well.

That's for tuition only, which doesn't include living expenses, studio materials, or other fees.

LIG, i spent about $500 on model making materials. whatever you do, try not to go to Janoffs and get your supplies.

oh also, if you are set on a program (e.g. cornell) then, i would think it's better to pick a summer program that closely parallels their graduate program. i don't know what cornell pedagogy is, but if it's in the same direction as columbia's, then it probably won't matter. and plus, wherever you go, if you do a kick ass job, get good grades and recs, i think it's more important that you made the most of the opportunity than whether the product looks like a poster model for the school you're applying to. as someone in a intro course, you're not expected to have a fully developed style so as long as you demonstrate the ability to think critically, everything else is just gravy.

lol brightside. or if you have a car, pay the $6 ($5 if you have ezpass) and drive to pearl paint paramus, nj to shop in peace and quiet. the prices are already at a discount compared to the one in chinatown so you'll make up the toll/gass in no time with ur student discount.

but i would have probably spent that extra money on bubble tea, so perhaps i can thank janoffs for helping me not balloon into a huge manatee from an overindulgence of tapioca balls.

"get to "Pearl Paint".. walk up the 5-6-7 or however many flights it was to the arch supply section"

umm, you know they have an elevator, right?

Harvard's Career Discovery was about $2400 last year, with room and board being another $1200. If you go, find a sublet somewhere, because they put you in the Law School dorms, which are completely misrable even if they were designed by Gropius.

I just got the packet in the mail for Columbia's summer program. I'm in! (At least I got accepted somewhere this year.)

I'm pretty psyched about it... Now if I can just:

1) Finish my spring quarter here with respectable grades
2) Find housing in NYC
3) Sell my car and save up lots of money, and
4) Not get fired from my job in the meantime

...within the next 11 weeks, I'll be all set.

Somebody save a spot at the Hungarian Pastry Shop for me.

i guess that rumor about you leavin is true?

I have no idea what you're talking about. You can't prove a thing.

congrats, LIG. i think one of my friends is going to go and if he does then ill probably come up to visit. anyhow, i hope you enjoy it as much as i did.