Care to chime in on what your impressions have been of UO M.Arch graduates? Do you believe UO provides a competent training program? What is strong or lacking in the UO M.Arch grad applicants you see applying to your firms?
Do you tend to hire from other sources? If so why?
i used to love Urge Overkill back in the late 80s/early 90s, but i didn't think they were doing anything these days. i didn't know they were in portland. aren't they from chicago?
I had gone to the Univ of Oregon's Open House for their Portland satelite location where they offer an M.Arch program. I was actually impressed by aspects of their program and thought they were churning out some competent M.Arch'ers for the type of program that I was interested in. (side note: the program website is embarrassingly bad and doesn't reflect the quality of work that some of the M.Arch students are producing, hopefully they will remedy that in good time....)
It seemed that with their expansion and move to a new building location (White Stag bldg.), i.e. new studio space, expanded wood shop, new laser cutter, new CNC router and milling, and new emphasis on building stronger digitial competencies.... that the Portland program was reaching out and trying to step up to the plate to better meet professional design community needs.
Either way, that's where I'll be and there's a small core of us that are hoping to take the new Portland program by storm, we'll see.......
Here is a little history about airport identifiers for those interested:
"The tags originally evolved from two-letter codes that the National Weather Service used to record data from various cities. But, as airline service exploded in the 1930s, there was a need to identify cities that did not have weather codes. An anonymous bureaucrat devised the three-letter system, which allows for 17,576 combinations. Since even today we have only 16,000 airports in the U.S., we haven’t yet run out of monikers. When the new airport identifier tags were adopted, cities who already used the two-letter weather codes just added an X. Thus the Los Angeles tag became LAX". Portland used PD for their weather code, and simply added the X to comply with the airport tags.
Once upon a time, before the editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Colonel Robert McCormick suggested a name change as tribute to pilot Lt. Cmdr. Edward "Butch" O'Hare, United States Navy, there was an airstrip well to the northwest of Chicago with a quaint, peaceful name—Orchard Field.
Brilliant braille rendition of YYZ, Garpike! Let's feed that into a player piano....
U of O, like any school, produces some good graduates and some...uh....not so good. My feeling is that the school needs better resources and a younger, dynamic faculty that can take it over from the older entrenched crowd that's there.
I agree. I'm really hoping that with the expansion, UO will make a couple key faculty hires. I'm hoping the new program and money being swung towards it will be attractive for younger, dynamic architects looking to make the transtion into the PNW design scene but would like the backbone of teaching for the first couple years.
Farwest is right. When I was there, there was a sense and remnants of the "Old Guard". I found the younger faculty much more open to new ideas and technology. Sadly, I've found out that some of the better younger faculty have since left due to a salary freeze imposed by the State of Oregon. I hope what chingale is right, there was talent at Oregon, just not enough ways to show it.
are the top talented archs in portland teaching at u of O? damn shame if they weren't.
oh, and sorry about the confusion re: pdx.
ever since i was a kid, i've always called cities by airport designation. it keeps me from having to say portland, oregon as opposed to portland, maine.
Portland design firms: What is your sense of UO?
Any Portland design firms out there?
Care to chime in on what your impressions have been of UO M.Arch graduates? Do you believe UO provides a competent training program? What is strong or lacking in the UO M.Arch grad applicants you see applying to your firms?
Do you tend to hire from other sources? If so why?
Thanks in advance for any comments.
u of o has an m.arch program? (kidding)
i've met tons of undergrad alum in the pdx and seattle area.
i don't recall one having an m. arch from u of o.
they're an intelligent and hard working bunch - though the corporate ones can get a bit lazy
i used to love Urge Overkill back in the late 80s/early 90s, but i didn't think they were doing anything these days. i didn't know they were in portland. aren't they from chicago?
I thought Portland was an east coast city
thanks for the replies,
I had gone to the Univ of Oregon's Open House for their Portland satelite location where they offer an M.Arch program. I was actually impressed by aspects of their program and thought they were churning out some competent M.Arch'ers for the type of program that I was interested in. (side note: the program website is embarrassingly bad and doesn't reflect the quality of work that some of the M.Arch students are producing, hopefully they will remedy that in good time....)
It seemed that with their expansion and move to a new building location (White Stag bldg.), i.e. new studio space, expanded wood shop, new laser cutter, new CNC router and milling, and new emphasis on building stronger digitial competencies.... that the Portland program was reaching out and trying to step up to the plate to better meet professional design community needs.
Either way, that's where I'll be and there's a small core of us that are hoping to take the new Portland program by storm, we'll see.......
I am not being a smart ass. This was not easy to search for.
would anyone care to explain the shorthand 'pdx'? Is that a nickname for portland, or somewhere else in the northwest?
PDX is the airport, like LAX. I don't know how it came to be a nickname for the city itself.
ahhh, thanks. I got the sense it meant portland somehow, but couldn't figure out where the 'dx' came from. Airport codes are so random sometimes.
Portland Downtown International Airport=PDX, I don't know why the X means international.
j
X is a placeholder...
YYZ is the best. Explain that one.
-.---.----..-.---.----..-.---.----..
Here is a little history about airport identifiers for those interested:
"The tags originally evolved from two-letter codes that the National Weather Service used to record data from various cities. But, as airline service exploded in the 1930s, there was a need to identify cities that did not have weather codes. An anonymous bureaucrat devised the three-letter system, which allows for 17,576 combinations. Since even today we have only 16,000 airports in the U.S., we haven’t yet run out of monikers. When the new airport identifier tags were adopted, cities who already used the two-letter weather codes just added an X. Thus the Los Angeles tag became LAX". Portland used PD for their weather code, and simply added the X to comply with the airport tags.
....Waiting for Chicago to be referred to as ORD.....
ORD -
Once upon a time, before the editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Colonel Robert McCormick suggested a name change as tribute to pilot Lt. Cmdr. Edward "Butch" O'Hare, United States Navy, there was an airstrip well to the northwest of Chicago with a quaint, peaceful name—Orchard Field.
Brilliant braille rendition of YYZ, Garpike! Let's feed that into a player piano....
U of O, like any school, produces some good graduates and some...uh....not so good. My feeling is that the school needs better resources and a younger, dynamic faculty that can take it over from the older entrenched crowd that's there.
farwest1,
I agree. I'm really hoping that with the expansion, UO will make a couple key faculty hires. I'm hoping the new program and money being swung towards it will be attractive for younger, dynamic architects looking to make the transtion into the PNW design scene but would like the backbone of teaching for the first couple years.
Dig the background on airport codes, thx ; )
farwest1, Rush's song is in Morse Code. Pow!
Farwest is right. When I was there, there was a sense and remnants of the "Old Guard". I found the younger faculty much more open to new ideas and technology. Sadly, I've found out that some of the better younger faculty have since left due to a salary freeze imposed by the State of Oregon. I hope what chingale is right, there was talent at Oregon, just not enough ways to show it.
Garpike, well, I'm both blind and deaf, but I have an awesome braille Cinema display by Apple, and your rendition of YYZ rocks it!
are the top talented archs in portland teaching at u of O? damn shame if they weren't.
oh, and sorry about the confusion re: pdx.
ever since i was a kid, i've always called cities by airport designation. it keeps me from having to say portland, oregon as opposed to portland, maine.
Who talks about Portland, Maine??
Is Lars still teaching? I finished undergrad right before they pushed Glenn and the wifey out. Was a pretty sad state of affairs when I left.
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