I was totally disappointed with Knowlton School of Architecture. While it looked good from a distance, once I got up next to it I saw all of the flaws, and there were plenty. It seem that Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects had no follow through once the design was approved and they spent little time in the detailing and CA of the project. A classmate and I spent 3 hours walking through the building notice details and finishes that were not thought through and poorly executed. You can have the greatest design in the world but if you dont know how to execute it, it is useless.
I forgot to mention this, but one school building that I really do like, despite its previously documented "wack-iness", is Pratt. They have nice open studio spaces and the modern center section, offset by the historic buildings on either side, works very well, IMO.
my first year of archi-school was like strawbearys...a hundred and some kids learning the basics of design in an old wwII airline hanger. i don't recall why we were there that year, but it was fun. we had an opera singer and a drunken artist teaching us to be bauhauslers...
they tore it down cuz it warnt safe no more apprently... din't think it was a great space, nor a great building, but do member getting kicked out once for being drunk (along with most of the studio)...
At least part of the time, I'm in the same building where jump used to be. My studio space for this year is in an adjacent building, but for all intents and purposes, the studio space itself is nearly identical, except that we don't have the same curtain wall (although there's definitely abundant natural daylight thanks to two sets of clerestory windows, if that's the right term. (I've only been in architecture school for three days, give me a break!)
But yeah, the more I spend time in jump's Russell building, the more I like it.
It's interesting to me to compare how design schools are managed and run - both by admin and students. In my industrial design undergrad days, we didn't have cubicles or assigned tables or even a set work area. Instead, opting for something more flexible, we usually worked around a HUGE area of tables, with us sitting around the perimeter (and occasionally on top of the tables, if needed). By and large, this was a much more collaborative way to work. You didn't have just one or two neighbours with whom you worked beside all day, because everybody could see everybody, and we weren't afraid to ask for or give critiques throughout the day.
At first, it seems much less structured that way, but that's the point, and I think it works. Our work definitely benefitted for it, and many of us are still friends and acquaintances, four years later and thousands of miles apart from eachother. (Just yesterday, I was given a choice of several product design jobs, courtesy of an old classmate and friend.)
Okay, that's way off-topic, I know. That's just how I roll.
BTW, jump, the central courtyard in the Russell building's been torn out and is on its way to getting fixed. The trees have been torn out along with everythin else, and right now we're just waiting for the infill to settle before any more work is done. Apparently the courtyard had settled a few FEET over the decades. Ahhh, Winnipeg swampland!
I visited the Porto Architecture Faculty by Siza and they are pretty much perfect. As well as a cafe/bar that serves 1 euro beers, they have a beautiful, serene campus in the hills overlooking the Douro, their own library and a studio layout with the three studios overlooking a courtyard with full height glazing, so that each studio can see in to the other one, as well as in to the garden.
While ugly and complete rip off (legend has it P.J. opened an arch hist. book, flipped through and said this looks good, thus our LeDon't).
Actually working /living in the U.H. arch school was a great time. All levels are open to the atrium so, Grad students can listen to the restless joy of fourth year and watch the massing models of second year being built. And everyone can enjoy the incredible pace and confusion of the first year students. It's like an MC Escher come to life.
Things are getting crowded though, but the new technology building and more selective admissions should help with that.
I was always pretty jealous of the train depot. The woodshop was sooooo huge! And so much pin-up space...
I also really liked CCA's building:
there's this huge main hallway/crit space/gallery/party room, and then the studios branch off from each side of it. The new graduate center doesn't look too bad either:
wow, three votes for di-arc already. now i'm feeling even more guilt for leaving detroit in favor of my island paradise. i recieved an email from a friend earlier today saying that she's going to run the detroit marathon and i've been feeling really nostalgic about it all afternoon. i really miss the detroit sufferscape sometimes...
jafidler, thanks for the offer of running it out of the basement but surely we could find a space with some more grit to it.
Gosh, what would I call Cincinnati. "hellscape" is too easy.
puddles, I left for warmer weather too....we all have to make our own path. That being said, please keep me in mind for your faculty positions once you get di-ARC up and running.
le bossman, haven't you done chicago before? besides the detroit course is awesome. over the ambassador bridge into windsor, back through the windsor tunnel and finishing at the 50 yard line of ford field.
wonderk, i agree that sufferscape is brilliant...but i should point out that i purloined it from a writer friend in detroit. it can be found in its original context in this article about detroit and berlin by walter wasacz losing your mind in berlin...it's a lengthy article but i love reading it again and again
i really like the idea of di-arc, but i think we'd need a better name. maybe detroit architecture school, limited liability corporation or dasllc (pronounced "dazzle") for short
They'll be doing something with it, though a definitive answer, I couldn't get. They did say that the roots of the trees were causing problems with the foundation, so they had to go.
On a related note, I went by the school yesterday and as I walked up to the arch II building, saw that a bunch of the old willow trees were getting cut down. I asked one of the workers and he said that at 40 years old, the willows were starting to rot from the inside. I was skeptical, but once I saw one of the trees get chopped down, I saw that he was right - it was hollow.
40 years to grow, 40 seconds to cut down. Amazing.
I went to Edinburgh University. The Architecture department is housed, along with History of Art, in a fairly average Victorian building on Chambers Street, called Minto house:
This was connected to a former brewery maltings by an incredibly ugly link section.
The buildings were awful to study in: circulation is incredibly tortured; floor levels in the two buildings don't even vaguely line up; the maltings has very few windows, which let in almost no natural light; the ceilings in the maltings are also incredibly low; in short, there is very much to recommend about the buildings. Here's a photo of my 3rd studio:
I'm pretty jealous of the Edinburgh College of Art architecture studios. They are housed in a (1960s?) modernist extension to the main Beaux-Arts building. The studios have near full height glazing, which give uninterrupted views to Edinburgh Castle.
bitch bitch bitch, try going to studio everyday in a converted NYC office building, 2 floors of which have been given to the arch department and are constantly packed with hundreds of students vying for usable space and the shittiest shop facilities this side of the Mississippi.
Sometimes I wish i would have gone to school at SCAD, sometimes....
i don't think that's pratt... pratt's arch building is a converted elementary school slightly off campus in brooklyn. i know they do have space in manhattan, but i thought it was for some of the other programs. i agree with wonderk - i think their building is successful and actually enjoyable to be in.
WonderK - the novelty of being in a converted brewery soons wears off. Actually, I'm typing this from office, which, by coincidence, is also in a converted brewery maltings. It's a somewhat nicer space to work in - light and airy and given a very tasteful fit-out by the company who I work for.
puddles, brilliant article..
"...a culture that best operates as an anonymous techno-organism with an infinite number of workable but replaceable parts." --sounds awfully & comfortably familiar.
Here's Higgins Hall (Pratt's architecture building). The center addition was designed by Steven Holl and gets some beautiful light during the day.
[imghttp://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e179/daniellepecora/higgins2.jpg[/img]
The University of Houston Architecture building is a total rip-off of Ledoux's House of Education, but it works really well. The floor plan for the studio spaces allow easy (lateral and vertical) studio interaction, which became a vital part of my architecture education.
Lots of people dropped work, phone books, etc into that atrium. It's built for late night shenanigans.
Did anyone find that UC's DAAP building negatively affected their work? The crowdedness and lack of natural light might prove problematic for me because I'm such a sucker for nice working conditions.
the DESIGN of architecture schools
Quarter-mile ftw-
Applesauce, I think I would appreciate your post a lot more if it made sense. ;o)
puddles, I like the di-arc idea. Make it happen!
I was totally disappointed with Knowlton School of Architecture. While it looked good from a distance, once I got up next to it I saw all of the flaws, and there were plenty. It seem that Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects had no follow through once the design was approved and they spent little time in the detailing and CA of the project. A classmate and I spent 3 hours walking through the building notice details and finishes that were not thought through and poorly executed. You can have the greatest design in the world but if you dont know how to execute it, it is useless.
Egads....that's too bad.
I forgot to mention this, but one school building that I really do like, despite its previously documented "wack-iness", is Pratt. They have nice open studio spaces and the modern center section, offset by the historic buildings on either side, works very well, IMO.
i can't believe i forgot...
my first year of archi-school was like strawbearys...a hundred and some kids learning the basics of design in an old wwII airline hanger. i don't recall why we were there that year, but it was fun. we had an opera singer and a drunken artist teaching us to be bauhauslers...
they tore it down cuz it warnt safe no more apprently... din't think it was a great space, nor a great building, but do member getting kicked out once for being drunk (along with most of the studio)...
At least part of the time, I'm in the same building where jump used to be. My studio space for this year is in an adjacent building, but for all intents and purposes, the studio space itself is nearly identical, except that we don't have the same curtain wall (although there's definitely abundant natural daylight thanks to two sets of clerestory windows, if that's the right term. (I've only been in architecture school for three days, give me a break!)
But yeah, the more I spend time in jump's Russell building, the more I like it.
It's interesting to me to compare how design schools are managed and run - both by admin and students. In my industrial design undergrad days, we didn't have cubicles or assigned tables or even a set work area. Instead, opting for something more flexible, we usually worked around a HUGE area of tables, with us sitting around the perimeter (and occasionally on top of the tables, if needed). By and large, this was a much more collaborative way to work. You didn't have just one or two neighbours with whom you worked beside all day, because everybody could see everybody, and we weren't afraid to ask for or give critiques throughout the day.
At first, it seems much less structured that way, but that's the point, and I think it works. Our work definitely benefitted for it, and many of us are still friends and acquaintances, four years later and thousands of miles apart from eachother. (Just yesterday, I was given a choice of several product design jobs, courtesy of an old classmate and friend.)
Okay, that's way off-topic, I know. That's just how I roll.
BTW, jump, the central courtyard in the Russell building's been torn out and is on its way to getting fixed. The trees have been torn out along with everythin else, and right now we're just waiting for the infill to settle before any more work is done. Apparently the courtyard had settled a few FEET over the decades. Ahhh, Winnipeg swampland!
puddles, you set up di-arc and i'm there.
it will be located on piquet street, for sure or else in eastern market
I visited the Porto Architecture Faculty by Siza and they are pretty much perfect. As well as a cafe/bar that serves 1 euro beers, they have a beautiful, serene campus in the hills overlooking the Douro, their own library and a studio layout with the three studios overlooking a courtyard with full height glazing, so that each studio can see in to the other one, as well as in to the garden.
link
puddles, if you take the position of dean at di-arc, we can run it out of my basement for the first year or two.
UIC Arch building has to be experienced to truly understand just how crappy it is.
While ugly and complete rip off (legend has it P.J. opened an arch hist. book, flipped through and said this looks good, thus our LeDon't).
Actually working /living in the U.H. arch school was a great time. All levels are open to the atrium so, Grad students can listen to the restless joy of fourth year and watch the massing models of second year being built. And everyone can enjoy the incredible pace and confusion of the first year students. It's like an MC Escher come to life.
Things are getting crowded though, but the new technology building and more selective admissions should help with that.
Sorry dUbs; Quarter-mile = SCI_Arc, 'cause it's in a quarter mile long freight depot.
As a building it's a hell of a lot easier to get around than my undergrad; Lawerence Hall at the UO.
I was always pretty jealous of the train depot. The woodshop was sooooo huge! And so much pin-up space...
I also really liked CCA's building:
there's this huge main hallway/crit space/gallery/party room, and then the studios branch off from each side of it. The new graduate center doesn't look too bad either:
wow, three votes for di-arc already. now i'm feeling even more guilt for leaving detroit in favor of my island paradise. i recieved an email from a friend earlier today saying that she's going to run the detroit marathon and i've been feeling really nostalgic about it all afternoon. i really miss the detroit sufferscape sometimes...
jafidler, thanks for the offer of running it out of the basement but surely we could find a space with some more grit to it.
"the detroit sufferscape" = brilliant
Gosh, what would I call Cincinnati. "hellscape" is too easy.
puddles, I left for warmer weather too....we all have to make our own path. That being said, please keep me in mind for your faculty positions once you get di-ARC up and running.
I'M DOING CHICAGO THIS YEAR PUDDLES
le bossman, haven't you done chicago before? besides the detroit course is awesome. over the ambassador bridge into windsor, back through the windsor tunnel and finishing at the 50 yard line of ford field.
wonderk, i agree that sufferscape is brilliant...but i should point out that i purloined it from a writer friend in detroit. it can be found in its original context in this article about detroit and berlin by walter wasacz losing your mind in berlin...it's a lengthy article but i love reading it again and again
i really like the idea of di-arc, but i think we'd need a better name. maybe detroit architecture school, limited liability corporation or dasllc (pronounced "dazzle") for short
i had heard that about the courtyard, slantsix. pity they took out the landscape, such as it was...
They'll be doing something with it, though a definitive answer, I couldn't get. They did say that the roots of the trees were causing problems with the foundation, so they had to go.
On a related note, I went by the school yesterday and as I walked up to the arch II building, saw that a bunch of the old willow trees were getting cut down. I asked one of the workers and he said that at 40 years old, the willows were starting to rot from the inside. I was skeptical, but once I saw one of the trees get chopped down, I saw that he was right - it was hollow.
40 years to grow, 40 seconds to cut down. Amazing.
I went to Edinburgh University. The Architecture department is housed, along with History of Art, in a fairly average Victorian building on Chambers Street, called Minto house:
This was connected to a former brewery maltings by an incredibly ugly link section.
The buildings were awful to study in: circulation is incredibly tortured; floor levels in the two buildings don't even vaguely line up; the maltings has very few windows, which let in almost no natural light; the ceilings in the maltings are also incredibly low; in short, there is very much to recommend about the buildings. Here's a photo of my 3rd studio:
I'm pretty jealous of the Edinburgh College of Art architecture studios. They are housed in a (1960s?) modernist extension to the main Beaux-Arts building. The studios have near full height glazing, which give uninterrupted views to Edinburgh Castle.
maccoinnich....I heart your city. Also, I think you may be the only person here who can claim that they went to school in "maltings".
if i went back to school i would have serious studio mess issues with people. clean up your crap people.
This semester my studio is across campus in an ID studio. I'm mostly bummed because there are no spare lockers to stash the community scotch.
bitch bitch bitch, try going to studio everyday in a converted NYC office building, 2 floors of which have been given to the arch department and are constantly packed with hundreds of students vying for usable space and the shittiest shop facilities this side of the Mississippi.
Sometimes I wish i would have gone to school at SCAD, sometimes....
Apurimac, is this the start of "Pratt is STILL wack!"?
i don't think that's pratt... pratt's arch building is a converted elementary school slightly off campus in brooklyn. i know they do have space in manhattan, but i thought it was for some of the other programs. i agree with wonderk - i think their building is successful and actually enjoyable to be in.
maybe parsons?
WonderK - the novelty of being in a converted brewery soons wears off. Actually, I'm typing this from office, which, by coincidence, is also in a converted brewery maltings. It's a somewhat nicer space to work in - light and airy and given a very tasteful fit-out by the company who I work for.
But yeah, Edinburgh is a wonderful city.
puddles, brilliant article..
"...a culture that best operates as an anonymous techno-organism with an infinite number of workable but replaceable parts." --sounds awfully & comfortably familiar.
Ya, the old MIT space was a groovy, happenin' place, why, because it wasn't supposed to be there.
Here's Higgins Hall (Pratt's architecture building). The center addition was designed by Steven Holl and gets some beautiful light during the day.
[imghttp://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e179/daniellepecora/higgins2.jpg[/img]
oops, messed one up! let's try that again.......
The University of Houston Architecture building is a total rip-off of Ledoux's House of Education, but it works really well. The floor plan for the studio spaces allow easy (lateral and vertical) studio interaction, which became a vital part of my architecture education.
Lots of people dropped work, phone books, etc into that atrium. It's built for late night shenanigans.
Did anyone find that UC's DAAP building negatively affected their work? The crowdedness and lack of natural light might prove problematic for me because I'm such a sucker for nice working conditions.
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