So why are studios accessible 24/7 if you can't stay overnight?

let's babysit our students!

hmm ... sounds like some students cutting down on housing costs by living in studio? I mean, air matresses? are we talking thermarests here or the real deal?

i suspect either a liability carrier or a lawyer was involved here.

Yeah, that letter has "cover our asses in case a kid has a car crash driving home at 4am" written all over it.

I also chafe - severely - at the comment "women and others with family responsibilities". If you have a family, you have family responsibilities, whether you're a man or a woman or both or neither.

Women might not be able to stay overnight at studio because they fear for their safety. Let's call that out as an identifiable problem - a problem which can be squarely blamed on men, BTW - and not subtly imply that those women would be better off staying home with their kids anyway.

For fuck's sake.

seriously? seriously??

this says to me some cry baby student went and complained to the administration after he/she didn't get a good review that the expectations were unreasonable. as they say, if you can't stand the heat...

look, no one is forcing students to stay all night. it's entirely incumbent on the student to make a decision for themselves when and where to focus their work. in my experience, some people were able to come in and crank out a great project on a 9-5 schedule, some people spent those 8 hours watching hulu. other people lived at school for weeks and made great work, while others lived at school for weeks and became a biohazard. some people just work better at night when half the studio is gone. different strokes for different folks.

i am not sure what university this is from (although i could take a few guesses) but frankly i think they need to back off and let what happens happen. in reality, this policy makes the situation more unsafe, as students would get kicked out of studio, drive home so they could finish working, and then drive back again the next day. at least if they sleep on the STD couch at school they are not on the road... twice. let me guess... next week the faculty will get a memo that says reviews are "too harsh" and that they need to be more friendly?

No family values no diploma. Love it or leave it!

No family values no diploma. Love it or leave it!

this can't be a public school? pretty ridiculous

Subtle sexism aside, I agree with the overall intent of the letter. Although I've been known to pull the occasional all-nighter (usually once per term, the night before final review), I don't buy into the whole "you're not a real architecture student unless you go without sleep for six months at a stretch" idea, and it's refreshing to see it officially discouraged.

I'm not sure if it's still the case, but I think Parsons closes their studio at 1 AM.

what about those students who are having affairs with each other while their spouses think they are working in studio. what are they supposed to do now?

I absolute agree with this position.

i don't agree. some people have odd schedules. last semester, i didnt get off work until 2 am, and did most of my school work after that, then went home to sleep before afternoon studio. it's the student's choice to be there.

and yeah, the late night sex is good in the studio.

'let me guess... next week the faculty will get a memo that says reviews are "too harsh" and that they need to be more friendly?"

Bullshit. False equivalencies are the mark of all talk and no walk.

Students should be 'graded' on station organization and facilitation of execution. Sure, we want our design undergrads/grads to be prepared intellectually to contribute to Architecture (as Architects, architects, or designers) but we shouldn't be turning loose interns who don't have any idea how to share working space with others, especially in terms of limited resources.

Part of this is time management - Should there be a social space in design schools? Duh. Working smarter, not harder, is often said by professors who do NOTHING to empower that in students who've mostly never had these kinds of experiences in their lives.

BH - I think your story shows how dogmatic 'studio culture' has become.

... actually, many employees at firms have embraced the culture, particularly now in this time of economic downturn. I've heard several stories where people feel, the longer they stay, the more job security they will have. Currently, the unwritten rule is NEVER be the first one to leave. So you have a room full of people trying not to leave first and working until 9-10pm on a daily basis...

What? At the Architecture school I went to In San Diego, It was often the women who pulled the all-nighters - 2 - 3 nights in a row.

Architecture is the Marine Corp. of the creative professions, it ain't no game for the faint of heart.

Curt Clay - you are so right - it comes with the game - Employers expect it, and the schools need to allow it. The first to leave, is the first to leave - - as in "get a box"

during undergrad i kept a blanket & an old army cot in studio. at one point i spent the entire month (february) at school only going home to shower & change clothes (except friday nights when i actually did go to bed).

it was grueling but i did have a productive month. by nature, i'm a bit of a night owl so after studio finished each day (5:30pm), i'd quickly eat & then sleep until 9 or 10pm. wake up then and spend the night drawing or model building. the hours from about 3-9am were always best because that was when it was most peaceful. ah the memories.

I knew a studio head who once required 30+ people to work from Fri AM through Mon AM, an inhumane 72 hours. Five of those people were laid off later that same week. More were laid off later, until even the studio head was eventually let go too.

I hated studio - it was a crappy building, full of retarded people showing off their music collections. I dont actualy recall much work occuring in the studio. Mostly people goofing off. With computers and software what they are now I would totally work from home If I was in school again.

The policy was changed since I've been here to the opposite of this letter.

We used to close from 3-7, for similar reasons - it promoted unhealthy activity to keep an academic buliding open 24/7.

So students hung tight for an hour, got a bite to eat, showered and then broke in an hour later when security shut down. This was common knowledge and often reminisced about. It wasn't uncommon to be in studio before an all nighter, at 4 am with only 1/4 of the lights on (that's how the building 'closed'...and they locked the doors) and find a studio professor peeking over your shoulder to see how you were doing.

Now it's open all the time.

Whatever the operating policy (because open hours certainly don't specifically dictate healthy habits), I think schools should encourage healthy, productive, working habits; time management, personal health, etc.

I don't favor the all nighter as a way of life. Work hard, balance sleep/schedule appropriately, stay up late on occasion when the time comes...

This whole thing (life, architecture, etc) is supposed to be fun.

Besides, it's been my experience that those who preach of their 'work ethic' as evidence of their sleeping habits are compensating for something.

having a studio open 24 hours all week doesn't dictate an all nighter. I've done my share of all nighters and suspect I paid the price with my seizure a couple years ago. But I think it is important to put in the work, but it is about quality time. When it comes to getting your work done it is more that reasonable to cut a few hours from your sleep time, but to replace it later. And I feel significantly better about making the studios available for students to sleep in than have them drive home. Funny that no one has hinted that this is really a design problem at an urban scale. If the universities built quasi-specialised housing options for students - imagine the capsule hotel, where students dropped a dime and could get a few hours sleep.

Employers should not expect employees to work beyond 40 hrs a week. Thats exploitation, and I see it all the time, expecially among salaried people who often don't receive overtime. 70 hr work weeks mean employers have unrealistic goals and are cheap bastards. Even now in a time of recession, employers should not be allowed to take advantage of employees fears. It definitely does not create a healthy and productive work environment.

I think that is a ridiculous statement for the school to make. On every campus in every building kids are staying for "all nighters". Teachers don't force kids to pull them either, at least mine never asked me to. Kids end up having to because of priorities... there is a party Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and I need about 30+ hours of work to finish this project and if I go to those parties I'll probably end up with 60 hours of available sleep... yeah I'll go to the parties and stay up for the work. It's college. Don't let the stupidity of business hours creep in until you are in the business. It's like doing realistic projects in school. Yeah it's expensive and it's 100% percent awesome. The real world will be the real world but school should be a refuge for dreamers (and those not dreaming but leaving 24-7) and those who want to spoil that should get out of it!

The grim truth is that in a recession, people get desperate, they see CNN, and decide to work later and later to be the last to leave. Even CareerBuilder.Com advises to always be the last to leave. This is a recession, there is no priority for Life/Work balance.

Yup, silly statement.

It is up to you to decide what schedule to take on. Most people like the late in/late out schedule, probably feels more social, etc. It wasn't until grad school (5 years into studios) that I figured out I could get in at 6 am and leave by 7-8pm and get anything I needed done (always would pull the last minute all nighters, no avoiding that, even in the 'real' world there are unavoidable time crunches).

To tell someone what they can/can't do would be unfair. Sometimes things are quick, some not, some people are lazy, some perfectionists.

As lb so eloquently stated above "For fuck's sake." :-)

i agree with the email 100%. culture or not... its BULLSHIT

Can your really be the last to leave though if you're paid hourly? I can understand if your hours are billable, but if your doing something on the boss's time and the boss doesn't have the money to pay you for that additional time I would imagine hanging around the office until 10 dicking around/pretending to work would just drain more on the firm's finances

My school is the opposite.

After mid-term crits last week, it was suggested to us that we spend 15 hours a day in studio, 7 days a week, for the next 6 weeks. We get a letter in the mail before every schoolyear, reminding us that architecture school is a 24/7 job, and that if we aren't prepared to put in the hours, other students at other schools are, and they are our competition. We are told explicitly that we are not allowed to work during the school year, and most students don't.

I've never understood the all-nighter thing. Yes, it happens, but that's always because I haven't managed my time well in the days and weeks leading up to it. My work is 1000x stronger when I get a good night's sleep, eat well, and get to the gym a couple of times a week. But I guess that's a personal choice.

Dustin, where in the hell do you go to school!?

That is ludicrously hardcore.

Speaking of ludicrous, it's absurd to jeopardize your health for this or any other profession unless you're given hazard pay. Drivers who suffer sleep deprivation are thought to be just as bad if not worse than drunk drivers. Yes, I remember all-nighters in studio and I also remember trying to drive home afterwards. The scary part is that sometimes I didn't remember driving home afterwards. When I was a sophomore in undergrad, a van full of seniors crashed into the back of a truck after a field trip because - you guessed it - the driver fell asleep at the wheel and all of the passengers were asleep too. They had been up for days because of thesis. The driver lost his legs.

I applaud the administration of this school for sending this letter even if it was a CYA. I think any professors or administration who continue to perpetuate the myth that you can't produce something worthwhile without a cot and 4 days worth of body odor are just solidifying their own irrelevancy. Architects need to learn to make money in more efficient way, and by this I mean, we need to learn to produce quality work in a reasonable amount of time and also be paid reasonably for it. Auto workers make more than most entry-level architects, and do you think they work all-nighters? Hell no. And we're the ones with the fancy degrees? Are you serious? Come on....

The grim truth, is that you must be able to put in the hours. Those who do, will get the jobs, and sadly, you will wonder why you are not getting offers. I hate to say it, but thats the way it is.

I remember model-making during undergraduate school, when a 1/64" tolerance was expected on table-saw cut polystyrene and wood components. Stupid accidents occurred on school property using school equipment. Each year, at least one student had a major accident. Our year, a guy cut his hand between his thumb and index finger, and was so tired he just stood there until we grabbed him (11 pm) and drove him to the emergency room. I was so tired that I flattened two tires driving my car over the "tire prongs" when entering the hospital parking lot in the wrong direction. Back then schools were less concerned with their liability exposure.

"Grim truth" is that in school still students have some control over their schedules and time management approach. I didn't do all-nighters, and I did well in BArch/MArch programs. When you join a firm, if you remain in studio and not project management, you're time allocations aren't under your control. Studio head/partner can demand after-hours "face time" even if there is no deadline, and if there is a deadline, can demand several days of all-nighter like hours. It's stupid; it has nothing to do with creativity, competence, or successful architectural project design, just poor time management and the overriding compelling demand to do so.

There is a masochistic tendency in architects to tolerate or endorse work habits that are ultimately harmful.

rverk.ini, I think it's sad that you think "that's the way it is." In fact in many places it's not and I've been fortunate in that I've never worked for anyone who would dare treat me and my health with such contempt. I hope you don't find that out the hard way.

I understand not wanting students to drive or operate heavy machinery after being up for days, and I know Fire Marshals tend to hit studios with fines when they see permanent bedding or hotplates in the studio floor. But there's no shame in taking a nap before driving home (many of us did). And at our school the shop was always headed by the shop instructor who'd take over the moment he saw any of us were sleep-deprived.

Say what you want about all-nighters and working late in the studio but those were the funnest and most memorable times I've had at architecture school... whipping out sketches or models when you've reached a good design groove, having your favourite music echo in the background while you design, doing crazy silly things that you can only imagine when you're sleep deprived, going for late night coffee runs with your collegues, getting or giving impromptu crits to your friends...

The last all nighter I did was the the day before I hired my first employee.
Now I get less sleep because I am up nights figuring out how to pay them. lol.

A couple of stories about how all-nighters are bad:

1. Where I went to school, the school was open 24/7, but the wood and metal shops were only open "9 to 5." If you knew the student shop managers, though, they'd let you in at all hours of the night.

Until one of them bandsawed off the tips of two fingers at 4 am the night before a review. He came up to the studio thoroughly dazed, gripping his hand, bleeding everywhere. We took him to the hospital.

The droplets of blood marking his path from shop to studio stayed on the concrete floor for most of the year, though. Morbid reminder of the downside of requiring all nighters.

2. A similar thing happened in an office I worked in too. At about 3 am the night before a competition was due, one of the interns sliced her thumb off. Then she passed out when she saw the tip of her thumb sitting on the ground, crashed to the floor. We had to carry her to a car and drive her to the hospital. Then the rest of us spent the night repairing and cleaning the blood soaked model. When the principals came in the next morning at 9 am and we told them what had happened, their first question was "is the model ok?"

3. A girl in my first year studio had gone without sleep for successive nights before our final review. She was a fairly fragile person, and the stress got to her. She started crying, then almost screaming, then hyperventilating until she passed out. It turned out she had not been eating for a few days. She wasn't asked back to the program.

Well, with tuition costing as much as it does, and the workload being as much as a 40 hr a week job (even more when a studio crit is imminent), I'm still confused why people are amazed when students have to cut into so much of their sleep time.

I didn't start planning for academic scholarships when I was 14, and my family didn't have the means to help out, so I've paid for my entire undergrad myself, aside from the occasional Pell Grant.

I took as little as I could in Financial Aid loans to pay for tuition, and I paid for things like electricity, food, rent, etc, by mostly by having a part time job as a barista.

The way things usually worked at UW-Milwaukee was to have studios in the afternoon MWF, and lectures in the mornings on Tue & Thur. Work would usually schedule me from 2-10pm on Tuesdays or Thursdays or on weekends.

I'd like to know how the school would have wanted me to get a full nights sleep when I'm at class all morning and working until 10pm so I can afford to pay their fucking tuition.

I worked my ass off trying to do the right thing and not racking up a huge debt (good thing I did, given today's economy, making $15k a year and trying to pay off the loans I did take sucks), and instead of, oh, trying to come up with some kind of solution like more grants instead of loans, they just say "get more sleep". I should get a job running a university, apparently you can be a complete moron and do it.

*end venting*

When I was an undergraduate one of my classmates actually died in a car accident when he feel asleep at the wheel on his way home from monday final critiques after a marathon weekend in the studio when he was already sick. After we came back from break there were all these emails and lectures about taking care of ourselves, not comprimising our health and being better at time managements. The professors inturn were supposed to give us more clear and up-to-date schedules and project requirements, and spend more time in studio during the day to help us with our projects and help keep us from getting behind. For a while it really did help a lot, but realistically it took a lot more time and effort on both studenst and professors parts and the program/plan/whatever didn't even last an entire semster, after mid-term critiques were over everything went back to normal. The professors got tired of actually showing up to the studios they were supposed to be teaching, and students went back to slacking off during the first month of a project and working around the clock during hell week. Sadly, I just think for some reason people think that architecture school is supposed to be some awful experience, and if it isn't you for some reason don't 'deserve' to be an architect. And, at least in my experience, that atmosphere really doesn't prepare students for real-world work.

Right, my school had a calendar that all the profs were supposed to follow, exams the 1st and 3rd weeks, studio finals the 3rd and 4th weeks, you get the idea. Of course one studio prof pushes the final crit back a week (not so we could have extra time to work, but so they could spend extra time showing us what we had to change).

So lucky me I get 2 exams and a final crit all on the same day!

Instead of either spending a week studying for two exams, or spending a week finishing a studio project, I got to cram it all into one and get even less sleep.

We had one guy that went 3 days without sleeping, I saw him in the commons before the final crit and he was telling me how he had started hearing things. Of course after sitting for a couple hours listening to the prof talk about everyone's projects he fell asleep in his chair. I remember when it was his turn to present the guest critic (the chair of the architecture dept) made a joke about him falling asleep and he woke up to see what people were laughing about.

most of you who disagree with it have already been through school. do you miss it just a bit? because i love this shit

and, if they don't agree with it or don't like it, then they can get the fuck out

my apologies in advance

side note- i just got back from studio - i'm at around 70 hrs this week and feel great

All nighters are absolutely unnecessary. These are mostly self induced torture nights where most students achieves nothing, but look and act ridiculous the next day. Real all nighters happen before deadlines, where you add finishing touches to your project and make it uber nice. Anything else is just another red eyed orgy, with absolutely no pedagogical reason.
Since most schools teach how to work hard, which is great; they can also teach students how to work smarter. There is no other profession that demands more and pays less. OK we are proud of our work and profession, however I haven't seen one school that teaches professional practice the right way. It is rare to see someone manage time and bring the idea of efficiency, and compensation into the equation. Most students graduate, already half burnt, end up as interns and keep burning their health, learn little and earn next to nothing. It just doesn't add up.

Holistically well-rounded people?? Name me ONE GOOD architect who was a holistically well-rounded person.

Who put such a premium on being normal? Where is the relationship between being "normal" and producing good architecture? Everyone who gives half a shit about architecture knows what it takes, and to deny one the CHOICE of going there on one's own discretion is ludicrous.

ivanestra-

crack is unnecessary - not time spent in study space. something tells me Einstein wouldn't have created the first bagel if he got a full nights sleep every day.

Hahaha. Einstain's bagel is unfortunately very explosive (read, atomic bomb). Still, the point is that architecture students work hard, and end up designing more pointless buildings...

I would pull all nighters and then work part time in the day as a courier, racing around the city on no sleep. One time I fell asleep at the wheel and woke up driving across a grass freeway embankment.

Good times.

my school technically locked us out after midnight. of couse, they turned a blind eye to our making illegal copies of the key and sneaking in after dark. i got used to pulling all nighters... i also had a pretty active life, having time to do a couple triathlons and to be in a couple bands.... all nighters are fine as long as you have the temperment to handle them. now i'm out of school and i find myself doing them for stupid stuff like learning a new song on guitar or doing a painting....

i don't think it ever leaves your system. the work ethic was instilled. I just need to find something to focus it onto........

i hoped you would have seen the humor in that