News from E-Town

If you are lucky enough to know an architecture student, you have probably heard at one time or another “how hard their major is” and about “how little sleep they get.” If you don’t know any architecture students (and especially if you are considering going through the lunacy of 4+ years of “architorture”!) then I am hoping to entertain you with some true life stories about being one of these sleep-deprived, half-crazed creatures that populate architecture studios across this country (and rumor has it, abroad too!).

If you don’t know one and you’re not contemplating becoming one… why should you care? Because it will make you thankful for all of the times you got to sleep in and skip class in college. Or because it will give you a greater appreciation for all of the architects in this world who went through similar tortuous experiences in order to pursue their profession. (Note: I am not maintaining that architecture is the most difficult of professions or of majors. Just read the following and have a laugh!)

Most of the following are from a popular “Facebook group” with a few of my own additions.

You know you are an architecture student when…

• you ask Santa for architecture supplies
• you can sleep with your eyes open in class
• your favorite drink is Red Bull and you can down half a dozen in one night
• you know the phone number to Jimmy John’s and the menu by heart
• you know the people in your studio better than your roommates
• you can survive without sunlight, human interaction, and sleep but you will consider ending your life if the plotter (aka giant printer) refuses to print your work
• you’ve fallen asleep in the bathroom of the architecture building
• you’ve fallen asleep in the shower (on more than one occasion)
• your roommates don’t see you all week and then try to ignore your snoring when you sleep all weekend
• your parents are worried that you’re not having ENOUGH FUN in COLLEGE
• you see showering as a waste of time
• when you ask what time it is, and someone answers “6″ you have to ask, am or pm?
• you say “It’s only midnight… I have plenty of time to finish”
• you slice your finger with an exacto knife and you wildly hope that it will be an adequate excuse to get an extension on your project
• you wake up to go to school and you’re already there
• you’ve slept on cardboard… under your desk
• you can tell time by when your classmates leave studio
• dancing-sober- at 3 am on Tuesday is normal
• you think “x-acto blade throwing” is a sport (or at least it SHOULD be)
• you can write a term paper by procrastinating
• you’ve taken non-architecture classes and professors are readily willing to offer extensions once they find out what major you’re in
• you get “pity looks” from anyone who finds out you’re an architecture student
• you have skipped class because you have so much work to do
• you have gone more than one consecutive night without sleeping in a bed or for more than half hour increments at a time.

So why in the world would anyone WANT to be characterized by the above? I’m still not quite sure but the best thing I got out of architecture school was some really amazing friends. When you spend SO much time in studio, you get to know your classmates pretty well… then they become your best friends and you hang out with them outside of class too… and then one of them introduces you to your future husband and becomes your best man… (oh wait, that may have only happened to me!) Actually, one of my bridesmaids, my “bridal assistant,” and the bagpiper in our wedding were all friends from architecture.

A story about our best man… aka Red.

Red grew up with the unshakeable conviction that he was to become an architect. At the age of 5 or 6 he was stealing his mother’s home improvement/decorating magazines and fantasizing/sketching the buildings he would one day design. Architecture became one of his passions… and when I say passions, I mean it. He is a very passionate person as evidenced by the following glimpse into a sophomore architecture studio. Perhaps it is the fiery hair that earned him his nickname (only his parents call him by his real name!).

Anyway, during the spring semester of our sophomore year, we were assembled into small groups and assigned the task of meticulously constructing different famous works of architecture on a miniature scale out of basswood. Red was assigned a particularly intricate and difficult house to re-create and an equally difficult/un-helpful group with which (who? whom?) to complete the project. Being a dedicated (and slightly crazed) student, Red spent the entire week in the concrete block walled, linoleum floored, poorly insulated room that comprised his studio. Over a 10 day period, he spent no less than SEVEN (yes, SEVEN) nights in studio with little to no sleep during the night and only short naps and occasional breaks to shower during the intermittant days in order to complete his model.

This would be enough to drive anyone slightly nuts.

It was enough to make Red go completely crazy. One night, when the absence of his group members and sleep deprivation proved to be too much for him, he snapped.

He started by throwing down his exacto knife and sighing in exasperation as he struggled with an ornery piece of basswood. He continued by beginning to yell about he had pulled so many “ALL NIGHTERS!!!!!!” and how he his group members were worthless, lazy, and inconsiderate. He was tired, frustrated, and angry. Then, as the other nearly catatonic inhabitants of the studio were awakened from their stupor by all of the yelling, he picked up his exacto knife again and hurled it against the wall. When it failed to stick into the corkboard, he became enraged and proceeded to stab the wall until it stuck and then stormed out of the building, continuing to rant and rave like a madman.

It was quite a scene. He calmed down eventually and after ”walking it off” he returned to continue his work amid many a fearful glance from his classmates who were leary of him and fearful that his rage could erupt again and result in being impaled by another sharp projectile. They eventually learned that it was just another night in studio…