I’ve been dreading writing this last entry for weeks now, but I think it’s finally time to come clean. I’ve made the big decision and I’m transferring to New School of Architecture and Design in San Diego. It’s a tough decision for a lot of personal reasons—I’ve lived in Boston for 10 years now and it’s just started to feel like home. All of my friends, networks and associations are here. So naturally moving cross country alone is a difficult decision. And transferring to a relatively new and unknown school was also a decision that required a lot of introspection.

People who know me or have met me in the past year know that I am all about the BAC. And I think I kinda shocked a lot of my classmates when I told them I was leaving. And I do want to make it clear that my decision to leave has little to do with the quality of education at the BAC. And I whole-heartedly believe that achieving a BAC degree is an impressive feat in and of itself. It is however, unfortunate but true that the present economy has had a pretty drastic impact on the BAC. Since the BAC requires work credits in segments, students who can’t find internships or who have been laid off, are having a difficult time moving forward with their education.

The school has taken certain measures to accommodate for the recession. They are now allowing students to earn their Practice Credits (their required work hours) by participating in competitions, working in “alternative” related job fields such as HVAC work or construction, and they are even giving practice credits for travel and volunteer work.

The changes have been good for some people, but not for others. Some students prefer having the opportunity to do work in other related fields. Some are taking the chance to participate in competitions that otherwise wouldn’t fit into their schedules. For many students though, it’s just not enough.

For myself, at 28 years old, if I’m going to make the long sacrifice to attend a 5 year program, it better be doing “double-duty” by living up to its marketing pitch that students who graduate from the BAC are ready to take their licensing exams. This can’t happen obviously since working in an alternative field does not earn you IDP credits.

I should say however, that the job market looks like it’s improving, and I do know a few students who have found jobs. More than one person in the industry has told me that they believe in the next 6 months we will begin to see projects which have been on hold, starting up again. All good things for the BAC.

I’ve been asked by a lot of people whether or not I would’ve stayed if I had a better outlook in the job market. Knowing what I know now about the differences between a “typical” academic program and the BAC’s program…probably not. After having the AOP experience, I’ve realized the value in a studio culture. There’s a element of collaboration and camaraderie that I don’t think is present in the Concurrent Program at the BAC. On the flip side, the BAC’s emphasis on learning through work is one of a kind. I’m not sure I’ve heard of another program that has a similar philosophy. So given my personal circumstances, as well as learning style preferences, opting out of the BAC ended up making a lot of sense.

I will be closing this blog, and hopefully another BAC student will pick it up and run with it. To everyone at the BAC, Thank You! Good Luck! And Come Visit San Diego! And to all who have been following this blog…I plan on continuing writing for New School of Architecture….see you there.

Our entry for the Lifecycle Building Challenge Farm to Market: A Place for Nature in the City Our structure is an abstraction in modular design using reclaimed grain bins from regional farms. The concept of brining the farm to market is the driving force behind this design. Two main case study... View full entry

Some pictures of our Thesis Student's work on display in our gallery. The display is up until July 12 and open to the public, come visit! I'm going to start liking these photos to my Flikr account, which is a little easier to post photos to, so click on the images below to see more. View full entry

site analysis/diagrams View full entry

Maybe I should build my studio models out of LEGO's?http://www.lego.com/en-US/architecture/default.aspx?domainredir=lego.com View full entry

While I recover from the after-studio-final-crit party, I thought I would share some images from the past few days. I have to work on documenting all of my work, so in the next couple days I'll be putting final photos of the boathouse project up, but for now:3 Days in the laser cutter room...are... View full entry

Just 3 more days! Final review is this Thursday and it's crunch time! The past few weeks have been a little rough. I'm relieved to say that I'm pretty confident that I passed Structures I. Definitely NOT with flying colors though! In fact, I'm not even going to post up my final project...it's just... View full entry

A few random notes: Spring is here in Boston! WOO HOO! It actually made it into the 60's two days in a row! A big congrats to my friend Lisa who just got accepted to Columbia's GSAPP program! And finally, good luck to Raj who is running the Boston Marathon on monday! Ok...now to architecture Below... View full entry

This past weekend the BAC held a Career Symposium. In past years it's been a job fair, but given the state of the economy we felt it would more appropriate to have something a little different. The symposium included workshops with BAC alumni and faculty in interviewing skills, resume, cover... View full entry

Just wanted to share a website I came across the other day. http://www.thecoolhunter.net/architecture/ The images below are taken from thecoolhunter.net.Paris based architect Jouin Manku, built in Kuala Lumpur called the YTL Residence.A Bookstore by Amsterdam based architects Merkx + Girod, in... View full entry

Sorry to everyone for not having had the chance to write the past few weeks. I've been pretty occupied with work, and part of it was my own fault. I took a a 5 day trip to the Bahamas for a wedding which was a well needed break from things, but ended up putting me so far behind in my work, it got... View full entry

It's a Snow Day today! Which means my mid-term review is postponed, which means I chose to sleep last night instead of finishing my work, which means I'm even farther behind than I was before! awesome. My B-1 studio review was on our progress with our building analysis. I was assigned the Shodan... View full entry

Posting some photos of our one-day Sketch Problem—it’s basically a 1-credit required class where we’re given a design problem at 9am, and given about 12 hours to design a solution via model and drawings. They kept calling it a charette, but there wasn’t much of a... View full entry

Some work from last semester Figure/Ground Study Inhabitable Wall Project A space sited in a Boston alley. System of circulation, and heirarchy of private vs public spaces derived from a musical analysis of Radiohead's Subterranean Homesick Alien, performed by The String Quartet. View full entry

Welcome to my blog. I chose to start writing about my experiences at the Boston Architectural College for a number of reasons. First and foremost to give back to the Archinect School Blog project—Nicholas Ng’s blog about the BAC was a huge help for me when I was trying to determine... View full entry