cornell architecture-heads up

College Majors Architecture Major
1

<p>for those planning on or thinking about applying to cornell architecture...</p>

<p>cornell architecture seems to be imploding on itself so suddenly. as an architecture student at cornell, i am so upset at the administration...</p>

<p>first with an email sent out last week to all of the students saying that cornell will move 50-60 4th, 5th, and m.arch students to a studio at downtown ithaca with no shop or laser cutter TWO WEEKS prior to the start of school. they're moving students out of rand hall in order to accomodate construction of the new milstein hall...however, i find it so hard to believe that it'd be so hard to find extra space somewhere on the cornell campus. the new studio is very far from campus and shuttles set up only run during the day. thesis year is probably the hardest and most intense year of the b.arch program...and for them to be moved away from campus away from all the important resources is a heavy blow. there are huge protests being planned...along with petitions signed</p>

<p>second, our dean mohsen mostafavi recently announced that he will be stepping down as dean and become the dean at harvard GSD. this is a big blow because he is one of the very few people on the administration who actually helped improve the school. in my opinion, the previous administration did a horrible job until mohsen came. he was also very strong advocate in getting milstein hall built and attracting top visiting faculty and lecturers to the school so now without him, milstein hall will never get built (considering that we've had 4 other proposals that were never built)</p>

<p><a href="http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug07/mostafaviChron.deb.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug07/mostafaviChron.deb.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/08.23/99-gsdean.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/08.23/99-gsdean.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>sorry i had to rant...</p>

2

<p>That is too bad, sashimi. Can I ask you how long they are talking about having the fourth and fifth year BArch and the MArch students having their studio downtown and not on campus? Just curious how temporary this will be. I think my D has Cornell on her graduate school list (applicant this fall). </p>

<p>I hope there is power in numbers and you can work something out and if you can't prevent this unfortunate move, that you work out something to make it more temporary until another solution is found and that also in the meantime, ther are shuttles more often and at night.</p>

3

<p>i think they will be moving the 4th, 5th, and m.arch students years into esty for 3 years...or however long milstein hall will take to get built. without mohsen, i doubt milstein hall will be built in three years, but maybe i'm just cynical</p>

<p>there are protests and petitions being planned. i know many 4th years who absolutely refuse to move or are threatening to transfer out if this happens. it's getting really heated</p>

<p>i am hoping that they find a very good dean soon. prior to mohsen, it took them 4-5 years to find mohsen and the interim dean was very unpopular</p>

4

<p>Actually, the students who will suffer most will be the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students who don't get the advantage of exposure to upper class work. It could be an advantage to MArch students to be sequestered with the upper class BArch students. Cornell will make sure the new studios have decent supplies. The best faculty will want to be down there with the top talent--hampering the younger students even more. </p>

<p>Tzar, looks like your decision to roll with Cooper was a fortuitous one...</p>

5

<p>When my D was accepted at Cornell she mentioned it to the Dean at one of the other schools she was visiting and he said told her that Cornell was losing its Dean and that the faculty was in a state of upheaval. It was hard to know at the time if the Dean was being catty about another program or if there was truth to what he was saying. It seems that there was at least some truth to the rumors. I suspect he was getting this information from potential faculty members at Cornell he might have been interviewing.</p>

<p>In the long term I am sure the program will be fine, in the short term I hope it doesn't affect your education.</p>

<p>rick</p>

6

<p>sashimi, </p>

<p>You are a good resource and I had passed on the information and articles you had shared recently about Cornell Arch to my daughter, who at the time was overseas doing an arch internship. She is home for five days and will now be leaving for college. We have been talking about her graduate school process and she is finalizing her list. I told her I "knew" someone at Cornell and she asked me to ask you if the MArchI students take classes the first year with BArch students or if they are totally separate. Thanks if you can answer. </p>

<p>Hope the year gets off to a good start for you, even with the upheaval.</p>

7

<p>while we are near each other, most of the classes are separate. there are some classes that the m.arch and b.archs share (like history or structures) but for the studios, they're completely separate. as the program solidifies and more professors come to teach, there will be more classes for graduate students alone. however, i also do feel that interaction between the undergrad and grad is important...they're two somewhat different programs and can benefit off from each other</p>

<p>actually the situation is not as bad as we thought it would've been. there was a lot that the administration did not tell us so we were pretty shocked to find out things so suddenly. if all goes well, we will have a new dean by June.</p>

8

<p>Sashimi...thanks for your very prompt reply. I am going to share that information with my daughter. She wasn't sure about that aspect of Cornell's porgram. Many MArch programs do not have BArch ones as well, and this issue is irrelevant to those situations. My D has mentioned that at RISD, which has both a BArch and March program, the first year MArch's take a bunch of classes with the BArchs, which sounds different than at Cornell. Even the courses she has taken at RISD as a Brown undergrad, have been with MArch students mixed in (these were not history type courses but studio oriented ones - though not design). </p>

<p>I'm glad the situation with the studio space and administration is not as bad you you assumed a couple of weeks ago. I hope you have an exciting year at Cornell. I appreciate your sharing your experiences on this site. Your posts are helpful. Best wishes.</p>

9

<p>thanks! feel free to ask any questions anytime..best of luck to you and your D</p>

10

<p>I resurrected this ancient thread in order to ask sashimi46 (or anyone else with insider information) how things are going at Cornell with the new dean and the construction of Milstein Hall. Everything settled down now? Everyone happy?</p>

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<p>When I last visited Cornell in November, somebody mentioned that it still was being delayed. There was construction crews in the general area, but not so much actual building work going on. It is my belief that they will be starting the real construction of the building this summer while the students are away. </p>

<p>Then again, what do I know. This is pure speculation based on my visit and the website for the building, i don't have any real insider knowledge of whats going on at the moment.</p>

12

<p>Momrath, congrats to your son on his wonderful acceptances thus far. My daughter got into Cornell last year for the MArch and so we went to visit last March (not an accepted student event as it coincided with others she was attending) and this was the one visit we did together as the others were by herself. We had also visited back in HS but she did not end up applying there for college as she decided she did not want to do a BArch. </p>

<p>My D's visit was very worthwhile as the head person met privately with her and arranged for her to sit in on classes and mingle with students in studio and what not. They made attractive scholarship offers too. My D liked the program quite a bit. But since she had many options, she could be very picky and went with another program she liked that had a better location in her view. </p>

<p>When we were there, the new building was under construction/renovation and they were not using it at the time. I don't know what has happened in the past year, however, since our visit.</p>

13

<p>hey everyone,</p>

<p>milstein hall is currently on delay but it looks like construction will go on. Cornell recently lost a big chunk of its endowment (along with other ivies) due to the financial crisis so getting the building approved has been harder. However, it doesn't make sense for Milstein Hall to be delayed even further since a lot of investment has already been poured into the project and the school's accreditation status close to being removed due to the delay of Milstein Hall.</p>

<p>Though still a little early to tell, the new dean seems to be very promising. He is charismatic and is eager to push for the construction of Milstein Hall. For architecture students, the more important part will be the chair search that is underway for the architecture department, as he or she would be largely responsible for bringing in a lot of the visiting faculty and lecturers.</p>

14

<p>sashimi, nice to hear from you. How are you enjoying Cornell? When do you graduate? I've been trying to understand the controversy surrounding Milstein Hall, but it's very complicated. Could you please explain what it has to do with accreditation? Is it because of the decreased value of the endowment?</p>

<p>Also, will the construction affect the quality of life for architecture students? My son endured four years of non-stop construction at Williams and it's a concern, though probably not a major one. Otherwise Cornell is one of his top choices.</p>

15

<p>Soozie, I think my son will probably make an independent trip to Cornell as well as there are two other previews scheduled for the same date. Any suggestions in setting it up?</p>

<p>None of my son's other choices are in the Northeast, which although not a deal breaker, is still a concern since he ultimately plans to live and work in Boston or New York. </p>

<p>We've always felt close to Cornell because it has -- surprisingly -- a big Indonesian program. As I said to my son at least people at home in Indonesia will be impressed unlike Williams which is completely unknown. :)</p>

16

<p>Although I am still waiting on my decision from Cornell, I am trying to make a preemptive choice between there and Syracuse just in case I get in. Syracuse of course has a brand new building, renovated prior to this school year and it is a great place to study and learn. At my private high school I have had to endure a lot of construction in a transition period and I dont really reap so many of the benefits. It seems as though at Syracuse, the suffering has ended and the benefits are being reaped, whereas at Cornell, I would be the one suffering but unlikely to see much of the positive outcome.</p>

<p>Could I get the opinion of Syracuse and Cornell students on whether the construction projects would effect where you would study if you could choose to start at one or the other this year?</p>

17

<p>futurearchitect7,</p>

<p>To me, this says it all for you;</p>

<p>
[quote]
It seems as though at Syracuse, the suffering has ended and the benefits are being reaped, whereas at Cornell, I would be the one suffering but unlikely to see much of the positive outcome.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>It's also the reason my son did not apply to Syracuse. He toured the Warehouse and just didn't want to deal with it during college, even with the promise that it would only be for a short while. Now that Slocum is finished I bet he would have had SU at the top of his list.</p>

18

<p>I am liking Cornell a lot. Last summer I went on a summer studio all over South America and I'm heading to Rome next spring!</p>

<p>There are certainly things that can be improved but that is true for ANY school. I can't give you an accurate comparison with other schools since I've only been to Cornell. But from what I hear, the students here work very hard and the curriculum is much tougher. That in my opinion is what makes a school great as opposed to better facilities..etc. As my professor said, it is the students that are your greatest assests. </p>

<p>After visiting many other schools, I can definitely tell you that Cornell's studio building is definitely not as nice as other schools. Rand Hall is a 120 year old factory building that most people looking at for the first time would probably be appalled. But the inside is quite nice for studio and you learn to love working in the building because it is so "neutral" and you're not afraid to experiment with ideas.</p>

<p>The old building doesn't mean we aren't up to date with the latest technology. We have an impressive computer lab that is constantly updated, 2 laser cutters, 8 plotters, a cnc milling machine, and a shop. </p>

<p>If the program is considered one of the better ones in the nation yet our studio building is not as nice as other studios, then I would presume that it is the professors and students that really make the difference. </p>

<p>The biggest downfall of being in Ithaca is that you don't always get stararchitects who are willing to come up to teach. But being away from the rest of the world in this cold weather creates a unique experience that alumn would always reminisce. I would like to think that we get distracted less and work more in studio because of the cold weather. And if you're really dying to get out, there's also Rome and NYC to spend a semester in.</p>

<p>Though there are many arguments over the controversy over Milstein Hall, the underlying consensus for those opposing the construction is that the building is ugly. But the issue isn't an aesthetic issue because the building is critical to the program's accreditation. the architecture school is already lacking some important spaces. three studios are located in downtown Ithaca because there is not enough space in Rand Hall. Most of our classes are in the same room which can cause significant problems especially when studios are trying to find review spaces. Besides lack of space, Cornell hit top marks in everything else. </p>

<p>I'm not sure if the construction would affect the quality of life of architecture students. Though I can't guarantee anything, I would say that the construction shouldn't be too big of an issue. Your son would probably be more worried about the review deadline coming up since that is what seems to be on most student's minds anyways. Milstein Hall should only take no more than one year to construct because of its size and I would assume that most of it would take place over the summer. </p>

<p>Ultimately I wouldn't be concerned with the school's direction. Admission rates have gone down to 7% and the quality of students coming in have been impressive. The Rome program has played a critical role in our education and the NYC studio program looks very promising since many architects who would rather not teach in Ithaca can finally conduct studios in NYC. Students in NYC can also tap into the rich cornell network. With an incoming chair and a new dean, i'm hopeful that they will continue to bring in new professors that will continue to build upon the program.</p>

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<p>Excellent report sashimi46!</p>

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<p>sashimi, Thanks so much for the thoughtful response. If all Cornell architecture students are as reflective as you are it must be a great program. I may come back for more information later.</p>