 The lights are seldom turned off in Giles Hall, home of the School of Architecture, where students put in long hours and late nights. |
Admission criteria are stringent and the curriculum is demanding. The students have a campus reputation for putting in long hours and late nights in the gymnasium-sized main studio -- a renovated tractor barn that now anchors a sprawling, multi-level facility offering a state-of-the-art learning environment.
 John McRae is the third dean of the School of Architecture. He has been in the post since 1987. |
No more than 50 freshmen are admitted each year to full standing in the design studio -- the heart of the architecture curriculum -- although almost as many more may be enrolled in the pre-architecture program at one time. Typically about 250 students a year take the first steps toward applying for admission, but many of them drop out after studying the requirements. Women make up about 35 percent of this year's entering class.
"Basically, we don't turn anyone away," McRae says, although many students in the pre-architecture curriculum typically leave the program for another major before reaching the design program.
 The clutter of the creative process is a by-product of architecture students at work. Fourth-year student Angela Turner Pilgrim puts the finishing touches on a drawing. |
Traditionally, students and practicing architects alike have used pencils, paper, drawing boards, and cardboard models as the tools of the trade, and they still do. But things have changed dramatically and quickly in the profession and -- at Mississippi State, at least -- in the classroom.
"A computer in every backpack" is a reality as well as a philosophy in the program. Two years ago the school began requiring all students, at least by the sophomore year, to purchase a portable but powerful "notebook" computer that would go with them everywhere. It replaces pencil and paper for taking notes in class, and complements the sketchbook in the early stages of design.
All of the computers support advanced computer-aided design software. "Often the computer can help a student draw a perspective of a very complex space more quickly or accurately," McRae says. But he emphasizes that "We use computers strictly as a tool." It doesn't substitute for human intelligence or creativity. And students still must learn to draw.
Still, "The changing curriculum is very necessary and appropriate, and will greatly benefit our students as they go through the program," McRae says. "The computer is one of the most significant changes we'll see in architecture education in the next several years. Many schools will move to it. We get lots of interest from other places."
Kharma Gunn, a rising fourth-year student from West Point, found that her classroom computer background paid off quickly when she began an internship this summer at RTKL Associates in Dallas, a major architectural firm.
"Everything here is done on the computer, and the experience I've had is a big help," she said. Kharma's initial assignment when she went to work in July was making construction revisions in the design of a California shopping mall using the AutoCAD program.
Some fellow interns from other universities, lacking similar experience, "are having a hard time," she noted. "I think I'm being prepared very well, based on what I've seen here."
Architecture faculty members, while enthusiastic about the promise and early success of the initiative, stress that the computer is "just a tool."
 Assistant Professor Michael Berk, coordinator of the computer program in the School of Architecture, gives pointers to Craig Crawley of Jonesboro, Ark., a second-year design student. |
It seems to be working. The past academic year's annual design competition sponsored by the American Institute of Architecture Students required that entries be submitted in computer format, rather than using traditional scale models and drawings. Mississippi State student Ron Allen of Columbus claimed one of two first-place awards. Classmates Manche Mitchell of Memphis and the team of Bradford Swinney of Booneville and Anthony Lawrence of Jackson took second-place awards.
The students relied in part on the resources of the Mississippi State/National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center in preparing their entries. "We are delighted that engineers and architects have the opportunity to work together," said Joe Thompson, ERC director. The collaboration helps produce "what is probably the best computer-based architecture program in the country," he said.
Students buy their own computers, but complaints about that have been non-existent, faculty say. Concerns focus on which machine to purchase. The school provides specifications for both IBM- and Macintosh-style portables, and leaves the final choice to the students.
Amortized over the five years of the bachelor's degree program, the computer purchase adds about $200 a semester to student costs, which is not much different than what students pay for shared access to a separate computer laboratory at some architecture schools.
Starting next year, architecture graduates throughout the country will find that professional registration examinations are being issued on computers.
School of Architecture faculty and administrators currently are working to revise and re-open the master's degree program with an emphasis in computer-based architecture. The first classes in such a program could be offered in fall 1995. The program, to be directed by Professor Michael Fazio, would be closely coordinated with a Master of Fine Arts program in computer visualization approved earlier this year.
Ready to begin this year is the Virtual Environment/Interactive Systems Program. The School of Architecture will become the only one in the world that incorporates virtual reality directly into the undergraduate curriculum.
With the VR program in place, students working at their desks with their laptop computers will be able to send files over the computer network to the virtual reality laboratory, use stereoscopic head-mounted and head-coupled displays to "walk through" the inside of their CAD design, and then make changes in the design based on what they've experienced.
Later on, jurors and audiences reviewing presentations of student work will be able to don movie-theater style 3-D glasses and watch a projection, at least partially experiencing the "walk through" in virtual reality.
The public will have a chance to experience virtual reality in a sports context when the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame opens in Jackson next year.
Steve Aukstakalnis, a research associate for both the School of Architecture and the Engineering Research Center, is working with museum designers to incorporate several virtual reality displays into the Hall of Fame.
Visitors may get to see what a Dizzy Dean fastball looks like from the vantage point of home plate, or find out what it's like to face a ball-carrying Walter Payton.
Other changes also await School of Architecture students. One is a new home for the fifth-year program, located in Jackson. Nationwide, architecture programs leading to the bachelor's degree ordinarily require five years. Mississippi State is unique in offering its fifth year at a completely different location. After four years in the small town and rural environment of Starkville, students move to Jackson for experience with urban architecture.
A dream for the fifth-year program was fulfilled this summer when the program moved into new quarters in a downtown landmark, having been housed before in the Universities Center on the outskirts of town. The new home of the School of Architecture in Jackson is the top two floors of the old Elks Club building on Presidents Street. The turn-of-the-century neo-classical building, once a social hot spot, was purchased by the city of Jackson and renovated as part of a larger Jackson Rehabilitation Authority project.
Private contributions were raised to furnish and equip the studio, with the aid of a lead gift of $40,000 from Jackson businessman Stuart Irby.
Aside from its separate location, the fifth-year experience for Mississippi State students is unusual, also, in the extent of interaction with practicing architects. Along with two full-time professors based in Jackson, professionals from the community are heavily involved in teaching.
"The fifth-year is typically frustrating for students in most architecture schools," McRae says. "They want to be graduated. But that's not the case here. There is an energy, a strength at work that makes another leap of scale and capacity. We don't have the fifth-year blahs." During their final semester in Jackson, students pick a Jackson-based project that addresses a real need and "draws on everything they've learned."
A new environmental education program beginning this fall as part of the required fifth-year curriculum will send 16 or 17 three-member teams of architecture students and alumni into five Jackson public schools over a period of several weeks.
Each team will include two fifth-year students and a volunteer recent architecture graduate. They will work with about 450 Jackson fifth-graders, teaching design awareness. Roy Decker, assistant professor in Jackson, is in charge of the program.
A similar effort was conducted last year at Rosa Stewart Elementary School in Starkville when nine architecture students from the main campus worked with four fifth-grade classes for 12 weeks. The elementary school students were asked to analyze their school campus, take notes and make maps of features and natural and built environments, then make decisions about where they would like to see a new feature, such as a playground.
All nine Mississippi State students who worked on that project have volunteered to do it again this year. Some of those students, along with McRae and Rosa Stewart teachers, will present the results of that work at a national conference on environmental education this fall. McRae also has produced illustrated children's stories to be used with the environmental education.
The School of Architecture also offers an introduction to the profession to high school students through a week-long Design Camp held on campus each year. This summer, 65 students age 15 and up came from a dozen states to take part.
From the school's beginning, a special concern for small towns has been a part of its mission, and one component of the school is the Center for Small Town Research and Design.
"Our state has a very strong heritage architecturally," McRae says. "We have a lot to preserve. It's important that in building, we don't destroy what we already have."
The center sponsors a Small Town Action Team (STAT) Program that can provide quick, on-the-spot assessments of planning and architectural needs of small towns, along with economically feasible solutions.
STAT visits to a community usually last three to five days and involve faculty from architecture and landscape architecture, as well as experts from other academic disciplines and other organizations. Students from architecture and landscape architecture also take part.
The Center for Small Town Research and Design, directed by architecture faculty member George Parsons and research associate Judy Van Cleve, has coordinated numerous visits to Mississippi towns over the past several years.
One such visit was to Ripley last March at the request of the Tippah County Development Foundation and Ripley city officials. Recommendations presented to local officials in April touched on traffic circulation and parking and marketing strategies for the downtown area, as well as architectural and landscaping issues.
Despite the largely rural environment in which they complete most of their studies -- and partly because of it -- Mississippi State architecture students get several opportunities to explore urban architecture in person.
First- through fourth-year classes schedule week-long trips each year to urban centers across the country. First-year students traditionally have visited Atlanta and New Orleans. Second-year students have on several occasions made trips to Columbus, Ind., a small town that is "a living museum of contemporary architecture," thanks in large part to the philanthropy of an industrial magnate.
Third- and fourth-year classes have made pilgrimages to Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and other locales. This year, one group of third- and fourth-year students who are concentrating their design studies on baseball-related projects have planned a trip to baseball stadiums in Chicago, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, as well as the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.
 An architecture student presents and defends his work before a jury of faculty members, guest faculty, and practicing architects. |
Cooperative education -- alternating periods of academic study and practical work experience -- has been well established at Mississippi State for more than 20 years, particularly in engineering, but it is a relatively new concept in architectural education.
The cooperative education program in architecture is in only its fifth year, but it has expanded rapidly to the point that 80 percent of the school's students have worked in an architectural firm by the time they enter their fifth and final year of study.
The university's Cooperative Education Office worked with the School of Architecture to set up the unique longer-term work assignments. "The traditional off-again, back-again kind of co-op just wouldn't work with our curriculum," McRae said. "We needed a more extended time. We heeded the advice of architects and the state registration board. They felt that a longer period of time would work better for both the student-intern and the firm."
Architecture graduates must complete three or more years of internship under a registered architect in order to become fully licensed, and Mississippi State's year of co-op experience applies to that requirement administered by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.
Richard Quinn of Connecticut, last year's national chairman of the NCARB Intern Development Program committee, described Mississippi State's approach as "a little unique." On a trip to Mississippi last year, the committee heard from Mississippi State faculty and students, and apparently they were impressed.
"The thing that convinced us more than anything was the enthusiasm of the students," Quinn said. "They indicated they were better equipped to deal with the remainder of their academic program. We felt, from what we heard, that it was a successful idea. We would certainly endorse it."
The opportunity for students to start building a portfolio, then return to school to get faculty feedback on their work, offers advantages, Quinn said. The Mississippi State approach to internships was highlighted in a national NCARB conference last winter.
All 15 members of the architecture faculty are registered architects. Only a handful of the nation's programs can claim a faculty that is composed 100 percent of registered professionals, McRae says.
"We have an outstanding faculty, very innovative in its thinking," he said. They're always looking for ways to become more proficient at teaching. They're at the leading edge. We just have to keep them there."
Robert Craycroft, professor and director of the fifth-year program in Jackson, received an Honor Award from the Mississippi chapter of AIA this summer for his book Neshoba County Fair: Place and Paradox in Mississippi. The book explores the physical aspects of the famous fairground and its complex social structures.
 Assistant Professor Rachel McCann helps students grapple with a design problem. She is this year's winner of the freshman and sophomore level university-wide teaching award given by the Alumni Association. |
Faculty members Ian Banner, Shannon Criss, and Gary Shafer all received awards during the past year for their architectural designs.
Professor Robert Ford was named this year to the AIA's prestigious national College of Fellows for significant contributions to the profession.
All in all, the School of Architecture seems to have laid for itself a firm foundation.
Updated and adapted by Chris Brown <brownc@ur.msstate.edu>.
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