On 4/6/2009 I spent the day Oklahoma State University (OSU), my thirteenth sabbatical visit. Thanks to the efforts of John Phillips I met seven faculty currently teaching the design aspects of the AE program. As on my previous trips everyone was welcoming and helpful, making my visit both productive and enjoyable.
What did I learn?
- OSU faculty are very proud of their small (currently 6-8 graduates per year) five-year program. They view it as unique in its tight integration with the Architecture program. Graduates have 32 credits of studio courses, intense 4-contact-hour-per day, four or five days a week experiences.
- They judge its success by the feedback they receive from employers as well as their advisory council, and the demand for their graduates.
- While located in the college of engineering, the School of Architecture leads a fairly independent existence with strong support from the dean. The tenure and promotion criteria and expectations of the faculty are different from the rest of the college - essentially teaching success.
- One faculty member explained this independence to me as resulting from the fact that the college also contains several technology programs which are regarded as the low-status members, leaving the Architecture and AE Programs to be independent.
- It's a very long-established program - this fall it is celebrating its 100th anniversary, coincident with a move into a newly renovated and expanded building.
- While that building is in under construction they're in temporary space in an engineering research building that would make many departments happy.
- In its long history the department and programs within it have undergone many organizational changes. Most of the dates that follow are only approximate, but they give the overall sense. These changes include:
- The school started life identified as an Architectural Engineering program in 1909.
- Architecture was added later, separating out of the AE program
- In the 1940's the name was changed to focus on Architecture
- In the 1950s and 1960's the AE program was 5-years
- In the 1960's it switched to a four-year bachelors and 2-year masters program
- In 1986 they switched back to a five-year bachelors program
- They have recently considered switching again to a bachelors+masters program but have decided against it because adding new material to the current content would require six years - too great of a recruiting disadvantage.
- Having four identified AE faculty for only 6-8 graduates (there is a cap of 15) per year makes sense within the overall department because the faculty have additional roles:
- They teach architects as well as engineers in the team-taught studios, particularly the capstone design course - called "comprehensive" at OSU.
- They teach service courses for the college, particularly Statics.
- There is not currently an identified Masters program for AE's or architects (a prior one was closed by the University regents due to low enrollment). The faculty, however, work with the Civil Engineering department so they do have a small graduate program, comprised mostly of OSU graduates, that receives a CivE diploma but is largely taught by AE faculty.
- There is hope that in the new building both the undergraduate and the graduate programs may grow so that the Masters may be reinstated.
Teaching Methods and Curriculum
- The "center of the universe" for both architecture and AE students at OSU is the classic individual architectural studio.
- Students have a nearly identical curriculum for the first two "pre-professional" years before being admitted to the professional program.
- The only difference is whether they take the algebra-based or calculus-based math and physics courses.
- All students share the same intense studio courses each term in those first two years
- In the last years the AE diverge, having one more semester of studio plus the comprehensive design studio in their last
- Only in the capstone comprehensive studio are the AE's treated differently from the architects. There the first six weeks are identical, but in the last eight the AE's focus on a complete structural design whereas the architects pursue design development for the whole building.
- These studios are generally team-taught by rather than individual critics.
- AE students replace the studios in the last three "professional" years with technical courses
- Some of these classes still have a project emphasis - typically the 2nd course (e.g. second steel design) has mixed lecture and project approach in order to achieve "just-in-time" learning.
- Faculty have a typical load of five courses per year. For those teaching in studios (most) this translates into a large number of contact hours per years since the typical studio is 16 contact hours/week, with the "comprehensive" studio being 20 hours/week.
- Faculty generally have significant industry experience that they draw on in their classes.
- Quite a few have graduated from OSU and returned after an industry career.
- Teaching ability is critical in tenure and promotion decisions.
- Extensive informal mentoring is encouraged within the school
- The university provides teaching support through its Institute of Teaching & Learning Excellence. Attendance is not required at it's seminar, but is regarded as sometimes helpful.
- Research is becoming increasingly important. It is mostly related to education, with an article per year related to teaching being desirable.
- The school has recently brought explicit examples of AE into the first year course in order to highlight the opportunities for entering students.
- The results of this may well contribute to increasing the AE graduates from the current 6-8 average to the 15 maximum that their studio system permits.
AE Content Issues
- The two program emphases are structures and architecture with a conscious effort to mesh them.
- Architects and AE's take the first of each structural class together. AE's take the second course by themselves.
- The single MEP faculty member is responsible for all MEP courses for both Architects and engineers. He emphasizes the connection between MEP and architecture using the fact that it will be necessary in the final studio as the incentive.
- The last shared studio for architects and engineers is the "comprehensive" studio taken by architects in their 4th year and AE's in their 5th year.
- The program has been limited by their space for years. With the opening of a newly renovated and expanded building this coming fall they will have additional capability.
- If the interest increases the AE program might expand
- It's possible that they might expand the MEP portion of the program at that time as well
Students
- The program is selective because of the limited number of places in the School of Architecture - 30 architecture and 15 AE per year.
- The students are hard-working and are valued by employers.
- The great majority of graduating students (90+ percent) go to work as consulting engineers. There is little movement into construction as is the case in many other programs.
- The vast majority of these students stay in-state because the demand is high. In contrast, about 50% of the architects leave the state.
Observations
- OSU represents one end of the Architectural Engineering spectrum in its emphasis on the importance of Architecture. With it's 32 semester credits of studio, all shared with architects graduates of this program have far more exposure to architectural thinking than graduates of many other programs. When I asked what difference this made to their graduates the general answer was that it made them understand and thus better able to work with architects. How this understanding differed from what was achieved in other programs wasn't clear.
