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Sergey Tkachenko, 29, is absolutely sure he wants to become an architect. Ashley Brackett, 18, is planning to major in architecture, but Matt Thomas, 22, is still trying to make up his mind.<\/p>\n
All three, along with eight others, are getting help deciding about their futures through Portland State University\u2019s monthlong Architecture Summer Immersion Program, which ends Friday.<\/p>\n
Todd Ferry, faculty member at PSU\u2019s School of Architecture, is director of the inaugural program. Other schools offer similar ones that allow students, most with no architectural back-grounds, to immerse themselves in the design process and create a portfolio, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get the foundational skills they need to apply for a program (in architecture) and really test out to see if this is something they want to invest years of their life in,\u201d Ferry said.<\/p>\n
\u2018INVALUABLE\u2019 CAREER PREP<\/strong> Ferry said he believes the program will not only help students decide whether they want to become professional architects, but also improve quality in the field and potentially entice more people into the profession. The program is creating leaders and exceptional candidates for future employment, he added.<\/p>\n Prime examples, Ferry said, are PSU graduate student Alejandra \u201cAlex\u201d Ruiz, who leads design studio sessions, and Akoya Wright, who recently earned an undergraduate degree in architecture from PSU and serves as a design assistant for the summer program.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they go to firms it\u2019s going to be invaluable to what they can bring to a team,\u201d Ferry said.<\/p>\n Teamwork is an important part of the immersion program, Wright said, because students must collaborate on projects.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of things that schools don\u2019t teach,\u201d she said, \u201cso you can get to an architecture firm and can\u2019t be a team player because you never learned how to think \u2018beyond myself and open my mind.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The program can be as intense as going to medical school, Ruiz said, but the students are holding their own.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me five years to learn all this, and I\u2019m amazed at how fast they\u2019re learning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n During the first week, students read \u201cChambers for a Memory Place\u201d by late architect Charles Moore, one of the designers of Portland\u2019s Lovejoy Fountain Park. Then they built a table-size scale model of the fountain.<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition to studio and readings, they also have workshops: one on sketching, one on model-making, one on diagramming and at the end, one on how to document their work and how to build a successful portfolio,\u201d Ferry said. \u201cHopefully when they leave they\u2019re prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n Immersion students are given a new design assignment each week. For example, they worked on they worked on creating sleeping pods for people without homes, Ferry said. That ties in with the mission of PSU\u2019s Center for Public Interest Design, which he also heads.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to explore energies and concepts that are of social, economic and environmental sustainability from the first time they pick up a pencil,\u201d Ferry said. \u201cWhat the center does for underserved populations, the students\u2019 projects are also (working) in areas that are often overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n INSIGHT INTO THE PROFESSION<\/strong> On Saturdays, students take field trips to see examples of architecture in the region, such as the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Gordon House in Silverton and the Allied Works Architecture exhibit at the Portland Art Museum.<\/p>\n Students also visit local firms; most recently, they met with Steffee Knudsen at Hacker and Dylan Morgan at Place Studio.<\/p>\n Morgan, who received his master\u2019s in architecture from PSU and is an adjunct professor there, said he visited the school before becoming a student; however, he didn\u2019t get the kind of exposure the immersion students are getting.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time I found someone to talk to when (PSU officials) were just building their graduate program, but it was not as in-depth as what you would get from a program like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The immersion class \u201cis not a typical student body,\u201d Morgan noted, but rather one with people of diverse ages and backgrounds.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have people starting a second career and some are straight out of high school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n PSU, in addition to its undergraduate curriculum, offers two tracks for a graduate degree in architecture. Those who already have an under-graduate degree in architecture can enter a two-year master\u2019s program while those with any other undergraduate degree can go through a three-year master\u2019s curriculum.<\/p>\n INFORMING EDUCATIONAL DECISIONS<\/strong> The Washington state native has an undergraduate degree in political science, and for several years taught school in Hawaii and then in China. For the past three years she has served as a zip line guide, doing \u201coutdoor challenge course stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, in the PSU program, Taylor is back to her first love: architecture.<\/p>\n \u201cI just wanted to try something that made me feel accomplished, and looking back, it was always drawing sketch-es of buildings, so I decided I would dive in a little deeper to see if I was truly interested in it,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m here. And I love it and I\u2019m going to be an architect. That\u2019s my plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Tkachenko, who was born in Ukraine and moved to Vancouver, Wash., when he was 9, is also sure. He recently got an associate\u2019s degree in architectural drawing from Clark College, but wants to go further in the field. He isn\u2019t sure whether he will attend PSU because of out-of-state tuition costs, but now that he\u2019s in the immersion program, he knows becoming a professional architect is his true calling.<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeah, no doubt,\u201d he said. \u201cI have zero doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other hand, Thomas, of South Carolina, is uncertain about his educational future. He has an under-graduate degree from Bowling Green State University in interpersonal relations and entrepreneurship, but has enjoyed the \u201cvery intensive\u201d summer program.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s given me a new spectrum of a new way to think, but I\u2019m still undecided,\u201d he said. \u201cI will still make my portfolio for application deadlines for grad school in January, but during that time I\u2019ll still be deciding because I haven\u2019t made my decision yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Brackett, a recent high school graduate from Texas, had already planned to attend PSU. The immersion pro-gram is giving her a good indication of what to expect, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounded like a good head start to my freshman year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve learned about construction and line weights and (site) plans, section and elevation \u2013 all these different things that I had no idea about and are kind of nice things to dip my toe in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sergey Tkachenko, 29, is absolutely sure he wants to become an architect. Ashley Brackett, 18, is planning to major in architecture, but Matt Thomas, 22, is still trying to make up his mind. All three, along with eight others, are getting help deciding about their futures through Portland State University\u2019s monthlong Architecture Summer Immersion Program, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1736,"featured_media":409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18615],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1736"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFor 40-plus hours each week, the students, whose ages range from 18 to 40, are bombarded with information about architecture and then sent into the design studio to put into practice what they have learned.<\/p>\n
\nStudents benefit too from lectures delivered by noted practicing architects who have a connection to PSU\u2019s architecture school; they include Michael Zaretsky, associate professor at the School of Architecture and Interior Design at the University of Cincinnati and Ugandan architect Solophina Nekesa, who worked for world-renowned architect Renzo Piano. A group of architects from Studio L in Tokyo also spoke to students.<\/p>\n
\nImmersion student Rebecca Taylor, 28, is among those seeking a second \u2013 or in her case, a third \u2013 career.<\/p>\n