Looking at maps of the area, I was surprised by the scale of St.Louis. The city itself is quite small, perhaps five miles wide and six to seven miles deep, but it is ringed by about 90 smaller municipalies and suburbs, which give it the sprawl. It is interesting in comparison to Phoenix, which basically annexed every small community that grew into it. WashU sits on the boundary of the city, technically in a part of town called University City. I think the term city is being used fairly liberally here, as University City looks like it would be dwarfed by even Ponca City.
Anyway, the university is fairly surrounded by parkland and residential neighborhoods. The main campus looks very prestigious, with castleated battlements, and a general tudor/gothic style, despite being constructed at the turn of the last century. The architecture campus mostly comprises of two buildings mated together, a 1960s modern with a folded plate roof, and a modernized beaux arts style, which is an older building. It's a quirky combination. There's a small library and a warren of computer labs, 3 laser cutters, and various 3D printers and CNC machines. Definately capable of handling digital fabriction.
A continental breakfast had been laid out for us and we ate and mingled with the other arriving students. A very large contingent of University of Florida students showed up. Actually, of the students who would be entering the 2+ program, literally HALF are Gators. This is a little disconcerting to me, especially after overhearing a conversation about what a great convenience laser cutters are and how relieved they are that WashU has three of them. The whole thing conveyed such dislike of craft it made me wonder how they would be as studio mates. I should not judge the entire group though, and I have to admit that as admitted students, they must have been held to the same rigid academic and design standards, so we'll see. Most of the visiting students I talked to at the open house seemed pretty sure that Wash U was going to be their top choice of schools.
Breakfast was followed by a day of short rotating lectures across several rooms. There were a series of half hour sessions that students rotated around to check out sessions that most interested them. Sessions dealt with various aspects such as study abroad, digital media, representation, introduction to professors, thesis projects, etc. etc. A lot of information, but clearly presented.
Wash U has a very large program- about 300 architecture graduates. There is essentially one program, roughly a three year cirriculum, and students enter at one of three points based on their undergraduate degree and transcripts. Saori and I would enter the 2+ program, which is five semesters in length. The first semester 'core studio' is required, and then the next four semesters have option studios, where we pick out of a dozen studios which we want to take. It's an interesting vertical studio where 2nd year students will mix and work with 3rd year students. The last semester is the studio project/thesis.
Lunch was sandwiches, laid out in the main lobby, followed by more sessions. Saori and I had signed up to talk to a financial aid advisor and we ditched a few classes to walk around the campus a bit beforehand. It looks like a prestigious private school, with its Tudor architecture and castled battlements, although not as old as it looks (only early 1900s). The financial aid advisor talked us through our questions, didn't hurry us along, and was genuinely intent on making sure all of our questions were answered. Saori and I both were awarded scholarships to the school, and the rest of the financial aid comes in the form of different loans, which we go completely through the school.
Afterwards, we ditched more sessions to walk around the studios and see what students were working on. I liked the studio space- although individual stations are smaller than ASU's, the rooms had high ceilings and lots of natural light. The studio looked a lot like ASU's, with paper, drawings, cardboard, and foamcore everywhere, and students working on laptops. We talked to a few students at work and they were happy to explain what they were working on. We showed up just as a student led tour was ending, and then the student gave us a personal quick tour, hitting the major places of the rest of the architecture buildings.
The two major buildings are directly connected, but they are also connected underground to other buildings which house the library, art museum, computer labs, and fabrication shops. I've always liked expansive labyrinthine buildings, and it looked like there was a lot to explore.
After a final few sessions, we were released to a happy hour in the courtyard. A collection had been taken up to get clean glassware/cups for visiting students for beer. Apparently, they hold the $1 happy hour every friday afternoon. We talked more with the local students, waited in the terrifically long beer/re-beer line, and generally enjoyed the late afternoon.
At six we were shuffled into the main auditorium to listen to a lecture by Wiel Arets, a famous European architect (although I confess I'd never heard of him). The lecture was surprisingly fun. Arets is a lucky architect who gets to work with people who own castles and 7 aston-martins. The introduction by one of the faculty members was thorough and contextual, but damned near as long as the lecture and put some of the already tired and beer-befuddled audience members to sleep.
After the lecture, we were shepherded over to the main campus building, where we went into one of the grand halls with paintings and chandeliers, a la Hogwarts. We were served dinner, more wine, and more speeches and toasts with dessert and coffee.
Apparently Revit is not widely used on the campus- Rhino is standard for 3d modeling, a step up from FormZ. I sincerely hope that I'll be able to use Revit (and learn Rhino meanwhile) in studio.
When dinner was over, we were shooed out the door into waiting yellow school busses, which took us to Blueberry Hill, a massive bar with many rooms dedicated to Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, where surprise, there was more free beer. We hung out there for one drink, chatted with some former ASU students, and called it a night, catching a bus back to the hotel at 11:30.
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