KILLAM EXPLAINS ARCHITECTURAL SCHOOL'S ADVANTAGES

This is the seventh of a series of articles which is being published in the Crimson, written about the work of the various graduate schools by their respective Deans or leading professors.

Chairman of the School of Architecture.

The School of Architecture of Harvard University has been a graduate school since 1906, and therefore the regular students, candidates for the degree of Master in Architecture, must have a bachelor's degree from a college or technical school of recognized standard. The change from undergraduate to graduate instruction was made because of the feeling in the profession that as many architects as possible should have a liberal cultural training preceding their professional studies. Harvard was the first school established on this graduate basis, and it has been the only one until recently. Some other architectural schools have recognized the same need, and require as a precedent for admission to the architectural departments at least two years of college training. Most of the architectural schools of the country, however, still give four years to a combination of academic and professional subjects, and grant a bachelor's degree in Architecture at the end of that time.

Men entering the Harvard School with a bachelor of arts degree, but with no professional preparatory studies whatever, usually require about three years devoted entirely to professional study to obtain the degree of Master in Architecture. Men going through Harvard College and planning to enter the school later, and usually advised to take some preparatory professional work which counts for the A. B. degree, and such men thereby can shorten the time in the school to about two years. Men who have a bachelor's degree in Architecture from other technical schools can usually obtain the master's degree in from one to two years. In all of these cases, however, the time required is not a fixed number of years because the degree depends very largely upon the progress in the courses in architectural design. Instead of requiring one year's work, no more and no less, for each course in design, with repetition of the whole course in case of failure,--as would be required in College,--the student in the school progresses in design as fast as his proficiency as shown by the points won in each problem warrants. He may, therefore, finish his work for the regree at any time of the year, rather than arbitrarily in June.

Special Students Admitted

Besides the regular students, the school also admits special students who are given a certificate upon the satisfactory completion of a certain required amount of work. These men are ordinarily men of high school training, with some years of practical experience in an architect's office, or they may be men with incomplete college education who are compelled to obtain professional training in less time than the regular students give. These specials are always fewer in number than the regular students; but those of them who have had an office training introduce an important element into the school, because their practical experience has given them a facility in drawing which some of the regular students do not attain in the earlier years of their work in the school; and the older special students are likely to be serious students and hard workers. The standards of the school, however, are set for the regular student with his previous college training.

Half of Time Spent in Design

The courses in design take up nearly half the total time of the student and include the planning and exterior design of buildings from the simplest summer house to elaborate institutional groups, and the student is given ample opportunity to use all his intelligence, ingenuity, and creative talent in the arrangement and decoration of a great variety of buildings. To give students an opportunity for comparison of their work with that of other architectural schools, the problems in design are most of them given jointly by committee from the school, from the Dept. of Architecture at the Mass, Inst. of Technology, and from the class conducted by the Boston Architectural Club. These conjunctive problems, so-called, arouse a great deal of interest in the three schools; they make clear the different points of view of the instructors; and they give the instructors themselves an opportunity of comparing opinions with the instructors in the other schools.

The courses in construction develop another side of the students nature and may prove his ability to lie in that direction rather than in design, but in any event they broaden his equipment by acquainting him with a point of view and a method of approach differing in some respect from those in design. The courses in freehand drawing in different mediums and the clay modelling have yet another appeal.

The school has the great advantage of the connection with the college, which gives opportunity for students in the school to attend its courses if they desire, and gives the still better opportunity for those who enter Harvard College to obtain there some courses in Fine Arts as a basis for the more strictly professional courses to folow. Our proximity to Boston gives us the benefit of the museums, the libraries, and the meetings of all kinds held there, as well as in Cambridge.

School Has Ample Endowment

The school has an ample endowment and a beautiful building--Robinson Hall--which it shares with the School of Landscape Architceture. The school has a fine library and collection of original paintings and marbles and other works of art as well as of casts, so that the environment for men studying design could hardly be surpassed. Instruction in Architecture is necessarily expensive, requiring a great deal of personal criticism by the instructor over the drafting board, so that the staff of instructors is large in comparison with the number of students. There are no assistants in the courses; all of the teaching is by professors or instructors. A professionally capable and active Visiting Committee greatly helps the school.

The School of Landscape Architecture is in the same faculty with the School of Architecture, and shares in the same endowment fund and in the use of Robinson Hall. It gives an opportunity for students in architecture to take courses in landscape design if they wish, and in any event, they can see the landscape work being carried on and learn something of the point of view of that profession.

Certain of the architectural courses are open to undergraduates, because they are believed to be proper courses for the equipment of an educated man. An acquaintance with architecture and the other fine arts opens up such a large new field of knowledge that any student may well find it worth while to learn something of the arts upon which we depend so much for our records of the past and our enjoyment of the present. For those who are considering the adoption of architecture as a profession, the undergraduate courses offer the student an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the subject and perhaps thus to decide whether he cares to carry the work further.

Profession An Attractive One

The profession of architecture is an attractive one on that the practitioner may use the harvest raining and experience in the different fields of activity necessary for the production of the modern building and its surroundings. Primarily, the architect must make his buildings useful and beautiful; usually, also, it must be economical, it must be safe, and in many cases, it must be a money-making project. The profession therefore offers a wide field for men who are artists, practical planners, construction experts of different kinds, and for men of executive ability in directing construction or of good judgement in real estate and general financial affairs. An architect may study with profit everything from Greek temples to real estate promotion or modern plumbing. The monetary awards are usually not large, except for a few firms who do a great deal of large building work. On the other hand, the architect in ordinary practice may feel assured of a reasonable remuneration and very often of pleasant relations with clients, because he meets them not when they are in trouble as does the lawyer or physician--but in the time of their prosperity. His study teaches him to appreciate the beautiful in all the arts, and he has an enjoyment and appreciation from travel in Europe or study in museums and galleries of this country which few laymen are likely to have. Most of all, he has the great privilege of seeing the building which he has imagined, grow before his eyes in useful, beautiful, and enduring form.