AN ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS TRANSITION FROM EDUCATION TO PRACTICE

Arthur Procter
Advanced Professional Practice
Professor Elizabeth Petry

There has always been a rift between Architectural Education and

Architectural Practice. This separation between Architecture schools and
architecture firms has caused the students to have to work harder to adapt to their
new work environments. The architecture schools have told the students that they
will get more education in the field; while architecture firms have told intern
architects that architecture is learned at school. This discrepancy between the two
institutions have cause a gap causing the students to not have the appropriate
amount of education and leaves intern architects without the latest news and
technologies. The start of one’s architectural career starts with a good foundation of
architectural education. Most students who go to school to become an architect start
by getting their undergraduate degree in architecture. This degree is very general
knowledge of design and drawing of architecture. The first few years of study also
encompass the history and technique of architecture. As a student becomes more
and more knowledgeable about architecture, the student becomes more and more
aware of what type of architecture they would rather work on. The undergraduate
degree alone is not enough education for an architecture student to sit through the
Architectural Registration Exam. While an architecture student is completing their
undergraduate education, they are required to do summer or winter internships.
These internships are the schools way of introducing the business side of
architecture in the architecture program. These internships at architecture firms
usually help students become aware that there is more to architecture than just the
drawing of buildings. Most students will learn that, in studios at school, designing
and drawing are the major parts of an architectural education. But, outside of
school, architectural designers spend less than half of their time drawing and most
of the time dealing with client relations. At architecture firms, interns will learn that

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architectural education is more that just the design of a building and encompasses
the business side of architecture as well.
After the architecture student graduates, with their undergraduate degree,
they might go back to school to attain their masters of architecture degree to
continue their architectural education. The masters program is more defined to
direct the student into the direction that they wish to pursue. There are many
possibilities for architecture student when it concerns their educational path after
getting an undergraduate degree in architecture. One possibility is that an
architecture student can go to a school that offers an undergraduate and graduate
school to get your master’s of architecture. This type of educational path is called
‘4+2’ because an undergraduate degree is usually four years in length and an
additional two years of graduate school. Another possible route would be for an
architecture student to complete their undergraduate degree and then apply to a
NCARB accredited school for their Master’s of Architecture. This route takes more
time than the ‘4+2’ path but it offers students a variety of programs and classes that
a student could take. This helps the architecture student figure out what they find
interesting and what direction they wish their architectural education and career to
continue. Although this path offers more freedom in a student’s choice of, this path
requires more time in school when compared to the ‘4+2’ path. This route would
usually take seven to seven and a half years, possibly more if the student is working
part-time or full-time and taking classes at night. An example of this type of
education would be the Boston Architectural College, which only offers classes to
students who are working full-time.
When a graduate looks for a position at a firm there are a few main thoughts
to consider, such as if the firm is good at dealing with the newly graduated intern
architects or if they have a good mentoring. The position of an intern architect is
more of an academic position than a professional one. During the time that the
student is an intern, they learn more about the profession of architecture. The
Intern Development Program assists the architectural intern’s experience by
creating a structured program to ease the intern into a professional. Once an intern
has gone through IDP they are able to sit for their Architectural Registration Exams.

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The National Council of Architectural Registration Board created the ARE to see if an
intern has mastered the current architectural practices and technologies. When an
intern has completed the Intern Development Program and passed their
Architectural Registration Exam they can officially call themselves an architect. As
an architect they have the right to design and stamp their own project for a client.
This is a big responsibility that most people who go to architecture school will
hopefully attain. After an architect is settled at a firm, they will need to keep up with
AIA Continuing Education Credits. These allow an architect to maintain their
knowledge of architecture while the ability to learn new ideas and technology in
different parts of their field. Most firms have ‘Lunch and Learns’ or some sort of
program for staff to keep up this education after they have become registered
architects.
There are many different options an architecture student has when deciding
what graduate school based on the differences in teaching structure and philosophy.
The first schools are the more traditional and prestigious architecture schools such
as Harvard, Yale and Columbia. These schools all embody a deep tradition of
architectural learning and have a high standard that is above and beyond most of
the newer schools. There are also the schools of architecture like the Bauhaus and
the Frank Lloyd Wright School that were created to better understand what
architecture is about, rather than a school that was created to teach one philosophy
over another. Lastly, there are the schools have unique educational programs like
the Boston Architectural College, the University of Cincinnati, and Iowa State
University. These schools work together with the AIA to understand what an
architecture student needs out of an education. They have very useful programs that
help turn interns into professional architects.
Yale School of Architecture (YSOA) is a traditional school. Yale was founded
in 1916 in New Haven, Connecticut and is considered to be one of the most
prestigious architecture schools in America. Their current graduate class has 275
full and part-time students. Yale sets a high standard for most architect schools and
has become the typical educational path for top students who pursue architecture as
a career. Yale and architecture schools like Yale, have many similar programs and

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education styles. Yale offers a standard undergraduate degree in Architecture, a
Master of Architecture, and a PhD in architectural History and Criticism. Yale’s
School of Architecture offers different type of resources for its students; these
programs include using the local community as critics and help in studios. During a
graduate’s first year of graduate studies the students undertake a community-
building project. This project consists of designing affordable housing as well as
carrying the design through to construction phase. This type of project should be a
standard for most architecture schools because it promotes ‘learning through doing’
which is a main type of education for students as well as intern architects. Yale’s
Master of Architecture’s design studio is a workshop in which “students can come
together to discuss projects and proposals from fellow classmates, faculty,
professionals and the public”. Yale has many different objectives for the students
that will become part of their studios. These studios are meant to stimulate their
artistic sensitivity and capture ones creative powers. They also try to strengthen
intellectual growth and the capacity to develop creative and responsible situations
to unique and changing problems. Lastly, they help the student acquire the
individual capabilities necessary for the competent practice of architecture and the
lifelong learning. This last part is vital to architects and their continuing education.
Harvard’s architecture school acquired graduate status in 1914. The major
design schools of Harvard were officially united in 1936 to form the Graduate School
of Design. Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) is located in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. The main type of architectural degrees that you can attain from
Harvard is a Master of Architecture, Master of Landscape Architecture, and Master
of Urban Planning and Design. Currently there are 618 students involved with the
program. Harvard GSD Department of Architecture has been ranked at number one
for six consecutive years and the Department of Landscape Architecture has been
ranked at number one for four consecutive years.
Harvard Graduate School of Design offers many resources to its faculty and
students. Some of these include its architectural seminars, museums, libraries, and
cultural events. Harvard also has a broad variety of international faculty that
exposes students to different issues and trends in contemporary architectural

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design. Harvard’s programs enable students to focus their studies in one discipline
while gaining a broader prospective from related fields. Harvard also provides the
opportunity for close interaction with faculty in small studios and classes, students
gain experience in contemporary design issues and an in-depth understanding of
theory and history, technology and professional practice. The GSD offers many
professional development programs for graduate level students and life-long
learning. Some of these programs include the Community Service Fellowships,
Career Fairs, Alumni Networking Events, Seminars, and Professional Advising. The
Community Service Fellowship Program is a 10-week summer internship for non-
profit organizations. The student’s work will be their application of skills learned
throughout their education from Harvard Graduate School of Design.
The architecture department at Columbia University's Graduate School of
Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) is located in New York City, New
York and was founded from a department into a form School of Architecture by
William Robert Ware in 1881. The GSAPP is highly regarded as one of the most
important and prestigious architecture schools in the world. Columbia University’s
Architecture program was ranked 3rd in Design Intelligence’s 2010 ranking of
architecture graduate schools. There are currently 748 students in their
architecture program. It is also home to the most well regarded Masters of Science
in Urban Planning, Historic Preservation, and Real Estate Development. Architecture
at Columbia remains the core of the school, which is the central focus for more than
half of the students and faculty. All programs at Columbia offer a commitment to
both professional training and research.
Columbia’s School of Architecture offers many resources to its students
including the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, which is the United States’
largest architectural library and home to some of the first books published on
architecture. Their mission is to push students beyond the level of professional
training and train designers to rethink themselves and to find new forms of
professional practice. Columbia has an open studio, which allows the different
programs of Architecture, Urban Design, Historic Preservation, Urban Planning, and
Real Estate to design and learn together. At the start of every semester, the school

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begins 35 studio projects that will lead in many different directions, which will be
reviewed by juries, exhibitions and publications that stimulate an intense debate
and produce new and different designs.
The Bauhaus School of Design was first founded in 1919 in Weimar,
Germany. It was founded with the idea of creating a ‘total’ work of art in which all
arts, including architecture would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus still
has a profound influence upon subsequent developments in the fields of art,
architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography. The
first Architecture Director was Walter Gropius he was in charge of the Bauhaus from
when it was first founded in 1919 until 1927. Hannes Meyer was in charge of the
Bauhaus from 1928 to 1930 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933.
The Bauhaus School was closed in 1933 because of pressure from the Nazi regime.
Because of the unrest in Germany at the time, Bauhaus was first founded in Weimar
from 1919 to 1925, then Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and in Berlin the last year of the
Bauhaus being open. In 1937, Mies van der Rohe moved the School to a new
location. This time the School became the Institute of Design, which was part of the
Illinois Institute of Technology. The Institute of Design is considered to be the New
Bauhaus. The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of
focus, technique, instructors and politics. The Bauhaus had a major impact on art
and architecture trends throughout the world. There was no history to be taught at
the Bauhaus because they believed that everything was supposed to be design and
created according to new and creative principals rather than by the preceding ones.
Taliesin West is the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of
Architect. It is located in Scottsdale, Arizona and was initially founded as a school in
1932 when 23 apprentices came to live and learn. There were a few main factors
when Taliesin West was first designed including the rugged landscape, the mild
winter climate, and the necessity of housing a community of staff and students. This
school was Frank Lloyd Wright’s brainchild. The first apprentices who were known
as the Taliesin Fellowship, they worked around in the construction, operations and
maintenance of the school. The Taliesin Fellowship produced a new vigor for Frank
Lloyd Wright’s career. Soon the Fellowship could learn as they worked on some of

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the most innovative buildings in America. A few of these buildings include the
Johnson, Wax headquarters, Fallingwater and even the Guggenheim Museum. The
Taliesin Fellowship learned to work with astonishing speed and soon the school
developed into an exciting architectural laboratory, which attracted some of the best
artists and minds.
In 1935, Frank Lloyd Wright moved the entire Fellowship to Spring Green,
Wisconsin during the winter semesters. This started the tradition of moving the
School between Wisconsin and Arizona that still continues today. Some of the
Fellowship stayed with the School and became the Senior Fellowship, which later
helped Frank Lloyd Wright with facilitating the School. The ones that did leave the
School began very successful careers in architecture with their own or others firms.
This type of schooling allowed students of architects to come to Taliesin and get first
hand training working with the outstanding architects of their time. They worked on
some of the nation’s most important and lasting architecture projects. This School
became more and more organized, with the help of the American Institute of
Architects, the National Architectural Accrediting Board and the National Council of
Architecture Registration Boards. From 1985 until 1996 the School underwent a
rigorous process of reporting towards accreditation, which was earned successfully
at both the Institutional level and the Professional Architectural level.
The learning environment at Taliesin West focused on thorough design,
critical thinking and hands-on learning. The School has a very small class but that
offers a close relationship between the Fellowship, faculty and staff. The regular
type of grading is replaced by an “assessment of the student’s learning by faculty,
mentors and practicing architects on the basis of evidence in semi-annual portfolio
documentation”. Many of the studio-based projects center around architectural
work for non-profit and other types of organizations with specific goals that are
socially responsible, environmentally sustainable, and culturally relevant.
The American Institute of Architects has set up many goals when it comes to
architectural education. The AIA has set up a Practice Academy to “Develop
mutually beneficial programs for students, interns, faculty, and practitioners and to
challenge or transform our preconceptions about boundaries between academia

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and practice”. This goal is a major step toward bridging the gap between education
and practice, between students and interns, between interns and licensed architects.
The Practice Academy program began in 2006 when the AIA requested proposals
for different “Practice Academy models to support the growth and development of
emerging professionals”. These programs where to be developed over a three year
period with a total of $30,000 provided for each program. Three proposals from
colleges where picked from The Boston Architectural College (BAC), The University
of Cincinnati, and The Iowa State University. These programs include the Mentored
Collaboration, Co-op Education, and the Bridge Studio.
The Boston Architectural College was first founded in 1889, it is located in
the heart of Boston, Massachusetts. This type of college offers classes to those who
are currently employed full-time at architecture firms. Currently, the school enrolls
over 1,000 degree-seeking students and over 400 continuing education students,
while employing 300 educators and professional practitioners. Design Intelligence
2010 ranked the BAC Programs at 17th.
The BAC educational style while unique is what the profession and education
of architecture needs. Originally the BAC was founded as a club for architects in the
Boston Area who needed to educate their apprentices. This school offers degrees in
Interior Design, Landscape Architecture and a Master’s in Architecture. Unlike most
colleges that require most graduate student’s attend classes full-time and work part-
time, the BAC helps students realize that there is more to architecture than drawing
and designing. In most architecture firms, the average amount of time-spent
drawing is small, while compared to the time spent talking with clients. The BAC
believes that most education comes from the field, which is why they rely so heavily
on the work from outside sources. There is classroom study along with working
credits from paid positions at design firms during the day. The classes are usually
two to three nights per week. The BAC says, “This educational experience connects
the theoretical with the practical, and also often affords students the ability to test
for licensure upon graduation”. The IDP is a vital part of any graduate’s education.
This program helps transition an architectural graduate student into an

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architectural intern, which leads them sitting for the Architectural Registration
Exam, which is the last step before becoming a licensed architect.
The Boston Architectural College proposed a unique project entitled,
“Mentored Collaboration: The Connective Role of BIM Technology in Architectural
Education.” This program would be focused on the impact of the new technology of
building information modeling (BIM) on today’s architectural education. The BAC
worked together with architectural firms located around Boston that were
transitioning their practices to BIM and integrated design or integrated project
delivery. The main goal of this program was to support the circular learning
between the schools of architecture and the practice of design professionals. This
learning was meant to “Stimulate a series of lifelong learning for practicing
professionals – beginning with interns – through the partnership of academics and
practitioners.” The Mentored Collaboration project had many opportunities and
challenges for interns and professionals alike. Their main goal was to create a model
of ongoing collaboration between the fields of education and practicing design.
Another goal of this project was to study the incorporation of new technologies,
such as BIM, into the architectural design education. This program will lead into an
increased understanding of how a building works and will possibly lead to an intern
generating design solutions and their own creative ideas about education. Another
goal was to apply this education model that was learned by the intern and mentors
to create a new interdisciplinary course about the transitioning from academics to
practicing.
The BAC also offers an extensive array of continuing education courses. This
allows for professionals and non-professionals to take courses in covering areas
such as building information modeling, historic preservation, and sustainable
design. The BAC is also a center for professional development because of the fact
that the courses can be offered at the BAC or at individual firms around Boston. The
Boston Architectural College’s unique perspective on education is a good step
forward into transitioning students into Architects. While colleges like the BAC offer
this type of education, more traditional colleges such as Harvard, Yale, and
Columbia, offer more established academic education.

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 The University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and
Planning (DAAP) is a highly internationally ranked design school, most well known
for its programs in interior design, which is ranked best in the nation, architecture
and industrial design, both ranked second, as well as graphic design and urban
planning programs which are ranked in the top 20. The College of Design,
Architecture, Art and Planning was first founded in 1819 and its main campus is
located in Cincinnati, Ohio. DAAP was the only public school listed in ID Magazine’s
list of top ten design schools worldwide.
University of Cincinnati’s Professional Practice program started with a
simple question, “What should an intern know, but doesn’t know, to succeed in the
workplace?” This one questions spawned many different reactions. Together these
answers started to form a curriculum, which consisted of intensive workshop called
‘The Cincinnati Plan.’ These workshops were to be taught by professional design
practitioners at their offices. These professionals used a set of guidelines that
identified content, developed materials and taught workshops, which would last
from three hours to all day long sessions. There were many different topics that
were covered such as, firm organization, work process, client interaction, business
practices, construction documents, building economics, the regulatory process,
global practice, how architects present their work and how potential students
should present themselves in terms of resume, portfolio, and interview. These
workshops lead to the University of Cincinnati creating the co-operative education
model. This program consists of alternating periods of coursework on campus and
outside work at a host firm. This experience gives each student over one year of
relevant work experience by the time they graduate. This year-round schedule
permits students to have six quarters of meaningful professionally related
experience before graduation. This helps the graduates of the University of
Cincinnati’s architecture programs become part of the Intern Development Program
before they graduate. The Professional Practice program focuses students to
develop an understanding of human relationships and learn how to work with
others as a team. Herman Schneider, Dean of the College of Engineering at the time,
invented this concept of co-op education in 1906. ‘The Cincinnati Plan’ was ranked

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third in the United States. This program is the largest co-op program at any public
institution in the United States, consisting of 5,000 participating students at over
2,000 companies in over 43 countries.
Iowa State University offered architecture courses since the institute first
enrolled students in 1869 in Ames, Iowa. In 1914, architecture officially became its
own department in the College of Engineering. The College of Design was created in
1978 when architecture, community and regional planning, art and design, and
landscape architecture were brought together. By combining these departments
into one College they “Joined the small number of comprehensive design schools
which offer outstanding opportunities for both disciplinary and interdisciplinary
design education”. This comprehensive college how has 1,906 incoming architecture
students every year. Their Bridge Studio was designed to “Create bridges between
often-disconnected aspects of design work including education and practice,
architectural design and community building, and sustainability and affordability.”
Nadia Anderson who is an assistant professor of Architecture founded the Bridge
Studio in the fall of 2007. This program is available to for the undergraduate and the
graduate level students at Iowa State University. The program is available to all
architecture students with different majors including, architecture, landscape
architecture, and interior design. The students in this program collaborate with a
range of individuals including “interns from local firms, consulting practitioners,
and a range of building industry professionals.” All of these people work in
cooperation to develop projects for different organizations and communities to
integrate environmental and socially sustainability design within suitable and
economic realities.
Iowa States’ Bridge Studio had some major goals that where covered by this
program. The first one was to encourage the integrated thinking that promotes
design, technical and theoretical knowledge as a combination of design education
and practice. Their second main goal was to build a team-based understanding of
design practice. The third goal of the Bridge Studio was to develop a good line of
communication and proactive leadership skills between the students and young
professionals. Their last main goal was to advance the “enriched mission” of

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architecture as a primary shaper of values and community and a driver for
sustainable living. In the fall of 2009, The Bridge Studio received an Excellence in
Green Building Education Recognition Award. The Bridge Studio also received the
2009 Grand Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy.
This honor was awarded by NCARB, National Council of Architectural Registration
Boards. Iowa State’s undergraduate architecture program tied for 18 th among 56
accredited programs in the United States.
The Intern Development Program has a very structured system to transition
architecture students into licensed professionals. This program puts the intern in
different architecture roles to help the intern along the path to becoming licensed.
The National Council of Architectural Registration Board and The American Institute
of Architects founded the Intern Development Program (IDP) in the 1970s. The
people involved in this process are registered architects who supervise the interns,
mentors who meet periodically with the interns during their training process, the
IDP coordinators who communicate between the AIA and NCARB, and the interns
themselves who is working toward meeting the training requirements that the
registration board have laid down for them to complete. All these different roles and
people work simultaneously as one to guide the intern along their path to help them
achieve what most architectural students are looking forward to do after they
graduate. The Intern Development Program is based on a points system, where the
intern tracks their experience based on a variety of different activities, which
include contracts, client contact, working drawings, design, field supervision, and
other tasks that architects will perform as part of their professional responsibilities.
These different activities help an intern learn the ins and outs of what it takes to not
only work at an architecture firm, but what it takes for the head architect to do to
stay in business.
Since the early 1990s the Intern Development Program Awards Program are
awarded to architectural firms across the country who “Actively embrace the Intern
Development Program and demonstrate their commitment by making the path to
licensure an integral part of the firm’s culture”. Each firm has to meet certain

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criteria including Mentoring, Supervising, Training Opportunities, Commitment to
IDP, and ARE Support.
Commitment to the Intern Development Program and ARE support is
definitely something that is needed if a firm is to win one of these awards. They
must not only ensure that all design staff is actively pursing licensure-using IDP but
they must link the completion of IDP and the AREs to financial and professional
awards. Creating an IDP and ARE study group is a good start to becoming a firm that
is serious towards moving interns towards licensure. They must also provide time
off for ARE study and some pay for the expense of the test itself. After an intern
architect completes the Intern Development Program, they are then allowed to sit to
take for the Architectural Registration Exam. These exams where first introduced in
1965 by the NCARB. There have been many changes and additions made to the
exam to update the questions to reflect current architectural practices and to utilize
technology that more accurately assesses the ability of candidates.
These exams where meant to toughly test an architect in many different
aspects of architecture. Since no single examination could test for all aspects of
architecture, the AREs are just one requirement to become a licensed architect. This
test concentrates on aspects related to service such as public health, safety, and
welfare. Early in the early years of the Architectural Registration Exam, candidates
were required to take all nine divisions over a four-day period. The exam was only
offered once a year in major cities across the United States. These days, the AREs are
offered year round at most computer testing facilities. This format allows for more
interns to become licensed and for more opportunities to take the test. During the
late 1980s, as the practice and design of architecture moved into the computer age,
NCARB began to develop a computer-based exam. The last paper-and-pencil test
was issued in 1996 and in 1997 the first computer-based exam was introduced. This
introduced the ARE 4.0 that began in 2008. The new ARE 4.0 consists of 555
multiple-choice questions, which are divided into seven different divisions. These
divisions include; Programming, Planning, and Practice, Site Planning and Design,
Building Design and Construction Systems, Schematic Design, Structural Systems,
Building Systems, and Construction Documentation and Services.

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 The reason people take the Architectural Registration Exam is for
professional status. The situation is best compared to being in a hospital and having
your doctor stand above you, with the scalpel in hand. They look down and say
“Don’t worry, I’m a professional”. You know that the doctor has gone through
medical school, spent many years in training, and has successfully passed the
rigorous medical exams. Being a professional architect means more than just having
experience in architecture. A professional architect is one who has graduated with a
master’s degree, gone through the Intern Development Program and passed the
Architectural Registration Exams. The clients who hire architects are always looking
for the most professional architects. They look for architects who belong to certain
groups and memberships such as the AIA, NCARB or LEED Certification. These
credentials provide architects with a solid architectural background that allows
potential clients to see architects as professionals.
The activities that are included in the Intern Development Program can be
hard to fulfill based on the size of the firm that an intern is working at. The bigger
the firm is in size and projects, the more an intern can be placed on different
projects throughout the firm. The small firms run into a problem because there may
not be that certain activity at that firm, such as field supervision or experience in the
construction of a building that the firm was in charge of designing. That is why big
firms like the S/L/A/M Collaborative have the capability of having multiple interns
working on completing their IDP at one time. Architects take a lot of pride in what
firm they are working with. Architecture firms have a good reputation in general for
helping an intern architect turn into a professional architect. There are some
architects who prefer to work with smaller firms in order to assist in aspects of a
project. Crosskey Architects and Silver Petrucelli + Associates are two firms that
show an architecture can be small enough for an architect to work on different parts
of a project, but big enough for an architect to have more work than most
professionals can handle. There are larger firms, like S/L/A/M Collaborative and
Centerbrook Architects, that have plenty of projects but they also have plenty of
staff to work on each aspect of them. This could lead an architect to working on only
a portion of projects rather than working through an entire project. Since Intern

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Development and continuing education are very important to an architect’s career,
there are some firms that rely heavily on their own programs that help each staff
member with keeping up on their architectural education whether they just
graduated or have been working there since they were founded. The IDP has an
award for Outstanding Firms and the firms from Payette Associates and Einhorn
Yaffee Prescott are just a few of them to have received this high honor.
Crosskey Architects was founded in 1980 after William Crosskey had
graduated from Syracuse University with a master of architecture. Their firm of
seven is considered to be a small sized architecture firm. These types of firms
require principal architects to be good at networking and dealing with relationships
between firms. While in college, William Crosskey, learned from many different
ways of teaching. Crosskey’s major influence was during his studio critiques. During
these critiques, visiting professors and professionals would come and visit the
studio to help with critiquing the student’s projects. Some of these professors and
professionals where from other countries and these architects would not have a full
grasp on the English language, so they would communicate through sketching and
drawing. This is very similar to later in his professional career, when clients, who
don’t know much about the profession of architecture, would need to communicate
their ideas to Crosskey Architects. The only way that these clients knew of
communicating their ideas, where through sketching and drawing out their
thoughts on paper.
Crosskey Architects pride themselves with the IDP and ARE benefits they
offer. One benefit for interns is their use of time sheets. Since they regularly fill out
their own time sheets they can easily track their experience. They allow time off for
interns to take the Architectural Registration Exams. Crosskey Architects have
regular “Lunch and Learns” for employees to satisfy their continuing education
credits. “Lunch and Learns” are hour-long seminars about a variety of topics.
Crosskey Architects usually chooses subject matter that will be applicable to current
or upcoming projects. These seminars usually result in achieving most of the
required credits needed annually. Crosskey Architects make it easier for staff to
become licensed by scheduling work for employees so that they have exposure to

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varying aspects of the profession. This will not only give the intern the experience
they need for IDP it gives them experience that will be tested on in the Architectural
Registration Exam. This experience helps to round out their professional experience
quickly and it also gives the firm about the interns abilities so they know how to
assign them work in the future.
Silver Petrucelli + Associates is an architectural and planning firm located in
Hamden, Connecticut. They are a mid-size firm with four head architects, William
Silver, Dean Petrucelli, David Stein, and Kenneth Sgorbati. They founded their
company around the principal that everyone on their staff should offer diverse,
challenging work experiences and professional advancement. This firm although at
a medium size, is very knowledgeable about making it easier by offering “as many
experiences in all phases of work for the individual, based not only on their skill-set
but also on their drive and motivation to ‘soak it all in’ and striving to be the best
they can be, rather than holding them back for illogical reasons”.
Their Intern Development Program is a major part of Silver Petrucelli +
Associates firm structure. They make sure that one registered architect is always
available to be an in-house mentor. They also budget time for them to meet and
complete the IDP planning in the intern’s first three years. They would prefer this
sort of experience be finished at their firm instead of outside of it. They make sure
that the intern has an opportunity in their first three years to gather the experience
and hours in all of the experience groups required by IDP, including programming,
design, bid phase, and construction administration. After two years there, they find
that the interns are exposed enough to do the smaller or less complex projects on
their own, with little to no supervision. 
Silver Petrucelli + Associates also are encouraged to hold “Lunch and Learns”
with outside vendors and sales reps. Although these take a bit of corporate time and
effort to set up they are well worth the learning experience that the staff has on-the-
job training. They actively encourage the staff to see off-site seminar and learning
experiences, and reimburse them for the expense, pay them for their time at these
functions and also pay for the seminar fees.  Sometimes it involves travel to the
Midwest or other locations, or to the AIA conventions, and the firm will reimburse

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the individual. They also pay for High Education learning if the degree is
architecture related. They also provide ‘flex time’ for the employee to attend classes
during the workday. These employees can also make up the time during ‘off peak’
times.
S/L/A/M Collaborative is a very large firm consisting of 160 employees at
their location in Hartford, Connecticut. The firm was founded in 1976 during an
economic downturn. They also have two satellite offices in Atlanta, Georgia and
Boston, Massachusetts. These smaller satellite offices have around 20-30 people
working in each location. This is a good resource for the Hartford location because if
their satellite firm will usually have the experience and knowledge they are looking
for. S/L/A/M Collaborative works on many institutional projects such as education
and healthcare.
S/L/A/M Collaborative has a unique organization of its firm. The firm is
made up of studios; each studio sits and works together. These studios consider
themselves to be individual and small firms within the larger firm. The different
types of firms are made up of Marketing, Interior Design, Education, Healthcare,
Landscape, and Structural. They also have a separate construction company that
does most of S/L/A/M’s projects along with other construction projects to stay
significant and consistent. Throughout all of these studios, interns are spread
throughout to ensure that the intern has a mentor to help assist them throughout
the project. When a project is given to a team, which is made up of different people
from different studios, that team works on the project until completion. Their studio
structure enables principals to maintain a personal connection with staff members,
which encourages communication and mentoring on all levels. The IDP is a major
part of their training framework. They pay application fees and provide much
needed mentoring. They also grant time off to take the Architectural Registration
Exams. They offer regular in-house AIA-accredited programs, which can include
monthly design rounds, and forums led by senior principals.
S/L/A/M Collaborative serves as a team leader for the Hartford Chapter of
the National ACE Mentoring program, which is a successful after-school program for
urban high-school students. They provide staff, meeting space, materials and

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ongoing financial support for the program. Continuing Education credits are gained
by having weekly Thursday vendor luncheon seminars. S/L/A/M also makes funds
available for employees to acquire their credits, such as paying for an employee to
attend an architecture convention or attend courses on architectural programming.
Centerbrook was first conceived in 1975 as a place where architects could
work together to advance architecture and the craft of building. Centerbrook
Architects and Planners have received 323 national and regional awards for design
excellence since it’s founding. Centerbrook Architects and Planners office is run out
of a renovated wood boring bit factory mill. This unique office provides plenty of
space for all of the 67 on staff to have a separate space for their individual job. The
mill itself was designed to test and research innovating green and sustainable
technologies. The mill is equipped with hydroelectric, solar and geothermal systems
used to generate forty percent of its energy. The main type of work that Centerbrook
is responsible for doing is Civic, and Educational projects. These projects require the
insight from clients and the future users of the buildings. Centerbrook stages
community wide workshops; these allow people who are involved in the early
stages of projects to experience these modest to extensive workshops in hopes that
they will push them to help plan their own cities and buildings. Centerbrook’s
solution to community design problems would be to create many different solutions
and take the best part or two from one and add it with the best parts from a
different solution. They considered that the total process was more important than
the final product because the community helped design the project. They also
considered architecture to be a very collaborative process, this lead to them
adopting technologies that will help in this process.
Centerbrook received the AIA Intern Development Program Award in 2008,
they also received the AIA IDP Award for Outstanding firm in 2008. This award was
in recognition of the firm’s “Exemplary environment for interns pursuing licensure”.
Centerbrook Architects have an in-house training facilities and mentor, Russell
Learned, who was a past president of AIA Connecticut. He is responsible for
monitoring and assisting interns to guide them through the three-year internship.
Centerbrook encourages all of their staff to become professionally licensed

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architects. They believe it conveys a commitment that is not only good for the
individual but as the office as a whole. Centerbrook maintains a vast collection of
ARE guides and books that are big helps for studying and eventually passing the
exam. Centerbrook Architect’s believes in continuing education as a means of
informing their staff of different construction methods, sustainability issues and
management issues.
Supervisors and training opportunities must be presented to every intern.
Some elements of this training must include actively integrating the Emerging
Professionals Companion in a unique way, participating in cross-firm partnering to
create opportunities for interns, and also provide time off for IDP Supplementary
Education opportunities. Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, recipients of the 1995 IDP
Outstanding Firm Award, utilizes site visits with lessons to teach critical project
management skills that are difficult to gain in an office environment. Einhorn Yaffee
Prescott Architecture and Engineering was founded in 1973 and is located in
Albany, New York. The company had grown from two people to eight hundred at its
peak. EYP is a design firm that works collaboratively with teams of architects,
planners and engineers. These teams respond to design problems in a creative and
program-specific intent. They specialize in higher education, historic preservation,
government and corporate projects. EYP has consistently been ranked among the
top twenty Architectural Engineering firms in the United States since the companies
founding. They incorporate each site visit as a teaching tool in their offices. EYP
realized that seeing the building that an intern has worked on is a great reward of
this profession. Experiencing construction through all phases firsthand is a great
learning experience and should be taken advantage of at all architectural offices.
They use one of their recently completed buildings to host these tours to give the
interns the opportunity to walk the job site and to discuss the building’s structure
and exterior details. The site visits usually help interns, who are not that familiar
with the construction part of architecture, a close up and in person view of the
complex coordination issues that are not easily understood in office discussions.
After the site visits, they would often have follow up meetings called “Lesson
Learn.” This time would be spent going over what they saw on their previous trip

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and they would go over what the interns where expected to learn and what they
actually did learn. The firm principals learned that the staff appreciated these
opportunities to learn in the field. Some of the comments about this program
include, “It provided significant information in dealing with construction
administration and submittals” and “Site visits have been one of the greatest assets
in being employed at EYP.” Einhorn Yaffee Prescott has even gone so far as to
incorporate ‘Virtual Visits’ in the interns learning. These visits include comparing
presentation drawings with construction photographs. This type of learning was so
helpful that during one of these discussions the Lesson Learned breakfast continued
well past lunch.
Mentoring is an integral part of a firm’s culture. All of the award winning
firms provide all interns with a mentor, they also provide assistance in matching an
intern with a mentor outside of their firm and they provide mentor support groups
where mentors meet with each other and share the best practices. An example of
this is a firm-wide program called “Mentoring Interns: A Firm Commitment” by
Payette Associates. Payette Associates was founded in Boston, Massachusetts with
130 people in 1975. Payette has become one of the nation’s most award-winning
architects for high technology science and research buildings. They have over 100
design awards including five Excellence in Planning and Architecture Awards from
the AIA. They also received many awards for their firm structure such as Best Green
Practices from SMPS Boston and the winners of the 2002 IDP Outstanding Firm
Award. Payette is organized in three distinct architectural design studios. The
studios include landscape architect, interior design, and environmental graphics.
Their in-house studios allow them to serve their clients with a wide variety of
services. Payette’s main philosophy revolves around planning and designing spaces
and buildings for the users of each building.
Payette Associates are committed to supporting the development of the
design staff; Payette’s Young Designers Core provides resources and experiences for
continuing education and community services, fostering the high levels of
professional ability and coordinate individual career growth. The YDC is structured
around presentations by Payette staff and outside consultants, construction tours,

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and community service events, YDC seeks to complement daily project work with
new experiences and learning opportunities. Recent YDC events include
presentations, Manufacturing Tours, Discussions with civil engineers and touring
the New Institute of Contemporary Art.
Payette’s ‘Mentoring Interns’ program is a nice complement to the group
setting of the YDC. The mentoring program enhances staff development by fostering
supportive mentoring relationships in the office. This one-on-one mentoring
program serves to address the designer’s specific professional development issues
and helps to encourage individuals to reach their fullest potential. Growth and
continuing education in the architecture profession is an evolving program at
Payette Associates. Their staff is regularly trained with the latest software, project
management techniques, and construction administration practices. They run
discussions and meetings through Women in Design groups and sustainability
groups to enrich their practice by encouraging discussions on topics that are
relevant to current projects. Payette uses weekly continuing education seminars;
they bring in experts from equipment and consulting fields to present the newest
thinking in materials and products to our project teams.
The Continuing Education System was developed by the American Institute
of Architects to organize the professional development required for AIA
membership. This program enables members to keep current on issues in the field,
to master new skills, plan for the future, and most importantly to meet the role
society entrusts to a professional architect. Active AIA members must complete 18
learning unit hours for each year, with eight of the learning units relating to health,
safety, and welfare (HSW) and four must be earned in sustainable design.
Continuing Education, for professional and practicing architects, is very
crucial in the career for maintaining an architects education and learning. Most
architecture schools offer classes and courses for adult professionals who are in
need of this advanced education. Most architecture firms take responsibility and
cover some or most of the continuing education costs. Besides classes at school, the
office or online, other ways to get learning unit hours are to attend ‘Lunch and
Learns’. This type of learning is the next necessary step for professional architects.

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Architects must continue to learn and maintain the knowledge they gain from their
days of architecture school to the information they attain from continuing
education. It takes more than graduating from an architecture school to become an
architect. It takes time and effort to finish your masters of architecture. It takes
determination to track the time you spend on certain tasks for the Intern
Development Program. It takes studying and research for the Architectural
Registration Exam. Finally it takes great willpower to maintain and update this
knowledge that one learns from all of this education. Architecture is a profession
that is constantly changing and evolving. The architects that don’t help mentor
interns or attend ‘Lunch and Learns’ will fall to those who embrace learning.
Architecture isn’t simply a profession for one to start but one to pursue.

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References:

2009. AIA Continuing Education System; Survival Guide. www.aia.org/education/ces/AIAB080737

2010. Architectural Registration Exam; The Burning Question – Why do we need an ARE anyway?
Volume 13, Issue 1. http://www.ncarb.org/ARE/~/media/Files/PDF/Direct-Connection/2010-
1/burning_question.pdf

May 2008. AIA Best Practices; Carrier Johnson A Commitment to IDP.

www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/ek_public/documents/pdf/aiap037907

May 2008. AIA Best Practices; Fostering Growth at JG Johnson Architects

www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/ek_public/documents/pdf/aiap037906

December 2006. AIA Best Practices; Mentoring Interns: A Firm Commitment

www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/ek_public/documents/pdf/aiap037906

December 2006. AIA Best Practices; Site Visits: Seeing is Believing and Learning
http://soloso.aia.org/eKnowledge/Resources/PDFS/AIAP016542?dvid=4294964362

Special Thanks to:

William W. Crosskey II, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, Principal of Crosskey Architects LLC

James Childress, FAIA, NCARB, Partner at Centerbrook Architects

Casey Nixon, Assoc. AIA, Regional Associate Director, S/L/A/M Collaborative

William R. Silver, AIA, President and Principal of Silver Petrucelli + Associates

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