Too cool for (this) school: Inside the life of ARC majors

You've seen them. Outside the architecture building at 3 a.m. on a Saturday, their gazes landing on you briefly as you head back from Prospect or Frist. The group standing outside making black clothes, insomnia and cigarettes look cooler than you ever could — that crowd is a gathering of Princeton's mythical Architecture students.

For all those (who clearly didn't attend the Majors Fair two weeks ago) thinking, "We have an Architecture major at Princeton?" look to that oddly non-Gothic building between Frist and McCosh next time you head to your English/ Politics/ Economics/ Woody Woo/ History class. That building — the one with ashtrays outside the entrance — that's where the architecture students live.

Really, they basically live there. Upon entering the ARC Building one first sees that black leather couches and incomprehensible graduate architectural designs make up the primary décor. Nappers are invited into cozy cushiness at all hours of the day or night, provided that they are wearing the requisite architecture student attire.

And what exactly is the uniform? Well, it's not exactly the standard Princeton gear, so all you underclassmen contemplating a major in Architecture had better seek a wardrobe makeover of the uber-cool "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" sort.

Architecture graduate students (who have their own soccer team, a feature of which no other graduate department can boast) embody the completeness of the Princeton "ARC Image" to which undergraduates can only aspire.

"Grad students are sort of out there. They can wear glorified artsy-type outfits," said Dan Markiewicz '06, a Civil Engineering-Architecture major, wearing dark hues but not quite the all-black we all picture.

"Very cosmopolitan," said William Marshall '06, an Architecture major himself.

At any given time, you can watch at least a dozen students, graduate and undergraduate, hurriedly scampering up and down the staircases of the Architecture building, rushing to meet the deadline that always seems to loom just hours away. White, cubicle-like desks are decorated with pyramids of empty Café Viv coffee cups (structurally sound pyramids, of course — these are, after all, Princeton Architecture students!).

Students majoring in this department face some of the most demanding requirements of any of Princeton's 35 undergraduate programs of study.

Studio classes are required of both junior and senior architecture majors. Students spend a minimum of nine hours per week in these design studios working on four to five longterm projects per semester. They do not count as credit toward graduation; majors must fit the studios into a schedule already filled with four Princeton courses.

Students spend "exorbitant amounts of time in studio," said Marshall.

During the week the ARC building is "definitely the liveliest place on campus at four in the morning. The real '9 to 5' is sort of the other '9 to 5,'" he said.

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This time commitment makes the 20 or so Architecture majors per graduating class a fairly tight knit group.

"Other departments aren't that close. When you're pulling all-nighters [together] every week you get pretty close," said Markiewicz. The department requires a lot of hard work from students, to be sure, but the intensity is what draws people to the major.

"It is ridiculously intense, but it's intense because everyone wants to be here and loves it," said Markiewicz.

Princeton's undergraduate program for Architecture majors is very different from (read: more compacted and, consequently, more intense than) those at most other universities.

"The program is very unorthodox. It takes four years as opposed to five years, and immersion doesn't occur until second semester of your sophomore year," said Marshall.

Once immersed in the program, students focus on "architectural design, history and theory and building technology," according to the School of Architecture Student Handbook.

Students appreciate this type of theory-heavy education taught by some of the best professors in the field.

It's "definitely an advantage. When you're developing these creative faculties, you need this formative stage," said Marshall. The diverse theoretical aspects of the program ensure that, "You have more options after graduation," said Markiewicz.

"Graduates of the school's undergraduate program generally go on to professional schools of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture and urban planning. Some have recently entered law, business management, and public affairs schools, while others are engaged in arts such as painting and theater. Some are working in activities and institutions related to city-building and architecture," according to the Handbook.

This is, without a doubt, one of the most impressive Princeton degrees. Architecture students are seen as a little different, a little crazier than the rest. Intentionally or not, Architecture students perpetuate this image with their long hours and tendencies to use beverage containers as building tools. Next time you stroll by their building, stop inside and check out the couches. Take a class if you dare. After all, if it sticks you'll have a legitimately pressing reason to call up the 'Fab Five' for a hip, urban-chic makeover.