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Burning the midnight oil
Architecture students work long hours and sacrifice sleep at 'Langford Hotel'
By Denise Schoppe
October 16, 2002
Many students find themselves living on campus, but they're not sleeping in the dorms. Langford Architecture Building houses architecture students for days while they work on designs, models and projects.
Amanda Roome, a senior landscape architecture major, said she has been known to stay at Langford for two straight days.
"We have projects that are spaced out across a two week period," she said. "We have a stage of research, and then a stage of looking over all of that research and pulling out the useful information and putting it in a form we can present it to our class. Since we have to focus on the design, even the way we present our information has to be designed."
Sleep-deprived students often slip into a state of delirium and act unusually, Roome said.
"Some people get so tired and delirious that they just get goofy," Roome said. "A lot of interesting stuff happens up there. One time, we had a guy who rigged something so that whenever the girl pulled her stool out from under her desk, a sign shot up in front of her. They do such crazy stuff."
Jacob Young, a junior landscape architecture major, said many students sing to entertain themselves while working.
"I've heard people that sing when they probably shouldn't be singing," Young said. "I guess they get tired and they think they are really good or something, so they sing really loudly."
Despite the long hours, Young said he would rather be working on campus all night than sitting at home studying for a math test.
"It just kind of depends on what your interests are and what you like to do," Young said.
He said he enjoys working with other students and has befriended many other landscape architecture students throughout the years.
"You see the same people up here day in and day out, and for most of the night," Young said. "With landscape architecture, it's a five-year degree, and we have 25 in my graduating class. You'll see those same 25 people for three years in studio, so you become really close with them."
Langford plays a dominant role in the social lives of most of the students.
"I probably would have been at Fajita Ritas for dollar margaritas hours ago if I didn't have to do my group project," Roome said. "It is hard to manage time, because they put us in group projects. It's really hard to coordinate with your partner. Like, I just had to meet with my group partner and he said he'd be up here at 4:30 but he didn't get here until 7:30."
Students' sleeping habits also suffer. Roome said when students pull all-nighters they often crawl under desks and take naps.
Jennifer Graham, president of the Texas A&M chapter of The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and a senior environmental design major, said the late hours at the architecture building are a concern of the organization at the national level.
Graham said that AIAS put together the Studio Culture Task Force to observe the number of hours architecture students work.
"A lot of people say that it's a rite of passage for architecture students to stay up late and work on projects because it's always been this way," Graham said. "It's part of the education to pull an all-nighter, but there's also an issue of whether it's safe."
In other states, architecture students have died falling asleep at the wheel when driving home after working late on projects. To combat this problem, many universities close their architecture buildings at 10 p.m. so students will not be up all night working on projects. While this may be an effective way to get students in bed before midnight, Graham said it is not necessarily the best solution for A&M's architecture program.
"There's a lot of students who can't get up here before 10," she said. "Many students are in class all day and then go to a job. By the time they're done with everything, they have to pull an all-nighter and finish a project."
Graham said some professors collect projects at night so students will not stay up late working on them.
"Some professors pick up projects at 10 at night so that their students will go home and get a good night's sleep, but that doesn't stop students from staying up all night the night before," Graham said. "Architecture students just want to work hard because their projects aren't just up for their professors to see, but also for other professors and other students to talk about."
Despite the pressure to impress faculty and classmates, difficult projects and late nights, benefits of being an architecture student do exist.
"I think architecture students get closer to their classmates than students in other majors do because we're up here all the time," Graham said. "There's always music playing and people having a good time. I think our students feel lucky that we're open all night."
Also Found Here
Architecture students work long hours and sacrifice sleep at 'Langford Hotel'
By Denise Schoppe
October 16, 2002
Many students find themselves living on campus, but they're not sleeping in the dorms. Langford Architecture Building houses architecture students for days while they work on designs, models and projects.
Amanda Roome, a senior landscape architecture major, said she has been known to stay at Langford for two straight days.
"We have projects that are spaced out across a two week period," she said. "We have a stage of research, and then a stage of looking over all of that research and pulling out the useful information and putting it in a form we can present it to our class. Since we have to focus on the design, even the way we present our information has to be designed."
Sleep-deprived students often slip into a state of delirium and act unusually, Roome said.
"Some people get so tired and delirious that they just get goofy," Roome said. "A lot of interesting stuff happens up there. One time, we had a guy who rigged something so that whenever the girl pulled her stool out from under her desk, a sign shot up in front of her. They do such crazy stuff."
Jacob Young, a junior landscape architecture major, said many students sing to entertain themselves while working.
"I've heard people that sing when they probably shouldn't be singing," Young said. "I guess they get tired and they think they are really good or something, so they sing really loudly."
Despite the long hours, Young said he would rather be working on campus all night than sitting at home studying for a math test.
"It just kind of depends on what your interests are and what you like to do," Young said.
He said he enjoys working with other students and has befriended many other landscape architecture students throughout the years.
"You see the same people up here day in and day out, and for most of the night," Young said. "With landscape architecture, it's a five-year degree, and we have 25 in my graduating class. You'll see those same 25 people for three years in studio, so you become really close with them."
Langford plays a dominant role in the social lives of most of the students.
"I probably would have been at Fajita Ritas for dollar margaritas hours ago if I didn't have to do my group project," Roome said. "It is hard to manage time, because they put us in group projects. It's really hard to coordinate with your partner. Like, I just had to meet with my group partner and he said he'd be up here at 4:30 but he didn't get here until 7:30."
Students' sleeping habits also suffer. Roome said when students pull all-nighters they often crawl under desks and take naps.
Jennifer Graham, president of the Texas A&M chapter of The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and a senior environmental design major, said the late hours at the architecture building are a concern of the organization at the national level.
Graham said that AIAS put together the Studio Culture Task Force to observe the number of hours architecture students work.
"A lot of people say that it's a rite of passage for architecture students to stay up late and work on projects because it's always been this way," Graham said. "It's part of the education to pull an all-nighter, but there's also an issue of whether it's safe."
In other states, architecture students have died falling asleep at the wheel when driving home after working late on projects. To combat this problem, many universities close their architecture buildings at 10 p.m. so students will not be up all night working on projects. While this may be an effective way to get students in bed before midnight, Graham said it is not necessarily the best solution for A&M's architecture program.
"There's a lot of students who can't get up here before 10," she said. "Many students are in class all day and then go to a job. By the time they're done with everything, they have to pull an all-nighter and finish a project."
Graham said some professors collect projects at night so students will not stay up late working on them.
"Some professors pick up projects at 10 at night so that their students will go home and get a good night's sleep, but that doesn't stop students from staying up all night the night before," Graham said. "Architecture students just want to work hard because their projects aren't just up for their professors to see, but also for other professors and other students to talk about."
Despite the pressure to impress faculty and classmates, difficult projects and late nights, benefits of being an architecture student do exist.
"I think architecture students get closer to their classmates than students in other majors do because we're up here all the time," Graham said. "There's always music playing and people having a good time. I think our students feel lucky that we're open all night."
Also Found Here
