Fowler, Thomas  

Apparently Tom feels he doesnt control enough of the department and college, and decided that during Spring 08 he'd start taking over the arce department and dictating to his little puppet Sat Rihal how arce 316 should be run. the entire 10 page syllabus was made by him, with the exception of the first page or two that Sat made himself. sweet. arce is arce, get your grubby little hands out of it. thanks. ass.

lol @ arce.

Simply, Tom is the man. He will work you silly, but you will never regret it.

there were times during the quarter in toms class that i thought i might actually die. the work load is completely out of this world. you never do anything once and most of the time you do it more than 3 times because there is nothing worse than falling in love with your first attempt. although the work is intense, tom has to be one of the nicest guys i've ever met as well as one of the most knowledgable and insightful. i learned a lot and i'd definitely recommend him to anyone in 3rd year. i'd also recommend you kiss everything else in your life goodbye for the quarter you take him, but seriously, it's more than worth it.

Perhaps the greatest guy you will ever know. I respect him more than anyone I have ever known. If you are a slacker THIS IS NOT THE CLASS FOR YOU. His process isn't the end all, but it is meant to be a starting point. I took his class for 3 quarters. This class will make you realize you either hate architecture or love it. He treats everyone equally and doesn't play favorites.

If you buy in a little bit, calm your doubts for a few minutes, then you will have the most fun and learn the most about architecture and design than in any other studio you will ever take. That being said, be ready to give up most of the rest of your life for the quarter. I was there literally every day, some days only for an hour, some days for 20+. Probably the same amount of each. His lectures are amazing. His feedback is inspiring. The way he runs class is grueling and he'll run you 12-5 MWF never giving you a break or a work day. You will learn how to collage, to question, to think and most importantly to play. I miss him and his class, wish I could've taken him for double

Dito!! Tom is the man.

Thomas Fowler is one of those professors that can become a milestone in a student's academic career. His technique is much different than any other class in that his course is designed to push ALL your buttons--to work you to the brim of your existence. You will be exhausted all the time but you will thank yourself 100x times for taking him in the end. If you feel like you want to make a breakthrough in your learning, do yourself a favor and take Tom before you regret it the rest of your life.

Tom knows what he is talking about. For third year design, I recommend taking Tom. You will gain a lot of knowledge. The work load is too much but that should be expected. Go into Tom's class with an open mind and you will do fine.

Tom is a great professor. Many fear the work load but that mentality wont get you far. you are missing out if you dont give him a try.

Tom's class was somewhat disappointing after reading the rave reviews here and being told that it was "a lot of fun" by former students. However, there is a lot to learn from his class and so is worth taking, though not necessarily more than some other 3rd year professors. Most of what you learn is from the experience of handling the intense workload and approaching design from a much different angle than most teachers. The pace of the class is tough to keep up with but forces you make sure you use your time effectively. He certainly has higher priorities than his studio...he missed maybe 6 or 7 days of class during my quarter. It seemed like there was relatively little one-on-one time until the last few weeks. Most of his instruction is done with his irritating and pointless "turbo lectures" or by email, which he uses a lot (I have 130 emails in my inbox from his quarter!) Assignment handouts are unnecessarily cryptic and unreadable. Some of the work definitely feels like busywork (e.g. deciphering requirements, formatting everything correctly, skimming through readings for answers.) Digital and analog work is well balanced. Before taking this class get Rhino & Vray installed or maybe formZ if you're a masochist. You begin by analyzing an arbitrary "source image" from which you develop a vocabulary (basically, = style). The program is what you use to develop the vocabulary into architecture. There is little or no emphasis on space planning or the actual users of the building. Everything revolves around generating and developing an interesting architectural vocabulary and balancing that with your concept. He doesn't mean to cover all aspects of design in this course and so for what it's worth, his process is a great starting point and very helpful. It helps you be less cautious about design and generate a lot of things quickly so that you can reconfigure them.

In my experience in his studio people either loved the studio or hated it. I loved it. He gives great lectures, and forces you to push your own boundaries in a variety of ways. You won't get any sleep, but honestly it doesn't seem like he's getting any either since he's working so hard with you and on his various other endeavors. Our field trips to New York and San Francisco were incredibly inspiring and packed with visits to numerous notable architects and engineers. He seems a little impersonal at times, but actually cares a lot about his students. Take the class just to find out how productive you can be.

one word: heuristic.

I have huge respect for Tom - not only as a professor but as a human being. He truly cares about the success of his students and will selflessly help you achieve greatness (academically and professionally) if you seek it. His class will be a huge challenge, but it could potentially be a perspective-shattering & defining moment in your life as a designer. It will be entirely worth it if you are patient enough, work hard and listen carefully. As a senior about to graduate soon, I will clearly state that he is hands down the best instructor I have ever had and it would be a waste for any architecture student at Cal Poly who is serious about architecture not to take him.

Fowler's class was simultaneously the hardest, most frustrating, most time-consuming, and by far the best studio experience I've had thus far. He will push yourself harder than you've ever been pushed before, and will get you to produce work you didn't know you were capable of. He finds a way to get the very best out of his students (that is, the ones that are open-minded about his design process and willing to work hard). He's a great motivator, a fantastic reviewer of work, very funny and off-beat, and overall just a great guy. At times he seems impassive and almost uninterested in his students, but that's just his personality. As you get to know him you will learn just how much he cares about all his students, and how hard he works to make the studio experience welcoming, challenging, and fun. Fowler’s studio is run much differently from other studios. It’s a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment in which you learn to work fast and iterate, iterate, iterate. On multiple occasions we switched projects for a class and drew over classmate’s work. It sounds wacky, but hearing other people discuss my ideas really gave me valuable insight into how to move my project forward. I would caution students who are easily stressed out or can't handle large workloads to avoid his class. With everything that he assigns, you can quickly fall behind and work will just start piling up and your quarter can easily become a bad experience. To give you some perspective, I would estimate that he gives about two times as much work as your average third year professor and easily three to four times more than the easiest professors. You will spend hundreds of hours in studio making models, collages, large scale drawings, wall sections, diagrams, renders, haikus, poems, narratives, etc. While this is exciting to some students (like me), it can become a drag to others. The workload is a big reason why it's usually not hard to get into his class, while other studios fill up quickly. I would also caution students who are set in their ways or are unwillingly to pursue an unfamiliar design process. The students that tend to perform poorly in this class are the ones that find his methods dumb or pointless. Even the students that typically don't work that hard still do better than the stubborn ones. Keep an open mind, and you'll be fine. Overall this man is awesome. His class is definitely not for everyone, but if you're willing to push yourself and fully buy in to his unorthodox design process, you will not regret taking his class. As another reviewer put it, his class is not an end-all be-all, but it is a good start. It will give you a good method for generating ideas quickly, and a solid formwork for exhausting all of their options. By the end of the quarter you'll find yourself rehearsing all of the best Fowler-isms, from "Don't fall in love with your first attempt because the process is only a starting point" to "Drawings need to look correct, as opposed to being totally accurate" to "Suspend disbelief." As my class knows all too well, you may even find yourself talking like him. If you have the chance to take him, do it!

Tom is the best professor I have ever had.... All you need to know...

Fuck this guy. Id like to stick my tounge up his ass.

May 18, 2014 - The Fifth Sunday of Easter - Youth Sunday Katherine Seth "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." -John 14:1-14 Good morning everyone! If you don't know me, my name is Kat Seth and I've been going to this church for the past 10 years. I'm graduating from high school in 14 days and 10 hours. That is uncomfortably soon. For so long, college and the future and adulthood have been lovely, far off ideas that I've been able to postpone thinking about. But, with the onset of senior year, I was forced to push them to the forefront of my mind, and accept the fact that change is upon me. The resulting months were some of the most stressful and emotionally trying times I have experienced in my short 17 years. Making important decisions - like taking a new job, moving to a new place, or choosing a college - can cause us intense feelings of anxiety because the uncertainty of the future. I couldn't help but feel like it was my responsibility, and mine alone, to ensure the success of my future. My mom can attest to it: the tears, the monthly breakdowns, the intense indecision – all side effects of the pressure I felt planning out my future. Eventually, it came down to my West Coast college trip. This was supposed to decide everything. It was going to put an end to all of the indecision and show me exactly what the right choice was for me. I believed this without a doubt. I expected to have "the feeling" that is so often talked about among college students. It's the moment when you're overwhelmed with clarity and you know that a school is right for you. I was so excited to have this experience and it was only through the suggestion of my mom that we prayed for God to give me a sign. Up till that point, I had never considered putting this decision in God's hands. Did He know about what I needed in my architecture program? Did he know my preference for student body size, or to consider the coolness of the school mascot? I didn't realize that my need to micromanage things was blinding me from the well-preached fact that God knows everything and that, honestly, I needn't have worried. My sign came at the first school we visited. Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. After an amazing student tour in the absolutely gorgeous campus, I had "the feeling." I felt happy and whole and excited to be there. It had so much of what I wanted in a school and it just felt right. God had delivered pretty quickly and it was overwhelming to get exactly what I asked for so quickly. You'd think that would be it, you know, "and then she lived happily ever after, the end, send in the deposit". But as the trip went on, I couldn't help but look at the other amazing colleges and say, "Are you crazy God? Do you see these schools? Why don't you endorse these with your 'magic signs'?" I tried to discredit the feeling, saying, "Oh, I only felt that way because it was my first college visit ever. The other colleges make sooo much more sense." I came home and still did not have a decision. Weeks later, along with more tears, meltdowns, and extensive pro's and con's lists, I had two schools to decide between. Cal Poly and University of Oregon. I was changing my mind daily and splitting hairs till I went crazy. All of that ended on a Sunday very much like this one, just a few weeks ago. After communion, I went to the prayer room and prayed with one of my youth leaders, Kathy Reubosch. I'm sure many of you have had your own experiences of healing and revelation in the prayer room. The sound of running water, the Hawaiian light coming in through the window, and the feeling of safety just create an atmosphere that is optimal for hearing God. Sitting there after the prayer, I felt God. I was talking with Aunty Kathy about which way I was leaning and in that environment, I felt him gently nudging my heart the way he wanted me to go, as is his style. A few days later, I committed to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. The feeling that I had tried to ignore initially ended up being the driving force behind my decision. God knows who we are and what we need more deeply than we ever could, and He always knows our path, even if we can't see it. Sometimes, it is the choice that doesn't work out on the pro's and con's list, the one that doesn't make sense to us that is the change that we need. God doesn't always make sense, but He always knows what we need. Sometimes, in the words of the popular new Disney movie, Frozen, we just need to Let it Go. We need to learn that we don't always have to do it on our own and that in the end, He will guide us to the place we need to be. In the words of Jeremiah 29, verse 11, "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Sometimes we just need to let go of our control, and put it into God's hands. Amen.