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  2020-11-16

  Wentworth Institute of Technology - Architecture Studios

  Covid-19 has put a severe dent into the learning ability of those studying for a design major here at Wentworth Institute of Technology. We as a collective group loved having the interactions within our studio space and sharing the ideas and progress of our projects. Being able to have in-person critiques of our projects with people coming from all over Boston just to show us how our project works or does not work. With the pandemic, this all has been lost due to us having to prevent the spread of Covid through walled-off workspaces. Don’t get me wrong, I want it out of our lives as much as the next guy, but also I don’t want to be paying an arm and a leg to be getting a second-rate education. The experience that we all received from an in-person studio is something that cannot be found over a Zoom call. Getting to see everyone's reactions to your final project is one of the greatest parts of becoming an architect. The freshman architecture student cannot get to experience that for their first year on campus and it deeply saddens me. On top of that, with Covid still playing such a heavy role within our lives, I don’t foresee anyone being able to have those in-person experiences any time soon.
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  2020-11-16

  Wentworth Institute of Technology - Beatty Cafe

  What you are seeing in this picture is what a Beatty cafeteria attendant has to sit behind all day to be able to read people's IDs and sell them the “delicious” meals. It is a different situation compared to what we all used to know. The world is having to live behind plexiglass shields 24/7 just to be able to slow down the spread of this terrible virus. We are in such drastic times that our best option is to wall others off and create as little interaction as possible. Yes, the glass is clear but it is not the same as being able to walk up to them and just ask them how their day is going while they sell you an overpriced cheeseburger. Seeing this for the first time opened my eyes to what our lives may look like if this goes on for much longer. People will no longer have the in-person conversations that helped to turn their day from bad to good.
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  2020-12-07

  New Normal.

  Everyday life seems to change with every month of the development of COVID, and a good chunk of the population needs to continue learning and educating during this time. Universities and colleges as well as high schools and other education facilities are being greatly impacted by the spread of COVID. At Wentworth, and other campuses, mobile testing hubs expect students to participate in weekly to twice weekly testing to contain any outbreaks as well as to ensure everyone is acting safely while on campus. College friends understand the reality of not seeing each other outside of class or beyond a face shield or zoom screen; it is the ‘new normal’. For some who do not believe in the virus’s effects, parties and extracurricular activities still go on to the dismay of others. For many students, especially those on campus, it is important to be cautious, to see loved ones during the holidays but also to keep those more at risk safe.
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  2020-11-13

  My View

  When the spring semester of 2020 ended early on account to the ever-spreading virus known as Covid-19, I thought everything would be back to normal in a couple months’ time of quarantine. I assume most people during this time had this optimistic outlook on what the future held; however, we were wrong. I am now writing this at my desk in my dorm room where I now spend the majority of my time. All of my classes are online with the exception of an in-person lab that I have every two weeks. The only time my roommates or I leave this solitary space is usually to get groceries. I decided to use this picture because this has been my view of the outside world for almost two and a half months, while I wait impatiently for the year to be over and this quarantine to be relieved.
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  2020-12-03

  Wentworth Facing Changes; The Architecture Studios

  the Architecture studio spaces in the Annex building on the Wentworth campus, have been divided into cubicles. This was quite a change of scenery compared to the wide open space it used to be. The dividers give each student a cubicle of their own to do their work in safely. It has been hard to get used to, for the culture of studio here has always been one of collaborative work, checking in on a neighbor, and being able to be creatively influenced by peers. All of these things have unfortunately been put on hold by the virus. Once a lively, active space is now quite quiet and low key. I look to the future to be able to offer students after me the same great experiences I have been fortunate to have in this space when at its fullest potential with no barriers in sight. the use of all Covid protective measures being used in the CNC space over at the CfAR labs in the Wentworth Annex building on campus. PPE measures are very important to uphold in lab spaces where students have to collaborate with one another in order to successfully carry out their projects in the Architecture Department. These two students are seen wearing face masks, face shields as well as staying 6’ apart in order to maintain safety regulations. It is important to follow these regulations in order to continue our collaborative work flow. It took some time to get used to and has given the students new challenges to face while trying to safely share ideas and drawings with one another as well as working together in the lab spaces. From leaning over desks to draw on the same paper, to sharing tools, most aspects of collaborative work in architecture school have had to be rewritten in order to keep each other and professors safe during these times.
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  2020-11-30

  Back-to-Back Fully Online Semesters

  As soon as the Coronavirus hit, everyone was affected in either how they would work or how they were getting an education. I am currently an architecture student at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA. I think everyone had hoped that the pandemic would be wrapped up in just a few months but unfortunately it was not. By summer 2020 I was about to begin my second semester of sophomore year with it being fully online. It was an extreme learning curve, classes were all on Zoom, and there was limited communication between me and my fellow classmates. We had to adapt from the handmade models we had done in previous years to digital models on new programs we had not used before. Through the entirety of the summer online semester, we had high hopes that somehow the fall semester would be different. But it was not. While the promise of hybrid classes was presented, everything was still so unknown that many of those promises fell through. We were told of the potential of a few in-person studio days and many students, like myself, decided to live on campus or even sign leases for apartments. But we were again met with the harsh reality of those in-person classes not happening. My school had come out with a plan of in-person studio days and we juniors were shocked to see that only our grade was given zero. We argued for at least a few in-person days throughout the semester, especially after having spent the entire summer semester fully online. We were finally given an opportunity to have an in-person class. While it is the reality that some of these events were out of the control of the school, it is still taking quite a toll on the students. We are losing that essential in-person connection that we usually get with classes such as studio. With the Covid-19 virus still ever present in November of 2020, we all have dim hopes of what the Spring semester of 2021 will bring.