Other Programs
Architecture Summer Career Lab
Considering studies and a career in architecture, or just curious about building, design, and construction? Learn to think like an architect at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture’s 2025 Summer Career Lab in Architecture.
The Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York is now seeking applicants for its 2025 Summer Career Lab in Architecture. Hosted at New York City’s flagship public school of architecture, the Summer Career Lab introduces architectural practice, theory, making, and thinking to those considering a career in the field. Running for four weeks within a state-of-the-art facility and taught by faculty from the Spitzer School’s NAAB-accredited degree programs, the Summer Career Lab will be organized around a diverse set of events and exercises including:
- Lectures on architectural fundamentals
- Workshops on drawing and making
- One-on-one critiques and collective pin-up reviews
- Field trips and on-site work across the city, including in City College’s historic Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights neighborhoods
- Presentations from award-winning architects, historians, and designers
- Office tours
- And much more . . .
With an emphasis on contemporary architectural thinking and practice, the Summer Career Lab curriculum will involve digital fabrication and computer-aided design, ecologically attuned and sustainable thinking, interdisciplinary research, and architecture in/as cultural discourse.
Full-time and in-person, Summer Career Lab in Architecture will provide its participants—high school, collegiate, or professional—with the experience needed to make an informed career choice, with work useful in application portfolios for study, and with skills immediately applicable in future design endeavors.
When: Monday, July 7 – Friday, August 1, 9:30AM–6PM (in person Monday-Friday)
Where: Spitzer School of Architecture – 141 Convent Ave, New York, NY, 10031
Cost: $2,500 (not including $25 Non-Refundable Registration Fee)
Ages: 16 and up
The Spitzer School of Architecture has a limited number of scholarships to cover the full tuition cost of the Summer Career Lab. We encourage all students with financial hardship and a passion for architecture to apply. The scholarship application deadline was Friday, May 2, 2025.
Professor Paul Ruppert
In 2022, Prof. Ruppert was recognized for his contributions to the school in the form of the Dean’s Service Award for Mentorship, reflective of his deep engagement with the work of architectural pedagogy in and out of the studio since joining Spitzer as a Lecturer in 2016.
Prof. Ruppert brings with him professional experience from a stone’s throw away: the Harlem-based architecture practice MOS, whose office sits just a few blocks from the CCNY campus, where he contributed to projects ranging from master planning to housing, installations, exhibition, and books. Prior to MOS, Paul worked on exhibition and editorial projects for Hume Coover Studio/suckerPUNCH. Ongoing professional work includes planning for an urban linkage along the shores of the Salton Sea and designs for a number of private residences.
Prof. Ruppert received his M. Arch from Princeton University School of Architecture, and his B. Arch from California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo.
List of Tools and Materials
Like most any work, architecture employs its own set of tools to support thinking through making.
A kit containing the below necessities will be provided to all 2024 Summer Career Lab participants.
- 12” Architect’s scale (not Engineer’s)
- Set of drawing pencils (4H, 3H, 2H, H, HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B at a minimum)
- Gum or plastic eraser
- Kneaded eraser
- Erasing shield
- Pencil sharpener
- Circle compass
- 8”-10” 45 degree drafting triangle
- 8”-10” 30 deg/60 deg drafting triangle
- Tracing paper (12” roll)
- Strathmore 200 series Approx. 9” x 12” spiral bound sketchbook
- Strathmore 300 series Drawing pad 14”x17” 70lb
- Xacto or Olfa hobby knife with extra blades
- 18” Metal ruler with cork backing
- Elmer’s Glue-All (White Glue)
- Glue gun & glue sticks
- 1” Masking or Blue painters’ tape
- 12” x 8” vinyl cutting mat
- 3/16” Foam core boards (3) 16”x20”
The following resources will be available for shared use:
- 36” Drawing board w/ parallel bar
- Drafting board brush
- 8”-10” adjustable triangle
- Olfa 18mm snap off blade utility knife
- Olfa heavy duty snap of blades (5 pack)
- Pad of Clearprint 11”x17” vellum sheets
- 24”-36” metal ruler/straight edge
Eligibility and More
Students must be sixteen years of age by the Summer Career Lab’s start date to enroll in pre-college courses.
Students enrolling in college-level courses must be eighteen years or older by the Career Lab’s start date or have completed one year of college study.
Prior experience in architecture or design is not required for either pre-college or college-level programming. Admission is on a rolling basis. All attending students will be provided with a small kit including essential tools and materials for drawing, modeling, and more.
For additional information on the Summer Career Lab in Architecture, including details on tuition and application forms, please contact us at ace@ccny.cuny.edu
Contact
For further information about our summer program including schedules, registration and payment, and refund policies please visit the Continuing and Professional Studies Program at:
160 Convent Ave – Shepard Hall Room 2
New York, New York 10031
Tel. 212-650-7312
www.ccny.cuny.edu/cps/architecture-summer-career-lab
School Contact: Michael Miller, Associate Dean, Spitzer School of Architecture
Spitzer Faculty Program Lead: Prof. Paul Ruppert