Does anyone know of a good college that has furniture design and woodworking courses, or at least a well equipped shop for student use?
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
Where are you located?
Bio
Maryland.
But it does not matter too much.
My son is looking at small colleges all over the northeast and elsewhere. .
Have you considered N. Bennet St. School in Boston? Or Berea College in KY?
Try this http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking//SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=28165 it is a link to a directory of woodworking schools. I'm sure you will fine plenty to choose from.
Bio.
If location is not an issue, take a look at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, MIchigan. In my very biased opinion, the Furniture Design program is great. The website is http://www.kcad.edu.
I hope this helps.
Brent
North Bennett Street is very good but it is not a college. If that is ok with you you might also consider
Phil Lowes Furniture Institute of Massachusetts
http://www.furnituremakingclasses.com/
College of the Redwoods
http://www.redwoods.edu/
On the college level there is the Rhode Island School of Design
http://www.risd.edu/
Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology (Located close to you)
http://www.stevenscollege.edu/
Rochester Institute of Technology has a woodworking and design major.
I believe this is where Tage Frid taught for many years.
Appalachian State, Boone NC
Do you mean college, as in a 4 year institution, or a 2 year program attached to a local community college or small liberal arts college. I don't mean to sound crass, but if I was a client, and the craftsman had made a similar example of what I was looking for, I don't think I would ask or even care what "college" he/she went to. While in todays wine sipping PC correctness we may want to elevate woodworking, in most any form, to a romantic craft of yore, or even an artform, to make a living, it is still a trade. I would venture to say most "woodsmiths" are commercial cabinet makers, or refinishers, restorers, work for a production house, or tool company. I've known several exceptionally talanted WWers who tried to make a living in the custom, one of a kind, furniture business, but ended up building kitchen cabinets, decks, fences, etc., to make end meet. I applaud any young man who want to make a living working wirh his hands, a lost art in itself in America. A good one year trade school (even if the shcool owner what to clean it up and call it something else) and an apprenticeship is what more kids need these days.
Stillfigurinitout,
I have to agree with this statement. I'm a college professor (Computer Science), and I have the luxury of teaching on a campus that has a Land-Grant university and a comprehensive community college co-located. While we don't have a woodworking program, I can speak to a lot of the way programs are developed in higher education.
You have to be careful at a community college that has a woodworking program because remember the mission of a community college is to prepare students for current work demand. Community colleges have the ability to start and stop programs based on the needs and economic demands of a particular area or service region. So while the true quest may be to be well schooled in the design of custom furniture, a lot of the community colleges probably will teach you skills that will pay the bills more often. These areas were pointed out by stillfigurinitout in his post, and honestly a community college would probably try to push woodworkers into CAD type work because of CNC machines, and the ability to draft plans for construction.
I have never reviewed the curriculum of a 4-yr institution that offers a woodworking degree, but I would be very interested in what the requirements are. Remember a 4-yr degree is designed to make you a "well rounded" individual who kind of sort of specializes in an area i.e. Computer Engineering. Would a woodworker be concerned with all the general education requirements of this degree? One thing is they may try to take the business route and work on things like marketing, accounting and stuff like that, but that isn't true woodworking. Wood science would be a nice accent, and they may also try the STEM areas (science, technology, engineering and math) to lay a foundation to design and then try to reinforce that with a few art classes which can be a formula for a very creative woodworker. The last component may be some history type class that reviews different periods of furniture, but even when you combine all of this stuff it would be hard to get 130+ hours of courses to justify this as a 4-yr degree in woodworking. Then at the end of the day, you have showed me you are a "well rounded" person with a woodworking degree, but what kind of woodworking have you done?
With this being said, would you want to pursue a college degree to get to this point, I personally don't think so. Sometimes I think we unfairly label higher education as the answer to all problems which simply isn't the case. I think one would be much better served going to a true woodworking school, and then doing the apprentice portion, a lost trade in many portions of the workplace, but remember the old saying, "I can show you better than I can tell you." I think that holds true in woodworking!
Bio
The nice thing about college is that it offers you the opportunity to look at situations from different angles. The old adage, "knowledge is power" is true, at least to some extent.
Cultivating the cerebral knowledge of woods and joinery and finishes does not easily translate into the physical skills that are vital to the actual production of fine furniture.
Has your son displayed an aptitude for woodworking? Does he have the passion to spend long hours in a shop making sure that the fit and finish of a piece are just right?
I would recommend that he spend time in a good shop with a very experienced woodworker to get a feel for what it takes before embarking on a college career that simply shows him that he should have gone into pottery.
Here is a site that may be helpful in the college search:
http://www.woodworking-news.com/woodworking_schools.shtml
One thing to consider is that if your son want's to teach at a college in the future it is almost mandatory to have a 4 year degree. I know our local community college in Oakland CA has trouble finding staff for the wood tech program because a lot of people who could actually teach a class don't have the 4 year degree.
Good luck
Tom,
You need to ask your son what he intends to do with his degree after attending college for wood technology. If he wants to go work for a major high end furniture manufacturer like Thos Moser for example, then he should call around and see if they even require a degree to work there. However, if your son's intentions is to start his own woodworking furniture shop, he should go to business school.
I was vague,deliberately,about my kid's plans. He's interested in architecture. He's a good student who likes building stuff. I was just wondering if anyone knows about a liberal arts college that happens to have at least a well-equipped shop (better yet, a furniture design program). His high school has solid academics but also a first rate wood shop. He has built some very nice pieces there. I'd like to see him continue working with his hands now and then if he's going to be designing houses for a living. Thanks for the specific tips!
In addition to math, physics, drafting,etc., architecture training requires some "studio art" as part of the package. There's no law saying it has to be painting or sculpture, it could be furniture-making too. The goal is to build up a solid portfolio that shows off your ability to design and build things in different media. So it's good to know where high level woodworking classes are offered, even if that's not where my kid gets his college degree. Thanks again for the tips.
Tom,
Fatherhood is always a challenge, isn't it? Best wishes.
Architecture isn't commonly taught at liberal arts colleges, it's more a subject for technical schools or universities. Of course virtually all university programs require a basic grounding in the liberal arts--some schools more "basic" than others. Choosing a university with a wide range of good programs is a benefit if there is any chance that architecture might not survive the first year of studies. (My son switched from engineering to international relations/government; fortunately at Cornell that was easy, but might not be at more purely enginerring schools--the analogy applied to architecture.)
And, for that matter, as I remember classmates long ago, and students more recently, architectural students spend so much time with their studies and in their studios that very little time is left for other activities. I thought briefly about architecture when I was an undergraduate, but decided instead to study economics which was an easier major.
Some schools have a greater emphasis on the engineering side of architecture and others on the artistic. You may be able to get a hint about that from the catalog of courses, but that's a subject to be looking for, along with the nature of any wood shop, when you visit campuses. I strongly recommend you shorten your list of schools at which to study architecture before vetting them for woodworking shops.
Here is one archtectural school ranking: http://www.architectmagazine.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=1006&articleID=602885 which is based on the much more detailed ratings in the material published at:
http://www.di.net/archschools/schools.html?g=1
There are other rankings published I'm sure but these just popped up quickly. Rankings do matter--particularly with finding first jobs that have futures.
Steve,I was a Civil Engineer at Cornell, class of '48. The Architecture School was right across the quad. Those people worked with pipe cleaners, paper cutouts and other sorts of "soft" thinking - but they had to take a course in "Structures" at the CE school. Boy, did they ever struggle with the "hard" thinking involved in making a pretty structure strong enough to stand up.Frosty"I sometimes think we consider the good fortune of the early bird and overlook the bad fortune of the early worm." FDR - 1922
When I'd ask my highschool son what he was considering as a career, he would say architecture. That would suite me just fine, but it's his choice. Just not drama (haha). I wasn't really sure why he would say architecture, but he does like to build thing, most recently a computer. Now he says he doesn't know what he wants to do. But he's smart and he'll figure it out. Your lucky your son has a passion for something other than playing video game, which if he is anything like my son, is probably his first choice, but hard to make a living at. I'll vouch for the poster that recommended construction as a summer job. I worked as a consultant designing highways. All things being equal, if we had the option, we usually selected grads that also had some field experience. We would teach them the engineering aspects in the office, but a kid with field experience was a 1-2 punch. I wish your son the best of luck. Sounds like he is well on his way to a rewarding career.
We have a 4 year degree program in Fine Woodworking here at the University of Rio Grande in Southeast Ohio. We are not as well known (yet), but one of our students (Chris Hedges) won the best in show prize (as well as a couple of others) at the big AFWS (2007) show in Las Vegas.
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Gallery/GalleryImage.aspx?id=29696
Eric Matson, [email protected], is the contact person for more info.
Hi, I talked with Chris a few weeks ago. I'm a Rio Grad as well '97-'99. Are you a Rio grad as well?
Matt,
No, I'm not a student. I teach over in the Music Department, and am a home woodworker.
You may want to add that I beat out students from all the big schools like Savannah, Rhode Island, College of the Redwoods, etc. It gives it a bit more oomph. :)Chris Hedges
tom21769,
I am an architect who graduated from Syracuse University about 10 years ago. I thought the program was excellent. It was certainly tough but it really prepared us for practicing real world architecture. The previous post about the studio time is right on the money. You have to really love the work to put up with 5-6 years of the long hours.
Their are many different tracks that schools take while offering a degree in architecture. (#1 make sure the school is NAAB accredited - otherwise it could potentially trip you up when getting your professional license.) Some schools go for a more artistic route, some more technical and some in the middle. I think Syracuse is in the middle and I usually give the same advice to others interested in the field. Getting the technical aspect is crucial to doing well right out of school but having the artistic background is something that is hard to learn after you graduate. Getting both can get you off to a great start.
To your original question - I do believe that Syracuse has a studio art program with professional level workshops (wood, metal, glass etc) though you'd need to check with the school to see if it was available to those not in the specific degree program. The architecture school also had a model shop with some of the typical woodworking tools, Table Saw, Band Saw etc... but they didn't have a jointer or planer when I was there. Syracuse just finished rehabbing their architecture building so I am not sure of the current workshop spec's.
Sounds like an ad for SU and it was a good place but I have friends that attended Virgina Tech, Cornell, Harvard, UVA and other east cost architecture schools and I think they are all very good choices. In Boston their are also a bunch of technical schools that will give you a solid CAD training and knowledge of construction as well as a co-op called Boston Architectural College - we have hired several of their students.
My #1 piece of advice - do not work in a professional architecture office in the summers no matter how good an idea this seems. Work in the construction field. This will give you all the understanding you'll need to know how modern buildings get built and why. Especially while not having to rely on a paycheck to feed a family. Get the knowledge in school and in the field and when you graduate put them together and you make an outstanding job applicant. This is so crucial and unfortunately something that most architecture schools don't focus on and if you don't do it while in school you may find you'll never have another better chance.
I wish you and your son lots of good luck!
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled