Dettmer, Randolph  

Dettmer is a practicing architect and uses this frequently as an excuse to dig into students about being responsible and getting small assignments done regardless of circumstance. He seems to find pleasure in telling students that they need to get their act together although about 80% of the time he in fact does not. He's inconsistent in his grading, instructions, and requirements, often changing them without sufficient announcement to the class - that is if he can make it to class. He does however give informative tours of campus buildings and their construction materials. Overall, there has to be a better arch 106 instructor than this so don't take Dettmer unless you like being made to feel like an inferior person.

So, I along with the rest of my class have read this teachers reviews and are not sure what the hell happened to him. He was absolutely horrible. His assignments were repetitive and grading was not consistent. His personality is subtly abrasive. One of my worst professors here at Poly.

I'm guessing that the comment below is from my classmates haha...but yeah I read polyratings before I took him and I thought he was going to be a great guy but yeah! something must have happened to him. He doesn't really know how to manage time. He kept saying that we didn't have time to do anything but that is just because we wasted a bunch of time in the beginning of the quarter doing nothing; suddenly at the end of the quarter we had loads of work to finish. This wasn't even the bad part since we should expect a lot of work out of ARCH classes; the bad part was that half of the class didn't know what they were doing! He didn't really tell us exactly how to do some things. His method is just letting you do the work first and then telling you where you screwed up hahaha.... oh yeah then of course making you do it over again with his corrections and then telling you where you screwed up again even though you did exactly what he told you to do!!!!

I took Dettmer for practice and had just as much work in that class as my studio. I think he had trouble with being "second in command" and thought that he needed to be in charge and give us a larger workload than in studio. Anyway, he's not an easy guy to get along with (tries to always make you feel guity or like you're unimportant and it's really all about him). His assignments were repetative and he's as bad as judging how long projects will take as we are. A very practical teacher, so some things to learn from him, but overall not a good experience.

If you did not come into this class knowing everything already you were screwed. Everyone got a C except for people who had parents that worked in construction. He waisted all of class and then assigned work that was so basic we should have already known how to do it....funny thing was no one knew how to and after asking him...we would be put down for our stupidity. Frustrating!! This guy needs time management and people skills. I learned from this class I want to be a good communicator so I dont look a fool like this idiot.

First of all, I think the previous review was completely unfair to Randy. He was one of the best studio professors I've ever had. Because he is a practicing architect, he knows what is practical, real, and important. He won't give useless crits like some people who like to BS, but to the point and real information you can use. He values hard work and although not one of those teachers who makes you live in studio, he will reward you for your time. Im not just saying this because I got an A. I was very surprised when I did, because he pushed me all quarter and I felt like he didn't like me. Not very many people got As - only the ones that did quality work that showed and not the kind of stuff that ppl put together in a few days while half-assing it. He sees through that in a second. Overall, I would definately recommend him as a professor and encourage you to stand by your work and ideas while listening to his advice - he says worthy stuff.

Randy was my type of design professor. Not everyone will like his style (perhaps those who aren't interested in becoming actual architects?) because although he is a design professor, he is really concerned about practicallity Yes, experimenting with design is important, but I think it's far more important to learn about the business of architecture, and that is what Randy conveys. So if you truly want to learn about the CAREER of an architect, then take Randy. If you want to learn about peculiar, far-fetched notions, look elsewhere...

Randy seemed at first a more old school proffesor but as the quarter and final project unfolded he is very co-operative and practical, and he has a lot of information to share. Randy had our class work on a project that he was about to start, so he gave us the real program (which was mainly design requirements not exact sq ft), and he had the clients visit us for prelim critiques. We used rammed earth on this project and were pushed to use it in unique ways. Randy was very open to changes in his schedule and layout for the class, and he allowed students to choose what media worked best for them. (IE digital and massing model or watercolor etc). He has his own practice and his experiences are worth hearing and learning from.

Awsome proffesor with doen-to-earth assignments

This was a 3rd year studio. One thing he did that frustrated a lot of people is that he would only let you make a design decision if it was logical or practical. By this I mean if it would be unnecessarily hard to build he would reject it. Otherwise he lets you pretty much go your own way. He likes to see grasshopper stuff. He also likes to see sketchup stuff. He is here for s reason though, he definitely knows what he is doing. I was very impressed with what the class produced.

If one were to look at his or here overall experience here at Cal Poly with the teachers given here they would most likely say that there is a pretty high level of intelligence coming from most of the architecture professors. Randy doesn\'t even come close to reaching what an architecture teacher should be conveying to his students. What he does convey is through his condescending and egotistical words that spill constantly from his mouth is that he has it all together and every project you do should look more or less like something he would design. Randy once said it took him \"six times to pass the AIA exam\" and ask myself....why is he teaching at one of the top universities architecture programs? He is a bias grader and thinks for the most part that his work is done my god\'s hand. I got an A in this class and find his teaching to be an absolute disgrace to this amazing program given to us by Cal Poly. By far the worse professor in my entire college career.

What the guy/gal below said. Amen. I too took this class and have long since graduated from Poly, but I was cruising Poly Ratings for a kick and thought that I should pipe in and let you know how much of a joke this prof is.