Lucas, Michael  

I was honestly underwhelmed with Lucas in this course. Before I came to school, I received a bunch of e-mail from him about 131 and supplies. He never capitalized anything and there were several misspellings. Ironically, he requires students to write essays every week. Regardless, the lectures were interesting and it is a very easy class.

Lucas is just perfect. That is all. TAKE HIM. Even though there is no one else for ARCH 101. (:

Lucas is a really cool guy. He's really interesting, and will do all he can to make sure that you are understanding everything. BUT you have to seek him out if you want this help. He is an extremely nice guy, and very easy to talk to. That's probably because he just says any and everything that comes to mind. If you go to office hours, I'd suggest having an excuse to get away after a while. He will seriously talk for hours. He's a really awesome professor, very knowledgable and very eager to help. His explanations are weird at first, and he will seem like he's spouting nonsense. Just be patient and open-minded. Really rad guy.

Bless his soul, he is an amazing professor. Having him for both EDES101 and ARCH101 was great. He is very insightful and super nice. I wish he was still a Studio Professor. Just a heads up, make sure you actually pay attention during ARCH101 lectures so you could write those essays. Another thing, be on top of your essays, don't wait till dead week/finals week to write them. That aside, you're going to have a great quarter with Professor Lucas!

Michael Lucas is your only choice for this class, but if you're an incoming freshman wondering what all your professors are like, you can't not like like Michael. He's practically a celebrity in the arch department. Super nice and inspiring, makes the class better than it is and has the best final ever.

Nothing made sense to me. All his lectures can seem interesting to some people but he takes Architecture in such a weird way that I don't understand anything at all. PolyLearn is a huge thing to him so use it use it use it.

"I'm running out of tricks up my sleeve... I don't have any sleeves." -Michael "💯" Lucas

Lucas is a great guy. He'll do his best to help you in whatever area you need help. He grades pretty easy, and he doesn't give much work. Lucas also learns everyone's name usually by the second week which shows he cares.

Mr. Lucas is a great guy...but in his class we had to make a "nomadic bedside companion" which translates to big waste of time for half of three units. My other grades fell trying to put in the hours for his lab. If you are a hippie take him, if you are practical I strongly advise you not to.

Michael Lucas taught this course with two other instructors: Ellen Burke and Jennifer Shields. This class has no midterms, no finals (yay!), but is completely based on a final portfolio that you get weekly assignments for. PROS: 1. The lectures were pretty engaging. Even though the majority of the students were checked out and completing other class assignments during the period, the professors were very knowledgable about what they were talking about and made some interesting points. 2. The projects are cool. I genuinely enjoyed completing the projects (for the most part) and I learned a lot about using InDesign, Photoshop, etc. while completing them. 3. My grade increased almost 10% because of the final project. CONS: Which discussion leader you get pretty much determines your grade. Mishuk Datta is known as the hardest grader/instructional teaching assistant, and this was evident when I compared some of my projects that got 2/5's (which was an F in the gradebook) with my peers' projects that got higher grades under different discussion leaders. Projects I spent hours on would be given F's when they were far superior than friends' projects that got 3's or 4's under a different discussion leader. Luckily, my final portfolio got a very high grade and made up for the bad grades I got throughout the quarter. Because of my low grade up until the last week or so, I found this course to be very stressful. I recommend keeping a folder on your desktop of all your files in their Adobe format so you can streamline your final project easily at the end. I made the mistake of moving some Adobe-format files to the trash or deleting them permanently, which took forever to dig up, recreate and edit for the final project. Overall, you'll learn a lot in this class but it's pretty stressful if you procrastinate.

The teachers (Lucas, Shields, Sattler) all split the class into three sections and each teach their own. Over all, they all had way to high expectations for what students knew, could do, and were willing to put in. If youre really into learning about the flow of places and how humans interact with them, you'll do good, but if youre just taking this as a GE, do a different class. That being said, as long as you do all the work, youll get a B or an A

Lucas is a great teacher! He really cares about his students as individuals and takes the time to learn each person\'s style and technique. He always provided very professional and appropriate criticism when it was necessary but never made you feel inferior if your work wasn\'t up to par with the rest of the class. Very relaxed atmosphere in class and he always made himself available outside of lab hours for help with projects, advice about architecture, even academic advising for other classes. Take Lucas at LEAST once in your arch. career at poly or you\'re definitely gonna miss out.

Very good professor. However, his teaching style may not be for all freshman. I actually enjoy listening to him talk about my projects, and he frequently asks you what YOU think about it, which to me helps me think in different ways. But some find his talks annoyingly long. Note: he will NOT tell you specifically what you need to do or try to solve a problem, but rather give you fuzzy examples that you must challenge yourself to explore. Some people like this style, others prefer it to be more direct.

Michael Lucas you can tell is an extremely smart guy. He is really really knowledgable in the field of architecture and it shows, but his style of teaching is not good for freshman. For most of us, this is really the first time we've learned anything about architecture (I had him 1st quarter which really sucked) and his way of teaching seems way more fitting for 2nd-5th year. For project, he usually explained them quite vaguely and a bit too "artsy-ly" for first quarter freshman. He also requires more work than other professors sometimes but he's really laid back about due dates. I still am not sure why I got a C in the class, he always seemed to like my work. That's another thing, his critiques are really hard to read and they can go on for an hour. Half the time you couldn't really tell if he liked your project or not and other times he would just go off on a tangent and by the end of the critique you would have no idea what he's talking about. So take him if you don't mind an extremely wordy teaching style that leaves you a lot of freedom, but don't take him if you can't handle his talks. I'd also suggest taking him 3rd quarter if you choose to take him.

Michael Lucas is THE BOMB

michael lucas is a wonderful professor. i had him first quarter of my freshman year and he made the transition very easy. unlike brent freeby (my second quarter prof) who gives little to no feedback and grades unnecessarily harsh, michael lucas is a fair grader and he is willing to point students in the right direction, hinting to what they should or should not do when designing a project. he gives both positive and negative feedback, the latter of which is well delivered and more constructive than it is hurtful. i would recommend him to everyone. the only downside is that he is not very clear with his dead lines, a trait of his i used to my advantage. often, the more time you put into a project the better it turns out so a little extra time is more than appreciated.

Michael Lucas is not somebody you want to take if you don't like to learn and work hard. You won't enjoy him if you're used to rigid guidelines, and if you're hard on hearing then this man isn't for you. You also won't be pleased with his critiques if you're not good on subtle cues. But if you're like me, then you will find Mr. Lucas the finest architecture professor out there. His instruction is brief, yet so open-ended. So many people complain about his lack of detail when he assigns something...this is the point. He does this deliberately, so you can create something unique. He is extremely subtle --as in, pay attention to him for God's sake. So many of my peers only listened to his words when they took advice from him --guess what? They didn't succeed as well as they could have. Watch his body motions, and listen to his tone. That alone saved much of my time spent on projects. He is incredibly smart, and knows his stuff very well. Don't argue with him; he's right, you're wrong. Simple. He has a great sense of humor, and is not harsh. Don't be afraid to ask questions even if you think they're dumb --unlike many professors, this one won't bite your head off. Overall, Mr. Lucas is by far the best professor I've had so far at Cal Poly, and I think it'll be difficult to be as satisfied with other professors after having him. He is very dedicated to your success as an individual, and wants only to help you in the best way possible. It's all about learning and experimenting, and this is what Lucas is all about. You will learn and explore more in one quarter with him than you will with any other professor, I'm willing to bet. TAKE HIM!!

There are two types of college classes, the ones you remember and the ones you dont. I will remember Lucas' studio as the best class ever. He is very challenging but fair, and truly cares about your design and adjusts his expectations, critiques, and suggestions to your specific level. There is not a teacher who cares more or teaches you more out there. If you have the chance to take Lucas for studio DO IT. I cannot say enough amazing things about him.

The things I learned in Lucas still pop into my head even over a year after taking him. If you want a teacher who is creative, challenging, and amazing take LUCAS! He will not be easy but you will walk out of that class miles ahead of anyone else in second year. I would take him again and again if I could.

Good professor

Prof. Lucas is a great instructor. He makes class interesting, even for a topic as boring as Native American Architecture (boring at least to me). I enjoyed his class and he has a sense of humor and personality that keeps his students awake. He is also experienced in much that he taught. He spent some time in several different areas with several different tribes.

Lucas is a great professor. He makes class and lectures interesting and he open minded. Grading through the quarter is unclear, because he doesn't hand grades back, but he seems to be an easy grader. He is more interested in what you learn in his class through discussions and presentations, not through tests.

This is a message specifically going out to the fourth year students applying for Michael for fifth year... (hopefully this will reach you in time, if not, this is for the students to come.) TAKE HIM! TAKE HIM! TAKE HIM! You want a new perspective on architecture (as compared with the other fifth year faculty)? TAKE HIM! You want a professor who teaches and a friend who cares? TAKE HIM! You want to learn about phenomenlogy, nihilism of construction, the nature of spaces, tectonics, or construction ontology? TAKE HIM! Ok, I understand that there are a few out there who don't want their final fifth year project to be a high school in a class with 17 other high school projects. IT WON'T BE! He teaches how education can come from a performing arts center, a museum, or a spiritual center! TAKE HIM! TAKE HIM! TAKE HIM!

What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.