The Architecture Track: Is the Path to Licensure Paved with Good Intentions, Or Mired in a Maze?(Practice‪)‬

Four years ago, Marc Swackhamer, a 1997 graduate of Rice University's master of architecture program, reached a milestone in his fledgling architecture career: He finished all 700 training units of the Intern Development Program (IDP) and was ready to sit for the exam. But then his road to registration took a detour. Swackhamer accepted a job as assistant professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, got busy with research and teaching, and put licensing on the back burner. Now, his estimated-time-of-exam is next summer, and he's prepared to study hard. Swackhamer has no problem with internship per se; it's the tedious regulatory process that has him frustrated. "IDP was, in my point of view, just maniacally complex," he says. "I'd get these forms and letters that made my eyes cross."