The class actually turned out to be much more interesting than I thought it would be since it covered a lot of the social and historical aspects of architecture apart from the aesthetics part of it. He does produce great content, but his delivery is rather dull and it's really easy to fall asleep in class. The textbook was not necessary at all, but you will need to do the readings or at least skim them.

The only reason why I did well in this class is because I had a wonderful TA. Otherwise, good luck to ya. There are weekly quizzes in section that end up being a significant part of your grade (25% quizzes + 10% participation for going to section). According to the syllabus, the quizzes should have been on weekly outside readings (that didn't really pertain to class material in my opinion) but they ended up being mostly on stuff we talked about in lecture, which was manageable. Friends with other TAs however had different quizzes that were much more difficult and required religiously going over the readings and attending lecture (and retaining info) to get full credit.

The midterm and final aren't difficult if you can stay awake during lecture to take good notes and are able to memorize 25 ish works (name, date, architect(s), location) for slide identifications. Prof Upton is not an engaging lecturer so if you struggle to stay awake or pay attention as it is, don't take this class. I think I would have enjoyed the material more if I didn't dread going to lecture and listening to a man monotonously drone on about buildings.

TLDR: your TA will make or break your grade and Prof Upton isn't that great.

Selling the textbook (European Architecture, 1750-1890 by Bergdoll). Message me at 7144259305

I had a great TA and the professor was great at explaining all concepts during the lecture.
I am selling the book required for his class (European Architecture, 1750-1890 by Bergdoll).

If you are interested, please message me at (626) 478-6807.

Class depends completely on your TA. Mine was helpful in terms of discussion but graded everything pretty hard. Midterm and final are a lot of writing, but mainly focus on identifying the buildings discussed.
Selling the textbook required for this class. Good shape. Also have a couple study guides included if you'd like them.
Text me at 262-510-8975