Warning: Do NOT take this class as an easy GE.
Let me first note that I went into this class after reading reviews for Osman's AUD 30 class. I talked to others who took his class, and the structure of it is identical to Lucking's. Moreover, Lucking is (I think) a PHD student of Osman's, and Osman is even listed as a lecturer for this class. So, I went into this class believing the reviews for Osman's class.
However, I found out the hard way that this class is harder and crappier than those reviews suggest (I took it as a GE btw). Let me first start with the reading responses due in Friday discussion section each week. These were actually not too bad. They are your response to the 3 readings that Lucking posts each week. She does not give a specific prompt but just tells you to write a response to them. They are 2 pages handwritten. They can be tough since the readings are really dense and difficult to understand. I'm a pretty good writer though, and got full scores on 5 of these (there are 7 total). Plus, your lowest 2 are dropped anyway. These essays count for 20% of your grade.
The really annoying part of this class is the exams. Midterm is 25% of your grade and final is 30%. I absolutely hate how they work. Lucking makes you memorize the title, author, date, and meaning of about 60-70 images that showed up in class. Only 6 of them will appear on the exam. Thus, most of your studying for the exams will consist of memorizing a ton of absolutely useless info that won't appear on the exam. It would be more reasonable if we had to memorize between 20 and 30 images but nope, 60 to 70 fucking images it is. This is ultimately my biggest problem with this class: how much pointless bullshit there is to it.
Based on the grade distribution for Osman's class I expected to get an A but ultimately got an A-. I did pretty well in everything in this class (even the exams) and did the extra credit assignment she assigned. This makes me wonder whether the grade distribution changed this quarter so that there were fewer A's and A+'s.
In summary, don't be fooled by the reviews that say this class is good and relatively easy. Certainly don't take it thinking it will be an easy GE. I worked my ass off and got an A-, even though I was expecting a higher grade based on the reviews for Osman's (ostensibly) identical version of the class.

Lucking is a terrible lecturer. She makes her class difficult to follow. Her slides include only pictures. To me, that is the most egregious offence. Without words, we don't follow her logic, see what points she wants to emphasize, and generally don't follow her. We listen to her drone on and on, but we see no point in her words. It turns into a garbled mess as we try to copy down what she says. There are no words in the slides to refer to in case we missed something she said, and we don't see all the important points of the lecture, making it very difficult to connect all the ideas together.

In addition, she makes studying for her tests unnecessarily tedious. She makes us memorize about 50 slides with each including a name of piece, date, and name of artist. She tells us that she will pick 4 of those to be included on the exam. Those are way too many slides to memorize specific details about them. Lucking is clearly disconnected with the student.

Took this as a GE–was afraid at first because of all the negative reviews, but the class was actually great! I love how Professor Lucking is very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the subject, and the topics we covered were also interesting. She is a good lecturer.

Most of the material is theoretical, there are 2-3 readings a week (you can get by with skimming though), no tests (only 2 papers around midterm and final time), and weekly worksheets to complete (they are just short answer questions, graded for completion). Overall not too work-heavy. I wouldn't say it's the easiest GE but I don't think you will struggle with getting an A in this class. I enjoyed it and would definitely recommend, especially if you are interested in dabbling a bit in architecture!

When I was in 4th grade, I wanted to be an architect. I no longer want to be an architect. This is basically an art history course.

She bruincasts, but only the audio. ALSO, she doesn't allow laptops in class but like bruh, you can't get down every detail without a laptop so we all had our little macbooks out. Her lectures are dry, and it's like she's reading from a textbook. Ik she's a smart woman, and I would have loved to hear her honest opinions about the pieces.
The grading is okay, you have weekly reading responses due which is good in the long run bc it makes sure that I actually read, but they're kind of a pain. She used to make us handwrite them but then she came to her senses lol. The midterm is the usual bluebook essay writing.
The slides don't have notes, only pictures, so you pretty much have to come to class to understand. She does offer extra credit so that's fun.

Overall, it's not a bad class, but like an overcooked chicken, it's kinda tough and dry.

A lot of busy work for a GE class. Maura requires handwritten responses due each week, which are expected to be a reflection of readings which averages to about 100 pages of reading each week. Exams required memorization of 80+ slides where you needed to memorize dates and names which were exhausting and not necessary, as well as recognize the 3+ reading per week, also identify them, and compare them to images. The grading distribution is generous, the midterm is 25% and final is 30%, and the rest of your grade is based on participation in discussion (mandatory) and your reading responses. Make sure you get a good TA, I switched out of mine the first week and ended up with good one.

I thought this class was okay. Definitely not the hardest. I remember being really bored sometimes in lecture but her slides are really well done and her video lectures are very informative, just not super engaging and long. Casualty of zoom university. The readings were often really difficult which was annoying if you needed to write on them, but if you skip a couple you'll still be okay. Section wasn't super organized because it was my TA's first time as a TA but he improved as the quarter went on. I never really spoke to her and there seemed to be some disconnect between her and the TA's. However, the papers we were assigned (i think 3 in total?) were not graded harshly at all and were pretty easy to write, if I'm being honest. She also requires an outline the week before the paper is due which helps with keeping on track. As long as you go to lecture and skim papers you'll be okay. I do think the other reviews are probably more accurate to in person learning but my Zoom experience was pretty alright leaning towards good. Definitely not as bad as the rating it has.

I remember reading a bruinwalk review about this class before taking it. The person said they wanted to be an architect and after taking this class they no longer want to do it - that is exactly how I feel. This class is literally one of the worst classes I have taken. The material is not engaging whatsoever, the professor rambles on for about an hour and a half twice a week. The lectures are so difficult to get through (even on 2x speed!). The only benefit of this class was my TA (shoutout Dexter!) and the fact that there was no final or midterm. Instead, we had weekly worksheets based on lectures and 3 papers. The readings, though sometimes interesting, were often dense and also difficult to get through. For an intro class, this was a lot of bus work, and I 10/10 do not recommend it.

I took this class online as a GE. It was pretty easy with a very light workload. We didn't have any exams, only essays and one presentation, which are all graded quite easy. I personally wasn't interested in the material, because I though it would be more about modern architecture rather than the history of architecture, so just make sure you read the description carefully to know what you're getting into. If you are interested in it, you will likely like her as she seems very passionate and interested in what she is teaching.

After having an amazing experience with Will Davis in Arch&UD 10B during Spring quarter in 2019, this class was a huge disappointment. Maura is clearly intelligent lecturer, but she occasionally comes off as condescending by ending almost every statement with “Yeah?” as if we had no clue what she was talking about. As her lectures are mostly slide-based, it was pretty hard to stay engaged, and the fact that we were not allowed to use laptops or other devices in lecture, not even for taking notes, only made things harder. The way she lectured also made it hard to keep up, since she doesn’t really post words/key facts on the slides, just pictures, so you’d better pay close attention to what she says, or else you might miss something crucial. What really upset me was that they changed the date of the final exam during Week 1, after class had already started.

The weekly assignments were fairly simple. You just had to read three (moderately lengthy) readings and write a two-page reading response, but in keeping with the no-technology theme, you had to bring your readings and response to discussion. My TA, Rebecca, was somewhat helpful as she helped us engage in useful discussions and was luckily an easy grader when it came to the reading responses and the exams, but based on the review sessions I went to I felt that Luke and Henry were probably the most helpful.

The exams were a pain. For the midterm and final (not cumulative, 25% and 30% each I think), you had to not only review key information from 70-80 images/architectural projects, but you also had to memorize the authors, titles, and key ideas of the readings for discussion, which was honestly pretty pointless and made my study time very unproductive. The prompts were somewhat vague but still allowed you to put in enough of your own creativity to write a decent essay. Fortunately, Maura did offer some extra credit. If you visited a major architectural site in Los Angeles and wrote a short paper on some of its key design features, you could get up to 5% bonus on your midterm or final grade, whichever was lower.

Overall, I would not take this class again. If you’re planning on taking this class as a visual/performing arts analysis GE, I would advise you to look elsewhere for a better experience. I got the A, but the amount of time I spent on this class was ridiculous.

!!!!!!!DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS!!!!!!!!

Heavy Reading with unclear lectures and there was no information from the slides. The lectures were so dry and she spoke super fast which is hard to follow. She just read from her script with no contact with students. But I got a good TA so everything was fine.