TGIF

Yesterday began with "Techniques in Visual Representation, Analog and Free-hand Drawing." We meet once a week on Fridays but I am quite confident she has it in the works to keep us occupied for more than that. Yes it will be a lot of work but the promise of the syllabus is to make us think like architects and use our pens as vessels of our creativity.

We got out early and I walked over to Willard Straight Hall to read for a while in the, go figure, reading room. It is actually a small library with different sections like poetry and literature, all for the passing student who wishes to sit down and relax a while in a very Romantic setting. There are fire places and large Victorian chairs to sit in, the kind with the high backs and sides that one would imagine Chesterton or Elliot sitting in, smoking a pipe.

One end of the reading room actually opens to a cafe and once they opened for lunch I bought a sandwich and ate it on the deck outside. I'll have to take a picture of the deck because it is probably the main reason that this building is becoming my favorite on campus. First, it is a massive roof space and the height of the surrounding neo-Gothic architecture impresses me. Second, it looks out over all of Ithaca.

Here is a picture of the front of the building that I stole off the web. The other side of the building faces the Cornell Slope and has a considerably larger facade (there is a one screen movie theater on the lower level).


After spending several hours reading Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I walked across the promenade to Barnes Hall, where the entire architecture department was meeting for presentations by the faculty on what each of the studios will be doing this Fall. Each presentation approached a new set of problems and I couldn't help feeling that I was entering into a very prestigious and intellectual arena. I also couldn't help feeling that our new Chair of Architecture, Dagmar Richter, was dressed in flowing black and bore a striking resemblance to Prof. McGonagall as she welcomed back the students.

After the presentations we met with our studio back at Sibley Hall and were given our bay assignment in Rand. We then went up the third floor, to our new home, and discussed our first project.

Finally the day was coming to a close and a few of us decided to head over to the Big Red Barn, Cornell's Graduate and Professional Student Center, for TGIF or "Tell Grads its Friday", a weekly event with free food and $1 draft beers... sorry that was not accurately emphasized... FREE food and ONE DOLLAR beers! The building itself is very comfortable and the interior brings to mind a lodge in Aspen. When I get pictures I'll do a GTBKI post.