Halloween (Isaiah 5:11)

To experience Halloween in New York is wonderful. It is the closest I have been to the idealized version of the holiday conveyed in movies. For example, on Halloween morning, I look out my window to see crows perched on a tree without leaves, against a dismally grey autumn sky. The formerly brilliantly colored leaf carpet is now uniformly brown and scatters with the occasional gust of cold wind. Even better, once the sun sets thin clouds veil and unveil a full moon... I know right!

This Halloween is also the closet I have come to experiencing the typical collegiate holiday... yes I went out, twice actually. Because Ithaca is a college town Halloween started for me, on Friday (for many it even started on Thursday). This might have been prompted by two classmates suggesting that I don't go out with them nearly enough but it sounded fun. I have been out to see Isla Vista (UCSB) at Halloween time and Ithaca's party scene didn't seem nearly as tragic.

Anyways, both nights I spent with the other M.Arch students. Friday night I dressed up as Lenny Kravits and went to a party hosted by the architecture undergraduates. As lame as that sounds let me first explain that there is an annual tradition hosted by the undergraduate program called Dragon Day and not only do they get funding from the school, but the undergraduates also fund-raise by selling t-shirts. These t-shirts are apparently a BIG DEAL because last year Dragon Day cost about $15,000 but they raised nearly $30,000. I don't know how this works but the undergraduates use the rest to throw parties...

It was still lame.

There was a dance floor and DJ that wasn't all that bad, especially when the M.Arch students were clustered together. However, once that bubble burst I realized that I was surrounded by a bunch of 18-20 yr old kids who were drunk out of their minds, a strange experience for a former RA. My bubble was actually literally burst by one intoxicated undergrad female who tripped and knocked me down with her. By the way the quickest way to recover in such a situation, is turn and help the people helping you help the girl up (it establishes who the drunk one is).

The cops came shortly after we got there and as all the kids scatter the M.Arch students could just walk out casually and not worry about having been drinking. Overall it was fun and I felt like I bonded with some of my classmates. Even going to bed around five in the morning, I was willing to do it all again the next night when we went to an exclusively graduate party.

This time I dressed as a lumberjack. The party was an older and surprisingly international crowd, every conversation I overheard was laced with different accents. It was also jam packed, real fire-hazard sort of crowding. Anyways, I realized the main difference between the two parties: age. But that was also a fun night and ended at a similar time.

The best part is that I also somehow found the time to make a sweet model for Monday and Jim really liked it.

Kari Visits Ithaca

Last weekend was hands down the best of my semester. We did not do much but every moment was worth it.
It was the perfect Fall weekend, not only in the company but also in terms of the weather. The colors of Ithaca in the Fall are outrageously beautiful and while the leaves began to turn a while ago, the ground is currently carpeted with the fallen foliage.

This is actually a stream that is down and across the street from me

The weekend was filled with good food and coffee. Kari's birthday was last Tuesday and so I used the weekend to treat her to as many birthday treats as I could.


Saturday night I took her out for dessert at a restaurant that does not print a dessert menu, instead they let their patrons walk up to a glass, refrigerated bar that contains cakes, mousses, tarts, truffles, etc. and choose with their eyes. It was important that the dessert be perfect because Kari had not had dessert in three months. She had a rich, flour-less chocolate cake and I had a blueberry crumble tart a la mode.

Sunday we went out to a late breakfast at a place in town called the Mate Factor. It is run by a pseudo-psycho-religious group who live communally, make their own clothes, and cook amazing food. After breakfast I had to walk off the richest Belgian waffle I have ever had and so we headed down to the lake inlet.

It was a great weekend. Monday when time for studio began to loom closer, I decided that the better decision would be to keep Kari to myself for a little longer and ride the bus with her to the airport. In terms of studio the only acceptable excuse for skipping is death or the swine flu. So I emailed my professor, told him I was not going to make it but was going to take my girlfriend to the airport.

The next day I found out he came into studio and simply said, "Aparrarently... John thinks that taking his girlfriend to the airport is an acceptable excuse to miss studio..." My classmates, probably relieved that they would not have to cover for me, quickly pointed out that in the very least I was honest.

Anyways, Jim was pleased with what I had to show on Wednesday and even teased me about it yesterday. This is good, but it would have been worth it either way.

Fall from a different perspective.

One of the girls in my program has been taking prolific amounts of pictures since arriving in August. She lost her camera before coming out so most of them were on a cell phone. I never noticed but she always had that thing out and finally, last weekend or so, she posted a fbook album with over two hundred photos. However, because of some creepers in her past life, not everyone can view the album. So I stole some of the pictures of me and here they are!

This is a few of the 1st and 2nd year M.Arch students outside of the Big Red Barn for TGIF.


Noah and I during one of our reviews.


Me gearing up to give a presentation of my dinner party idea. There is a drawing on the big white sheet of paper but in incredibly light lines.



Speaking of the Dinner Party... This is me right before a blind contour drawing that was one student's method of documentation. Deborah here let me grab the candle.


Towards the end of the dinner.


Group shot! This is what everyone looks like after a couple glasses of wine. Which, I guess, is also the reason for the photographer to crop out most of the group.


Strolling through the Farmer's market on a beautiful Saturday.


Working on the cold floor of the unforgiving studio.


My first experience with the laser cutter. This was my jig for the dinner party model.


Maybe we could get more sleep if we didn't spend so much time just hanging out in studio. To be fair we are learning from each other but my guess is this picture isn't the pinnacle of productivity, Colin, whose desk that is, is not even there.


Me during my final review for the first project. Those are two of the jurors on the right.


Ok this is a fairly egocentric post (ok most of my posts are) but I thought it would be a nice change to have some pictures with subjects in them and since most of the time, I am the one taking the picture, it was a rare chance to show me in action.

Anyways, I need to get back to work. We have our review for the second project tomorrow. I am not nearly as worried about this one because I fully accept that I am very new to this and have everything to learn. Furthermore, Kari is coming this weekend and it is pretty hard to get me down with that so near in my future.

That's when Craigers comes to town

This weekend my good friend Craig came to visit. Craig recently moved out to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and yesterday made the four hour drive to come see me in Ithaca. I had a lot of fun showing him around town and we had some grand times.

One of our activities was to head over to Robert Treman state park. I was there last weekend but liked it so much I wanted to go back and furthermore, use the scenery to highlight the magical qualities of Ithaca.

If Cornell can be seen as the real-world equivalent of Hogwarts, Robert Treman State Park is the real-world equivalent of Middle Earth.

Welcome to Rivendell...

Click on this one... Beautiful huh?

Craig and I at Lucifer Falls. It was great to have an old friend in town. The comfort, ease, and humor in this kind of friendship only comes with time.

Snow Saga Continued

This morning I woke up and was disappointed to look out my window and not see snow on the ground. It was just wet.

I don't have class on Fridays until 9:00am and since I didn't have anything due today, I took my time getting ready. I still added a couple of extra layers as I was getting dressed. It is supposed to be in the low 30's today and I didn't want a repeat of yesterday's near-death experience. Then, because I wasn't rushed, I decided to walk to school.

There were some cars on the road with snow on their roofs but I figured they must live further outside of town. Then, about halfway there, it starts snowing again.

Finally, when I reach campus, there is snow on the ground and even better, snow frosting the trees. It was an incredible sight.
I stopped, made a few snow balls, and must have looked like an idiot with the dumb grin on my face.
I went into Olin library to pick up some reference material for studio, was directed across the walkway to Uris library, found what I needed in the stacks that had a ceiling approximately 6'5" off the ground, and stumbled into the Kinkeldey Room, which is where I took these pictures.

I don't get out of the AAP much, which is a shame. However, the positive side is that when I make new discoveries, such as these leather chairs and ottomans looking out over Ithaca, it is all the more exciting. This might be my new favorite place. Then again, the library just opened and I have it all to myself, which might affect the serenity of the room.

Ok it is just raining now.

Snow though! It is only midway through October!

This is how the scene of my first snow played out:

We are in the Big Red Barn, the graduate and professional Student Center that looks like a barn and has an interior reminiscent of a ski lodge, and outside it looks like it is raining in slow motion. We realize it is snow and Steve, fellow Californian, gives me a high five. We are stoked. The first snow.

Three hours later I have just finished my second midterm of the day and I begin my walk home. About five minutes in I realize I have lost feeling in my face. Ten minutes in, it is so cold I want to die. Fifteen minutes in, I contemplate lying down on the sidewalk and going to sleep forever.

Luckily my apartment is waiting for me at a cozy 80 degrees. Adjusting from the cold to heat makes my body ache. Fortunately it is Thursday and I threw on a couple extra layers and head down for the free beer tasting.

IT"S SNOWING OUTSIDE!!!!!

AHHHHHHHH

GTBKI: the Culture

The Ithaca Times just published their annual "The Best of Ithaca" issue and I thought I might share some of the content as it can be helpful in gaining an understanding of this peculiar little town. Particularly illuminating is a list of reader-submitted suggestions of slogans to replace the town motto "Ithaca is Gorges." Here are my favorites:

Ithaca - Good luck finding it
Ithaca is eclectic
Yes IthaCAN
Ithaca is Green (this one is repeated many times)
Cancer Sucks
My town is I-town
Hug a tree in Ithaca
Let's Ithacate
Take the vowels out and you get THC
Ithaca: still groovy
Ithaca: the tip of the middle finger (lake)
Ithaca is freezing
Ithace: stop whining it is only for four or five years
Don't Replace our Slogan!!!


and my absolute favorite:

Ithaca: 10 sq. miles surrounded by reality

GTBKI: The Ithaca Farmer's Market

Last Saturday I went to the Farmer's Market, probably one of the coolest places in Ithaca.

It is only open on Saturdays and consists of this large barn-like structure at least 100 yards long. It is all made of wood and is well lit by a clerestory. The wooden walkway is lined with stalls that sell everything from homemade crafts to produce, artwork to fresh food. The last of these, fresh food, is the best part of the whole experience. The entire market is filled with the scents of fresh bread, sumptuous pastries, apple cider, breakfast burritos, crepes, all sorts of Asian cuisine

The experience is absolutely overwhelming. I felt like I was in Disneyland (somewhere between Adventureland and Frontierland). Almost every step was filled with the most brilliant aromas.

We bought some crepes at the stand in the upper left part of this picture and then ate them out on this brick pavilion by the water. These two fellas were playing some good old time country music. The dude in the blue is playing the washboard and cymbals.

That is Lake Cayuga.

"I put my new shoes on and suddenly everything is right"

If there was one word that could describe how I feel right now it would be "Awesome." Now yesterday this was not the case. So let me explain how I got to feeling awesome.

Thursdays are hard. Yesterday was no exception. However, instead of eating dinner over my studio desk, I decided yesterday morning that I was going to go home and take a two-hour dinner break. So after history class I went to Rand, handed over some material to be laser-cut, and headed home.

Then, on my way home I remembered that Thursdays are free beer tastings down the street. So I dropped off my backpack and headed down to the Green Street Tavern / Ithaca Coffee Company. Like wine tastings, pretty much everyone is happy and having a good time at a beer tasting. I actually had an interesting chat with a farmer but I'll get back to that.

I returned home and still had plenty of time to make some dinner, watch a TV show or two. Then around seven o'clock I catch a bus back up the hill and walk back to studio.

I picked up my stuff from the laser kids and got to work gluing. In about an hour and a half I had made an Awesome model. My classmates even told me it was Awesome and at this point, I really start to feel Awesome (the beer tasting was just a warm up).

I finished my drawings and got out of studio at the Awesome time of 11:30pm (most of our studio was still there and about half were still there when I came back this morning). Deborah told me that I was her hero. On my way home I talked to my Awesome girlfriend and got an Awesome amount of sleep.

Now here is where it gets good.

Do you remember what it was like to be a kid in an art class? Anything you did was good enough. Well, studio often feels like the exact opposite of that. Nothing you do is good enough. And that feels like getting punched in the face... three times a week. Pop-culture accompaniment - Buster: "Oh that is what it feels like to get punched in the face."

Today Jim picked up my model in front of the class and said, "John. I really like this. I really really like this." Two 'really's!!!

Anyways, as I was walking home I stopped at Fontana's shoe store in collegetown and purchased some all weather boots. My vans and converse have not been cutting it and I was desperately needing some waterproof footwear. The farmer I met at the beer tasting had given me one piece of advice, "Keep your feet dry." So I bought these boots and they are BOOts, rated to -25 degrees Fahrenheit. I put them on and felt pretty hardcore but also... Awesome.

AND IT IS A FOUR-DAY WEEKEND!

PROJECT 1

On Friday we gathered everything up and carefully transported our projects to Sibley Hall. All of the architectural classrooms are outfitted with walls that you can stick pins into and onto these edifices we pinned up our projects for the jurors to examine. Project by project they listened to the student's idea and proposed solution, then thoroughly questioned the student and gave suggestions for improvement. The entire process, for our studio of twelve, took about four hours.

I was second to last and when the jury finally got to my project, I had already spent enough time being nervous and gave a semi-confident presentation. After any presentation there is always a pause as the jurors collect their thoughts. Mark Morris, the director of graduate studies, broke the silence and said, "So, what is the problem?"

This is the closest thing to approval that you can get and relieved at the response I went into complexities that I thought my project didn't fully address. They had some really insightful comments and overall I was very pleased.

One of the comments had to deal with color and variety of personalities/perceptions represented. This juror was just curious why the more subjective elements of perception were not addressed and at that Mark Morris sat for a moment, then asked, "Who were you in a former life?" I laughed and said an engineer but really loved this comment because I love consistency in people. Mark Morris was the person who at orientation had urged us to not just be ourselves because that was not good enough.

~

Drawing 1

So I have talked about our initial studio venture before but let me reiterate some points. Also it is worth nothing that if you click on the photos you can see larger, higher resolution images.

The purpose of this project was to call into question the biases of traditional architectural drawing (see above). The basis of this discussion was a dinner party we planned, recorded and used to create our own method of construction. I suppose it is fitting that to begin our architectural education, we are stripped of any previous conceptions of architecture.

I chose to document movement throughout the room:


This was not my original intention, but what I came to realize is that due to the limits of human perception, specifically our cone of vision, architecture can only be experience through the passage of time.

~


Drawing 2

Project title:
Tralfamadorian Architecture

Project statement:
"There are inherent limits to human perspective and one cannot experience architecture, in its entirety, without the passage of time. Time is a dimension ignored by the traditional means of architectural drawing. My project attempts to incorporate time by granting it its own axis and placing “snapshots” of three individual perspectives onto this timeline, constructing a new architecture as the room extends into the fourth dimension."

Sketch Model A


Sketch model B (view 1)


Sketch model B (view 2)

Final Model (view 1)

Final Model (view 2)

Notes:
- a sketch model is exactly what it sounds like, a 3-D equivalent of sketching
- the final model is very mechanistic, the sleeves along the spine move up and down and the dowels holding the room fragments can be adjusted

~

And so, I learned well, that I know little and have everything yet to learn.

A Short Week and Long Blog Post

First of all, I am going to talk about my review but at the end. Since this blog is functioning as something of a public, online journal, there are other events I feel obliged to record first. For instance, this crazy week. Also, it paints a much more accurate picture of the review when you hear of the week the precedes it. Although, I suppose if you are that curious about my first project you can just scroll down.

Anyways, this week.

This week was a lot of things. It was hectic, tiring, and even fun. It was filled with long days and longer nights. It was very challenging at one time and rewarding in the next. Anyways...

On Monday I went to the gym again! I would like to gain a little of my weight back before the cold sets in and in an ideal world, I could do that through muscle gain. However, my chances at that are slim considering the "architecture student's food pyramid" that I will get to a bit later. On Tuesday things began to get crazy and Tuesday through Friday all kind of blend together. This is especially for the couple people who pulled all-nighters and on that one (or two!) occasion destroyed the traditional demarcation of calender days.

Thus, I must depart from a chronological telling of my week and hit on a few characteristics.

1. Sixteen-hour days... minimum.
Last week the modus operandi of all first year M.Arch I students was to get to school sometime in the morning and leave at least 16 hours later. For instance. I normally get to Rand Hall around 7:30am and would leave around 11:30pm. I say at least 16 hours because that means most people were working even later and indeed, as the week progressed my bed time got successively pushed back into the AM. Which I must add, I am completely happy with! I am not complaining at all. Armando and Tiffany made it through Thursday and Friday on naps!

Guess what time this picture was taken?1:30 am and no one had left

2. The "Architecture student's food pyramid."
The architecture student's food pyramid is a hollow triangle with the word "calories" written in the middle. I suppose you can subdivide the triangle but that only gets more depressing when the largest categories are coffee and whatever is in stock at the Green Dragon. I take a multivitamin in the morning and then do whatever I can to get to the 2000 calorie mark. I'm still losing weight because of all the walking I am doing and the fact that our studio is on the 3rd floor means I climb four sets of stairs at least 10 times a day.

3. Architecture jokes... yes they laugh.
Many of you have heard my engineering jokes, well architecture jokes are nothing like that and are probably only funny to people involved in architecture. The telling of these jokes is normally a mode of commiseration, either over the way we live or the disparaging reality that we are trapped in a world filled with bad design. The worst example of the latter is the joy we derive from people who use comic sans. It is terrible but true. Anybody who has taken an advertising workshop with Danny Clap remembers his aversion to the font. Well let me tell you, that aversion is universal among design disciplines. We are also not crazy about Papyrus.

4. Louie's Lunch, open 11:00AM to 3:00AM
Abiding by the main category in our food pyramid would be a lot harder if it was not for Louie's Lunch. They have an unbelievably extensive menu, everything involving heavy amounts of some type of animal fat. I say that the menu is unbelievable because well, Louie's is a truck parked across the gorge from Rand. I don't know when the last time it was driven. Despite its location (on the curb) it is hooked up to all the necessary utilities.



5. The benefit of late nights: you learn things about each other
For instance, I learned that one of my classmates had never seen a dude with pierced ears and had to ask Tiffany, who is from Anaheim, if that was normal.

6. October in Ithaca is already colder than it ever gets in California
On the first day of October I wore long underwear. I didn't tell anyone. Yes it is early for that type of capitulation but it was dang cold. My face hurt from the wind.

7. Rand Hall:
Rand should be number one on my list but I didn't feel like renumbering. Rand is where I live and where some people sleep. The bottom floor has a classroom, offices, the shop, CNC mill, and lazer cutter (sooo cool). The third and second floor both house the studios. If you look at the picture, top floor, four windows from the right, strait through to the other side of the building, is my studio (see above). You can't see this in the picture but the landscaping right in front of the entrance has all died and is slightly reminiscent of Mordor.


Anyways, those are just some of the things that characterized my week. The bonus to all of the craziness is first, that lack of sleep and freedom have enhanced quotidian experiences to the point that sunshine, good food, tea, lying down to sleep at night, are experiences now received with a sensory relief and satisfaction that I believe, must be akin to taking ecstasy. The second bonus is that I really have had to rely on God much more.

So I finally made it to Friday.

And the review, it went really well.