Surprise!

Over the last few days I have been surprised by a few things. Many of which have caught me off guard but made the last few days rather interesting in the sea of architectural madness that I lost myself in this semester.

1 It's Christmas next week. I must have missed the memo on this one. I have but 4 days to start thinking about this, implement a plan, and do some serious shopping.

2 It's winter. Snow lasting more than a week is a novelty out west. Here it seems like a way of life for the next several months.

3 There's a "Field Trip" to Los Angeles next semester. For five days four professors and 30 odd students are trekking off to sunny California to explore Architectural splendor. Some of our professors have serious connections into various offices down there and are working on getting us access to Morphosis and Frank Gehry.

4 I have more food at the studio than I have at home. Seriously.

5 I have at least two weeks off to do nothing.

So I'm heading home to my little house in the Annex. I think I'll exercise my Bockbuster account and see how many bags of popcorn is too many bags of popcorn.

The Finish Line?

"Oh, I'm sorry. You thought you were done did you? Hah! How about a 3d hand drawn perspective. Let's make it due the day after tomorrow. Oh, you haven't done one yet and have no idea how to do it? You better get on that."

The Pin Up

I sitting here in the corner of the main presentation room. It's a frenzy and people are everywhere.
I'm using the computer reserved for digital presentations by professors and upper level students. It's a big no-no to use these computers for other things since they are essential for people's project displays. However... There isn't a free computer in the building so......
Shane Williamson, our studio's chief professor smiled at me when he unlocked the door and found me in the corner Photoshoping away.
"How did you get in here?"
I smile and say nothing.
"What are you doing?"
"It's the only computer available in the entire building."
He smirks and proceeds to organize people into the room. It appears he is a fan of resourcefulness and I think I just made a slight impression.


...Back to work.....

The project looks good so far, but some finishing touches are still needed.
Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

The photo above is of the Bobco Metals Headquarters by null_lab

GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO.......

So this is how the final project looks so far. I have five days and LOTS to do. Just thought you'd all be curious. I'm using 1/4" birch plywood, and white core mat board [which is surprisingly expensive]. For a sense of scale the building is about 30 inches wide - the corresponding site model of the adjacent buildings [which are under my desk right now for simplicity] bring the total model to 36"x24"x26". My desk has completely vanished under this thing.
On a lighter note I'm still having fun, and not minding the long hours. I'll be mostly done this Monday except for a few pesky admin type things - nothing like what I'm experiencing right now.

Nine Easy Pieces

With nine days to go until the main studio review and 60% of my grade to be decided it looks like an interesting time ahead. When we have our final studio reviews it is customary for guest critics to be there to provide a critical response to our work. We haven't been informed of the names of the guest critics but they did say they were in the midst of confirming up to eight critics. With the regular studio supervisors included, not to mention other faculty there could be as many as 15-20 critics split between two groups. The guest critics are often prominent architects from the city and abroad [who happen to be in town] and even their names can be quite intimidating - never mind standing up in front of them and talking about your work.
I'm looking forward to it. I just don't want to go first.