The scream and wail of success

At a rather loud 18000 rpm and with a 3/4 inch bit it only took a few hours to CNC mill my final model for studio. Cleaning up the static clingy foam pellets and dust took almost as long....

The Review

Come one come all it's final review time!!

You are all invited to my final review on Tuesday the 19th of December. I should be going around 11am to 1pm but I would recommend showing up at 10:30 just to be safe. It will be held in the basement of al&d and will run all day.
On the production front it looks like one of my models will be just over five feet high, made of solid wood, and carved using the CNC router - if everything goes according to plan. Thats some of the images of it digitally underway below. It should be quite a sight...

Work in Progress

The Fine Line of Lunacy

The edge of architecture. This is definitely where things are going in the conceptual architecture world - whether you like it or not. I do appreciate the way Greg Lynn describes the work as spectacle though.

Books

What is it about the things I love that makes them hard to find? Music that's only available on Vinyl... books that are out of print.
And what is it about Architecture books that is so fantastic? Is it their thick pages, their unusual binding methods, the awe inspiring pictures? I know it's not the cost or ease of availability that's for sure.
I recently went trawling through Amazon's web listing of books on architecture in preparation for being drilled by family and friends about what to get me for Christmas. Lots of books I am interested in were listed, but only a handful were available if I wasn't willing to wait for several months. Figures. It's a shame the bulk of the really interesting projects out there only exist in books. But that is how many of today's world leading architects existed for a long time: as 'Paper Architects'. If anyone is interested and wants to stir the creative juices of a young architect, here is only a quick and incomplete list.

The Fistfight

A recent lecture by American artist James Turrell was the highlight of last week. Turrell has spent his artistic career so far exploring the properties of light and somehow giving an intangible material weight, presence, and texture. When starting on the project which made him famous, Roden Crater, he admitted in hindsight that he was a little out of his league. [Turrell started the project and has been working on it steadily since 1972 - he says he is "almost finished"] He referred to the Roden Crater project as " ... a fistfight I probably shouldn't have gotten in to. But it's too late once it's already started... "

Funny, it makes me think of Studio.
Well almost.

Making

Everyone wants me to make something. Make a drawing. Make a proposal. Make a building design. Make a poster. It's quite odd. I haven't made anything useful this year until quite recently. All of a sudden everybody wants the fruits of my creative labors.

Of course there was the huge model a few weeks ago along with mixed media presentation panels measuring 4 feet high and 23 feet long. And now Studio wants/needs detailed models of several buildings and necessary circulation routes [which are intensive] for Tuesday.

On the fun side of things is the 3D modeling / 3D printing. Make a digital model. Don't make a physical model - let a computer do that.


The Digital:
The Real:

1:750

I've been really naughty lately:
I've called none of my friends. [My parents have been barely included in the loop]
I missed a really good friends birthday. [I'm still trying to figure out how to dig myself out of that mess]
I haven't called one of my best friends in Washington DC since I don't know when.[By the way Adrienne, the painting is done...I swear!]
I haven't called another one of my best friends who is supposed to be in my neck of the woods in a few days - who wanted to hang out with me so badly that he was going to fly me to Montreal for a few days while he was there. I don't know if he is even still coming.

cripes.

I have been rather close to a model lately though. This one is not the skinny runway type but the overwhelming architectural kind. It's 78in X 56in X 40in. At almost seven feet long and five feet wide it's quite imposing and seems to have a voracious appetite for architectural materials - which might be fitting since in reality the site is almost a kilometer wide and one and a half kilometers long. Did I mention that the base the model sits on [custom built by me] has a fully articulated double sided drawer almost the same size as the model surface.
"Wanna see the underground road system? Here let me pull it out for you."
Fantastic.

So as I sit here at 1am waiting for the base coat of paint to dry I thought I would take some time and say hi/apologize to those who have suffered due to the ridiculous work schedule I've had this past 6 weeks.

The model is due Tuesday.
It only gets worse after that.

Squirming

Las Vegas is many things. A community for drinking and whoring of the earlier Mennonite communities of the area, a centre of mob activity for a time, and now a fantasy land where anything you want is available.

For me it is everything I detest about America amplified. The gambling, the excess, the boozing, the uneducated masses, the absolutely massive people which easily outnumber us healthy types 3:1, the 5 gallon Pepsi glasses yielded by 7 year old screaming drones before 9 am in the buffet line. Why is it people need a specific place to do this type of stuff? Are their lives in Lincoln Nebraska so oppressed that they have to come here in HUGE numbers to release whatever has been built up?

With the noted resurgence of the conservative movement in the USA, isn't it funny that Las Vegas is by far the fastest growing city in North America and that the majority of the tourists that come here are from traditionally conservative 'red states' who are stereotypically opposed to this kind of debauchery anyway.

Computers......

It's been a battle these past two and a half weeks. Technology has me in it's grip - and is squeezing, hard. I've crashed my computer 4 times already [problem #1]with loading way too much into the processor, and I've already spent all night here last Thursday fighting with a 3d digital model which had a tiny seam in it that I couldn't close. After 29 hours at my desk I finally managed to force it to give me this response:

Joining these edges requires a joining tolerance of 0.000921967mm. Do you want to continue? YES/NO

I clicked yes.

The wireless internet in the building has been...temperamental to say the least, so temperamental that I'm using the few school computers there are to write this as I can't connect at my desk for more than a few minutes at best[problem #2].
I saw an opportunity to take an advanced elective this fall and along with my friend Luke we are wading into the world of Advanced Computer Applications in Architecture. This includes 3d scanners, 3d printers, cnc routers, and parametric modeling.

The parametric modeling is proving to be fascinating and time consuming all at once. I haven't really explored the program yet but it does cripple my computer with it's graphics [problem#3].
I think I need to call the unofficial tech guy for our family and see what can be done, cause what I have now isn't working.

Begining Again

On Killing...

An advertisement from Bernard Tschumi

Burn it to the ground

I've been interested in Destroyed Urban Spaces for quite a while now. Most interesting right now is the MOVE! incident in Philadelphia on May 13, 1985. A situation which spiraled out of control and resulted in the local police dropping a bomb on the house from a helicopter and letting the house [and much of the surrounding ones] burn to the ground. All in all some 62 homes were completely destroyed on the Osage Ave area of West Philadelphia.
I've become fascinated with the cultural conditions surrounding these areas before and after these events.

I'm also starting to become fascinated with crack houses as well, especially when the neighbors have had enough and they storm the place and while brandishing baseball bats kick out all the squatters and addicts - and then burn the house to the ground. No one calls the cops, the fire department is never notified, and the house just burns while the citizens rejoice.

Just some things to think about I guess.

"We'd like to bring you on board."

IT'S ABOUT TIME!
About ten minutes ago I was told that I will be the latest addition to the sake slinging bar staff at an embarrassingly cool downtown hotel's Asian inspired bar/restaurant/lounge.
I start Friday, work Saturday, and then work a private function involving the owner and all of his friends Sunday night.

On an interesting side note the bar is surrounded by a custom computer designed/fabricated wall made from what looks like teak. Walls like this are cutting edge in the architecture world and was carved using a CNC Router, and the design savvy of one of the owners friends Antonio Tadrissi. Architecture seems to be following me everywhere.

On Being Selfish

"Fuck you, I do what I want."

My third [of seven] mandatory semester long studio classes is titled 'Architecture and the Metropolis'. It's focused on the greater ramifications of architecture in the world. How architecture affects the city around it and how the city affects the architecture. It has a strong urban planning slant if you can't tell by the title of the course.

Architects are often accused of playing god. We're actually encouraged by everyone to play god when you think about it. Clients want us to design the spaces they live in, actually having a say in the way they occupy built space. You could say we are obsessed with other people: how they think, what they want, who they are, and where they want to be.

You don't hear: "Fuck you, I do what I want" at all.
Why is that? Why don't architects fulfill their own desires. Wouldn't that be great! Tell your neighbors to shove off! Paint your house solid black and finish it off with some limo tint on the windows! Don't build like it's an investment to be resold at some point [thus allowing multiple personalities to enter the design process and we all know what kind of regretful crap happens when design by committee occurs].Wouldn't it be great to walk inside the space created by the mind of one person, with no one but themself in mind?

Why not?

Things like this put a smile on my face.

Yes, the second richest person in the world lives in this little stucco house. He still resides in the gray stucco home he bought in 1958 for $31,500. Totaling about 6,000 square feet, in 2003 the Happy Hollow house was assessed at just $700,000 (though the value investor thought it was really worth about $500,000). He sold one of his two 'retreat' properties in Laguna Beach, Calif., but retained one valued at about $4 million. That's still less than one hundredth of a percent of his estimated net worth. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the private residence of Warren Buffett; estimated net worth: $44 Billion.

Simply fantastic.

[To put this in perspective he is flanked by Bill Gates(#1) whose residence is so large photos of it are taken from planes,


and Lakshmi Mittal the steel magnate who lives in something that looks like a castle, which is fitting since it is next door to Kensington Palace.

With Mute an Epiphany

I'm looking for work. Well I'm almost past looking and nearly ready to beat someone to death with a baseball bat so I can take their job. Anyhoo..... As I look at the latest postings on Workopolis I glanced over to the TV. Much Music is on in the background, on mute. I stared at it for almost twenty minutes watching music videos with no sound just watching a string of Pop-Punk bands doing their thing.

A long time ago in a class, David Lieberman presented the idea that architecture was a lot like being a chef - that it was a blending of ingredients... The lecture was quite bizarre but it stuck with me...

Historically music has been considered a high art form, based in mathematics, and containing an intangible quality. But as I sit here watching these videos the patterns are all too obvious. It all sounds the same. It even looks the same. Architecture historically has been declared a high art along with music - so does that mean that architecture could have descended to the same level as this culturally stagnant music I'm not listening to? Have the ingredients that make up architecture developed into a bland and predictable pattern of lyrics and choruses?

Do I need architecture based on improvisation and unpredictability? Do I need an architecture of Jazz?

"What do you think?"

The architecture community has been slightly abuzz lately over a major project along Toronto's main waterfront. Poor urban planning and land reclamation on Lake Ontario has resulted in a substantially disconnected city from a lake it is supposed to be built alongside. The main culprit is the daunting Gardiner Expressway an elevated highway which runs along the southern edge of the city - practically right along the water. A few other near-permanent industrial sites finish off the southern edge of the city with a flourish of train tracks, expressways, smokestacks, parking lots, and historical industrial waste dumps. Photos taken from the CN Tower looking almost straight down show this perfectly. Union Station [don't get me started on that one] is the large white thing and adjacent historical building just left of center; downtown is just to the left of the photo; Gardiner on the right; and Lake Ontario sneaking in the top right.
Honestly the site needs a project so large in scale it makes me think of Boston's Big Dig. But instead Toronto will get a timid half measure which is too little too late, and fails to resolve the problems people have with getting there: Crossing a gauntlet of dank tunnels, highways and various other unpleasantness.
So what do Toronto residents get? Well potentially a diamond on the other side of a mine field.
West8 took top prize in a competition which was closely followed by the architectural community and involved several people I have come to know over the past year living here [the chairwoman of the jury was my studio supervisor for my second semester]. Their project is distinctly Canadian yet smacks a little of cliche. Five teams of finalists were selected from a large hopeful group of firms to present their ideas to the jury:
1- Foster and Partners, London UK and Atelier Dreiseitl, Uberlingen, Germany
2- WASAW
3- Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, New York and Martínez Lapena-Torres Architects, Barcelona
4- West 8, Rotterdam and du Toit Allsopp Hillier, Toronto
5- And Team P.O.R.T. made up of: Snohetta, Norway, Sasaki Associates, New York, nARCHITECTS, New York, Weisz + Yoes Architecture, New York, H3, New York, Balmori Associates, New York and Halcrow Yolles HPA, New York

I'm curious what people who read this blog think of these projects as almost all of you are not architects. In my next post, after I read some responses from all of you, I'll talk about my favourite and why.

Out With The Old, In With The New

The Old...


The New...


What is it about architecture that gets people so excited? Very few people know anything about architecture, and it's not like it has a presence in the Canadian school curriculum, yet everyone seems to have an opinion on it. "Why is it on stilts?" "What is the point of the red neon?" and "It looks like a gherkin".
Most of these responses I find are reduced to matters of aesthetic judgment based on individual taste. Very few comments are constructive, "I don't like it BECAUSE...".
Some people are just opposed to change. "Not in my backyard!!" is their battle cry - which is interesting to me.
These NIMBY's are a strange breed. They're not opposed to architectural change but as long as it doesn't affect them. They want nothing to do with it. But they don't care if it goes on somewhere else.

I currently reside in the Toronto neighborhood of The Annex, which is not unlike other places I have lived like Edgemont Village in Vancouver or Cook Street Village in Victoria. These communities are full of history and have become sought after locations for many people. These communities have developed over the years into cultural and economic diamonds within their respective cities. People are attached to them and get a strong sense of community from them. Changing what is seen to be as a perfect balance of residential retail and cultural facilities simply scares people. Maybe more nervous than scared.
In the mail yesterday arrived a promotional pamphlet for a development down the street at Bloor Street West and Bedford Road. I've become more interested in these types of pamphlets and flyers in the past few years, not from a condo buying perspective, but from an architectural perspective. The project, One Bedford, is a two tower development across the street from the ROM and the Royal Conservatory of Music [which are both undergoing a major expansion along with the Varsity Stadium across the street] and is causing a bit of fuss in the area. Most see it as a massively out scaled project which sets up Bloor Street West for major land development.
The expected population increase for Toronto is upwards of 1 million people in the next 10 to 15 years. What I find curious is that the current population seems to have an ignorant and/or arrogant view when it comes to this daunting problem. The residents are happy more or less with where and how they live, and are unwilling to accept the changes necessary to absorb this potential problem.
In a recently updated Master Urban Plan for the city major traffic corridors were deemed to be key areas for future development. These designated corridors, paired with city infrastructure [Subways] make certain areas major residential development areas. A quick trip up Yonge street between Sheppard and Finch easily shows this in full effect.
So why then are people getting so excited about this building? Is it the height? Is it just the fact that it is a modern tower which proposes a different way of living? It's not a crazy design. In fact it's by one of the top architecture firms in Toronto.
I think what I find so interesting is that The Annex community is regarded as being extremely well educated [having the highest concentration of PhD's in Canada] yet the residents retreat to an isolationist type of thinking when development comes knocking. There's no intelligent conversation between either side. It's simply "we hate it, not here". The argument continues over about a year and a half at various community meetings and municipal development appeal processes until a moment of critical mass where the project is either built or scrapped. If scrapped the project is usually redesigned, gestates for a while and is eventually reproposed. In the case of the Bloor and Bedford site the project was proposed as a 19-storey tower some years ago but was shot down for various reasons. It was reproposed early in 2005 with a completely new design and interestingly was approved for construction. Interesting since the new design is significantly larger than the last one.

Panel three and panel two

Here's a rendering looking from the beach towards Santa Monica Canyon. The gap in the roof is an indicator of where the river output was before my massive building went in. The roof undulates as it gets closer to this area of maximum environmental degradation until the roof finally fractures into an opening.


This is a "European Remote Sensing 1" satellite radar image of stormwater runoff plumes from the LA and San Gabriel Rivers into the LA and Long Beach Harbors. The predominant all-black spots are the warmer fresh water billowing out into the Pacific ocean and was a major inspiration for the damage the water has on the local area. This image made up almost an entire panel of my 5 panel layout.

The fifth panel

So the general theme of the project was one set in the future when the famous coastal bluffs of the Pacific palisades are being aggressively attacked and eroded by rising sea levels. In keeping with LA's massive engineering infrastructure the entire beach is blanketed with a steel mesh with a design appropriated from land erosion prevention systems and covered with a surface capable of treating polluted water runoff from the mainland. Humans will inhabit the space between this massive 'blanket' and the beach below. Water will be taken from a polluted river which flows through the site and pumped up onto the roof through a series of 2 meter wide poles which do double duty holding up the roof. The water is filtered and pours through the roof at select locations. The water pouring off the roof creates the walls of the program. [one cannot get into the pool without walking through a wall of 'clean' water]. The view above is from the PCH highway looking south. You can see the trusses in the grid formation taken from the erosion systems, and in some spots you can see the water pouring off the roof to create the walls.

More to come!

I tried just posting the panels as I printed them, but there is so much detail in them it was lost when it gets shrunk from 35inches to 5inches - so only certain parts will get posted.

Taking a risk, Taking a break

Ian Chodikoff, the editor of Canadian Architect Magazine came up to me after my year end presentation and told me "It's really good. Aggressive. Good work." As did Bruce Kuwabara, Bridgette Shim, and Diana Balmori.

I was extremely nervous going into my final review as I had very little resolved with about 9 days until my presentation. I didn't have a building. I had a lot of research and a lot of ideas but nothing had developed over the previous weeks.
On the last day of school my studio supervisor Bridgette Shim came up to me and told me with a smile: "You have a lot of work to do."
I have stated earlier that I was going to dive into a classic 'student project' complete with all the customary trappings: crazy visuals, aggressive ideas, a complete lack of reality....
I even added things that were quite unusual for an architectural poster/panel: such as a girl in a bikini wearing a gas mask. Now I could explain it all and I could make it all make sense, but it was just so different from anything anyone had done all year that I wasn't too sure as to what to expect.
"You have got balls of steel." was Johanna's response when she saw my panels which were equaled by my model which was so large and conceptual that the main roof surface [which I had made out of a stiff galvanized steel mesh which I laminated to a black canvass fabric] started to pour off the edges of the site model and onto the floor - piling up around the feet of the critics.
All in all my fellows students were quite engaged in my project and really got behind me on it. But none of them knew how the critics would take it.
In the past eight months I've seen what I thought were good projects get destroyed by an agitated panel of critics. I though I was totally setting myself up for this as there were obvious holes in my project [The main issue I had was the major problem of detailed plans of where things went like change rooms, restaurants, retail spaces etc... I had ideas and some areas were demarcated but the specifics were lacking].

The project was so big that some things needed to be left behind or ignored for the greater good. It was a lesson for all of us in the successful representation of our projects and how to show off our ideas the best way possible. No one could do everything on the massive list of things they asked us to do. So instead we have to edit the list down to the most important things there and try to blend things together to make the list smaller. So if I could somehow come up with a diagrammatic sectional perspective drawing instead of a diagram, a section, and a perspective I could in fact have three things in one drawing instead of having to do three drawings. I tried to make sure I got 4 hours of sleep a night for the last two weeks of school and somehow I got it done to a point where I felt I could present it.
I'll post the panels here in the next day or so....

Project Update

No time to write but enough time to show you a quick rendering of what I'm woking on....
Think 'Chisto and Jeanne Claude' versus architecture.

Already?

I started to clean out my desk today in preparation for Summer break. Lots of debris managed to bury itself under the organized chaos that is studio. I had a review yesterday of my visual communications work - a class based solely on representation and experimentation with the presentation of visual information. My site Engineering class is done. My History paper is due on Monday and the big final presentation is spread over the 24th and the 25th. That gives me 11 days of total hell.
I can't believe it's been a year. It feels like ten years and only a few weeks at the same time. I still have no idea exactly what architecture is but I know I want to find out exactly what architecture is to me.

Humor

In response to recent 'episodes' of hopeless despair [see previous posts] I have decided to have some fun. I'm going to create a really weird student project. Architecturally this well known genre generally consist of projects completely devoid realistic human interaction, structural considerations, or any other type of rational quality that my parents brilliantly embedded within me while growing up.
To hell with reason! Be gone sane thoughts! Research be damned! It's time to make the building I've never even thought of!!! Maybe it'll fly? Why not. It's not like there's a budget or anything.

I know you're all bugging me for examples of stuff I'm doing so....
Maybe this?

Answers

They're just not here. I have absolutely no answers for this project. I just can't get into it. I'm so goddamned frustrated with this project. I keeping researching hoping something, some sort of an answer will appear. Tidal charts. Erosion systems. Soil analysis. Historical Photos. Cultural history of the site. Other precedents around the world. Stormwater filtration systems. Large-Span steel structures. Core samples. Satellite radar data. It all seems so arbitrary and my interest in this project has totally vanished. I'm tearing my hair out and getting nowhere. Someone told me I'm thinking about it way too much, I should just choose something and stick with it.
I just can't do it. I keep looking for something - the one thing that'll make all of this stuff piled on my desk make any sense. All I see is a pile of crap that is moments away from being tossed in the rubbish. I'm so tired of producing garbage. I'm surrounded in the studio by 40 students all working on the same project and I don't like any of their work.
I just can't get started on this project. The 20 page History papers are easy to do. The site Engineering class has been a breeze. But when it comes to studio I am......lost. I have a mountain of work I should have done for a review on Monday, but don't have anything because I can't create a project I believe in.

I don't even know what I believe in.

[The picture above is from a European Space Agency Remote Sensing satellite and it is a radar image of stormwater runoff plumes from the LA and San Gabriel Rivers into the LA and Long Beach Harbors]

Questioning the Origin of Form

Originality and arguments supporting or contesting if it actually exists have been around for ages. I am absolutely not interested in examining this argument today[or ever] but I am curious about the idea of originality in the architectural sense. The process in which any creative type gets inspiration is questionable for me. Is it simply a development, a further iteration of ideas and work done previously by the artist, an expression of something the artist has experienced; OR is it totally original and fresh and not based in anything seen or done previously? And further from this argument - the artifact that is left behind, the sculpture, why does it take the form that it does? How is it presented, is it in a gallery? If so why? Could it look like something else or does it absolutely have to look the way it does? Why the material choices?

Well you get the point.

I am currently going through a major theoretical crisis about the origin of form in architecture. With all the technological possibilities, new materials, etc, why are we designing and building things the way we are? Why does it look like that when we can build this? Why do I have 12 different models on my desk of the same project? Why are they all different when I'm approaching them from the same angle?

When we design here [as it is in other schools] the approach is as follows:
A program is given for a particular location. Now this involves what the site will be. Is it a courthouse or an athletic center, a movie theatre, a shopping mall, whatever.
Sketch models are produced. Usually quick 5 minute experiments following a theme of some kind. Something the individual wants to 'explore'.
The program is integrated into the sketch models through more refined models and more accurate drawings of possible relationships. Usually rulers start to get used somewhere in this period.
Initial concept designs are the result so far and they are refined usually through the act of creating multiples to flush out the initial ideas, then...
A final design is reached.

Is the approach currently being taught the trend? In the Renaissance it was simply a matter of copying what had happened before and using an architectural language developed by the Greeks and the Romans; columns, symmetry, grand entrances, etc. When I look back on architecture of the Renaissance [or just about anything pre-1880] we have come a long way in developing fresh ideas and new approaches. But this is where I am having trouble.
Are we really doing anything different? And more importantly am I? Words are thrown around a lot in the beginning of the design process. A lot of verbs seem to be lobed back and forth amongst he desks. One student in the previous athletic center design project was interested in looking at muscles and how they act. Athletics - Muscles - seems like a logical way to start, and he wanted to explore the compression and stretching that occurs when a muscle is being used. This was applied architecturally through a series of 'moments' where areas of the building were subtly compressed or stretched in a similar way to a muscle. A neat idea....but why? The reasons for the 'why?' seem far to superficial to me. "It's a sports complex so muscles seem like a natural place to start off." I'm just not buying it. My response is "So what?" Everyone in the studio is trying to show something or explore something but I'm just not getting it. Everyone is trying to do something new, but the approaches are still the same. The design methodology is still the same from project to project.
Now some architects have broken new ground exploring ideas in the last hundread years, but a lot of stuff is - I don't know. Uninspiring? The same old stuff repackaged?
Obviously even I don't know. I'm still not sure exactly where my conflicts lay. But this whole 'why does it look the way it does?' argument I have just won't die.

Elsewhere

There's something about a city other than the one you live in. For some reason I analyze them on a rigorous list of requirements chosen by me, and I judge them on their pros and cons. Los Angeles is very far from Toronto. Maybe not that far in the world, but five hours by plane is far enough. But what I mean by far is in a different sense. There's this substantial cultural shift from this city to that one. But what is it? What made the city so different in so many ways? The Gold Rush? The Film Industry? The Weather? The Surfers? In a city so far from what I've become used to around here, Los Angeles looks like some sort of frat house drunk utopian wonderland. Downtown looks more like a fortress than a vibrant city center. Public transportation is laughable in comparison, and the extent to which a car is necessary to get around is blatantly obvious after just a day or two.
L.A. did surprise me though. It was much cleaner, and was overgrown with vegetation and plants and landscaping to complement some very expensive properties. And even between the highways and on the lower class streets there were palm trees and flowers and such growing in appreciation of the perpetually good climate. People were friendly and laid back, and it was generally very beautiful.
What is fascinating however is what is in L.A. for a person like me.
"You're going on an architecture tour of L.A.? What's down there?"
Well, a lot of good architecture for one thing:
Arguably the most influential and most important house built in the last 30 years is Gehry's personal residence in Santa Monica.[1978]

The Cathedral of our Lady by Rafael Moneo.[2002]

The Schindler House [1922]

Charles and Ray Eames' Home.[1945]

Also there was:
SciArc
The Disney Concert Hall.
The LA River.
The office of Morphosis Architects.
The Office of Gehry Partners.
Ray Kappe's personal residence with a tour by Kappe himself.
And the sprawling $1B Getty Center

To name just a few of the things I crammed into four days.....[not to mention the site for my next project.]

L.A. was weird and wonderful. A voyeuristic dream of blondes and beaches. But absolutely not for me. I guess it was like Kitsilano with several billion dollars added to the mix. For a city seeming to be obsessed with the 'show' and having a pseudo-voyeuristic slant; after just a few short days I feel like I have seen all that L.A. has to offer, which is a lot by the way, but I'm not that interested. There is just no mystery left.

2.5 Twist Reverse Pike Somersault

NOTE THIS IS BEING POSTED ON THE 28TH BUT WAS WRITTEN ON THE 24TH. I'M NOT ONE FOR BACKDATING BLOGS BUT ATTEMPTS TO PASS THIS INFORMATION ON TO THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE WHEN I WAS IN THE MOOD TO DO IT HAVE FAILED AND NOW I'M GOING OUT OF TOWN. SO....


There's nothing more dramatic then passing out in the studio. Unless, of course, one does it after cutting the tip of one's thumb off and doing a pseudo-conscious backflip over the back of one's chair while tying to sit down after feeling somewhat lightheaded during an attempted personal gauze application.
Now I'm not one to worry my mother, I think I've put her through more than enough in the past, but I should say that the above described individual was me AND I AM FINE. EXCELLENT. STUPENDOUS I do have a large lump on the back of my head from where I hit the radiator on the way down [Did I forget to mention that?], which has resulted in a staggeringly large headache. My good friend Lisa who just happened to have walked up to my desk asked me what was up after seeing gauze on my desk. She arrived in just enough time for me to say "I cut my thumb." *CUE BLACKOUT* She asked why I was so yellow about a half second before I did a not so graceful dive over the back of my chair. Jon, who sits next to me, had called an ambulance before I regained total consciousness, and I spent a minute on the floor of the studio trying to figure out exactly just what had happened until paramedics showed up.
Now the piece of my thumb that was taken off seemed small enough to not warrant any of this type of drama [not even to the fingernail - a tiny little shaving really]. It came off in an amazingly clean fashion and I was quite calm and reserved while I walked over to the first-aid kit near the sink. I gave it a quick rinse, patted it dry, and grabbed some gauze and tape to wrap it up; all with the idea that this was so small I needn't worry anyone about such a little thing and I could simply just get back to work.
So the Aquatic Center model I was working on is now on hold and I have a meeting with my supervisor later today to discuss the deadline I have on Monday.
Now all of this happened last night and I was in absolutely no mood to discuss it last night,[You know who you are],I just wanted to put my massive headache to bed. And now I simply want to return to normal and get back to work. It was such a small little cut, simply exploded into a big scene by a low blood-sugar [4.1] and a rather unexpected queasiness.
I guess now there's just a little less of me to spread around.
Once Again, Feel Great - Excellent - Marvelous!

It's the 19th??

I have a major presentation, a monster paper, and prep for a trip out of the country - all happening within 3 days of each other next week. And I still have no idea what I'm doing for the summer. I'm going to have to put on some serious charm and make a few phone calls and see if can get a job in a firm in town. I'll do anything, pour coffee, whatever.
How am I this far behind? At least everyone else is just as wired as I am.

The Conversation

There's lots of buildings out there, lots of construction, but as I have felt for a long time, and recently highlighted by a rather vocal visit of Toronto-raised starchitect Frank Gehry, there is very little architecture. But what is this architecture? When I look at the city I left behind for this one - the similarities are interesting and possibly unfortunate. Vancouver didn't have the shear amount of property to expand onto when it started to grow. For Toronto it was simply a case of living a little further away and commuting just a little farther. Vancouver developed extensively in recent years, [post expo'88] and developing out was only sustainable for so long. Vancouver suffers [?] from a geographical constriction by being located next to the ocean on one side, the mountains on another, and major rivers through the middle. Commuting is not really feasible when there are only so many bridges, in fact it is actually quite difficult to go very far without having to cross a major bridge at all. Commuting in Vancouver is made up of a series of bottle-necks with some land between them. Living close to work was needed for the populations sanity. When expo was gone from the banks of False Creek, the residential condos started to go up. And boy did they go up.
Now Vancouver has created something quite interesting and not seen in many cities around the world - a densely populated urban fabric in the heart of the city. Towers are spaced beautifully, and their modern lines and glass are something unique to the developing skyline of Vancouver. The City of Glass has developed without even really knowing what it was doing. If you've ever walked through this fledgling area of Vancouver the towers are beautifully fresh and their proximity to services, work, and open spaces is impressive. Landmarks, however are few and far between. All of these towers look the same. Every single one. None of them are trying something new, proposing a different way of building, or living, or occupying the space in which we live. Now can Concord Pacific, one of the major developers of this area and one of the major players here in Toronto's latest development, be held accountable? Well, to expect a business working in a field as competitive as construction to take a risk and try something new is not going to happen. They are in the business of minimizing their risk. Investing millions of dollars in something untested with unknown results is just not done very often. So the result is twins, triplets, quadruplets, of repetitive building designs. "Ohh we'll change the floor heights, this one will be just a bit shorter, that'll create some visual interest!" Are we buying this crap? Apparently we are. And in Toronto, there seems to be a new crane along the southern edge of the city almost weekly.
Accidents in architectural design are unfortunate and do happen. However, tower after tower of boring, ugly, and deplorable shitiness, is starting to result in something new. More of an interest in design. A good thing no? Home renovation shows are booming on television aren't they?
But I'm beyond paint colors and the type of shiny chrome faucets in the bathroom, what are we living in? Architecture and it's resultant projects is a contribution to a conversation about the possibilities and goals of the population. When was the last time someone was rewarded for playing it safe at anything?
So as we build up, and explore the high rise world of living, are we really improving our way of life? Are developers actually developing anything at all or just recycling a formula which seems to work?

ps. Image is Steven Holl's "Simmons's Hall" a student residence at MIT, completed in 2002. Go and check him out. You can get in with the tiny 'entry' text in the top left.

Technology

Architecture used to be based in the world of T-squares, Triangles, Pencils and Paper. Until recently this has been they way of the architect for as long as architects have been around.
Today architecture is caught up in the technology boom, and many firms around the world don't use paper at all in the office. Technology is here to stay, and it's possibilities are amazing. However, it seems like we are just playing around looking for something visually cool and not really considering the ramifications of what we are doing. Exactly what is the point of doing something like what these programs are capable of? I feel like all we are doing is exploring the possibilities and not actually creating something good.
In a positive sense architecture has broken away from it's Cartesian roots and is free to explore the actual intents of the designers. We as architects are no longer limited to something like complex geometry and engineering issues. Did you know Jorn Utzon, the designer of the famed Sydney Opera House is rumored to have had to radically alter his original design [towards the conservative] because the original shape was too complex. However it is generally the most daring building projects which change the way we look at architecture, and change architecture itself. In time maybe even this will be a masterpiece...
OCAD

Aftermath

The bulk of the month's attention in the building has been towards the Thesis Presentations/Critiques/Defenses. On the 14th and 15th the Thesis students were scattered all over the building presenting their work to faculty, students, and visiting critics. Exactly what thesis 'is' still seems a bit of a mystery to me and others in my class. It seems more of an open book to explore the seemingly infinite possibilities of architecture; whether it be practical, theoretical, conceptual or total fantasy. There are the occasional hints that we should be thinking about our thesis already, reading books, looking at plans, researching; but I just don't know what I feel like just yet. I'm still getting my feet wet so to speak.
There are a few themes though which seem to come around again and again. Lebbeus Woods seems to be a perpetually recurring individual and his work is both visually and theoretically impressive. I know I'm interested in urban centers and things like population expansion, human density, and reintroducing structures left abandoned in the city grid.

Regardless, thesis is now done and the building seems quieter and a little empty from all the activity. I encourage all of you who read this who are in the area to come over, take me out for lunch, and look at some really fascinating projects. Some practical, some inventive, some offensive, and others which defy a description. They should be on display until the end of February.

New newer newest

Yes the realm of the new is upon me! At the top of the list is a girl who wouldn't take no for an answer when I met her. And here we are almost a year later and her purses (ridiculous in color, variety, size, and most noticeably to me, quantity) are exercising their feminine influence on my ridiculously tiny closet. It is so nice to come home to someone in the house; specifically a human being as having my sisters cat with me for 3 weeks before Christmas affirmed that I am DEFINITELY NOT a 'cat person'. Moreover she is on my side when it comes to the staggering workload and the stress it takes out on my life outside of the studio, she can make dinner[she's at "Chippy's" as we speak], she helps out with groceries, and rubs my back for the ten minutes I manage to spend awake when I get home until I pass out in her lap on the couch. I think she's fantastic; I do worry that I'm not around enough but she knows what I'm trying to do at the studio.
Other new things relating to her recent arrival consist of her demands of internet and cable TV at home. The internet has allowed me to keep up with the streaming broadcasts of BBC Radio One's music shows and specifically radio dj Gilles Petersen's Sunday night show Worldwide. The shows are amazing and it is the number one source of music for me. This is where I generally find all that crazy imported stuff my mother has to order by August in order for it to show up by Christmas. The most recent acquisition I've made from his selections of music is a New Zealand group by the name of Fat Freddy's Drop. And as they do their thing in the background I must think of the other new things going on....
I've been on a bit of a book buying spree lately picking up books on Thomas Hirschhorn, Ukiyo-e, and Zaha Hadid. There are more on the way and a lighter workload this semester has allowed me to sneak in a few glances at their glossy pages.
I voted early last week and my riding was a hot battle ground as the wife of the NDP leader runs here and has lost twice previously. She won as I suspected [I do live in a heavily student populated area] and it seems I've been unable to shake the stank shadow of the Orange Cloud which has followed me from the west.
The sun is starting to come up so that means I'm late [but not as late as my student loan is] so I should get at it and head off to school in the next few minutes.

a side note: "GADZOOKS!!!!"

Total costs of supplies for last semester which I just added up just blew my hair back and I thought I'd blow back some of yours too. I'm still missing from the total at least $150-200 in lumber costs which I don't have any receipts for yet. There were some weird costs for things which I'll have for a very long time and I knew the set up costs would be substantial. Still it is impressive considering this is on top of tuition, books etc..

Ready?

$1713.49

Can't you feel it? It's like a F1 car with the top down.....

New .....everything.

Since this blog is school focused I'll start there but that's not to say that all the things which are new in my life are less important.
A new semester at architecture school means a new studio class. I hadn't really thought of what the ramifications of this would be and decided to find out as I experienced the new supervisors. I think I was quite lucky to get a guy by the name of An Te Liu. A graduate of SciArc he is the young director of the Masters program at the University of Toronto's al&d. His viewpoint seems to be from the art world and he is a known installation artist in North America. I like the things he has to say and seems to be wide open to strange proposals and even encourages radical approaches to architecture and design.
At the end of last semester we were led to believe that we would stay in the same desks and our class would remain in the four groups it had been split into. Still four groups but who was in which group changed - I didn't have a problem with this but it did take ALL DAY for the class to move ALL OUR STUFF to our new homes. I have
been blessed with a sunny south facing window right next to my desk and I am enjoying the spectacular natural light and great views.
New projects abound and they threw a big one at us right away. A sports complex adjacent to the Rosedale neighborhood in Downtown Toronto. The site is rather complex as it is right in the middle of a natural gully formed by a ravine which has since been sealed off and buried and covered with 'Ramsden Park'; a bleak and ridiculously artificial greenbelt just north of Bloor and Yonge. With a swimming pool, gymnasium, squash courts, etc... It is a big project to be sent our way with only one building under our belt so far.
Other classes are developing well; the Dean is teaching our history class and he has his own book on the subject which, of course, is the textbook. It is quite readable and thankfully fails to be too academic. By this I mean the writing style of run on sentences which last almost entire pages and which are THE #1 THING I HATE ABOUT ACADEMIA. He comes to us via Harvard's Graduate School of Design.
Why all the heavy-weights thrown at the first year? Who knows but the upper years are jealous and I am happy as can be.

Next post: the 'other new stuff'!!

What? Tomorrow?!

Time seems to have flown by and dragged at the same time. When school ended I felt destroyed. I had absolutely nothing left to give. I slept for a day [yes the whole thing]. Did laundry for a day [yes the whole day -$37 dollars at the Laundromat]. Bought groceries and rented a 7 inch wide block of DVD's at blockbuster. A day of that and I was ready to go back. We have been blessed[?] with a warm winter so far and it's nice to get out on the bike; it feels like I'm almost stealing rides with the weather being like this. But I want to go back. I want to keep going. I'm ready.

On a side note the time has allowed me to repaint the bedroom, hallway, stairs, living room, and a minor and not yet complete renovation of the kitchen.