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'!!