Autumn

Autumn is the prettiest season in my opinion.  At least if you have maples and other beautiful deciduous trees where you live.  I follow a blog called Seattle Daily Photo so I can get a little taste of home.  The blogger has some great photography and I'm always inspired.  She's recently posted some beautiful photos of autumn in Seattle, specifically trees changing color before their leaves fall.  Makes me homesick.

This is interesting because I was thinking about trees earlier today as well.  My case study group and I visited our project site in Woodside, CA.  Woodside is small town right next to Palo Alto and it's beautiful there.  The drive down took us through a valley covered in evergreens which I am not used to seeing in California.  Then we saw the lake in the valley reflecting the trees and causing a light fog a couple of layers up.  In the immortal words of Don Swearingen, "so fine."  It just reminded me of home and how much I dislike the dust covering the hills of San Luis Obispo and how wonderful it is when after the winter rains, suddenly the dust is green.

It was a beautiful day and the property the house is on is awesome!  Tennis courts, pool, huge yard, barn, long gated drive, it's like there should be this huge mansion on the hill.  I'm glad there isn't.  This house is big, but not huge and I think it fits well into the landscape.  The house itself it definitely a little funky because it's been through so many remodels, but it's still a nice house.  Unfortunately, I didn't take some good photos of the front but that's not the good part.

 

View from the future living room to the central patio.  These sliding doors are original and will stay.  They will be mirrored on the other side of this room as well which is the front entry to the house.  Should make a great indoor/outdoor space.

 

Kitchen/living room.  It's pretty nice but was definitely added on.  It's in a completely different style than the rest of the house.

 

Kitchen.  If I had taken a better photo, this kitchen could be in a magazine. 

 

Patio off future living room and game room.

 

Huge backyard.  I could see so many awesome birthday parties in this backyard.

  

Pool house.  Sort of reminded me of the Neptune pool at Hearst Castle.  That's not to say that this is extremely over the top because it's not, I just got that vibe. 

After touring the house and property, we went to the principal architect's house nearby because it's currently under construction and our mentor wanted us to be able to experience that.  It was cool to see a house under construction and it was nice, but it wasn't amazing.  I'm sure I'd feel differently if it were closer to being done.  

After touring that house, we went and saw some other projects that he has done in the area.  He's done a lot of houses in Woodside, it's kind of crazy.

When I got back to my firm, I had a quiet day of editing drawings and images.  I'm really ahead on my pet project and they don't seem to have a lot for me to do.  I finally have some other things to do.  Right now I'm editing plans and sections for a press kit.  Basically removing on the technical information and making them look pretty.  I also had to track down some images and format them for a magazine article being written about the firm.  A few days ago I was searching for photos on google images for a brochure being put out for a blossoming non-profit.  Looking at some much photography has been making me really want to get into that hobby and/or profession.

The afternoons seem to drag on so slowly at the office.   Today, Karen, who interns at the firm right next door to mine, called me and told me go outside for a second.  She came out and gave me a cookie!  Dark chocolate chip cookie with sea salt sprinkled on top.  While I don't like dark chocolate truffles with sea salt, the cookie was delicious.  I felt so honored because I don't really know Karen.  We walk to the bus together in a group after class so we've had minor interaction, but earlier this week she suggested we take the bus together to class.  We talked about baking and she mentioned that she wanted to bake more because she gets bored in the evening (what? I guess it helps when your commute is only a half hour as opposed to 1.5 hours.  She's also Karen and has a reputation for being amazing).  I never thought she'd randomly bring me a cookie in the middle of the day.  Totally awesome!  Great way to start off the weekend!

November is here!

First of all, congrats to the Giants for winning the world series!  Being from Seattle, I've never experienced my team winning the championship (go Mariners!) and the vibe of the city was really cool to see.  I don't follow sports much because I have other things I'd rather do, but I'll get into it if there's a game on and I have my teams that I root for.  I was pulling for the Giants and it was great to see them get it done.

November is here (already?) and that means Thanksgiving is in a few weeks!  Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday for a few reasons.  1. All the delicious food!!  2. Great time to catch up with family, although not so much this year since we're scattered all over the place.  And 3. -The Tie-Breaker, No pressure to get the perfect gift.  Secret reason 4.  The day after kicks off my Christmas preparations starting by breaking out my Christmas Music playlist.  Can't wait! 

 This week has been a little up and down.  I've been working on layouts for the marketing publication.  I spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning feeling like I'm just going around in circles trying to find something I like that's different from what I've already got.  Then Wednesday afternoon I got a break by tidying up the materials library.  So dusty.  It was nice though.  My mentor prefaced with "I've got a left-brained activity for you," and I remembered that I really am left-brain dominant.  Organizing, math, and music are my strong points.  Creativity, not so much. Yesterday I could have really gotten into reorganizing their whole library, which is really out of order.

I spent this morning continuing my quest for an alternative layout.  I had a case study meeting with Arcanum which I enjoyed.  I think I enjoy those meetings because it's like listening to a story.  A story about a historic house remodel, but to me it's riveting.

Last night was our case study mid-term presentation.  It did not go well.  Myself and my team are mostly to blame (one didn't show), but so is our professor and our case study mentor.  Our mentor is great but keeps our meetings to an hour which isn't enough time, and repeats herself.  We hadn't gotten much of a chance to ask questions, but we also hadn't formulated them.  My professor shouldn't have shown so much disappointment because I specifically asked her what she wanted for the presentation and she said "Nothing specific, just show progress.  I know you guys have been busy settling into your firms."  I guess we didn't make enough progress.  So today we spent our whole meeting going over what we need for the presentation.  

After the meeting I went back MHA for a lunch and learn.  I got to hear a guy talk about cement board, look at samples, and get free food!  I arrived late and missed the first part of the presentation but I wondered if it was the guy's first day, because he was not very good.  He didn't have a presentation up, he was switching back and forth between photo albums to show examples of the product.  Later, everyone else said he was awful.  Poor guy.  

After lunch, I talked with my mentor about the layouts for the publication and I finally get to move onto making mock-ups or two partis.  I was miserable on this project before when I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over and I thought it was the project or my short attention span, but I really think I just want to feel like I'm making progress.  After talking with my mentor and moving on I started enjoying it again and I was able to focus.  I just find it interesting how when I think I hate everything about architecture and start thinking about what I'm going to do once I graduate and can be done with this, I start to like it and get sucked back in.  Sounds like an abusive boyfriend.

Intership: Week 1

Happy Halloween!

My final review is past and gone, thank goodness. I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked. I didn't have any perspectives as usual even though I know they are the most important because they weren't required and I'm just plain not good at them. I also ended up having to present earlier than I thought and therefore had to talk about the site information for our jurors which I wasn't prepared for and subsequently froze up and fumbled my presentation. I was also the first to be reviewed by a somewhat harsh critic so I was a little crushed afterwords. Whatever. It was a five week project so I guess I shouldn't have expected to make as much progress as in past quarters.

But now I'm a week into my internship and I'm enjoying it for the most part. Sitting in a chair and leaning in to see my computer screen makes me pretty stiff by the end of the day. I haven't gotten to do much architectural stuff yet, but I've been working on some marketing stuff. I have to keep a journal for the internship anyway so my first two posts are below. I know I need to be taking pictures, but it's kind of awkward to take pictures of people while they're working away and I'm supposed to be doing the same. I'll post when I take some.

Mark, the principle, is pretty cool but likes to give me crap. He does that to everyone, but I'm not as good with my comebacks yet. My mentor, David, has been pretty great too. I worry that I'm working too slowly and not making enough progress on my projects, but I'm learning and he hasn't said anything about it. I only have a month left which is unbelievable. Then back to SLO to earn some money and see my kitties!


Day One

Today I arrived and sat down with my mentor, David, and went over a few projects he had lined up for me. The first is updating the mailing list for their promotional materials. The second is a marketing magazine for their residential projects. This involves designing a layout that can be used again for their commercial and institutional projects later on. The third project is working on the submittal paperwork for an online architectural journal called Formness.
As the first two projects weren’t ready, I spent the day researching projects and putting together the submittal forms for each project. It was a good first project to get me familiar with the firm and their work. The firm had published 15 projects previously with a similar online journal, so I worked off of the submittal form for that project and resized all the same pictures.

Day Two

Today I continued work on the Formness submittal forms. I searched through their digital portfolio of press releases and photos to fill in as much detail as I could. After exhausting my resources, I printed a copy of the forms for each of the 15 projects for David and Mark to review.
David then put me to work helping Keith on the El Camino project. I was tasked with finding the spec sheets for a long list of plumbing fixtures the owner had purchased before bringing in Mark Horton Architecture for the remodel.

mid-review

Friday was the mid-review for our projects. Eight hours of presentations on two hours of sleep was difficult.
I hate reviews. Not because I don't like giving presentations (those are getting easier) but because I always feel so inadequate. I worked really hard to get stuff done for this presentation but still didn't have enough progress to show the reviewers. I got a few good critiques but I could tell they wanted more.
I think my problem is that I take too long to make a decision. I struggle hard with design. I always end up hating my project which makes me not want to work on it. It seems like design comes so much easier to most of my classmates and I find myself trying to keep up with them, but I just can't.
At this point I just want to get my degree done and then figure out what I'm really going to do with my life. The thing is I like design, but I don't love it. I don't think I'm good at it, and maybe if I was I would enjoy it more.
Enough of my whining. Here's the plan I spent soooo long on (and it's still not done).



Here's a diagram to explain things.



I'm not posting my other drawings or sections because they are going to change. A lot. Okay, time to learn sketchup. Hopefully, that will help me get up to speed.

Week 2

Week 2 went by quick! I've been going back and forth again and again between two different organizational layouts, but I think I finally made a decision. I think half the reason I struggle with design so much is that I make too many assumptions and that I never know how to move forward. The other half is that I get distracted too easily. I didn't used to...
Anyway, now I know what I need to do, it's great. I just hope I can get it done in time. It probably didn't help that I took a mental health day today, but sometimes you just need a break.


Concept model


Organizational Diagram


Rough plan


Entrance sketch

In other news, we did an office visit Wednesday at Field Paoli, the firm that did the renovation on the Marina Branch Library (our site). The talk we heard was really helpful, informative, and inspiring. It was also really helpful just to see how their office works. Then on Thursday, we had our first case study meeting with Arcanum. The guy we met was a Cal Poly grad who had gone through the S.F. program so it was really good to hear his story and see what he's doing now. The project we're going to be studying also sounds really cool: a historical renovation.
The mid-review is next Friday so I'll probably have much more to talk about next week.

End of Week 1

Let's see...where did I leave off...
Day 3 of the library tour of San Francisco involved a very informative talk from a local architect at her office. She talked about three branch libraries that she's worked on here in San Francisco. She gave some great pointers on getting started and sticking to an idea. She also talked about her career and how she got into architecture and her story was...not so much inspiring, but interesting and somewhat uplifting. While I can't remember her last name, I do remember her firm's name: [KP]a+d. Like lily pad. :-)
In the afternoon we wondered up the street into the North Beach neighborhood (little Italy). My prof. made sure to point out the church where Marilyn Monroe got married to Joe DiMaggio, among other things like the rhythm of the neighborhood architecture and the difference between the the two city grids.


Saints Peter and Paul Church. THE catholic church for this community.

We passed many a small coffee shop and pastry shop and being the lover of Italian food that I am, I MUST return to this neighborhood. I only wish I could afford to become a regular.
From there we caught the bus to our site. Our project is to use the site of Marina Branch library but pretend there isn't a building there currently. The Marina district is the most northern part of the city, very close to the Golden Gate state park and the Bridge. We took plenty of pictures and explored the surroundings while waiting for a short tour of the current library facilities. Unfortunately this tour wasn't very helpful to me because the librarian took us into the staff lounge to talk to us and answer questions and not everyone fit into the room. I was one of those that didn't get to hear the questions being asked, nor his answers. Oh well.
After the tour, we continued picture-taking and went our separate ways. My prof. had told us that we could take the same bus that had gotten us to the library back downtown to the metro tunnel, but classic me, I took the bus going the wrong way. I ended up in the middle of the residential area right next to the Marina. At first I was scolding myself and thought I should whip out the GPS to figure out how to get home ASAP, but then I thought "it's a beautiful day and there's no need to rush. I'm going to go look at the water," so I wandered on down. Unfortunately there was a very busy street without a cross walk in my way and only a recreational bike path on the other side. Not wanting to get run over by car or bicycle this was as close as I got.


That's the Golden Gate in the background.

After snapping this pic, I went up to Lombard to catch by bus, making sure to get on going the right way. I wasn't really paying attention the the route and didn't realize this bus would take me so close to the Golden Gate Bridge.


View from the bus.

The bus actually went right up to the lookout point next to the bridge before turning around and heading south.

We had Thursday off to actually get started on our projects and Friday we had a crit. bright and early. I think I must work much much slower than everyone else (or I just insist on getting enough sleep) because even though I felt I did good work, I didn't have as much as most other people to show.

And now I'm procrastinating for Monday's crit. so I'd better get back to it.

Days 1 and 2: Libraries!

Yesterday was the first day of school (still not registered btw) and we spent it getting to know San Francisco. We met downtown at the original post office which has now been converted to an office tower with a very nice atrium.


They still have the old windows with their signs.


Pretty atrium with the fountain from the sky.

After doing some sketching we walked around downtown looking at examples of scale, renovation, addition, and modern architecture. We went to the ferry building and actually looked at the photos they have on display of the renovation.

We stopped for lunch at the mall at Powell Station and I was able to finally get a seven day bus pass. No more having to worry about having correct change! Well, for a week anyway.
After lunch we took the MUNI to the Ingleside Branch Library; one of the smaller city libraries.



SURPRISE! Our project for the quarter is a branch library of the SF public library. However, this is not our site. Our site is where another branch library currently resides. We're going to visit tomorrow.

At the Ingleside Library we talked to one of the architects who worked on it (also a Cal Poly alum, of course) and the librarian about various issues that came up and what they wanted vs. what they got. It's a nice little library, but it was really simple and I'm not sure why we spent the ENTIRE afternoon there.

In the evening I went to dinner/happy hour with some people from class. Lots of walking. I didn't get home until almost midnight.

Then this morning I got up at 6:30 so I could leave at 7:30 to be in Berkeley at 9:30. We met at the East Asian Library for a tour with one of the architects (sensing a theme?).


For some reason this was the only picture I took of the exterior. After the tour and photographing the entire interior, I just wanted to leave.

This library was actually really nice. Really good use of natural light from above in my opinion.



After the East Asian Library, we didn't have enough time to go see all the other buildings she had planned for us to see in S.F. that morning, so instead we had three hours for lunch and to find our way back to the San Francisco Public Library. If that sounds a little off, it's because it is. My prof. seems to have a slightly distorted sense of time. She also seems to think she's given us info when she hasn't, so half the time we're just trying to figure out what she's talking about. It's going to be a real exciting quarter.

Next library on the agenda was the San Francisco Public Library.





We had over an hour to explore and photograph before meeting with one of the head librarians. She gave us a lot of good things to think about when designing our branch library. She also showed us the super-cool automatic book sorter.



When patrons bring in their books, dvds, etc. to return, they feed them into a machine that reads the barcode and automatically takes it off their record. A conveyor belt then takes the book to the back where it gets scanned again and the conveyor then knows exactly which cart the book should go to.

After the library, my prof. took us to City Hall right across the street because "we just [had] to." It is beautiful, but at the time we were all so tired from walking around libraries all day, we just wanted to go home.




Inside the rotunda.

So after the such a long day, my feet hurt, I was tired, and just wanted to be home. It was about 6, so of course the MUNI train was packed (I love the trains btw). I barely made it onto the train so was stuck standing next to the door. After we make the first stop, I notice this woman talking really loudly over my podcast (I've been really into podcasts lately, not sure why). Talking loudly quickly turns into yelling. Then she started yelling about the guy spitting in her face.
The train is approaching the next stop, so when the guy started backing up and the woman continued walking toward him, causing people to squish into me, I assumed they were going to get off the train and settle their differences outside, as it were. At this point one guy already had his cell phone out taking pictures and someone was yelling to call the cops.
I'm not really sure what happened then, but there was a commotion and a bunch of people started getting off (the door opposite mine thankfully). I decided I didn't need to be on that train anymore even though I really wanted to just get home. I started coughing once off the train and noticed everyone else getting off was too. It was then apparent that she had sprayed him with pepper spray. Both cars were emptied and the train had to sit there, blocking the station, while the transit authority dealt with it. I don't know what happened to the lady, but I heard the guy on the platform screaming for water to wash his eyes out.
Fun times on the MUNI.

Anyway, I hope this post wasn't too long and I apologize for the quality of the photos. I didn't realize how on-the-go some of my shots were.

First Day in SF

I am officially moved into my place in San Francisco. I'm sharing a studio with a very nice girl. I really lucked out. My roommate is great, the studio is really nice and spacious considering. The only downside of this living situation is the location. It's pretty far from groceries and BART. There is a bus stop right outside so I can bus and transfer pretty easily, but I do have to make at least one transfer to go anywhere.

Today I wandered around with my Berkeley friend finding my classroom and field trip locations. While wandering around we found the Ferry Terminal Building and went and checked it out.



Very cool and similar to Pike Place. One of the places was signing up people for a CSA program, so that's something I might do.

We went to the Mission district and after finding my classroom, we went into several random shops. One of these shops was a furniture shop where we found this awesome phone:



It wasn't until I bussed with my Berkeley friend back to the BART station around 9pm that I think I found the best route for me to take to downtown, and also apparently to the grocery store and a bunch of other shops. I've discovered that bus stops here are REALLY hard to find. There are rarely signs. There are sometimes bus shelters and sometimes signs with the bus shelters, but most of the time the only indication of a bus stop is a portion of an existing sign pole painted yellow with black numbers for the routes stopping there. I could NOT find my stop to get home after the BART station because it was right next to the stop for the same route going the other way, and the sign for the stop was just the yellow paint on a pole for a crosswalk light. Twice today I passed stops, couldn't find them, then saw the buses coming and waited to see where they stopped, and then ran to catch them. I made it both times though. :-)

Today was about figuring out San Francisco's transit system. Hopefully tomorrow I can check some things off my to-do list and enjoy some beautiful weather!

Update

I finally scanned all my trace from spring quarter! Go me! I also scanned my only remotely architectural project from over the summer.



It's a copy of this picture that was taken a little over a year ago. See for yourself how accurate I was.



I may go back and adjust the drawing a tad and if I do I'll repost, but who knows when that will happen.

As of right now, I'm currently without housing for San Francisco which starts on the 20th. (Ah!) However, I'm quite optimistic about next weekend when my proposed roommate and I will go up and seek out every open house we can. I also have one lead on craigslist and hopefully that will work out.
Once school starts and I have a new city to explore I'm sure I'll have much more to post about.

Awhile ago my parents asked me to come up with a design for a new kitchen in their house. There are so many things I would love to change about their house so of course I jumped on the opportunity. However, life (and by life, I mostly mean school) got in the way and I haven't done much work on it. Now the adjacent deck has become the priority as it is has become a safety hazard. My Dad has offered me some money for my study abroad trips in return for models and such for a new deck, so I guess I have some incentive to actually work on it now. I've been thinking about the kitchen some more recently so I might as well throw that into the mix while I'm at it. I need to make sure I actually force myself to work on it. I guess I have a few weeks to get a head start before classes invade my free time, assuming my parents can get me the measurements in a timely manner. We'll see how that goes.

That's all for now. Wish me luck on finding an apartment!

Summer

This summer is not a vacation from school but it is a vacation from studio. I'm taking one class for my Sustainable Environments minor called Energy for Sustainable Society's. It is getting more interesting as the class goes on. We just recently talked about oil, natural gas, and coal, where they come from and what they're uses are. We also recently covered pollution, what causes it and ways to minimize it. While I had my doubts at the beginning when we were covering basic physics, I think it will turn out to be a worthwhile class.

Otherwise my summer has been pretty dull. With all my friends gone home, no studio to fill all my waking hours, and my boyfriend starting a new job, I've been bored and lonely. I've been trying to work on a project for my parents, a new kitchen and deck, but getting myself motivated has been difficult. Getting myself motivated about anything has been difficult, even things that I really enjoy. The only thing I can follow through with is cleaning my apartment. I think that unless I feel that it needs to get done, I'm procrastinating. I'm worried that I've forgotten how to enjoy things.

The summer has gone by very quickly and there's not much time left before I go home to Seattle, but I'm determined to enjoy the rest of it. One day at a time.

Review Coming Up

WAS SUPPOSED TO BE POSTED LAST MONDAY. THE REVIEW WAS TODAY.

Our midterm review is next Monday. Of course I'm not as far as I'd like to be but my professor seems to be okay with what I've got so far. I really dread talking to him about my project, although that's true with all my professors. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way. Last time he came by he told me I haven't seen enough of the world yet, so that probably has something to do with it. He just seems too practical, and I usually like the practical professors because I tend to be much more practical than my peers. He told me not to do two angled walls because it was too complicated and that's why you don't see it very often in other buildings. He said other architects don't do what's too complicated. Well, those weren't his exact words but you get the gist. Anyway, that is complete bull. Complicated is interesting (not that simple isn't), and a lot of architects want interesting. His comments aren't all bad though. He has given me some good direction.
I just wish that I could explain my ideas eloquently. I never know what to say in a review or even a desk crit. What exactly does architectural style mean anyway? I mean specifically. And when he asks me what architectural style I'm using, is that really what he's asking? Most likely not. It seems like he really just wants to talk because he jumps in whenever I start talking.
Bah. I'm done ranting.
I have structural models and a floor plan to do before Monday. Plus whatever I feel like throwing in. If I don't make it, I will be very ashamed.

Lazy

This class is not good for me. My professor is way too laid back. I feel like I'm falling way behind, except he's not asking us for anything. Unfortunately, I'm realizing that I usually use studio to keep me on track with all my other classes and since I haven't been doing anything for studio I haven't really been doing anything. That's not true. It just feels that way. I've been keeping up with my readings for ethics and practice and my group project for EDES is only now picking up. I guess it just feels like I'm being a slacker because I haven't been asked to do as much as I'm used to.
But it's fourth week already. How is that possible?
Anyway, two midterms next week so I will be studying this weekend. Woo.

Late As Usual

Haven't been doing much for studio. We're supposed to go visit the possible sites on Monday. In the meantime, here's what I did for my precedent board:

Spring Quarter

Week One is already over. Only nine more to go before finals and then SUMMER!! It's too bad I'm taking classes summer quarter.
Anywho, week one was pretty uneventful, hence the lack of posts. Monday was the intro to the class and the getting of the keys. Wednesday was a holiday, thank you Cesar Chavez. And today we had precedent study presentation for two hours and then my prof had to leave early to attend his daughter's wedding rehearsal/rehearsal dinner. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The project for this quarter is a winery at one of three sites (we get to choose). We have a pretty open program. We get to choose what kind of people we want to design for, how big the winery is, etc. It'll be interesting. I'm a bit worried because my prof seems REALLY laid back and I'm not sure I'll be able to motivate myself enough. I'm really excited to learn about wine, wine making, and wineries though.

My precedent study is on the Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (not to be confused with the Stags' Leap Winery) in the Napa Valley. I found it at the top of a Top 10 Wineries in the U.S. list, and when I first saw it I wasn't that impressed. However, I kept searching and didn't find much else that I liked and the more I thought back to it, the more I liked it. I also found out that this winery's Cabernet Sauvignon won the red wine taste test at the famous 1976 Paris tasting that pitted French wines against California wines and brought California wine making to the world stage. The movie "Bottle Shock" is about this birth of this taste test and centers around the winery that won for the white wine category with their Chardonnay, Chateau Montelena, another Napa Valley winery. I just thought that was cool.
My prof wanted a slide show for today, but a 20 x 20 board for Monday, so I'll just post that rather than individual slides. More to come!

Review

It was a struggle to get everything done. I barely finished in time and I didn't have everything he asked for, but I think he didn't really expect us to have absolutely everything. My review went really well. The guy who talked to me seemed to get everything that I was trying to do. Except for the sustainability stuff, but that was my fault. As is always mentioned I need to work on my visual presentation. I really need to figure out how to sell my ideas apparently. If only I had time to take a marketing class. I'll just have to devote more time to learning how to render well in Photoshop and some other programs. I should probably learn sketchup too.

Here are the three sheets I did for the presentation:

One Week

Today was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. My Windows beta expired so I literally spent all day trying to install the upgrade. I'm still working on it. I got absolutely nothing done on my project and I only have one week left! I'm definitely not going to make my personal deadline of Friday. Maybe Monday, but it doesn't look good. I'd say I'm about halfway through most of my drawings, I still have a lot to do on my site plan, and I have to finish prepping my Rhino files for the laser cutter. Hopefully, I'll get Windows working by tonight. Fun times coming up this weekend.

Weekly Drawing 5

This is a pretty late post. I've been in "sprint-for-the-finish" mode for this project since last week when he handed out a sheet telling us what is required for the final presentation. There's a lot of stuff. I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish it. Anyway here is the last of the weekly drawings:


This drawing was due right after our midterm review, so it was pushed to Friday rather than Wednesday. This meant that I completely forgot to do it until I walked in ten minutes before class started. Luckily, my prof was late and we had some group time that I could use to work on this drawing. I spent probably 30-45 minutes on it. I think it's pretty good, considering the circumstances. It's much better than the first one I did anyway. The theme was to be open, so I went with contrast and light. Actually, there weren't many photos on my computer I could choose from to copy for and this one worked best.

Preliminary Review

On Monday we had our preliminary review. I just barely had everything ready. I didn't even do everything that was required, but no one else did either. I'm not sure if he'll really curve the completeness of an assignment, but you never know.
I generally dislike reviews because it seems like I always end up hating whatever it is that I come up with. It's very hard to sell an idea you hate. With only two weeks to do all this stuff, I felt like I just had to spit something out onto paper and then draw it up. That's not the only reason my work wasn't satisfactory, but it was definitely a factor.


This is the site plan with my unit layout. I wanted every unit to have southern exposure for solar access. This made it difficult for me to come up with a layout pattern that would fit with all 36 units. As you can see, all the units are boxes. I really don't like that, and that is the first thing that I've changed.


These are the drawings for the one bedroom unit.


Pictures of the one bedroom unit model






The two bedroom unit. It took me so long to figure out how to set up the perspectives in Revit. I swear, that program has such a steep learning curve.


Pictures of the two bedroom unit model.






The three bedroom unit. I didn't have time to do a model of this one unfortunately.


These are the drawings for the community center. The site is actually one of four parcels on one chunk of property. The project is phase two of the Templeton Place development. Phase one is a senior housing development located directly to the south. Our site would share their driveway and both developments would have access to both community centers. We were actually supposed to be designing senior housing as well, but the funding didn't come through. Now it's broadened to multi-family low income housing.

As far as the review, a fare number of people came. I spent most of the time talking to my fellow classmates and waiting. I finally had one professor talk to me. She gave me some good advice. Some things I hadn't thought of, some things I already had. One thing that I found interesting was what she said about the communal area at the entrance to each set of four units. She said that because there are very few windows from each unit to that area that it's anti-social. And she was right. I was thinking that it would be a place where people would see each other coming and going, and unless they were out in the shared garden or yard space at the same time, they wouldn't see each other much. I was thinking that if families are living so close together, they probably don't want to be connected to their neighbors ALL the time. They'd want a defined private space. It's interesting because I didn't realize that my anti-social tendencies were coming through so strongly in my work.

Some other things she mentioned were little details on my presentation that were confusing. She said that I had a lot of potential and that I just needed to put more time into and fix the little details to be great. That was nice to hear. I've been wondering if I just don't have the knack for this. It seems like someone thinks I can make it. I hope she's right.

Today I spent class reworking my floor plans. I think I may be onto something much more interesting. I have to have an updated print on Friday so I'll let you know how that goes. Also, for anyone out there who may reading this: constructive criticism is very much welcomed!

Weekly Drawing 3 and 4

I just realized that I never posted weekly drawing 3 because it wouldn't let me upload it and then I forgot about it.
I've now edited it and here it is:


The theme for this one was detail. I decided to go with white on black because I think I'm better with that medium. It still didn't get ranked very high in class, but I think my drawings are more on par with everyone else's.

Weekly drawing 4 was supposed to show light entering a space and its affect. A lot of people were confused because my professor also wanted us to use color. Up to this point almost all the drawings had been done in black and white. He encouraged us to experiment with color and some people took that to be the theme. I did something in between. I was focusing on getting the colors right and wasn't really sure what he meant by light entering a space or light's effect on space, so I just drew my window shades and curtains.

Still ranked in the bottom, but like I said, I'm more in the range of the rest of the class so I don't feel so embarrassed anymore.

3 days

Well I'm down to three days and I don't feel like I've gotten very much further since my last update. This weekend is going to be lots of fun. Just give my 5 hour energy and I'll be good to go. Let's see, I've got to finish my site plan, do two perspectives, three elevations and sections, four floor plans, and do at least three models, but before I can do any of that I've still got to figure out my roof plan. I feel like there's not enough hours in the day and there are a bunch of other things I need to do this weekend too. Why is it that everything always piles up like this?

When I make some progress I'll post some pictures. That reminds me, we had another weekly drawing Wednesday. I'll post that one soon. Only one more!

6 days - Tuesday's post

Last Friday was a furlough day. While I had planned to get totally caught up on all my other work so I could have this week to focus on studio, I ended up getting no school work done. Instead I did errands and my taxes, so the day was not a complete wash. I won't be getting any money from the government however.
Yesterday was actually quite productive. He had us make a to-do list and plan out when we were going to do what to be ready for the preliminary review on Monday. I think I finally have my unit floor plans finalized. I just need to make them look realistic now by adding things like wall thicknesses, doors, and windows. You know, little stuff. I'm already behind because I had an ECS assignment to finish up last night (a lighting scaven, but it's okay because I factored that into my schedule. If I stay on track I should be able to get everything done and still have time to celebrate T.J.'s birthday on Saturday and get a reasonable amount of sleep. It's very helpful that two of my classes are furloughed this week.

As for right now, the server is down at work. I was supposed to be getting trained for my next project but the files are inaccessible. Instead I'm making PDFs and surfing the net!

Falling Behind

On Friday we turned in and presented our initial study work. The pages are too big to post here, but I think they turned out pretty well. Afterward we finally got to start on design work!

On Monday we pinned up what we had worked on over the weekend. I didn't have much to show because I was studying for my midterms all weekend. We were supposed to figure out if we could fit everything we need to include on the site. It's a very tight fit. I think I've got the parking layout figured out and I'm now struggling with how to arrange the units.

And it's Wendesday again. Here's my drawing for this week:



The theme was detail (up close and personal). I was also working on proportion and contrast. The proportion is much better than it was originally, but it's still not great. Overall, I think this is my best drawing this quarter, so we'll see how it rate's with the class.

Another Wednesday...

...means another weekly drawing. This week's theme was contrast.
I think this one is much better than last week's in terms or visual contrast.

I was also going for the contrast of the buildings and landscape around them. I spent an hour on the drawing and then probably another hour in photoshop enhancing it to give it even more contrast. It still wasn't good enough to get out of the bottom four. Oh well. Next week the theme is detail. Maybe I'll try white pencil on black paper. I've done better with that in the past. Or maybe I should just start sketching in pen. No, I make too many mistakes for that. I at least have to start off in pencil. Charcoal might be fun, but then I would need to buy some sealant. We'll see.

In other news, we're still working on gathering data about the project and site. I'm on the site analysis team and have been researching the weather data for Templeton, CA (actually Paso Robles, CA because Templeton doesn't have their own weather station). I've also been looking at the vegetation up there. They've got some pretty native plants.
In class we've spent way too much time discussing the uniform layout and the variations for each group. My professor wants it to look like all these documents came from one office and therefore must have common layout, but Oh My God. It's for our own use. It doesn't have to be perfect and fancy with a title page. Who knows, maybe we will actually include these documents if/when he shows some of our designs to the clients, but it still seems like it shouldn't be that big of a deal. I just want to say, "Layout team, this is your baby. You don't need a class consensus, just do it and we'll not only use what you come up with, but we'll probably like it too."

We haven't started on the actual design yet and I'm getting anxious. I know I'm going to need more time on this and I feel like I'm wasting so much right now.

Weekly Drawing 1

Today was a return to first year with the humiliation of weekly drawings. When we did these first year I would always be so embarrassed because my work was clearly lacking in comparison to everyone else and I just felt so far behind. As if that wasn't bad enough, now we have to rank all the drawings. So the thought that my drawing was the worst up on the wall was actually confirmed for me by my classmates today.



Now my scanner is terrible, so there is actually more to this drawing than this image shows. The comments I got back on it weren't anything I hadn't thought of. More contrast, add some context. The drawing was supposed to be relatively quick and drawn from life (not a photograph). I spent an hour on this and this is basically how far I got. If I was going to spend more time on this I would've added more shading and context. I'm not sure how long most other people spent on their drawings so I don't know if that was the only difference.

My professor made a point of saying "the comments are about the drawing, not the artist" but it's hard not to feel like people are ranking abilities or skill level which would mean they are commenting on the artist. He also said that we should really be competing against ourselves and be able to say that we're happy with the drawing no matter where it ranks. I'm not completely happy with the drawing because contrast is something that I always struggle with; however considering the time that I spent on it, it's probably one of the best faces I've done.

Contrast is the theme for next week, so we'll see how I do. I guess working fast will just have to come later.