For the past few weeks it pretty much felt like i was living in the tundra. It seemed as though at any point i could have seen a group of polar bears meandering around campus ravaging the trash cans for scraps.
Seriously, all my thoughts about moving to Canada for a year were pretty much put to bed, forget about it, too cold. And when i say to cold i mean that my doors were frozen shut, even the key hole was pretty much locked in position. I had to heat my car key up with a lighter, then insert it in the key hole, wait a second, and then i was able to turn the lock. And after throwing a shoulder to the door frame to loosen the ice formations rendering the door handle useless, i was in. But it didn't stop there oh no, once i was in my car it had some trouble turning over in the 1 degree weather.
When the high of the day is 5 and the wind chill is -5 it makes for a long unhappy walk back to my car in the lot. And chances are that it's going to be frozen shut..again. My next thought is "Maybe tomorrow i will swallow my pride at 9:00 and spray the door seals with WD-40 while all my fellow classmates are walking by in the parking lot, wondering to themselves what i am doing to my grandma-mobile."
But thankfully today was much different than the last few weeks, it has suddenly gotten so much warmer! Today we were in the 40's and 50's, i think i broke out a little sweat while walking back and forth between Hale Library media center and Seaton Hall [204 A].
There was sun shinning into studio work space. Today it felt, actually physically felt like we were getting closer to may, which is kind of the kick in the pants that i needed to focus on my project. Which at current state has been the hardest thing to actually concentrate on. There is always something more entertaining going on, like hiding classmates cars keys in various places (the trash can) so that when they leave (at 6 am) they have to do a little treasure hunt ( and get super mad) which is always fun, who doesn't love a good treasure hunt!

Only like 79 more days until that little piece of paper is mine! 79 woooo whoooooo!

i know what i was doing exactly one year ago.

Shoving my belongings into and over sized suitcase and a backpack. Carefully considering my carry-ons and packing my laptop into its bag. I was saying good-bye to friends, and crying over what would soon be a devastated broken heart, how that happened i will never know. I have an exceptionally good memory when it comes to remembering certain things. And i can say with total honesty that i can look back at some of those last days and let loose an ear to ear grin. Remembering some of the words that were spoken to me made me feel like a million.
But everything i guess was meant to be.

Prague was on the horizon of my sight line and London was calling. I learned so much in my months of travel and can't think of one thing that i would change. Everything good or bad, planned or not it all led to laughter and experience.
The thing i miss most about Czech Tech is the people. Nothing, and i mean nothing will be more hilarious than Czech surprises and spending time in mac and laura land. I think that the people that i meet there are some of the most wonderful people i know. And one thing is true, Kate, Laura, Laura, Iain, James, Erik, Nick, Matt, Dustin, Ramon, Celeste, Murry, Luke,that Italian guy, and the Australian guy, were SO much fun to be around! I want to go back to the PM bar, the pirate party, the Goat and the club in the basement, more than anything!

One year ago i was scared, sad, excited and probably about to vomit all at the same time, and now as i face this next leap i feel the same. here is to one year ago, the best and worst day of my life. Good luck all you new Czech Tech-ers i wish you all the best...and worst [it makes you stronger.]

We Built this Philly!

Our project for the semester is a James Turrell and a Mark Rothko Museum, in the heart of Philadelphia! For this project we as a class built two models, I personally worked on the 1"=100'-0" model while another group worked on the 1"=16'-0" scaled model. Here are some photos of the process. I got to cut most of the pieces for our model, which means I got to use a chop saw... a lot, and I got to use the drill bits that Dad gave me for Christmas! SWEET!What was not sweet is when my knuckle got caught on the belt sander and I sanded down my flesh... yikes. Everything is made out of MDF and for the most part gets the job done. The big holes/blanks that you will see are the sites for the Rothko+Turrell Museum. These models to about a week to a week and a half to create, you wouldn't think that it would take that long but boy oh boy does it ever.

completed first: 1:100 model, My team was on top of it

Our site is located on 20th and Market, it's that blank little bit between the two sky scrapers

Partially completed 1:16 model, it was huge
[Can you tell where i sit, check out my blues calender , thanks Monica]

wow Charlie with a saw...
Texas chainsaw massacre, more like Manhattan circular saw massacre

build crew getting down and dirty

there she is the Site Model for Philly, i think it is about a head shorter than i am...can you imagine?

02.01.07

Let's see here... there are 100 days until graduation and to celebrate, our 5th year class has decided that nothing says celebration like a pub crawl. Tonight bar goers beware the college of architecture, planning and design will be roaming the streets of Aggieville! We've traded in our mouse’s and sketch books for more of the liquid kind of inspiration.

Don't be fooled, it hasn't been all play and no work for us here at CAP+D we have been working pretty diligently thus far... and trust there is more of that coming down the road.

At the beginning of the semester my studio of 12 budding architecture students plus one willing professor made the trek all the way down to Marfa, Texas. Home of modern sculptor Donald Judd and the Chinati Foundation. The Chinati foundation is located on the former Fort D.A. Russell in the small south-south-southwestern city of Marfa. Since the purchase of the old base, back in 1979, it has been transformed into a "museum" of contemporary art, large scale installations of a rather small collection of artist. Here visitors can mill around the various installations with a guide to explain the intentions of the artist and also clarify the no touch policy.

MARFA [CHINATI]

Most of the artwork was designed and created with the intentions of being placed in its current location. This gave new meaning to the art work, as it was speaking of it's context and the artist opinion, rather than what one might normally see in a museum, where the meaning of the art can be lost among various other works of art, which don't so much relate to the context in which they hang. I suppose this suggest that these works of art, the ones in which relate to their specific context, wouldn't communicate the same idea if were moved from gallery to gallery as some framed pieces of art work. Site specific artwork, is what the Chinati foundation is all about. Even the town itself spill at the brim with Judd artifacts, his house, his studios, and the architecture offices in his name, scattered across town.

Donald Jud exhibit, 90 some milled aluminum boxes they were really interesting to see how light would reflect of the sides, each box was different, and had to be looked at in different ways

Marfa isn't what you would picture in your mind if someone started off their description with: small Texas town with a population of 500 people on a good tourist day. Marfa is very... interesting, the people were very welcoming, just as you would expect from the south, but they are all very artsy, trendy and pretty much looked like they could be from a hip little section of New York. So in short it wasn't like being in Texas at all.

Concrete boxes in a field, cooler than it sounds, there were about
10 groups of three scattered along a path in a field

light installation by Dan Flavin

Marfa my have been the reason that we decided to hop in the 15 passenger van and drive an ungodly amount of hours, but it wasn't our only stop. We left Manhattan Kansas at 6 am on Thursday morning the 11th of January. Now, you may be asking your self: “why Laura, wasn't that the first day of classes for the spring semester?" And i would say to you, "why yes it was, and let's face it I was going to skip at least a few [or more times] this semester so why not start the year off right" Not to mention this road trip was for class anyway.

sitting with all the guys, go figure... Some of my classmates and i at dinner with our professor.
I think this was after we were served a free round, because they lost our dinner reservations,
during the hour we were waiting for the table, we were at the bar... good idea

Our first stop in Texas was in Dallas at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Designed by Reno Piano, with landscape architect Peter Walker. It was absolutely beautiful, and I wish that it could have been there in spring, because there are so many trees and flowers that it must look wonderful while everything is in bloom. I highly suggest seeing it if you are ever in Dallas. The building is a very cellular, meaning that the pieces of the buildings are identical, and a modular bay sort of system. The building a series of very thick dense walls covered in travertine and between each of these thick heavy walls is a suspended barrel vault that reflects natural delighting into the space, so there is a soft glow about the ceiling. The landscape looks apart of the building, and extension of sorts. Various trees such as cedar elms and live oaks serve and the extensions of the massively thick walls, by outstretching lengthwise across the sculpture garden. In this exterior space there are some nice water features that drown out the noise of the city beyond the garden walls, a stepped garden with pansies and what may be daffodils in the future is at the back of the exterior space and serve as a great place to reflect and take in the entirety of the garden as well as the building in the background. It was a very serene and comfortable place... where one could really escape the city.

sculpture garden

Nasher Entrance

Next on our list was Fort Worth home of Tadao Ando's Modern and Louis Kahn’s Kimball Museum, and after a series of wrong turns and an impromptu tour through the stock yards we arrived at Andos concrete masterpiece.

Ando, one of my favorite architects, has a style about him. He creates the most beautiful spaces and tricks and temps light into washing the surfaces of his silky smooth concrete walls, bending around corners and creating spatial illusions of depth. Nothing is like it. Every time i have been in an building that Ando has created I can't but help slide my fingers across the grey smooth surface, the feeling is similar to running my hand over smooth clean sheet of vellum. The building was laid out with clarity and sophistication. Little nooks were created, highlighting single pieces of art work, which made it feel more personal than standing in an oversized gallery with many paintings cramped together like Chiclets in a small cellophane wrapper.

Ando: The Modern in Fort Worth

The Kimball [built in 1972] was a project that I did a building analysis on when I was in second year, so I was very excited to see the building that I had done so much research on before hand. Upon entry into the museum the viewer walks through a densely packed grove of trees. After making it through the trees the view of the buildings is spectacular you are faced with a three bays of barrel vaulted spaces. In the uppermost top part of the barrel vault there is a narrow slit cut straight down the center lengthwise. Light is reflected off a mounted device, allowing the light to be reflected onto the ceiling and illuminated the space indirectly. Kahn created a wonderfully daylight space, however there was some much artwork crammed into the space that it was overwhelming.

Entrance of Kimbal

After five days on the road, driving through and ice/snow storm that blanketed most of the Midwest, and doing donuts in the parking lot of What-a-burger, it was good to be back in Manhattan and… ehhem… start classes

Oh yeah did i forget to mention that we almost ended up in Mexico after driving 2 hours in the wrong direction.... it only took us three hours and a dead white owl to find Marfa at 1:00 AM.