For some reason I have been thinking a lot about grad school this past week or so. I have only been out of undergrad for less than a year, but something about the creative, thorough investigation and camaraderie of school has been causing my mouth to water like a Pavlovian dog. Maybe it is due to the fact that I am going to San Francisco in May to visit some old friends from undergrad, or maybe because of the flurry of posts on the archinect.com web forums about people getting accepted/denied to their long dreamt about ivy-league schools, but the seed has been planted. I do not know where I would like to go, and it would still be a few years before anything materialized, but this past week has definitely started the ball rolling.
My undergraduate education was a very enlightening and positive experience, and only in my last semester did I feel like I was starting to realize the potential behind a quality architectural education. I felt like my studio with Alberto and Matt was only a taste of what graduate school would be like, and I have been left thirsting for more. K-State gave me a great practical education and a great foundation for the pragmatic art of building, but I feel like I did not get the theoretical experience that is needed to be a well-rounded and provocative architect.
Well, the Oregon/Florida game is getting down to the wire now and I am having trouble focusing on typing this post, so I think that's all you're going to get today. Still, two posts in a week, good, no?
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Slacker
Ok, I've been slacking. It's been two months since I last posted, and for that I apologize. I've had some sort of virus on my PC which will not allow me to access blogger.com, so I have been forced to use my reliable Apple to do any blogging.
The past two months have gone by rather quickly. At the beginning of February I moved up the street just one block, as my old landlord forced me to move out of my old apt. My new place is much bigger and closer to the subway, but it has taken a bit of work to make it seaworthy. I have had to paint and clean incredulously, and after a mild roach problem, I believe that things have subsided. It is still a mess and doesn't have much stuff in it, but that's what happens when you make no money, live in the most expensive city in the US, and moved there by shipping 6 boxes of stuff. I do have a dining table from DWR and some imitation Jacobsen Series 7 chairs arriving this week.
Over Memorial Day weekend I am flying out to San Francisco to have a mini-reunion with some of my friends from KSU and I am looking forward to that [as well as checking out the DeYoung Museum, a
project I played a minor part in].
Work is going well. I am wrapping up a project that I started when I first started my job, and it has been very educational to witness a project from start to finish. I have attended weekly site meetings, dealt face to face with clients and consultants, and gone to battle with the contractors; there were many mistakes made, but I have come out a much more knowledgable architect-in-training.
Before:
After:
Currently, I am doing a lot of work on a residence in NYC, and I am taking my knowledge from my last project and applying it to my current one. I still do not know much, and I have help via another green employee, but I feel much more competent than I did 6 months ago. I can now go to an active job site, know what's going on and actively engage the contractor and explain what needs to be done. We are now in the process of demolition, and I think that in some respects this is the most beautiful part of the project.
One other work related thing that I should note is a competition that my firm entered and I worked on for a majority of January. Last fall we entered the Czech National Library competition in Prague, and out of over 400 applicants, we were one of the eight schemes chosen to move on to stage two. Several weeks ago we found out that we placed 5th out of 8, the winning design being a rather hideous blog of Futurama that can be seen here. Our scheme is #262, and the winner is #297...don't ask me, everyone at my firm thought it was a joke when we saw the winning entry.
Speaking of the office, it has been really cold the past month or so. It has been so cold that the Hudson River had started to freeze over. Apparently it has been so cold for so long before that you can see ice completely covering the river, but as you can see below, it only reached a little ways out. Still, a cool view from the office.
Well, this post has just been more of a catch up with me, so hopefully soon I can get into more stimulating subject matter, but for now I will leave you with this image of Astoria [check out A Guide to Recgonizing Your Saints] during a snowstorm. New York can be quite magical at times, and this was one of them.
The past two months have gone by rather quickly. At the beginning of February I moved up the street just one block, as my old landlord forced me to move out of my old apt. My new place is much bigger and closer to the subway, but it has taken a bit of work to make it seaworthy. I have had to paint and clean incredulously, and after a mild roach problem, I believe that things have subsided. It is still a mess and doesn't have much stuff in it, but that's what happens when you make no money, live in the most expensive city in the US, and moved there by shipping 6 boxes of stuff. I do have a dining table from DWR and some imitation Jacobsen Series 7 chairs arriving this week.
Over Memorial Day weekend I am flying out to San Francisco to have a mini-reunion with some of my friends from KSU and I am looking forward to that [as well as checking out the DeYoung Museum, a
project I played a minor part in].
Work is going well. I am wrapping up a project that I started when I first started my job, and it has been very educational to witness a project from start to finish. I have attended weekly site meetings, dealt face to face with clients and consultants, and gone to battle with the contractors; there were many mistakes made, but I have come out a much more knowledgable architect-in-training.
Before:
After:
Currently, I am doing a lot of work on a residence in NYC, and I am taking my knowledge from my last project and applying it to my current one. I still do not know much, and I have help via another green employee, but I feel much more competent than I did 6 months ago. I can now go to an active job site, know what's going on and actively engage the contractor and explain what needs to be done. We are now in the process of demolition, and I think that in some respects this is the most beautiful part of the project.
One other work related thing that I should note is a competition that my firm entered and I worked on for a majority of January. Last fall we entered the Czech National Library competition in Prague, and out of over 400 applicants, we were one of the eight schemes chosen to move on to stage two. Several weeks ago we found out that we placed 5th out of 8, the winning design being a rather hideous blog of Futurama that can be seen here. Our scheme is #262, and the winner is #297...don't ask me, everyone at my firm thought it was a joke when we saw the winning entry.
Speaking of the office, it has been really cold the past month or so. It has been so cold that the Hudson River had started to freeze over. Apparently it has been so cold for so long before that you can see ice completely covering the river, but as you can see below, it only reached a little ways out. Still, a cool view from the office.
Well, this post has just been more of a catch up with me, so hopefully soon I can get into more stimulating subject matter, but for now I will leave you with this image of Astoria [check out A Guide to Recgonizing Your Saints] during a snowstorm. New York can be quite magical at times, and this was one of them.
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