Been a While

The following several weeks have been just insane in the amount of workload. I have been in studio nearly every waking moment outside of class and meals. And there have been very few "non waking minutes" and even fewer to come before Friday.

Not much happening beyond that. There was a sighting of a team playing professional football in Dallas! Otherwise the only other news is just of the culinary variety. We made epic fish tacos on Friday night with coleslaw and lime juice... Wow was that good! And on Monday I whipped up a crock pot of delicious roast beef and veggies for Drew's 25th Birthday! Quarter Century man....  Makes me feel a little better about turning 23 here in very short order. I will try and send out an email with pictures and stuff from my review here on Friday. In other news follow the link to see my student webpage here at ISU. I have programmed all this stuff into a website and have recreated the house in images into a 3D model in a program called Revit. I have finished the project I just need to change the materials, set up lights and shoot out some renderings and plans. It is a lot easier working on a smaller project such as a house than a 100,000 square foot performing arts center... This project makes me realize how much I have actually progressed since starting this program four-ish years ago, and it seems as if time has flown by...

Plus Thanksgiving break is a week long!!! WOOT!

Small Performance Hall

This is ubelievably simple in a horribly complicated way. We are using 3'x3' panel system to create a movable wall panel system to change the acoustics of our room whatever type of performance or musical styling it happens to be hosting. Making all these different styles took dang forever and now I have to refine them further for our next review to show that if works functionally. (Which through all the research I have done, it dang well better or I'm gonna make just a dang square box...) Finishing my restaurant tonight! Post pictures when I'm done.

Proscenium seating

Parliamentary style seating

Arena Style seating

Amphitheatre style seating arrangement

It might be difficult to get across from these images but it is coming along nicely and will be better when I set interior perspectives.

The Symphony Center that Never Ends!!!

Scheme and draw and model. Rinse. Repeat. Cleaning up our designs is very time consuming and quite honestly difficult. I have done our cafe three times already and need to do it just one more time, but I also need to get our small concert hall and VIP amenities figured out in conjunction with our loading dock, services and storage. The good news is that once I finish one of those things it makes the whole picture clearer. I just need to do that while staying in touch with two other people who are trying to do the same thing as me with other pieces of our building. On a less whinge-y note... I love how things are going!!! Speaking of how loving how things are going...

MANCHESTER CITY OBLITERATED MANCHESTER UNITED IN THE CROSS TOWN DERBY 6-1!!!!! Talk about making my day, I don't care what happens for the next few games of either the Cowboys or any other sports team I follow... How liberating to dismantle an opponent as such...

Just Read This from one of the greatest coaches ever...

I'm putting pictures up tomorrow, because I just needed a work break today.

David

Just as the Title says... That's all.

Mighty busy here this Thursday. Got some screenshots of things I am constructing in a computer program called Sketchup! (Some of you may have heard of it...) I have only one down and three to go too!!! Curse this comprehensive design studio!!! We are nearly finished with our design and still working on building our dang site model!! (Looks sweet though. I'll pic it when we're done with it.) Anyways... As promised here is my much vaunted group for the semester:

First of all my workstation... Lot messier right?

Stephanie Sereg!!!

Leila Ammar!!!

There you go. The two mystery strangers that have been putting up with me this semester as we work on our project. Pictured here is my project at the time. This is a section of our small 300 person performance hall with the current arrangement of procenium seating (aka just regular).

Pretty crazy. And I have 3 more configurations to make for this space because it is a modular structure that is highly changeable.

Getting Things Done...

Lots of things going on right now and not a lot of time to talk... Painting for the banner, Victory Lane and Storefront window went very nicely. Everything was designed and drawn out by me, and then painted with the help of others. I also spent a lot of time at the House (Phi Delt's) and got to know some of the pledges better and spent more time with old friends too. I will try and post pictures of the paintings as I get them, because I have not taken photos of things yet... But they look really good and we have been getting compliments from Greeks and non-Greeks alike.

City won in fantastic fashion the other day in their Champions League game! The scored a last minute goal to defeat Villareal 2-1. And I missed it... I gave up in the 89th minute and was going to class so I closed down my video feed and most of my windows when I made it to the ESPN gamecast of the game that was up so I could check the lineups... And as I moved my mouse over the "x" in the corner, the screen lit up and as City scored the winner... And I went to class happily!!!

We are also hammering out studio floorplans and making 3D computer and physical models to get the last of our concepts figured out so we can solve everything else for our building... Yup... Design is nearly finished and we are moving straight to structures, materials, costs and detailing. Pretty frightening! But I think we are around the class average in terms of work completed. More tomorrow including and introduction to my group: Leila and Stephanie... That way you know about the two people I mention quite frequently.

Afternoons are Glorious!!!

Almost every afternoon recently has been a heavenly gift from God! The weather in Ames has been sublime!!! Pity I have been busier than the authorities during New Years... I do have a gorgeous view of the woods North of ISU... When you walk around in the area it doesn't look like there are so many trees, but there really are! And every single one of them is contributing to a majestic tapestry of fall color. My group and I are currently working on concept models for redesigning our performance hall. We are starting almost over and taking what we learned with our old model and replacing it with new fully formed ideas of what the performance halls are. From there we are working the rest of our building around that concept... Kind of disheartening to start fresh, but we have a better concept of what we want and how to achieve it.

A progression of seating arrangements in a posable performance area. The seating and sound would change with each alteration of the space. The walls also need to change but that is another animal all together. Acoustics is hard!!!

I am no longer pursuing a minor in Spanish. I dropped both classes Wednesday. I simply do not have the time for them and studio as the semester progresses. Over the next few weeks I have 3 more reviews for more than 50% of my studio grade and that time correlates with 2 papers and 3 tests in Spanish... Not gonna happen. I need to do well in studio and pass this class to graduate!!!

In other news, my entire weekend is planned. We are finishing our Homecoming banner this weekend and lawn display a week after that. On Sunday I have to paint Victory lane and a storefront window for our Homecoming pairing... And I have to do it with girls... Darn... I am truly blighted by this predicament. Oh me! We are enacting the designs I drew out my first week of school that follow the Dr. Seuss theme chosen for this year... Pretty simple and very fun to draw in terms of characters. I am loving it!!!

The only Le Corbusier building in North America

Heroic Intervention!!!

Nothing that dramatic has happened since I last posted, despite the overly dramatic title to this post. I finished my webpage and submitted it. Plus I finished reading a course book at 2am last night and took the test 6 hrs later... And I think I did really well. It is okay if I didn't though because our teacher handed out a course packet worth half of the test grade in extra credit. Now I am back in studio hashing out rough floor plans for tomorrow and the massive work weekend. (WOOT ALL WEEKEND IN STUDIO!!!) Our schematic design is due (albeit in an operable and changeable state to a "certain degree") on Monday and we have only really hashed out a building form and urban plan for our site. I think the urban planning idea we have cooked up actually legitimizes our construction of the symphony center on the big dig project. More on that later, after we format some drawings into real presentable things beyond our messy sketches.

Last night I got a free dinner courtesy our sorority pairing for Homecoming. The bought pizza to foster a better working atmosphere for the beginning of blitz build days for Homecoming. I got there and ate early then went to Lowes to get staples and started on the banner I designed earlier this year. I am pretty much moving it along to the color assignment phase then handing it off to kids who have more time to work on it. It is pretty nice to have people want my opinion on stuff and to have people rely on me for something. Plus it is a great time to socialize with cute sorority girls...

The prints of the architectural journal that I contribute to just arrived... I don't think I got printed (because I could not find an ending to my topic article) but I did help a lot of people edit their essays. So I am super excited to read what did get printed out and what student works were included in the journal.

That's pretty much it. Enjoying this fantastic summer weather!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Hurried Post...

The studio projects we are working on are going very slowly... In the last couple of days (since Saturday) I have been a humanized example of productivity and work output. Upon typing this I realize that it is hypocritical because I am not being productive right now.... But I digress. I have done several Spanish assignments, redone my entire website to turn in today, made 1 physical model and 3 digital models of our prospective building, and read several chapters of a book that I need to finish before Thursday... Plus I have been working on the digital files for our site (2 in fact) one of an entire building and the other piece being a part of the site that we "finished." Quite the laundry list right? That and I need to do laundry... That is essentially my life, sans cooking food and sleeping a little bit.

I do appreciate that I was visited by my wonderful family this weekend. It was to see all of you and to catch a football game, even though it was not really a game... A special thanks to Grandma Charin for a new world record care package! It was so large I actually did not have the ability to fit everything into my cupboards and fridge!!!

Ye Schedule for the rest of the week is as follows:

- Studio!!! Make models, plans and basic schematic plans...
- Read a book for a test Thursday
- Dinner with Sorority on Wednesday
- Create site for digital media class
- Spanish HW
- Laundry
- Lasercut everything
- Sleep?
- Fraternity HC ritual

Thats about it from me. Once again "Un mil gracias para mi familia que viajaron a visitarme el ultima fin de semana!!!

sketchup screenshot of my building concept idea. change acted upon a modular piece to create volumes necessary for our required building program.

The Long Walk Home Due to a Busy Mind

It's that time of year everyone!!! Free time is nearly gone. Truly the last of it shalt be squandered here in mere days before the crazy mess of studio work overtakes my life. Enough of the future, it is not determined by any sort of ballyhoo-ery that I make at this instance.

Fall has hit the gorgeous ISU campus!!! Trees are changing colors and my favorite time of year is upon us!!! FALLLL!!! (with four llll's) I am improving greatly in each of my Spanish classes, probably due to a greater degree of immersion than in years past. This is one thing I learned in Italy. You learn a new language real quick once you are forced to use it, and it is difficult and embarrassing to make mistakes in common situations. The other day I answered a question right, but later in class could not understand what my teacher was asking me whilst checking for homework. He was just asking my last name... Yeah...

We have one of our site models done and dusted, but it is only the smaller of the two pieces that we need to make for our final presentation in December. Lots more laser cutting and assembly and glueing to go. My group is just starting to make conceptual models about our site and we are slightly behind where I want us to be, which is ahead of the other groups in the class.

In more disheartening news I have to redo my student website because my teacher neglected to tell us that we needed to use HTML coding instead of Flash coding while making it. Guess which one I chose? I spent a lot of time on it making a rather handsome and well thought out page that is now useless because ISU's computer labs can't handle the file. So now I have to redo it all by next Tuesday... And he just told me that today. (Various explitives here...) Good thing is that I am living with Drew and he is an HTML wizard, so I already have some bones to flesh out. Unfortunately I still need to get some more coding in to make the site work more efficiently and look good too, because the things we were taught in class look like websites did back when Clinton was still President (long time ago in the Internet years.)

Anyways, I have two models I want to make tonight plus two poems to read and analyze in another language... So long for now! There shalt be more on Thursday!!!

More From Boston!

Long time, no talk... Things have been busy as all get out here. I am in studio now pumping out schematic design ideas for the 'ole Symphony Orchestra hall in Boston (Jazz only, to a degree). My what a brutal list of conceptual necessities it has. We are starting slower than I expected, but I really need to get something going, but our teacher and class model (the one we are building) are really getting in the way. Look for updates on pictures of these things in the next week, as they will be really sweet. But back to Boston!

The first night in town I went around to the three sites with two of my professors (one is my studio professor the other teaches my graduate level class). It was actually nice to hear their input on the sites as we visited them for the first time together. My group ended up choosing a site near the Rose Kennedy Greenway (the Big Dig) right downtown in Boston. After visiting said sights we went and got food at the Quincy Market. I ate a bowl of Chowda' with a kosher kielbasa chili dog. My one professor went upstairs for a pint and bar food whilst we dined on the cheaper fare of the market. When we went looking for him we stumbled upon him at the New England Patriots Cheerleaders Calender release party... Pretty dang lucky but awesome (and a terrible night to have left my camera back at the hotel... Damn)! After much jaw dropping and stuttering conversations with gorgeous women, we booked it back to our hotel stopping on the way for a pint of Samuel Adams (the most prominent and Bostonian thing imaginable, an actual identity to the city that people have massive pride in.)

The next day I toured the ICA art Museum on the waterfront for its collection and architecture, followed by dinner at the nearby Barking Crab and a tour of two Arch firms that afternoon. In between I tried to make it to MIT, but caught up with Steve Jobs speaking on the street. Drew and I would later go back to that campus and even meander through the campus of some school called Harvard. I really can say that I liked MIT and its similar sort of identity to ISU (at least the engineering and sciences portion of the campus that really felt like an ISU transmuted as infill into the Boston Harbor). I hated my trip to Harvard. If a person could make a collegiate university into a Disneyland-esque park where you walk around and gawk at buildings and placards of famous people... That is what Harvard is. There is also a preening arrogance to the students we saw sitting out enjoying the masses of Asian tourists photographing them as they "studied and read and chatted" in the Yard. It just left a bad impression on me, even though I dearly hope it was just a portion of the student population. I did thoroughly enjoy the brutalist architecture present at both campuses (ala CY Stephens and Fisher Theatre). Stark, severe and brutally effiecent buildings by Kahn and Pei (plus a Vander Rohe set that could count in this context...) that truly made the trip worth it.

On Sunday I went to a bookstore near the Boston Green and ate at the infamous Union Oyster House. I got the plate of fried seafood (scallops, clams, oysters, cod, shrimp, kalamari and octopus) smothered in fries... That was pricy and greasy but amazing to taste seafood that amazingly fresh and good. The rest of the trip was walking around, a Red Sox game and documentation of the site we chose... Things that are rather less interesting to write about, but here are some pictures and videos!!! (More pictures to come later again...)

Baahstein!!! (A Preview)

Lots to do in Boston, and not a lot of time to tell it. Here is a taste of a photo post to whey your appetite...

NO SLEEP 'TIL BROOKLYN!!!!!! (Oops... Boston)

Yeah I'm sleeping, don't get all worked up. That phrase will become commonplace after this wee though... Sadly. Got me a Red Sox game on Friday night at seven pm eastern (televised?) and tours all over the dang place in the city. I signed up for the art museum and firm visits... That in addition to our mandatory downtown tour and I have an eventful several days before me. It's really going to be weird to fly and not have to speak a different language than I am used to or to have to change money etc. There might be some culture shock to the east coast way of thinking (Red Sox & Tom Brady are two of my least favorite subjects) but there shalt be fantastic seafood!!! May grab a lobster or something (followed by McDonalds or grocery store food for the rest of the trip) fishy to tide myself over in the landlocked area that Iowa is. Just sayin', our seafood is terrible because it is frozen and shipped for like 5 days to get here... Minimum.

I need to finish packing. I shalt text thee a photo of me in Boston assuming I'm not roaming like crazy.

Much love...

Much to do About Nothing...

Not a whole lot going on here... My Spanish Homework is all I really have that has been constant since my 2 reviews last week over the chocolate boxes and the acoustics slideshow. I do need to get that dang video posted on my YouTube, Thelast thing somewhat exciting in school news is the Rome Exhibition. We set up our work and had a gallery for this last Friday that included "Italian" snacks and such to go with it. Things went very well and a modified version of the exhibit will be set up for the next two weeks.

(Scratch the YouTube comment from above, that baby is good to GOOOO!!! I'll link it at the bottom or something...)

I am trying the old blog thing out on just a temporary Tuesday and Thursday basis just to see if I can get more use out of it, because it is actually something I really enjoy doing! This is randomly kind of tossed into two more exciting topics, but hey! Some of you may be confused with the new look and the lack of contact. This is kind of a lull for me from the busy like 10 days straight I had from last week. All I really know is that this semester will be madness!!! Followed by random lulls in the action.

Go Cyclones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unless you have been living in a televisionless hole for the last month, you may or may not have known that the Cyclones beat some random team from the east coast of Iowa. No bid deal right... More importantly we have not done something like this since I was an adorable little freshman! (That little cutie) Next week ISU takes on Big East champs UConn and I have friends renting vehicles in Boston to drive out on Friday to watch the game live as opposed to TUNING INTO ESPN2 FRIDAY NIGHT. This is our free night in the city of seafood, Cheers and people who heckle Yankees fans. So I will hopefully find a sports bar somewhere (Irish themed of course) and watch the game to a couple of pints of Guiness and fish and chips whilst wearing a viewtiful ISU cardinal and gold T-shirt. Tune in for more Boston business before next Thursday (leaving at 4 am for DM Airport.. BOO!). Hopefully I will post some details of our trip and such.

Behold! Chocolate Melting to Thelonius Monk! The last 30 seconds is the desired final effect that I was hoping to achieve from a form standpoint... Enjoy!

Capitoline Museum

Sorry, no soccer photos or videos. I did have the highlights posted to my Facebook wall, assuming the video has not been blocked for copyright infringement. I'll see what I can get from my compatriots at who also attended.

The following is a  post of pictures from the Capitoline Museum in the forum of Rome. It is now housed in the old Campidoglio by Michelangelo (the old Senate building). Featured here are many statues of mythic figures, emperors and contributors to the Roman Republic. It is a very cool museum that contains hundreds of statues in peak condition! Gorgeous!

Final Movies for Class

The videos below are our neighborhood final videos (at least the ones posted on Youtube). So this is more of what we have been working on...

The Corviale Video

The Trastevere Video (my group)

Roma Tre Dinner

This last week my apartment played host to a dinner with our Roma Tre counterparts we met during the workshop we did. They made us a delicious meal of Spaghetti Carbonara and a wonderful cookie dessert thing. It was quite a mess to clean up, but it was totally worth it to spend time with our friends here in Rome, whether they are from ISU or Italy. I also happened to be visited by one of my fraternity brothers Dylan Gove. He was in Rome on Spring break so we spent some time hanging out here, as we are both studying abroad this semester. We also have a little construction project going on outside of our building this week. They have put scaffolding up on our side of the building and they are doing... something with it. Mainly the workers just make noise from 7 am, and we have to keep our door locked to prevent people from getting in via our balcony.

Cory enjoying the "sun" on our balcony.

Mike was too...

The kind ladies who cooked on dinner for us last week. 

Carbonara!

Dylan (in mid-blink)

Final Drawings

Hello all, we have been very busy here in Rome. Only two weeks left until we are done with our program, and Brad and I will travel to Spain for a week after that. Our reviews were held for our drawing class, so here is the results!

One of many in Cory's case...

Peter McDermitt

Matt Gaul

RJ Jia

Adam Aalgaard

Andrew Dickman

Andrew Holcombe

Mitch Hartig

Alex Michl

Alex Korby

Sam Mulholland

Me

Me again.