Sketches and More!!!

A more intimate window into my life over the last couple of days... I have been working diligently in studio with my partners Mike VP and Sam over the programming in our site. Our project is to chose a site and develop a program (like what goes into the building and why) over our school of music that we must design. It is a really tricky neighborhood with a mixed pass and lots of pollution problems left over from Fascism and Communism (Italy changes really stinking slowly... Like really slow). The two touring classes have been going well, for the most part. I could not find the meeting place the last Tuesday and spent roughly 2 hours walking around the wrong neighborhood... Bummer. My history class tomorrow is over the Villa Farnesi. It is one of the most decked out civilian houses in Rome that still exists from the Renaissance. It was built mainly off of Papal money and has been an embassy for France over the last 200 years because the family that owned it just decided they did not want to live in a gilded paradise and moved back to Parma. It became decrepit and had many of its works taken from it or sold to pay for repairs until it was rented by France. We tour the Vatican next week (lots of walking in a huge building with tons of history) and have our last neighborhood walk... We shall see how that one goes because it is truly in the outskirts of town (way away from the city center which I am seated right next to). Otherwise things are going well. I do miss the US mainly because I miss the ole' family and friends, but Rome is truly exciting!!! (I might travel to Zurich with a friend this weekend, we shall see if I can get a ticket or not... I will keep you posted!)

View of part of our site from the banks of the Tiber

St. Paul outside the walls of Rome

The guy lighted up on the left is the current pope partially immortalized with all the other pope's faces starting with St. Peter. They only have 12 spots left though before they fill up the existing spots... I wonder what they do then?

This is a candle... One heck of a big candle. It is used for papal ceremonies and holidays involving Christ (most of them) St. Paul is the statue on the left.

St. Paul inside the walls. This is an Anglican Church with frescos of the Crusades up front there in the nave. It is nearly a gothic church, one of maybe 3 in Rome.

Sketches from my small book

The postcard above my book is from St. Cecilia. It is her saintly statue in the nave depicting her body when it was exhumed to carve her likeness. (Aparently she was very well preserved and the thing looks almost exactly like her... I will take their word for it.)

Sketch of the mountains at Capri

Mapping our current project with dry brushed ink... Layer one of one third of the site (lots to go!)

The beetle domes of the Piazza della Musica by Renzo Piano

Those are lead panels... Fortunately coated in a patina that does not make them toxic!

Sweet and sour pork for dinner with Adam, Andy Klein, Valerie Castillo and Leila Ammar. I also tried sushi for the first time tonight and kinda liked it. Wasabi is very good though, and definitely helped choke it down.