New Blog!

Hello, friends and followers.  You are receiving this email because I added you to the email list from my blog.  Every time I post something, it will go to your email like this one just did.  I did not know how to do this before I posted my last blog about orientation week, so this is also an announcement that that post is up!

Some of you might also be "following" my blog, and others might just find this to be annoying.  Please let me know if you would rather be taken off of the list, either by commenting this blog post or contacting me in some other way.  I will not mind, and if you really do not want to be on the list, it will allow someone else to be on it who does.  LOL.

I kept this list to just those who were already following (minus a few with work emails), people who had expressed interest in my blog, or certain family members who might not be able to remember my blog if I do not pester them (just kidding).

If you have come across this blog/post and are not on the list, I can add you, so long as there are enough 'slots'... for some reason they only allow 10 people to be listed.

Enjoy your weekend!
-xopher

Orientation Week

Made it through the 3-day orientation process this week, and already I'm tired.  Partially because the first two days I biked to school, which is a 10.2 mile commute each way, each day.  Thank goodness I will be getting my Upass next week!  (Although, I will miss the beautiful route of the lakeshore path.)

I just wanted to share a few pix I snapped from campus; I am so excited to be studying architecture at a campus so rich in architecturally significant buildings.  The first building I encountered for orientation was the McCormick Tribune student center by Rem Koolhaas.  It is definitely a building you want to explore.

Student Center, West Entrance

The West facade of the building has an angular undulation to it, and is filled with a vivid orange translucent material.  A flooding orange glow permeates the circulation spaces on this side of the building.  I entered the building from the South entrance, and walked toward this area; the experience was pretty fascinating. The doors themselves make up part of the Mies 'mural' -- it is made up of an arrangement of little stick-figure images that work like a photomosiac. 

The building sits under the green line tracks like a hot dog bun opened up on a plate.  The tracks were incorporated into the architecture by a tubular envelope shielding the train noise (mostly) from the building's interior.  Here you can see the tunnel:

CTA "El" Tunnel. 

As you can see, the tunnel is pretty beefy and dominating visually. From street level, it looks like it completely envelops the train, but the "top" of the tube is mostly open, with only rib-like arched supports making the full turn.

The space inside the building emphasizes a flat, even vertically compressed environment.  The 'underbelly' of the train tube is accommodated by a linear drop in ceiling height through the building that looks like a section of the ceiling has literally been pushed downward into the space.  Under that, a computer station "trough"cuts into the floor plan like a rectilinear riverbed.

Interior Courtyard or Hanging Gardens?

The plan wraps around a courtyard-like enclosure that is open to the sun and filled with vegetation.  This brings a great deal of light to the space and frees it from feeling compressed.  To the side of the courtyard, the floor level drops in stages to create an informal amphitheater.  The hollowed space continues under the courtyard, and to the other side, providing dining services.  The way the "lower level" is dug out from under the courtyard space makes it look like it is floating, like a modern "hanging garden".  It's a great effect, one that reminds me of how the halo of light makes the mammoth dome of Hagia Sophia seem like it is nearly floating overhead [shown below]. 

Dome of Hagia Sophia (Image from Columbia.edu)

And speaking of flooding light... this will be my studio space for the next year:

Northwest corner of Crown Hall, Architecture Studios

Don't you wish your office looked like this?  It is a beautifully simple and unobtrusive space.  Again, I am very excited to be working here, but I am also a little nervous about all the work that will be involved.

That is it for now.  I will try to keep my posts shorter in the future.  Stay tuned!

About the title and my program of study

I am lovingly calling this blog "architorture" in homage to the nickname given to the undergraduate architecture program at Washington University in St. Louis.  I graduated from that university with a double-major Bachelors of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Film/Media Studies.  This last Spring, I also graduated from Harrington College of Design with an Associates of Applied Sciences in Interior Design.

I am very anxious and excited to start the Masters in Architecture program at the end of August.  Their program was founded by Mies van der Rohe in an attempt to make the "American Bauhaus" after fleeing from Nazi Germany.  It's nice to feel part of a tradition such as this.  Our main building is Crown Hall, a smart and simple building with grand uninterrupted space inside flooded with natural light.  (For more information, visit http://www.iit.edu/arch/crown_hall/ )

In keeping with the "architorture" theme, I just bought Physics for Dummies and Calculus for Dummies.  Since I have not used or studied either for years now, it is a must for me.

Wish me luck!