School is back in session at Columbia. All lotteries occured this past week when all studio professors attempted to make some sort of presentation about their intent for the graduating class. Most of them were incoherent, some were gimicky, others were pretentious name-droppers to validate their position at the podium showing off their books in print. (NOTE: Name dropped, "Koolhaas", books showed off: 1 book, Title, "NOX".) So that is that. Out of 16 professors for the graduating class, which includes Hawkinson (Tomato Studio), the NOX Guy, Karl Chu (Chile and Argentina), William MacDonald, Hani Rashid, David Turnbull, and Ed Keller...the studio with the most votes from the student body (67 votes out of about 150 students) was of course... Steven Holl who had the most straightforward presentation. Building. Prague. Kafka Building. Program. Trip to Prague. All student work to be exhibited in some museum in Prague.

In the end... most people got what they wanted... I got what I wanted (Andrew McNair) and everyone is sort of happy. Except of course for the professors who had the least number of people who wanted to be in their studio. (Some professors didnt even get any votes.)

We're all still waiting for this year's roster of lectures. It's really tough to beat last year... Eisenmann, Koolhaas, Gehry, ROY, Hani Rashid, Juergen Mayer, Peter Cook, Lebbeus Woods, and all the architects who showed at the Venice Biennale. Hmm... let's wait and see.