Archinect - Stevens Institute of Technology (Erik Verboon)

Good Endings Better Beginnings

2006-01-31T23:16:10-05:00

I never did do a final semester post...did I? Well then this is a final and beginning of semester post. The end of last semester had a pretty good turnout. Reviews happened over 3 days. The first day was the second year presentations most of which were pretty amazing. The critics included Len Imus (a nautical engineer for stevens) and Greg Otto and Matt Melnyk from Buro Happold. All the critics seemed to be fairly impressed. There was a broad range of projects ranging from surfboards to structural design to deployable housing. Our first day of reviews were more formal and included the critics David Gerber (Phd from Harvard) and Richard Garber (arch professor at NJIT). The second day was just a presentation of our Structural Design and Optimization results to Greg Otto. I feel like I am tooting my own horn but the comments made by the critics were very positive. Not only in respect to the individual projects but also to the direction of the school. These critics who are att...

mid-term reviews

2005-11-15T00:51:01-05:00

I know, I know...Its been a while. The only excuse i have is that we've been cranking here in Hoboken.
As a reminder, our studio group has been charged with assisting SHoP in designing the facade of the C2 building on the FIT campus. Additionally, the design of the facade will be driven by our Performance Criteria Document being developed for our Design Optimization Course. The goal and end result for mid-term was to have a complete DPC document that would include all our analysis and criteria that will be used to inform the design to happen in the remaining portion of the semester.
As a group, we decided that in order to fully understand the purpose, goals, and results of the facade, we had to analyze its structural and environmental implications. The facade, at its core, is a screen, filter, and barrier between the interior and exterior environments, and its design and fabrication have direct results on both those environments. This faÃ§ade is unique in the fact that not...

In the thick of it

2005-10-08T13:14:48-04:00

So last post i gave a little background on myself and on the school. Thanks for all those with questions.. Keep em coming! I enjoy answering all of them.

This week was a busy one. Most of our time was spent on the creation of a Performance Criteria Document for out Design Optimization Course. This document outlines all the parameters of our project. These parameters are all very real and contain hard numbers. They include NYC and IBC building code, Zoning codes, Material qualities and limitations, performance objectives, prorgamatic requirements, fabrication and erection tolerances, environmental aspects and performanace, structural assumptions with corresponding Free Body Diagrams, loading diagrams, moment/shear diagrams...basically all the requirements an architectural office and engineering consultant would factor into the design of a project. What is crazy is that we are basically learning structures again from an engineering school. Back in undergrad i didnt really care a...

First Post...yeah!

2005-10-02T20:13:08-04:00

So I am a little late on starting this blog...but better late than never...right? Well, lets start from the beginning then. A brief background of myself: I was born in Patterson New Jersey and grew up in Rockaway NJ for the first 11 years of my life. From there my family moved to Erie, PA for a couple years and finally to Dayton, OH where they remain. All this moving is due in part to the tumultuous job of machine tool sales which kept my dad on his feet. From Dayton, the obvious choice for studying architecture was the University of Cincinnati due to its stellar reputation in the professional realm and because its relative proximity to the family (aka.. source of funding). School in the Nati proved to be a great experience but unfortunately only partially filled my desire for further learning. While in school I was given the option of changing my professional, accredited Bachelor's of Architecture into a 4+2 Masters Degree. Since we were going to be the guinea pigs for thi...