Archinect - Columbia University GSAPP (George)

It's getting intense.

2009-12-04T06:22:54-05:00

Finals are Dec. 7, 8 and Jeffrey Johnson's studio is have theirs on the 11th. My studio will be having their crit on the 8th in 200 Buell. If you're in town feel free to stop by. After reviews I should be posting some videos and images. Just learned after effects so it might actually be nicely presented in video format. All of other classes are basically on hold after the 8th, in which we have 10 days to produce for three different finals, including papers, detail models for Architectural Technology and animations for Architectural Drawing and Represention. It doesn't end.

To all my fellow archinectors who are currently in the grind or approaching it Good Luck and as the legendary President Thomas Whitmore said once just when the world was at the brink of destruction, "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!". Don't light the cigar until the fat lady sings.

Best,
George.

Midterm Review update!

2009-10-22T17:39:06-04:00

Man its been a while.
I think its a symptom of the intensity of this school.
I'm taking the day after midterm review to catch up on my life including this venue.
In brief, I love it here.

The history discussions are great, the atmosphere is critical (Ryan Lovett, fellow archinect blogger is a testament to this) and Mark Wigley is correct in saying the reason we're going here is not for the professors but for our peers. At the orientation he mentioned how we would all be jealous of each other because everyone has something to contribute and I wholeheartedly agree.

I have Phillip Parker as my studio crit which means I have or rather will be obsessive about lines by the end of this semester.
So far we've had 3 projects to date, and will be starting on the last project next week, whose progress i will try to catalogue by means of youtube videos (part of the new GSAPP CLIPS section of the school's website) and will maintain a somewhat seperate vlog here as a collective studio...

Settled like sand at the bottom of a riverbed.

2009-08-19T23:20:25-04:00

New York City.

I've been stuck somewhere in between the Classon Ave stop on the G train in Brooklyn and the 125th St. stop on the 1 train in Manhattan these past couple of weeks.

Been moved in.
Books have been placed on shelves.
Clothes has been worn and laundered.
And it has been hot as balls.
I bought a meager fan.
I take 3-5 showers a day.

Now,
some highlights:
I visited the Highline which though not completed, stands to be one of the best experiences in this city. Diller, Scofidio, and Renfro just know what their doing and they do it well. It's interesting to see the Highline in comparison to the Lincoln Center and be able to notice some of their clever design nuances. Their fixation with "performance" or "audience" is visible in the way they devise spaces that do just that, either allow users to either be the audience or the performers. In the High Line, the street becomes the performer.

In the Lincoln center, the building, with seating turned away from the street....

Summer Prologue Part II

2009-06-28T21:14:35-04:00

Where to begin?

Since my last post I worked with a local Miami firm, BEA, on a small mock-up model (1/4"). While there, I met one of the partners named Gus who graduated from Columbia in the 90's. It was a nice long chat about the nature of the profession and GSAPP back then and now, BIM, and his experiences in New York. The theme of our chat would reiterate the need for architects to learn the language of business, something that his own firm has had to learn along the way, and I suspect, most other firms do as well. Besides that talk, not much else was as memorable during my time there.

In other news, the design company my friend Adrian and I started (FOM) close to a year ago has a revamped website. No glitz and glamour, just something simple currently being hosted by the fine folks at cargocollective. Their platform was a breeze to use and would highly recommend it.
We also are working on a poster for FIU's SOA Fall Lecture Series. The collection on this site has been helpfu...

Summer Prologue Part. 1

2009-06-05T13:02:06-04:00

Greetings Archinect!

This first post is just a way for me to get used to the system.

(I should preface everything by saying that I tend to write what I think, very "train-of-thought".)

On to the Prologue:

There are at least three anxieties I noticed that occur before grad school.

1. Taking the GRE, completing the portfolio and all the requisites for application.
2. Waiting for responses from the schools.
3. Waiting for school to start.

Considering this, I've been high strung for about a year. Haha.

Something interesting suggested by a friend, Andy Chavez, is that I use this platform to address what it is like to transition from a major sprawled out metropolis like Miami to the density of New York City. The comparison of both might be approached by means of images and a compilation of mental notes as a long term project. If it sounds good, let me know!

This blog will also act as a repository of things I find and see both online and in the city. I was initially thinking...