Archinect - Illinois Institute of Technology (Tom Denney)

More Paris and Les Halles Project

2006-08-26T07:13:01-04:00

We went out for a bit and found the 5th bar over on rue de Mouffetard at the suggestion of a friend (Bill if you are reading this) and gave the bartender a white sox baseball hat. He gave us free shots and a beer. Then we got panini's from a little shop and made our way back home. I have some pictures of the surrounding area of our apartment.

Those of you that have emailed me to wish me a safe journey...THANK YOU! If any of you wish to send care packages, mixed-tape C.D.'s or just a note saying 'Hi!' let me know and I will get you the proper mailing address where such things will reach me.

Tomorrow is the first day of studio, and I am almost certain we will be doing something along the lines of city research, planning and design.

THURSDAY:
First day of class. woke up at 7am and went for walk around. Saw Pompidou, Notre Dame, and had Croq Msr. for lunch at one of thousands of brasserie. We kept seeing people walking around with cut wood in various dimensions. Dont knoow if it wa...

Traveling Pencil in Paris

2006-08-25T00:51:49-04:00

I have arived in Paris. I am keeping a journal online at:

http://travelingpencil.blogspot.com/index.html

I am going to post bits and pieces of it here. Unless there is an overwhelming demand. Some of the more intereting pics also.

T-8 days till Paris

2006-08-14T23:22:42-04:00

Well I am leaving in 8 days for Paris. I think we have a place to stay. I feel like I should be more worried about things then i actually am. I was more worried about getting a tooth pulled today (AND YES I HAD GOOD REASON TO BE-FUCK THAT SUXS!) I have although, finalized my list of books to bring, and they are:

1. Hunch-back of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
2. Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings
3. Food Lover's Guide to Paris, Patrica Wells
4. Eurpoe on a Shoestring, Lonely Planet
5. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, Tucker Max
6. Atlas of Novel Tectonics, Reiser + Umemoto

Anyone have any last minute advice? I still offer an invitation to anyone that wants to try and meet while I'm over there.

PARIS FALL SEMESTER 06

2006-07-23T23:28:09-04:00

SO I AM GOING TO BE LEAVING AUG. 22 FOR PARIS AND SPENDING THE SEMESTER THERE UNTIL THE 11TH OF DEC. I WAS WONDERING IF THERE WERE ANY OTHER ARCHINECT STUDENTS THAT WERE GOING TO BE STUDYING IN EUROPE IN THE FALL AND MAYBE IT WOULD BE COOL TO MEET UP AND TOOL AROUND.

5 books you'd take w/ for semester in Europe

2006-07-13T18:38:54-04:00

It looks like I will be spending the fall semester based in Paris and doing a semester there. I want to travel light and have limited myself to only taking 5 books with me. I was curious if anyone had any suggestions of books they would want to have with them. So far I have:

1. Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language"
2. Kevin Lynch's "Good City Form"
3. Gaston Bachelard "The Poetics of Space"

TWO-STAGE-DRAIN CONCEPT HELP NEEDED

2006-03-26T13:54:40-05:00

O.K., I WAS TOLD TO RESEARCH TWO-STAGE DRAINS FOR MY ROOF-TOP GARDEN. GO AHEAD...GOOGLE TWO-STAGE-DRAIN. SEE WHAT YOU CAN FIND. GO LOOK IN PLUMBING BOOKS. CHECK-OUT YOUR MECH/ELEC BLDG SYTMS TEXT. WHAT I DO KNOW IS IT'S NOT A TYPE OF ACTUALY DRAIN PRODUCED BY A FIXTURE MANUFACTURER, UNLESS THEY KEEP IT SECRET. IT SEEMS TO BE A CONSRUCTION DETAIL, AND AN OLDER ONE AT THAT. I OWN 1ST, 3RD, 4TH, 5TH, AND CURRENT EDITIONS OF ARCHITECTURAL GRAPHIC STANDARDS...NOTHING.

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS OR KNOWLEDGE OF THIS SYSTEM?

RULES FOR LIQUID CONTAINERS IN YOUR WORK AREA

2006-02-20T13:03:10-05:00

1. CONTAINER MUST HAVE TIGHT CAP TO CONTAIN LIQUID WHEN IT IS NOT BEING CONSUMED.

2. CAP MUST BE PLACED IN AN AIR-TIGHT POSITION AS SOON AS CONSUMPTION HAS CEASED.
a. "air-tight" is defined as not allowing more then two drops to escape the container, when said container is placed in an inverted position.

3. NO COFFEE MUG OR TRAVEL COFFEE MUG HAS AN AIR-TIGHT LID, IF YOU KNOW OF ONE EMAIL ME.

4. IF A CONTAINER DOES NOT HAVE AN AIR-TIGHT LID IT MUST BE PLACED ON THE FLOOR, OR OUT OF DIRECT ARMS REACH OF YOUR WORK AREA IF IT IS AT AN ELEVATION EQUAL TO OR LESS THEN THE HEIGHT OF YOUR WORK AREA BUT NOT ON THE FLOOR.

5.IF A CONTAINER DOES NOT HAVE AN AIR-TIGHT LID IT SHALL NOT BE PLACED AT AN ELEVATION ABOVE THE WORK AREA.
a. no exceptions to rule 5.

6. IN CASE YOUR WORK AREA IS COMPROMISED BY AN UNLAWFUL VISITOR, IMMEDIATLY ASK THEM TO LEAVE.
a. for this situation a contigent of paper towels that can cumulativly hold 1 quart of water shall always be in reach at your work area.

Time machine anyone?

2005-12-01T09:00:52-05:00

It's never to late to build a time machine. I slept for fours hours last night on my inflatable mattress here at studio. 4 HOURS! Shit. As much as I need to get out of this building for a few hours to go to work tonight bartending, I'm scared to be gone. Anyone in
Chicago that wants to come down and have a drink or few and keep me company is welcome to no end. I work at "312 Chicago", an italian restaurant at Randolph and Lasalle. WE close at 10 so come around 8 and I'll buy a few drinks. (Wouldn't that be cool if someone reading this actually showed-up).

I havnt been home since Sunday. My Wife probably hopes I dont come home so she can keep letting the cat sleep on the bed next to her. At least it's snowing out. The quiet emptyness of walking in falling snow late at night or early morning is so soothing.

I walked over to Crown this morning to see what the 1st and 2nd year students were doing, surely they must be slaving away a week before their final reviews. Alas,...

Program vs. Concept

2005-11-05T21:51:21-05:00

Just posting my first of the semester. Thought I would pose a Q for those of you that want to debate design. If a design is concept driven how much of the program drives the design? It would seem to me that concept driven design is the idealistic that eludes the post gradute. Program=functional design. Isn't that the greater challenge though, trying to inject concept design elements into prgram driven design? Am I just typing out of my ass?

School-less Students Check IIT

2005-09-04T11:10:12-04:00

The dean of Illinois Institute of Technology sent an all College email this week saying we were accepting displaced students into our College of Architecture. I dont know the exact details, but I'm sure you can contact the school and find out more through the admissions department:
Office of Undergraduate Admission
10 W. 33rd Street
Perlstein Hall, Room 101
Chicago, IL 60616
Chicago Area:
312-567-3025
Outside Chicago:
1-800-448-2329
Email: admission@iit.edu

Sustainable

2005-08-25T19:25:18-04:00

"The word 'sustainable' expresses the obligation that each generation has to the next to preserve the value of the natural world."

"I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham", Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Essay appears in the Earth Pledge Foundation's book:Sustainable Cuisine.

Manifesto's and Pamplete Architecture

2005-06-17T15:12:59-04:00

1. Manifesto's- Who's working on an architectural manifesto? It seems to me most of the influential architects of teh past all wrote manifestos: how they defined architecture, what direction architecture should go in, what is good and bad architecture. Is the manifesto a dead practice? Is a blog a good replacment?

2. Pamphlet Architecture. The new website seems to still be inactive. Does anyone have any information as to when it might be back up or when the submission deadline is for this year?

Being Watched!

2005-05-03T03:46:18-04:00

I was informed last week that my Archinect blog was found or reported to the dean of the architecture school, and that it was being watched. While this was meant as a joking jab it's made me wonder if faculty really cares what students have to say about the program they are enrolled in.

I'm a little annoyed that a week before finals, we are now required to scan or photograph all of the hand drafted Strathmore plates we spent countless hours working on over the course of the year. A disc with images is now suddenly required as part of our final grade so they can use the discs as part of the year end open house. The open house is always a full display of the years work, and the Strathmore plates are what highlight 2nd year's achievements. The beauty of them is inherent to the plates. Digital scanning or photographing never depicts the details of these drawings accurately. Of course open house is being presented entirely in digital format on plasma screen monitors placed around ...

Pics of Studio

2005-02-25T00:48:37-05:00

Calling all students! I want to start a collection of Studio photos from the different school of Architecture around the world. If you can email me .jpg's of your studio that would be great. I hope to have enough by the summer that I can start to put a cool webpage documenting all of them. I'd like photos that show more of the over-all room and if you still want to send pics of your work area that's cool to. I dont care if the studio is clean, dirty, empty, or filled with students at 3am on a thursday night rushing to get a project done for a friday review. just send them!!!

denntho1@iit.edu

Art of Hand Lettering?

2005-02-14T23:49:04-05:00

I'm just curious as I sit here putting the last of the lettering and dimensioning on the latest revision of my timber frame house construction drawings...In as much as it may have been, is hand lettering a lost art? Are any of the rest of you taught it for more then a one-day, in-studio charrette? Do any of you still take pride in the fact you can take an entire 50 minute lecture in ARCH History in architectural hand-lettering because you have become so proficient at it, it's how you write?

2nd year at IIT

2005-02-09T22:27:44-05:00

Second year at IIT studio is totally about details. We completly leave behind, for the most part, all of the designs tools we learned about in first year. I'm not complaining about it, but i do wonder how many other school spend an entire year of studo work teaching how to do details? and when I say 'teach' I mean teach, so much so studio should be renamed 'Lectured to Death' we spend 4 hours a day 3 days a week for the most part being taught in lecture halls, slide shows, and chaulkboard discussions about how to design details. What kinds of experiences are the rest of you have in terms of being taught details?

Ah, to draft in Studio or to Draft at home?

2005-01-31T03:50:27-05:00

I've been drafting at home now for 2 weeks since the semester started. I really havn't decided if I like it or not. It's convienent, that's for sure. How many of you out there that are still hand-drafting in school have spent time drafting at home as well as in studio? What's your feelings on it?

Rest in Peace Mr. Johnson

2005-01-27T17:50:48-05:00

The end of an era. I only wonder who will pick-up the torch now that the last of the great modernists is gone.