Archinect - New York Institute of Technology (Max)

greetings from tibet

2007-07-15T03:15:32-04:00

sorry...there is always a poor combination of "consistent internet access" and "free time" to post the china blog. would you believe that I would have to come all the way out to lhasa to find the internet again?!? just kidding, it was mainly an issue of having a studio and an "installation" elective crammed into about 5 weeks.

but I promise that when I get back, august 29, I have all these posts and images and sketches saved up. so until then...

d6 - final review

2007-05-20T18:22:39-04:00

there isn't much to say...in my last post, I showed the new studio space in the basement of the 61st street Manhattan campus building. the review was epic - at least in proportion. but honestly, with three reviews going on at any one time, it became manageable.

for me personally, this semester back in studio was, once again, a struggle. I found an idea and I can't be sure I even partially exploited it in a design. I always understand the agenda of the program, and of the influencing parties, but I want to achieve the goals of my personal agenda. I am honestly looking forward to thesis (after China) so that I can hopefully work towards my onw thoughts and ideas.

Below are the boards from this presentation, and here is the link to the portfolio. Enjoy for now; I leave for China tomorrow evening, so speak with everyone again in a few days.

Board 01

Board 02

The new digs in Manhattan

2007-05-17T23:23:24-04:00

Affectionately referred to as “the dungeon,” Design 6 (fourth year) and Design 8 (thesis) undergrads got a new studio space in the basement of one of our Manhattan campus buildings. I’m pretty pleased with this development, and here you can see two key images: the 70 some odd students who came from both the Manhattan and Old Westbury campuses for our Design 6 (long span) review…along with 30+ jurors filtering in-and-out throughout the day (from 9 am until about 8 pm) and the advisory board.

The only complaint I registered with the dean was that we don’t have enough light, and she agreed. She said lighting solutions are being worked on (although, I also found that, with limited students working in the new space for these final few weeks, we are also short on electrical outlets in studio classes that are increasingly, if not wholly digital). I actually brought a light to illuminate some work throughout the day, and some spotlights were brought in as well to serve the same purpose....

Taylor and Frampton come alive!

2007-04-05T15:41:43-04:00

Today we had another in the series of NYIT “Lunchtime Lectures.” This lecture series features symposiums from current faculty (along with some notable guest appearances) during the free period in our school (when no classes are scheduled, Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30 – 2 PM). They occur once or twice per month.

Todays lecture featured the professor I T.A. for in history, Dr. Brian Brace Taylor of NYIT and Columbia University and historian/critic/professor Kenneth Frampton of GSAPP, Columbia University. The discussion began with an overview of a publication Taylor and Frampton produced (along with others) in the 80’s and 90’s entitled MIMAR, “Architecture in Development.” Literally translated, MIMAR is a word in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and certain dialects of Turkish that means ‘master builder.’ Dr. Taylor outlined the history of the publication and the purpose that it intended to serve. The discussion quickly moved on to the role of criticism in architecture – what is the functio...

South Street Seaport

2007-03-28T15:49:25-04:00

Had a great field trip today with the class of Intro. to Architectural History…I’m the TA for Dr. Brian Brace Taylor. We went down to South Street Seaport to discuss the Urban Fragment. What’s the significance of something like South Street Seaport?

Since this is the first history class for these students, there’s an introduction to theory and relevance in architecture and planning. While something like South Street might be historically significant, this significance is lost in the nostalgia and longing the public practically requires from a place associated with a long, lost past. Couple this with the urban context of the site (the harrowing financial district, the elevated highway of the FDR, and the East River - replete with the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges), and you have a space this is really out of place. Or is it?

This field trip is coupled with a reading from Christine Boyer, entitled “Cities for Sale: Merchandising History at South Street Seaport.” ...

new studio space?

2007-03-27T23:39:13-04:00

well. we were supposed to have a new studio space here in manhattan oh, about, say, 6 weeks ago. At that time, our chairman, david diamond, informed us that, although the project was two weeks late (two weeks into the new semester, slated for completion over winter break), we were officially invited to the grand opening and reception for a new studio that would house 4th and 5th year students.

only, that never happened.

I was chatting with micah today before studio, and this came up. we recalled this very moment of announcement from our chairman, and I had gloriously recorded it in my sketch book...somewhere. I recalled that I got excited at the time, immediately going home that weekend after friday studio (design 6) and organizing/packing up all of my studio equipment in anticipation of moving in. after all, we were getting our own desks (finally) in our school. we never had those before; we were truly commuter based. seems kind of important.

now? my stuff is still packe...

spring break

2007-03-16T22:48:12-04:00

we all pulled all nighters...well, maybe not all of us. but we were preparing for our SECOND design midterm in a week. seems that the dean wanted a closer look at the projects, so we had to prepare more material after midterm presentations last tuesday/friday. I plotted and ate, returning to the school at 12:45 (for the 2PM review) only to find out that CLASSES HAD BEEN CANCELLED.

happy spring break. it starts one day early, and without sleep that day just ran into the last.

D6 - midterm jury

2007-03-11T20:56:58-04:00

Purple, why not? Actually, it is more of an “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach to our plotters…I can never get blues to print out anything other than purple, so I figured let’s just go with purple. Oh, and the blues you see on screen printed out this time as…grey. I put the plans up before…they haven’t changed much except for structural details and some modifications to the layout (I dropped one viewing area for better angles of vision).

Long span structure, horses and a pool…so far I have two major trusses flanking the riding ring for the horses and a long span roof that will either be unbearably long beams spanning incredible distances OR some kind of 2-D mesh type operation. I’m still researching that. Here are the three boards for presentation, three sections, the (previously unseen) roof plan, one rendering and the physical model (1” = 16’, or about the size of a shoebox as seen). The sections, as small drawings in JPG 72 dpi format don’t read particularly well...

Tribute Booklet

2007-03-10T13:35:43-05:00

At the beginning of last semester, we were met with tragedy. But I consider this work something that I can honestly say I am proud to be a part of:

Tribute Booklet to Kevin Cullen

The PDF is a touch under 2MB. It looks great in print (full color with a glossy cover). Personally, I'll be honored to present this to Kevin's family, and I've already taken the opportunity to meet with his father (where I gave Mr. Cullen Kevin's last portfolio from this studio class).

I believe that, in some abstract way, a compendium of the student work from our last semester in studio together is a great way to express the strongest bond and our most identifiable traits we have in our school. It shows how we impacted Kevin and how he impacted us.

D6 – review (?) and visit

2007-02-22T14:02:16-05:00

So, probably the least anticipated entry I have made, commencing with the models from last time:

model progression

And, the notes I took during the review:

notes

There was a lot of mention thrown around of what a project is “about.” So I made note of all mention that day.

For the next class, we had visits from different engineers. The current focus is on structure (of which, as you probably noticed above, I have little of in the model). We had representatives from Arup, Guy Nordenson, and Front, and here are the notes from their presentations, in order (they covered a multitude of buildings).

So now the question remains: how does this change my approach? Some of the problems were very sustainable (Bed Zed) and some not sustainable at all (Toledo Glass Museum). But what struck me was the influence the engineers had on the design. It seems like architects create problems and engineers fix them. I suppose I could be wrong, but something about that rings particularly true w...

D6 - logistical failure

2007-02-15T17:27:59-05:00

So we were told last Friday that today would be a graded concept review with an outside panel of jurors. That’s fine, so I worked on manipulating the programmatic elements to create some passive sustainability opportunities. Last Friday, I came into studio having done my due diligence towards finding out all that I could about the program – square foot requirements, zoning, etc. So I laid out the program in big boxes, and adjusted my programmatic diagram to reflect actual square footage:

"boxy" program

new program diagram

The professor and I decided that a return to the more, er, “exciting” designs I had come up with would be more suitable. So again, I manipulated program to fit this formal language I have been developing. I tested the idea of broken edges – can I break the uniform street edge to accomplish things like sustainable design, proper circulation, and rich spatial qualities. I essentially blew the program up in a movie, and rearranged it:

original massing – brok...

D6- Dressage Diagrams

2007-02-01T20:43:45-05:00

Just something fun I found...since the NYPD Mounted Unit Training Facility requires dressage space, I went looking for some info on dressage. I found these neat diagrams. Just for fun I drew them up and made a comparrison to my plan process diagrams. the diagram reads funny at this orientation (I originally laid it out landscape, and I just rotated the image for the web). In this orientation here, the read top to bottom, starting from the right hand side (the text was originally bottom RH corner, or SE). Who knows where any of this is going.

Dressage Diagrams

D6 - at least I have a logo

2007-02-01T17:00:01-05:00

This is sad...I am defining relationships between elements of the program, so I made a diagram. the only thing I am happy with is the sad, sad logo I have made for my project with a tentative title.

sorry diagram

sad logo (desperate plea for help)

not even cool logo that I used to program with when I was in 1st grade (that and basic). *sigh*

D6 - This is Red Rocks! THIS IS THE EDGE!!

2007-01-30T22:45:58-05:00

Thank you, Phish, for Icculus.

The block of our site for the design project is a typical NY block near the park. To maximize the built output, the zoning laws for setbacks are pushed to the limit. Nearly all of the buildings there run right up from the edge of the property line, creating this daunting threshold. For now, I’m calling it an urban edge.

Urban Edge

The residents of this area are affluent, and I would imagine that they may actually covet this urban edge – it maintains a semblance of privacy. When you can live so close to Central Park in Manhattan, you can treat the park as your own public, outdoor space (your own back yard, if you will). But the most interesting buildings in the immediate context (found on the same block) broke this edge at the street plane. Without even entering said buildings, you could see how the non-conformity to the plane of all other buildings created space immediately identifiable as entrance. External material treatment also denoted th...

Design VI - Bring on the Dancing Horses

2007-01-25T21:52:43-05:00

Well allright...back to design studio. I haven't had one since last spring, so I feel like I am ready to get things going. The design problem - build a training facility for the Mounted Police Unit of the NYPD that shares the site with a neighborhood athletic facility. The proposed site for this project has an actual building there right now (we're not responsible for planning demolition). This area is largely residential, with a scattering of commercial enterprises (like a few small professional offices and home offices, presumably) AND the ABC television studios. The site is located on the UWS one building away (~100') from Central Park (and Tavern on the Green).

site

A classmate and I discussed this, and we went over some of the requirements. Of course, the Mounted Police Unit will bring the horses, but the neighborhood athletic center will contain a pool. With this combination in mind, the first thing we thought of was the diving horses from Atlantic City.

horse and wo...

blog rationale

2007-01-05T15:53:37-05:00

As per this thread on archinect, I am posting my blog rationale. I think a blog is a real tool to consider and ponder. Perhaps I should have posted this much earlier, but hey, better late than never. I sould like to say that archinect provides a great forum that begins to achieve some of the things I ranted about here, and I wanted to know what some of the archinecters felt about blogs in general.

Just a bit of background on this "rationale"...our housing studio was offered a blog by our professor in the spring of 2006, and some of the entries/responses (or lack thereof) motivated me to write about the nature of blogs. This rationale was sent as an email to the professor and my fellow studio mates:

It's nice that the faculty members have perused the web, but I'd like to waste 5 minutes of everyone's day discussing the transformation of media on the internet and why mere perusal is sincerely inadequate...

We've been living with the internet for a while now. I personally feel th...

Film and Architecture â€“ Cut 3

2006-11-09T19:06:51-05:00

Sorry, I was waiting on the pictures. And thanks to Giovanna I have them now. So the next film we watched was Antonioni's The Eclipse. We had to respond to any element(s) of the movie of our choosing and create an 8 inch x 8 inch x at LEAST 1 inch construct - only in grey.

When we read about the filmmaker, there was a quote from Antonioni that said, “I make nothing - with precision.” But two elements of the film stood out to me as imprecise, not in the way that they are filmed, but in the way that they exist.

There is a certain emotional ambiguity to the characters, especially Vittoria. She is languid and apathetic at times, ignoring the camera. And, regardless of her emotions for the characters she interacts with (her mother, her men) and their physical proximity, she maintains this ambiguity.

I also thought the new montage was imprecise, particularly in the stock exchange scene. People and objects move in and out of the static camera frame to create a disorder. To me, ...

Film and Architecture â€“ Cut 2

2006-10-18T02:39:42-04:00

For the second project, the class viewed the documentary The Buena Vista Social Club by Wim Wenders. Information is provided in small sets that add up to the whole. For instance, you don't get a whole map of Havana or New York City, but you are given markers (which, in some cases, happen to be architectural) to help you figure out the “whole”.

The assignment was to incorporate the idea of the documentary into another site analysis (same site as before). We were asked to map the site in a diagrammatic way, framing the particular scenes to make up the whole without revealing all of the details. This idea came in the form of a postcard.

So, the idea of a postcard, to me, is pretty glum. Postcards tend to sit inside mail bags, mail boxes, and then drawers (or the trash). They're appreciated for so little time...what would keep them out in plain site? I decided to frame out two standard, but equally unrealistic views of the bridge. The left image was a distant perspective of t...

Film and Architecture â€“ Cut 1

2006-10-18T02:02:31-04:00

For the first project in Film and Architecture, we watched the film Battleship Potemkin by Eisenstein. The two very clear ideas to me were the montage and sequence = path. These two ideas are related to architecture by the streaming together of experience and journey. This turned into a built site analysis, and I chose the Brooklyn Bridge as my site.

I walked along the path of the bridge from my house, under the bridge, and then all the way across. I took pictures along the way, documenting the journey, framing the views as I went along. I literally took the sequence as the path, from the sublime (father away) to the frantic (closer details), pulling the images together in a montage of sorts.

Montage - plan

Montage - motion

Montage - detail

The montage then took on a life of the sequence, where different events and forms caused the sequence to change, as shown above. Also, the space between images in the montage was determined by the rhythm and speed of the site. This re...

cantilever project - structures

2006-10-17T02:43:16-04:00

So in structures we had a project that turned into a competition. Using ten (10) 1/8” x 1/8” x 36” basswood sticks, we had to make a cantilever that held an empty soda can as far from the table as possible. The only other rule was, “The cantilever must rest on a table edge in the classroom without any mechanical (screw, nail, etc) or adhesive fastener.” So I guess everyone wanted to see how far they could go, and I ended up winning (although it has been said I cheated). The desks in this classroom have cutouts for the computer wiring, so I used it for a “roller” type connection, but there was a tight enough fit that the friction essentially created a fixed connection. Also, I take the subway to school, so I didn't want to carry around ten feet of “truss”, so I built the cantilever in segments and connected them together as essentially pin connections.

I ended up winning (in distance). 76 inches, 16 inches further than the next person, from the edge of the table. But, a...

Territories of Teaching

2006-09-29T18:30:31-04:00

Territories in Teaching

Last night, Tatiana and I braved the Long Island Expressway to visit NYIT's other campus out in Old Westbury. Yes, our school has a Long Island Campus, and the home for second class citizens (ha-ha!), Manhattan.

Anyway, the lecture event was “Territories in Teaching”, a symposium turned open discussion on pedagogy. They picked a fantastic panel, too:

.
L to R: Dean Judith Di Maio, Professor Rodolfo Imas , Moderator Nader Voussaghian, Professor Michelle Bertomen, Professor Michael Schwarting (director of Graduate Studies), Professor Jonathan Friedman (former dean)

Tatiana and I went because, well...there's always the lure of listening to Imas. This is my seventh semester. I had Professor Imas for my Design Fundamentals II class and produced this:

After that, I kept going back for more. I took him voluntarily TWICE for another design studio (design a cemetery) and an independent study course (Parasite Architecture). Wild rides, all of them.

In addit...

disappointment

2006-09-27T01:11:12-04:00

I had high hopes for the mandatory psychology class in our curriculum. But we're getting nowhere fast. A fellow student walked in a bit late today and said, "Man, you were BURIED in your notebook, what kind of notes do you have for me?" This, after 1.5 hours...

Film & Architecture - Eisenstein

2006-09-13T23:31:41-04:00

We have a brilliant elective course this semester that I took - Film & Architecture. Over the course of the semester, we will analyze some famous films (most noted on this site as good films for architecture, I've noticed). Then after discussion (this is a seminar, so naturally), we will present ideas for architectural analysis and design.

This first film for full analysis/discussion was Battleship Potemkin by Eisenstein. The notion of montage plays heavily in the film, and different scenes/imagery is edited together to create one unified idea. Eisenstein is great because he was something of a Renaissance thinker, and his ideas came from and apply to architecture. From the film applications of panorama, montage, sequence=path, lighting/shadow and framing, we're now going to do a site analysis and apply one or many of the key concepts. We were talking about Le Corbusier, Andreas Gursky, Vertov, Choisy, Vidler, Rem Koolhaas, and Malevich, the Acropolis, the Carpenter Center, an...

confrontation, and time

2006-09-08T17:29:38-04:00

My only interaction in 6 semesters of school with Kevin was last semester's studio. We all know how traumatic a studio environment can be - deadlines, pressure, insanity. Right now it doesn't amount to anything fun and worthwhile. Here's a guy who is willing to take a stand on things, pretty hard working, really full of energy. I just saw him at the school, right before classes began. I spoke to him, only briefly. He was, as usual, going from here to there, saddled by materials and some pressing assignment. All I got to do was ask him how he was.

We only had that one entanglement, in studio. But everyone has those, or so I'm allowing myself to believe. Outside of that it was fun, smiling, goodhearted fun, real enjoyment in the process, the education, the charge bestowed upon us. This particular time, it was something about the quality of a model, and it became an encounter that he jokingly never let me live down, which is a great testament to his sense of humor, his und...

2006-09-07 AIAS Meeting

2006-09-07T17:00:06-04:00

So our AIAS president, Evan Lepore, in conjunction with the NYIT Manhattan Campus Architecture Chairman Professor David Diamond, organized an introductory/recruiting meeting today. I'm not currently a member, so I and several other upperclassmen decided to attend.

I have to say, they have quite a few events planned out, but I wonder about the productivity of these events. True, there is an enormous potential for networking, but at what cost?

Personally, I would defer membership until it has been proven to me that we can achieve more transparency for students looking in at the administration, both budget- and policy-wise. Also, some collective leveraging of the group dynamic for the purpose of fulfilling student demands would be nice. At times, I feel that, as a student of an accredited architecture school that operates on two separate campuses (one in Long Island, NY and one in Manhattan), we who choose to study at the Manhattan campus are practically second-class citizens. A...

Spring 2006 - New Orleans Housing

2006-09-06T01:13:59-04:00

So last spring, we actually did a blog that recorded our work as the studio progressed. But the interactive nature of the web really wasn't exploited ot the fullest. Anyway, I won't link to the blog (because of Archinect rules), but I will post some pictures. The topic: Housing. The site: New Orleans. Here are plans, a section, a diagram, and the actual models themselves. I decided to design something of a guilded tower that sat on the detritus that remained from Hurricane Katrina. While it might seem that the transformation of the building is a bit incidental, in plan it creates an impact with the earth.

Summer 2006

2006-09-06T00:24:08-04:00

I should probably give some background on the eve of school. Background projects, that is. This summer another student, Tatiana, and I entered the Peepshow Pavilion competition. Here's our entry boards for this year's theme, Truth and lies (more pics to follow).