Archinect - The City College of New York (Jessica)

backward glance

2008-12-31T18:33:37-05:00

i just finished scrolling through my iphoto additions over the past year.
here's two thousand and eight in a nutshell (some of these are pretty random but fortunately there is no documentation of our post-review debauchery)

measuring on campus in the snow

the site of our spring studio intervention, at audubon terrace

the equestrian statue

my classmates freeing firminy from its mold

a nighttime view of the lipstick building, from outside the pig 'n whistle

my basswood lumber yard

some images from my tour of burst house at moma (with classmates seth and bret, who spent their summer working on it)

waiting patiently (sort of) for our new building to be complete

a healthy and happy new year to all of my fellow archinect readers!

for archny and anyone else who's listening...

2008-12-30T00:39:37-05:00

i haven't been on here much since early this semester, which is truly a shame seeing as i joined this blog primarily because ccny tends to keep too low a profile for my taste. yes, our website sucks. i think the projects on there date back to the first graduating m.arch class. and, for the record, those students have now been gainfully employed for almost two years now (at SOM, and workAC to name two).

since andrew zago's departure, the program has been headed up by brad horn. he is a cooper union graduate and has taught at various architecture schools in the city - he also orchestrated everything surrounding our accreditation visit, proposed and produced ccny's first publication of student work and has continued to organize "conversations with students," an informal lecture series that was begun by andrew zago for members of the graduate program.

the studio curriculum is as rigorous as any i can imagine, and the emphasis placed on technical versus theoretical investigation ranges...

poll: music in the studio

2008-09-16T13:39:03-04:00

where i come from [aka 2nd year studio], i find it impossible to bang out a site model, bond as a studio, draw plans and sections, eat, drink or pretty much do anything without a little non-offensive, non-sucky background music playing on a pair of computer speakers.

what do you think?

crazy busy

2008-09-15T22:43:35-04:00

i really don't know why i thought it would be a good idea to start this blog. i naively believed that my 2nd year of grad school would somehow be less intense than the first, so in order to make sure that wouldn't be the case i got involved in a whole bunch of other things. Since i haven't yet had the time to interview my classmates who worked on the Burst House at the MOMA Home Delivery show over the summer, i have no choice but to elaborate on the things i HAVE been making time to do these days or otherwise be kicked off of archinect for failure to blog.

first and foremost, i am continuing to work on the 07-08 edition of CityWorks, a publication of student projects from the undergraduate and graduate studios at City College. i spent the summer harassing students via e-mail and text message trying to collect models, drawings, renderings, anything they were willing to part with. they spent the summer avoiding me.

last spring i applied to be a History/Theory TA so i am now assisti...

nostalgia

2008-09-05T10:05:52-04:00

yesterday we had our first pin up for carl stein, principal of the firm Elemental Architecture and our critic for the semester. we were asked to present a set of instructions for a street fair display to announce the eventual construction of a new building in the area. the main goal - it should be quick, easy, and be made up only of a few plywood sheets and 2x2's that the "client" already had laying around. on the other hand, it should bear in mind the nature of the new institution - either a zoological institute or an institute for water conservancy. this is what i came up with:

year two: day one

2008-08-28T00:23:17-04:00

i spent my first day back in shepard hall learning how to use the slide projector (one of my duties as a history/theory TA) and thinking about wheelchair accessibility.

i am living at my parents' house this week, commuting to school while i care for my mom and her recently mangled ankle (my apologies to the squeamish but yes, those are steel rods sticking out of the bandages). it's not the most accommodating space for a handicapped person - which, unfortunately, she will be for at least eight weeks - and she is begging for a change of scenery. i've got some time before studio tomorrow and have promised to build a ramp so that she can get out to the porch for a bit of fresh air. if that plan goes south, she'll have to hang tight for a few more days until my dad returns from california.