Archinect - University of Pennsylvania (Robert)

That was it?

2007-05-12T12:02:44-04:00

I had thought about how to culminate my 2 years of blogging now that I'm finally done. And really, once the final review was over, I just didn't really feel like spending too much time writing about it anymore.

You probably noticed that I didn't blog much this semester. It was just such a neutral semester, that I had nothing to blog about for the most part. It was by far, the easiest semester I've had in architecture school, and maybe any of my 7 years in higher ed. Well, maybe not my last semester in undergrad. Although I did write a big paper that semester...so yeah, maybe it was the easiest. I didn't pull any all nighters. Hell, there were days where I didn't do any work at all in the research phase. Literally, as a group, we would say on Thursday "Ok, see you Tuesday." Some people in the studio would show up once a week, etc. But the projects were all respectable.

I had KTA and really liked them. They are incredibly smart, intuitive guys. The downside was the 11 ...

PHILADELPHIA!!!

2007-04-16T18:50:11-04:00

At approximately 11:00am on April 16, 2007, there was an attempted auto theft from a University of Pennsylvania garage near 32nd and Convention Avenue. The garage attendant and supervisor, witnessed the attempted auto theft, and confronted the offender, at which point he brandished a weapon, and fled toward South Street. The offender first attempted to carjack two vehicles, before carjacking a driver of a white van, at point-of-gun, who was traveling on Spruce Street, near 33rd Street. Penn Police were called immediately by garage security, and were able to identify the offender in the van, resulting in a high-speed chase westbound on Spruce Street. The driver during the course of fleeing and avoiding traffic on the street, drove onto the sidewalk and struck a pedestrian (University of Pennsylvania Health System employee), who is currently in stable condition at HUP.

The driver lost control of the stolen vehicle between 40th and 41st Street and crashed into approximately four parke...

March 1

2007-03-01T00:41:33-05:00

T minus 2 months.

Blog?

2007-02-11T15:58:50-05:00

Seems like everyone else is blogging so here it goes.

I like Mario Kart.

My mom adopted a red panda in my name for Valentines Day.

....

Grand Piano

2007-01-26T00:41:39-05:00

Interesting news. We received an email a few weeks back from Gary Hack inviting all students to a meeting about the future of PennDesign's home. I don't want to call it the new Meyerson Hall because it will surely have a different name, like Trump Golden T-Square Park or something. For years people have been speculating about a new Meyerson, but there was never a donor. Well, I guess they found a donor. We got another email today reminding us about the meeting and to let us know that Renzo Piano will be on hand to discuss his feasability study and take suggestions from students. RENZO PIANO!? We go from no new Meyerson to RENZO?! DAMN! I'll let you know if anything cool happens.

Today it was funny. We had presentations regarding our research. We had our TA and James Timberlake on the "jury" (Keiran and Timberlake don't usually come on the same day). A girl was researching connectivity and started discussing Second Life. Timberlake was cracking up and said "Sounds like N...

Second Life

2007-01-20T10:51:25-05:00

So yesterday afternoon I decided to see what all the hype was about with Second Life. Contrary to the coolness rating it has receive in magazines and online articles, it is perhaps the ultimate lameness. It seems like it should be pretty cool, from articles, until you realize that in order to build something, you have to buy fake land with REAL MONEY.

What the whole thing comes down to is the Sims+a chatroom. But what makes it worse than a chatroom, is you have to wander around dodging goths, dudes that have large breasted women as their avitars, or maybe a furry here and there in order to maybe talk to someone. You can drive cars and other vehicles but they are slow and you can't take them off jumps or anything. I tried to car jack a guy, but that didn't work. Most people had no sense of humor because I think it is infact, their first life. I said hi to some guy and he said "I'm busy working." He was changing the colors on a square. Flying was kind of fun as I took to ramm...

Let the games begin...2 weeks ago.

2007-01-18T10:46:44-05:00

Sorry it took so long to post, but I don't have really anything to talk about. I'm part time this semester, just studio and professional practice. I have KTA. Basically I will graduate with one more credit than we need and save about $4000 by going PT. There were some cool classes to take had I needed the credit, but nothing that interested me enough to spend $4000 on when I didn't need it. Also helping out a friend/teacher with her first year of teaching a class, so that's kind of fun. Starting to get the word out in Japan for a few leads with regards to work after graduation. That's about it. Nothing too exciting to talk about. Peace.

...making toys out of dino bones and his own waste!

2006-12-21T23:18:30-05:00

I've been getting a lot of crap from people for not blogging lately. The semester went mostly smoothly and Tina was an awesome critic. Honestly I really don't have much to say. It was good, I learned a lot, I produced more than usual, and made a building that I actually like. I think I gave up a little conceptual-ness for reality, but that was ok for me. I really wanted just a complete building this time, so it was ok. I came up with a lot of cool ideas that I think can come back in the future, but were really difficult to impliment on the scale of this project. Our site was a 7500 sf triangle at Lincoln Center. So it was a tough site. In short we had to choose part of the UN and make a project about it on one of three sites in NYC. I chose to make a stem cell research lab/dormitory/museum-education space. So here are some pictures.

I heart Rhino _make2d. 15 minutes in Rhino, CAD and AI makes a kickass little drawing.

I also love VRay. This is looking down through t...

100.5

2006-12-01T22:39:21-05:00

I had planned a more detailed blog, but things got sticky. So the Monday before Thanksgiving, we had our silent review. It was a pretty interesting concept. Basically, we pinned up our boards, never revealed who was who, and just listened to comments. I had a total nervous breakdown the Saturday before. Not really sure why. I mean we all get stressed, but something really snapped this time. I think maybe it's because I like the studio and Tina and I just got overwhelmed for some reason. So then, at 4 PM on MOnday I head to the airport. At this point I've been awake for 37 hours. My flight leaves at 7 PM for London. British Airways is super nice. Too bad I fell asleep before the plane even taxied onto the runway. I woke up to eat my acutally good plane food, then slept until we reached the gate. Took the tube to my friends' place, and then fell asleep again until about 4 PM. Kinda wasted that day other than checking out the AA and then seeing Bond, in London, which is c...

Google Earth it!

2006-11-14T21:25:05-05:00

Just a short blog this week. I'm pretty busy. We have a silent review on Monday. Should be interesting. Basically, we pin up boards, and can't defend them. They have to speak for themselves. I'm a little nervous because my boards always suck. Good individual images, terrible layouts.

Then that night I am flying out to London to spend Thanksgiving with some friends who are doing the AA semester. So I will probably sleep quite well on the plane. Really, school is just school. Nothing special, but probably my best semester. Tina is just really great.

There was a poster in the hall this week that was driving me crazy (because I'm a nerd). It said “convergence,” and though my geomorphology knowledge is a little rusty, I'm 99% sure that it was an alluvial fan. The context was nicely blurred out and it was rotated so that the narrow, mountain stream edge faced the bottom of the page. Seeing that we typically look at pages from top to bottom, it made it look like many str...

I want a toy train for Christmas

2006-11-07T21:25:29-05:00

First off, I want a free limited edition “Architecture Sucks” shirt. Black, large would be nice thank you 

I also want this.

We've had two pretty good lectures in a week. As I've said, I'm not much for lectures because it's usually a jargon fest. By the way, according to a CNN article, “Management jargon can alienate staff and leave bosses looking untrustworthy and weak, according to a survey published on Monday.” I know they are talking about something a little different, but when a teacher, speaker, or critic rattles off phrase after phrase of jargon, Deluze, or really their bastardization of something they read in National Geographic once, I don't think “WOW, awesome vocabulary.” I think “Wow, you know a lot of words, don't know how to use them and are utterly useless at communicating. You've made something that is interesting and informative, irreducibly complex (jargon) and wasted my time.” If you get a project or class brief that the majority of the class needs t...

Stupid Penn Undergrads + (updated)

2006-10-31T21:23:05-05:00

>>Update to original post

Dead people and trains

2006-10-24T22:38:14-04:00

Last Thursday we had midreview. It was a packed house with 6 critics on our jury. It went fairly well, but I'm not going to get into it too much because hell, 95% of the people on this site have been through it or are going through it. It sucks and no one wants to relive reviews vicariously through others.

Honestly, I can't even remember what I was going to blog about. I haven't really done...no I haven't done any work on studio since midreview. I just worked on printmaking, did some work for a teacher that I'm helping, worked on my portfolio (I will need to start applying around January if I want to work in Japan upon graduation), watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and played Legos Star Wars on Nintendo. Monday was my birthday (that's why I got Star Wars and ATHF). I had to go to NYC again for studio to do further site investigation, but it was cold and cloudy so pretty much nothing was happening. It wasn't very useful at all to be perfectly honest with you. I'm a little s...

Nippon ga suki desu.

2006-10-17T21:07:13-04:00

I've got to keep this one short since mid-review is on Thursday. But I'm at work in the PC lab and it's very difficult to get any real work done here. Plus, I have to do one last entry during my week as featured blogger. By the way, that was a terrifying sight to see upon first waking up! Seriously, I was famous. I can't count the number of people that came up to me informing me of my fame. Kind of frightening.

I should be a salesman for VRay. I gave a presentation to my visual studies class last week as well as a few stragglers. The response was pretty positive and I think it generated a lot of interest. I'm still digging it and slowly learning how to use it. I wish I had a week or so to just play with it. I use it randomly just practicing between classes etc, but I still have a lot to learn.

The other night I was walking down Locust Walk towards my apt around 1 am. Some black guy (it's part of the story, I'm not racist) comes slightly limping up to me and says “Which...

NYC + VRay Evaluation

2006-10-10T20:49:36-04:00

On Monday we went up to New York (up is relative to Philly...I guess?) to visit our sites and the UN. Our first site visit was Lincoln Center. I will probably choose that site since I am attempting to bring the truths of genetic research to the public, so i can some how create a "science performance space" maybe? The other option is a site on Wall Street, and I thought Lincoln Center just seems more appropriate for my project.

After that we went to the UN and got a tour. Very interesting. I'm not going to describe it in detail, but it was neat to see all the spaces that we hear about and have a real place to see when given the descriptions. Also interesting because North Korea had tested the nuke the same day.

We then went to Tina's office for a lecture about architecture and power. It was a cool office. One of those deals where 5 or 6 firms rent the building. So it seemed like a lot of energy, nice mixing pot kind of place. More life than a big sterile firm. You know...

NLSO-Other view

2006-10-06T11:24:22-04:00

I being the other Penn student, exceedingly lacking in intellectual motivation, did not go to the lecture, went home, watched Star Wars on VHS, made a big pot of chili, worked on a mix CD and then had a dream that I was awarded some weird prize. The prize was that I was given a trip to China, married to a Chinese princess and had to miss midreview for our marital tour around China. The other night I had a dream that I was graduating. Following the speech, I threw a carton of eggs at Meyerson. I then woke up and was really happy for like 30 seconds and then I realized it was a dream and was really pissed.

Ummm, phenotypic plasticity, monoclinic crystal structures, polypeptide, generative, synaptic protein sheath. And stuff.

Old Skool Philly Back Again...

2006-10-03T21:50:30-04:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging to my fans. Adrienne (ex-Penn blogger) and Stynger gave me crap the other day for not writing anything lately. So I guess I can break it down and write it up.

I'm only taking 4 credits this semester (3 classes). It costs the same to take 4 or 5, but the savings isn't enough to drop to 3 (part time). I have two credits from my first summer in Japan, so I will graduate with at least 30 credits, even though we only need 28. SO, I'm taking Building Systems Integration starring Ali Malkawi. I have to say starring because he is like a celebrity. It's a solid class. Nothing “amazing” but good, solid learning. He's a great guy. He says hi to everyone even though he is tenured and smart and cool. That can't be said for all of the faculty.

Of course I'm taking studio, with Tina Manis. So far she is really good. She is really smart, assigns good work, and really seems to care. You know, answering emails and what have you. We have a mini-review on...

Brain Scan

2006-09-29T15:38:47-04:00

Additionally, one of my students(?)/guys that I TA wanted me to tell y'all about this guy he saw in West Philly using an orange juice carton like a phone. I thought that was pretty cool. I will add my own tale of panhandling. This enormous woman in maroon stretch pants comes waddling up to me at 1:30 am screaming "YOUNG MAN, YOUNG MAN. I ain't tryin' ta scare ya. I ain't tryin' ta scare ya young man! " (mind you I'm across the street and she is trailing me screaming.) My friend just threw me out the house! For the love of GOD can you gimme a dollar to git home?!" (me) "Sorry" (her) GOD DAMN YOUNG MAN! GOD DAMN!!!

Other than that, school is school. Nothing new or amazing. Other than next week is the NLSO again in which I will assuredly not set foot unless I quest to seek less faith in architect[s](ure). I could write a bunch of stuff about the subject, but it just makes me more angry.

The Usual

2006-09-23T13:57:00-04:00

I haven't posted to my blog in a while because nothing has really happened. I have Tina Manis for a studio critic and I think she is going to be good. We're still in the researchy phase, so there hasn't been that much interaction yet, but what I have had has been good. I think I prefer female critics. Because architecture is such a male dominated field, I think when a woman makes it to a position as an Ivy League critic, she has worked really hard and is a tough lady. I don't mean to sound sexist (I don't think it really did, but gotta have the disclaimer). Seems like any guy with a trust fund and a degree can be a critic, but the women critics I've had have definately been my favorites and more demanding.

Otherwise, nothing really to report about. Taking a building systems integration class and print making. All the students in my print making class are MFAs and already know what to do. I just follow the teacher around like a lost puppy because I have no idea how to do ...

First real day of class

2006-09-11T21:59:28-04:00

Today was our first day of studio. I got my first choice, Tina Manis. I chose her studio because she is a practicing architect and she mentioned space and materials in her presentation! We are starting out by researching the UN and propaganda, which we will merge into a studio book by next Thursday. Our studio project isn't fully defined as of today, but it will take some of the program of the current UN and add some other new program. Then we will either merge the two to create some new program, or create an architecture that negotiates these programs. That's the essence of the two page brief in a few sentences. Tina seems really cool and smart. She took the time to meet with each of us individually to see our old work and just get to know us. But in showing our old work, I was quite embarassed. I haven't really looked at my work in a critical way for a while. She wanted us to show our best and worst project. I couldn't really choose any project that was my best. And wh...

CULTURE SHOCK BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

2006-09-02T23:57:10-04:00

Sorry to the fans for the delay. The last few weeks in Japan were great. I will just quickly summarize because I'm lazy. For my vacation week I headed to Yokohama and spent time with my friend Yukino and her family (Kumi was jealous, texting me that she was going to fight Yukichan). I saw the FOA terminal from about 1/4 mile (saw it last year). The weather was much cooler than in Osaka thanks to the hills and the water. Spent one day in Tokyo and went to Yasakuni Shrine on the same day as Koizumi. It was a mad house of old soldiers, hippies and tourists. After that I spent two days in Kamakura, "Kyoto of the East." There are temples and shrines every 5 feet and I used a rented bike to get around. It was pretty awesome. Nice views, trees, ocean, giant Buddha. Went to 48 Waterfalls with Kumi, Chinatsu and Chinatsu's boyfriend and that was fun. The last week of work was a whirlwind of site visits, meetings, speeches, and dinners. I was really sad to go. I made a lot of c...

Welcome Home!!

2006-09-02T03:24:30-04:00

Just a short one for now. More to follow. But here was my greeting to Philly!

POSTED: 2:06 p.m. EDT, September 1, 2006

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A couple found a man raping a young woman in their driveway and tried to flee with her but were shot to death by the attacker, police said.

The teenager was also shot and was expected to recover, police said. A suspect was arrested.

The couple came upon the attack when returning to their home in the Fern Rock neighborhood from a night out late Wednesday, police said.

The 18-year-old woman broke free and began screaming about the assault, and she and the couple then fled while the attacker fired at them with a semiautomatic handgun, according to police.

The three tried to hide nearby, but the assailant found them and fired more shots as they lay on the ground, Chief Inspector Joseph Fox said.

"It sounds like it was all happening in a matter of seconds," Fox said.

The names of the couple were being withheld pending notifica...

Trouble

2006-08-20T11:06:14-04:00

So yeah. I don't think I really give two shits about "architectural discourse." The MIT and Yale guy were down in the cafeteria talking about real, actual architecture. Not weird theory or swarms or something. I listened for like 5 minutes, realized I could contribute nothing and didn't really care, so I left. I don't think that is a very good sign. Stick a fork in me, I'm done. Is it too late to become a keytar player in an 80's band?

Falling to pieces, somebody put me together

2006-08-07T22:03:54-04:00

I've come to the realization that Japan is rotting my body. Last night I noticed thick dead skin between my toes that was red and irritated below. My toe nails are also turning yellow. I blame that on the gang shower (sure they call it ofuro here, honorable bath). I think I finally figured out why I'm always tired. One curtain in my room is thick, the other is thin. So at 5:00am when the sun comes up, it lights up my room and wakes me up and I can't get back into a deep sleep. Sucks. Also, we eat a lot of carbs and not much veggies, so I think that just slows you down. A lot of food coma feeling. Rice and pasta in the same meal with a side of daikon and potato. I've started eating Tums for calcium (and noticed my teeth getting whiter, maybe just a coincidence) and taking vitamins and glucosamine because my joints have started to hurt, that could be the restless sleep. Other than after the 60 minute massage by Kumi, my body feels pretty junk. She is a professional and char...

It's the final COUNT DOWN. DO DO DO DO, DO DO DO DO DOOOOO

2006-08-03T09:00:58-04:00

こんばんわ

I can't believe it's August. The clock is now ticking. Sure it's still almost a month until I come home, but I can see the end now. In June, the time was so long that it seemed to approach infinity. Now I literally have to schedule when I will see people, figure out how many times I can do X or go to Y. Not really a fun feeling. BUT, I'm still having fun.

Last week I went to lunch with Shoko. They brought out my miso soup which contained a shrimp (I am sick of miso. Seriously, three meals a day, freakin' miso). “Mmm that sounds good,” you might say. What if I told you it wasn't a shrimp, but rather a giant cockroach? Well, it was a shrimp, but it was grayish-brown and was merely there for seasoning or atmosphere or something. It was nasty and reminded me of something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Needless to say, I couldn't eat the stuff and it literally made my skin crawl to look at it. Shoko laughed at the stupid gaijin.

On Friday I went to...

RAINING BLOOOOOD!

2006-07-26T12:04:02-04:00

Konbanwa,

Work is still mostly the same. I just sit around playing with 3ds Max because they have nothing for me to do. I've just been practicing lighting and modeling tricks, doing online tutorials and such. It's good though because I wanted to practice, but never had the motivation to put the time into it.

First I have a super nerd observation about how Nintendo DS is pure genius. Most shops are sold out of DS with no sign of restock while they are fully loaded with Sony PSP. I took mine on the commute to work a few times and its brilliance became perfectly clear when used in its natural environment, Japan. #1 The DS Lite is roughly the size of a Japanese novel and opens like a book. So this is a form factor already familiar to Japanese commuters. Also, the device protects itself with its clam shell design. Nintendo also opted for putting its software on cards, roughly the size of an SD card, but more robust. Unlike the PSP UMDs, they have no access time and are less pr...

In your freakin' face

2006-07-23T10:12:04-04:00

So I tore myself away from Nintendo DS for a few hours to make this. I hope you like it.

Photo Blog Archive

Yeah, there are typos

2006-07-19T10:35:14-04:00

Nothing can compare to the macho dance, but it's been a fun couple of days.

Last Friday, in honor of my English/Japanese training with Yamamori (山森) which generally revolves around cats, I gave her a children's book in English about cats. It was hilarious. She was bright red and couldn't stop laughing which drew the entire group over who also started cracking up. Best Â¥500 I spent all summer. I also told her in my mangled Japanese that the train smelled like the inside of a fat man's pants. I thing my sole purpose at Takenaka (竹中) is entertainment.

After a quick lunch with Shoko, I went to the YKK showroom for windows and doors with Shoko, Hiraoka, Hadaka, some woman, and some other guy. We were picked up by some guys that, despite the lack of tattoos and presence of a neck, could have been yakuza. These were some serious window salesmen. Of course there was an abundance of deep bows and business card exchange, and me standing around awkwardly. It was actually pretty int...

Ahh Get that crap out of my face.

2006-07-18T10:19:44-04:00

Chinatsu taunting me at lunch today (with Kumi who dusted me with pink glitter).

Macho macho man!

2006-07-13T11:19:52-04:00

Blah blah blah, work, yada yada yada.

Yamamori and I continue to “teach” each other our native languages. She was looking through my dictionary the other day, started giggling and said “I am ass.” I think that was probably the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. She is so quiet and cute, it was absolutely hilarious. Those of you that know Hyoeun can imagine how it was said. Similar to Hyoeun's now famous “It is only one bucks.”

So, to recap the Fukae Dormitory Festival. This massive undertaking has been in planning for months by the first year employees of Takenaka. All first year employees under the age of 27 must live in the Fukae Dormitory located in sunny Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Japan. The festival takes place over two days, the day time being food and fun to the entire family, Saturday evening being a pretty lame party, and Sunday evening being a promotional video for a gay cruise.

When I woke up on Saturday morning there were hundreds of small children running...