Archinect - Yale School of Architecture (savanna)

Gehry and Goldberger

2006-04-09T17:30:18-04:00

Paul Goldberger, former architecture critic for the New York Times, interviewed Frank Gehry last night in Hastings Hall. I was invited to the post-lecture dinner at Dean Stern's apartment, so I arrived dressed up (i.e., wearing heels). Post-lecture dinner invitations are more or less random (restricted to graduating students), although some students have been known to issue special requests to Dean Stern when an architect the student is dying to meet comes to town; others just crash.

I got lucky and was invited the regular way, via email a month in advance. The lecture itself wasn't all that eventful. Goldberger started off by asking Gehry was he felt about the A&A building, which will be renovated in a year's time. Gehry knew Paul Rudolph, and it seems that Rudolph must have been to his era as Rem is to ours, or Jim Sterling was to his. Rudolph was the man, and everyone respected him. The conversation then turned towards recent projects, Bilbao and how Philip Johnson cried when h...

I'm Back

2006-03-24T22:11:22-05:00

After suffering a severe depression last semester in the Krier studio, only to return in the spring to the shame of the 2nd-year portfolio scandal [see this] [or this] [and this], I thought I would loose all faith in Yale and warn you in this blog that Yale was not a good place to go to school and was letting its students down. Never-the-less, I have to admit that this semester has been pretty great. I am in Will Bruder's studio, and it's wonderful. He's full of life and energy, and he believes in architecture.

We are designing a kunsthal for New Haven adjacent to the now-abandoned Marcel Breuer building that was once home to the Pirelli tire company. Ikea purchased the building, but instead of occupying it as the City Planning commission had hoped, they just use it as a billboard. The standard second-floor-entry Swedish flag box mart is plopped down next to the Breuer, built after the Breuer was shortened to make way for a parking lot. (In massing it morphed from a cobra to a...

A little bit about day-to-day life

2005-11-29T21:03:18-05:00

I went upstairs to the 6th floor to check out the first-year M.Arch I studio””see what they were up to.

This is what greets you on your way in: leftovers from Keller Easterling's famous shoe wall project. "Design a wall 40 feet long that both holds shoes and displays them..." or something along those lines. She then asks for two walls, one that speaks to Deleuze's notion of form, and another that speaks to his notion of informe. (Pronunciation with a nasal French accent is de rigueur.)

The first-years have set up an official quote board to record the absurdities of their every-day life.

Here's a sample of the humor represented therein:

“Do these shoes have to be for humans?” Student, referring to the requirements of the ”˜form/informe' project, i.e. the shoe wall

“...but I prefer to use my bedroom voice.” Architectural History professor Kurt Forster on why he likes to use the microphones in Hastings Hall

“Maybe you put in benches for the crack smoking.” Guest critic on t...

Halloween Dream

2005-11-26T11:54:00-05:00

I seem to write retroactive blogs these days, always about the past. Perhaps, since it's my last year at Yale, I'm trying to slow down time in some personalized fashion. Looking back keeps my mind occupied so I don't have to look forward.

Psychoanalysis aside, this was a great party, and I've got some great photos to share. I've debated whether or not to use people's real names, since I haven't asked anyone if I could post their picture (which I've made it a habit to do), and””who knows””perhaps some of them are on the run from a stalker or the like. (Although a stalker might know your face and not your name.) It just occurred to me that I've posted images of faculty members without asking permission, but they're in the spot light all the time, so to speak, so it seems a bit different... more like their image is already in the public domain.

Let's commence!

a snow queen

costume made with stuff brought back from the Plattus studio's trip to China

the architecture cheer-leader:...

Reflections

2005-11-10T22:42:28-05:00

We are edging towards the end of the semester and I feel as though I'm about to fall over a cliff. Everything is due at once: two models and two rendering for my Maya class, (models that must be done using machines like the 3D plastic printer, which has a line 3 days long); a presentation on Mark Wigley for my theory class; models, elevations and sections for studio (did I mention that I don't have a building yet?); and most upsetting of all, I have to ask for an extension for my independent study, or else drop the “class,” such as it is. But why drop, you ask? The intention of this independent study is to do excellent, thorough research and write an excellent, thoughtful paper. If I can't do this, then why hand in a mediocre paper just to get some course credits? I'll only be disappointing myself. I don't actually need the credits, anyway. Either way, the paper will get written and it will be good... eventually.

Here's a look back at the midterm reviews.

What dawn looks like. Ca...

Love is how it's lost

2005-10-14T18:02:06-04:00

This heart was found scrawled on the walls of both our decrepit elevators last week. They've since been painted over, leaving only a penciled inscription, “Where did the love go?”

It got me to thinking. Why are there so many architect couples? Many are very famous;

does working with your lover lend itself to professional success? Or is the couple/partner phenomenon a side effect of social neglect, that is, neglecting to socialize with people outside of the architectural community?

Regardless of the cause, the fact there are so many professional couples would suggest that many of them met in graduate school. As far as I can tell, however, grad school is a lousy place to meet people. Yes, there are couples among my classmates, but there's nowhere near the level of scandal, intrigue and in-breeding that I experienced in the College of Environmental Design at Berkeley.

Could it be the weather? I thought is was the scruffy factor””staying up late, dressing “functionally,” as o...

Longing for Rome

2005-10-01T19:03:05-04:00

My friend Dan, who's not an architect, just came to visit me. As we walked toward my desk, I pointed out the red lanterns and flying dragons that decorate the Plattus studio. "They got to go to China?!" "Yeah, so did the Balmori [Sanders] studio." "Really? And you only got to go to Colonial Williamsburg? You got double-screwed!"

Indeed.

There was a reception the other day for the Roma Exhibit, a show of the final drawings produced by the Rome summer course that now decorate the faculty halls. There's also a digital slide show of student photographs, many fun, happy moments and beautiful buildings and landscapes. I miss it so much. I wish I could go back there right now.

Since I never showed them before, here are some of those moments:

On the beach at Sperlonga

Looking through the keyhole of The Knights of Malta compound. Piranesi designed their chapel. We actually got to see it.

Ninfa is an abandoned medieval city in Italy, the land under which was purchased in the 20th centur...

Shackled by History

2005-09-27T17:43:54-04:00

Colonial Williamsburg is historicism in action; an oxymoron that attracts thousands each summer to tour the past. But whose past is it? I was pleasantly surprised that the team of architectural historians and patron-enthusiast who toil diligently in the background of this grand faÃ§ade are well aware of the guiding principals of historical materialism (as put forth by Walter Benjamin). They are passionate, even, about the effort to represent repressed discourses among the dominate ones, i.e., the dirty details of slavery. Although the board of CW has installed a slavery tour, so to speak, within the confines of this whitewashed little town (by which I mean that 0.1% of the visitors were people of color, from what I could discern), the reality of what it was to live in the early days of slavery is deleted. One of the few descriptions of Williamsburg by a traveler in the 18th century mentions not the architecture or grand axes of the town plan, but the hanging corpses of three slave...

Hello from Fall 2005 (+photos)

2005-09-13T11:51:42-04:00

A lot has happened since school began two weeks ago. I've put off writing this first blog of the semester because I didn't want it to be full of insults””words that would inevitably make their way back to the dean, as did those of a fellow blogger in the past. So, I'm going to be careful in the following paragraphs.

There are photos at the bottom of this, so if you want to skip the rant, please do so and enjoy the photos instead.

Since this is my last year at Yale, I am now entitled to take the “advanced studios,” so-called because they assume a certain level of competence on our part, as well as a certain level of rigor on the part of the instructor. Who one has as a studio instructor is determined by how one plays the student-run studio lottery. I am very bad at the lottery. Once I missed it entirely. This time around I stayed up all night with a friend who was moving to Germany the next day, and so arrived at school groggy but excited. I listened to the speeches of the various...

when fall thoughts loom...

2005-08-05T16:34:13-04:00

The end of the summer is approaching and my thoughts have drifted more and more frequently to the fall studios. Now that I'm in my last year, I get to have a go at the advanced studios. This fall's batch includes:

Glenn Murcutt
Alan Plattus
Peter Eisenman
Leon Krier
Jeannie Gang
Brigitte Shim
Joel Sanders & Diana Balmori

I happen to be a big fan of Murcutt””he was one of the first architects brought to my attention after I learned what architecture was. He's based in Australia, however, and isn't likely to be around much. Jeannie Gang, of Studio Gang/O'Donnell in Chicago, seems really interesting. I wonder what kind of a person she is. Brigitte Shim, of Shim-Sutcliffe architects in Toronto, looks to be a materials-sensitive crafts woman””which is great, but the forms her firm generates aren't all that compelling. I've heard that Diana Balmori is not the best of teachers, and while Krier is a probably a genius I'm not really into his shtick. Alan Plattus is more of a pl...

summer job

2005-07-07T19:21:02-04:00

Hello to all from the great city of New York.

I am back following a month-long stint in Rome, having promptly begun a new job at... ARQUITECTONICA. In Rome I ran around and drew in my notebook all day with 33 other Yalies as we listened to an architectural history play-by-play in our walkie-talkie ear pieces. That's right--it was a drawing class with 34 students and 3 professors, plus assorted guests and local experts. Sounds great, I know, and it was, but I have to say that Rome is a dirty place. Physically filthy. After 9 hours in the city streets I felt disgusting. Fortunately an opposite feeling of well-being could be had from a visit to the American Academy, where two of our three professors stayed. One students said that the primary reason architects travel to Rome is cultural cachet. So that in the future one can say, “Ah yes, I remember when I studied in Rome... it was so lovely... my professor stayed at the Academy of course...” I didn't learn all that much about architec...

Spring Fever

2005-04-06T22:16:29-04:00

Lethargy has set in. It was near 70 degrees today, and all I wanted to do was be outside with my watercolors. I've been ticking off the days until the semester ends. Assignments are nearing completion: my final paper for contemporary theory is half finished, and a reading review for atmosphere and effects was completed today. There's stillÃ¢â‚¬”of courseÃ¢â‚¬”a lot to do.

Everyone else in school seems to be feeling the same spring antsy-ness. Once the semester ends I'm going to Rome for a month to draw with a group of Yale architects, and I just can't wait! I love to leaf through the Pearl Paint catalogue picking out paints and papers. That store is heaven. Hopefully I can go down to New York this weekend and pick up supplies. I have some Japanese watercolors that I bought six years ago on a trip to Taiwan, but they're rather opaque and in unique hues. It's hard to find a portable palette that's small enough for light travel but big enough to hold ten colors. The smallest palett...

Tell me - where should I work?

2005-04-01T22:23:42-05:00

Hello Readers,

Here's what new:

I finished 1/2 of my contemporary theory paper for the rough draft deadline this past week; title: Embassies, Empire, and Heterotopia. Aww yeah.

We had a landscape architect guest critic in studio and she rocked our world. She took a fuzzy, not-quite-hashed-out, all-over-the-place urban concept and made a project out of it. She told us about displacing dirt into earthworks, collapsed bulkheads creating riparian habitats, and the dangers of hexa-valent chromium. Or maybe you already knew?

My two seminar classes are chugging along... still lots of reading.

The "Systems Integration" class is still hurtin'... my building isn't quite integrated, and as a group we're all over the place with lots to still do. Are you noticing a theme here? I hate it.

But sweeping school aside for a moment, let's focus on this: I need to find a job for the summer. I just finished re-vamping my resume; added details about last summer's work with Architecture for Humanit...

What's with Kipnis?

2005-03-24T22:52:25-05:00

I've been reading a lot of Jeffrey Kipnis and I've decided that the man is determined to work eroticism, erotica, fetishization, or anything overtly sensual or sexual into his commentary no matter what! It made me wonder--what would sex with Kipnis be like? Wouldn't that make for a hysterical little satire on architectural criticism? A one-act play perhaps?

In one article I read Kipnis criticizes Colin Rowe for his hyperbolic titles. "Given that architects are congenitally terrified that their art is merely superficial, who among them could resist Rowe's ponderous promises of profundity?” But if we're going to put our knickers in a twist over nonsensical terminology carried to its own recognition by the effect of manufactured cachet, shouldn't we ask why Kipnis always falls back on the sex-sells formula?

My readings may be out of date so I apologize if he's suddenly taken a celibatory turn, but in any case I find it a bit funny that the man who likes so much to mince his rivals...

This blog is not abandoned

2005-02-21T11:04:47-05:00

Although it may seem to be, this blog is not abandoned. Sorry to my readers for my delinquency, and a big thank you to all who sent words of encouragement after my last post.

I'm now in mid-term hell... so much to do. During spring break I'll be applying for jobs and scholarships, so that won't be too much more restful than right now, but at least I'll be able to sleep more. I'm still recovering from a) giving blood last Thursday, and b) getting drunk on karaoke night at the grad student bar, GYPSCY. That's some acronym for the grad student club/government/association. It's so funny that Yale provides its own bar. I mean c'mon”¦ as if we needed another reason to stay on campus. It's a nice bar actually, with a big screen TV and two billiard tables and a garden patio and a big dance floor upstairs. AND it's the next building over from the A&A. So, you'd think I'd be there all the time drinking my worries away, but I'm not the most hardcore drinkerÃ¢â‚¬”no tolerance really, and if ...

Titles and alliances

2005-02-08T11:42:00-05:00

Hello reader,

It's that time of year againÃ¢â‚¬”sick time. Everyone's getting the flu. I already have it and it's knocked me out for the last couple of days. I've been scrambling to keep up with class work. There's so much to do. Just tons. I've got systems integration, which means how to turn your studio project into something resembling a build-able building; my Reyner Banham class, which this week is all about the rise and fall of Brutalism; my theory class, Foucault and friends, with tons of reading; Mark Gage's atmosphere and effects; and then of course a little something we call studio.

I've been thinking about hierarchy and naming recently Ã¢â‚¬“ specifically, all the names we give to the people who teach us. Instructor, critic, teacher, lecturer, professor Ã¢â‚¬“ these words all mean slightly different things. “Critic” is the most amusing, the one who criticizes our work, who judges our performance. I'd rather just call everyone “Professor,” but thanks to the Universit...

To see the Sistine Chapel for the first time...

2005-01-23T12:23:58-05:00

Hello All,

Semester is back in full swing now. I decided to take a class on Reyner Banham with one of my favorite critics/lecturers, and that's proving to be a lot of fun. Banham is so refreshing to read, especially for me, since I have a science background and Banham favors innovative technology. Architecture should really be something larger than itself, aware of the developments in the world around it. I'm tired of the profession making architecture more esoteric and less enjoyable to laymen. My year is reading Walter Benjamin in our contemporary theory core class, and I just love that guy! I'm sure that says something clichÃƒÂ© about me... I have Marxist leanings or whatnot, but I'm not embarrassed about that.

The current 2nd year controversy is about a voluntary summer trip to Rome. It's a class about Rome and its history but mostly about drawing. I really want to go. The instructors have limited the class size to 30 and 36 people have applied. Now they want us to write one...

Spring Semester Starts

2005-01-10T13:44:41-05:00

It's my first day back and I'm already messing up! I missed the studio lottery this morning. I had a doctor's appointment and assumed that the lottery would be at 2pm, when studio normally begins. I didn't check the Monday class list to see when things were actually happening. Ugh. Now I'm at the mercy of other people's choices. All the critics are good so I'm not that distressed. I'm only distressed about missing my first school obligation of the semester. Alas.

I have three required classes this semester and two electives. Aside from studio, which has an urban planning theme, I'm enrolled in Contemporary Theory, and Systems Integration. As for the electives, there are many different seminars I'm interested in. The ones that look the best are Atmosphere and Effects, taught by our youngest lecturer Mark Gage, and Turner Brooks's drawing class. Turner is a force of nature and everyone loves him. He has a booming voice and never shies away from saying the obvious. I opted not to have...

The Post-Review Report

2004-12-10T21:40:13-05:00

Ovid's words kept me up through the night:

I'm sorry for any fool who rates sleep a prime blessing
And enjoys it from dusk till dawn
Night in, night out.
What's sleep but cold death's reflection?
Plenty of time for rest when you are in your grave.

(from elegy 9b)

Dawn comes through once again!
In a series of signs posted by her desk, witty comments that catch you off-guard, this is the best. Previous signs include: "You look very nice today," and "That's a great section you got there." Also, "Work harder, elves! Santa needs a new pair of shoes."

I was awake for 48 hours for the first time in my life, but I think it paid off. I got the best review I've ever had, and it gave me a much needed boost of self confidence. Laurie Hawkinson called my project a "homerun." {http://www.smharch.com} I couldn't believe it. I'm so competitive and judgmental that I forgot how to enjoy myself -- I only saw flaws and shortcomings. Now that I've worked on my library that much more, I feel...

Elevator Graffitti

2004-11-20T20:06:19-05:00

At Carnegie Mellon University, graffitti is a tradition:

"The Fence, on the Cut-the grassy area of campus between Forbes Avenue and Hunt Library-is the university billboard for student groups. The Fence must be painted in its entirety and no painting may be done during daylight hours. Students complete their painted message or advertisement and then guard their work through the night to make sure no one paints over it before sunrise."

At Yale, however, in the most creative of places the most innane graffitti occurs:

"To All Students:

"Okay, I'm losing my patience in students' lack of ability of refrain from
penning their "wittiest" scribblings in the elevators. The elevators are
the School's most public venue. Is this truly the image of the School and ourselves that you wish to portray to the public?

"Comments on or images of any sexual matter are totally unacceptable. If you can't restrain yourself, please confine your remarks to more appropriate locations, such as ...

Photos of the A&A

2004-11-18T22:33:26-05:00

Hello. Thank you for the encouraging comments on my last posts. Today has been a good day; a good crit, a good meeting with my theory professor, and all-around good vibes. The "big game" between Harvard and Yale is coming up this Saturday, and I'm going, so I'm happily anticipating that as well. If Keith is reading this, I PROMISE I will get all my sections and elevations done, and a model, for Monday. My beau has been in London for 2 weeks and he's returning tomorrow and wants to go to the game. It's in Boston. He's a Yale alumnus. (If I think I can't finish my work, however, I won't go.)

Below are some images I took in the A&A. The first batch is "found art" images, some dating back to the building's construction.

A wall in the ladies' room:

Another ladies' room wall: (the left eyebrow is actually a hole in the concrete)

Yet another ladies' room wall. I drew over the words scratched in the glass because they were illegible on the original image.

It's not like I'm in the bath...

FEELING INADEQUATE HERE

2004-11-18T00:22:30-05:00

It seems that most of the other bloggers have posted way more entries than I have. Especially the GSD and Princeton peeps. I am very competitive and I want to assuage my sense of inferiority somehow.

I checked in on my two fellow Yalie bloggers, and they have even fewer posts that I do. So”¦ are we lazy, bad writers, or just too damn busy? Not sure, but I know everyone else is as busy as we. Perhaps if I write just a little each night, then something magical will happen. It's the same thing for me with going to the gym. I know if I make it a habit it will be easy to go, but I can't seem to make it a habit.

Alas.

Here's an early axon of the library I'm working on now, since I haven't showed any of my own work yet either.

Papers and Plans

2004-11-17T23:43:32-05:00

I have a list of things to tell you about, but I'm too tired to get up out of my chair and go get it. Instead I'll tell you what I've been doing these last few weeks. One thing I wanted to mention is that I read the Bartlett article and I can say for certain: you will never queue here. This is Yale. They treat you right. That's what the Ivy League is all about.

I just finished a 13-page paper for Carter Wiseman and my "Writing on Architecture" class, which has 16 pages of figures to illustrate it. I paper was about the American Folk Art Museum in New York City by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. I concentrated on the real versus the rhetoric connections between the craft of the building and the nature of folk art. I enjoyed writing it, but it took me forever. I handed it in rather late. It wasn't until last night that I noticed my classmates' papers were either shorter than mine, or lacking on footnotes and images. I always wonder how so many people seem to get all their work done....

Thom Mayne and Monica Ponce de Leon: the genius of it all

2004-10-26T19:10:28-04:00

Last week, we saw two excellent guest lectures in Hastings Hall, Thom Mayne and Monica Ponce de Leon. One colleague said that if he had to choose the two architects he would most like to hear speak, it would have been these two. He was in ecstasy.

Hastings Hall is a dark, dank, carpeted, airless auditorium in the basement of the A&A. A very unpleasant place. Nevertheless it was filled for Thom Mayne on Monday night. Mr. Mayne was a tornado of works and images and sections in bright yellow. He spoke so quickly it was futile to attempt to follow him; I just leaned back and tried to go with the flow, imbibing words here and there and just riding along on his train to nowhere. Someone proclaimed that if "The Dude" from "The Big Lebowski" were an architect, he'd be Thom Mayne.

It was an incredible lecture. Mr. Mayne seemed to be talking to himself, or to nine of his closest friends--it's not certain. He would pass an image and say, "Remember Guadeloupe? Yeah? Yeah?" Or he'd talk about...

More Photojournal!!!

2004-10-19T16:30:39-04:00

Super huge photo fabulousness Hey Kids! I took a lot of pictures for your visual pleasure. Check 'em out.

Our in-house cafe, the "Designer's Alcove." Legend has it that Paul Rudolph used to sleep here.

Reading in the cafe.

Maria has run this cafe for over 25 years. Don't mess with her, or else you won't get a cookie.

This is my friend Craig's psychedelic site plan. Isn't it awesome?

First years sit on the sixth floor around the "pit."

Some first years hard at work.

The first year lounge. We call it the "materials library." It really needs some new furniture.

Our life-line: Poland Spring.

A third year student TA's an undergrad class.

A classmate's analytical model. I love it.

The second year's lounge. This could also use some new furniture.

A secret society next to the A&A. I think it's called "Wolf's Head."

The passage between York and High streets, which separates Branford and Jonathan Edwards colleges. It's a nice place to eat lunch.

The corner of York and Broadway....

For Thomas

2004-10-07T22:12:54-04:00

Well, it seems that trouble has been brewing in Yale-land. If you have been following Thomas's blog, then you know that he was pretty upset about a certain class he's taking. Unfortunately, word got around that someone was badmouthing the program and the entire first year class got a talking to.

In defense of the administration, it isn't appropriate to post such vehement spew on a public site like archinect. It belongs in a journal, to be looked back upon with the wisdom of hindsight many years form now. The "talking to" I just mentioned was actually more of an open forum; the TA asked everyone to just let it all out so that the school could gage the depth and seriousness of the complaints. The faculty actually does value our opinion, and are quick to organize meetings if contention boils over. They tweak and reshuffle the core curriculum pretty often, based on the needs and desires of the previous class. It's not a perfect system, but as a grad student at Yale I do feel exponenti...

Massive Photo Journal!!!!

2004-09-28T11:04:53-04:00

Hello Readers!

I haven't written anything in a while and I feel ashamed to have neglected my blogger duties. I also feel challanged by my prolific blog-mates to put out more quality posting for your enlightened comsumption. Did you see that guy from Princeton? Wow, he has some serious time on his hands!

Here is a photo journal of my recent activities. I will attempt, like Mr. Princeton, to show you all aspects of Yale campus life vis a vis the architecture grad student.

First off, the injury. Burnt myself with a sodering iron.

My friend Joyce. She went to Berkeley too. She's awesome.

The computers of the 5th floor. For those of us without labtops and wireless internet.

Atmosphere.

A view to atmosphere.

The pin-up.

My favorite coffee house is Koffee? The question mark is part of the name. This place should not be confused with Koffee? Too, its much less funky spin-off. It reminds me of the good old days at La Strada or Wall Berlin in Berkeley, where the funk flowed freely....

being a TA

2004-09-09T18:16:38-04:00

I got into my elective, Writing on Architecture. I think it's going to be great. Carter Wiseman, the professor, is very personable and even grandfatherly. He's against archispeak, which is fine. It's good, actually, because I think the real challenge to avant-garde architects is to be able to describe complex ideas in simple ways. Simplicity is elegance. I also went to Dolores Hayden's class Cities, Suburbs and Sprawl, for which I am the TA. The pay is lousy, but it's an honor to work for Professor Hayden. The art history department pays their TA's about 6 times as much as we get paid, which is really unbelievable. Can't the university spread the goods around? I think that's what they do at Princeton, and that's why the architecture school has so much money to give. Correct me, please, if I'm wrong.

The first day in the Sprawl class was a mess. It's a 12 person seminar, and 36 people showed up. I arrived late and the slide projector was tilted. Professor Hayden mentioned that it w...

Galaxies

2004-09-09T18:15:10-04:00

Last night I went to the Leitner Family Observatory for an astronomy open house. The observatory is just past science hill, between the student organic garden and the Divinity school. The telescopes were out and pointing at various phenomena. I started talking to an astronomy grad student about the shapes of galaxies. Are they all spirals? Are some just spheres? Why do they tend to flatten out? It turns out that there are many different ways to classify a galaxy, most of which have nothing to do with what is seen. Looking at the visible light spectrum, one might see a spiral galaxy; in UV the same galaxy could be a blob, and in ultra red, an undulating mess. I was struck by my own insistence on being able to visualize this “object.” I insisted that maybe if you overlapped all the images of a galaxy from all possible spectrums then you would see its true shape. But it's not that simple. There's gravity to contend with, and dark matter (which is invisible), and other such complexitie...

Studio Lotteries

2004-09-01T17:52:52-04:00

Today we had our studio lottery. Second year M.Arch I students are given a choice between instructors within the same studio. The program of the studio is the same for all. Third year M.Arch I and second year post-pro (M.Arch II) students choose between different studios. The offerings for them differ greatly from one studio to the next; Peter Eisenman is teaching "Smart Viruses," and Enrique Norton is designing a genomics institute along the Hudson River. One studio will travel to China.

The lottery committee is run by students. Yesterday, they sent out this email:
-------------------------------------------------------------
STUDIO LOTTERY INSTRUCTIONS

The object of the lottery system is two-fold. First, students are able to more accurately represent their preferences on the ballot, improving their chances of being assigned to their higher choices. Second, the system has more freedom to distribute the students in a way which maximizes the total satisfaction among the stud...