As I believe I spoke about last time I recently started as a volunteer at Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House in Hyde Park (just a block away from the Seminary Co-op where I work). The first step as a volunteer is to receive training regarding both Frank Lloyd Wright and the Robie House. It is truly amazing the number of works he produced in his lifetime, with some architectural features that are absolutely astounding to me. For example the windows in the Robie House are separated from each other by wooden panels at the corners of the buildings, Frank Lloyd Wright later grew to have horizontal panels at the corners of several of his buildings or no wooden paneling at all, leaving the corners almost completely invisible and practically nothing separating the nature outside from inside. In some of his buildings you can even dismantle the glass at these corners leaving literally nothing separating the inside from out. How grand to have a house like that! I can only hope maybe some day. Another interesting feature is the fact that Rafael Viñoly, the architect of the Booth School of Business that is right across the street from the Robie House, took several elements of the house into account when designing his building. From the cantilever to the main floor being the second floor, to the planters that surround the floor and even the ribbon windows they both now share these qualities like brothers standing across from each other.
National Geographic always astonishes me. The photographs are always beautiful and there is always some tidbit of information that I've never known. I am only on page 26 of 142 of this month's edition and I have already learned two things. First of all helium apparently is a rapidly deteriorating resource. According to the article at this rate we should be charged $100 for one helium balloon instead of 75 cents. I never thought about helium as a deteriorating resource and with this article's help I'm sure I'm not the only one that will think twice when buying my next helium balloon. Secondly I learned about the fascinating step wells of India with their Escher-esque look to them. Yet another thing the Brits messed up on when colonizing this country as they took the wells to be unsanitary and let them fall into disuse. Now that I think of it I remember sitting towards the bottom of one of these wells in Banaras once. It did not have the Escher-esque look to the stairs going down to it as only one flight of stairs went down each of its sides (I'm finding it difficult to remember if the stairs went down every side or only a few sides). It was truly something to me to sit down there and stare at the water. They were performing some kind of ceremony at the water's edge ... maybe trying to clense someone of their sins? I'm again not remembering everything about the situation but I do remember feeling so peaceful there as a little escape from the world outside. How wonderful it would be to have that be included in the city's water system. What an architectural delight and how ingenious! Here is one with Escher-like steps: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGB0_F5BdkYVXcyykVmr7Iujpbhrff-wj-uuem57_q5bySW5B1s7umhzhxVm2JQr0QJA6G_pF-Tiyg_me-nyLIRTMY-Wqz2n3XTgiZLtpGuiiAJAFi-wSVgIwL1VmSA2wVWqQslWIv2s0/s1600/Deepest-Step-Well-15.jpg
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright and Proposal
I am very excited, on Friday I was finally able to speak with someone over at the Robie House who gave me the name of the volunteer coordinator for the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. I called them fairly immediately and, after playing phone tag for a little bit, was finally able to sign up for volunteering. I will have to take classes where we learn about the Robie House and Frank Lloyd Wright but then I will be a docent there! This is an exciting opportunity for me, especially considering the fact that, as the volunteer coordinator explained, people go to the Robie House to learn about its architecture. His home in Oak Park seems to be more frequented by people who are interested in his life. After learning this wonderful news I went yesterday to get some books on the house out of the library.
Friday I finally had the first draft of my proposal critiqued. I was nervous at first but there really wasn't much for me to say, they all agreed that the work I have done so far (primarily interviewing) is great but that they need to see more literature review in the thesis (and in the proposal). They had a lot of helpful suggestions on whose work I should include. I ended up buying two books from the Co-op, Yi-Fu Tuan's book entitled Space and Place and Paul Goldberger's Why Architecture Matters and while I was at the library I picked up several books by Zukin and Harvey. One of my good friends here is, not surprisingly, fairly well read and was able to loan me a book by Urry that he said may have some things I would be interested in. I still have a long way to go and a lot of reading to do today though as I have a meeting with my preceptor tomorrow.
Friday I finally had the first draft of my proposal critiqued. I was nervous at first but there really wasn't much for me to say, they all agreed that the work I have done so far (primarily interviewing) is great but that they need to see more literature review in the thesis (and in the proposal). They had a lot of helpful suggestions on whose work I should include. I ended up buying two books from the Co-op, Yi-Fu Tuan's book entitled Space and Place and Paul Goldberger's Why Architecture Matters and while I was at the library I picked up several books by Zukin and Harvey. One of my good friends here is, not surprisingly, fairly well read and was able to loan me a book by Urry that he said may have some things I would be interested in. I still have a long way to go and a lot of reading to do today though as I have a meeting with my preceptor tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Secret Love
So I'm partially ashamed to admit this but one of the TV shows I love watching is Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Part of this love comes from an idea that I read in Seidman's book entitled Interviewing as Qualitative Research where he states "I interview because I am interested in other people’s stories". Well I like this show because I love hearing people's stories. I especially love the idea of being able to give to others. A home, what a beautiful thing to be able to give someone! Unfortunately every time I watch this show I'm fighting a battle inside myself.
Part of this battle makes me feel like stopping the show and sending them a letter telling them how awful the show is and the idea behind it. This part of me understands that building a new home for someone else is probably emotionally a really awful idea. Unlike going to an architecture firm and having them build a house for you, or even going around the neighborhood / town and choosing your own home, the people on this show do little to cater to the individual families. They spend just a few minutes before picking one thing to blow completely out of proportion in that person's room. For example if a little girl wants to be a princess she gets an entire princess room complete with a castle inside. To start this is hardly practical. Little girls only want to be princesses for a small portion of their lives before they outgrow this (or get tired of the idea). Secondly moving is an extremely stressful situation and to put these families that are already under so much pressure in, to some degrees, a more stressful situation is not an idea that I particularly like. There have been several episodes where they build these huge homes for the families and don't pay off their mortgage. No matter what else is given to the family I am sure that there is almost no way possible for them to pay off the mortgage of these even larger homes. Even the families where they are able to pay off the mortgage I am sure are burdened by much larger utility bills than they were used to before and even having to pay for electronics that have been left in the house and any sort of fixing-up that the house may need since it wasn't originally built customized for them.
The other part of me wants to congratulate them for helping others and giving them such wonderful gifts. And loves watching a show that does such a good job of making me emotional. Which part do you agree with?
Part of this battle makes me feel like stopping the show and sending them a letter telling them how awful the show is and the idea behind it. This part of me understands that building a new home for someone else is probably emotionally a really awful idea. Unlike going to an architecture firm and having them build a house for you, or even going around the neighborhood / town and choosing your own home, the people on this show do little to cater to the individual families. They spend just a few minutes before picking one thing to blow completely out of proportion in that person's room. For example if a little girl wants to be a princess she gets an entire princess room complete with a castle inside. To start this is hardly practical. Little girls only want to be princesses for a small portion of their lives before they outgrow this (or get tired of the idea). Secondly moving is an extremely stressful situation and to put these families that are already under so much pressure in, to some degrees, a more stressful situation is not an idea that I particularly like. There have been several episodes where they build these huge homes for the families and don't pay off their mortgage. No matter what else is given to the family I am sure that there is almost no way possible for them to pay off the mortgage of these even larger homes. Even the families where they are able to pay off the mortgage I am sure are burdened by much larger utility bills than they were used to before and even having to pay for electronics that have been left in the house and any sort of fixing-up that the house may need since it wasn't originally built customized for them.
The other part of me wants to congratulate them for helping others and giving them such wonderful gifts. And loves watching a show that does such a good job of making me emotional. Which part do you agree with?
The Event & Hyde Park
It fascinates me how much one event can truly change a place, no matter how small, for such a long time. Of course this idea takes shape in many forms, with the most obvious examples being large devastating events like the Holocaust or September 11th. Kenneth Foote has discussed these places and the many ways we chose to deal with these types of events in his book Shadowed Ground. However I do not wish to speak of places of tragedy but instead places that may fall into the ninth chapter of this book, entitled "Invisible and Shadowed Pasts". One such example of the type of site I am thinking of here is that of my current neighborhood, Hyde Park. For a brief moment in history this neighborhood was home to the World's Columbian Exposition, a historic event that was to become the center of books like Erik Larson's Devil in a White City.
Now over a hundred years have past since this amazing event yet so much of the event can be felt here in the neighborhood. The throngs of upper class international people that were here for the event are still here for the University. The railroad stop that was built just before the World's Fair and brought thousands of people to the event is still one of the main transportation hubs for the neighborhood. In fact there is no other railroad or subway stop in the neighborhood, only buses and shuttles to make up for this lack. Many of Hyde Park's residents have now grown to complain about this, saying that Hyde Park's transportation is stuck in the past and wishing for better transportation. The entertainment that the Ferris Wheel brought to the event is seen every now and again when people like President Obama give speeches in the same location, on the Midway. The neighborhood seems never to have recovered from the event. There used to be large hotels to accommodate all the Fair's guests but even these have slowly gone out of business or are extremely out-dated. In addition, unlike the other neighborhoods, especially ones on the North side of the city, Hyde Park is completely lacking when it comes to shops, restaurants, entertainment spots, and bars among several things. I have heard rumor that this is due to the fact that the University owns much of the land of this neighborhood, or has a strong controlling arm. They are the ones that get to decide what kind of businesses can open up in the neighborhood and they have decided, for better or worse, to keep it a strictly residential neighborhood. Thus it is not surprising that the majority of the people tied to the neighborhood belong in some way to the University, whether they are the students who have a strong tendency to move away when they have graduated, faculty or staff.
Now over a hundred years have past since this amazing event yet so much of the event can be felt here in the neighborhood. The throngs of upper class international people that were here for the event are still here for the University. The railroad stop that was built just before the World's Fair and brought thousands of people to the event is still one of the main transportation hubs for the neighborhood. In fact there is no other railroad or subway stop in the neighborhood, only buses and shuttles to make up for this lack. Many of Hyde Park's residents have now grown to complain about this, saying that Hyde Park's transportation is stuck in the past and wishing for better transportation. The entertainment that the Ferris Wheel brought to the event is seen every now and again when people like President Obama give speeches in the same location, on the Midway. The neighborhood seems never to have recovered from the event. There used to be large hotels to accommodate all the Fair's guests but even these have slowly gone out of business or are extremely out-dated. In addition, unlike the other neighborhoods, especially ones on the North side of the city, Hyde Park is completely lacking when it comes to shops, restaurants, entertainment spots, and bars among several things. I have heard rumor that this is due to the fact that the University owns much of the land of this neighborhood, or has a strong controlling arm. They are the ones that get to decide what kind of businesses can open up in the neighborhood and they have decided, for better or worse, to keep it a strictly residential neighborhood. Thus it is not surprising that the majority of the people tied to the neighborhood belong in some way to the University, whether they are the students who have a strong tendency to move away when they have graduated, faculty or staff.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sound of Bookstores
In light of my thesis on the Co-op one of the major elements I will be incorporating is architecture and how it plays into the reasoning behind members valuing the store. As previously mentioned this is especially important in the fact that the Co-op will soon be moving.
With this in mind I have spent some time getting to know the bookstores here in Chicago. I spent one day last quarter going to see several different ones, namely the following: Powell's, and Ogara and Wilson (both on 57th Street), Printer's Row, Sandmeyers, and After-Words. I have also been to Women & Children First, McClurg Bookstore as well as worked at 57th Street Books and the Seminary Co-op. These stores are along with several I went to see in New York over the holidays.
In my pursuit of bookstores I have discovered that like Blesser discusses in his book Spaces Speak, Are you Listening? "we experience spaces not only by seeing but also by listening". This is especially prevalent in bookstores. Today I was in Myopic Books scanning the Fiction section as my ears were bombarded by all the sounds of the architecture around me. The classical music slightly muffled by the books and the loft surrounding me, the creaking of the thin wooden panels of the flooring above me as I heard each and every step as someone walked by above, muffled sounds of the L rolling into the red line stop just outside the brick back wall of the store and even more distant the sound of the intercom at the stop announcing the name of the stop and that the doors were, indeed, closing. This was along with the "Excuse me" of the woman passing me as the extreme narrowness of the aisles made it so I almost had to press myself into the bookshelves as she passed me. All this despite the fact that we had checked our bags at the door and neither one of us was very large. Every single one of these sounds was affected, or even created, by the architecture of the store. Had the aisles been wider the woman would have not had to excuse herself. Had the floor been made of concrete I would not have heard the steps of someone above me. Had I not been in a nook with a loft above me the open-ness of the space may have made the music echo more. Every single one of these elements contributed to the ambiance of the store, making for a relaxed space that resembled a library in its muffled sounds and surrounding books.
These are the kind of worries I have with the new Co-op after all not only the wonderful space will be completely different and much more contemporary than the current, but the sounds will also change completely.
With this in mind I have spent some time getting to know the bookstores here in Chicago. I spent one day last quarter going to see several different ones, namely the following: Powell's, and Ogara and Wilson (both on 57th Street), Printer's Row, Sandmeyers, and After-Words. I have also been to Women & Children First, McClurg Bookstore as well as worked at 57th Street Books and the Seminary Co-op. These stores are along with several I went to see in New York over the holidays.
In my pursuit of bookstores I have discovered that like Blesser discusses in his book Spaces Speak, Are you Listening? "we experience spaces not only by seeing but also by listening". This is especially prevalent in bookstores. Today I was in Myopic Books scanning the Fiction section as my ears were bombarded by all the sounds of the architecture around me. The classical music slightly muffled by the books and the loft surrounding me, the creaking of the thin wooden panels of the flooring above me as I heard each and every step as someone walked by above, muffled sounds of the L rolling into the red line stop just outside the brick back wall of the store and even more distant the sound of the intercom at the stop announcing the name of the stop and that the doors were, indeed, closing. This was along with the "Excuse me" of the woman passing me as the extreme narrowness of the aisles made it so I almost had to press myself into the bookshelves as she passed me. All this despite the fact that we had checked our bags at the door and neither one of us was very large. Every single one of these sounds was affected, or even created, by the architecture of the store. Had the aisles been wider the woman would have not had to excuse herself. Had the floor been made of concrete I would not have heard the steps of someone above me. Had I not been in a nook with a loft above me the open-ness of the space may have made the music echo more. Every single one of these elements contributed to the ambiance of the store, making for a relaxed space that resembled a library in its muffled sounds and surrounding books.
These are the kind of worries I have with the new Co-op after all not only the wonderful space will be completely different and much more contemporary than the current, but the sounds will also change completely.
The beginnings of my Architectural Pursuit of Chicago
It's been quite a while since I've written anything so let me catch you up to speed first. Since coming back to the US in 2008 I spent some time trying to figure out what I wanted to get my masters / higher education in. Ever since undergraduate I have really enjoyed playing around with architecture. Cutting pictures out of magazines and putting them together in rooms in my head mostly. Architecture magazines are probably my favorite kind of magazine ever. I love looking at all the pictures and the articles are very interesting. My aunt caught on to this fact about a year ago and got me a subscription to Dwell, which I already had a subscription to so I think the next 3 years are free now. In undergrad I decided to do my thesis on space between individuals, specifically male Indians in Banaras. This thesis included a lot of different aspects of space including how space between individuals is designated in residential architecture, my favorite kind of architecture.
Due to all of these reasons I decided I should finally take some classes in architecture starting in 2008. For the next two years I took a variety of courses including history of architecture and two architectural theory courses. Unfortunately I got stuck in a class called architectural drawing. To be fair it was the first time I had ever taken such a course and I was in the class with people who were architectural geniuses. Considering those circumstances I did very well in the course, my professor was surprised how well I caught onto the idea of seeing space despite the fact that I will never be good at free hand drawing. While I was enrolled in this class I was also taking my first ever class in anthropology, which I realized was what I had spent the last 5 years of my life doing. With this in mind I decided to apply for PhD programs in anthropology. Fortunately I did not get into any of these programs but did get in a masters program at the University of Chicago.
As soon as I got to Chicago I knew what I wanted to study, Chinese real estate and architecture, and its constant change during the time that I lived in Dalian. The locals used to say if a building was 5 years old it was too old and there was no reason to buy an apartment there. This was the case throughout the city to such an extent that buildings were tore down after 10 years in order to put up new ones. I was fascinated by this idea. After all I come from a country (the US) where the first thing I would look at buying in terms of residential architecture are old buildings, not new ones that tend to be prefab and fairly poorly built.
Unfortunately my preceptor (a PhD advisor for myself and about 20 other masters students) advised me against this project. He explained to me that I only had one year to do the thesis and needed something that had some well grounded methodological approach. Therefore I should look into something closer to home, specifically in Chicago. This was my first quarter at the University of Chicago and I was enrolled in a course called Urban Landscapes in which we needed to write a paper with good visuals to back up the thesis, floor plans, maps or photos. I decided I would try to replant my idea of Dalian in Chicago and focus on Chinatown. I spent several days in the library looking at maps of Chinatown and different aspects from the census before I came on something that seemed rather stark to me. The lines drawn between Chinatown and neighboring Bronzeville were very distinct and have not changed for several censuses. I decided to pursue this more, why were these lines there? Did this say anything about the relationship between blacks and Chinese? Unfortunately the results brought me to a standstill in my work. The lines between these two neighborhoods were drawn by highways and low income housing. There was no way for me to visually continue on with this train of thought. I decided to go south and study the distinction between the Irish community in Bridgeport and Chinatown as Chinatown was steadily growing into Bridgeport and there was a lot of tension in the news regarding this subject.
At the same time that I had finally come to this conclusion, a couple weeks into the quarter, I was sitting at work minding my own business when I overheard two of the managers discussing the architectural plan for the new bookstore. A light went off in my head. I already spent about 20 hours a week working in the bookstore which was literally across the street from my classes and I was interested in architecture, why not study the Co-op? I immediately shot off an e-mail to my professor of the Urban Landscape class telling him my idea of studying the store and asked my boss if he was okay with the idea. Both were elated that I would be interested in this particular topic and agreed to it on the condition that I start working on it intensely very soon (as there were only a few more weeks in the quarter and I had to write a 15-20 page paper on it). In the next couple of weeks I interviewed a large number of people, from the architects themselves to the store manager to the University architects as well as attended all of the meetings held between the University, bookstore employees, architects and the Co-op board.
Due to all of these reasons I decided I should finally take some classes in architecture starting in 2008. For the next two years I took a variety of courses including history of architecture and two architectural theory courses. Unfortunately I got stuck in a class called architectural drawing. To be fair it was the first time I had ever taken such a course and I was in the class with people who were architectural geniuses. Considering those circumstances I did very well in the course, my professor was surprised how well I caught onto the idea of seeing space despite the fact that I will never be good at free hand drawing. While I was enrolled in this class I was also taking my first ever class in anthropology, which I realized was what I had spent the last 5 years of my life doing. With this in mind I decided to apply for PhD programs in anthropology. Fortunately I did not get into any of these programs but did get in a masters program at the University of Chicago.
As soon as I got to Chicago I knew what I wanted to study, Chinese real estate and architecture, and its constant change during the time that I lived in Dalian. The locals used to say if a building was 5 years old it was too old and there was no reason to buy an apartment there. This was the case throughout the city to such an extent that buildings were tore down after 10 years in order to put up new ones. I was fascinated by this idea. After all I come from a country (the US) where the first thing I would look at buying in terms of residential architecture are old buildings, not new ones that tend to be prefab and fairly poorly built.
Unfortunately my preceptor (a PhD advisor for myself and about 20 other masters students) advised me against this project. He explained to me that I only had one year to do the thesis and needed something that had some well grounded methodological approach. Therefore I should look into something closer to home, specifically in Chicago. This was my first quarter at the University of Chicago and I was enrolled in a course called Urban Landscapes in which we needed to write a paper with good visuals to back up the thesis, floor plans, maps or photos. I decided I would try to replant my idea of Dalian in Chicago and focus on Chinatown. I spent several days in the library looking at maps of Chinatown and different aspects from the census before I came on something that seemed rather stark to me. The lines drawn between Chinatown and neighboring Bronzeville were very distinct and have not changed for several censuses. I decided to pursue this more, why were these lines there? Did this say anything about the relationship between blacks and Chinese? Unfortunately the results brought me to a standstill in my work. The lines between these two neighborhoods were drawn by highways and low income housing. There was no way for me to visually continue on with this train of thought. I decided to go south and study the distinction between the Irish community in Bridgeport and Chinatown as Chinatown was steadily growing into Bridgeport and there was a lot of tension in the news regarding this subject.
At the same time that I had finally come to this conclusion, a couple weeks into the quarter, I was sitting at work minding my own business when I overheard two of the managers discussing the architectural plan for the new bookstore. A light went off in my head. I already spent about 20 hours a week working in the bookstore which was literally across the street from my classes and I was interested in architecture, why not study the Co-op? I immediately shot off an e-mail to my professor of the Urban Landscape class telling him my idea of studying the store and asked my boss if he was okay with the idea. Both were elated that I would be interested in this particular topic and agreed to it on the condition that I start working on it intensely very soon (as there were only a few more weeks in the quarter and I had to write a 15-20 page paper on it). In the next couple of weeks I interviewed a large number of people, from the architects themselves to the store manager to the University architects as well as attended all of the meetings held between the University, bookstore employees, architects and the Co-op board.
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