Recently I have spent a large amount of time writing, reading and touring architecture. Last Monday I finally finished writing my term papers for this past quarter. My first was entitled Space as a Character in the Life Story of the Seminary Coop Bookstore. This was kinda fun to write. The whole quarter my professor had been talking about life stories, how to interview people regarding their life stories. Even when I went to meet with him a week before my presentation on the topic he mentioned life stories again. Well we all know how much I like the relationship between people and architecture. So I decided to make the paper for this professor told from 3rd person perspective about Space itself as if it were a character with a life story involving the relationships that it had with all the people I interviewed. Some of my main points involved how Space was just like any other person, if you never connected with it it was as if you didn't even know someone's name. But if you worked with Space every day then it was as if you knew it like you know your sibling. Due to the fact that I also had to incorporate some theory into the paper I decided that Space would refer to the space of the Seminary Coop bookstore whereas space would refer to the general.
On March 9th, the day after my sister's birthday, I presented this paper to my class. They really enjoyed my presentation, as did I learning more about theirs. One of my classmates and I are both drawn to the relationship between architecture and people and both writing about the subject so we decided to swap papers and read each others'. Hers was regarding the NY High Line and some interviews she did with friends of hers regarding the project and their reactions to it. I've never actually gotten a chance to go to the High Line but it sounds like an amazing project and I really enjoyed hearing about it. We realized that we took two fairly similar classes our first quarter here, I took Urban Landscapes and she took one entitled Social Theory of the City. I asked her to send me a copy of the syllabus so I could possibly read some of the books that were required for it.
In addition I wrote a second term paper entitled The Voices in the New Space of the Seminary Coop Bookstore. In this one I finally discovered a diplomatic way of writing about the issues that the Seminary Coop has faced in the creation of the new bookstore. Namely I decided to write about the topic from a leadership standpoint in some common pitfalls of leadership. All of this was to expose elements of the current bookstore that are being incorporated in the new bookstore or elements that are not being incorporated and some of the reasoning behind this.
I decided a couple weeks ago that since I'm here during spring break I would do my best to take advantage of the situation and do as many CAF (Chicago Architecture Foundation) tours as I can while I have the time. Yesterday I went on my first tour in a while, the modern skyscraper tour. It was a walking tour and unfortunately it decided to start raining half way through the tour, which didn't make it especially fun. However I fortunately was fairly well prepared for the cold and had my umbrella for the rain. It was really an eye opener, I learned about modern, postmodern and what the docent decided to refer to as neo-modern, despite the fact that it hasn't been officially named yet. One of the cool things that I learned about was the reason for the height and expanse of the Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park. There is a web-like grid hanging above this pavillion which has speakers dangling from it at several places, the reason for this is that at this pavillion, unlike many auditoriums and other concert areas, when the speaker speaks (or sings or does whatever they're doing auditorily) the sound that you hear at any place from this pavillion is heard at the exact same time. The speakers help this acoustic effect so you don't get people at the back of the pavillion hearing the sound the latest and people at the front hearing it on time. I was pretty amazed by this concept.
Today I have scheduled myself to go for a CAF lecture at noon and a tour at 3pm. Looking forward to both of them! And will be going on one CAF bus tour with a friend on Friday (amongst several other things).
In the meantime I have also been reading about architecture. In addition to the space theory that I read for my term papers that includes books like Tim Cresswell's Place: A short introduction and Anne Buttimer's The Human Experience of Space and Place I have been working my way through (when I get time) Sykes' The Architecture Reader: Essential Writings from Vitruvius to the Present which I am very much enjoying (and only wish I had more time to read as I am still having to do a lot of work for my masters thesis).
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Spacing size
"Old buildings can carry a certain comfort that new buildings frequently don’t, I don’t know what makes them feel more comfortable but there’s not enough glass, not enough metal, more brick, more wood" says an interviewee I met with in discussing the move of the Seminary Co-op and the Chicago Theological Seminary. I really do think it has to do more with the space in between walls, doors and aisles as well as the ceiling height in the building than the material used to create the space. Currently I'm in what could be the cafeteria in the Harry Potter films, but is actually the Harper Library at the University of Chicago. This space to me doesn't feel comfortable, the ceilings are too high to really make that comfort feeling. Plus there is that constant nagging of ... maybe the electricity in the room? or the air? I'm not sure what it is but it is very annoying and causes people like myself to keep our headphones on all the time so as not to get a headache. Yet I still study in here. Anyways, going back to the quote. I really am curious how much changing the width between spaces to make them larger so they fit ADA compliance makes one feel less "comfortable" while at the same time allowing it to physically be less cramped at times.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Design Decisions
It's funny, it seems I've some how fallen on the outs with the bookstore. I'm no longer invited to the meetings they have with the architects. In fact this past week the University architect invited me to the meeting and I was kind enough to ask the manager of the bookstore if that were okay with him, to which he promptly said no, it wasn't okay with him.
It's funny to me how architects work, or more how it seems they are forced to work. First they are hired by a business to create a space, say a bookstore. Then they have several meetings with a group of people that work for that store to determine the conditions for the design of the new space. Who determines which people they will work with? Will they be working with the president of the company who has several meetings with the rest of the employees (or the rest of the managers) to determine what they really need? Will they not meet with anyone at all and be asked to create the entire design themselves? Or will they meet with a panel of people who are in no way representative of the entire functionality of the company? If either of these later is the case who ends up getting blamed for parts that the architects (not knowing the kind of business well enough) overlook? In actuality it is unfair to blame the architects themselves, they are simply doing their job with the tools which they are given, but I feel sometimes they are the ones to be blamed, strangely enough.
I suppose this holds true for any kind of project, not just an architectural project. When one goes into anything not asking a true panel of representatives it makes it difficult to get enough information to do the job right.
It's funny to me how architects work, or more how it seems they are forced to work. First they are hired by a business to create a space, say a bookstore. Then they have several meetings with a group of people that work for that store to determine the conditions for the design of the new space. Who determines which people they will work with? Will they be working with the president of the company who has several meetings with the rest of the employees (or the rest of the managers) to determine what they really need? Will they not meet with anyone at all and be asked to create the entire design themselves? Or will they meet with a panel of people who are in no way representative of the entire functionality of the company? If either of these later is the case who ends up getting blamed for parts that the architects (not knowing the kind of business well enough) overlook? In actuality it is unfair to blame the architects themselves, they are simply doing their job with the tools which they are given, but I feel sometimes they are the ones to be blamed, strangely enough.
I suppose this holds true for any kind of project, not just an architectural project. When one goes into anything not asking a true panel of representatives it makes it difficult to get enough information to do the job right.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Architect's Eye & Marketing
It's really interesting, in getting back into architecture (for the third time now?), how one's eye changes. I was on the bus yesterday looking out to see a beautiful extension someone had done on their house. What a wonderful back room! The rest of the house seemed to almost pale in comparison as it blended into the neighborhood, but this modern back room extension was wonderfully bright with glass all around it, amazing. Extensions, details, ornamentation, those are the small things that one starts to see with the architect's eye. What really opens the eye is the ability to see things in 3-D. I know that sounds strange, after all we already see in 3-D. But it's a totally different ball game once one has the ability to draw in 3-D, then it's like the colors all became brighter. What an amazing world to see when one's eye changes like that! I only wish I was better at drawing so I could see more of that!
Lately I've been getting more of a feel for the marketing world. Talking to customers about the Seminary Co-op has really allowed me to get some insight into the wonderful ideas they have for the store, from little things like having something with the store name branded on it so people could take away a little of this place to advertising more to certain communities. It makes me think of how important it really is to communicate with your customers. Some stores aren't very good about it, or don't have a very strong customer base, like Borders or Barnes & Noble, both of which are going out of business, which says it all.
Lately I've been getting more of a feel for the marketing world. Talking to customers about the Seminary Co-op has really allowed me to get some insight into the wonderful ideas they have for the store, from little things like having something with the store name branded on it so people could take away a little of this place to advertising more to certain communities. It makes me think of how important it really is to communicate with your customers. Some stores aren't very good about it, or don't have a very strong customer base, like Borders or Barnes & Noble, both of which are going out of business, which says it all.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Class & National Geographic
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
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
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?
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