UVa

"Never a dull moment with Red."

Red and I met on the first day of ARCH 199, and I thought he was pretty cooky. We ended up building a cardboard Le Corbusier chair for the Halloween costume competition and studying in Versailles together with 35 other ARCH classmates for 9 months. Now we've gained acceptance to the same grad program. (He's a first year there now.)

Which is why, after flying into Richmond (rather than Charlottesville) to conserve money, Ben Hartigan (another UIUC classmate who got into UVa!) and I found ourselves in Red's green Volvo in an ever darkening, winding road wondering if we were in the beginning sequence of a horror movie. It turns out we had somehow missed our exit and made our way halfway toward a little town called Waynesboro. Eventually, we did wend our way toward the Virginian for delicious burgers, but not before we were absolutely famished.

For all of Sunday, Red played gracious host. He gave us the star tour of campus, drove us through downtown Charlottesville, and up to see Monticello. He also worked Ben and me over like his life depended on it. I should mention Red can be one of the most convincing people in the world if he puts his mind to it, and he knows it. If architecture doesn't work out for him (very unlikely hypothetical situation), he should consider selling luxury European cars. Driving us up by the Blue Ridge Mountains was a smart move on his part. We drove on this road that went uphill for a good 10-20 mins, and I imagined the beautiful climbs we had on Bike and Build ...

"Southern Hospitality"

The faculty student ratio at UVa is pretty amazing. They keep the number of students small to maintain a high level of quality in instruction, and generally the faculty live in Charlottesville and have plenty of time to breathe down students backs at all hours of the day.

During open studio hours, I wanted to peek over the shoulders of one particular professor giving a desk crit to a student and listen to their interaction. When he saw me stop, Professor Peter Waldman completely stopped what he was saying, turned to me with a smile, and said, "Hello, welcome to UVa, my name is Peter Waldman. Do you have any questions?" I mumbled something about what their project program was, mortified that my seemingly sneaky peek turned into such a huge intrusion.

Later on, Renee, one of the students in Red's studio was briefly describing the monastery they were working on, when we heard a commanding voice behind us, "Show them your site model too. They don't know what you're talking about." We turned around to face W. G. Clark, the gentleman terrifying Red at the moment, and who also designed one of the two new wings of the Architecture School at UVa. We introduced ourselves as Red's friends, to which he responded, "David's friends? Oh, I am very sorry to hear that you call him your friend." For all of Red complaining about how much W.G. seemed displeased with his lack of progress, and how intimidated Red felt in his presence, Ben and I decided that it was all lies. W.G. obviously really likes Red, and he was only trying to push his design really hard. Anyways, W.G. proceeded to lead us around to Tom's desk, summoned Tom to present his project too ("Red, you don't have the requisite models enough to explain yourself properly."), finally headed over to Red's desk so we could see his project. Ben and I thought we were free, but then he lead us over to the Venice studio to have the students there talk to us too. Yikes!

"UVa really likes model building."

Oh really? Red's known for his formidable sketching abilities, but not so much for his model building. Ironically, UVa students are known for their amazing model building skills, so he's been working incredibly hard to bring himself up to speed. He's gotten really creative! He even stole one of the books lying around to make a topo model (to which W.G. expressed great displeasure). A local cabinet maker donates all their scrap wood to UVa students (W.G. "prefers" Spanish cedar over walnut). I'm not much of a solid wood type person, but I did learn to make origami before I strung together proper sentences, and model building is definitely my forte design skill so I imagine I could pick it up quickly enough. I guess they must have liked the 1/4" scale section model I made of Seattle Central Library in my portfolio.

They are also known for melding digital and hand techniques. Professor Christina Hill said they were not so much about pursuing the latest most technologically advanced method of digital representation so much as figuring out what type of representation was best for what situation. Sometimes, those technologies are necessary to show special details, but other times, concept can be most palpable from some pen drawn lines on napkins.

"Bryan Bell sighting at UVa!"

The Eco-Mod projects have undergone 3 iterations at this point, and they are working on finalizing the design documents (or was it construction?) of Eco-Mod 4 to build over the summer. In brief, it is affordable, sustainable, modulor housing designed and built by students, this year for Habitat for Humanity (<3). And who do I see but Bryan Bell, there as the reviewer for this project, right with John Quale, the professor who began the project in the first place. Surreal ...

Epilogue

By the end of yesterday, I could barely string two words together to form a coherent sentence because of the action packed open house. I was glad to be able to go back to a surprisingly comfy Ikea "sofa bed" to sleep in with a yellow skirt-clad chihuahua to welcome me and my host, Fatima, at the door. All the sudden exposure to architecture and design shocked my atrophying architecture muscles out of hibernation quickly enough though, and by the time I was on the little aircraft bearing me back to Chicago, my brain simply wouldn't shut up about all the potential studios I could take next fall, and thesis topics I could pursue.

Expanding Architecture + Creepy guy on Bike Path

Expanding Architecture:

On Thursday, Metropolis magazine presented Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford's Expanding Architecture/Design as Activism at the Merchandise Mart, and I got to go. (Free food, how could I resist?) I happened upon it fortuitously. I was trying to look up the BPA-free Kor Water Bottle as an example of something absurdly expensive on the Metropolis website, when I happened to see the event. (Liz, I admit your water bottle is actually quite nice, and that I kind of want one now.)

Bryan Bell presented the book briefly, most of which was not new information to me because I read it cover to cover. This book made me realize that UVA is actually quite a hot spot for socially responsible and affordable architecture, and made me more excited about my acceptance there. (Oh yea, forgot to mention I got into their grad school, yay.) It was also interesting to see that a couple of the panelists worked not only on affordability in Chicago, but also discussed Hyde Park as an interesting example of how difficult it is to expand affordability. I may just write a few more blog entries on just this panel event, we'll see. Anyways, Bryan Bell was very personable, and I hope I get a chance to either work with him or learn from him in the future. I also got signatures on my book from 3 other people whose essays are in the book (Thomas Fisher, Roberta Feldman), including Katie Swenson, who not only graduated from UVA with a masters, but also got the Rose Fellowship to pursue affordability, community design and design activism. Intriguing ... As with all other architecture-related events it seems, I ran into a large contingent of 4240 people again, this time including Tom Brauer. It was good to be able to briefly catch up with him. And congratulations to Maurizio, who got into the post-professional program at Columbia! :D

Creepy Guy on Bike Path:

I rode alone because I had a dentist appointment in the morning, but I figured I could at least greet my fellow Tati riders on the way up north. I was happily minding my own business, noting the tail wind, when I heard someone approaching from behind me because their chain was audibly rubbing something, probably the front derailleur. If someone wanted to draft, I was fine with it, but the chain was annoying, for sure. I dropped him on the first hill, and I thought, phew. His pace must have been oscillating quite a bit though, because I kept hearing that chain whir ebb and flow behind me, which was even more annoying. To make things worse, then I could hear the guy moving side to side, probably trying to pass me, but apparently wasn't quite able to move faster than 21-23 mph (my pace at the time). Or, maybe he was checking out my calves like the other really creepy guy from last year. Finally, he moves up side by side. He was largish, riding some red beater-ish looking road bike with yellow handlebar tape.

Guy on Red Bike: "Nice day for a ride, eh?"
Me: "Yea."
Guy on Red Bike: "Been training all winter? You look like you're in pretty good shape."
Me: "Yea."
Guy on Red Bike: "Alright, well good day."

And he finally left me in peace to continue my ride. Maybe he was just trying to be nice, but I'm pretty wary of random guys with loud chains approaching me on rides to compliment me on my fitness level.

Stone Soup

I've been reading Expanding Architecture/Design as Activism edited by Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford. It's pretty amazing so far. Very much along the lines of Design like you Give a Damn. A fresh new way of looking at architecture, quite a different track from the current trend of theory, aesthetics, etc.

So far, I particularly liked the essay on "Designing with an Asset-Based Approach," which basically suggests looking to a community's strengths rather than deficiencies. The following paragraph is a nice summary: "Asset-based design is like the classic tale of stone soup. One person starts with just a few stones, another person lends a pot, someone else gives some water, someone donates a carrot, and so on until a delicious soup is made that can serve all. In asset-based design the designer can act as the instigator with the stones, conceiving of a community project that can benefit everyone involved and would not happen otherwise."(125)

If I learned anything from Bike and Build, it's that people can achieve amazing things, you just need the right people. It's just finding those people that's the tricky part.