Final Presentation - Design II - The Fire Urn

Hey reader!

I've been busy, trying to get myself together for the summer. Got a lot to take care of like putting the portfolio together for the B.Arch application.
But I'm here to reminisce about the final presentation before I forget all about it.

The week of, the professor was really excited about my project and assured me that all I need to change were some drawings and little fixes for my 1/4" scale model. So I did. Most of Thursday I spent putting a quick animated walkthrough together for the powerpoint presentation. The powerpoint was supposed to be 5 minutes max, but at the rate I was giving it at home, it was taking 8-10 minutes to make it through.

So the morning of the final, I had went to sleep around one, packed a box and my garbage bag for the models, and had left my boards in my school locker on Wednesday. Everything was prepared, so I decided I would be once of the first three to present.

Up until the final moments before we officially began, I watched as guest critics walked by our projects and STOPPED BY MINE for long periods of time to examine my boards. It was flattering for the most part, but it made me nervous, 'What do they see that I missed?'
Of course the obvious piece missed was the little rendered figure of my professor hidden in my section render... When he saw that during the presentation, his face got all red and he started laughing. He looks to me and says, "Nooo! You didn't!" before pointing it out to the guest critics and saying I get and automatic A..

We had FOUR guests, I did not catch any of their names. Anyway, the first two presentations got picked apart because they were solely based on construction designs, while mine was a full concept.

As I sat down before the laptop to begin the powerpoint, I looked at the female guest, smiled widely and said HI! She smiled back and asked if I would begin. At this point, with all the practice I had put into the the previous day repeating my shpeil, I started rambling quickly about the context, the process, my concept, the design phases and the Louis Kahn inspirations.
They stopped me when I reached the concept image of a greek urn. They were curious because my project actually used the negative space to define the urn mostly.
Soon the 5 minutes were up, and everyone was together by my boards as the guests picked the idea apart.

I was eating up their critique, because I've learned to take note and try to understand what would make the project better. For some reason, during critiques, my face probably looks depressed as I'm learning from what they're saying so from Greta to Diamond the these new guest critics, they had to reassure me that what they were saying wasn't bad. Which I knew! But my face read otherwise.

To quote, "We aren't saying all these things because we don't like it. On the contrary, we like it very much and that's why we're saying all these things!" ~Female Critic

Each critic tried to take a turn because they had so much to say. One drew on the boards, others tried to illustrate with their hands. One related it to a prison.
The most important line was from the female critic, she said,
"We see that you have pulled all of these individual moments from your inspiration and put them all together, but which part of this project is YOU?"

The critique soon finished after that, and I was really happy with how it went. Like SUPER HAPPY! There were applause from the class, there had been some laughter in the middle. The professor had blushed. It was an amazing 10-15 minutes.

And I know I promised photos. I will put them up eventually... Probably after I finish the portfolio...

Thanks for reading, dear reader :)
~ArchiTalmud

Project 3 - Concept Write-up

The concept for my design was originally a burning farmhouse, this led to the original formation of the program distribution. However, the idea of fire is a semi-physical and spiritual concept with many things to learn from. The fire inside is what drives humans to move forward. The beauty of fire is that, much like water, when you combine two flames together they become one. When you gather many people together, as is the case when you have a collection of EMS and FDNY members, a great fire emerges (not just body heat). During the summer, it is imaginable to see a group of people surrounding a bon fire that dances up to the sky; moving with the wind, smoothly dancing as embers fly away and fade into the night.

How do you hold fire, how can you keep it contained? In ancient times, the Greeks and Romans used fire urns that they used to light temples and cities at night. These urns were of varying sizes, there were Olympian scaled urns that would burn for a week straight. And then there were smaller urns that were more personal.

I wanted to incorporate the urn into the building. It would not be suitable in the city context to have an urn shaped building. So it was decided that the urn would be the negative space through the lower half of the building, and the dancing flame is the communal area above it. This is where the EMS or FDNY members could dance or play and recuperate from a shift before they run out again.

Flames need fuel, humans need fuel. Air or oxygen is essential for fires to survive. Thus the roof is only a bare container with the sides open to air. Much like a chimney, smoke will travel upward, the energy used will travel out. It needs to leave. The negative and tired energy of members needs a place to exit. This is where the kitchen, the food and fuel source of the members exists.

Never Start A Desk Crit With A Joke

As the title states, today we sat down for our first crit for Project 3 - EMS/FDNY station.
The professor asks, "So what's your concept?"
I jokingly answer, while flipping to a sketch of...

"A Farmhouse on Fire"

He was not entirely satisfied with the answer I gave, so I then had to make up for it by showing other concept sketches and other answers... he still wasn't going for it.

He liked the organization, but the the separate volumes (Which I've previously tried in another project) either needed to be blended into one unique volume, or they would have to take on separate identities, or take from the context of the neighborhood.

The other choice was to scrap the entire idea.


Later, during the class wrap-up, the professor had quoted my "Farmhouse on Fire" to the class, while smiling at me to remind the class about poetics, but to also try to contain ourselves and not make the poetics sarcastic.

So it seems once again, that I have to look back to Louis Kahn for some inspiration on how to handle such a project.

And I know I said I'd post pictures, don't worry they'll be up eventually...

thanks for reading, dear reader. :)
~ArchiTalmud

Design 2 + First Day 4th Semester

I could NOT sleep last night. So 5 AM rolled around as I did, and I rushed to make the 6:15 bus.

Had a nice breakfast in school. Waited for everyone to show up, and then later had the big fantasy draft from the professors. Originally I was supposed to be in Giovanni Santamaria's section. But due to my recent failure of Design 1 with a C+ grade... They moved me to Section 4 with Martin Krovac. Really nice architect from Prague, whom works at Steven Holl Architects. His wife is an architect as well, and is rumored to make some appearances over the semester to help our class.

The professor introduced himself, and then asked each of us to do the same and to tell everyone something about themselves. The first two students began, and each mentioned their favorite architect or their origin country. This led to being assigned a research project for each.
To avoid this, I decided to mention "I like classical music."
Martin then asked, "do you know any architects that worked with musicians?"
I asked if Frank Ghery working with the symphony counted. He wasn't too thrilled about the idea so he suggested Le Corbusier working with Iannis Xenakis. And to pick three of his projects.

Interesting subject matter. Anyway, he also assigned that everyone should design their dream home for this friday (Plans/Sections and 1 perspective/collage). I started some sketches for it.

Speaking of sketches, we had a site visit today in Soho. We visited the Roosevelt Building by Richard Morris Hunt (Sound familiar? He was the memorial project from Design 1). I took some panographs of the facade, and did a quick sketch of it and later added gray scale shading to it.

After the site visit, a friend and I went to the HighLine to check out the new addition. We walked many many many miles, but we saw everything. And simply said, the HighLine is more beautiful than when we first went to visit it 18 months ago.

6PM- We had structural Steel Design with Mathew Ford. It was fun. We reviewed statics, and I made a few jokes while my body was rejecting caffeine and my legs were in pain from all the walking.

Ok, thanks for checking in, dear reader ;)
~ArchiTalmud

Depression and 'Will Power'

“The key to life is on a treadmill. I’ll just watch and learn while your chest burns. Because if you say you are going to run three miles and you only run two, I don’t ever have to worry about losing something to you.” ~ Will Smith

Will Smith's Interview: Will Power

Over the vacation, I learned to use my new scroll saw, and broke a blade in the process. But this isn't the story I wanted to tell in this post...
Over the last three weeks, I've tried reading up on Modern Architecture History, finishing the Louis Kahn: In The Realm of Architecture biography, and a simple book for students about the design process. But all the while, I had locked myself in my room, lights dimmed, hours late and human interaction a galaxy away. All this did was cause depression.

Yes, depression is a real thing.

The only remedy that worked was getting off my bed and onto the floor to get some exercise (doing push-ups). The other part of the remedy was to get some sunshine.

I went from a 190 lbs, depressed, introvert, to a happier 187 lbs human with more energy and a lesser tendency to snack. And this realization to change my bad pattern came after I read the interview. It made me realize what giving 110% really means.

To me, it means giving up: watching TV shows; and rewarding myself every 5 minutes, or whenever my brain said, "GIMME CANDY!"
It means going the extra mile- plus three more miles- because I'm in this for the long run. I'm here to succeed and my competitors are only giving it 90-100%. Whether it's true or not, it's still worth it to make believe that all that needs to be done is putting in the extra time and not just stopping with 'Ok'. To be at the top, you need to go beyond 'Ok', you need to be 'better than ok', its better to be tired at the end of a race than to come in second and say, "That's ok. At least I didn't come in third."
But that's the point I want to make: Don't settle for second-best. BE THE BEST.
And if you're not the best yet, there's something to yearn for. BECOME THE BEST and then go beyond that.

You can always push the limit. I've done that with rules, because discipline and authority have, for some time, been an issue. I've had a need to test boundaries to know my limits, but that was on a two-dimensional plane. There's a third dimension that exists above the ground you stand on currently. All you have to do is climb so you can get the exercise and eventually reach the sunshine and fresh air that one needs so desperately to avoid depression. To achieve that 110%!

People say to give it your 'all'.

But I want to tell you, and myself, "Give it your all PLUS!"


Good luck to all, dear reader ;)
Thanks for reading.
~ArchiTalmud

Final Review - Project 1 - Central Park Gateway

Coming into class early Friday morning, I realized that I had fallen asleep at 3:30am and didn't exactly finish all of the required drawings... But nevertheless, I was determined to poche my section drawings and dazzle the crit with colors and words.
Thus, I took the two perspective images I exported from Revit, cut out the frames and taped the photographs of the site behind them.

Greben was our guest crit, I was 5th on the line up, and my presenting partner was also wearing a tie. He was red and I was blue. His suit versus my cotton vest... I'd call it a tie.
[Badum dum]

Before  my presentation began, the professors asked for my name, and then I reminded Greben about the previous' semesters bathroom fiasco that she attended and told her she had nothing to worry about this time.

She laughed.

Then the presentation began.

And then my floor plans... my hand drawings all betrayed me because they were rushed and were slightly curved. But I persisted and blew their minds with the non-photoshopped perspectives. Diamond was actually very happy with the result. Greben was still bothered by the drawings and said they should reflect the clarity that exists on the model and colored diagrams.

And that's my homework due in a few hours from now...

Thanks for reading, dear reader :)
~ArchiTalmud

Central Park Gateway - Project 1 - Update 1

I've finished all of the research from the Hurva to the sociological background of CP. From the notes taken from the other presentations, it seems that the best course of action for the the building, is for it to not ruin the park, and to enhance the area around it. Therefore the latest design is raised above the ground, similar to the tree house design. With the Hurva in mind, there's a sense of a building within a building, and could oblige the user to enter the archive room first before leaving into the view areas, or leaving the building.

It's still a rough sketch, but has the current overall layout.

Color VS Black and White

"True Colors." That's what we used to say, and that's exactly what happened today.
How I ended up arriving late to class will be discussed after this.

Our site was the Richard Morris Hunt Memorial on 5th Ave and 71st Street. Our task was to survey and analyze, we were each assigned a partner if we didn't grab one before then. So Gabe was my partner, chosen for his drawing skills, he was tasked with the axonometric and section cuts for the site. I had the Panoramic photos and the plans.

Our rivals from the other studio section (Nizan), did similar, however we had forgotten to do sketches, and even more so, our presentation was in Black and White.

Professor Diamond was using his usual tool for decisions: Voting.

66% voted for the Color presentation, while 33% chose our black and white, hand drawn, presentation-- I forgot to mention that the other group had printed out all of their work...

The lesson from this is: If you want your presentation to shine, use lots of color, large plans and show the full site. Also, it really helps to have a color palette of three colors (theirs were greens).


Now to explain how weird my day was:
I slept through my alarms, made the 8:10 bus on the button. There was an accident on the highway, but all that did was leave a wide open lane for the bus after the police let us through, and then I was in the city at 9:10.
So I ran to class, accidentally almost crushing a pigeon.
And then when I finally made it down into the studio and pinned up my work, I didn't even say anything because the three other people in my group did all the talking. Afterwards, my friends congratulated me for having a great presentation! But of course they were kidding.

Then my professor accidentally broke one of my sharpies...
Speaking of my professor, he was on the corner of 5th and 47th while I was waiting for the Monsey bus. And then all of these attractive girls from everywhere started lining up for the Monsey bus too. I was confused. Then I realized it's Friday!

Thanks for reading, dear reader ;)
~ArchiTalmud

First Day of Design I (Arch201)

Happy Friday!! This morning the studio was partially vacant around a quarter to nine. But soon after the room was filled. 25, 30, 35, 40...50! We had 50 students with us! Half were from my previous semester and the other half were students that seemed to have taken Fundies 1 and 2 over the summer... masochists. Meanwhile, someone mentioned the ArchiTalmud blog and completely over-hyped it! Like, I'm not even funny half the time! Am I...?

There were jokes going around, catching up about summer plans, and overall commitment to staying focused this semester after learning what not to do last semester.

Anyway, soon after that the professors started arriving. Clara Ha was seen with a new guy. Originally believed to be her boyfriend, we were all surprised to learn that this was a fourth/new professor in NYIT.
Tension was tight while everyone filled out sheets with their previous studio professor's and previous grades. This allowed the professors to start a trading card game which soon led to a full-fledged FANTASY DRAFT!
It took about 45 minutes and a false start when David Diamond yelled, "LASLO!" until we were all sent to a originally assigned sections... Talk about relief.
I, Ronal, Gabriel, and Sherif moved to the executive corner of the studio. Two of Diamond's previous students were sitting by his corner. I already knew they shouldn't be there, but I waited for the professor to tell them to SCRAM! (Oh, how that made me happy :) )

Professor Diamond began explaining our first project. The whole idea around it is basically "Architecture Promenade" (Le Corbusier). In English, the experience created by the rooms or spaces should tell a narrative. There should be a beginning, a middle, and an end. However, he was putting an emphasis on Arches. Titus, Washington, etc. These all had this story that they told (triumphs). But more importantly, they independently created an entrance or gateway into the cities. Literally, Awesome (Awe inspiring).

On that note, our first practice project wants us to build off the Cubist project from last semester and fold an existing plane to create 3 landings with different views, experiences and levels. And there must be an 'Over/Under' in there. Made from white museum board (Personally, I'll be using illustration board), and must be self supporting- No basswood columns. 1/4" = 1'-0" scale.

There's extra detail in there, but the e-mail won't be arriving for another 30 minutes or so. However, I forgot to mention our terrible adventure back to the High Line. It wasn't terrible, but the heat and the heat was too much. On the C train, we sat around discussing how we'd build the stairs of the model. Then I'd whispered to a friend,

 "That awkward first day when no one wants to make eye contact with the professor."

He laughed because it was true. And not because we were sitting directly across from Professor Diamond... There wasn't much else to do, so I took out my 24-Sharpie Marker set. The group lit up!
"Yo! He's prepared!" said one friend.
Quietly I was saying to myself, 'NO ONE TRY TO STEAL MY MARKERS! I WILL MURDER YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!'
But I didn't really say that. Just thought it.

At the High Line, we had split up into groups and had each been given jobs to either: Sketch the enclosures (The folding of them); Sketch plans; or Draw the section.
Still not sure what we'll be doing with these, but I'll know as soon as the e-mail is sent.

Thanks for reading, dear reader :)
~ArchiTalmud