Month: January 2020

One of the classes that all first year students in Architecture take at Penn State, Visual Communications, is one of my favorites. The fall semester of this class focuses on hand-drafting while the spring semester will focus on CAD programs and software.

The fall semester helped me out in several ways. I learned some time management skills. I also learned many important skills relating to hand-drafting. It even gave me a thorough understanding of the history of Architecture.

Time-management was an important part of this course. On top of studio (and being an honors student), I got little sleep every night but I learned in this class the importance of knowing when to stop. Sometimes spending an extra 3 hours on a project will result in minimal results but you lost 3 hours of sleep. Knowing when to stop is important.

Hand-drafting is a skill that has become somewhat lost today due to the computerization of architecture. But, it is a crucial precursor to learn for students because to skip over it would be overlooking everything that’s been done in Architecture for the past thousands of years. I learned things like how to scale things and use a compass to help transfer measurements.

The last thing I learned was a good understanding of history. Due to the professor, Dr. Cooper’s background in architecture history, many of our assignments and lessons had a lot to do with history.

Our first project we worked on was drafting a plan, a section, and an elevation of the Temple of Apollo. I liked this project. It was something different, and it helped everyone get used to working with a parallel-rule, as well as circle templates.

Another project I enjoyed was drawing the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. This one I found so interesting because of how the geometries work out. Our professor showed us that if you put the vanishing point of the one-point perspective in a certain spot that when you draw out the buildings they end at the edge of the plan that we super-imposed in the middle. It results in a really cool piece and one that makes for a very good portfolio piece.

Another thing I had to do for this class was draw analytiques. Only me and one other student made the decision to honors option this class. My professor had us draw analytiques every week. We would pick a building and draft it, make diagrams and write about the building.

Last semester, I was required to study an existing building. My professor made a list of several buildings that had some sort of movement aspect to them. This concept is known as kinetic architecture.

When it came time to choose which building we were drawing, my professor had a slide show with pictures of each building. I noticed one that had a very unique feature on it, these sort of large, white, plastic bubbles bulging out the side of the building.

Having never seen a building like that before, I decided to go for it, and chose that as my number one choice. No one else wanted to deal with having to model that, so I got lucky and learned soon later that I got the building I wanted. The building I got is called the Shed, and it is located in Hudson Yards in New York City.

In 2005, the New York City Council approved about 60 blocks to be rezoned. The city looked at this area as the last place to build in Manhattan. New York’s Department of City Planning wrote, “In a place where dreams and ambitions are limitless, land is not. There is one last frontier available in Manhattan-Hudson Yards.” Hudson Yards is a 28-acre mixed use development located on Manhattan’s far west side.

As part of the rezoning, the city maintained a piece of land on West 30th Street adjacent to the High Line for future cultural use. Dan Doctoroff, the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding, worked on determining what should go there. He worked closely with Kate Levin, the Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs. Together, they wanted a space that was, ” A highly flexible one that could cater to the growing desire of many artists to break out of their silos and blend disciplines.”

In 2008, the city issued a request for proposals. The city selected Diller Scofidio + Renfro to be the lead Architect and the Rockwell Group as their collaborating Architect to develop their idea of a flexible building that could house all of the arts under one roof.

In 2012, a non-profit organization called The Shed was formed to oversee the construction of the building and continue to oversee it after it was finished.

In January of 2019, it was announced the Shed would open on April 5, 2019. The Shed’s building was renamed to the Bloomberg building after the former Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $75 million of the structure’s $475 million total cost. A dedicated ceremony was held on April 1, 2019 for the building, and 4 days later The Shed opened as scheduled.

The Shed has a few distinct parts to it and when explaining it I find it easiest to split the building into two parts. The non-movable part I usually refer to as the base building, and the movable shell I always refer to by it’s name, The McCourt, named after donors.

There are a few important aspects of the Shed. One being the large white “bubbles”. These are actually known as ETFE pillows, and they are the largest ones in the world. They give a very artistic look to the building and also allow some of the natural light to pass through them. Another aspect of the building is it’s openness. They intentionally allowed for a wide-open, column-less space in the middle of the building for displaying art and performances. You can see the large space in the plan.

Another thing I liked about the building were the different levels of it. The bottom two floors are both gallery spaces for art exhibits. The third floor is theater space. And the top floor has the Tisch Skylights that allow the sunlight to penetrate through into the top of the building. I’ve also been very fond of the mechanical system that allows for the Shed to move. The wheels that the Shed moves on were named the Bogies, and I drafted a section of what they look like with a person next to them to see the scale of just how big these wheels are.

Trying to model the Shed was a struggle. The building has complexities to it, one being of course the plastic pillows. I worked with my professor to model these pillows by first creating the design of the pillows, then plasma cutting the design into a sheet of metal, then using a blow molding machine which would blow the heated plastic up through the metal to create bulges in the plastic. It was a lengthy process, but it resulted in a very successful model of the building.

In order to show people the importance of the kinetic aspect of the Shed, my second model dealt with the different disciplines that the Shed can display. In the one above, the McCourt is deployed out and a concert is being performed inside. I had other thing that could be inserted into the middle of the model. One of these was a dance recital performed inside, another was an art gallery. And then while the McCourt was nested on the building, I had inserts that showed an outdoor viewing of a movie, and an outdoor concert. This model helped me successfully show that whether you’re a singer, song-writer, dancer, choreographer, instrumentalist, painter, film-maker, or any other type of artist, the Shed has the ability to display YOUR art.

When applying to different schools of Architecture, it was interesting to see what each school asked? Some asked many questions, some asked a few, but every single one asked the same question: Why Architecture?

As far back as I can remember, Architecture has always played a large role in my life. My father is an Architect and getting to see what he did everyday and his passion for it really got me interested. Being an Architect gave him the ability to work straight out of the house in his home office, so I was able to witness firsthand what it’s like to be one. He always talked about how much he loves his job, and how when you do something you love, it doesn’t feel like work anymore.

One thing that really pushed me into the direction of Architecture was LEGO’s. As a little kid I loved LEGO’s. The ability to lay the blocks out in front of you and just design whatever you wanted was amazing. It reinforced my love for design.

I’ve always seemed to have the mind of an Architect. I love creativity, and at the same time I’m also very intrigued with structures and Engineering. In my opinion, Architecture has the perfect blend of creativity and structure to it. Having only one would make me miss the other. If I were to take up Engineering, I’d be losing the ability to make my own designs. And if I were to take a more artistic approach, I would be losing the math portion that I’ve enjoyed my whole life. With Architecture, I get both.

Walking around I’m always noticing things about buildings. Normally people just look at a few buildings and are amazed by it’s size or detail. But what I like to look at are its interactions, whether it’s with the people who are using the space or the environment around it. I like trying to figure out what the Architects meaning behind certain design elements are. I like getting into the deeper meanings of the Architect’s intentions.

I took Architecture classes in high school, and up until that point I was unsure how much I would truly like getting an education in Architecture. But I soon realized after two years of classes that I still loved it and couldn’t wait to do more. I was introduced to building models, drafting, and CAD. It all made it clear what I wanted to pursue in life.

My brother and father both told me that Architecture school is tough. I can tell you after taking one semester of Architecture, it surely isn’t easy. After pulling multiple all-nighters throughout the semester, staying up for 75 hours straight one time, getting a lovely average of 4 hours of sleep a night, I realized that Architecture is indeed time-consuming. But, even though it might not be the healthiest thing in the world, I still love it.

Some people complained. They would say, “Why do we get so much work,” and, “I don’t want to do ALL of this.” And as people complain and moan, I just smile and think back to what my father told me, “If you truly love Architecture, then you won’t mind the late nights and no sleep.” He was right, no amount of all-nighters are going to convince me to stop doing what I love. And I can’t wait to be doing Architecture for the rest of my life.