Final Project

So, final review is done. I've been done for 24 hours now and thought that I'd post some images from the final review.

Coming down to crunch time

Just thought that I'd post a little bit of the work I've been doing. Click it to enlarge...so you can see it better. This is essentially my project. It's suppose to be a "Cultural and Research Activity Center". Kinda a place for the arts, with workshops and exhibition space. Anyways, these are the plans, sections, and elevations. I will post some renderings (the pretty pictures) in a few days when they're done along with some photos of my model.

Hope all is well!

Let's get ready to rock!

So last night, I was working at school and got a phone call from my buddy, Bloom who called to invite us to this little bar that has become a regular Monday night event. There's a bar in Placa Reial called Sidecar and on Monday night, it turns into this weird mix between kareoke and rock concert. The people who get on stage are literally living out the fantasy of being a rock star. There's a basement full of people, packed in like sardines, cheering, singing along, and even starting a mosh pit when deemed appropriate. So Bloom, Mark, Sam, Neil, Javier, Tina (Sam's gf), Jesse, Leslie, Andrea, and I all went over at about 11:30. I would have to say that it was one of the most interesting bar experiences that I've had since being here in Barcelona. I will have to take my camera and take videos and photos...cause it won't do the place justice, but it will atleast give you a sense of the madness. Kareoke stopped at about 1, but we stayed til 2:30 jumping, dancing, singing songs of the 80's. All in all a pretty good night.

Work Work Work

This week has just been full of work here in studio. We have 12 days til final review, so it's time to put the head down and crank! Today's been a decent day so far. I got into studio at 9:30 and was suprised and happy to see that I got an email from my dad...apparently the first of his life. I got to talk to Welsh this morning (Lord knows why he was up at 4AM Eastern) and wish him a happy birthday. A few hours later, I was suprised to get an IM from Megs who is in NYC for a few weeks studying acting. Tonight we're going to see our professor Elana and her partner's work in Tibidabo which overlooks the entire city. It should be a good little break.

Earlier in the week I got a chance to go to the German Pavilion by Mies Van de Rohe for the 1929 International Expo. I've posted some of those pictures as well as some of Leah and my apartment back in St. Louis.

Hope this post finds everyone well!

Panoramics

Igualada Cemetary

The beaches of Sitges

On the roof of the lunch spot in Lekeitio

San Sebastion

Euro-road trip, Bilbao, and San Sebastian

So now I've finally got a few minutes to finish everything that happened on our Midterm trip. After the last night in Madrid, we woke up packed all our stuff up and started walking to the car rental place. The unfortunate part was that NOTHING in Madrid is open until 10AM and that's when we were suppose to pick up the car...but didn't know where it was. So we finally looked at about 3 internet cafes that all said their internet started at 10AM. Apparently there's some magic switch in Madrid that gets flipped and turns all the internet of Madrid on at 10AM or something. Anyways, we sat down and had one last breakfast in Madrid, checked where the rental car place was and got ready for the trip to Bilbao.

After the breakfast, we walked the 10 blocks to the rental car place and spent about an hour getting all the paperwork filled out. Finally it was time to hit the road! I was going to be the navigator in the lead car that Jav was driving while Sam was in the backseat. Bloom was driving the other car with the rest of the boys in it. It took about 45 minutes to get through the Madrid traffic, but soon enough we were out on the open Spanish roads! We stopped for lunch at a nice little hotel just past the city of Burgos. It was an INCREDIBLE meal. Everything that everyone got was simply amazing! After the meal, we popped back into the car and continued on to Bilbao.

A short 2 hours later, we found ourselves in the middle of Bilbao. We parked, found the hotel, and settled in. We all decided to start walking and see what the city was all about. We walked down the river towards the Guggenhiem Museum designed by Frank Ghery. On the way, passing a bridge designed by architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava. The museum was closed, so we walked around it and then looked for someplace to grab some food. While the guys ate and grabbed a beer, I ran back to the hotel for my camera and tripod so I could take some night pictures. So, we sat outside close to the museum and waited for the sun to go down. ...and we waited...and waited. Finally by about 10:30, it was starting to atleast get dark enough that the streetlights were turned on. I started to walk around the museum, snapping away, trying to highlight various features of the building. I then wandered over to Calatrava's bridge where I was able to get some great shots because the bridge is illuminated from below. Finally at about 12:30, I made my way back to the hotel for the night.

I woke up the next morning after sleeping in for the first time in what seemed to be ages (it was really a week). I hopped online, uploaded some pictures and talked to Leah. After a quick shower, I headed off to see what the inside of this museum was really all about.

ATTENTION...Architectural Rant ahead!

Now let me preface this with the comment that I have never really been the biggest of Ghery's fans. I respect some of his stuff because of the way that his firm has intigrated the use of computers and digital design into actual built work, as opposed to some abstract form of artwork that is left to renderings, magazines, and the computer screen. Ghery has a huge impact in actually being able to make some incredible peices of architecture by other architects. Being from Cleveland, I've seen his building on the campus of Case, the Peter B. Lewis Building. As my mom has said, "It looks like he made a building, took an empty pop can, tore it apart and put it ontop of the building." Sadly, I actually agree with her for the most part. In the Lewis Building the use of titanium panels and seemingly free form surfaces growing out of the brick really don't make much sense.

Now that I'm done with my little architectural rant, let's continue with the story....shall we? I walked around the Guggenheim to the main entry, which is actually on the side away from the river. Descending down toward the entry door, which are all glass, tesselated to create a faceted curving entry. After ordering my ticket (in spanish, suppringly all on my own) I walked into the main atrium space. It was an absolutely experience and sense of space. I was truly suprised by the way in which the space grew vertically, as well as horizontally. Unfortunately because it's in a museum, I wasn't able to take any pictures of anything in the museum. The space was interesting because it was so light and felt very open. From the ground floor, I could see all the way up to the top level, see outside, see the various people walking on the levels above me, see people in the stairs, elevators, in som of the exhibition spaces, all without moving from that spot. Now, I've been wondering since I have been in this space if Ghery and his team REALLY knew what the end result was going to be, or if they just got really lucky to have created so an incredible space. In all honesty, I'm willing to be that it's a bit of both. The space just really worked! Most of the exhibition spaces were pushed to the exterior with the atrium and vertical circulation centered in the building acting as a core. For as volumunous as the space is, the squarefootage of the building was rather small.

It was possible to make it through the entire museum in about 2 hours. As for the exhbits, the most interesting were the large cortend steel sculptures done by american sculptor Richard Serra. Anyone who's been to the Pulizter or the Contemporary in St. Louis would recognize the similar style to his work there entitled "Joe". Like "Joe" these sculptures were enormous and about experiencing space as you actually engage the artwork. Walking through some of the spaces, I started to wonder if this indeed was art or architecture. Then I coughed (still trying to finish off the cold) and realized that the sculpture that I was in was meant to act as an echo chamber. As the cough reverberated throughout the narrow space, it continued to sound different, never dampening! There was actually a video where Serra was interviewed about those peices of work which were designed specifically for that location...even before the architectural competition for the museum was started! There were also some of his models at a scale of 1" = 1' of the exhbit. It was really pretty cool to see how he worked!

After the museum, I walked around the rest of the city (which took all of 15 minutes) and somehow ran into Sam. He was looking for Neil and Bloom to meet them for a drink, so I tagged along. Since everyone had a chance to see the museum we started to talk about the museum, what we thought about it, the space, and the art, and the city. It was suprisingly a fairly intellectual discussion considering the size of the glass we had infront of us! After that, we walked up past the train station to grab some food at a place that was suppose be an Asian Italian fusion resteraunt. It again was INCREDIBLE! We then headed back to the hotel, where I got a good night's sleep, to try to kick the cold for the rest of the trip!

Woke up the next day and headed out to San Sebastian which is an hour drive if you take the highway. We decided to take some back roads and follow the coast the entire way. Again, I was navigator in the lead car, this time Bloom was driving it. Not knowing REALLY what I was doing, I looked at the map an figured out a route that would get us there and looked like we'd have a good potential to see some great sights along the way. We followed the river out of Bilbao and followed it. Yes, we took one little wrong turn, but aside from that we had a beautiful trip. Even the wrong turn ended up being great! It lead us down to a parking lot, right on a cliff overlooking the water!

We stopped for lunch after being on the road for about 3 hours. Again we stopped at a beautiful spot that was wide open, overlooking the water. We wondered down to the water again, looking for a place to eat. A few of us hopped up onto the break wall to take some pictures of the waves crashing into it. We then saw this little resteraunt that was right next to the break wall. We settled on it...we were going to eat there and we were going to sit outside so we could watch the waves. The meal was again wonderful. Nice fresh fish, beautiful day, waves crashing, surrounded by good friends...it was really fun. We found a set of stairs that made their way down to the rocks on which the waves were crashing, so we followed them and I got some more great pictures of the waves crashing (not to mention Cerny running and Jav getting soaked).

After the meal, it was back into the car and onto San Sebastian! We finally pulled in about 7pm, 7 hours after we left. I suppose by that time think only the skipper, the Howells, the proffessor, Ginger, Mary-Ann, and Gilligan could have understood how we felt. But we wouldn't have given it up for anything. Instead of highway, we got fresh air, beautiful sights, and a wonderful lunch!

Once in San Sebastian, we got to our hotel, and decided that we were going to head out for some tapas for dinner. Everyone that we'd heard from said that the tapas resteraunts were incredible and really cheap. We headed out at about midnight to try to find some food. By the time we walked to the main part of the city, it was 12:30 and we were starving. We stopped at the first place that served food, grabbed a beer and some tapas, and then continued rolling on...tapas hopping. The next place wasn't a bar, more like a cafeteria styled place. All the food was out in front, you got a plate, picked up whatever and how much of it you wanted and just let the owner see what you had before you ate. It was really REALLY good food too! After we'd filled our stomachs we went out to check out the night life, checked out a couple pubs and a dance club.

I was up in time to catch the first rays of the new day, so I grabbed my camera and headed to the beach. I was able to get about 445 pictures before the sun rose and I headed back to bed. When I finally woke up, everyone was heading down to the beach, so I decided it seemed like a good idea. I went laid out for a bit and then we decided to hit the water which wasn't nearly as frigid as I would have thought. There was a floating platform in the middle of the bay, so Neil, Cerny and I decided we'd swim out to it. I got about 3/4 of the way there and then realized that it has been probably a decade since I'd been swimming like that. I also came to the quick realization that I was also WAY more out of shape that I'd thought! After I finally made it to the platform, I proceeded to collapse lifelessly for about 20 minutes, until I could muster the energy to sit up. I laid out there for a bit longer, getting some sun and resting up for the inevitable swim back to shore. It was actually a much easier swim that I thought it'd be because the wave while not huge, were definately helping push me towards the end result...dry land! I finally was able to feel my feet touch the sand still under about 5 feet of water and don't think I'd ever been so happy! The rest of my day consisted of laying on the beach! At about 6, we decided to go back, get showered and get some more tapas. Bloom, Sam, Neil and I walked around a few places close to the hotel, popping our heads in, grabbing 2 or 3 items finsihing and then heading to the next place. By the time we made it back to the hotel, all I wanted to do was lay in bed and sleep. The rest of the guys grabbed a couple drinks and decided they were going to get more food and drinks. Since I knew that I had to drive first thing in the morning (and I was still recovering from that swim!) I decided to stay in, get a good night's sleep and pop in "Big Trouble in Little China".

Woke up at about 11:15 the next morning, packed up and Cerny, Sam, and I took a car and headed back to Barcelona! It was pretty cool to drive in another country. We drove past Pamplona (where the running of the bulls started today) and Zaragoaz (where there is an international expo going on based on water...we didn't stop everyone said it wasn't worth the money). Somewhere just about an hour past Zaragoza, I drove from the Western hemisphere to the Eastern as we crossed the Grand Meridian line. It was kinda cool to be able to say that. We finally arrived into Barcelona at about 6pm, and dropped the rental car back off at the airport. A successful Euro-roadtrip without getting lost, losing anyone, or having anything really bad happen. I'd call that a success! ...now unfortunately, I'm faced with the realization that I only have 2.5 weeks of the semester left!

Catching up - Sitges, Midreview, and Madrid

Ok, so I just got back to Barcelona from my mid-term trip...but let me explain what happened in my life in the weeks leading up to that trip.

The weekend before our midreview, the boys and I headed down to Sitges, a small beach town that is about 45 minute train ride south of Barcelona. It was a great time. The beaches were beautiful, beautiful sand, warm(er) water. We spent about 6 hours in the town. I started walking around because I could feel the tops of my feet getting sunburned. I got some beautiful pictures of the church and views from the top of the hills. The historic city was pretty incredible. small winding streets, overlooking the sea, waves crashing on the rocks below. I can now see why so many people from Barcelona head to these beaches as opposed to the busy, crowded ones of the city. I arrived back in Barcelona that evening knowing that the sunburn was going to be rough for the next few days...and boy was i right! The tops of my feet were nice and crisp. The back and shoulders were a little sore, but after a few days, it all faded again. Good thing that I had midreview to prepare for and keep me inside away from the beaches!

The next few days were pretty nice. We got to hear a lecture from a local architect here who took us to one of his buildings currently under construction. It was really cool and amazing. The way that he used light and different materials was good for me to see and actually helped inspire me in my studio project. As a result, I took a massive overhaul to the project and got cranking for the midreview!

Midreview came and went. It was alright, the guys who were our reviewers didn't really like anyone's project, but I got out of the review relatively unscathed. I think that people could tell that I have a project, and am just in the beginning proecess of working out the details of it. the next 3 weeks will be a lot of work, but for the first time, I feel that I've got a decent project!

So midreview was thursday, and then we found out that our midterm trip to Madrid was leavign at 9AM Friday morning (thanks for the ample time). We knew that we were taking a midterm trip to Madrid, we just didn't have any of the details about where we were staying, when we were leaving, what we were visiting until 8pm the night before...that really was frustrating!

Madrid Day 1:
Anyways, we met at 9am at the train station and boarded the 10 o'clock high speed train to Madrid. I slept on the train for the most part, so it was a pretty good little trip in for me. When we arrived, we saw the station, which is in it's own right a pretty cool little piece of architecture. The extension to the station was done by Enric Mirrallas. We then found out that it was the same train station that was bombed in the terrorist attacks. We got to walk into the memorial which was a really incredible space. A pair of double doors led your into a room which you could tell was airlocked. The room was painted blue with light pouring down from a light well, in the back corner of the room. The lightwell had a piece of plastic way being held up just by the airpressure in the room. On the plastic were messages in all various languages. Then, as I turned around, I could see back into the train station, but the glass was very distorted, almost like a prizm, almost like the glass had bubbles blown into it. It was a very quiet and solemn place, just incredible to reflect on things. Very Very moving!

From there, we walked what seemed like the entire way back to Barcelona to find our hostel. I was going to be sharing a room with Cerny and Sung Il for our 4 days in Madrid. We got all of our stuff settled in the room, opened a window cause it was freaking HOT and then grabbed some lunch. We found a nice little place right behind out hotel that had a 3 course meal for 10 euro. Can't pass that up, right? Well I just ordered something off the menu and it turned out to be spaghetti for the first course, ribs for the main course and then for dessert, some vanilla ice cream. All in all, a great meal for 10 euro!

We all met back at the hostel to take a walk around the city. We visited plaza Mayor, the main plaza. We walked to the Royal Plaza, and around to some other places in and about the city. After that, we had dinner back at the hostel and then I went upstairs and right to bed to get a goodnight's sleep to help fight the bad cold that I'd had.

Day 2:
We woke up nice and early (8AM, meeting dowstairs by 8:45). We walked over to the Prado Museum. There we got to see a bunch of great artwork including the famous painting "Las Meninas" It was pretty interesting to see both the museum and the art, but nothing too spectacular. We then took a bit of a break, which was good for me, cause I had taken some cold medicine in the morning and was doing everything that I could NOT to fall asleep. We grabbed some lunch and then met back up in the park where we walked through and then went to Herzog & de Meuron's new building, the Caixa Forum. It was pretty cool because it was on the cover of the Architectural record that I just received from my mom the day before I left! This was really cool. The building only hits the ground at a few certain points. From the distance, the building actually looks like it's floating above ther ground! Look at the pictures and see for yourself!

Day 3:
Again waking up early we met outside the hostel for our bus tour. We drove to the outskirts of the city and got to see a few cool, more recent projects, including MVRDV's housing project which was pretty cool because Winny Maas, the principal of MVRDV gave a lecture at Wash U last year, and we got to talk to him afterwards during the studio dinner which was great. We got to see an amazing church by Miguel Fisac. From the outside, it seemed like no big deal, but the way that he used the light on the inside was incredible. Unfortunately, I only brought my worse camera with me for the trip so the pictures I took we're super, but trust me...it was amazing! We were driving past the Telefonica complex and decided to stop. It was a really cool bunch of buildings that used a double skin glass system to create interesting shadows and different ways of reading the building depending on the sun and time of day.

From there we went to go see some affordable housing by FOA, which was decent. The building had a bamboo screen facade that was operable. This was interesting because depending on who was home and wanted to open their windows, the building would always look different. I personally thought it was a bit gimmicky because really all they did was take a building cover it completely with shudders except the shudders were bamboo. Sorry for the rant, but that's just my opinion. We then went to see the new project by Morphosis, which Thom Mayne talked about when he lectured last semester.

After our bus tour, we headed to the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum. It was a great exhibit of some of the newer work of the modernists and post modernists. They also had a pretty incredible exhibition of aerial photographs. It was a great trip, but we left in order to get ready for the final of the Eurocup in which Spain was playing Germany for the title! Bloom, Leslie, and I met up and walked down to Plaza Colon, where they had massive screens set up to show the game. With 3.5 hours before kick off, the place was already packed to the point that no one could move! We walked around, took in the chants, saw everyone and then decided to leave for a much cooler (it was 43 degrees Celcius or 110 Farenheit). We walked back towards the hostal and ended up at the place that Cerny and I ate lunch at the first day. We got front row seats infront of a big screen. The boys ended up meeting up with us and even the girls came out to watch the game. The final was 1-0 Spain on a Torres goal in the 33rd minute. We spent the rest of the evening partying in the streets of Madrid with the rest of the Spanish! It was a CRAZY night!

Day 4:
We woke up and headed to the Reina Sofia Musem which was really cool because of the canopy and exterior elevators that Jean Nouvel did as a part of the museum extension. We got to see Picaso's famous "Guemika" painting. It was HUGE!! Seriously could have been 10' tall by 25' wide! After that museum, I got to head back to the hostel to lay down and Leah called, so I was really happy to talk to her for a bit!

After our lunch break, we met back up to walk down the main stretch of street in Madrid, La Castellana. We talked all around the city, seeing new cool buildings which I couldn't take any pictures of because my camera battery was dead! The worst part was that we ended up at an incredible hotel that was VERY cool. Each floor was designed by a world famous deisgner! We grabbed a drink on the patio bar, and watched as the Spanish soccer team arrived from the airport and paraded down the street directly in front of the hotel. It was pretty cool to be a part of. Then, we went to the bar on the penthouse level, overlooking the entire city of madrid. As we did, the victory celebration reached Plaza Colon and 5 fighter jets flew overhead spraying the colors of the Spanish flag along the city's skyline! It was an amazing way to end the trip, unfortunately, I will have to steal someone's pictures to show you all!

Update

I AM still alive, in Bilbao...It's been a long couple weeks with Midreview and our Madrid trip. Have posted pictures...will write a blog update to explain them soon...for now, it's off to the Guggenheim to see some cool stuff!