Winter Break

Well, since I can't remember what we talked about threading up in here, Cormy, I am making a new post.  This one shall define all these elaborate ambitions I plan to accomplish over the break.  I am suspecting that perhaps one or two of the items may even be attempted, much less completed.

1.)  Site model(s) - not yet certain how grand an area to select, though I suspect a couple blocks to either side should suffice.  Should probably include each of the selected sites although it is unclear yet as to whether or not I shall be doing all 4 or just 2 or 3.

2.)  Program study - to discern pragmatics of gas stations, with particular emphasis on below grade tanks, building codes, scheduling and negotiation of fuel replenishment, pump specifications, among other things.

3.)  Legitimate site analysis - thusfar it is mostly surface scratching.  I have done research of historical and current conditions, but have done no real first hand reconnaisance.

4.)  This kind of site analysis will make it easier to develop appropriate concepts and/or program manipulations and/or site responses.  Depends how you look at it I suppose.

5.)  Look into this competition deal that is supposed to happen at the start of the sem.

6.)  Oh, and also finish reading them books.

Corm, what were we going to write about in here?  Let's find some hooligans to join our "blog."

Boathouse Uno, Two, Trois

 http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/BOATHOUSE-UNO-84379440

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Boathouse-TWO-84379577

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Boathouse-TROIS-84379815


In 6 days is the final...so I guess technically......




IT"S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!! DA DA DA DA!!!!!!

RE: uncontrollable power, wealth and evil

My Dearest Imperator Hadrian,

Yes, yes a million times yes. I will always follow your architecture. And as for the question of designing for good or for awesome? I choose awesome, awesome being pumpkin domes and etruscan/egyptian-inspired hypostyle halls. You don't need to apologize for killing your previous architect, he deserved it, he lacked vision. We will meet in one week, in your study at the Villa Adriana and we will plan our attack.

sinisterly,

Molly McCormick 

The Anti-Bell-um

So after an almost full day of sleep, two hot pockets and a cup of coffee I can slowly feel sanity returning.

The Project One critique went very well I think, not without it's hurdles but as far as crits go, pretty well. On the plus side they thought the roofscape was poetic, on the negative end, the delivery spaces were not practical. ( something I naturally disagree with, but am probably wrong about.) I tell myself every year that I'm not going to pull an all-nighter, but it happens at least one a semester. This year I stayed up not working on the drawings or the model, but the graphics.

 For whatever reason there is a need to fight with and against Adobe Illustraitor to come up with a presentable layout. It just goes to show that ideas always need a pitch. During the class critique I was realising that for the most part it wasn't the ideas jurors had problems with, it was presentations. It makes one wonder, can a good idea stand on it's own as a good idea? Unfortunately, I think probably not.

Maybe it's the enviornment i'm in but it seems that a medium level project with enough pizazz can win out against a superior idea. Architects can be people of vision, trapped by visuals. It might actually be their greatest flaw. Everyone probably has it to some extent, if something looks cool you want it, but Architects seem to carry those blinders with them everywhere they go.

They always tell us, especially as children, that it's the inside that counts. Sometimes I question that; how many times have you been passed over by somebody good looking? Yeah, it's the inner beauty that's important, but it's outer beauty that gets the most foots in the most doors. People like pretty things,  if it doesnt have the graphics or the sharpest renderings, it's not readable, it's not a good project.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not anti-beauty as a matter of fact, I'm just as guilty as the jurors. I just wish it could be different sometimes. But the point of inner beauty is that it's past the outer beauty, so for the most part, we're never going to get passed the facade in a five min. presentation.

 We're not going to get a buzzer that says "HEY HEY YOU YOU> THIS IS A GREAT PROJECT". So I guess the moral, even if it's not too moral is that when it comes to ideas, yeah it's shallow, but you gotta make it pretty even if it should'nt need to be.

I think that's probably why I love theroy, it's just ideas, very few graphics. Yeah thery'res that pesky rheotric aspect, but at least you're not distracted with bangs, pops and zooms of the optical kind.

It all presents the question, do you fight the system, or fight with the system? Good reasons to do both. I like to hope you can do both.


"if you're not cheating the system, you're cheating yourself"
-Kyle Hazleton

As a side note, i also have completed another concept drawing for dro:

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Monk-for-Dro-79908261

goodnight and goodluck.

Spring Project #1

basically the building is a fabric in construction. and then you walk through it

it's pretty sweet, unfortunately this rendering is a jpeg so you don't get the clarity. but I figured i'd give you an idea.

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Textile-Museum-1-79901197

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Textile-Museum-2-79901645

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Textile-Museum-3-79902415

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Textile-Museum-interior-79903127

Madness? THIS IS THESIS!

ok so thesis proposal due March 10th. Here is the rough *ROUGH* draft. 

Destiny Manifests: The Search for a Frontier

 

 

In the caramel colors of the cowboy clichés, in the dark heart of Africa, in frozen deserts, in rainy mountains, in the forbidden and the foreboding, in the uncharted islands of our own minds, in graduating college. In a word: frontiers.

What is it about the calling of a destiny manifested that stirs in the human soul to leave comfort and convenience for the unfamiliar and the unexplored? In a world that is carelessly pulling down its barriers, are frontiers still physical places or have they all become psychological spaces? Is the “final frontier” the last great wilderness or are there frontiers that have yet to be dreamed of, let alone seen.

Are frontiers always brutal, lonely or brutally lonesome? How much do you give up obtaining real freedom and is it worth the price? How do you conquer a frontier, or is it a wild horse you simply run beside? Subsequently, how do frontiers die and how do we mourn them? Frontiers never collapse into a blinding supernova; instead they wither and fade into the banal and the expected.

            For my thesis project I propose a study of the frontier as it relates to the contemporary scope. Whether the frontier is real or not, or is it, as it has often been, the romantic marketing of promises.

What initially intrigued me about this concept was with all the vast advancements in technology, we are seeing a connectiveness that the world has never known. However in gaining all this interaction we are losing the places of mystery and enchantment to have them replaced by a two page essay on Wikipedia.

It is my suspicion that the frontier still exists, that it may be in Outer Space or it may be somewhere here on earth that we have simply forgotten and need to rediscover. Also far more problematic and conjectural are the everyday frontiers in our own lives, the things we fear and the things that intrigue us.

There is also a duality in the Architecture of the frontier. The excitement of wilderness is that it is often unrestrained, so what happens when structure and regularity try to control it? Does the wilderness fight back? Who will win the battle of wills?

As for researching this topic I feel it would be prudent to explore many different kinds of frontiers, because as our world connects more and more, the concepts start to melt together, the undiscovered is no exception.

 A frontier can be explored by taking a road trip across the path of Lewis and Clark, or by looking at the possibilities of Space Life and Travel or by reliving Jeff Chapman’s Urban Exploration and discovering the developed and forgotten.

Journal writing and first person narratives are going to be crucial in understanding the emotional and physical tolls that frontiers can take. As well as discovering the appropriate architectural response to these emotions. Does the Architecture enhance these emotions or mollify them?

In conclusion, it is my proposal that we rediscover and explore that danger and that drama, the romance and the lonely love songs that first brought people out of their homes and into the wide wild world. The life, death and rebirth of those things that first struck us with fear and admiration of our own existences. In a word: Frontiers.

 

colors and concepts

Because I am so cool, I present this on a saturday night. But to be fair, last night was a wine-a-bration that led me to almost stain not only one, but two pairs of pants. However neither pair of pants were permanently harmed and were released back into their respective natural habitats.

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Concept-Art-for-Dro-75690496

so, Alejandro and I were talking and he asked me to do some concept art for this idea he has about an old school martial arts wielding monk who finds himself in New York in the 1980's. And then I thought what if Ziggy Stardust was done in an Edo Print.

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/hotties-in-space-75705649

Vasodilation on a raver....in space....maybe.

look for more sticky bug soon


....bed

Winter in Washington

This past weekend was the National Gallery Extravaganza so super museum time = super now. 


The Corcoran Gallery:

   
    Annie Leibovitz : A Photographer's Life

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_03/queenALMS0505_468x453.jpg

http://www.pfendlers.com/blog/AnnieLeibovitzTheWhiteStrip.jpg

These are great, however Leibovitz dosent figure out color until 2003, so a lot of her early color work leave something to be desired. Also her landscapes are out of focus and waaay too large.

    Ansel Adams : The Collective Works

http://www.corcoran.org/adams/images/Freeway.jpg

http://www.corcoran.org/adams/images/Monolith.jpg

Adams however is the destroyer of landscapes, nobody can touch him when you put him in a heavily wooded area or next to a mountains...totally sick.

Annie Leibovitz is also doing a whole bunch of pictures for Disney

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/index?name=Gallery&bhcp=1

And on that note the following Disney things are awesome:

Enchanted

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/wp-content/uploads/enchantedpic.jpg

They are also making a Rapunzel Movie

http://gallery.awn.com/data/521/Rapunzel-Unbraided.jpg

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/images/upload/rupunzel_swing.jpg (AND YES!!!!!!!! IT DOES LOOKS LIKE FRAGONARD'S THE SWING)

And the Disney Princesses just got a little Jazzier

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17524865/

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/arts/photos/2007/03/09/black-princess-cp-2633827.jpg

The National Galleries



Edward Hopper (1882-1967)

http://members.aol.com/ondinemonet/images/automat%20edward%20hopper.jpg

http://newcritics.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/hopper.ny-movie.jpg

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/hopper/hopperinfo_fs.shtm

The only American Surrealist, the lonely dreamer of New England, The Lighthouse of the Soul on the Sea of Desolation

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/turner/turnerinfo_fs.shtm

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/tinternabbey.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/images/multimedia/turner/horse.jpg

The Dark Horse of the Empire, A loyal servent turned dangerous traitor, the Darth Vader of the Royal Academy