At this school, most final reviews happen in the lobby of the third floor of the Foundation Building, where several arteries of the school intersect and come in contact with one another. The square elevator, engaging in a conversation with the round elevator directly across the space, stands next to Dean Vidler's office and the office of the administration. Around the corner, students enter from the curved fire stair, carrying their latest wooden or steel model from the 4th floor shop.. or carrying their quickly grabbed lunch or coffee from St. Marks below. Some choose to enter into the hallway next to the fire stair, which runs down the remainder of the length of the building, off of which the studios, classrooms, and faculty offices are connected. Others choose the more scenic route, a stroll through the work pinned up in the lobby, until they reach the door at the very western end, behind the round elevator, which opens to the studio where mostly all of the five years of students work. This is a space, designed by our late Dean John Hejduk, where, for the past 40 years of its existence (and more contextually a space more than 150 years old), thousands of students under this school have passed through every day, and on average seen the product of one or several students hanging on the wall, or a tediously labored over model resting on the floor.


I bring this up to illustrate two important things that have happened today:

1. Anthony Vidler, our Dean, assembled the entire student body into one classroom at the end of the hall. In what was advertised as a meeting to discuss the upcoming NAAB accreditation visit, turned into a chance for him to express his deep love for the school and his students.. explaining that the traveler that he is, the renowned lecturer and critic who has visited countless studios across the globe, has yet to visit a school that can top the amount of dedication, passion, and quality of thought and work he has seen presented in the space I described above. I cannot explain the importance of a school's solidarity and pride in an ethic of working, but we left the meeting with a strong sense of our duty in earning our full-tuition gift, and preserving this, dare I say, legacy of Cooper. Our task in the next few weeks in preparation for the accreditation visit is to be understood as a chance to reflect upon the quality of work produced at this school, and a positive understanding of the work to continue.

2. Raimund Abraham passed away Wednesday night, in what I find to be a tragic and severely saddening event. Prolific people such as him should not die by such democratic events like a car accident. In my education and time at Cooper, Raimund no longer taught the studios. His presence was no longer daily, and was felt only once by me, during a final review of Lebbeus Wood's first year Architectonics class, in the lobby of the 3rd floor of the Foundation Building. This moment, and the moment I have described above, are two of the most memorable moments I have felt a strong sense of collective among the students. Because the lobby is an artery for all activity among the school, every student and faculty member who walked through the reviews stopped, went silent, and listened to the words being spoken by Raimund, and were moved.. if not by his words, but also the shear fact of his presence in the room. Every student who was there, from all five years, felt a sense of connectivity with the body as a whole, and an importance to pursue work with the amount of integrity Raimund asked for, and himself worked with.

And in looking to the future of this tragic event, one would only hope that upon remembering the work and life of Raimund Abraham, whether it be with intense familiarity or a new spark of curiosity into the work of a man who may not be well know to all, a sense of duty would be understood. A duty to uphold the sanctity and power of architecture, and to work with an amount of rigor and self-respect that defines the discipline of architecture to be understood as one of the most powerful tools to shape the human condition.

This Friday at 6pm is the opening of an exhibition I've been helping with for the past four months. Cooper Union is 150 years old this semester, and to partially celebrate, an show tracing the history of architecture from its birth to present has been created. The show contains, among many things, original drawings of the Foundation Building from almost 150 years ago, sketches of John Hejduk when he redesigned the interior, a catalogue of posters, books, and exhibitions produced from the school, and a digital reconstruction of the Foundation Building, tracing the changes and evolution of the building through animations.

So, if you're in the city, stop by!



The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union presents
the exhibition:
ARCHITECTURE AT COOPER 1859-2009

Opening Reception: Friday, 23 October 6-8 PM

The Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery
The Cooper Union, 7 E. 7th St., 2nd floor, New York, NY 10003

The exhibition will be on view from 23 October through 4 December 2009.
Gallery Hours are Monday-Friday 1-7 PM, Saturday 12-5 PM.

Architecture at Cooper 1859-2009 traces the successive transformations of
Cooper Union’s architecture, beginning with its landmarked, 19th century
brownstone Foundation Building designed by Frederick Petersen --
extensively renovated by Leopold Eidlitz in the 1880s and 90s; transformed
internally in 1975 by John Hejduk; and restored externally in 2002 -- to
its new academic building at 41 Cooper Square designed by Thom Mayne, and
completed in 2009. The exhibition also examines how the education of
architects -- beginning with the first drawing classes of 1860 to the five
year undergraduate professional degree program and post-professional
master’s program -- has been informed and structured within the careful
design and re-design of its buildings.

The exhibition includes recently discovered blueprints of the Foundation
Building from the Eidlitz reconstruction work in the 1880s and design
phase blueprints from the 1975 interior renovation overdrawn with notes
and sketches by John Hejduk; historic artifacts such as an original
drawing fragment of the Foundation Building by Petersen; a digital
reconstruction of the architectural evolution of the Foundation Building;
images of student exhibitions; and publications from 1965 to the present
demonstrating the development of the school’s pedagogy, which has
influenced the study and teaching of architecture worldwide. A
comprehensive timeline from 1859 to the present links the development of
The Cooper Union’s buildings, programs and pedagogy across its rich
150-year history.

http://archweb.cooper.edu/currentevent.html

This year I am finally entering my third year at Cooper, and it only took me four years to get there. As you might know, I used to go to Kent, but after the second year there I decided to transfer to Cooper. And what I wild ride it has been.

If you know me personally, you may of noticed the change in my attitude about Cooper throughout the two years that I have been here. I started off a little hesitant about the program of the school. Now I'm telling everyone I'm glad I was placed into first year-- five years at this school is not enough time to soak up every bit of knowledge it contains.

With this entry I'll try to comprehensively bring you an update on how my summer's been and how the beginning of the semester's been thus far.






The End of the Year Show came and went. The Foundation Building was full from basement to roof of work form the art, architecture, and engineering students. The set up for the show was more intense than the final week of studio.






Spring semester dealt with issues of landscape and site, marking and measurement, geophysical conditions, community program, and trying to build one fourteen foot model with 28 students.










Fall semester, as I may have mentioned, dealt with the analysis of Santa Maria in Campitelli, by Carlo Rainaldi, and its formal, spatial, and tectonic implications. The church underwent a series of procedural transformations to arrive at the concept of two generic churches co-existing within one cathedral, creating a spatial experience of confused primary axes, a bricolage of Baroque parts... in brief. It changed my entire outlook on analysis and the Baroque movement.




Contrary to popular belief, Cooper Union does like the computer, and does have students who are talented at using digital programs, and in fact, does have classes that teach the tool of the computer in a way that politely treats it as an important part of an architect's set of tools to solve architectural problems. We even now have a 3D printer.




Student council hosted a series of faculty lectures to the student body, to further educate the students on the happenings of our professors and their work outside of teaching.



Last summer I worked at the Architecture Archives at the Cooper Union. I helped document student work. This year my responsibilities were greatly promoted. Along with my roommate and classmate, we...



..found a large collection of drawings during the move out of the old engineering building, into the New Academic Building (by Morphosis). These drawings were stored in dusty piles in the back of someone's desk in the bulkhead of the building. Some of these drawings date back over a hundred years old to some of the original plans for the Foundation Building (more on that soon).





..got to explore the archives for some original sketches of John Hejduk when he designed the interior renovation for the Foundation Building.



..most importantly, have been working on an enormous project for the 150th year anniversary exhibition for Cooper. Part of this entails weeks and weeks of heavy research into discovering the original plans of the Foundation Building, the 150 year old building that was the first New York skyscraper. At only 5 stories tall, it used the first rolled steel beam, invented by Peter Cooper himself.

We've been creating an intense Rhino file documenting the 150 years of this building's existence, and the successive changes, renovations, additions, and subtractions that have happened to it. You'll most likely see more on this later, but we're almost done with the model, which will lead to drawings and 3D prints for the exhibition's opening, October 23.




I moved and updated my website.






And I made another website after finally scanning all of my photographs from my trip to Spain this last winter. It's here. Also, thanks to Geoff at BLDGBLOG, they got some nice promotion. Twice!.


And now for some new news..

This year my design team includes the Dean, Anthony Vidler, Lyn Rice, Stella Betts, Sam Anderson, and Laila Seewang.

Our studio brief:

"Semester I: Habitats-

During the span of this year, we will be studying architecture in detail. That is, architecture treated as a complete and synthetic design project, in depth and breadth, conceived as a material art. Our investigations will range from detailed analyses of existing or projected buildings to the design of parts and whole of buildings for a range of different purposes, domestic and public.
At intervals during the semesters, and with the help of visiting professors to the studio, the projects will focus on particular aspects of the architectural synthesis, emphasizing context, human desires and spatial arrangements, environmental issues and technological needs, structural logics, and material assemblies.
Each week we will read a short text and meet to discuss its implications for architecture. We will also read long texts and write short critiques that explain your responses to them and propose your own versions."

And in our first week, our first investigation entails an axonometric projection of the house or apartment that we best remember as a child. We're reading about Mike Kelley's 'Educational Complex' and Freud's 'Screen Memories' from 'The Uncanny.' Architecture and psychology. Yes.


I should hopefully be able to keep a better updating schedule for this blog because of the format of this studio. We'll see how that goes.. but until then, enjoy this awfully long entry.

Please come see the work of the entire three schools this Tuesday starting at 5! It's going to be a great show. We've been working non-stop for the past week, 12 hours a day, pinning up drawings, fixing models, making bases, painting bases, re-painting bases, fixing drawings, plotting like crazy, drawing new drawings, re-pinning everything, 3D printing, preparing digital presentations, and attempting to enjoy some of the sunny weather all at the same time.

But I'll let the official ad do the talking..

The Cooper Union End of Year Show
Exhibition
Tuesday, May 27, 5:00-9:00 pm, opening night
Monday-Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 12-5pm, closed Sundays and Memorial Day
Foundation Building
7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
Free and open to the public

With the 42nd annual End of Year Show, students at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art make the transition from the studios and classrooms to the gallery as they formally exhibit their works in the Foundation Building.

May 26-June 27, 2009
Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture will present an exhibition of student works ranging from architectural drawings and detailed scale models to computer-aided renderings of famous sites and emerging developments. The Cooper Union End of Year Show has a rich tradition of showcasing projects by emerging architects that has helped launch the careers of such well-known alumni as Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Shigeru Ban, Laurie Hawkinson, Diane Lewis, Stan Allen, Daniel Libeskind, Toshiko Mori and Rolf Ohlhausen.

May 26-June 13, 2008
The School of Art faculty have selected major pieces by students representing “the best of” each discipline ranging from sculpture, graphic design and painting to video installations. Young artists’ work will include both individual and collaborative efforts, illustrating the school’s continuing role as an incubator of significant artists such as alumni Milton Glaser, Alex Katz, Amy Cutler, Wangechi Mutu, Lee Krasner and Edward Sorel.

May 26-June 13, 2008
Albert Nerken School of Engineering will participate with a wide variety of projects representing the different engineering disciplines ranging from a Formula 1 race car, battling robots, computer musical compositions, hovercraft science and examples of energy reclamation and other sustainable “Green” technologies such as a garden heated by repurposed steam heat. More than fifty student projects will be on display in the Great Hall Gallery, showcasing important and exciting design and research outcomes from the innovating fields of mechanical, electrical, civil, and chemical engineering.

OK OK, so I know it's been a long time since I've updated this.. and looking back to the other entries, I've introduced them all with a similar statement of apology. I find it easier to reflect on the past than comment on the present...

Anyways. My fourth year of architecture schooling is finished, yet I will be somehow going onto third year.. 2 schools, 2 years at each. I guess 7 years of undergrad really isn't that bad of a thing in this economy.

But, what a crazy ride it's been. This last year has been one of the most intense years I have ever experienced.. So, save the talk, I will present this past semester's work of the school, kindly broken down by year. Follow the links to my flickr for more pictures:



Architectonics - Cube, Cylinder, Pyramid, Cone
Head Professor, Lebbeus Woods








Design Studio II - Terra-Tectonics
Head Professor, Kevin Bone








Design Studio III - Library Design
Head Professor, Stephen Rustow








Design Studio IV - Landscape Interventions
Head Professor, Diana Agrest








Thesis
Head Professor, Anthony Vidler








This is just a small selection of the work, come see it all at the end of the year show!

The Cooper Union End of Year Show Exhibition
Tuesday, May 26, 5:00-9:00 pm, opening night
Monday-Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 12-5pm, closed Sundays and Memorial Day
Foundation Building
7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
Free and open to the public

There's a slight hesitation to post anymore blog entries when the entire incoming freshman class confronts me about the fact that they have read this, know everything about my studio career, and wait in anticipation for a new entry. Especially when they inform me that even their parents check it out..

Also, there isn't much content to post when most of the work consists of hand drawings and models yet to be documented due to time or other reasons. But, alas, I will try my best to update you on the happenings at Cooper..







For three quarters of the semester, we are analyzing Baroque churches, studying their conceptual and sensational qualities. For the first few weeks we worked in groups of 6 to fully document the buildings, build 1/4" models of, and generally understand the building before we jump into our individual analysis. The project is not meant to be a study into the classical forms of architecture, via the Baroque period or anything of the sort-- but more a general understanding of formal qualities and transformations in geometry and structure as a catalyst or guide to our individual design project later in the project. These Baroque churches are as modern as any Corb/Loos house the previous second year class studied.

My church was shown above, Santa Maria in Campitelli by the architect Carlo Rainaldi. By far a very unknown building, but entirely rich in its complexity. Later on I'll hopefully be able to share the drawings and models I've been working on..

The other churches, mostly well known:





San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Francesco Borromini







Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, Francesco Borromini







San Lorenzo in Turin, Guarino Guarini







San Andrea al Quirinale, Gian Lorenzo Bernini




Let's just say for now that the project is completely amazing and great to think about churches of the Baroque in a very contemporary way.. My professors are Michael Young (my descriptive geometry professor from last year), Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa, and Felecia Davis.

Aside from studio, I'm taking Photo II with Michael Vahrenwald and is going extremely well.. I'll leave you with some projects from that class..


On a visit to Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion..











More here and here


Analog vs Digital..





More here



ps! Here's a lecture series poster (finally).. Co-sponsored by the Architectural League of New York..

Summer came, and summer went. In a flash. One of those flashes that burn your retinas leaving you with your arms flailing, head dizzy, and eyes attempting to regain any sense of orientation. It was the first summer in New York, and with an architectural education, that means it was my first time to see and enjoy the city. But boy did it go fast.. I feel like yesterday I was setting up for the end of the year show.

And thus, dear readers, is why I bring you my updates at such a slow pace. I thought time was moving faster than it really was.. (and I was a little lazy..)

This is going to be a sort of pecha-kucha, blog style. A lot has been happening this summer and it has to be squeezed into one entry. Plus, those new bloggers will be coming soon and I wanted to jump in before they (hopefully) fill it up with posts.






(images from the Cooper website)

The end of the school year came fast, the reviews were great. Too bad they coincided with me having to finish my projects.. but I made time for both. The end of the year show was a success (success meaning we finished pinning everything up a few hours before the show opening).. and well worth the 2 weeks of effort by the staff and students. The fourth year rooms were even themed, with Lebbeus Woods' room a dark, apocalyptic matrix and Diane Lewis' a haven for basswood fetishists (see above second photo).









My projects ended off pleasantly well. Actually, to tell the truth, my thoughts were in other places, like..





Photo I and Descriptive Geometry. Which ruled.





The New Cooper Academic Building by Morphosis is well on it's way to being finished. The sweet panels are up, and it's beginning to cover up its columns slanted on two different axes. More photos from our class adventures inside, here.





Moved into a new apartment..











Saw the amazing Bucky Fuller exhibit at the Whitney, the not-so-hot Public Farm 1 at PS1, the London Telectroscope, the Olafur waterfalls, and had the best steak of my life at Peter Luger (for free!).









This summer I'm working at Storefront for Art and Architecture. Amazing place, amazing people.. to say the least. My duties include photographing/photoshopping and bringing all the old newsletters into the digital webosphere for all to enjoy. Also, I've been in charge of most of the Re-Storefront Blog. You see, Storefront is going under major restoration this summer, as they bring back the famous Holl/Acconci facade to a presentable state once again. It's quite a learning experience being under all the construction day to day.





As well as working at Storefront, I've been employed by the Cooper Union Architecture Archives. An amazing place too.. all the exhibitions, publications, and student work documentation goes down at that place. I've been helping out with the general documentation of student work from the past year, and learning great model photography tips in the meantime.

















And when none of that's happening, I've been busy with a lot of personal projects. I guess the work ethic won't slow down in the summer.




Whew.. well, in two weeks school will begin. It's not going to be the apocalypse as I foresaw. We got our schedules in the mail today and the line up looks pretty comforting..

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) is the opening, at 5-9pm! Come and see all the hard work the architecture, art, and engineering students have done this year.. it took us a great deal of preparation for the exhibition.


The Cooper Union End of Year Show
Exhibition
Tuesday, May 27, 5:00-9:00 pm, opening night
Monday-Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 12-5pm, closed Sundays and Memorial Day
Foundation Building
7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
Free and open to the public

With the 42nd annual End of Year Show, students at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art make the transition from the studios and classrooms to the gallery as they formally exhibit their works in the Foundation Building.

May 27-June 20, 2008
Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture will present an exhibition of student works ranging from architectural drawings and detailed scale models to computer-aided renderings of famous sites and emerging developments, including a reimagined development plan of Columbia University. The Cooper Union End of Year Show has a rich tradition of showcasing projects by emerging architects that has helped launch the careers of such well-known alumni as Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Shigeru Ban, Laurie Hawkinson, Diane Lewis, Stan Allen, Daniel Libeskind, Toshiko Mori and Rolf Ohlhausen.

May 27- June 10, 2008
The School of Art faculty have selected major pieces by students representing "the best of" each discipline ranging from sculpture, graphic design and painting to video installations. Young artists' work will include both individual and collaborative efforts, illustrating the school's continuing role as an incubator of significant artists such as alumni Milton Glaser, Alex Katz, Amy Cutler, Wangechi Mutu, Lee Krasner and Edward Sorel.

May 27- June 10, 2008
Albert Nerken School of Engineering will participate with a wide variety of projects representing the different engineering disciplines ranging from a Formula 1 race car, a system using sound waves to measure the health of blood flow and gardens heated by repurposed steam heat to a car that is fueled by chemical reactions (no fuel required) and a working pipe organ. All of these innovative works were researched and developed in The Cooper Union labs.

The first opening reception is this Tuesday, March 25th, 6:30 pm. Come. It looks like a grand exhibit.


Storefront for Art and Architecture



On Mock-ups, Home Videos and Housekeeping: a video exhibition in 3 parts
Mar 25 2008 - May 3 2008


1- Mock-Ups in Close-Up
March 25 2008 - April 5 2008
Architectural Models in Cinema 1927 – 2007
A video project by Gabu Heindl and Drehli Robnik, 2008



Mock-Ups in Close-Up (Gabu Heindl and Drehli Robnik, 2008) is a comprehensive overview of one of the least-explored territories in the relationship between architecture and cinema. 80 different clips, all including architectural models, are collated to become, in themselves, an 80-minute movie that includes sequences from films produced between 1927 and 2007.

Although it contains some obvious classics, such as Housing Problems [1935], King Vidor´s The Fountainhead [1948] and Peter Greenaway´s Belly of an Architect [1987], this compilation does not primarily deal with "films about architecture". Rather, it offers a section through an all-inclusive film history which, in the project's re-writing, appears to be obsessed with showing models in a variety of contexts: be it on the fringes or in the center of a scene, models pop up in love stories, thrillers, psychological dramas, comedies or sci-fi.

The films compiled include arthouse and blockbuster fare, "auteur cinema" as well as contributions to film franchises such as the Dr. Mabuse, James Bond, Dirty Harry, Death Wish, Indiana Jones, Robocop, Austin Powers and X-Men cycles. The list of filmmakers who could not resist to either pan over or to focus on architectural models includes Fritz Lang, King Vidor, Sergio Leone, Alain Resnais, Sam Fuller, Arthur Penn, Robert Aldrich, Michelangelo Antonioni, Francis Ford Coppola, Don Siegel, Stanley Kubrick, Margarethe von Trotta, Robert Zemeckis, Penny Marshall, Peter Greenaway, Oliver Stone, Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg, Ben Stiller, the Farrelly Brothers, and Wes Anderson.

March 28, 6.30pm: Author's presentation followed by open discussion with Beatriz Colomina. Their talk will raise some key questions on film history, archiving, "photogénie" and specific typologies of architectural models and the roles they play in movies from an architect or urbanist´s point of view.

The past few days I've been seeing the envelopes, the green and white striped edges. They've been flowing into the school, one by one. The talent, the energy, the creativity..

Good luck to all who applied! Sorry if I haven't responded back to some e-mails regarding help with Cooper and the home test, I'll blame it on the busy schedule. The home test brings back some good memories (even if only one year old). It taught me that I can work myself into my architecture, and that there can be a spirit to what I create.. aside from the sleepless nights of trying to compile a portfolio, working on what seemed to be impossible prompts, and trying to keep up with the hectic schedule of an architecture student at Kent.