There is a lot i can write about at this point. Its been a while, but the only thing on my mind right now is getting a FINAL model done. Thats right- final. Our design final is in a week from today- and the countdown is on. I've decided to get my model mostly done first (minus little detailing work) and then quickly move on to drawings (sectional axons, plans, perspectives) pictures to come. Hope everything materializes... I am quite excited for this critique- the process was the most fascinating part of this project and my aim with the final model is that it will directly reflect that.

After a hefty contextual analysis of Sara D. Roosevelt Park, a handful of structural studies in the form of laminated chip-board models and a number of facade studies [many based on photos from last summer's trip to japan] I've tried to put my ideas on paper. What does a contemporary library mean to me and how can design play a role in manifesting or speaking to that? As usual I wrote this before i even thought of drawing or building:

Through understanding the larger site context, I recognized the scope of history contained within the Bowery, and more importantly how it has manifested itself and spread out over the past decades. That being said, my intention is to bring the focus of my site analysis, a study of Sara D. Roosevelt park, and the contemporary creative history (i.e. musical, written, and artistic) of the Bowery together to form a library. Being that the lower east side contains a large amount of music venues, right across the park from our site, I began thinking about how digitalized not only textual information has become, but also how digital musical information is.

Music has become a downloaded commodity as opposed to a tangible art form. Instead of picking up a CD or record, looking at the album art and reading the liner notes, one simply clicks a mouse.

Artists have now taken their works to the streets, especially in the bowery, due to the lack of galleries and monies going towards their work. Writers are relegated to talking amongst themselves about their lost craft and only get their creations showcased if they get lucky.

In order to get people in the 21st century to come to a library, they must be engaged. Therefore I would like to propose a library, that serves as an incubator for the arts. Complete with not only LPs, CDs, and tapes, but also a performance space, radio station, and outlets for artists and writers. The radio station would broadcast from the library (thus getting people to come from the ‘expanded’ site of the LES and SoHo) and the disc jockeys, when not broadcasting, will serve as the librarians, being that the know a good deal about music. Additionally there will be sections with musician’s biographies, listening stations and galleries of famous album cover prints and concert photos.

As for the writers; there will be a section for people to submit their “zines” or personal publications and they will be free for the users of the library to take once they are approved to be shelved. Lastly there will be a space for artists to express themselves, a simple bare-bones space with walls that are covered in removable floor to ceiling canvases which can be painted or wheat-pasted upon.

The building will ultimately relate to the street by breaking the sequence of masonry facades while keeping with the old rhythm. This can be accomplished by spanning floor-plates jutting out, while the flatter portion of the façade keeps to the old masonry construction and pattern. The pedestrian will be able to therefore, immediately recognize the building and its function as a landmark of what this neighborhood’s history was and what it has the potential to become.

Projected floor by floor breakdown:

Basement: Artists Space, Bicycle Garage, archive
Street Level: Entry desk(s), Physical Music [stacks]
2: More Physical Music, Books, Listening Stations [reading space]
3: Performance Space [Auditorium]
4: Performance Space, Bar [Auditorium]
5: Gallery, Courtyard
6: Radio Station (staff offices), courtyard void

Similar to the way that the fruit stores showcase their wares outside, the entrance will have two librarians seated by the door (recessed area in structure) so that any questions can be fielded immediately.

Most of the spaces will be easily incorporated into the current open floor-plate structural scheme through recessed areas [browsing sections for music & books]. These areas do not need walls as sufficient intimacy is created through solely being recessed down into the floor. However, the performance space will be double height. The listening spaces will be in moments of the actual façade (as it is composed of forms pushing outwards towards the street). There can also be an outdoor courtyard on floor along with the galleries). The artists space will be located on the basement level with the bike garage.


Drawings and model pictures will come.. Otherwise I am concerned with exploring the structural aspects of the library at this point in physical models (NOT rhino) and spacial programing.

Here are some thoughts in regard to my site analysis (99 Bowery, New York, NY):
The Bowery, despite being rich in both history and culture has become an area frequented by new Yorkers on the basis of need; i.e. an individual [with the exclusion of residents of the Bowery itself] will tend to go to this area, sandwiched between Wall Street and SoHo, only if he or she has an appointment, has to buy goods, or has a specific event. As someone who has lived and worked in the immediate area, I am also guilty of overlooking, and even knowingly ignoring this area. My fondest memories of the Bowery consist of running through the Bowery to get to a concert or bar on Ludlow or Orchard Streets. In order to analyze and familiarize myself with the site I had to walk around it for hours. Each visit yielded more and more information and ideas. The first visit I noticed how accessible the site was via public transit (many subways and a bus-stop right in front of the site) and through biking (the Manhattan Bridge bike path ends a block away from the site). The next visit I decided to try to be more analytical and less technical about the research and settled on a bold move; expanding the site to explore its context within the surrounding neighborhoods. This led to a larger-scaled plan of the area with a typological analysis. The typology I focused on was interior public spaces- spaces that functioned either as music clubs, bars, art galleries, museums, or libraries were demarcated and noted in proximity to the site. Although there were two libraries in the neighborhood, all of the other typologies were seldom found. On the third and most recent visit to the site, I noticed an interesting phenomenon; the long and rectilinear park that runs parallel to the Bowery for eight full blocks and its effects on the neighborhood.
Sara D Roosevelt Park was opened in the nineteen-thirties as an urban oasis to stop the spread of tenement housing and to create a large public space. However, over time, it became a buffer zone between the dirty, crowded, foreign cultured, and mysterious Bowery, and the rapidly changing, gentrified, Lower East Side. Through studying the park, both in its forms, functions and uses by the local populous, my aim is to propose a space that breaks the parks current definition, thereby re-generating the park as study for a Modern Library, a recreational reason to go to the Bowery. A park, like a building, has a plan, a program, multiple functions and dynamic information in plan, section and elevation. The first completed postulated analytical drawing, attempts to represent the interesting moments of the park through a sectional analysis. It contains 15 sectional-cuts through key programmatic points of the park. These points come in the form of playgrounds, basketball courts, soccer fields, gardens, Parks Department buildings, and public seating areas.
Although the information in this drawing is accessible and important there are multiple steps that must be taken to complete the site analysis. The next set of drawings will examine the observations gleaned from walking the park: the definitions of terms used to describe phenomena’s in the park such as staggered and stagnant in diagrammatical form. The drawing should also attempt to describe the changing or shifting functions of the park in reference to the neighborhoods usage of it. Lastly the drawing must explore the broader context of the site in the neighborhood, thus exposing and expressing my definitions of both the park, the context of the Bowery, and the surrounding zones and the forms and functions within. Based on the programmatic happenings, forms, and context I hope to create a bridge between gentrified and antiquated, individual and collective, unknown and recognizable, historic and contemporary, public and private spaces, and foreign and native cultures.
Lets see how it comes together- the ideas are definitely materializing in my mind and i have moved on from conceptual site analysis to structural system analysis. Photos to come...

They FINALLY posted the lecture lineup for Fall 2008. ANd what a lineup it is...

check it:


Fall 2008, Brooklyn Campus

All lectures take place in the Higgins Hall Auditorium at 6pm unless otherwise noted (*). Please note schedule subject to change.

John LOBELL - Author, Professor, Pratt Institute
"Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn"
Celebrarting the Re-Issue of "Between Silence and Light"
*Tuesday, October 7, 6:30pm
* Urban Center Books 457 Madison Avenue at 49th Street

Philip BEESLEY, Philip Beesley Architect, Inc., Ontario and Professor, University of Waterloo
"Recent Work"
Thursday, October 30, 6pm

Richard MEIER, Richard Meier & Partners, New York
"Recent Projects"
Monday, November 3
*Memorial Hall

Shigeru BAN, Architect, Shigeru Ban Architects, Tokyo and Paris
"Recent Projects"
Friday, November 7

Ariane LOURIE
Editor of Peter Eisneman's
"Ten Canonical Buildings"
*Monday, November 10, 12:30pm

James WINES, Architect and Designer, SITE, New York
"Art and Architecture"
Monday, November 10

Peter EISENMAN
Monday November 17 6pm
Memorial Hall

So far in design ive been hand-drawing. Simply, solely and Only hand-drawing. After a crazy search for a Mayline which took me into manhattan and left me scrounging for all the accompanying parts in studio i successfully re-installed my parallel-rule. I never thought i would say that again, nor have to use it (virtually every other second year studio is not only on the computer but taking scripting courses at that). With that said i ABSOLUTELY LOVE HAND-DRAWING. There is so much depth and thought put into a drawing when one uses pencil or ink on paper. The purpose of this series of drawings was; an analytical precedent study of OMA's Seattle Public Library. We did this aspect of the project in pairs- a first for me in a design class. I worked with a good/very talented friend of mine- brian (hoodie) schulman. Normally i would try to avoid working with someone im friendly with but this worked out quite well as we both learnt alot from each other- both in our processes and on an overall level. We spent hours pouring over books researching Rem Koolhaas' thought process and the execution of it. Since it was a very contemporary library (opened in 2004) there was a wealth of information on and about it. I was also fortunate enough to have visited the library only weeks before while i was in Seattle over the summer and i was able to use the pictures i took at the pinup. Our favorite book was aptly entitled "Seattle Public Library" by Verb publishers. The book was written in conjunction with OMA, Arup and Bruce Mao- The architect, Engineering firm and graphic designer respectively- to put together a wealth of not only photographs but useful drawings and diagrams ect. This is why, when researching architecture BOOKS, not the internet, are the most useful tool. The internet one may find some cutesy wikipedia page with two or three good photos (sometimes) while in books the publishers license the architects drawings and go out of their way to do the research for you.
Our challenge in doing the precedent study was that we had such a wealth of information. We did not want to simply copy or replicate the drawings or diagrams we found we wanted to have a succinct, conceptual and analytical set of drawings. Below are photos of the pinup following a few dozen hours of drawing. Nothing teaches one more about a building than having to draw it by hand, all the structural components, floor plans, ect; floor by floor, and section by section.

Second year design at pratt is the end of the fully theoretical- fully process based projects and the beginning of more pointed and architectural classes (i.e. very exciting). In the next few postings i will detail and give my thoughts on a few of these classes starting, of course, with design. In studio every section does the same basic project (a library) but in the beginning of the semester all of the second year professors give a presentation on their outlook on how that project should be approached and tackled. The eight professors views differed DRASTICALLY. While one professor noted that the semester would be about succinct hand-drawings generating clean plans and sections and stressed the importance of sketching another stated that the semester was not about a library but rather about "scripting" and noted to be ready for his computer bootcamp on the first day of studio. One professor resonated with me in particular. I firstly had to make the decision whether to go for a studio that was theoretical, computer-based and form/process based or a studio that focused more on the fundamentals of architecture and produced models/drawings that looked like actual buildings. I chose the latter- being that im still right in the beginning of my schooling i chose to focus on fundamentals. I can take a scripting course for a few weeks whenever i want- id rather focus on learning the history and theory behind things and look into the composition of buildings and drawings before i bother with anything considered "trendy". I find alot of value in many of the contemporary movements in architecture but as i said- theres time. Phillipe Baumann's presentation stood out because, although he was the only one out of the eight who had NOT taught at pratt before- i could tell he knew what he was talking about. Since he didnt have previous pratt student work to show he simply showed images of things that caught his eye- drawings (one in particular of a cartoon- kid-robot that had very interesting lineweights and composition) buildings, and even a monolithic concrete bus-stop. Well to cut to the chase i have him this year as my design professor.
As a professor hes not there to put on a show- hes there to teach- which in architecture school is a relief. He also gave everyone some amazing references to look into at the first crit- he harped on mies,
louis kahn and many other fundamental architects. While almost every other studio was doing precedent studies on the computer we started out doing hand-drawing. I studied the Seattle Central Library as precedent for what is to come.. more to come on that this week.



seatbelts.

Before i even get into my classes i promised i would wrap up a few observations on some summer travels- i already summed up japan but wanted to briefly touch upon new orleans and the pacific northwest. On the way down to new orleans i took a route which went through virginia, maryland, the carolinas, alabama and mississippi. A few notes: Charlotte, NC was very interesting in that it was clear that Art Deco informed the design in the major downtown areas. Birmingham and Montgomery, AL contained plenty of monolithic and classically inspired buildings (namely the state-funded projects like courthouses). New orleans itself is in somewhat of an interesting position at the moment due to a rapid gentrification of the city based on the low-priced real-estate after the storm. I stayed in the Garden District (outside of the flood zone). It contained plenty of old shotgun houses in various states of disrepair. These homes all have rich history to them and a clear european influence as the spanish were some of the first to settle this part of the world. The pacific northwest on the other hand, was settled much later (1890's) but still many of the cities such as seattle and portland were based upon older styled cities. The buildings of seattle however were all destroyed in an 1889 fire (they were all wood-framed constructs). The city was also originally build on/in a flood plain which meant daily flooding. To counter this, after the fire a mountain was literally leveled and the streets that were rebuilt after the fire were filled in and build on top of (there is still the entire underground city intact- very cool.) The new buildings were all required to have thick stone walls and it has been that way ever since then. Some architectural highlights: Rem Koolhaus's Seattle Library, the Seattle Art Museum and the Olympic sculpture park.

As for school..
I have my first class today- History & Theory of Architecture III with Yehuda Safran, a professor im quite excited about taking. We are up to more or less contemporary (post 1850's) architecture which means no more renaissance churches to memorize! Hes been around the profession for a long long time and has supposedly been directly invloved in some of the history he teaches about (and hung out with the likes of Meis ect..) so hopefully there will be some interesting personal anecdotes thrown into the lectures ect.. Ill keep yall posted.





seatbelts.

Before school begins [next week] i wanted to briefly sum up some observations about some trips i took late this summer. I went to Japan, road tripped to new orleans, & flew down to the pacific northwest; vancouver island, seattle, portland. All very different places to say the least.
Japan, clearly and obviously stood out the most. The society itself is based off of age-old traditions and values leading to a formal quality in both the architecture and the overall demeanor of the people. I primarily stayed in and explored tokyo. There are the more obvious Ando buildings, H de M's Prada store and countless other "famous" architectural feats in tokyo. However, as interesting as these buildings were they did not have as much of an impact on me as the buildings that made up the smaller-scale, denser areas of tokyo. The two and three story buildings, due to the limited space, must essentially take the form of simple cubes. This in of itself is not very interesting at all. However to counter this simple geometric "box," japanese architects use various cladding methods. They are masters of using elements such as screens, skins and louvers to open up and spice up these spaces. The use of these exterior components is complimented by the fact that the interiors are designed like cabinets. Every square foot is analyzed and taken full advantage of (ex. shelving under stairs)
I will write about all of the U.S. cities i visited and post pictures next week. (im currently away on the west coast- portland)

On another note im looking forward to writing about next semester as writing has always been a large and integral component of my design process.

Enjoy the rest of your summer dudes.