So we had open house recently which made me think about this time last year when I was working on my portfolio and application materials. The handful of portfolios which made their way to the archinect discussion boards I found quite helpful - both in terms of ideas to emulate and those to avoid. So here is the portfolio I sent in last year, maybe those of you going through the application process will find it helpful in either way.

anti-archinect-portfolio

Note: I deleted all of the text, partly because it was the weakest aspect of the portfolio, partly because I don't want to reference other people/firms/projects in this forum. It loses some continuity and balance in layout, but you get the picture. All of the land arch projects are professional work from my time with EDAW (Shenzhen office), except the highline competition board. The installation work is from my time in an MFA program that I never finished. My letters of reference were a professor from undergrad, a former boss (edaw), and a professor from my MFA program. GRE scores were solid but not spectacular. Essay was very personal about what I wanted out of the profession, what I thought it was capable of.

Other stuff to give you a quick snapshot of my class: I am in the MLA II program which is post-professional (my undergrad BSLA is from U. Wisconsin 2002). There are 9 of us this year. Two of us are licensed (although I hadn't passed my last LARE section by the time my application was submitted). Three of the group are straight out of school (Purdue, Berkely, Tshinghua though two of these are out of their 20s). Two are international (Korea, China) and the rest are domestic. 6 females, 3 males. A few in the 24/25 area, a few in the 30 area a couple older. Previous employers include EDAW (x2), Ken Smith, Mathews Nielson, Korean Gov't, .

Ill finish with a thought from my professional practice class with Paul Nakazawa about approach to marketing and work in general: "Its all about commitment, this business runs on intensity."

Lian already wrote about Thom's lecture, but there were a lot of items I wanted to elaborate on (feel free to chime in Lian).

"My work is loaded with purposeful accidents"
Thom returned to the subject of "Quasi-autogenerative" techinques in his work over and over again. He talked about how he was "interested in developing an architecture that is beyond [his] own capabiliites" - that he wasn't interested in any form or architecture that he could imagine - because if he could imagine it, it wasn't new. He talked about how this was in part a self serving agenda as he aged (he is 65) so that he didn't get caught in a style that became outdated. I think this idea of only being interested in what you can't imagine a very interesting line of thought. I recently re-watched the documentry on the painter Agnes Martin where she talks about 'painting with her back to the world' and waiting with quite mind for inspiration to come to her. Though wildly differnent both Thom and Agnes are after images/ideas/forms that are outside their experience base. I need to think more on this, but Im interested.

An expanded exchange between Scott Cohen & Mayne:
SC: Why do you lift your skirt at Cooper but crumple under your own weight at Caltrans?
TM: You are way more analytic than I am. I don't analyze during creation.
...
SC: If you weren't you and you visited the Cooper - What do you see when you look at it?
TM: I see a 1000 problems that weren't solved.
SC: No, but really, what does this (drawing on screen) shape mean to you?
TM: I have very little interest in analyzing it now - it just is - its over.
SC: I'm asking you what it means as a building.
TM: I don't care what it means.
-----Mayne absolutely refused to talk in any way about what his work signified or what his forms meant. Yet his presentation was totally differnt from Ghery's. Frank essentially stuck to the "aww, shucks" kind of pseudo-humility and pseudo-anti intellectual character whose business analysis was sharp but whose architecture analysis ended at "funny buildings" & "wavy buildings". Thom, while refusing to talk about meaning, was very deliberate and engaging when it came to discussing intent - hyper programmaticly driven. His process was "working with the mechanics that are appropriate for the problems that need to be solved." Im sure there is more to unpack here...

Other quick notes:
- The first question was a long rambling archi-speak assemblage of words that I didn't understand. And neither did Thom - he sat there in silence for a bit and then looked at Preston and said "I don't know what he is talking about." Preston said "hes talking about FIELD CONDITION" (in an amused tone). Thom then responded with this gem- "Field condition....that's a very hip word. What was the question?"

- I knew of Thom's work only in a limited capacity before the lecture. I knew the general story of his work and had seen the Diamond Ranch School in publication but that was about it. I was never that impressed with the ideas or the work. But this was one of the best lectures I have seen here at the GSD so far. Also, I don't know who he uses for his photography but the work shown in the presentation was fantastic.

- "If you don't set goals which are unattainable, then you need to ramp up your goals." -TM

Collection of quotes out of context:

"Anne McGhee is critical to surviving the GSD. And critical of the GSD"

"We have very little theoretical understanding of the sea."

"Why isn't there a genre of painting called 'the weather'?"

"Termites are fascinating!"

"The general public is getting interesting."

"History is about significance which is unequally distributed."

"When in doubt, go back to the greeks."

"Neuro-constructivisim means what we are perceiving is not a received thing, it is assembled with great labor and great inaccuracy."

"The notion of landscape emerges only after we have been completely, urbanly, disassociated from nature."

"Why hasnt't the typology of nature photographs changed over the last 75 years as our understanding of ecology has changed?"

"Im much more interested in fascination."

"The defectors of OMA are in the desert doing social connectivity."

"What value are you creating and for whom?"

"Phenomenology, when it gets talked about in architecture usually waters down to 'how does it make me feel?' touchy feely shit."

"You need to bracket off the belief of the need of the object to exist independently of your consciousness."

"Intentionality is an active process of perceiving. Its not an everyday experience, its about elevating the idea of perception. Architects never use this term correctly."

"The amount of music / performed narrative consumed by Mozart or Shakespeare over their life is a tiny fraction of what we take in on a daily basis. Think about that."

"In terms of the scale of transformation, cubism was minimal. Picasso became more of an illustrator rather than innovator."

"Kissing is always unsustainable - you have to come up for air at some point."

"if its not physical, it aint form."

I had studio in undergrad. I've worked in high-pressure work environments. I am a licensed landscape architect. None of that has mattered very much. Before arriving at the GSD I knew the reputation of the school being notorious for overworking its students (yes, I know its an across the board characteristic) - but I harbored a small hope/fantasy that I would escape without all nighters and stress. I shared this hope with previous graduates and current students prior to the start of the semester and nearly universally this idea was met with laughter. Our studio met twice (introduction and a field trip) before the university was officially in session. And since this pre-first day I have felt behind. Im not even sure how this is possible. Especially when you consider that we probably have one of the less pressured studios (so far). We are looking at the Boston Harbor and the idea of Botanical Gardens. This title is merely cover for trying to imagine new types of urbanism and thinking about our collective (future) attitude toward nature. The studio is being taught by Gross MAX - I had not been aware of the firm before the semester (having been out of the industry for the last 4+ years) but their work is solid and inventive which is always a good combination. The studio is a little on the hands-off side of things which provides plenty of room to read and think but leaves me a little anxious for mid-term reviews to pull everything together.

The other required class is a Pro-seminar course taught by the (new) chair of the landscape architecture department - Charles Waldheim. When his appointment was announced I was upset that the GSD had selected an architect to run our program (there really wasn't a qualified Landscape Architect ?!?!?), but after speaking with him and listening to him speak about the state of the industry and our discipline, Im glad he is on our side - 'the newly converted are always the most zealous'. Our course is organized around the question "What is landscape?" We are exploring the question by thinking about the idea through its relations (Is landscape painting? Is landscape architecture? etc.) David Leatherbarrow from UPenn was here this week talking about his idea of Topography as the underling quality of both architecture and landscape arch. Its nice to think again.

With expansion coming in another post, my other classes are a lecture by Sanford Kwinter (Architecture and Art: From Minimalism to Neuro-phenomenology ), Intermediate Drawing with Anne McGhee and Im auditing a professional practice class with Paul Nakazawa (A New Framework for Practice.)

As Christian Slater once said -- Greetings and Salutations.

I have officially reached the "awwfuckit" stage at work which seems like a good reason to start this schoolblog. Last weekend a few of us rented an RV and drove from Baltimore (current home) to Ashville and Raleigh and back home. We made a pilgrimage to FoamHenge. Yes, it was everything I hoped it would be. Which is to say not much. Except for being awesome. We had a phenomenal streak of restaurant / bar luck throughout the trip. Root Bar & The Admiral in Asheville were great. Special shout out to RootBall (which we are going to steal, rebrand and release in Baltimore as ClawBall – pronounced “Crawball”). Um, yeah. So the combination of this trip and the fact that I only have two and a half weeks left of work is making it very hard to stay productive. So Up and Atom.

I will be moving to Boston in three weeks and shortly thereafter starting the MLA II program at the GSD. Im excited to think again. And be all Utopic n’stuff. I work for a property development company right now. Comprende? I will probably follow up this intro post with an entry on my background / portfolio upload etc. But now I want to look forward a little: School. Oh shit, what did I just get myself into? Debt. Pretentious archi-babble from fellow students and professors. Uncertain future. Another move. Roommates. The word ‘Wicked.’ Unbearable Boston sports fans. And…..Ecological Urbanism.

This last item has me the most worried. ‘Ecological Urbanism’ was the title of the annual conference held at the GSD this year (which overlaps with the accepted student open house). It also seems to be the dominant trend in ideology among students and teachers there. Which is great and all if you are into that sort of thing. I am not so much. I like Peter Zumthor, Robert Smithson and Mr. Rogers. Rauschenberg, Irwin & Cage. I see public open space, both intra-personally and socially, as the most potent of artistic vehicles. How can / does our environment shape the way we see our world? I am returning to school to explore public open space as an artistic medium pursuant of individual changes in perception. Why not go somewhere more ‘arty’ you ask? Read my next entry on background info. For now help me pick a studio for this coming semester. I am leaning heavily toward one of them, but don’t know how the studio lottery process works or will unfold.

1401: The Greek City of Edessa: Search for a Sustainable Future
Spiro Pollalis, Martha Schwartz

1402: Designing the Ecology of Democracy: Speculations on National Identity, Free Speech, the American Elm, and the Nation's Front Yard
Gary Hilderbrand

1403: Boston Botany Bay: The Naked Garden as Spectacle of Plant Psycho-Geography
Bridget Baines, Eelco Hooftman

1404: Toward an Industrial Ecology for New Caofeidian
Nanako Umemoto