Not Built in a Day

The GSAPP End-of-Year-Show (EOYS), or final student exhibition, is what you might call a Big Deal.  This spring, the EOYS ran from May 12-19, 2012.  After grades are due, after papers are done and reviews ended, all students are expected to stick around for another week, more or less, to design and build our one shot at giving normal people (read: our family and friends) a chance to see our work.  Studio reviews are usually esoteric, confusing, or just plain boring to outsiders; the EOYS is supposed to make our work look exciting and impressive.  There seem to be two schools of thought on how to present our final work.  One is to treat the work like artwork: slather it over the walls, sans explanation, and overwhelm the visitor with visuals.  The other school of thought is to try to explain the work, condense it, and make it accessible.  This latter route usually results in lots of boring text.  The projects are often so complex that they can't b...

It's been a year since our wedding, so of course now seems like an excellent time to write about it (right?).  Ever since the planning phase, I was interested in doing a write-up à la Offbeat Bride , having read so many interesting and inspirational write-ups there that helped me with my own planning.  Besides, this seems like a fitting conclusion to it all.  (If you're looking for any wedding planning help/tips, of course I recommend going to the source itself: www.offbeatbride.com .  Our wedding wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without the helpful writers and contributors there.) Caroline & Justin's "Secretly Nerdy" not-at-the-beach Florida Summer Wedding Name:  Caroline, graduate student in architecture Partner's name: Justin, computer programmer Wedding location:  Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium , Sarasota, Florida Date:  August 13, 2011 Wedding photos:   available on the Eleven Weddings website thanks to our fantas...

David McCullough's 1972 history of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge , The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge , is an engaging story that follows the life of Colonel Washington Roebling, the son of the bridge's designer and the Chief Engineer of the works throughout the construction.  McCullough is an engaging historian and had access to a huge amount of archival material from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to use in the writing, so he was able to cover all aspects of the construction from a personal as well as a technical perspective.  The Brooklyn Bridge was the first bridge to cross the East River, the world's largest suspension bridge at the time, and an enormous undertaking by any reckoning.  Of particular interest is the involvement of Roebling's wife Emily Warren Roebling, who acted in Roebling's place after he was paralyzed by the bends and served to direct the works by transmitting his instructions to the assistant engi...