Not Built in a Day

Last year I had the luxury of visiting the annual GSAPP End of Year Show (EOYS) after the opening night, so I could spend some time looking at the projects and thinking about how they represented the work of the school.  This year, with graduation and moving directly after the opening, I didn't have that opportunity, but I have a few images of the set-up and projects from opening night and the previous day. My own studio decided to go for a minimalist approach, painting our area dark grey and hanging seven identical screens, one for each project.  We built out a shelf for models, painted the inside neon green, and installed an LED strip to illuminate the models on the shelf.  I helped install the screens, which took much more time than it should have!  I think it looked pretty classy.  Our location was in a short hallway leading to the cafe, which was great for getting lots of people to see it as they went by, but terrible for people who wanted to spend...

And so, three years in New York have gone by like a flash, and Justin & I are beginning our next adventure - San Francisco / Silicon Valley.  But before we dive in to our new city, here's a wrap-up of some final New York experiences. Four Freedoms Park On a still-cold but sunny day this spring, three of us made the trip to Roosevelt Island to see the recently-opened Four Freedoms Park , designed by Louis Kahn and dedicated as a memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  The park gets its name from FDR's famous State of the Union address declaring freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech & expression, and freedom of worship.  Roosevelt Island, the park's location, is itself named after FDR.  This memorial and park has an unusual history: Kahn designed the park before he died suddenly in 1974, but the project was suspended after that and only begun again in 2005.  The final design was kept as close as possible to Kahn's original, under th...

This is part 5 of a multi-part description of my trip to Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan, as part of my Kinne Traveling Fellowship grant through my studio at GSAPP.  See also: first post , second post , third post , fourth post .  To see all my photos from Tokyo, visit my Google+ album here . March 20th On Wednesday, halfway through our week, we spent the day with Azby Brown on a great tour through more of the neighborhoods of Tokyo.  We started at the covered market of Ameyokocho, built below the elevated rail tracks.  We checked out Akihabara , the "Electric Town," with its odd anime-centered shops and " maid cafes " where awkward young men can, supposedly, learn how to talk to women by having conversations with the waitresses.  This would all seem a lot more acceptable if the "maids" weren't dressed up as French maids, but alas, it all seems a bit sketchy to me. Ads for a maid cafe at right Then we went to Iidabashi and visited the Share Y...

This is part 4 of a multi-part description of my trip to Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan, as part of my Kinne Traveling Fellowship grant through my studio at GSAPP.  See also: first post , second post , third post .  To see all my photos from Tokyo, visit my Google+ album here .  A map of our destinations can be viewed here . March 17th After our second night at Andon, we checked out and took a bus to our final hotel of the trip, the Gate Hotel Kaminarimon by Hulic.  This hotel is owned by the real estate company that hosted us during the studio portion of the trip, so we were all required to stay there for the rest of the visit.  The hotel was very nice, with large rooms, friendly staff, a rooftop lounge area, and great views from the "sky lobby" on the top floor.  But definitely not cheap. After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we headed out to explore Asakusa, the historic neighborhood around the hotel, known for its temple, Senso-ji , and the gate a...