[first] project [worst] crit

this months #architalks topic is [my first project].  so i decided to tell the story of my very first project in architecture school and subsequently the worst critique of my life.


fall of 2002, i had completed three years of engineering school and had decided to start all over in architecture. since i had several prerequisites completed the college of architecture, planning and design, let me start in 2nd year, which was the first year of architecture "studio."  as i sat there on the first day not knowing what to expect or how to act, we were handed our first project.  it would be a case study of a famous residence built by an architect.  i was given a partner and a house.  we would be studying the "gropius house" designed by the modernist walter gropius. we were to study, analyze, draw, model and present our research. 

"ok, that's not so bad, i can do that." i thought to myself.
  
i then proceeded to approach the problem in a very "engineer-ish"fashion as i had done the last three years of my college career.  i found pictures and floor plans of the house, which was hideous in my opinion, and used the drafting skills i had learned in engineering to reproduce them by hand.  my partner and i built different pieces of the model and by the end of a few weeks had what i though was a perfectly complete project.  i had done everything on the list of requirements.  i believed i was perfectly prepared for this thing my classmates called a "crit."

i was wrong.

on the day of the crit, i overheard my classmates discussing how we were going to have two professors known to be extremely tough critics for our review.  i wasn't worried, i mean i had done all that was required. my partner and i were the first to present.  a position i would later learn was one of the toughest.  my partner and i spouted out what we had read in books and online, and would occasionally point at the drawings or the model. after about 10 minutes of regurgitation, we opened it up for questioning, which i though surely there couldn't be any to ask.  

the first critic spoke up and said "that's great, but what did you learn?"


"i just told you what i had learned." i said.

that's where it started to go down hill.  they asked questions regarding site placement and orientation, or why walter used the materials he did.  almost all of the questions were answered with "i don't know" with an ever increasing sarcastic tone.  it should also be noted my partner was more of an introvert than i was, and as the crit got worse he got more and more silent, leaving me to defend our project by alone.  the questions and answers got worse until one of the professors finally asked,

"did you even care about this project?"

to which i said confidently and matter-of-factly, "no, i didn't"

"well it shows. in your drawings, model and presentation." they stated back.


after that fact was out in the open, the crit actually became very educational.  the critics stood up and started pointing out features, details and design moves completely foreign to me.  they pointed out how important the site of the project was and how gropius had broken up the landscape into different areas with the house.  how the style reflected the teachings of the bauhaus but with new england materials. how glass block was used to filter the light and create a transition from exterior to interior.  i stood there amazed at everything i was now learning.  the building started to make sense.  everything had a purpose,  this isn't some strange white boring box in the middle of a field, rather this house was actually derived from the site.  not only did they educate me on the building but they went on to explain the importance of presentation drawings  and how they should be placed on the board.  not haphazardly, but rather with a purpose.  

as i sat back down i saw the "glad that wasn't me" look on my classmates faces.  years later, usually late at night, my classmates would still talk about how bad that second year crit was.  it would in fact turn out to be the worst crit i had in school, however it was the most educational.  lessons learned from that crit still echo in my head every time i design a building, figure out a detail or make a note on a construction document.

does this have purpose?

the gropius house went from a building i thought to be the ugliest thing i had ever seen, to becoming the representation of everything i love about architecture. 

i wonder what would have transpired if i had been given falling water.

please take the time to view the posts from the other architects in the #arcitalks community to read about other [first projects]


Bob Borson - Life of An Architect (@bobborson)
My First Project: The Best Project Ever Designed That Wasn't

Marica McKeel - Studio MM (@ArchitectMM)
My "First Project"

Jeff Echols - Architect Of The Internet (@Jeff_Echols)
My First Project - Again

Lee Calisti, AIA - Think Architect (@LeeCalisti)
first project first process

Mark R. LePage - Entrepreneur Architect (@EntreArchitect)
Our First Architecture Project [#ArchiTalks]

Lora Teagarden - L� Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
#ArchiTalks: My first project

Eric T. Faulkner - Rock Talk (@wishingrockhome)
The First One -- A Tale of Two Projects

Rosa Sheng - Equity by Design (@EquityxDesign)
Why every project is my "First"

Michael Riscica - Young Architect (@YoungArchitxPDX)
The Early Years of My Architecture Career - My Role

brady ernst - Soapbox Architect (@bradyernstAIA)
What is Architecture

Sharon George - Architecture By George (@sharonraigeorge)
My First Project - The First Solar Decathlon #Architalks

Emily Grandstaff-Rice - Emily Grandstaff-Rice AIA (@egraia)
Project Me

Daniel Beck - The Architect's Checklist (@archchecklist)
Fake it 'til you make it

Jarod Hall - di'velept (@divelept)
Define First

Anthony Richardson - That Architecture Student (@thatarchstudent)
my first project

Jeffrey A Pelletier - Board & Vellum (@boardandvellum)
Top ten tips when faced with a challenging Architectural project

Aaron Bowman - Product & Process (@PP_Podcast)
Community 101

Samantha Raburn - The Aspiring Architect (@TheAspiringArch)
6 Major Differences between my 1st School Project & my 1st Real Project

Kyu Young Kim - Palo Alto Design Studio (@sokokyu)
My First Project � The Contemporary Cottage

Nisha Kandiah - TCDS (@SKRIBBLES_INC)
The Question of Beginning

austin city [limit]?

this was year [eight] for my annual pilgrimage to austin to attend the austin city limits festival. more importantly this was the eighth year to enjoy a weekend catching up with some amazing friends.

as always the weekend was filled with good music, great food and wonderful conversation.  some highlights of this year include a discovery of a great east austin bar, the yellow jacket social club, after typing in "hip bar" into the yelp app.  this year also found me meeting up with a great architect, who is more of a mentor than he probably realizes.  a guy who became a friend while i was a student on my architectural internship 10 years ago.  i also added yet another "decemberists" concert to my list, as well as a performance from leon bridges. an artist who evokes otis redding and sam cooke. a fantastic musician i hope to see again.  also tacos...lots and lots of tacos!

as good of a time as we always have, for the first time we discussed the possibility of trying something else out.  we all love the music, but at the root of the weekend is the fact it's three friends making a commitment to stay in touch.  we've done acl, maybe it's time to move on.  who knows if i'll be writing about acl in 2016, but i can guarantee, i will for sure be writing about a wonderful adventure between three friends. hopefully it will include music...and tacos.

it gets harder and harder to capture new and fresh images of the festival each year, but i hope you enjoy this years batch.

back to the future [21 years ago]

back to the future, and it's sequels, are without a doubt, my all-time, desert island, favorite movies.  i watched them constantly as a kid, and still do.  it is the reason i'm infatuated with the idea of time travel.  if you ever catch me starring blankly into space, chances are i'm thinking about traveling through the space time continuum.  wanting to see first hand what the past was like, or curious to what surprises the future holds.

it's no surprise on the eve of the red letter, "back to the future 2" date of october 21, 2015, a day i've waited for most of my life, i am in fact thinking about time travel.

i've been picturing myself as a kid wondering what i thought 2015 would be like. would we really have hover boards?  would i come home to a house full of kids and rehydrate a pizza for dinner?  as i pondered all this, i was reminded, as a kid, i had in fact sat down at our family computer and drawn what i thought the future would look like.  surely however this drawing no longer existed, being lost to time. there was no way was it still around.

however, curiosity got the best of me and i had to check.

being the treasure trove my parents are of everything my sister and ever i did, i called them up to see if they still had the file somewhere.  with a couple of mouse clicks and a few folder searches, my dad actually found it!  an e-mail was sent and with the future being what it is, i was able to view my vision of the future!

in all it's "mac-paint" 8-bit glory, originally created on october 15, 1994,  i bring you a 13 year olds vision of wichita in 2020!

i remember the whole point of this drawing was to show how "cool" i thought it would be if the mall moved downtown.  as pleased as i was to see how forward thinking i was to place retail back in the downtown core, there are a few things i have to laugh at.

i'm glad to see i placed this mall to the south of the epic center and the old courthouse tower, a location that's actually not too terrible. however i'm shocked at the large "heat island" of a parking lot i drew to go with it.  the naive and suburban 13 year old me was unfamiliar with public transit or parking garages for that matter. i do, however, enjoy the bubbly shape of the cars and the exotic paint jobs. also props to me for showing lush landscaping and fountains. maybe not the best option for a urban setting, but it's cute.

next, sears is a interesting choice for a tenant to highlight.  i wish i would have had something a tad higher end, such as a nordstroms or macy's, but give me a break. i was 13, sears was all i knew!  you could get everything you needed there; tools, mowers, pants, shirts, refrigerators, underwear! it was a fascinating place to shop as a kid!

looking at the overall design of the mall, the architect in me is cringing at the fact i decided to go with a post-modern look, complete with symmetry, classical columns and geometric pediments, but hey, it was the 90's! it's nice to see i was thinking about vertical circulation, and expressed the elevator shafts.  i did however fail a little on the ada accessibility, making people walk up a serious flight of stairs before entering.

looking at other parts of the drawing it appears i thought wichita would get it's own "space needle." no doubt a blatant rip off of the "tower of americas" i had visited earlier that year in san antonio, but still a nice addition to the skyline.  it also shows i felt aviation would still be important and gave boeing it's own downtown building. although that's not the case now, airbus did in-fact occupy several buildings downtown.  also being a 13 year old boy, i had to throw in a b2 bomber, since it was the "sweetest"  plane i had seen in my life to that point.

graphically, there's a whole other story to be told and evaluated, but i didn't grow up to be a graphic designer so i won't even start on my font choice.

overall this drawing fascinates me because of the youthful optimism i had for wichita.  although the future of 2015 isn't exactly like "back to the future" or my computer drawing predicted, they're not that far off either.  both emphasized a greater importance on the city core.  wichita is experiencing a growth in downtown development that will only continue into 2020.  we may not get a "space needle" but larger residential buildings are constantly going up, which will in turn bring in more retail...maybe not sears, but hopefully some smaller local shops or at the very least, a grocery store.

there's no way the 13 year old me  could have ever guessed the 2015 version of himself would be working as a architect on several projects just a few block from where this drawing was located, but that's what makes imagining the future so enjoyable! you can't predict it!

with that said....

wichita 2020! lets get that space needle!