Little Things

I got up at 8 AM tuesday morning, and I've not had a drop of sleep since. Last night after I left work at 10, I biked home, printed some google maps off and grabbed dinner and my laptop. Drove back to studio, getting there around midnight. Around 1, a bunch of friends of mine went out for coffee and I had a triple shot of some expresso vanilla drink. Wired for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, I spent the majority of my time re configuring a building the reviewers didn't even like. I made a scaled model of the first model where it peels back the ground, but it lost something in the scale, so I kept my first model I'd made and used that. The third design was aggravating as I struggled between sketchup and my notebook all night. Around six I gave up and went to watch the sun rise on A mountan (really, Tempe Butte). I ran there as it was growing light very quickly and I didn;t want to miss it. I was winded badly at the top, and I'm sure the stress, a sleepless night, and all that caffinee wearing off didn't help. At any rate, the sunrise had a few phenomenal moments when I realized this beautiful sight was an everyday occurance. I think I was also the first person the sun's rays touched in the valley, high up on the hill. At least I'd like to think so. Anyway, looking around I got the idea of a swimming facility from a a mud crack on where the light rail was being built. When you add water to dirt, and stick it in the arizona sun, what happens? the earth cracks in different directions, right? I picked up a chunck of warped dried mud with all its cracks and the swimming facility formed in my mind. One of the more interestng things you develop as an architect is how to visualize in 3d. I could see it in my mind, a tiny crack which is a pathway threading its way through the park, leading deeper and wider itno the the gorund where it joins a secondary crack, a huge gash, contianing three pools off of alignment, with support spaces, locker rooms, etc in the sides of the "crack". Lots of glass, lots of steel. From a concept standpoint, it was paydirt. I just had no idea how to show it. I brought the chunck of dirt back with me for further inspiration. I ended up cutting a rough shape of the two intersecting cracks in cardboard and lining it with a sheet of tin foil to be the walls. The foil I taped down to the cardboard with masking tape. It looked like something a kindergartener would do. I was going to get some brown spraypaint to coat that sucker, but I was out and I figured it was too early in the physical layout process to pin down exaclty what I wanted where I wanted it anyway. I set it aside and went home, whipping out two mini-posters on my other two designs as I'd reached my critical moment. ( we were supposed to have three designs total). Got those done, showered, changed, and biked back to school.

My studio has 16 people. Each person took an average of 30 minutes for the presentation, the thinking of the reviewers, questions, clarifications, musings, and prononcements. I was the last person to go. When there were three of us left, with half an hour left in the period, we pooled our change to see which one of us could present our 3 ideas most quickly. Up unti that point people would ramble on for upwards of fifteen minutes at the start. It drives me crazy, give us the basic concept idea and shut up. If we have questions, we'll ask. We dont need to hear you go through all the different spaces or what you did. The stake of the pot was 56 cents, but a friend gave us a nickel so the jackpot was 60 cents, enough for a coke. A caveat of the deal was that I had to present all three projects instead of just the two, since they also had three projects.

First guy presents his stuff in 3:18. Nice work. Second guy beats him by a minute. This is presenting the main idea of three differnet schemes for the same project. I grab my tin foil clad "project 3" and give my short presentation. My cardboard-tin foil monster is an embarrassment next to the scaled and rendered other projects I did. After a few comments are made about the disparity of the project 3s (we all did them last) they get more interested in the cardboard and tin foil. They think its an intriuging idea. The pavillion idea they tell me will lead me to a satisfactory, but boring end. They like the peeling earth back idea a lot too, but something about the mud crack pool really grabs them. They told me that the last two ideas were really competition worthy, which made me fell good as they hadn;t told anyone else that.

The reviewers, by the way, were two young architects from DWL. I'd met them before at Jeremey's office. Just an aside.

And man, I'm wiped. Tonight I need to pack for three countries, and write a proposal for a paper which I'll have to present tomorrow in Latin American design. I also need to get my haircut and put a stop on the mail. Those two I can take care of tomorrow. Maybe figure out my propsal tomrrow too. Maybe tonight. Definatey need to do laundry again tonight. At least the laundromat doesn't close until midnight. Some good Mexican food down there too.

I hope the sniffles I have is just that plus the lack of sleep. Usually I associate illness with feeling crappy- and I don't feel crappy. Unless I am sick and I've just gotten used to feeling crappy that I don't even notice. Now there's a happy thought. Sorry this post is a bit disjointed and loopy, just need a good night's sleep. Happy they liked my stuff though.