Currently

doodling in a crisp, new sketchbook.

drinking a glass of rosemary and apple sangria - try it, it's delicious.

feeling thankful for a great job, a roof over my head, and some pretty amazing friends.

getting in the holiday spirit - cheesy as it is, I'm feeling pretty lucky this week.

jamming out to the City & Colour CD I found while cleaning my apartment.

learning about HTML and CSS for free, courtesy of the awesome firm I work for.

looking forward to seeing some of my nutso family and feasting Filipino-style.

loving that I have a solid four days off from work.

missing my friends who are doing spectacular things abroad.

purchasing a ticket to New York City for the new year to see some of my favorite people.

A Weekend According to my iPhone

1// Friday Fling on letterpress, paper making, and book binding.

2// Learning about letterpress at the Genessee Center for the Arts

3// Getting all inked up to print.

4// Amy making paper with purple paper pulp.

5// My weekly trip to the Rochester Public Market.

6// Made some tissue paper pom-poms to fill up some blank wall space.

7// Color-coded my bookshelves because I'm cool like that.

Insta Obsessions

midcenturymobler // based out of San Fransisco, this furniture shop runs an instagram full of beautiful furniture pieces from the 1950s and 1960s. All design and furniture geeks should follow, and drool.

cjharvey2 // an awesome account from an art student i'm lucky enough to have met. beautiful portraits, shots of nyc, and compositions of everyday objects. definitely one of my favorites.

luxuryspot // this insta features everything from latte art cats to lipstick and nail polish. for the girly-girl in us all.

neverforgetthosedays // rural and urban landscapes are some of my favorites from this instagram. it'll make you want to travel the world, trust me.

Currently

attempting to remember how to use SketchUp effectively on my mac...it's been a while.

drinking a tall glass of chocolate milk, Nesquik, to be precise.

fearing making my first few loan payments.

feeling content with the world in spite of this.

looking forward to a night of papermaking, letterpress, and wine with friends.

missing my go-to Syracuse friends and family.

planning on taking some online classes through lynda.com

singing along to the Nat King Cole album playing on my turntable.

thinking about my awesome Grandma, who is in Haiti volunteering at a clinic right now.

wishing I could get on the first flight to Italy in the morning.

A Weekend According to my iPhone

1// Checkin' out the street art near the Rochester Public Market.

2// Hanging with my grandma in ROC.

3// The Farmer's Daughter from The Owl House = absolutely DELICIOUS.

4// Me and dad and Van Gogh at brunch.

5// Finally perusing the aisles of Record Archive.

6// Fuller bookshelves thanks to my mom and Keary (sorry we didn't get a picture!)

7// Seen in the courtyard at Village Gate.

Insta Obsessions

palombaserafini // Run by Milan-based architecture and design studio Palomba Serafini Associati, this insta features tons of eye candy for designers of all disciplines. 

londonbrekkies // I love breakfast. I love London. This insta combines these two loves and makes me long for the mornings I spent studying abroad. Just don't look at it when you're hungry.

teresacfreitas // Ordinary things displayed in imaginative and fantastic ways. Everything seems like you're looking at it from down the rabbit hole. 

debbiealbrethsen // Debbie Albrethsen is a Utah-based residential interior designer. I regularly check her instagram for palette ideas and inspiration for my own place.

Starting today, I have a weekly collection of five things that I find interesting, exciting, or generally entertaining. This week's topic is simple: five things that made me happy this week.

1// Spending a night in Syracuse with a great friend, pretending to be the Log Lady.

2// The fact that it's mostly been raining instead of snowing - with a few small exceptions.

3// Salsa dancing into the early morning hours with friends from work, on a Thursday.

4// Being told I seemed like a more "seasoned" interior designer by a product rep.

5// Having ample time to catch up on my reading despite a crazy schedule.

Dream Home: Office Edition

Perhaps one of the biggest paradoxes of our time is that interior designers have fantastic (all too often expensive) and an income suited only to purchase home goods from Ikea. Okay - I'm exaggerating a little. Okay - a LOT, but ask most designers and you'll soon realize we're too poor to actually own anything we pick for our clients. Ignore the fact that I'm fresh out of school for now, because that certainly doesn't help at all. 

Anyway, I spend a lot of my time perusing materials and furnishings binders, samples, and catalogs. While my focus is much more commercial (I can't tell you how many times I've swooned over open office benching systems), I still daydream about the things I'd like to curate for my own home someday. After getting a new set of Restoration Hardware catalogs at work, I couldn't stop thinking about how desperately I'd love to have a home office. Here's what I'm daydreaming about this week:

1//2//3//4//5//6//7//8

1// Atkins Quad Shelving from Restoration Hardware

2// Geodisic Table Lamp from West Elm

3// Flatiron Desk from Restoration Hardware

4// Potted Succulents from Crate & Barrel

5// Shelby Rug from Pottery Barn

6// Curved Upholstery Chair from West Elm

7// Driftwood Side Table from Crate & Barrel

8// Overarching Floor Lamp from West Elm

Currently

attempting to create a general schedule of events for my evenings to avoid couch potato-ing.

buying '642 Things to Draw' for a little inspiration.

dreaming about owning my own coffee shop.

drinking a glass of Coppola Merlot.

fearing the impending doom that is my first student loan payment.

learning about LEED core concepts for the Green Associate exam.

listening to 'Zombie' by The Cranberries.

looking forward to seeing friends in Rochester & Syracuse this weekend.

making more time to read every night.

thinking about going back to school...eventually...after working for a few years.

A Weekend According to my iPhone

1. Trapped Piper in a cat circle.

2. Finally explored the water tower behind Comart.

3. Made my own cappuccino for the first time in months.

4. A quick stop downtown with one of my best good friends.

5. Went for a long walk on a beautiful day with a wonderful friend.

6. Checkin' out some graffiti.

7. Looking out over the hills south of Syracuse. Sometimes I really miss that place.

A Weekend According to my iPhone

1. Drinks at a local speakeasy with a friend from work.

2. Partaking in all things autumn.

3. Carving pumpkins with Moriah.

4. Actually having time to make myself a decent breakfast.

5. Lazing about with Piper baby.

6. The owls are not what they seem...the finished product.

7. Hanging out with toddlers at the pumpkin patch.

Currently

dreaming of packing my bags and exploring somewhere new.

drinking green tea with lemon. it's getting chilly out there, after all.

feeling inspired to organize my blogging efforts after 10K views.

hoping that my social life will stabilize sometime soon.

listening to 'Two Suns' by Bat for Lashes.

looking forward to grabbing a couple well-deserved drinks with a friend.

loving finally being able to speak at an audible volume after being sick.

reading 'Great House' by Nicole Krauss.

thinking about getting some new specs.

watching the kitty chase a piece of fuzz.

Insta Obsessions

curatedinterior // A visual delight for this interior designer. Each post features beautiful residential interiors to swoon over.

food52 // Food magazine-worthy images of everything from brussels sprouts to banoffee pie. Get ready to start drooling.

katieonthehill // If you love all things organized, you'll definitely want to check out this insta. Her balanced compositions of day-to-day life in the UK make me want to take the first plane across the pond.

coffeeshopcorners // A perfect mix of my two loves, interiors and coffee. I'll definitely be looking here for inspiration for my own cafe someday!

A Weekend According to my iPhone

1. Homecoming weekend at the alma mater.

2. Some losers at a sporting event. 

3. Hanging with this awesome chicka (and more).

4.  Finding a plethora of stolen phone selfies.

5. A long awaited reunion with crappy Dome nachos.

6. Getting my Cafe Kubal fix in.

7. Being a good alumna & attending my first football game in years.

September in Review

Just like that, another month has gone by. Here's a taste of what I did this month:

*Above image from http://adultingblog.com/ *

    This one's for all of my recent graduates out there...or you know, anyone who feels like they      

    really need to get there s#!t together. Kelly Williams Brown's tips on "adulting" are simple, useful, 

    and quite comical. 

   With autumn in full swing, I was in desperate need of an actual bed set with a comforter and lots 

   of fluffy, joyful things. Plus, being an interior designer the lack of color in my bedroom was 

   depressing me. 

*Above images are original album art, not mine*

   Songs on Repeat:

   Soon We'll Be Found by Sia: I can't stop listening right now, check out the awesome video here

   Songbird by Fleetwood Mac: One of my favorite songs, ever 

   About this Map by The Tragically Hip: My go-to driving song lately. Give it a listen

   Mouthful of Diamonds by Phantogram: A great song to get work done...calmly

*Still from Frances Ha...image does not belong to me*

    A friend and I watched this movie one Sunday evening this month. The entire movie is in black        & white but is set in modern NYC. Super quirky, super relatable, and super good.

   Spent the day with these really cool kids, picked some apples, ate some cider donuts, drank some     hard cider. Basically, we did autumn right.

    It  somehow took me two months of living here to get to this place, but I'm in love. I sincerely miss working at a coffee shop and this place makes me feel right at home. Plus, I made friends with one of the baristas. Yeah, I'm a cool girl now.

A Weekend According to my iPhone Sept. 28

Silver & Gold

A Weekend According to my iPhone Sept. 21

This Week's Flowers Sept. 18

Me, Myself & I

This Week's Flowers Sept. 9

On Being a "Real Person"

A Weekend According to my iPhone

1. First weekend in quite some time where I didn't travel or have visitors.

2. Got bored and painted my interior doors bright blue.

3. Proof that I finally washed my poor car like a good adult.

4. Saturday afternoon glamour shot sesh for Piper.

5. Getting my cappuccino fix at Pour Coffee Parlor <3 p="">

6. Girls' night with lovely ladies from the arch department.

7. Loving all of the tree-lined streets in my neighborhood this autumn.

Silver & Gold

For some reason, being suddenly and violently cast into adulthood has made everything from childhood way more awesome and cool than I thought even as an over-excited ten year old. Call it nostalgia or call it denial, but there's just something wonderful and familiar about getting home from work, throwing on your best 90s boy band playlist and creating a masterpiece in a jumbo Toy Story coloring book. Don't even try to act like you're above that - we all know better...

Anyway, a rather unfortunately large part of becoming a fully employed and productive member of society tends to involve letting go of things. Sleeping in becomes a thing of the past, having a massive network of locally centralized friends becomes harder to come by, and even binge watching entire seasons of Friends in a night can seem like a tall order when all you want to do after the 9 to 5 grind is have a glass of wine and go to bed.

You remember the song, Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold? Yeah, that's another one of those things I distinctly remember singing while wearing my totally 90s, kick ass, OshKosh B'Gosh purple corduroy overalls (I know, throwin' it way back). Well, that little blast from the past has been at the forefront of this whole keeping my cool in the big bad world thing.

If you've ever moved somewhere without knowing a soul, you certainly know that it can be frustratingly difficult to meet people. Sure, you have your work circles, but that doesn't always translate into much of a social life. However, if you're smart like I am you've planned ahead for this and got yourself a feline friend to hang with. Regardless, I've found that one of the easiest and most forgotten about ways to keep your sanity is to pick up the phone and call your friends - or email/Facebook message them...if you're into that type of thing. Chances are pretty good that hearing from a friend is exactly the type of thing that'll make their day too. Catching up over more than a few blips on a phone screen is fantastic, and just might be the reminder you're not completely on your own in the big bad world. (:

And with that in mind, here's a wonderful video that my not-cousin-Matt (as I like to call him..don't worry about it) directed and produced. It's called Call Someone You Love, and it's one of three great pieces you can see on his website here.

Call me!

A Weekend According to my iPhone

1. Maple apple pie from scratch

2. Spending the weekend with this cool kid

3. Lazy Sundays and eggocados

4. Exploring Durand Eastman Park

5. The finished product (see photo 1) 

6. Piper as a furniture model

7. Sunny skies in the ROC

This Week's Flowers

Me, Myself and I

As I mentioned in last week's post, I recently moved to start a new job (yay!). What I neglected to mention is that I accepted a job offer, found an apartment, moved into said apartment and started my job all within the span of two weeks...phew. For obvious reasons, those two weeks were thrilling and extremely stressful all at once. With so much going on, there was very little time to sit down and really embrace what was going on. There were a million and a half things going on and reflecting on my current life stage was not one of them.

Once that initial phase had passed, I found myself totally and all at once overwhelmed but anything and everything - that stale new apartment odor, the hefty costs of uprooting my life, the fact that my cat will never fully understand me (erm...I meant what?). Most of all, I was overwhelmed by the fact that, for the first time in my life, I was actually going to be alone. 

I'm going to be honest here - I'm horrible at being alone. Or at least I was. If you're anything like me, you probably place higher value on relationships and being with others than giving yourself some quality one-on-one time. Because of this, making the transition from college to the "real world" became even more daunting. How do you go from such a concentrated and constant amount of interaction with friends and acquaintances, to a city where nobody knows your name? 

*Disclaimer: I have since made friends with a handful of wonderful people. So fortunately, my days do not solely consist of sitting at home with my cat while eating Annie's Mac & Cheese and binge-watching Netflix. Just FYI*

While the idea was (and truthfully still is) terrifying, it's something that almost any experienced adult will tell you is part of growing up and is only going to make you a better, more successful person. And you know what? So far, they're right. 

Just check out this fitting little video called How to Be Alone. It perfectly sums up all the reasons being alone can actually be wonderful.

Great right? Cheerful music and adorable illustrations aside - this video is chock full of encouraging thoughts and pro tips on how to be alone. From spending time in public where people tend to act in solitude, to picking back up on a new or old passion, there are countless ways to fill up your free time and learn a lot about yourself. My personal favorite bit of advice? Take the perspective you get from being one person in one head. And while I've had my rough days, I certainly can say that learning to be alone has been overall wonderful for me. You remember what they all said growing up? That in order to love others, you have to love yourself first...right? Well it's absolutely true. 

So remember - it's okay to be alone. Be patient, and embrace it.

Until next time,

This Week's Flowers

I spent the better part of an afternoon browsing through a few of my favorite blogs the other day. I just love reading about how people spend their days - what their reading, writing, tasting, doing...you get the idea. One particular blog I've always enjoyed is Elephantine - she always has the most beautiful photographs and pieces of writing. She also dedicates one post every week to photographs of flowers - how cute, right? Anyway, I've been buying myself a little bouquet every week or so I figured I'd take a page out of her book and do the same. Here's this week's...with an additional kitty bonus!

On Being a "Real Person"

So we meet again! Here we are - one week into September, a solid four months into the ever stressful, crazy exciting, and terrifically unpredictable post-grad era. And no, I'm not talking about the cutesy but overall meh rom com starring Alexis Bledel - you really let me down Rory.

**Look how cute I was...so oblivious to the orb of confusion that is "post grad"

Anyway, the past four months have been...challenging...to say the least. To anyone who's gone through this before, congratulations on making it to the other side. To those who are currently experiencing this, I feel you...I promise we can do this. And to those who are still operating the grand illusion that is undergraduate life, well, good luck.

Let's rewind to May. College graduation alone is this giant pressure cooker of emotion. It's the pinnacle moment of your undergraduate career, EVERYONE and their mother is going to be there - literally, and there's the impending sense of doom over just what it is you're going to do with your life. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me "So Danielle, what are your plans after graduation?" well, you know the rest...

Great job graduating! ...Now what?

Getting to that, the months following graduation can be some of the most uncertain, anxiety-inducing months any young adult will face - unless you're one of the lucky ones who had a job straight out of school, in which case great job being proactive and employed! ...now go away. For pretty much my entire life, all I'd really known was school. All of a sudden, that was done, and I was now faced with the daunting task of finding a "real job," and let's face it - ain't nobody got time for cover letters. Unfortunately, as any recent college grad will tell, you actually have all the time in the world for cover letters.

Back to the present... It's four months later, and can officially say that I am an interior designer - like, how cool is that? Emerging professional status. Here's the thing, though - it definitely didn't happen overnight, and it most certainly didn't happen without quite a few hiccups along the way. Looking back at my sad little "professional" email account, I sent out well over forty job applications in the span of two months. I had cover letters zipping out to Boston, New York, Chicago, Seattle...you name it, I probably sent it. I was looking for a big city, and a definite change of pace. To my disappointment, an overwhelming majority of my applications resulted in complete radio silence.

About halfway through the summer, I saw a post on a Facebook group (run by an awesome former professor) for an entry-level interior design position in Rochester. The job description sounded fantastic - it did, after all, actually contain the words entry-level. If you've recently graduated, you know how stupidly hard to find that is. The only potential problem seemed to be the location. Rochester? Isn't that just Syracuse but, uh, bigger? Honestly, if you had told me at the beginning that I'd end up here, I'm not sure I'd have believed you. All i can say is, I'm glad I decided to give it a shot, because it definitely ended up being one of the better decisions I've made in my life.

There's about a million and a half things you can do to get a job and if you ask me how I went about it, I'm not sure I could give you a straight answer. One of the most important things I can concretely say is that you must be open to whatever life throws at you. Roll with the punches, if you will. Because the thing is...you can have all these goals and plans, but if you completely rule out anything that doesn't fit your exact, ideal situation, you could really miss out on something fantastic.

So to sum up my first little life lesson on being a "real person," don't rule anything out that could potentially lead to something good. Whether it's a job offer, an invitation to an event, or even just a conversation over coffee with a total stranger - you never know where it may lead.

Until next time!

**Thanks to Ian Simon-Curry for the photo

I'm Back!!

Hey y'all! It's been many months since I've posted, well, anything here. Between finishing up all of my studies, graduation, and eventually getting a job (!!!) and moving, I took a much needed hiatus from blogging. (More on all of that later) BUT, I'm happy to say that I'm back in full swing and you can now follow me on Bloglovin!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Cheers!

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Ten

You know what they say about riding a bike? That once you learn you'll never forget? Using Revit is not like riding a bike.

...at least not at this point, anyway.

For those of you that don't know, Revit is a computer aided design program focused on 3D modeling. It's fantastic because you can build a digital model and pull construction drawings straight out of it all in one, convenient little package. It's not fantastic because it's sort of like a teenager - it eventually does what you want it to, but you have to really know how to manipulate it. In other words, it's fairly user-friendly, but you can do SO much with it that it can become difficult to know how to go about it.

Unfortunately, I'm out of practice with Revit, and my first go-around with it left a lot to be desired. For all intents and purposes, I haven't learned how to use the program. Because of this, I've spent many hours harassing classmates, watching youtube videos, and hitting the books. In other words, progress has been slow, but progress nonetheless.

With so much going on in the last few weeks, I'm really just trying to keep my motivation up. Nevermind everything's due in the next four to five weeks and then I'm graduating....

...I got this

Until next time,

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Nine

Let's be honest for a minute. It's the first week post-spring break, and there are roughly six weeks left in the semester. Productivity hasn't been my strong suit this week, and this post will be relatively short in the spirit of things.

All of this is not to say that I haven't been working - quite the opposite actually. The strange thing about this point in the semester is that everything seems to be shifting from development mode to production mode. There are a few minor tweaks within my floor plan and material considerations that I have yet to work through, but I've largely moved into solving those as I work on the digital model and drafting. I've also been dividing a lot of my efforts between producing construction documents and moving forward on my actual design as well as working towards finishing up my Capstone reflection paper. For some reason, this really makes me feel like I'm getting nowhere. In actuality, I'm getting somewhere - multiple somewheres - at a bit slower pace.

Speaking of all that, it's been quite the process really focusing my energy onto using Revit. I've learned the program before, but it's been just long enough since I really learned it that it seems like a foreign concept to me. Getting all of my designed elements in there has been quite the (re-)learning experience. But hey, might as well do it while I have the time, right?

And on another note, I'd previously been thinking about how I could incorporate angular forms into the space without simply including more, possibly overwhelming, sculptural forms. With a focus on the classrooms, I feel like this will largely happen in the reflected ceiling plan - specifically in the lighting and acoustical panels. I may or may not use both ideas in the final design, but small clusters of these elements could be an effective way to reference the large sculptural pieces in the main public areas. Check out these awesome designs I found that could be interesting:

Lord & Taylor in Ridge Hill, NY by Reggiani USA

Ecophon Solo Triangle seen Here

Similarly, I've been focusing on including solutions that would allow the students to have some more control over their learning environment as well as the work they produce. At this point, I've decided to include a 'blank slate' of a blackbox theater, pop-up isolation practice rooms in the music studio, and a moveable gallery wall system in the main lobby. I also found this great modular seating system that has a pretty subtle form similar to the angular forms I've included so far. 

HM77 Seating System

Anyway, I'm really excited to show you more progress as these next few weeks come and go. It's really exciting to finally see everything taking shape and I can't wait to see it all come together in a final design! 

Until next time,

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Eight

The moment you've all been waiting for is here...or more accurately...the moment I've been waiting for. I spent an entire afternoon sitting on the most comfortable of couches, sipping on a cappuccino and enjoying the sunshine reflecting off the building across the street. So what? 

So I've survived midterm week - not that it was an event I was particularly worried about. There's something so inexplicably wonderful about the minute you get out of your last class before spring break - no matter where you may or may not be going. It's certainly temporary, and there's definitely work to be done over the following week. But, for now, I'm basking in it. 

I always find this point of the year really refreshing - as I'm sure many people do. I don't know if it's the lack of sleep from the weeks prior, or the elating effects of a sunny day in Syracuse, but I'm feeling incredibly accomplished and at ease. I still have the ideas of finding a job, graduating, or even just finishing my thesis successfully in the back of my mind, but there's nothing about those that's causing me to panic...right now. 

After my second formal review in thesis, I'm more excited than ever to move forward. Something about hearing the words, you're actually ahead is incredibly motivating. Especially when, despite my constant progress I tend to feel like the work I'm producing isn't enough. Call it a curse of the 'mostly' Type A personality. Regardless, I'm not letting it get to me and I'm planning on moving full-speed ahead. 

As I’ve probably said before, actually taking a step back to look at everything I’ve done is always a little surprising to me. You know how if you see a person every day they don’t seem to change, but if you’ve been apart for a while they can really seem different from before? That definitely applies to my thesis – definitely. Here's an idea of what I've done:

From this point on, I'm really moving into the how does this actually work phase. I need to make sure the large, sculptural elements I designed can actually be constructed with the materials I imagined and really see how it's made. Lighting is another obviously important part that I've been thinking about in my head, but not necessarily on paper. But don't you worry, I've got it all planned out. In fact, I'm considering combining lighting into the sculptural pieces, with a translucent, colorfully lit resin mixing with the use of light tubes in some areas. Kind of like this:

See original here

Programmable LED behind translucent resin panels from Seeyond

Angled tubes mimicking the form of the panels.

Another idea I'm really considering over break is the incorporation of angular forms and triangles throughout the other spaces. While these won't necessarily take shape in a sculptural manner like in the main areas, I'd like some elements in the classrooms and secondary spaces to give a nod to the major ones. What I'm most concerned with is incorporating all these elements without them being visually overwhelming. It'll be a really fun mini-project to play with once I return from SEATTLE next week. Check back soon!

Cheers!

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Seven

Every once in a while, a magical thing happens where I have a three-day long burst of motivation. While I'd say I certainly have no problem buckling down and working on something for an extended period of time, actually being excited to do so, for so long, is a much more uncommon experience. Anyway, last weekend was one of those rare phenomenon - pretty much every minute I had, I spent working on thesis, enthusiastically I might add.

In a few short days after my last post, I managed to pump out a pretty holistic and thoughtful floor plan for the majority of my space - the whole space. There are definitely some minor tweaks to be made throughout the classroom spaces, but I'd definitely say I hit that 75% mark that I was talking about last week. Plus, I made some serious headway modeling the changes I'm making to the space digitally and physically. Check it out:

Purple: Classrooms      Yellow: Student Lounges     Green: Public Spaces    Blue: Group Spaces

First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

Third Floor Plan

Compare that to this current moment, where I can barely motivate myself to even talk about my lack of motivation and work flow. Unfortunately, the one part of my space I've been struggling to solidify is probably one of the more important ones - the main reception and gallery area. Something about essentially designing blank wall space in a thoughtful manner is really giving me headaches...maybe literally. My biggest issue is that the initial entry space is so strong in comparison to the gallery area. It's the "second impression" of the design you get, and figuring out how to make it equally, if not more, impressive has landed me a ticket on the struggle bus.

I've spent a large part of this week creating a second model of just those two spaces in an attempt to figure out how to arrange the gallery in response to what I've designed in the entry. I think a lot of my decisions will be based on my inclusion of the angular forms seen in the entry space. After talking to a few classmates about it, it'd probably serve me well to figure out where seating areas should be and then plan the wall space around that. I'm currently toying with the idea of moveable gallery wall systems as well (especially considering I might be using some sort of a portable practice room in my classroom spaces). Also, I think it might be a good choice to allow for the students to arrange the gallery in addition to what is displayed in it, giving them another facet of the program to take part in and control. Hey - it goes with the concept of empowerment in a way.

Anyway, I have my second review this week so I'm hoping to get back on the productive streak this weekend. It's hard to believe it's already the midpoint of the semester! Can't wait to show you everything I have next week (:

Until then

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Six

There are officially two short weeks until spring break, which means there are just two short weeks until the mid-point of the semester. The entire concept of this clearly hasn't hit me yet, because I'm feeling just fine - but check back on that in a week or so. Anyway, while the idea of flying across the country to Seattle (!!!) is a wonderful thing to daydream about, I'm really hoping to make some serious progress on my thesis. I've set a lot of goals for myself in the next few weeks - with my midterm review and a solidified draft of the written portion of my Capstone on the horizon, I'm starting to feel some pressure.

Right now, I still feel like I'm at a pretty good point. The expectation for my midterm review is that I'm 75% done with my floor plan - that's a lot of percent - but I really feel like it's totally do-able. Just in the last few days I've made quite a few decisions that are really helping me to progress.

Before I can get to the nitty-gritty of laying out individual rooms and spaces, I need to solidify my major design concepts. In the images below, the green colored form show where I've intervened so far. Again, these forms are based off of my original concept model work from last semester. These forms, in some places, will extend up the wall in a very angular manner, some will double as hang out places or seating - such as in the main entrance.

A very basic model of what these forms will look like. This seating element gives the entrance a 

function other than prolonged entry.

A section of the entry. The lighter green portion on the right will be a 

sculptural piece mimicking the form of the seating area at the bottom with less visual weight.

The area on the top left will allow for students to view the entry from multiple perspectives 

rather than from below only. 

First floor overall design concept plan.

Second and third floor general plan for warehouse space. The

section enclosed by the green will be open to the floors below and above.

This week, I got so excited about where I was going with these forms that I was on the edge of going overboard. After a brief discussion during class, I decided to include these forms (in three dimensions) only where I've intervened with the structure of the building. In other words, I've place them only where I've added partitions, cut through the floor, and so on. As I move forward and actually draw out perspectives and sections, I intend to add two dimensional elements mimicking these forms throughout the rest of the space - a development you should start to see next week. 

Right now, my biggest roadblock is figuring out how to divide the classroom spaces from the student lounges. Specifically, this becomes an issue on the third floor of the warehouse space, which will be open to the floor above. In a few, select spaces, I'm considering using the angular form itself to create a room within a room. That being said, this idea would need to be applied very specifically in order to avoid the form seeming completely arbitrary.

A lot of the solutions to this, I think, will come from working with my physical model I made a few weeks back. With my particular designs, a computer model will only confuse me at this iterative point. I'm really looking forward to learning how to put that into Revit...gulp. We'll talk about that next week though. 

Until then!