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.

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 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!

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Five

Well, it's that time of the semester again...that week where all hell breaks loose and your entire house is suffering from what can only be assumed is the plague. Dramatic? Eh...sure. Yet here we are. Unfortunately for all parties involved, I've been out of commission with a fever and body aches for just over a day which, in turn, means I didn't get a chance to take pictures of or scan images of my progress work this week. You'll just have to give me the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Regardless, I'll try to walk ya'll through my thinking moving forward this week. Generally speaking, I've been working on tackling multiple areas at once - in other words actually putting to pen and paper my ideas more holistically.

At this point, I'm still focusing largely on the entry and lobby area, the transition space between parts of the building (aka hallway) and the student lounges on each floor of the warehouse space. That being said, I'm playing with the ideas of using angular, designed elements with viewing windows as a division between the shared lounge spaces and the more "private" studios and classrooms. I've also been thinking about creating this same type of element in the hallway space (shown in green below). Using the same angular forms and possibly some interesting lighting or colored windows/skylights could create a really interesting and dynamic transition space that reflects the overall design concept.

What's proving to be most difficult for me is the inclusion of multiple perspectives throughout the experience of the space. I've decided to include an upper mezzanine level in the immediate entry space to allow students to experience the somewhat sculptural element there from below as well as above. And, on a somewhat off-topic note, I'm working on developing a angular seating element that is integrated into the stairs and wraps around an existing structural wall to connect to the lobby area. 

Looking at the more secluded spaces - like the student lounges and studios - I really think a lot of this will come into play with the division of spaces. In addition, I'm also thinking about extending either an opening or some sort of cohesive element through all four levels to allow users to see up to the skylights as well as down to levels below. 

Again, sorry for being a doof and not having my current process work included in this post! It's much more exciting with it and my sickly head didn't anticipate not going into studio today...pssh, excuses...I know. Pinky swear that I'll have lots o' visual goodies for you next week! Until then, here's some good ol' inspiration photos:

Love the light coming through the openings.

From getaddictedto.com

Inspiration for the hallways, who wouldn't want to experience that?

From Plenty of Colour

Interesting transition from wall to ceiling plane. 

Vertical and horizontal perforations.

From Sky Lab Architecture

Visually suggested 'windows' in an angular form. 

From pinterest

Cheers!

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Four

Somehow, the fourth week of classes have come to a close. A quarter of the way there...whoda' thunk it? Anyway, this week entailed a more formal thesis review with both of my professors about where I was with my project and thoughts about moving forward. Naturally, despite the fact that I think I'm actually in a pretty decent place, I was irrationally nervous going into the week.

Sometimes having so many ideas floating around in your brain and on a ton of unorganized pieces of trace paper can really make it feel like you haven't accomplished anything. Regardless, pinning everything up and talking about it to my friends and professors really made me realize I actually have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing moving forward.

I spent the majority of the week leading up to my review focusing on large aesthetic concepts as well as the main entry space. (Fear not, I'm still thinking about the space holistically..not just one area at a time). As I've said in previous posts, I'm really concentrating on emphasizing the existing structural elements of the space while adding a unifying element based on my conceptual work from last semester.

Here's some of my visual inspiration:

From CreativeLIVE San Fransisco: Build LLC

Eegoo Offices by dEEP Architects on ArchDaily

Arthouse Cafe by Joey Ho

Via PJHM Architects on Pinterest

My own concept model work

Looking at all of this, I decided to move forward with the idea of implementing a strongly triangular and geometric motif throughout the various areas of my design. These particular designed elements will be vibrant and colorful - whether this color is inherent in the material I chose or not has yet to be decided. Right now I'm thinking that it could be really interesting to use a color changing material or dynamic lighting to create a glowing effect like in the first image. 

Part of this thinking has to do with drawing students, parents, and the community into the space. What many, but not all, of my users (aka at-risk students in the city) are lacking is a support system from their families. With this in mind, my intent is to give families and community members a sense of prestige when they, or their children, enter the space. I want people to think "Hey, my kid goes here?! I must have done something right...I'm so proud!"...and so on. 

As an initial pass, most of the work below shows my general ideas for space planning and aesthetics - most of which will occur in the bright yellow areas on the plan. Using these vertically oriented, triangular forms, I'll create a visual cohesion between the entry (now located in the shipping and receiving dock), the reception desk, and the student lounges located in the four story building. 

After my review, I'm really focusing on the idea of the interaction of light between floors and through structural elements, visual access across floors and from different perspectives, and the physical division of spaces. Keeping all of these aspects in mind, I'm really excited to play with different angular "viewing windows" in the student lounge or class spaces that mimic the forms in the entry. (See the second and third inspiration images for more of an idea). 

Similarly, I plan to open up space between each floor of the classroom areas. At this point I've already opened up the top two floors of the warehouse space to one another and added south facing skylights to bring in more light and create an interesting focal point. Moving forward, I intend to emphasize this idea and carry it throughout multiple levels so the user can experience it visually from multiple perspectives. 

I'm really excited to see where I end up four weeks from now at the next review. Each week has brought about some tweaks here and there - from day to day, my thesis isn't the same. Hey, change is good, right?

Until next week!

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Three

Recently, I've had quite a few people tell me I'm crazy. Frankly, this isn't an uncommon occurrence. Somewhere along the way, my brain wired itself to do things the hard way and somehow, it wired itself to enjoy it. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't go out of my way to make things difficult for myself or anyone else, but if you give me the choice between the shortcut and the scenic route...I'm likely to pick the latter.

Anyway, why am I crazy you might ask? Thesis. But honestly, who isn't? Regardless, I'd been having trouble visualizing just how the four distinct buildings connected and interacted with one another. Since it is a semester long project, and since I desperately need a refresher course in Revit 101, I've been working on modeling my space in the program. I'd really like to give up on that notion and just use good ol' familiar SketchUp, but honestly I'd like to milk my thesis for everything it's worth. Unfortunately, my progress in virtual modeling has been much slower than I'd hoped, and I was getting pretty impatient without a visual, 3D representation of my space.

Enter two days of chipboard, exacto blades, and some serious sobo glue. This is where the crazy comes in. There's this magical thing in the Warehouse shop called a laser cutter...Woah. Fancy. I could have easily plopped each wall of my space into CAD, submitted a file, and emerged victorious with a perfectly cut, speedily produced model of my building. Where's the fun in that? Instead I measure, cut, and glue the entire thing by hand - certainly not a quick process by any means, but it's definitely one I enjoy. The physical act of making a model is extremely satisfying and somewhat therapeutic.

1/8" = 1' - 0" of the CabFab Building in all its glory

On top of its stress-relieving benefits, manually cutting and forming each space really helped me to understand the ins and outs of the building and gave me some formal ideas moving forward.

After discussion over the model with one of my professors, I got an interesting spin on what space planning I had done prior. One of the biggest issues I was having with my space was deciding on where to put the main entrance. I knew that for my programmatic requirements, it would have to move from its original location, but the area I thought about moving it to seemed to be in competition with the existing entry. Enter Professor Zeke flipping my project in the best way possible:

Why not move the entrance to the shipping & receiving dock?

It never would have occurred to me, but it's brilliant actually. This new entrance would be away from the existing one, allow for more traffic to access the building, and open up the existing parking lot to be used for outdoor green space. Needless to say, I was thrilled with this idea. What's most interesting to me at this point is the potential for the aesthetic and conceptual design of this entrance and the immediately adjacent reception/lobby/public space inside. My biggest concerns are keeping and emphasizing the existing industrial nature of the three larger buildings while also creating a visual and formal concept of those two familiar words - empowered pursuit. 

Space Planning Reloaded: The Sequel

So far, a lot of my thoughts on this involve a series of dualities - trade versus art, light versus dark, interior versus exterior. By opening up space between floors, my intent is to expose key structural elements while allowing for an interesting play of light filtering through the building - an idea that really drove some of my conceptual form work last semester. (The visual idea of empowered pursuit kept leading back to something with a strong direction and a movement from dark to light). Similarly, I'd love to introduce some element that ties the interior and exterior visually. In this way, the activities occurring within the walls of the center are literally and figuratively a starting point for a successful launch into the rest of the community and world. 

At this point, I'm thinking of using some sort of strong, angular forms referencing both my concept work from last semester and the structural beams seen in the current showroom space of the building. With steel or wood beams or columns being used in almost every space of the building, it'll be an exciting challenge to emphasize these elements in a thoughtful, designed way.

Talk to you soon!

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week One

So, it's week one of the sixteen short weeks remaining in my final year of my undergraduate career. Let's just take a moment to let that one sink in. I really do sound like a broken record, but I'm truly at a loss when it comes to how little time I have left here at Syracuse.

Anyway, enough dwelling on the future. Perhaps one of my most exciting, interesting, time-consuming, and anxiety-inducing projects this semester is none other than my senior thesis. I know you're no stranger to my thesis stress (or see this post if you are), but this semester will certainly encompass all of the above emotions even more than previous ones.

Not to beat a dead horse, but with this being the last semester in college, I'm facing the challenge of extreme time management in my thesis class, not to mention my life in general. This semester has the potential to be particularly challenging due to the relatively loose structure of the class. Less a few scheduled in-class reviews, my day-to-day progress and "assignments" are almost exclusively determined by me.

Generally, I consider myself okay at managing my time...once I get into the ever-elusive "work-mode." Give me an end goal and say "Go!" and I'm usually set. Although, with the end goal being sixteen weeks away, I'm finding myself mildly overwhelmed by the tasks at hand.

Time to use my noggin...

In a sort of "Ah ha!" moment, I decided to set out weekly goals for myself. Honestly, I'm not sure how productive I'd be on a day-to-day basis without some sort of plan in mind. It's pretty common knowledge that us college kids tend to avoid doing the majority of work until a week before we have a deadline or critique. It might have took four years to get here, but I'm seriously attempting to avoid that this semester. I guess I'll just have to keep reminding myself:

Do or do not. There is no try.

- Thanks Yoda -

Attempting to organize my life...maybe I should start with my desk.

Part of my need to give myself milestones is the fact that I want to get as much as possible out of this whole thesis thing. I figure, with a semester-long design project I should learn as much as I can. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly learn Revit (a building information modeling program for architects/engineers/designers) when I had a class devoted to it. My hope is that I'll be able to get really comfortable with the program by forcing myself to use/learn it for my thesis. I'm sure it'll be frustrating, and I'm sure I'll want to go on a computer smashing rampage at least two or three times, but it'll be worth it in the end...right?

Anyway, mentally preparing myself has been a valuable first step for me so far. I'm hopeful that I'll stay on task without placing unrealistic expectations on myself - guilty as charged. Can't wait to share my progress with you as I work through this exciting project! Check back next week.

Until next time,

Checking In

So, real talk...raise your hand if you feel like you're constantly being pulled in a million different directions?

...yeah, that's what I thought.

Honestly, this is far from a new phenomenon, but for some reason the feeling seems exponentially stronger right about now. Welcome to senior year, I suppose. 

With 18 credits, a 15-hour work week, volunteering for thesis, and a pathetic attempt to maintain a social life, it really shouldn't be that much a surprise I'm feeling this way. Let me tell you, the impending doom of graduation really motivates you to try and do everything, all the time...even if there isn't enough time in the day. I've got FOMO like you wouldn't believe, cause' let's be real - after this year, who knows where I'll be, who I'll be with, and what I'll be doing. In other words, I'm trying desperately to squeeze as much as I can into my last year at SU without a clue as to what I'll be doing in seven, short months. Call it a quarter-life crisis?

Typical night in the life of a college senior. Shield your eyes, children.

Regardless, I've been putting as much as I can into my classes without completely losing my mind. Insert smart relative here...can't lose what you never had...funny. Right now, I'm taking an interior design focus studio, thesis prep, history of illustration, accounting, textile handprinting, and a marketing class. Surprisingly, I don't hate accounting or my marketing class - I'd even go as far to say that the marketing class I'm taking is one of my favorites of the semester. Maybe I should tell you about it, eh? Alright, if you insist.

It's called Sales & Strategic Partnerships. Sounds fancy schmancy and super-businesslike right? Well, it is - the class largely focuses on business to business selling and is catered to retail management students. On the surface, it hardly seems like the type of class an interior design major, who has zero experience in selling much more than a large cup of coffee to a starving college student, would have any interest in. Fair point, but it's actually turned out to have more overlap with what I do as an interior designer than I could have anticipated.

(Shameless plug...any retail management minor, marketing minor, or design student should try to take this class...it's awesome, I promise)

What's been most relatable/beneficial so far are the ideas of building rapport and discovering needs. Sales is largely based on creating meaningful relationships built on trust and then working with a prospect to really figure out what they need. Hmmm...sounds familiar. Working with clients as an interior designer requires a whole heck of a lot of trust - after all, I'm coming into your life/workplace/institution and dumping ideas on you right? I'm certainly not going to come in completely oblivious to the needs you have in relation to space, either. Anyway, this class has been a semester-long exercise in learning how to go about finding those needs as well as persuading - not manipulating - people that you're offering effective solutions to those needs. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Anyway...let's talk thesis. Gross, I know. This semester has been full of research, observation, and experimentation - it's mind-numbing really. Starting out, we were asked to identify three things we loved or were interested in. Naturally, coffee was the first to come to mind, followed closely by kids and education. After a few weeks of deep thought and mulling through ideas, I finally decided to combine kids and education...because, well, they pretty much go hand-in-hand.

Now, ten weeks of research later, I've chosen a location, topic, and focus for my interior design thesis. Using the Syracuse City School District as my focus, I've found that middle and high school students are in need of motivation to learn as well as an outlet to deal with issues occurring outside the classroom and often in the home environment. Looking forward, I intend to create a space that fosters improved academic performance as well as a sense of self-efficacy among inner-city students through a creative arts lens.

Now what does this space look like and how does it function, you ask? What a great question! Next semester really focuses on the programming and physical design of the space based on the research we've collected. That being said, I've already started exploring what our thesis looks like conceptually. A few weeks ago, my class was required to narrow our ideas down to two words - yes, just two. After a lot of stumbling over words, I boiled it down to empowered pursuit. Since then we've all produced tons of scrap models, endless sketches, and three final models. Check out what empowered pursuit looks like to me below:

Check back soon for more musings from a stressed out college kid! Mmmm...your favorite!

Until next time,