Author Archives: David

About David

I like architecture, urban design, trains, movies, music, and beer. Not necessarily in that order.

Checking In

Leave a reply

Quick check-in here….

Columbia summer program is challenging, intense, and fun… It’s very much like a 5-week architecture boot camp. Some aspects of the program, like basic drafting and model-building techniques, are very old-school for me, and it’s been interesting to sit back and listen to the critic explain the whole concept of architectural scale (i.e., 1/4″ = 1′-0″) to a room full of people who have never heard of such a thing. On the other hand, I continue to struggle with a lot of the abstract concepts and heavy theory being tossed around. I’m starting to think that while I’m a pretty good architect, I’m a pretty crappy architecture student.

I went out and got Chinese take-out for dinner this evening, and the message in my fortune cookie was, “A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.” Somehow it seems apt.

Things will be getting even more challenging for the final 2.5 weeks of the program, as I’m now working about 20 hours a week, which will cut into the time I have to devote to my studio projects. I was hoping to be able to get through the Columbia program without having to work, but that’s simply not financially possible for me.

Speaking of work, today was my first day at the new gig, and it went pretty well. Lots of orientation stuff, being introduced to lots of people whose names I instantly forget (I really suck at remembering names), and getting acquainted with their policies, standards, practices, etc. Pretty uneventful overall, but so far the place seems like a pretty tight ship.

Still haven’t sold the car yet, so I’ve just knocked another $1000 off the asking price.

That’s all for now….

I Got an Offer!

Leave a reply

…And a pretty generous one at that: $17k more than I was making at my old job in Chicago. Apparently they either didn’t notice the open fly or didn’t mind.

I haven’t accepted it yet, but I’m 99% sure that I will… In the meantime, I think I’ll go out for a celebratory meal and a couple drinks.

Job Interview

Leave a reply

The job interview went very well, I think… Nice people, good projects, cool office, they seem competent and professional, they liked my work, and they didn’t burst out laughing when we got to the dreaded salary negotiation portion of the meeting. I managed not to fart or make any inappropriate comments about politics or religion, and I even managed not to badmouth my former employers (that took some effort). I have the feeling they’ll make an offer, and I should be hearing back from them next week.

So I leave their office feeling pretty confident, and before getting back on the subway I stop into a hotel along the way to use the restroom. There, to my horror, I discover that while the zipper on my fly was up, the zipper itself had somehow come apart, effectively leaving my fly open during the entire interview (not to mention on the subway ride down and the walk to/from the office). This is a brand-new suit, and the first time I’ve worn these pants outside of a dressing room.

So now I get to make an unplanned trip down to Lord & Taylor to have them fix this thing before I have any more wardrobe malfunctions during subsequent job interviews next week.

KPF Office Tour, Other Issues

Leave a reply

We had our tour of KPF this morning, which was interesting. Lots of nice projects and tons of cool study models stashed everywhere… At my last job, I never saw a single model being built in that office in two years of working there. I think that may become one of my criteria for evaluating prospective employers: Lots of study models = good. No study models = bad.

KPF sort of reminded me of Perkins + Will in terms of their corporate culture and general approach to design. Probably a bit too big for my taste (both in terms of the firm size and the typical project size), but as far as big corporate firms go, they’re doing some pretty nice work. The guys who showed us around were very cool, seemed to know their stuff well, and had a genuine interest in meeting with us.

Their office itself, though, was a big letdown. I guess I was sort of expecting lots of open spaces, high ceilings, clean lines, and high-tech detailing… Instead it was sort of a claustrophobic warren of various rooms, with a very 1980’s PoMo feeling to it all. It’s obvious they’ve been in that space for a long time, and everything had a pretty tired look. They’d be well-served by either renovating that space or moving into some new digs.

Long day in studio today, as we’re trying to wrap up our second project. In a nutshell, we have to build models that represent certain inherent characteristics of a number (from 0 to 9) that we’ve been randomly assigned. I have the number 9. Our critic mentioned that I seem to have a good knack for visualizing interesting spaces and a high level of craftsmanship, but that I need more of a theoretical concept — more of an agenda — to base it on. I tend to agree, as theory is probably my weakest point. I’ve always had a good intuitive design/aesthetic sense and a strong attention to detail, but I tend to find that most architectural theory goes right over my head. This dilemma was also reflected in many of the comments about my grad school portfolio a few months ago here on archinect…. Looks like I have my work cut out for me.

My first of several job interviews is tomorrow morning… This is the firm that’s gotten pretty good reviews on insidearch.org, and seems to do decent design work. In the words of one reviewer, “Maybe not the starting lineup, but definitely major league material.” Time to bust out my brand-new Kenneth Cole black suit and shoes.

I’ve since heard back from a couple other firms that also want to meet with me… I’m pretty shocked at the response I’ve gotten. I’ve sent out 24 resumes and have gotten 5 callbacks so far… In 2004, I got about the same number of callbacks after sending out over a hundred resumes. What a difference three years makes.

Columbia Summer Studio: Random Thoughts

Leave a reply

Random thoughts about Columbia GSAPP and other issues of the day:

1. I’m thinking about starting a drinking game, in which we take a shot each time we hear the word “emergence” being uttered in Avery Hall.

2. Quote of the day: “We wouldn’t be sitting here on a theory panel if any of us had a normal relationship to practice.”

3. I’ll most likely cancel my interview with the Firm From Hell mentioned in my last post, considering I no intention of working in that sort of environment again, although part of me wouldn’t mind showing up anyway and asking them lots of pointed questions about the issues raised above. But if it’s anything like my last firm (which it seems to be in every detail), the partners most likely don’t have any ability nor inclination to change a thing about the way they run the firm, and it would be a waste of time for everybody involved for me to even darken their door.

4. Office tour of KPF first thing in the morning, and we’re touring Polshek’s office next week. There’s actually a lot of office tours being offered as part of this Columbia program (Libeskind, REX, Vinoly, Meier’s model archive, and many others among them) but unfortunately we were only permitted to pick a maximum of two office tours per person. Should be interesting.

In the Elevator with Peter Eisenman

Leave a reply

In lieu of the “Architecture Sucks” t-shirt I was considering, today I wore a t-shirt that I had bought online some time ago. It’s black with white lettering, and has a silhouette of George Costanza of Seinfeld fame and some text. I don’t have an image of it, but imagine something like this:

Vandelay Industries


Latex, Architecture,
Importing & Exporting

For those of you unfamiliar with Avery Hall, our studio is on the 5th floor. The administrative offices are on the 4th floor, and the main auditorium is in the basement. The floors are connected with one very small, very slow elevator.

My classmates and I were up in studio, and around noon, began to head downstairs to the auditorium to hear Mark Wigley and Peter Eisenman give their talk. Some of us decided to grab the elevator, and we pretty much filled it up. The doors close, and the elevator begins its descent.

We stop on the 4th floor on the way down. The doors open, and none other than Mark Wigley and Peter Eisenman decide to squeeze on, and the conversation in the elevator comes to an abrupt halt. I end up standing belly-to-belly with Eisenman, with Wigley behind him, looking over his shoulder. Both of them are obviously reading my t-shirt. The elevator doors close, and we’re moving downward once again. Nobody speaks.

After a couple seconds, Eisenman simply says, “George Costanza.”

I try to smile politely. “Yep,” I manage to utter.

What follows next is about thirty seconds of awkward silence as the elevator makes its way to the basement. I’m still belly-to-belly with Eisenman, and Wigley is still looking at my t-shirt from over Eisenman’s shoulder.

.

.

.

.

.

Finally the doors open, and that’s the end of the encounter. I can’t help but wonder what the conversation would have been like if I had worn my “Architecture Sucks” shirt.

As for the talk itself, all the heavy theory and discourse was a welcome change from two years of listening to my former boss yammer on and on about “strategic design” and marketing. I won’t go into detail what the talk was about (theme: corners), but I generally found that Mark Wigley was witty, engaging, and seemed to make a lot of sense, listening to Eisenman talk pretty much made me want to shoot myself in the face.

In other news, I’ve heard back from one firm I contacted in response to an ad on Archinect, and they want to interview me. Not a moment too soon, as I never cease to be amazed at how easy it is to piss away money in this city. Stay tuned.

Columbia Summer Studio: Day One

Leave a reply

Well, there goes Day One of the Columbia summer studio… Lots of paperwork, introductions, orientation stuff, getting-to-know-you things. We already have our first assignment, and it’s due on Monday… They certainly throw you into the deep end right at the get-go. Overall it looks like it will be very intense, fun time.

Tomorrow evening is another of a series of discussion/lectures by Mark Wigley and Peter Eisenman… Should be interesting. I’ve heard a lot about those two, and it will be nice to finally see them in the flesh. Should I wear my “Architecture Sucks” t-shirt? Maybe I’ll wait until I’m better friends with my studio critic before I bust that one out.

Arrival

Leave a reply

Well, I’ve been in NYC for about 24 hours now, and I finally have a minute to catch my breath after running all over the place for errands and official Columbia business.

I left Chicago around 5:30 PM on Saturday (a few hours later than I was hoping, but oh well), spent the night near Cleveland, and got into NYC around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. Aside from the usual traffic delays around Chicago and NYC and some construction delays in Pennsylvania, the trip was uneventful. As of yesterday, at one time or another I have moved from Chicago to each of the three biggest cities in the northeast: Chicago to Boston in 2000, Chicago to Philly in 2002, and Chicago to NYC in 2007.

Funny how each time I moved back to Chicago, it didn’t take me long to remember why I left in the first place… Never say “never,” of course, but this time I have the feeling that I’ve finally left Chicago for good. Maybe I would have felt more inclined to stay in Chicago if I had a better job there or if all my old friends there hadn’t gotten married, started having kids, and/or moved away or if there were better education options for me there. Oh well… I’ll always have some fondness for Chicago, but for now I’m just glad to be out.

Upon arrival at Columbia University I got my housing assignment, which is for a fairly large private room within a suite on 113th Street. Nothing special, but it will suffice. So far my cat seems to be handling dorm life without any problems. He’s behaved very well throughout the trip.

Today I dropped my car off at a garage over in Newark, took PATH back into the city, did some paperwork for Columbia housing, got my Columbia ID, and took care of a few other odds and ends.

Last night I was able to take a stroll around Greenwich Village, and today I did some walking around the financial district… I had forgotten just how much of a sensory overload this city can be. There’s usually something interesting to see no matter what direction you’re looking… It’s thrilling when you first arrive here, but it can become wearisome after a while… I think the secret to staying sane in NYC is to have some sort of escape destination outside the city you can head to when things get crazy here.

I haven’t decided yet, but tomorrow I may head down to Philadelphia while I still have my car and some free time… It’s been a while since I’ve been back there, and it would be nice to see the old stomping grounds again. And one of these days I’ll make it up to Boston for a visit… I haven’t set foot in that city since 2000.

And So It Begins…

Leave a reply

Up until now, this whole idea of moving 800 miles from Chicago to NYC had been just an abstraction. But today I finally began packing, and what had been a tastefully-furnished Lincoln Park apartment a couple hours ago is now beginning to resemble the closing scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark:

 

With that, the reality of this major life change is finally sinking in; until today there had been a sense that I could still change my mind about the whole thing. Now, it feels like there’s no turning back. I really hope I’m not doing something incredibly stupid.

Most of my stuff isn’t coming to NYC with me just yet. It will be put into storage here in Chicago over the next few days, and then next weekend I’ll load my Jeep with only the bare essentials I’ll need while at Columbia for the summer (computer, clothing, studio supplies, cat, etc.) and hit the road. I have a secure parking spot for the Jeep reserved near a PATH station in Newark, and I’ll take my chances bringing my cat into the dorm at Columbia.

Once I get permanent housing in NYC — which will require me getting a job and a few paychecks under my belt — I’ll need to fly back to Chicago, load my shit into a Penske truck, and make yet another I-80 pilgrimage.

Beverly Hills Supper Club: May 28, 1977

Leave a reply

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire, which killed 165 people just down the street from where I grew up. I was too young to remember it at the time, but my family’s church lost several members in the fire. Even today, the area remains haunted by memories of the fire, and the building site remains empty.

The fire was especially tragic because it was largely the result of multiple building code violations and could have easily been prevented. Such a stupid waste.

Take a moment to remember the victims of the fire, as well as those left behind who remain haunted by the memories of that terrible night.