Kerouac

Happy birthday.

Art project

Off to the judge and jury.

Cal trans

Los Angeles

Last weekend I had the pleasure of going to Downtown Los Angeles.  The city was absolutely beautiful on Saturday, and if it wasn't for the pollen infesting the entire area, it would have been perfect.  Regardless, I got to visit a building by Thom Mayne: The Cal Trans Headquarters.

A beautiful sight/site to behold, and it was incredible to see the intricate details and elegance that were put into the design.

And of course, thanks to my wonderful and beautiful girlfriend for coming along, after I dragged her to see it.

The Art of Learning Art.

I started taking an art class and architecture class at a nearby community college.  While it seems like an awesome idea, the art class is intimidating and somewhat scary.  In other words, I have no idea what I'm doing in that classroom.  To make things worse, I am surrounded by a bunch of "advanced" students, or art majors who are taking the class for fits and giggles.  Sigh.

As much as it scares me...I do think this class will help me immensely.  All the different supplies are expensive and probably worthless after this class, but at least I will know how to use them, or how they can be applied in the impossible case that I become a world renowned artist.  I do think I will have a good time, at least when I look back on this class next year when I don't have to sit next to smelly hippies expressing their anger at the 1% by drawing banks on fire and inevitably judging my rudimentary sketches.  Yes that's right, we have to present our drawings and take criticism.  A presentation I am not looking forward to.  Still, it is part of the process.  Creating is always judged, and so being an architect (fingers crossed) will require the same type of presentations to clients/instructors.  So it will be a good skill to hone.

In any case, wish me luck as I dive into the abyss of art and artists for a semester.  Hopefully I will make it out alive.

A Well Light Oil Refinery and a Suggestive Power Plant.

Every time I drive down from LA, I count landmarks.  Mostly, these are pretty mundane and forgettable to most people that trek down the 405/5, but there are a couple that I always look forward to.  The first one is a Nuclear Power Plant in San Onofre, that is mostly known to the residents for its anatomical resemblances:

The Ocean's Boob Job

What interests me the most about power plants in SoCal are their locations: Right on the Beach.  There are literally people in beach chairs right on the other side of this massive, nuclear structure.  As a kid, I remember going to a beach in Carlsbad, and we would park outside of a power plant, and swim in the water beneath it.  I'm not suggesting the water was polluted or it was an environmental hazard, but I immediately accepted it as part of the surrounding.  In other words, I saw it as a rock on a cliff, an inherent part of the beach.





The next landmark that I always look forward to is the main focus of my trip:  The Long Beach Oil Refinery.

While it's not much to look at in the daytime, at night, it's a dystopian dream that's about to turn into a nightmare.  A Borg Civilization or mechanical society.  Total Recall.  Death Star. etc.

The structure reminds me that buildings don't have to be beautiful to elicit emotional responses.  The refinery here demands attention, and is almost impossible for me to look away from when I drive by it at night.

While both of these buildings are disturbing (in the sense that I wouldn't want to work/live at them), they are also marvelous.  They make me think and reflect on the world we live in today, and how structures reflect the current state of humanity. Power Plant Beach.  Long Beach Refinery.  The world is evolving around us, and we must design to accomidate.  But how we choose to design these structures tells a story of our civilization.  The beach plant reminds me that Power and Energy are so ingrained into our quotidian lives that we just overlook and assume it's there.  Just like a rock in our yard, we don't think it's going anywhere or wonder where it came from.  And in a sense, we don't care.

The refinery reminds me of the limited resources we have, and how our society, that is so dependent on oil, has the potential to turn the American Dream into the American Nightmare.

In any case, both of these structures are a symbol to me.  Not just of our society, but how close to home I am as I drive down the freeway.  Perhaps that is a metaphor in itself, but I have drifted away from the point I want to emphasize right now: design gets its message across, whether intentional or not, or disturbing or wonderful (or both).

Authors

These are the two authors who have inspired me the most throughout my literary wanderings:

EDITS: Okay, Kerouac still looks pretty awful, and Joyce looks like he walked out of a Simpsons episode, but I updated Kerouac a little bit, and added the real pictures next to them.

update

Wow it has been a long time since I have posted in here!  I have been very busy finishing up my applications and getting involved in all the holiday rumbles.  But everything seems to be almost done, and now is just the part to relax before looking everything over and deciding it's ready to go.

For my portfolio, I ended up printing it at Fedex, which turned out pretty nicely!  I only printed one as a test run, then altered a few of the mistakes I found (moving text down so the binding doesn't cut through it, etc.), and am now waiting for a review before I print them all out.

In the meantime, I've been trying to research what kind of architecture I ultimately want to do.  I do like the idea of commercial, and the way the challenge changes from building to building, but at the same time I love the residential aspect of architecture too.  Fortunately, the decision is a long way off, and I will have more exposure to both regions.

I have been trying to sketch lately, but after stressing out about my portfolio for so long, it's nice to take a couple week's break.  I'm sure I'll be back at it soon.

Coming soon:  The Globe Theater...MODERNIZED

Friday Night

I've been trying to write my personal statement, and I have ended up with a giant mess.  Too many ideas that went in different directions, an unclear "thesis", and about ten paragraphs that don't connect to each other at all.

So to sort out this mess, I am taking a break, then perhaps starting from scratch.  Of course, the material I've written will come in handy.  Anyways, I decided to show you some things I've been doing at work.

We started a BEQ project with over 500 units.  The kitchenette in these units are small.  Like 18" deep by 18" wide.  Next to the kitchenette is a micro-fridge, which comes higher up than the kitchenette.  Now, what is supposed to happen, is that a shelf is right above the micro-fridge.  However, it just doesn't work.  At least not yet.

In this picture, you can see the shelf has no support on the left side, and it's just sticking out into space.  We could just finish the edge so it's smooth and uniform, but there is still a problem:  the microwave that goes on top.  Yes, it is a shelf for a microwave, which will collapse the shelf without a support.

I submitted an RFI for the issue, and hopefully the architect will get back to me soon.

I do like the design however.  I think the full-height backsplashes and cladding on the wall looks really good, and shelves will look good once the issue gets figured out too.  For clarity sake: the company I work for is only doing the solid surface.  The sink, cabinet, fridge and plywood is all provided by others.

 

I have enjoyed working on the submittal for this project, and will be excited to get these into production.  The job doesn't start for a few more months at the earliest, so there is still a lot of work to be done on the design, and collaboration with the cabinet subcontractor and the plumbing subcontractor.

Pages One and Two

The Plan Rack.

Our office had plans.  A lot of plans.

So I designed a rack to store them in.  I first created an extremely rough sketch which I didn't even bother to keep or take a picture of.  Then I did a CAD drawing:




I put the .dxf file on a DVD-RW, gave it to Oscar downstairs to run through the CAD machine, then voila:

The Cedar House finally.

So this weekend, I spent most of my time working on a portfolio to put together for applications.  I finished the entire Cedar House, and have posted some of the slides from the portfolio collection.  These are in no way final, and I am probably going to change the design around a few times before I actually decide on what to get printed.  Ugh.  Stressful.  I am excited to just get it over with.

oops

Yikes.  It's been way too long since I posted on this blog.  I have been busy though, I haven't been slacking off...too much anyways.

This weekend I got a chance to sketch some awful pictures, but I also managed to get a section detail completed.  Awesome.  So here:

Section 

So after I completed this scaled drawing, which I didn't bother putting dimensions on for aesthetic reasons, I had to make the section in sketchup, which actually took longer, and a lot more clicks of the "hide" button then I would have liked.  But what can you do?  It didn't take too long, and I managed to get a pretty good shot.  Granted, I can't take it in 2D, so the 3D aspect is still there, but you'll get the idea.

So, yes.  I removed the tree and replaced it with an oversized fountain.  Modern, and the trickle would be kind of soothing, wouldn't it.


On a somewhat unrelated note, I have two important staples on my desk:  An Einstein action figure and a miniature camel (made of camel hide, not a real camel) from Morocco, whose name is appropriately Paulo.  Whenever I am stuck designing, creating, writing, or finding something to do, I inevitably wind up staring at them until an idea pops into my head.  This time, Einstein gave me the idea for the square fountain.  So if you don't like it...blame Einstein.   

Happy October

Physics Park Updates

Q Cafe Update

XYZ slide...per special request!  (I am also putting this on grass...sandbox experiment failed RE: Next Picture)

Comprehensive view

Page for Portfolio

Sketch for Wind-Up Bird Chronicles

Good Grief

Last night I was pretty excited to post some pictures up on here...until I accidently clicked the "don't save" button instead of the "save" button.  The utter frustration caused me to step away from the computer immediately, and try to calm down.  So I played Uncharted on PS3.  Upon which I started dying, increasing frustration.  So I finished reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.  Not a bright warm fuzzy feeling book, but an amazing and incredibly well written.  The imagery the author uses is amazing and inspired a sketch which I have not yet finished, and thus not yet posted.

Now that I have had a good 18 hours after my clumsy, data-erasing, life-wasting mistake, I can post pictures up.

The Cedar House

 Yes, the tree is finally inside the house.  And as basic as it is, it serves it's purpose.  Clean air for everyone that is rich and wants to feel environmentally better about themselves.

The walkway is a whole separate issue, and I need a landscaper to add flowers/gardens/etc.

 To give you an idea of how the tree gets light, and how the house saves energy, I put a hole on the roof.  Well, it's not a hole, it is a glass/plastic substitute.  Just like Cowboy Stadium, God can look down and watch his favorite football...err family.




Now for my favorite wasted effort:

The Kitchen/Pantry

This kitchen took me awhile to figure out.  I even made that oven, and the pantry in the back, the countertops...sigh.  I think I'll be able to do those pretty quickly though.  Plus, I still haven't decided on a color scheme for any of the furniture/paint/everything, as you can see by the stairs and rest of the inside of the first level of the house.

Tonight I will try to replace all these elements and more, and thanks to God, the NFL lockout ended, and the Cowboys are on Monday Night Football, so I can sketchup and watch football simultaneously.  Hopefully I'll be able to post the replacement pictures up tonight, but we'll see how far I manage to get.

Until next time,

Robert

Too much Tim Burton

Pictures!

Physics Park

Out of the blue today I got an urge to create a physics museum.  So I did.

The Cafe

Eye View

Pythagorean Wall

Entrance