5007 Steps

It takes 5007 steps from the stoop of my apartment to reach the farthest point of Prospect Park and to return home. I can usually make the journey in forty-five minutes.

It’s great to have a rhythm and a routine. Even the familiar sites of a favorite path through the city make life that much more enjoyable.

I only have two weeks left in New York. How quickly this time has gone! There’s lots left to do here, but I am beginning to realize that one person can’t do everything.

I shaved all my facial hair last week and it feels strange to have long hair now that I actually have to comb. I don’t think I’ll keep it long when I get back to school. Maybe I will.

I finished Catcher in the Rye. It only took one day. I loved the setting since I could recognize all the New York locations, but I think the book is pretty empty. Maybe I’ll blog about it later. I’m not sure if the book is even worth blogging about.

One last note: lots of love to Weezer. As a Lost fan I was overjoyed to see the show get 12 Emmy nominations and even more overjoyed to see that my second-favorite band will be releasing it’s latest album Hurley with Jorge Garcia’s face on the cover. Listen to the song here.

You stay classy planet earth.

N8

Snips

I usually don’t tell people that I cut my own hair. I’ve been doing it since last summer, and it’s been a real journey of self-discovery. I like the feel of having short hair and of being able to run my fingers through it. Feeling the breeze on my head when I walk or ride my bike is very liberating.

At the same time, long hair is very stylish. Having a long head of groomed hair seems so majestic and free. Having short, buzzed hair seems to imply a militaristic or Spartan reserve. A buzz cut is the sign of a man who is regulated, either by his own will or someone else’s.

With all this in mind I found it very strange when my roommate, after watching me cut my own hair, asked me to cut his as well. Now, to set the record straight, my roommate has a lot of hair. I could never imagine having so much hair in a this hot New York summer, but he manages to pull it off pretty well and so I was shocked when he asked me to cut most of it off (firstly because I think longer hair is stylish, and secondly because I’ve never cut anyone’s hair but my own!)

Nevertheless, I took on the challenge and gave him a haircut. It was a really strange experience – I was altering the way he looked in a very permanent way and he trusted me to do what I thought looked fashionable and feasible. I don’t often have that kind of responsibility. Or do I?
















THE FARNSWORTH HOUSE: A BUZZ HAIRCUT?


I see all sorts of parallels between cutting hair and architecture. A haircut is like the design of a building – the client puts his livelihood in an architect’s hands and expects the architect and his (or her) team to create a space that is both beautiful and pragmatic. Essentially, architecture is like a very permanent, very expensive haircut.

How does this play out in the built environment? Just like hairstyles change over time, so do building types. Some buildings can be very clean-cut (compare Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House to a buzz haircut) while others can be very formed and sculpted compare Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall to the “Big Hair” styles of the 70’s).














WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL: BIG HAIR?

As an architecture student, I am essentially learning how to “cut hair” and develop a style at a slightly larger and more permanent scale. I think New York is a great place for seeing a whole range of “styles”, but every place has its own vernacular design and its own culture to convey. I need to learn how to take what I see from nature and the built environment and craft it into buildings that are responsive to the physical and ecological themes of the place. I need to learn how to create something that exemplifies utility, commodity, and beauty. And maybe I need to give a few more haircuts too.

CAPS LOCK

For the past week my boss's keyboard has been broken. He always writes his emails giving me recommendations and advice for what to do on the projects at hand, and I find his messages very helpful. However, his computer is very old and his keyboard is currently broken so that the caps lock cannot be turned off.

Normally if I receive an email in all-caps I delete it as spam, but I have been living with my boss's emails flying at me in all caps for the past week. It's a really weird phenomenon, but for some reason, CAPS LOCK IS GENERALLY PERCEIVED AS ANGER AND AGGRESSION. Plus it's just poor typographical form. Anyways, I've been a bit on edge at work when I receive his "angry" emails, (but just to set the record straight my boss is a great guy).

This brings me to my main point. New York is a city with its caps-lock key stuck on. Almost everywhere I've been and almost everything I've seen is either superlative, excessive, over-sized, or overwhelming. The buildings are bigger, the people are more forward, the culture is more diverse, and the lifestyle is WAY more fast paced. I enjoy it, but just like my boss's emails, it certainly has been keeping me on edge.
Times Square is a perfect example of this kind of "Caps lock" lifestyle. I commute through the square every day and recently I made the mistake of walking above ground during peak operating hours. Here's a photo of what it looks like.

TIMES SQUARE, NEW YORK

A Different Perspective

A panoramic view from my office window

This place is nuts! It is impossible to get bored in New York - everywhere I've been there has always been something going on that is new and unexpected.

Yesterday I was riding the subway and it was very full. Every now and then a homeless person comes onboard and begs subway riders for money for one reason or another - some because they have a family to look after, others because they need to get food for the night - but yesterday instead of a lone beggar coming onto the subway, two older men stepped aboard and, although they were both homeless, they began singing to entertain the passengers. Where else in the world could this possibly happen?!

It was so neat. I think the urban built environment caters perfectly to these kinds of encounters, and I look forward to many more such adventures while I'm here.

This brings me to think that although I originally intended for this blog to be about a design student's perspective of architecture removed from specific personal places or experiences, perhaps more can be learned and disseminated by sharing the specific events of one person in one particular place. The events and situations that I will experience while I'm in New York are some of the most exposed that anyone could have to the world of architecture and design, and so I shouldn't limit my posts to generic musings, but should instead describe my personal adventures in the city and then link them back to the larger themes.

Just as I started this post off with a panorama of the view from my office window, let me close it with another wide-angle perspective. Even though the world is big and daunting, sometimes zooming in and focusing on our own particular encounters and strengths is the best way to make the most of our situations and opportunities. Let me finish with this quote,

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Wild at Heart by John Eldredge."

Big Apple

So this is what New York is like?

It’s been a whirlwind trip going from a school schedule at the University of Cincinnati to a busy city schedule in the Big Apple. I’m spending my summer working for an architecture firm in downtown Manhattan and it’s definitely going to be an adventure! Exams in a lecture hall one day and dim sum in a busy Chinatown restaurant the next? I can’t believe I’m actually here.

I have always heard that an internship is crucial for students so that they can gain practical exposure in real-world situations. I’ve also heard that the application of skills learned at school helps to put all the work we do into better perspective. So far all that advice has been right! But what nobody has ever told me is how an internship builds life skills (street smarts?). I’m definitely experiencing that now, and I hope that by working at an architecture firm I will be exposed to the reality of the working world and that I will be able to make contacts, experiences, and memories here that I can bring back to Cincinnati for school in the Fall.

I was anticipating that work would be very tiresome and intensive (and it has been so far) but traveling to New York and finding a place to live was an adventure in itself! After sleeping on an air mattress for two nights with some friends and visiting a plethora of apartments throughout the ensuing days, I finally found a place in Queens and I can safely say that New York is beginning to feel a bit more like home.

So far the craziest thing about New York is the Subway. I love it! It’s very similar to the London Underground, except it’s dirtier and there aren’t any posh British voices condescendingly reminding me to “mind the gap.” My commute to work is one hour long – I need to find a book or a puzzle to do on the train – but I have to transfer through Times Square every morning during rush hour, which is certainly an adventure!

I look forward to updating this blog to tell more about my adventures – I still consider it the “perspective of an architecture student,” although right now some of the most exciting things about living in the city have little to do with architecture. Cheers for now!