The last few weeks have been really busy for me, but mostly with a lot of fun activities. For my roommate's birthday last week, we went out with a group of sixteen or seventeen to the North End for dinner. We ate at Trattoria il Panino-this really, really small one roomed restaurant. It was a very fun time; the food was excellent-maybe the best pasta I've had. And we stopped at Mike's Pastries for desert (which in my opinion can never be a bad thing).

This week I'm starting my new project for my studio. The assignment is to design a museum space, with a focus on natural lighting through windows and a stair to join the rooms, for two paintings: Saint Luke Painting the Virgin and Child and The Daughters of Edward Darley Bolt, which I went to go see at the Museum of Fine Arts. I'm excited to see the end result with all the new computer software we'll be using to render it.

Last night was the Beanpot-which for those of you that don't know is a hockey tournament between Harvard, BC, BU, and Northeastern in the TD Banknorth Garden. It was nice to see how packed the NU section of the stadium was, full of black and red spirit, especially in comparison to the other university's nearly empty sections. And despite our loss to Harvard, it was a very fun time!

As the semester is already drawing to a close, there has been a lot of activities going on around campus in addition to the building of final coursework. On Monday, I attended the 5th Annual Honors evening with many of my fellow honors students. It was very interesting to see all the Junior and Senior projects that NU students have completed. I was impressed with the caliber of research that was presented throughout. The ceremony and dinner was a great time as well. I found Professor Setta's address to be a very intriguing spin on applying traditional religious values from various cultures to modern society.

With the warmer weather coming too, its been nice to get out into the city and explore a little more. Being in my first year, I am still getting to know the city, and it's exciting to visit many new areas.

I've been busy with my studio work for digital representation. I've been developing my concept for a cafe in the Christian Science Center Plaza. We've gone on site visits to see other outdoor seasonal cafes that exist throughout the city. We were able to go to Boston Seaport to explore some beautiful cafes that opened right onto the river. It was inspiring to see how they handled siting within such an urban setting to essentially create a landscape that enforced a sense of "nature."

It's hard to believe that in three days I will be done with my freshman year. There's been so much going on in the past few weeks of the semesters. I've really had to buckle down the past few days on my digital representation project for my presentation on Wednesday. I've probably racked up over fifty or sixty hours on it this week alone, which has been really difficult with the nice weathering luring everybody outside.

Last week I got a little reprieve though; my friends and I went to a Tristan Prettyman concert at the Paradise Rock Club, which is right near BU's campus. So not only did I get to enjoy a great show, but I got to see a little of BU's campus. I hadn't really seen much of their campus before, but I found that it is much different than the Northeastern campus--much more spread out. Seeing this made me appreciate the fact that we have a very centralized campus even more. (I personally didn't like the idea of taking the T to class or having the university spread throughout the city buildings.)

Tomorrow also is the University's Sustainability Forum, which will talk about NU's carbon footprint, sustainable development measures, and future plans for improvement. To me, it is really exciting to see more and more universities around the country making strides to a more environmentally-friendly approach within their infrastructure. After learning so much in my environmental studies classes about how many problems the world's facing in terms of global climate change and how drastic improvements can be made by taking what seem to be such minor steps, it is really encouraging to see such an event taking place.

So I've already been home for break for over a week. It's been really nice to be able to spend time with my family, and couple friends (most aren't home from their schools yet). I've even started my summer job already, so I'll be able to save some for spending money next year. I am already missing school and everyone there though.

I recently got a comment from an accepted student who raised a lot of very good questions that I'm sure are shared by the majority of accepted students, so I thought I'd share them and my answers here.

*"Have you really had to do the famous all nighters for your arch classes?"
I personally have never had to pull an all-nighter, but I'm really disciplined with pacing myself and my workload. I'll sacrifice a lot of my time consistently to successfully finish my projects. I would stay in the studio for manual til 3:00 or 3:30 in the morning some nights (on the weekends too!) cause I had so much to do and it was impossible for me to do a good job and finish it in a night. But, it really is dependent on how long you procrastinate and how quickly you work. The majority of students have been forced to stay up all night to finish some sort of project though, especially before final crits on the final projects.

*"Do you feel like you have really good quality professors?"
Most of them were really really good, and I really enjoyed their classes. My manual representation professor was great looking back, and it's nice in the studios cause you get to spend so a lot of one-on-one time with them that you really build rapport and get really comfortable (you're even on a strictly first-name basis, that's how they introduce and refer to themselves). It makes for a very collaborative environment where you really get a lot out of the courses.
Outside of architecture, I've been talking environmental classes, and I've been impressed with the caliber of the professors. They all have been really active in important research and social movements.

*"I know the arch major is pretty structured - do you have room for electives or a minor?"
Yes, you definitely will have room for electives and a minor, but pick your courses carefully in advance. I'm glad I decided early about my minor cause I've been able to work with my schedule to fit everything I need in. Keep in mind too, the university as a whole has gen. ed. requirements so they have to allow some time in your schedule to fit in those, but if you have a lot of those credits already with transfer credits (from AP or whatever else), then you can pick whichever classes you need for a minor or just what you want to take. You can also pick gen. ed. requirement classes that also fulfill credits towards your minor.

*"I'll be coming in with 30 transfer credits ... did you have/do you know anyone who's had experience with transferring credits? Hard? Easy?"
I actually came in which about 24 transfer credits from AP tests and a college level course I took my senior year. It really wasn't bad, I don't even remember if I had to do anything or if it was done for me. So I guess it couldn't have been too grueling.

*"I'm really interested in sustainability and environmental design.. and I think I read on one of your blog entries that you are too! Is there a class focusing on that? Do you get to sort of do specialized projects to fit your interests?"
As a freshman I haven't really had the opportunity to work on very specialized projects yet, cause I'm still developing my skill sets and learning about the field more generally. But it seems like later, as you progress, you can take more liberty to develop projects in a way that interests you. For now though, we are more focused on general design issues, schemes, and reasoning. I have been learning soo much though in my environmental classes, and have found the links to architecture really common and prominent. As I get farther it seems I will have the opportunities to really take project in directions that I want to go.

*"Could you tell me a little bit about the benefits [of the honors program] and what you really like about it? Also, are there things you don't like about the program?"
Well, housing is the first thing that comes to mind. In the honors programs one of the biggest perks is that honors student get much nicer housing, especially as freshman (also dependent on how much you want to spend). There are also a lot of opportunities in the honors programs to do extra projects, service activities, or cultural activities. This year I have gotten a lot of tickets to a wide range of events through the honors program as a greatly reduced rate.

*"Do kids go into the city a lot, or mostly stay on campus?"
We definitely go into the city all the time. The thing about NU that I love, more than with other city schools, is that we have a very welcoming, comforting campus that we can stay on if we want to escape from the commotion of the city. But we are in such a central location, that really is beautiful...we are walking distance to so many places and just a T ride away from soo many more. You start to realize how small the city is by the end of the year....in the beginning I was so overwhelmed by it all. But our last week here, a couple girlfriends and I went out to dinner in the North End (the Italian part) and bumped into four different groups of friends on the same street corner, definitely a lot smaller than you think at first. But I really love it, cause the cultural and social aspects of the city is really diverse and active. It's nice to just go take a walk and explore a new area, cause there are so many beautiful areas.

*"Being in honors, and doing architecture, do you have time for clubs and just hanging out with friends?"
Time is definitely my biggest hinderance. I'm not involved in nearly as many things as I'd like to be because I devote so much time to my studio work. Some relaxed, stress-free activity is necessary, its just that any free time I do have is usually after 10 or 11 pm, and obviously student groups don't meet that late. Next year I'm definitely going to try to become more involved with at least a couple activities. Also though, I do have work study for 10 hours a week, so if I didn't have that I'd probably have much more time during the day for clubs and stuff.

Hope seeing this can give some student insight to accepted students, or even students thinking about applying in the future. Feel free to ask any other questions, I really enjoy answering them cause I know how the anticipation and uncertainty feels when considering schools...I went through it all just last year.

Midterms are officially over (still awaiting grades though!), and there's been a slight lull in my workload for the moment. I'm enjoying the newfound free time immensely; I just have no idea what to do the extra hour I find in my day...I guess that's what architecture does to you.

Everybody I know is really excited for this weekend, being Halloween! And the weather for the weekend is supposed to pretty warm. Over last weekend, my roommate and I ventured into Cambridge near MIT to check out The Garment District to try to find costumes. It was a really pretty area, and a very nice walk in the warm weather.

I also just had an AIAS meeting, where it was announced that the architecture student body would be forming a large group to give a presentation to the architecture department on the issues we have found with the studio and curriculum. It'd be nice to see some of the changes the students think would really help our experience at Northeastern come to fruition (and maybe see some of the rumored 'promises' for the studio, like much needed vending machines when we are in there at 3 am).

One week in to the spring semester and it feels like I never left. Everything just picked up right where it left off. I even have the same professor for my history course (20th Century Architecture and Urbanism) as I did last semester; it's actually my third time in Professor Maulsby's class. It's nice in this type of course to build a rapport with a professor you like; it helps with understanding what is expected for tests, papers, etc.

In studio we are already nearly finished with our first assignment: an analysis of a given school, which is a precedent to the project of designing an urban school that we will be developing throughout various stages throughout the semester. So far the dynamics of my section (students and the professor alike) seems to be working really well, and I'm looking forward to a good semester.

I also got a work study job in the enrollment services office as a receptionist two days a week. It's a very quite office, and so far I don't many responsibilities, which allows me to keep up on readings for my courses.

I'm also really excited for next weekend. Four of friends from home are still on their winter break and are able to come up to visit. We will get to do all the 'tourist' activities throughout Boston; I just hope the the weather isn't too frigid!

The past couple weeks have flown by. I had friends come visit from UCONN, which was a lot of fun. They got to see all the fun parts of living in the city. We went to Quincy Market and Fanueil Hall for the day and had lunch; (they were all really excited to buy all the Boston-themed tourist memorabilia). We also were able to venture into the North End for a bit, despite the frigid cold, to show them that area.
I also am finishing up the second phase of my semester-long studio project of designing a school. We have our classroom module designs due Friday. This phase of the project had us focus on a single classroom unit and how the spaces and zones can be created with various material and structural applications, for instance, focuses on the thick wall and the separation of the spaces in section.
I also attended an information session for the study abroad program. I will be beginning the application process as soon as possible essentially, the deadline being February 10th. Exploring the website on the program at the La Magia Institute, I was excited to see how close to the center of Rome we will be studying, just a short walk from the Campidoglio and the Roman Forum.

(A google image of the housing along the river in Rome.)

So my schedule the past couple of weeks has been packed to say the least with a 20th Century Architecture midterm and an ongoing Structures: Tectonics project that requires us to design a small watchtower and all the wood-framing for it. We will be not only producing construction documents, but also a physical basswood model. Studio work has picked up as we get farther into the semester as well. We are currently working on mapping and analyzing the site for our school design, which is located in the South End between Washington St. and Harrison Ave. It's one of the most interesting sites I think we have looked at thus far; it has a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial spaces within a relatively small zone. And I've been finding it really interesting to examine the existing conditions as much as we are, looking at building program, typology, materiality, circulation, etc. We have never taken site analysis to this depth before, and its been both challenging and interesting. We have been producing numerous diagrams digitally, and now manually, as well a diagram projection model (meaning we will be extracting patterns from the site to try to generate ideas about the form our building design will take in relation to the surroundings).

(some images from the very snowy site visit we took last week).

On top of all this, the architecture department organizes a lecture series almost every Monday night that the undergrad students are required to attend. In the past these lectures were sometimes a struggle to sit through after a long day of classes; however, they have taken on a new format that seems to be working much better where the speaker links all the works they discuss with a unifying theme. Monday's was by Rahul Mehrotra of RMA Architects on his work in Bombay/Mumbai, covering several different ideas from his wide range of work on a large number of projects. He discussed his work on preserving the Taj Mahal and the importance of understanding both preservation and new construction. He also shared one of the most original project types that I have seen, where he worked to design a living community for elephants and their caretakers outside the city where they work.
With what little time I've had this past weekend, I was able to go dinner at a really great thai restaurant with probably about fifteen friends for my roommates birthday. It was really nice to get all these people in one room for a couple hours considering how difficult it's been to visit because everyone's schedules are so conflicting this year, as course loads have picked up significantly and a lot of students (particularly in business and engineering) have started co-op already.

It's hard to believe the semester is already nearing a close, but I can feel the time crunch finally setting in. I just got assigned today my final project for Structures II:Tectonics, for which, in small groups we will be completing an extensive set of drawings (and eventually a presentation) analyzing one of the buildings that we have touched on in class to answer the question of how the structure and other systems engender the design process. We will be required to produce axonometric drawings to explain the enclosure system, structural system, and interior spaces, in addition to a sectional axonometric through the building showing all the construction layers. I will be working with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco by Renzo Piano, which features an impressive green roof structure.

Coming up soon too, I will have a paper for 20th Century Architecture and Urbanism different from previous assignments. Looking at the Holyoke Center in Cambridge and Boston City Hall, we will be analyzing the structure according to our own perceptions and background knowledge in the various architectural movements and themes of the 20th century; we will not simply be producing a research paper on the buildings. On Saturday I went to Harvard to visit the Holyoke Center, which was a modernist building engaging with Harvard Square, flowing out into its plaza space before the entrance. It had very nice outdoor spaces; unfortunately, I was only able to gain access to the small court on the ground level in the interior.

On Friday we have our mid-review for the final stage of our school design project. I finally have a form and program orientation that seems to work well for the site after extensive analysis and many, many models. I'm close to pushing past the conceptual portion of the design process to start working on the more tangible, pragmatical components of the process, which is the part I tend to be more comfortable with.

This weekend I also was able to visit the ICA, which itself is a gorgeous place to visit, located on the waterfront with great views of Boston. But, even more exciting with the 'Supply and Demand' exhibit, featuring the rather extensive works (I think there was something like 250 pieces) of Shepard Fairey, now commonly known for the Obama campaign posters. I was taken aback by how powerful some of his works could be, especially his large murals. I really enjoyed his work on so many levels, from just the craft of these really intricate collage images to his projections on his own perspectives on culture and the abuse of power in society. As the weather starts to feel more like spring and anxiety sets in about upcoming exams and deadlines, it's nice to escape, even if just for a couple hours, from campus to just get a change of scenery.

(views out from the ICA)

As always, feel free to ask any questions you may have!

The past couple weeks have been a blur because with finals and deadlines for projects; its just been one thing after another on my 'to do list.' I can't believe I'm already in the home stretch with just two weeks to go before I go home for the summer. I just had my 20th Century Architecture final on Tuesday, which basically required me to memorize an endless number of buildings and all the background information on them. We also had a preliminary crit for the final project in my Structures:Tectonics class working on analyzing the California Academy of Sciences by Renzo Piano. I've made multiple 3D models of the building from the research my group has done in order to produce various drawings to present our conclusions about the building.

In studio, everything's finally coming together. I'm at the stage in my elementary school design where I'm able figure out the details like window placement, materiality, landscaping, etc. For this coming Tuesday we will have to show the instructor new drawings and models that will basically serve as a dry run for our final crit, which will be on the 24th, the last day of finals week (meaning for the next two weeks I will essentially be living in the studio).

I was able to enjoy some of the recent sunshine and warm weather today though, as my 20th Century class took a trip to visit the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard, which is the only building LeCorbusier designed in North America. It was a nice culmination to the semester (as our final is done and all that's left are two papers to turn in); it basically served as the summarizing work of this extremely influential architect with which we have spent considerable time with in class.



(The Carpenter Center)

I also was able to sneak away last week to go to a Bruins game against Tampa, which was really fun. I had never been to game before and only to TDBanknorth Gardens one other time for the Beanpot last year. It was good to get off campus and do something new to break up the incessant work that everybody's had lately.
As always feel free to ask any questions!