Constructive Conversations

So this morning, as I am headed to work, I passed by a construction site across from campus. I have photographed this site several times and love watching the progress. Well today I stopped to talk to one of the construction crew who was overseeing the pouring of a concrete sidewalk. He was really nice and very supportive of the design field. In discussing…

MArch Mentors

Ever wish you could have known more before diving into something? MArch Mentors aims to help answer this question. The goal is to pair current MArch students at Penn with incoming students to help answer all those questions that, sometimes, come up well after having accepted and moved in. Zoe Cennami is leading the effort to pair mentors with mentees by the begining of…

Eastern State Pennitentiary

https://www.easternstate.org/ Originally designed as a terrifying prison aimed to inspire pentinance in it’s prisoners, this pennitentiary is now a museum aiming to bring attention to the reality of prison, the various prison types, and the implications of the prison system. This museum is eye opening in several ways. The first is obvious, waking up the public to the reality of crime statistics, the impacts…

Sidewalk Renewal

School may be out but there is no shortage of learning experiences all around in the city. Just this morning I watched a small crew of construction workers repair a portion of the sidewalk across the street from my apartment. It was an interesting process to observe. The crew had already removed the broken sidewalk a few days prior so all that existed was…

“History” References

Probably one of the most interesting history classes this semester was the last one. Rather than lecture for roughly two hours on a topic most students have not yet begun to understand through the readings, the professor decided to share links to modern day organizations making an impact on architecture.   http://whobuilds.org/ https://www.forensic-architecture.org/ http://architecture-lobby.org/ https://faacweb.wordpress.com/ http://www.thelivingnewyork.com/ http://proactivepractices.org/   https://www.archdaily.com/ https://www.dezeen.com/ https://www.architecturaldigest.com/ If you know…

Finals Week Pop Ups

Admist all the drawing, modeling, and building going on in the School of Design everywhere else there are pop up surprises of all kinds! Below are a few photos with short descriptions of the many surprises I encountered during the days leading up to the final. A student major fair! Likely for incoming undergraduate students to begin deciding what they would like to do…

Finals Finished-ish!

With studio complete there is a little time to relax before the next wave of final exams. However I will worry about those later. For now let’s review the review! As any final is bound to go pinning up is the hardest part. No matter how early you start there is usually a hitch. This time around it was the walls, too hard to…

Professors in Review(s)

Professors are here to guide students through the design process. Along the way the student will learn about the professors style, opinions, technical knowledge, and gain an understanding of architecture through the perspective of the professor. Should you decide that you are going to follow a professors guidance and suggestions in order to learn from their viewpoint be sure to pursue it wholeheartedly. However…

Finals Week…

The pressure is on and even the glass is cracking under it. With the serious focus on drawings and models as the clock ticks closer to printer lock down many everyday actions are temporarily suspended. The usual good nights rest of 6-8 hours turns to power naps gone too long, lunch and dinner become hurried and timed events, and the gym won’t be going…

VR Showcase

This Friday’s Happy Hour at PennDesign was held in the lower gallery despite the nice weather. The reason being a Virtual Reality showcase! The showcase consisted of student work from one of the graduate level courses Semi-Ficticious Relams taught by Christopher McAdams. More on the course can be found at the following link: https://www.design.upenn.edu/architecture/graduate/courses. It was a really neat showcase to experience.