I swear I'm still here.... somewhere

Apologies - Ive been MIA alot recently primarily b/c I have t-minus 8 days until I give my final presentation, aka my Thesis defense #2 i guess you could say. This means 8 more days of NO sleep and a ton of work, all for a project that doesnt exist and honestly, no one except myself & my 3 committee members care about (see above Dilbert cartoon, its sad but true). So is the oh so glamorous world of architecture. I promise I'll be back after May 7th... that is, of course, unless I don't pass my final. Then I think I'll drown in misery b/c it means I'll be in Texas until August. Now wouldnt that be fun?

Bridesmaid Props

I thought I'd start the week off with this adorable video I found that gives a little history to the tradition of bridesmaids. Happy Monday!!

(Video courtesy of the Dessy group)

Bummer

Today is an "I-very-much-dislike-Bama-Boy's-job" day and I feel as the pic of our family dog above displays how i feel perfectly. Bama boy & I havent seen each eather in 2 very long, lonely months and he was supposed to drive down from Missouri this Saturday and stay til Tuesday morning. I was so super amazingly excited and giddy it was almost embarassing. Well, due to a number of issues, we couldn't talk today until about 9pm this evening after I returned from my college's annual scholarship & awards banquet. Thats when the cruddy news came.

Apparently his job threw a curve ball at him and told him they need him to be at a meeting/ conference starting Monday morning and running til Wednesday afternoon. Note: the drive from Missouri to where I am is 10 hours (he does it all the time and swears he doesnt mind the distance, but it obviously takes up a TON of hours). Therefore him driving down Saturday morning and then turning around and driving back the next day isn't practical nor very economical. So i went on an "angry, irrational fiancee" tirade about how I hate his job and it stinks and how they should find someone else who has nothing else to do this weekend and is in town to attend the conference. But in the end it all proved futile, he's cant come and thus I am very sad.

It also stinks b/c really this was the only weekend we could see each other before I graduate in a month... I really cant dedicate any other weekend between then and now to US because of my darn thesis work. Theres a reason why this happened, it sucks and I need to put my big girl panties on and deal w/ it, but really I can't help but just feel sad.

Well heres to, I guess, another round of phone movie/ dinner dates. Very fun, but it ain't nothing like the real thing, baby.

Final Study Friday

Since I haven't done Fugly Architecture Thursday in a while, I decided to share my final project design instead. Heck, depending on your preferences, this could be considered fugly. But eh, its all subjective anyway.

As many of you know, I'm trying to wrap up my Masters in architecture. I've been immersed in the world of late nights, no sleep, critiques and model making for 3 years already and I cannot wait to get that diploma. But before that glorious May 15, I have to complete a the architecture version of a master's thesis: aka- the final study project. Since I'm a preservation nerd, I chose to adaptively reuse a 1934 Motor Pool Building located on an Army base that is projected to close in 2011. When I visited my site in December, this is the current condition of the building's inside:

Very very industrial, and blase. Also very dark. But the entire left side of the building in this picture has 9 foot tall casement windows that stretch from about 4 ft off the ground to the bottom of those trusses. Some brilliant person in the 1960s decided it would be a fabulous idea to cover up the top 5 feet of these windows with ugly siding... thus creating the dark interior. Genius I tell you (*rolls eyes*). The wonderful current condition is shown below:

Isnt that just horrid!!??

Since I'm dealing w/ 48,000 sq ft total, my project proposal was to adapt the building into a art gallery, restaurant, art academy spaces and standing room only, House of Blues type entertainment hall. All areas are connected by a central "avenue" that runs the center of the building. My description is totally not doing the design justice, but this past march for my "thesis defense" I had a 20-slide PowerPoint to explain my project. I'll spare you the pain of that presentation.

Now I'm in the design development phase and here's a little sample of where I am in my project.

This is the proposed view down the main "avenue." To the left (behind the turquoise wall) is a dance studio and part of the academy. To the right is the side of the Entertainment Hall.
The other end of the corridor is the art gallery, the entrance of which is shown below:
The red wall in the background is the entrance to the Entertainment Hall. This view is from practically the same location as the original, dark and icky picture shown above. Also, I've removed the silly window coverings and voila: more light! Shocking, I know.

These are very preliminary renderings and theres still A LOT to do -- last night i spent just developing skylights. Oh Ces't La Vie. Must push on til the 7th!!

PS - SUPER excited, b/c Bama boy will be here tomorrow!! It's been 2 months since we last saw each other. Oh the horror.

A Change of Heart

So....my whole life I've had such a bias against carnations..... somehow, someway they always invoked memories of middle school valentines (or lack thereof) and a blah pukey pepto-bismal color.

Well, the other day i was perusing my local food store and happened upon their floral department. Usually I grab some tulips or some gerbera daisies, but it was not to be: the tulips were not in sight and i was tired of white daisies (all. they. had.). I was still in mourning after the sudden death of the gorgeous daffodil bouquet that 'Bama boy sent me and was in desperate need of some color. Enter the raspberry carnations.

There they were, 24 for $12 and such a pretty color. I bought those bad boys, came home, bundled them up and they sitting pretty on my desk. Soo happy!

So I've gone all Carrie Bradshaw now and I've begun to appreciate the little flower w/ the bad rap. Still, not a fan of them in single form, but I think you'd have to agree that en masse they're quite pretty and preppy!

Mistaken Magnets and Purple Stamps

Well, since they've managed to make it safely into everyone's mailboxes by now.... here are our lovely Save The Dates. Apologies for the fuzziness. The thing I'm nervous about though is people not knowing the white square is actually a magnet ... we stickey-tacked it to the lime paper so it would be the same size as the envelope (yay for easy shipping). However, I know some people didnt know it was a magnet until they called me to tell me they received it and I gave them the heads up. Oh well.

I also made some cute stamps for the envelopes, which were a mix of computer addessed and hand addressed (by my mom!). The stamp design is below:

However, when the sheets of stamps we ordered from Stamps.com arrived... the navy blue turned out to be a dark shade of purple!!! THIS is exactly why you check the CMKY/ RGB settings between different screens and printers.

Now on to the rest of the week..... heres to hump day and being done w/ half of the week. Also, yay for Easter this weekend!

Fugly Architecture Thursday - Collegiate Edition

I was supposed to fly to Lubbock today for a scholarship banquet tomorrow night. However, this is not to be the case due to mother nature, aka - the wind. The high wind advisory does make it hard for those little prop planes to stay level up in the sky, and as someone who truly deep down detests flying (i do it b/c its necessary, not b/c I like it) I appreciate the airline companies taking those of who have a fear of falling out of the sky into consideration. I must say though, I cant tell you how pleased I am with the customer service at American Airlines. They called me once the flight was cancelled and immediately connected me to an agent to book a new flight. She was so incredibly helpful, booked me on a new flight through continental and within 15 mins I had a new flight. So anyhow, I'm not taking off til tomorrow am and big props to American Airlines!

Now, on to the topic of the day - fabulous cities all over the world- London, New York, Milan, etc- are littered with both gorgeous and heinous buildings. But how about the ones you pass by every single day. This one is currenlty nearing completion on my very campus. I cringe every time I see it b/c honestly, it just makes no sense.

www.houstonarchitecture.info

Im sorry, but this building is just odd, and I think it has to do with the details (some which you can't see.) The heavy duty cast concrete sun shades above the windows on the left and right wings of the building are awkward and I doubt they are long enough to actually block any kind of sun. Also, what's up w/ the two story tall wall/roof awning deal on the left wing of the building? It seems as unnecessary as the lonely 6 story column thats only there to support this weird canopy.

The funniest part - The brick was ordered in the wrong color (or at least the color they thought it was supposed to be appeared great in a small 3inx 8in form, not the case when its a sea of that color). So this building is a fabulous burnt orangey color, which is the color of our rival university and detested by all students here.

Ill give the building one thing - it blocks the view from the street of the existing Physics building, a 1970s/80s beauty of a bstructure - perfect for Soviet Russia or Communist China:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/

Just look at all that concrete! so warm and inviting!

Personally I think Michael Graves (whose studio designed the new building) should stick to designing toasters and laundry hampers for Target.

Floral Candy

I forgot to post this after my wedding planning trip to NC over break, but we met with the floral designer (aka- fancy florist) to discuss the plans for the big day. First I had to come to grips with the fact that camellias are not in season in September (so so sad, i cried). I say no to peonies (everyone loves them... as do I, but I dont want to be like everyone else, at least in this aspect of the wedding). Also, NO traditional longstem roses, I canot stand them outside of Valentines day. So, Renee - the floral designer extrodinare- showed me a flower that fit the fullness of the peony and the unique idea of the camellia. Enter the Garden rose:

These flowers are the only appearance of pink in the wedding scheme (thats why its called an accent). Wrapped with a simple navy ribbon for me (lime for my b-maids) and we're good to go. J'adore!