Gotta Love Powell's Books

I popped into Powell's Books the other day while I waited for a friend and I came upon a book that tells the history of Portland's South Park Blocks. Although I wasn't looking for this book consciously nor did I know it existed, in a way, it found me.

What's amazing about this book is that it has everything to do with my terminal thesis project site. Currently, its a surface parking lot and I haven't been able to find out much about the previous developments. The only trail left behind is this giant sycamore tree at the corner of sw 9th and main that's designated as a Portland Heritage Tree.

Native to Canada, Sylvester Farrel and his wife Honora came to Portland from San Francisco near 1867. Sylvester was a businessman who initially worked in the grain trade and then later took up interests in logging. He built an Italianate styled house which he later added another floor and with a gabled roof.

Sylvester Farrell was a distinguished man in Portland. He served as a city councilman, a member of the fire commission, and as a member of the state legislature.

About the tree, the story goes that Sylvester was given five of these Sycamore trees as a gift from US Senator from Oregon, J.N. Dolph. Only one was planted at the corner and the other four were said to be given away. The tree was designated as a city landmark in 1973.

The house was removed from the site in 1941 and become a gas station on the one condition that the tree remained.

It's exciting to learn so much about a place especially when nothing but a tree remains.

Getting Published

For the very first time I got my work published! Okay well kind of. For Architectural Programming Class, we wrote short research papers and then submitted them to Scholars Bank. For anyone interested, here is the URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/8043

Here is the abstract: A case study looking at the Music Department facility at Portland State University. The thesis states, at a college of music, rehearsal space is the most important type of space. The paper is derived from a 1.5 hour tour documented using notes and photographs.

enjoy

Post Review, review...

Day after my final studio review and all I feel is numbness.

I learn something from every studio. Each time I get up there and present my work I'm always nervous and just want to get it over with. I often feel disappointed and the event is always anti-climatic. I spend so much time trying to develop my ideas over the course of ten weeks and I never get to the point where I hit that home run at the final review.

This time around the reviewers were stiff and very critical. Getting feedback about my work is important to me and it helps me learn how to take my ideas further. Yesterday on the other hand was not helpful and really just felt like a bashing. It was if the reviewers were tired from the their days work and just didn't have the patients to explore my concept further. It didn't help that I printed at too small of a scale for a large presentation. I had a strong concept and presented my project well but the inability to read the details of my drawings became the failing point. The focus dwell ed on the scale of my drawings and never really moved on to talking about my design ideas.

If I could do it again, I would print my drawings at twice the size and show more of my process. I ran out of time so I didn't have nice perspective renderings which also became problematic to reviewers as they had to use their imagination to picture what I was showing in plan, section, elevation, and verbal description.

I get more from the process throughout the term than I do from my final reviews. Some terms I have very nice renderings but my building design is too simple. Or I spend all my time developing my program and how pieces work but can't get the renderings done. Some terms I have time to build a really nice physical model but the reviewers don't bother looking or talking about it. It's very frustrating to work so hard and not have a satisfying review.

With that said, its over and done with. The important thing for me is to take away the lessons learned and thoughtfully apply them to my future work.

Two more terms to go!