A Short Year Ago Today…
Yup, this is the official one year mark for Agents of Urbanism. Unfortunately, I have been a faint presence these days, but that is due in large part to the overwhelming success of this blog. However, this success may not be in line with the statistically defined measures of other blogs. The success of which I speak relates to how effectively AOU served as a springboard for my own academic pursuits.
If we take a trip down memory lane and revisit the Introduction to this blog one year ago, you will see this had been my intent from the beginning. Starving for intellectual pursuits beyond my day job, I committed myself to this blog. Miraculously, it only took two short months for my first payoff, after having written the Sustainable City Series (Definition, Masdar, Dongtan). At this point, I was asked by a member of Volume Magazine to write a piece on Masdar for their summer issue on Social Engineering. Three months later, I had my first independently published piece of writing.
This served as the much needed primer for entering the academic circuit. As such, I attained my first teaching position here in New York last fall. I started by developing the school’s first Revit course from scratch - no small task - hoping that I would be able to work my way into the ranks and pick up a studio the following fall. I, not to mention countless others, thought I was setting the bar pretty high. Apparently not. The first week of January threw an unexpected curve ball, leaving me testing the extremes of my own capacity.
Up until this point, however, I was facing a spring semester with only 3 students signed up for my Revit course. Read: No one wants to take Revit (or possibly, have me as a professor) unless enrollment surges in the final week of registration. Thus, I find myself asking to teach other courses, thinking/knowing they had all been filled. However, as I am quickly learning, many of these decisions are not made until the last few days before classes start - a condition from which I greatly benefit.
I had targeted a class on the history of urban form arguing that given my own interests, my outside research and writing - primarily this blog - that I was a perfect candidate for the course. Compelling enough to the administration, I was given the course. Score #1.
As part of my preparation for the course, I was at school meeting with the Director of Architectural History and Theory on an opportune day. Intercepted by the Director of Architecture, I was asked to teach another course - surprisingly with many options to choose from. Thus, I landed my first studio, Fundamentals of Design I. Score #2.
At this point we could describe my emotions of the previous week. Dread. Excitement. Elation. Anxiety. Chomping-at-the-bit. Cloud Nine. Panic. Resolute Calm.
Yes, the joy at having two opportunities far earlier than anticipated was quickly followed by the realization of how much work would go into the class. Then, my rationalization kicked in, and here I am slogging away.
Having found myself catapulted into the academic hemisphere and losing sight of the blogosphere, I am left with a bittersweet moment (keep in mind I accepted these courses while maintaining my full time job practicing architecture in a large office). I truly enjoy writing and thinking for this site, and I had started to build some thought-provoking content - at least for me - as well as a readership. To those of you, thank you for stopping by, reading, and commenting. Feel free to continue discussing amongst yourselves, as I will still host this site until I can actually return.
I, on the other hand, will continue to develop my courses in the hope that the leg work for future courses will be completed and allow me the improbable opportunity to work in the office 40+ hours, teach 8 credits, and maintain a blog. Best of luck.
Thresholds of Urban History
As I prepare for my course on the history of the city, I find myself asking, “when will this course require two semesters.” Architecture theory courses already spread across two semesters, but barely fit. Architectural history, for that matter, has three semesters of required knowledge - when will there be a fourth? If that wasn’t enough, technology courses can now cover new building systems, new materials, and ever-expanding sustainable technologies.
Where do we draw the line?
Do we draw the line?
Not a New Year’s Resolution
Sparing you from my plans of weight loss and frugality, my first post in three months - and the first of 2009 - will aim to outline my efforts toward this blog over the next few months. Fortunately, one of the great things about a blog is that it can constantly reinvent itself.
[Image: A section of Turgot’s 1739 map of Paris, also my absolute favorite map. Courtesy of USM.]
October Madness
If you live in New England, you always have leaf peeping to look forward to as we round the seasons and enter October. However, as the leaves intensify with color, the office intensifies with workload. Call it the end of year rush, but my projects always seem to be squeezing in a string of deadlines before the Christmas holiday. Perhaps this year though, it’s more of my own doing. Taking on a new project at work with more responsibility, coupled with teaching a course that I am developing from scratch, has only been manageable at the expense of my posting frequency here at AOU.
So, as I find myself rescheduling doctor’s appointments and keeping up with the baseball playoff games via the refresh button, I just want to take this opportunity to let you all know this is an important outlet for me and I shall return. For now, I need to bear down these next 5 weeks and focus on my other responsibilities. Please forgive this short pause.
In the meantime, I hope you continue to enjoy this blog’s content. See you soon.
Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute
When great minds meet, you either see a comedy show of flying egos or genuine poetry. The latter should be used to describe such an occasion when Jonas Salk met Louis Kahn. At the time Salk asked Kahn to design a research laboratory “worthy of a visit by Picasso.”
What stands now is a place where art and science meet in an atmosphere of reflection, collaboration, and discovery. The Salk Institute serves as one of the greatest achievements in architecture, science, and the often fragile client/architect relationship.
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