My Life as a Student of Architecture

I guess many of you have noticed a lag in entries posted recently.  For those of you who have been consistently reading my blog since its recent birth, I apologize.  In short, all of my time lately has been consumed in bringing a design project to a close, not to mention mid-terms.  However, all of my efforts have not been fruitless.  I, along with another design teammate, attended a national student design competition in San Francisco this past weekend.  The team of five that I was a part of was picked out of 13 projects to represent the school in the competition.  The conference was held by NOMA, The National Organization of Minority Architects. 

Though we did not win, the experience itself was amazing.  This was my first time visiting the west coast; San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever laid eyes on.  If you get the chance, SFMOMA is a must; the entry to the space is awe-inspiring.  My first reaction was to stop and absorb the beauty of the atrium. 

In general, the area where I stayed during my visit was blessed with a plethora of great architecture.  My hotel was on the corner of 3^rd and Mission, if I had any free time it was usually spent around the corner at the Metreon and Yerba Buena Gardens.  Please visit the link at the end of this sentence; it is an article comparing Mario Botta’s design of SFMOMA to Gehry’s style of architecture.

So, being around so many architects this past weekend, I did get the chance to ask many about their opinion of Gehry.  The most common answer I received was not about the form of Gehry’s work but more about his approach.  It went something like this: “the greatest aspect of Gehry’s work is that he is not afraid to challenge architecture.  More or less, he is creating architecture that is his sole vision.  With little concern for criticism of skeptics, Gehry is introducing a new translation to the language of architecture.  That is the difference between Gehry and so many other architects; he is willing to take risks while others are not.” 

Post Script:  I will put up pics of my design that went to the competition later this week.