It Takes a City…

Man at left in seat, speaking with student at right, with architectural drawings behind them on the wall.
Audrey Hio (M.Arch. ’21) speaking with Gabe Smith, FAIA of Thomas Phifer and Partners. / photo by Rodensa Au (M.Arch. ’21).

This week marks the close of our first month living and learning in New York City. It seems to be the general consensus that it takes approximately one month to feel completely acquainted with city living. Most of us have a confident handle on the subway system and can navigate the converging streets of the Financial District without pulling out our phones (which comes in handy during winter months).

Before this, most of us in the program had only seen New York as tourists on weekend intervals. It makes a great difference to be living the immersive New Yorker experience as an architecture student. The experience instills an excitement about all there is to learn beyond the confines of the traditional studio setting and to take advantage of all of the vibrancy the city has to offer.

The first thirty days of this program have been packed with a plethora of opportunities for different venues of knowledge. On day one we embarked on a neighborhood tour led by the program’s Executive Director, Robert (Bob) Balder, to enhance our understanding of the studio’s location and context. Week one was when we met our studio professors and took field trips to see and develop our own stance towards our city-sited studio projects. Both the Thomas Phifer and Partners and the SHoP studios have taken advantage of our connectivity in a number of ways. The Phifer studio took a ferry ride to their site in Red Hook, Brooklyn, while the SHoP studio traveled to White Plains, NY to visit the leaders in the field of the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) by visiting CADB.

Below is an abbreviated list of events and opportunities that the students were invited to in the first month alone.