Hello! I’m Julianna, one of the new bloggers for this semester in NYC. This is my first time ever writing a blog so I’m super excited to start writing.
First a little bit about me: I’m a fifth year undergraduate architecture student. Last semester I was in the Rome Program. I love traveling, great music, dancing, and art (and architecture). I grew up in Indianapolis. Like a lot of architecture students, I am spending the semester here to get a taste of the professional experience in a city. I have never lived in New York City before, just visited a few times while being in Ithaca. I also think spending the semester in NYC is a great contrast to my semester in Rome. Like my prethesis professor Ben Gillmartin said, “New York City is the yang to Rome’s ying”. I had a great time and learned a lot in Rome. Now I want to learn from a totally different atmosphere.
One of the most unique opportunities with this program are the internships for the undergrads. I am working with Scalar Architecture, a small firm on the lower east side with lead architect Julio Salcedo. I am interested to see how one goes about starting their own firm and what kinds of challenges they face. Here is their link: http://www.scalararchitecture.com/
I’m pumped for the classes I’m taking. My studio is with Henry Smith-Miller from Smith-Miller + Hawkinson. Our site is the waterfront edge in Brooklyn. I have done a lot of urban projects throughout college so I think it will be great to be able to have a site to visit whenever I want. Last Friday, Henry and Scot (our TA) took us out on a site visit.
I am taking the Prethesis class taught by Ben Gillmartin from Diller Scofidio + Renfro. I want to get as much out of this class as possible. One of the first things that Ben said to us about the class is how excited he is to work with us individually so we can be confident and feel strong about our thesis; We all felt really good about him saying that since just the word thesis can be pretty intimidating. haha. I am taking Professional Practice with Jeff Holmes from Woods Baggot, a Curricular Practical Training class with Nina Freedman from Shigeru Ban, and a Visual Representation class from dbox. I do not need any more visual representation credits to graduate, but this class is just way too tempting. Check out their website: http://dbox.com/
I will talk more in depth about the classes that I am taking as the weeks go on since it feels like we are always doing something different and exciting (like tomorrow, Henry and Scot are taking us to see the World Trade Center memorial).