(A visualization of the neighborhoods Cornell Planning and Architecture students call home this fall)
This fall’s occupants of the AAP NYC studio are a motley crew of fourth and fifth year architecture (B.Arch.) students and second year masters of regional planning (MRP) students. In total, roughly 30 students are sharing close quarters in a second floor loft style studio that is just two blocks west of Union Square. On our first day, Tuesday, September 3, architects and planners began streaming into the studio at 8:30 AM for a full day of orientation. It was perhaps the only brief moment when the studio desks were completely void of projects and belongs. Grouped into islands of four and five desks, planners are on the north side of the studio along 17th Street, and architects are closer to the south side of the studio, adjacent to the wood shop and the classrooms.
Arriving from all over the US, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, we are regionally diverse – and it is clear that everyone is vibrating with excitement to spend the semester together in such a stimulating environment. Between the architects and the planners we have the Ithaca campus in common, but prior to NYC the two field have not had much interaction. The small shared studio environment presents exciting opportunities for mutual inspiration, and a better understand of one another’s fields.
For the the planners, this is the first time in the history of AAP that the Department of City Planning has based MRP students in NYC for an entire semester. “It has been 20 years in the making,” according to the director of the NYC program, Bob Balder. From the lineup of speakers and workshops it is clear that an enormous amount of preparation went into making this term an unforgettable education.
The best way to characterize the semester so far is an all you can eat buffet. Course schedules have been loaded up; internships are locked into place; and conferences for the fall are committed to – now it is time to sit down and get to work. We will soon find out how our ambitions align with our appetites.
