I’ve used Mason up. He’s dead weight now. We’re off in new directions. Don’t get me wrong, I could spend an eternity playing with Mason. He’s such a lovely character. But my editors know what will make the bucks, and they tell me Mason isn’t cutting it. I never told you: I was sent here on an assignment, to a city like The City in the first stories I showed you. My editors wanted me to follow the workings of a little satellite architecture program nestled among the furniture stores and bars of a district in that City named Chelsea. Instead, I discovered Mason, that fantastic little creature living that fantastic little life of his. Now my curiosity has put my job on the line. I’ve got to get back to business.
So. The architecture program. I’ve invented a little device to help speed up your understanding of what’s going on there, considering we are now a month behind schedule. My invention is a robot: Orvil the Observation Machine. Orvil travels through time, collecting images for us to peruse. I don’t trust him to also describe the images – robots are so dry. I describe them instead. This sometimes makes Orvil angry, because I don’t all the time remember the truth, and he takes it upon himself to correct me. You’ll see. He’s very charming. I think you’ll just adore him.
…
Saturday, March 6 : Professional Practice’s Day of Learning
The architecture students gather at Kohn Pederson Fox, a powerful architecture firm in the nucleus of the City. They snack on Dunkin Donuts while awaiting a tour of the offices. Jill Lerner, professor of the Professional Practice course and a partner of the firm, arrives to greet them.
Jill Lerner: Hello, everyone!
Mason and his friends visited the office:
Throughout the day, all kinds of wonderful guests appear and disappear – architects, contractors, developers. Of particular note is Joel Silverman, a shrewd general contractor who teaches the students about all the different ways architects, developers, and contractors can sue each other.
[Orvil: This is an overstatement. He really talked about the various ways architects, developers, and contractors can work together on projects. This only sometimes leads to litigation.]
He is a boisterous man who, in a warning about vicious developers, made a very funny comment.
Joel Silverman: Donald Trumps goes through architects like crap through a goose.
This is Joel Silverman:
The class was later treated to a site visit to Neil Denari’s buildling on the High Line, H23, a structure that defies all zoning rules.
[Orvil: This is a lie. Neil Denari’s office worked closely with the City to reimagine the zoning regulations that applied to the lot because the Highline is no longer an operating train track and no longer needs the clearances it once did.]
The lesson is this: breaking rules is sexy.
Inside the building, an architect from Denari’s office explained the complex workings of the building, from its structure to its trash shoots.
This is Christina pretending she is an architect inspecting the building:
Christina poses as an Architect on HL 23
At the end of the day, free pizza arrived at studio. Mason and a handful of his friends were the only ones who stayed, so they got two pizzas each all to themselves. I will go not into the biological details of Mason’s discomfort later that evening.
…
Wednesday, February 24 : Peter Eisenman is in the House
Peter Eisenman, the famous architect, has come to visit the Mason’s studio! He’s not there for Mason and his friends exactly: Peter is teaching a studio in Ithaca but because he works in the City he is having his students travel to the City for a review. Mason watches a student’s crit, which goes something like this:
Peter: I have no idea where those lines came from. Where did they come from?
Larisa: Oh, they came from these walls that are already on the site.
Peter: That isn’t very interesting. I don’t believe it. I think you should just make up a story about how they got there. I’ve got it! It’s a Celtic ruin that you’re excavating.
Larisa: Uhh…
Peter: And that model. It looks like a pinwheel. I don’t like it. I want the architecture coming out of this studio not to look LIKE things.
Larisa: Yeah…
Peter: I want it to haunt me. Now, describe to me how this pinwheel is HAUNTING me.
Larisa: Well…
Peter: I tell you what. Forget about this model. Your drawings are much nicer. They aren’t so pin wheel-ey. Give this model to your Grandmother for Christmas or something. I don’t ever want to see it again.
Peter does not mince his words. Mason, sitting just inches away from Peter’s left thigh, can’t help but count his blessings:
So far, this city has placed numerous famous and powerful architects’ left thighs within inches of Mason’s grasp. They are all at his fingertips. Here in the City.
…
Next week: Orvil the Observation Machine travels back to March 1 when even more famous architects arrive at the AAP NYC center for the panel discussion Digging It: Perspectives on Design-Build.