Being that this is my first semester at Cornell, I had to take a walk through the area with my family during orientation week. While walking around, we noticed a mix of older buildings, with more renovated/modern student apartments. What I found unique, was college-town seemed ‘confused’ and didn’t truly have an identity the deeper into it I went. meaning that due to the mixture of structures, there was no true feel to it, rather a mishmash of houses and apartments.

Now being here for 2 months, I have realized why there is this ‘mess’: there are too many students and not enough space. Rather than someone deicing to simply renovate older buildings, these new ones are coming in to help fix this population issue. These newer buildings seem like mountains compared compaed to the older ones but were built in hopes to solve this issue. It seems to make sense why these newer buildings are also more modern, as they will attract current students due the amenities they provide, and the aesthetic appeal.

Rather than spreading out, architects are noticing tricks and loopholes in zoning that allows extra rooms, and even floors. Making sure a basement is a liveable place is a perfect example of this. If a basement has the proper dimensions to it, it becomes a liveable space- thus, it can add extra people and rooms. But, if the dimensions are off just by inches, it will be deemed un-liveable and a waste of funding. Learning small aspects of the zoning and codes of Ithaca was quite interesting, and I was really impressed how people were still able to get around them.

I knew there was always something wrong with the design of college town. It looked so overcrowded and cluttered for some reason. I believe a major part of that was all those unburied power lines! Now that they’ve been pointed out to me, I don’t think I can ever unsee them.

That was one of the many things we heard at the Architecture and Development Rose Cafe last week. Noah showed us some excellent (and very expensive looking) projects his company, STREAM, is working on in Ithaca. Just like those powerlines, now that I’ve seen what STREAM is working on, I don’t think I can unsee how multiple projects are connected to Noah’s company. Like the new building complex in college town that is modern and beautiful and sticks out like a sore thumb. Or the EHub, also in college town, which apparently used to be a hot mess of glass and brick (alright now a mess, it was just boring and ugly). But we’ve all passed by the EHub and seen how beautiful it is against the quaintness of college town.

It’s cool that through this program we can be connected to people that have so much influence on the things we see around us every day.

The housing situation in Ithaca and at Cornell amazes me. I took a class on housing and urban development last semester, and since I’ve been pretty sheltered from the housing scene in Ithaca, thanks to living at Rose, it was my first introduction to the insanity that is Ithaca’s rental market. In a New York Times article from 2014, it was rated as the 11th most expensive city to live in in the country, right behind NYC. It was interesting to hear from an architect’s point of view, what building here is like, even though he didn’t touch very much on affordability.

The new projects that our guest speaker discussed in Collegetown give me mixed feelings. On one hand, there is no doubt that they meet a great need for decent housing for students close to the university. The fact of how difficult and expensive it has been until recently to develop in Ithaca is amazing to me because every college area I’ve been to has seen an influx of developers buying up land and building large apartment buildings designed specifically to be student housing. One the other hand, these new buildings on College Ave. will definitely change the look and character of the surrounding neighborhood. The speaker mentioned zoning attempts to prevent impacting the surrounding neighborhoods that have low student populations by creating a tiered system limiting building as it goes out from College Avenue. I know this has worked in other places like Portland, OR, where they attempted to avoid subdivision development and lost of farmland by requiring that developers build in the inner zone around the city and wait until that zone had reached a certain population density before expanding into the outer zones. This may work well to protect the character of surrounding neighborhoods off of College Avenue.

It’s great to hear about he different architecture initiatives in Ithaca but I wish there would be a greater consideration of ways to either make current places more accessible or keeping accessibility as part of the important conversations related to making new spaces. This is an essential way of facilitating the inclusion of a marginalized population and allowing them to participate more actively within the community.

Hearing Noah discuss his work on transforming Collegetown (among other parts of Ithaca) gave me insight into the realities of being an architect. I tend to be more of a traditionalist when it comes to architecture, and I fear that modern architecture will become outdated looking quickly. In my home city, I fear that new building development is modifying the landscape for the worse. I don’t have as strong of an opinion on Collegetown considering that the vibe of this area isn’t particularly well-defined or beautiful to begin with.

I asked Noah about how he accounts how building will appear with time with all of these thoughts in the back of mind. Noah’s response was that an architect it can be very difficult to gauge how a building will age so he tries to focus on using natural materials and fulfilling developer requests. This response was interesting to me because while an architect is in charge of their own designs it sounds to me like a big component of the job is satisfying what a client wants and trying to fit one’s own aesthetic into the confines of a description developed by this client. Noah, however, seems to go a good job of including his own perspective into his work and showed some designs for Collegetown which even resemble already existing buildings in their finishing and materials. I believe that his work is conscientious of the landscape they are located in.

I still have qualms about modern architecture after the talk in my own city after the talk, this time because I think it could be possible that architects who are concerned about the look of a piece have to consider their business first-most. This could mean that stark, modern buildings back home are created because developers want a design which they can be certain young professionals in my city will be attracted to regardless of how they clash with the city’s old roots. These buildings back home are kind of like the fifteen-minute fashion of architecture. I wonder how permanent these buildings will be.

I know we have Design and Environmental Analysis major but really know few about the major or the people there. Also, I’m wondering what’s the difference between DEA or Architecture major. While we’re doing the interior design, we mostly care about how it looks and how it functions. We really don’t pay a lot attention to the environmental interaction or sustainable design.

Small talk with Noah last Wednesday gave me a general picture about what he cares about when he is doing the design. Obviously, beyond the functional purpose and how the architecture looks, he cares more about the interaction of the architecture with the public environment and the idea of green, sustainable architecture is shown everywhere in his design. Also, one of the students brought up the idea of disability facilities like ramps which I think is really great. I think it’s worth considering why our community has less such facilities. It’s obvious that people with disability are relatively few; however, it sounds a right thing to build more disability facilities if possible. I know I’m talking from a social perspective, not considering the real condition of the buildings, but I think it’s also one of the problems in environmental analysis. Moreover, I think Cornell is doing pretty well in the gluten free station in dining which shows that Cornell is a large community trying to satisfy everyone’s needs, which not manly schools seem to consider,

Last week, I went to hear Noah Demarest give a short presentation on some of his past and present architecture projects with the company he started: STREAM Collaborative. It was neat to learn about some of the renovations and new buildings around college town. For instance, he showed us a couple images of a new apartment being built near college town and spoke about a few challenges he and his company faced when planning for it. It turns out that there is a five-story limit in that area, but they were able to make the most out of the purchased land by  building one floor partially underground and lofting some areas of the top level. Also it had never really occurred to me, but college town is filled with a massive number of power lines crisscrossed in the air. This causes a problem for some architecture projects, which need to be more than 10 feet away from them. The city wants to bury the lines, but that is an expensive process and seems to be a project not in the foreseeable future.

In all of the projects that Mr. Demarest showed us, I was amazed by the preview images generated. Some of them looked like photographs taken in real time, even though the projects had obviously not been completed yet! Mr. Demarest said that he and his company pride themselves on creating images of end products which they can actually deliver. A good example of this was the image of the planned renovations to the Cornell tennis facility. It looked very nice, modern, and exactly as I could imagine it looking in real life. Their planned design for the new GreenStar market looks awesome as well. Overall, I really enjoyed the presentation and was very impressed by STREAM Collaborative’s designs!

I attended the Rose Café this past Wednesday with Noah Demarest giving a presentation on his current projects and as well as providing some insight on the development of Ithaca over the past few years, and future changes that residents of the city should expect to see soon. His projects ranged from apartment buildings to the Cornell tennis facilities. One of the things I found more interesting about the presentation was how much time it takes to begin construction on a project. So many things need to be considered by the firm, first the client’s needs, such as the amount of livable square footage, outdoor features, the general architecture of the building, and many more details. This process alone can take months just to sort out all the details of what is expected by the clients. After this initial process is done they must take it to the city to see what can and cannot be done, then they must cycle back to client to change things and this process can go on for a while, months up to years in some cases. Noah talked about some of the more nuanced details of developing a property that can affect the value, such as putting the bottom floor of a building too low. A few inches vertically can be the difference of a floor being able to have tenants and being able to charge rent and leaving the space for only utilities. This and many other things must all be balanced to satisfy the client and the city. Overall the presentation by Noah was very informative, and provided valuable insight in the small-scale development in the city of Ithaca.

Last Wednesday, I was fortunate enough to listen to local architect Noah Demarest talk about some projects that he is working on in the area. One of my best friends from my hometown is an architect and always explains how much work he has, but has never told me about the projects. I never considered how hard it would be to build in Ithaca, but Noah informed us of the strict Ithaca zone building codes. One major obstacle is complying with the power lines. Ithaca has power lines nearly everywhere, unlike some cities that have them underground or architecture reasons.

During the talk, Noah answered a lot of great questions from students. One question that I thought was interesting asked Noah about potential runoff from rain that would flow directly into the local stream. He explained that all of the little aspects of design and architecture are covered by law and that the issue has been addressed. Additionally, I liked how Noah explained the legal background behind building accessible housing for handicapped individuals. Noah mentioned that he was working on creating a more modern feel in collegetown and redesigning the buildings to house more students. This spoke to me because I do not want to live in collegetown due to the appearance and location, but I would certainly consider it if a new complex was developed.

This past Wednesday I attended the Rose Cafe featuring Noah Demarest, who currently works as a architecture in Ithaca and graduated from the College of Human Ecology in Design and Environmental Analysis. I thought his approach toward the presentation, of having a slide show of designs an recent developments in Ithaca, was appropriate for this topic as we were able to see his work and visions for future buildings. I liked the design for the new Green Star which I believe he noted is anticipated to arise in the space currently occupied by the old Cornell Press building.

However, because he did not really come with a concrete or structured presentation in mind, he relied on students to ask good questions to spur dialogue. Two of my favorite questions from this cafe led him to comment more specifically about the environmental impact that the Green Star build might have on the surrounding ecosystem. He noted that the design team takes precautionary measures to try to minimize and contain runoff. Another student asked about the physical accessibility of the designs that were being presented, which  led Demarest to comment and explain that many of the places on Cornell’s campus are technically considered inaccessible for people who require wheelchair assistance. I think that theses questions enhanced the conversation as they emphasized how important proper building design and layout are, beyond their appearance, for maximizing human functional benefits and minimizing environmental damage.

On Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe where Noah Demarest led a discussion about his career in architecture and projects he has been involved in.  Demarest studied Design and Environmental Analysis as well as Landscape Architecture at Cornell. In 2012, he went on to found his own architecture collaborative, STREAM, which primarily serves the greater Ithaca area.  

STREAM has been involved in the designing or renovating of several buildings on College Ave., such as the Student Agencies building, where E-Hub is located, and 201 College Ave, a modern, five-story apartment complex.  I found it interesting how much work is involved in the design of these buildings, especially how much time must be expended to comply with Ithaca’s challenging building codes. For example, most of Collegetown has a five-story limit, but his firm was able to maximize livable space by making the top floors have lofted spaces.  In addition, regulations regarding power lines limit the total footprint of new buildings, since a building’s outer walls cannot be within ten feet of power lines. Collegetown residents have been trying to get these power lines moved underground with little success.

Demarest also discussed how his firm strives to make new projects as modern as possible, while avoiding extremes that will make the buildings seem out of style in a few years.  The buildings utilize technologies such as air source heat pumps to minimize the buildings’ carbon footprints whenever possible. He even hopes that many of his new buildings will eventually be powered from solar farms.  Demarest finished the cafe by talking about the rules governing accessible housing, such as the rule that requires all new apartments with more than three units to have every unit be accessible.

Overall, I enjoyed this talk, since it enlightened me on all the work that happens before you see the construction vehicles changing the landscape of Collegetown and other areas.  I look forward to seeing all these new construction projects being completed and hope that they will improve the housing situation in Collegetown.

At the Rose cafe this past Wednesday, a Cornell alumni architect, Noah, described the projects his firm has started and those they have completed. His firm, Stream, designs primarily living spaces, many of which have and will be occupied by Cornell students. Noah gave a very optimistic look at the future of housing in Collegetown meant to be completed within the next decade. While today Collegetown is mostly single or multi-family houses, many Collegetown land owners are starting to develop their property into larger apartment buildings. Noah explained how Stream’s goal is to stay within the original footprint of the existing house marked for development, but expand it into a multi-unit apartment building. This will increase the amount of College Ave housing without increasing the amount of land area developed. Noah then described a future College Ave full of shining, modern apartment buildings replacing the existing weathered houses. Noah’s vision also included buried power lines and 100% electric-powered buildings that will eventually be connected to a solar farm. Considering the current state of Collegetown housing, I am skeptical of Noah’s vision of a utopia living center for Cornell’s upperclassmen, but this change would certainly be welcome.

Last Wednesday I went to the talk about architecture in Ithaca. It was a fascinating talk that brought up some points I hadn’t ever realized or thought about. Perhaps the most general and glaring point is all the development that’s currently going on around Ithaca. There are a ton of diverse projects. It’s a good reminder that there’s a lot more to Ithaca than just Cornell. One of the first project we talked about involved the new apartment on College ave. One point was brought up about the horrendous electrical wiring/power line management. I wonder if this is a problem elsewhere. It seems that the main concern is management and development. Since buildings have to be a certain distance from power lines, it makes it difficult to build taller buildings which fully utilize the lot space. I wonder what it would take to bury the power lines and if the main barrier to doing this is cost.

Anyways on the topic of architecture, here’s an interesting question: If you had to design your own house such that no house has ever existed like it before and you had unlimited space and resources, would you be able to do it? How would ensure your house’s uniqueness? I think this would be cool to do. I’m not sure exactly what I’d design but I like the idea of playing around with interior slopes, integrating groundwork/external natural elements within the interior (e.g. having like a full indoor forest with the unlimited space would be cool but you’d want something on a smaller scale and more manageable). It might also be interesting to play around with indoor decks/platforms/alcoves. I watched a ted talk a while back along these lines about designing houses made entirely out of bamboo. It’s worth checking out if you get a chance.

Another thing that was mentioned during the talk was the time it takes to get things approved by the city. In general there seems to be a disconnect between the city code and the architect/designers work. It was mentioned how hard it is to parse the specifications within the code for things like distinguishing between a cellar and a basement. It feels like architects themselves should have a more direct say in revising the law. Certainly you don’t want only architects designing the architecture law but there’s probably a way to strike a middle ground. After all there are good things about the policies, but there are also bad things. It’s just a matter of teasing out which is which.

Last night, Noah Demarest spoke to us about the challenges and interesting nature of development and architecture in Ithaca NY. Conan Gillis brought up an excellent question concerning the accessibility of new buildings being constructed in Ithaca. While the responses to that question specifically were very interesting, it got me thinking about another form of accessibility with respect to breaking ground on a building, that being economic accessibility.

The projects Demarest spoke of last night both do and do not fit into this way of thinking. An office building does not fit into this way of thinking. Designing lobby for a firm or developing a work space for a company is not what I am concerned about. Specifically,, I’m thinking about living spaces, and particularly cheap living spaces. The apartments in collegetown are an example of this. As these buildings get more expensive and more time consuming to make, it makes it harder for poorer students to afford the cost of living there. I’m not saying all corners should be cut to make housing cheap, however. I appreciate and think it is genuinely good that his architecture is attempting to build into a more environmentally sustainable image of the future. But, for example, do we really need bamboo paneling on the exterior of a building designed as housing for undergrads and grad students? In my opinion, no, and doing so only makes the cost of a collegiate experience more prohibitive than it already is.

The other thought I had to this effect was a comment Mr. Demarest made about building codes. He lamented the strictness of some of the policies, though commented that their removal or being made more lenient could open way for more shady businessmen to take advantage of the opportunities provided and create inferior housing. This, to me, was an excellent example of the necessity of some government regulation. Individuals with good intentions may find it difficult to work with such a strict system, but the idea is to prevent exploitative individuals from taking advantage of those who may have no other option – such as undergrads trying to find housing that they might stay near their campus. All in all, it was very interesting to learn about architecture itself and to understand the ins and outs of the design of buildings, though these two thoughts are probably what stuck with me the most.

Architecture and design are important aspects of our lives. We spend much of our time indoors, so it was both relatable and interesting to hear from Noah Demarest, an architecture professional, about recent local projects that will impact us as students. Some of Noah’s projects have large implications impacting the quality of housing for Cornell students, since he has designed many of the new apartment complexes in Collegetown that me and many other students will most likely be looking into for future housing opportunities. However, the most fascinating portions of Noah’s talk, in my opinion, were rooted in the discussion of building and landscape design, as well as the conversation on ordinance laws that impact the generation of a successful project for the client.

As a student currently taking a Design and Environmental Analysis course, the process of designing a building or a landscape has become much more applicable. For instance, I would formerly never analyze the exterior or interior of a building and its salient features until I started to learn the background and methods of effective design throughout my DEA course. Noah’s discussion about how he goes about successful design, therefore, was very intriguing. For instance, Noah’s company was recently tasked with redesigning the entrance of the Reis Tennis Center, where Cornell plays their tennis matches. As he discussed the before and after photos of the center, I was captivated by the level of detail of the project and how, through his design, many of the building’s issues were solved. One such issue, where the team shop was located in a closet down a hallway, was fixed through the design of display cases at the front desk, making it easier for guests looking to purchase equipment to find what they need. I appreciated hearing about Noah’s experience in generating solutions to architectural design issues, such as the team shop dilemma, primarily because my DEA course is centered around formulating effective and functional solutions to common design problems.

Another aspect of our conversation I found interesting was the discussion of ordinances and their impact on how Noah and his team approach projects. For example, in one Collegetown apartment complex Noah designed, his team was able to find a loophole in the ordinance law regarding maximum building height. By instituting lofts, where people are able to sleep, in the apartments located in the top three floors of the apartment complex, his team was able to efficiently maximize the use of space within the building. Further, it was also fascinating, and also a bit troubling, to hear how, when constructing condos, there are no strict laws requiring accessibility for physically disabled residents like there are in apartment complexes. Thus, it’s interesting how ordinance laws vary depending on the exact use of the building. Overall, however, I enjoyed hearing about architecture and design and Noah’s work in the field. After taking my DEA course, and after finding Noah’s discussion very fascinating, I would like to possibly learn more about design, as it is a field that impacts us all every day.