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October 4, 2005

First Quarter Class Roundup

So, yeah, school. I'm kind of light this quarter, with only my studio, a few support classes, and construction finance. I'm doing yet more baby engineering for non-engineers: small scale structures this quarter, then large-scale next, then I'm done with the engineering sequence. It's a mere sixteen credits all together this quarter, which feels like basically nothing, although my finance teacher certainly gives us enough homework to keep me working on the stuff just about non-stop.

This year in studio we're supposed to learn more about the site: analyzing it, designing with it in mind. So with that in mind, on Monday we had a field trip.

The idea is, we get a site, analyze it to death, then our teacher gives us a program, and then we design a building to fit the site that meets the program. This is our site, a trailhead next to a freeway offramp.

There is, as they say, lots of topography on the site. Which is slangy archi-speak for "the ground is very uneven."

One of the things I hate the most about these projects is that they give you this site with gorgeous, dappled shade, lots of nature all over it, and then a program that requires that you raze half the landscape. I have high hopes that our project is going to be residential, so the space can be a bit quirkier.

Before we split up into groups and worked on analysis, we hiked up and looked down on the site from the hill.

The view is quite nice up there. San Luis Obispo limits building above a certain level from the valley floor, and they own most of the land around the bases of the hills, so there's a large open space around the city.

It was also very windy up there. It's almost winter, amazingly enough.

Posted by ayse on 10/04/05 at 7:44 PM