Construction Visit

03/02/15

                Today, we toured the construction site at 906 W Nevada, Urbana. This site is being developed into a veteran center. We were able to see the process of constructing a building.

                The basement of the building is primarily home to the operating systems of the building. It contains all of the electrical panels and elevator operating room. It is made out of concrete. This building will have two elevators to accommodate the possibly disabled users of the building.

                The first floor has a very open feel, even in construction. There will be a kitchen installed and an open lounge space. There are large windows on all sides, giving those inside a full view of their surroundings. This was needed to give the veterans a sense of safety. The kitchen will be used to help disabled veterans learn how to use modified appliances.

                The second floor will have offices, class rooms, and a physical therapy exercise room. The third floor will be dedicated to those veterans who will live in the center. Each room will have the capability of being handicap accessible, as a lift system can be set up.

                The building process is very future oriented. For example, all of the wires must be in precise place for the future appliances that might use them. Even some of the best laid plans don’t pan out. There is a bathroom on the first floor that has a few things in the ceiling that will need to be accessed for maintenance. However, they are in multiple places. So, even though for bathrooms it is more desirable to have a hard ceiling with an access panel, this bathroom will have a drop ceiling, for easier access. 

Mt Hope Cemetery

3/31/15

                On today’s tour, we visited the Mt Hope Cemetery. Built long before the university even existed, it has become integrated into the campus. It was built on the highest ground around to stop the graves from flooding. Now, it simply exists on the outskirts of the main campus, displaying names, both familiar and unfamiliar, of people past.

                The first part of the cemetery we visited was a building right against the entrance. This place houses many of the above ground graves. Inside, all of the walls were lined with large stone panels, displaying the names of those who lay behind. Some of the panels had multiple names displayed, some of those hadn’t died yet. This practice shows the value some place on being buried next to their spouses or family.

                Outside, gravestones stretch out, all varying in size, seemingly placed arbitrarily. However, as we walked around, groupings seemed to emerge. The first group we walked through were the Jewish graves. Here, stones were placed on the headstones of graves, marking the visits of loved ones. We then walked through a few military areas of various wars. Each grave in this area had the person’s military involvement of the stone. Then, we were met with a large grassy area. This was left as a potter’s field, for the deceased who were left unidentified.

More familiar names were seen on the edge of the cemetery, facing Memorial Stadium. Those who were involved with the school were placed in there to represent their commitment to the university, even in death.

                Some people’s graves stick out more than others. Those who were richer had far more elaborate graves. Many people had obelisks that rise high into the sky and some have markers to claim a certain plot for their family.

                Overall, the cemetery is a direct representation of those who live and lived in the surrounding area.   

Green Street

3/17/15

                This week, our outing was slightly closer to home. We ventured down to campus town and walked down Green Street, as we discussed the many changed that have occurred on one of the most popular spots on campus. Filled with bars, food, and shopping, Green Street seems almost essential to student survival, so it’s weird to think that it hasn’t always been the student friendly place it is today.

                What started off Green Street’s transformation was the flooding issue that the area had. The Boneyard creek had the nasty habit of overflowing and flooding the surrounding neighborhood. This started the interest in the area.

                A group of students and a faculty member began to take notice of the Green street area and began coming up with ways to improve it. They realized that this space had much more potential that could be used to improve students’ lives on campus. So they began to lobby for making Green Street a place for students; less of a transitional place and more of a place to exist.

                Slowly, Green St became a place people were actually willing to go. The awnings got smaller, the streets narrower, and the sidewalks wider. Soon, people began erecting apartments to house students, as they realized that they could charge much more in rent for a lot less.

                This is the perfect example of a space changing to suit its environment. Green Street could have become a place intended for vehicular travel, but it was instead taken in the opposite direction, and transformed into a place for pedestrian student life. Green Street became the place we know today: a place to eat, drink, and have a good time. 

Downtown Champaign

3/10/15

                This past Tuesday, we went to downtown Champaign. Much of downtown Champaign focuses on its difference from Campus town. Here, people who wish to get away from the college partying can relax, shop, eat, and drink at their leisure. Non-college bars and pubs are what helped the downtown area flourish in the first place.

                The whole downtown area was built upwind from the railroad. This was done so the town could live without having to endure the odor and pollutants of industry. These smells would, intend, be sent downwind, towards Urbana.

                One of the buildings we passed on our walk was the former post office. This building was an impressive, strong looking building. It was wide and relatively short, making it seem very robust. This building was meant to symbol the federal presence in the town. It showed a stronghold of the government, while being a very central, public place. It has a set of large, steep steps to the door, where once, people could congregate.

                We eventually wandered to West Side Park, a large park in the center of downtown Champaign. Surrounding this park are many churches, the library, and a school. Here, the very rural concept of having many aspects of life intertwining come into play. The churches, many of which lie on Church Street, signify a healthy spirit. The park signifies a healthy body. And the library and school signify a healthy mind. All of them can be found together because, to many people, they all are parts of everyday life. 

Architecture XPO

3/5/15

                This Thursday’s trip was to the Architecture Job Expo. Here, more than 30 firms spoke with architecture students about possible recruitment. My mission: to find and interview one of these firms.

                The firm I ended up talking to was Humphreys and Partners. They are a residential firm, designing mostly apartment complexes all over the country. When asked what they were looking for in potential applicants, they said they wanted a strong portfolio and good communication skills. GPA was also important, although it did take a backseat place to the other things. Interns would start their careers there by working on existing projects with higher level employees.

                One of the recruiters was an alumnus of U of I and spoke of how historic and technical the architecture program is here. 

BIF and LEED

3/3/15

                Tuesday’s tour was around BIF, which stands for Business Institutional Facility. When you first enter the building, you walk into a huge, open space. On one side, there is a wall of glass, with a large, curved overhang from the roof. The space is large and impressive, serving as the central hub of the building. Also on the first floor, is a plaque, telling all those who enter that BIF was, in 2009, LEED Platinum certified. It was on this topic of “green architecture” and sustainability that our tour was focused around.

                There were three kinds of sustainability that we discussed: material, water, and energy. When picking materials to make a building, one must consider the embodied energy of certain materials. Embodied energy is the sum of all the energy needed to produce and move a certain material. Therefore, you want to look for a material that is locally sourced and cheap to manufacture. Water sustainability is a very important topic, especially with today’s high demand for fresh water. When a building is erected, water doesn’t absorb into the ground, it runs to rivers, where it leaves the system, as it gets flushed out to the ocean. In order to combat the leaving water, a building must try to slow the water. Energy sustainability is the most heard of kind, as it is well publicized due to its connection with global warming, etc. A building should try to use the lowest amount of energy as possible, as it is more cost efficient. It could also try to produce energy, using solar panels or wind turbines, to have a net energy of zero.

                To maximize the sustainability of a building is to make it a very “green” building, or a building that harms the environment the least. A way to get this certified is to go through LEED, Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, which makes sure you building is environmentally friendly. BIF had a high enough number of points to qualify for platinum certification.

                There are flaws with the LEED program. While it does encourage greener buildings, it also encourages certain things that could be harmful to a building, if executed improperly. For example, BIF has solar panels above the auditorium, which gets it points in the LEED program. However, they are anchored through a water-tight membrane below the exterior room, making them not entirely water-tight. This leaves the roof open to water damage in the future and possibly costing much more than the energy saved due to the panels. There are also bike change rooms, to get the LEED points for the bike racks that are locked to most people. These rooms take up space and cost a fair amount to build and, yet, they are not needed. This means that there was a large waste of resources to build these unused rooms, for the LEED points.

                While the LEED initiative is a very positive one that encourages good habits in designing buildings, it could be argued that there could be a more way efficient way to become certified as a green building, without certain frivolities that are detrimental to a building. Overall, though, BIF was a very impressive building and a huge step in the right direction when it comes to green architecture. 

Erlanger House

2/24/15

                On this walking tour, we went to the Erlanger House. This has been my favorite tour so far. It exposed us to something completely different than what we normally experience. It also tied in nicely with the models we are doing for the next class.

                Walking up to the house was the first of many surprises to come in the tour. It stands out from all of the other houses on the street around it. It is set back from the sidewalk farther than the rest of the houses and, while all of the other residences have large window and doors at the center of the house, the Erlanger house has none of these. Instead, all that is visible to passersby is a blank brick wall, and, if one looks closely, a small glass door, set on the edge of the front of the house. This gives the whole building the sense of privacy.

                The first floor of the building shows off the minimalism put into the building. The whole thing is very open, with two full walls of windows, letting in a lot of natural light. The sitting area contains a sunken space with couches built into the sunken space. This faces out to the “front yard”, which is a space outside, in between the wall of brick visible from the sidewalk and the glass wall of the house. On the other side of the sitting area is a very open space that rises the height of the building. This is also against a glass wall that faces the backyard. Here, there floor is completely open and hard wood, as opposed to the rest of the floor, which is cement and stone. This space was intended for dance classes that Margaret Erlanger would have at her house. There is also a small kitchen and bathroom on the first floor. The whole house is centered around a chimney that rises straight through the middle.

                The second floor is only half of the length of the house, as the dance space is double height. This space is dedicated almost entirely to the bedroom. This space is, again, very open. The second floor acts as a balcony to view the dance space on the floor below. The whole thing is carpeted in white, including the bathroom, which is a little odd. The toilet and shower are on opposite ends of the bathroom and both have a square skylight above them. Even in the place where one is supposed to have the most privacy, one can feel the sense of openness.

                This house was huge important to make connections to, in regards to our model project. The space had a mezzanine level, a double height space, stairs, and a chimney. Indeed, as I moved through the house, I was able to think about all of the elements it incorporated and apply them to the rules we had been assigned.

                This house was just so different from anything I had experienced before. It so simple and had such a beautiful aesthetic. It fit the original owner so perfectly in both function and very representation of who she was as a person. If this has convinced me of anything, it is to hire an architect to design my own future house.