Back to the Future

After coming down with a nasty flu a couple weeks ago, I've been seriously playing catch-up at school. Four days away from my model is pretty devastating. To bounce back, I pressed down on the big red emergency button returning to studio, summoning all nearby siblings to my aid. To my shock and awe, the key-phrase "I was hoping you could help me with some manual labour..." was a tough sell. Who knew? At any rate, I successfully bribed an undergrad with beer to help me catch up (a more enticing deal - building on the former lesson). For future reference to all those in town with two hands, manual labour + tedious + totally unenjoyable grunt-work is available......for BEER!!!







During March break, we had an exhibition of student work. Some of the work was from our prof's past studios, which typically include life drawings and the huge 6' drawings of skyscrapers. Our tower drawings should hopefully end up looking something like this one below, but after twelve weeks of life drawing, my pastel drawings look nothing like these ones.







As part of the exhibition, I also found my competition panel for the West End Pedestrian Bridge proposal from 4th year pinned up. Gotta love the bee theme:

Now, after a couple weeks of endless hours soldering copper wires into place, I've finally designed my 3D structure for the tower. At last! (The image at left is outdated). Even though most of the group had no idea how to design such a complex structural system, we knew some basic principles: a triangulated structure is the most efficient form of bracing, the steel columns should intersect at every first, third, fifth, or seventh floor so that they can be pinned into the floor slab in reality. Also, in places of greater stress (i.e. predominant wind loads, cantilevers, south-facing elevations etc) and nearer to the crown of the tower, there should be a tighter web of structural steel. Last rule, don't breathe in the solder fumes...the kids depend on that. Otherwise, the structure can be a very plastic, sculptural expression of the tower.

For the next three weeks that are remaining, we will have to paint the structure, integrate each tower into the overall site which is simultaneously under construction to complete the model. Then, just draw like a fiend to finish a 6' elevation and section, with a flashy video. Crunch time!!!