Arch 244 - Structures II

Arch 244 (Structures II) is one of four architecture classes I'm taking this semester. Currently we are going over the "design of structural elements in wood, steel, masonry, and concrete. Lateral considerations and calculations including environmental and seismic loads. Understanding of building systems; diaphragms; connections; structural engineer-architect communications. Complete structural design/drawings for small commercial building-group project" (MSU Catalog). This class

is really interesting because it really makes me think how buildings are put together. We went down the street for a class recitation field trip to visit the new Animal Bio Science building that is currently under construction. The top picture is a rendering of what it will look like when it is competed and the bottom pictures is how it looks currently. We were looking at the steel beams and their connections at certain points. Although this building will be used for research it is a good example of steel construction for architecture students.

Good Afternoon

Today turned out to be yet another beautiful day, warm temperatures and sunshine. Biking home today was a pleasant ride down Cleveland St.

8am Class

Class at 8am five days a week gets old (luckily most students don't have this inconvenience), but this morning I was surprised to see a fresh blanket of snow on the ground. First snow in a while. They got a couple inches in the mountains as well, now it is 40 degrees out . . .

campus weather station website
http://www.montana.edu/msucommon/extras/weather/weather.php

Ice Skating

So I went ice skating last night at South Side park with my brother, his girlfriend and his dog. It was the first time I've gone in a long time. Campus is only a few blocks from South Side and a few other ice skating rinks around town. It is a fun daytime or nighttime activity. And if you don't have skates, no worries, you can rent them from the SOB Barn! My skates! --->

http://www.montana.edu/outdoorrecreation/ This is the site for outdoor recreation, you can find a list of all the equipment they have for rent and prices

Presidents Weekend & Architecture Update

After a few full weeks of classes we finally had a three day weekend, thank you Mr. President. It was well needed after the past few hectic weeks. I thought I'd write about Architecture and give a much needed update. This semester we have desks in the architecture building, Cheever Hall. I've been spending a lot of time there and will continue to for the next 2 or 3 years. On Friday I had my critique for my final design of an architecture project. It went ok, but after spending countless hours on this project since the beginning of the semester they pretty much told me that I did not spend enough time on it, kinda frustrating... But we got another project assigned; this one is exciting because it is going to be an actual building. After a year and half in architecture school I finally get to design a building. Our site is in downtown Bozeman and we would be designing a space for a wood shop retail space. I'm pretty excited about this project, we will be spending the rest of the semester on this, so I'll let you know how it turns out. Another project I've recently turned in was for my computer graphics class. We used Auto CAD to make a model of a 3D surface and a set of stairs, and then we used a laser cutter to cut the pieces out of chipboard. It was really fun learning how to use this technology that we have available to us. Also in this class we are learning how to use Google Sketch Up, which anyone can download, it's a pretty fun program to mess around with, and you can download if for free from http://sketchup.google.com/ The picture at the top is the stairway I made for graphics, all the pieces were cut by a lasssser.

Happy Valentines Day!

Only Valentine I got was from my mom...

Arch 253 (Design) - Project 1

So I thought I'd share what I have spending so much time on in Cheever (architecture building). This is our first project, we've spent the first five weeks of the semester on it, we designed an alley space in downtown Bozeman. I'll share with you the process we went through.


-First we did a photo analysis of the site, we took hundreds of photos, as if we were never going to visit the site again. We drew up elevations, sections and plans of the site. This process we did in groups of 5 so we were able to split up the work. The rest of the process we did individually.








-The next step was creating six pin models out of pictures we took from downtown. To the left you can see six pictures that I took downtown and then cut and layered them to create a 3D design. We used sewing pins and foam core to assemble them. This is what we based the rest of our project off of . . . and where I got lost.







-After a few weeks of designing and spinning in circles this is what I came up with, not very impressive, but something. You can see behind is the facade of some buildings downtown. This was an interesting process we went through, we will be doing something similar with our next project. Hopefully I'll have better luck with it this time

So that is a real quick run through of what one of our studio projects are. I'll keep posting projects as I'm finishing them up.

All nite - er

Good replenishing snacks after staying up all night working on a project can be found at Joe's Parkway. I was pleased to find Red Bull Cola. Joe's is an awesome little convenience store just across the street from campus. They have a deli and fresh produce. They sell many gourmet foods as well as common grocery items. And MSU students get a 10% discount the first month of every semester!

http://www.joesparkway.com/

CAT/griz '09

Ya so we lost both men’s and women’s games yesterday, but there was still a lot of Bobcat spirit around town. I didn’t make it to the women’s game because I was skiing, men’s started at 7 so I was able to attend. It was the annual Cat/griz of basketball located in Bozeman every other year. I was looking online and found that they have Alumni satellite Cat/griz parties around the country for football and basketball games.

http://alumni.montana.edu/events/catgriz/

My friend Kayla and I, with all our bobcat fever going on, got ourselves some blueberry slushies and then got blue tounges, kinda gross. . . looks like we ate some smurfs. . . go cats!