On The Ground

1/27v
LIZ DILLER talk. Students watch from zoom, no booze to shmooze after. Some were frustrated - where was the architecture? Are we supposed to be artists now? Will we ever see buildings in a lecture again? (yes, of course darling, don’t be dramatic!). / PAUL MEUSER’s Gargoyles found throughout Rudolph, installed overnight.

1/28
Beaux Arts Ball revitalized, and a search for spaces to occupy is called.

1/29
Students screwed - classes filled but 20 people left out. Google doc made, emails sent, a waterfall to TANIAL LOWE {an angel among us}. Finding your way on serlio is a floor plan made by a first year. See you in the fall for the same thing? Students want recompense- more mugs?

1/30
Blizzard. Online games. Covid reminiscence. Architecture butt fingering - now draw it according to PAUL MEUSER, LAUREN CARMONA, RACHEL TSAI {poker shark, class of ‘23}. Summer travel - more lotteries, polling, broken links, cursed electives. But Rome! Mexico City! London! Gothenburg!/ Lawful Good/Neutral/Evil chart created > check out @on_the_ground_ysoa_22

1/31
FORTUNE: Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. / Sex Ball planning commences.

1/31
Painting & Printmaking thesis show Vibrant Matters opens at School of Art. Everyone else in SoA is both amazed and jealous that they are “done” so early. The show sets the bar high!

2/1
LAUREN CARMONA’s Saloon Shutters relocated from 4 to 7 - associated architectural accessories are flaked, re-built.

2/3
SHoP Union Failure announced. Bummer, to say the least. / BOB STERN’s {former dean, yellow sock aficionado} class reads Phillip Johnson’s the Seven Crutches of Modern Architecture - Pretty Plan calls out ½ the class - lol.

2/4
Phallocentrism. Still a thing? Overcompensation? SDE? / “NOT A RECEPTION” pop up appears in Rudolph. Ephemeral and ahead of its time. Left me thinking. 5/5.

2/7
LINDA VAN DEURSEN finally arrives at the Atrium. Graphic designers rejoice. / Triage HARRY HOOPER, YOUSSEF DENIAL, and SIGNE FERGUSON take up positions on the stairwell balcony. Rudolph is back!

2/8
GRACE ZADJEL spotted painting majors freaking the fuck out before a Thursday crit, prepared to have souls stomped upon.

2/9
GAVIN HOGBEN is blowing minds amongst first years and pressuring them to question what it means to represent water and learn from power. / ANA BATLLE considers waiving Systems.

2/5
Hegel and Corbusier discussed on the 7th floor of Rudolph Hall / PAPRIKA Radio launches, piggybacking off the work of Graphic Designers ALVIN ASHIATEY, MIKE TULLY, and BRYANT WELLS. Anyone can listen, anyone can play! > Local-radio.piggyback.page

2/5
COMMUNITY POETRY opens in the Atrium thanks to CAT WENTWORTH, M.C. MADRIGAL, and YIFAN WANG. “…make art, play poet”. One poem reads “I move it giant beautiful anxious graphic crowd dance with elaborate secret sea of luxurious fruit for radiant promise.”

2/6
Someone googles how to convert inches to centimeters. Slow start to the semester.

2/7
TRATTIE DAVIES and NIKOLE BOUCHARD are running doubles for Core 2. Above/Below now has a sibling, All Around. Countdown to existential crises in 3, 2, ….. / LAUREN CARMONA & PAUL MEUSER release new jerseys, 2022 spring season.

2/8
DENA YAGO gives a lecture in the Atrium. Last slide depicts a gecko with text reading “you have the power to end these patterns.”

2/8
Hedgehog/Fox surveys sent out, SABA SALEKFARD and CHRISTOPHER PIN - alluding to Isaiah Berlin’s distinction between generalist and specialist philosophers. Very ambiguous. Very mysterious. More surveys please. Which one are you?!

2/11
Image of young PHIL BERNSTEIN is left in the computer lab to sear its way into our memories.

2/12
BADMINTON IS BACK BABY. Team names = excellent: Bush Hammered Birdies; OnlySlams; Thiccer than our Accents; TBD_MegnhaJack; I’d Smash That; Back Alley Boys II; The Bjarke Pringles Group; Lina Bo Birdie; Iturbe Rejects; Alliance of Evil.

2/14
ANTHONY ACCIAVATTI regales Core 4 with exotic tales of being chased down the banks of the Ganges by rabid dogs. He escapes by using his belt. Students notice that ANTHONY ACCIAVATTI, 2022 edition, no longer wears a belt. He introduces his Core 4 charges to the idiom “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” / ANA BATLLE realizes unfortunately she has stayed on the sinking ship of Systems for so long that she will now have to actually take it. RYAN REYES and SIGNE FERGUSON rejoice.

2/15
Core 4 students report ANTHONY ACCIAVATTI to PETA.

2/15
Planning for a ping pong table on the 7th floor commences. YSOA’s insurance triples.

2/17
More bribes appear in the form of Biscotti & mysteriously thick hot chocolate. First years head to forest. Lots of crocs. / ELIHU RUBIN is encouraging revolutionary thinking and pressing students in Core 4 to ask questions about everything.

2/17
Scales of Design, BIMAL MENDIS demonstrates how to cut a bell pepper for a section. ½ class out with Covid; rest squint from back of Hastings. After 20 min, brave souls asks if slicing vegetables is part of the assignment.

2/18
Systems Integration lecture, LAURA PIRIE claims humans “are innately programmed to connect with other parts of nature,” “feel safe on decks” because it reminds them of hiding from “wild animals,” and should never build architecture on “pristine land” or “in the wilderness.” Collective response on the class of 2023 group chat: OK boomer. Also apparently perforated metal with Y’s is biophilic?