Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Notable Contrasts




Talking to friends and family back in Texas, I keep noticing the differences between city life and Texas life. Maybe its part of being freshly removed from Texas and freshly planted in New York, but things are sticking out to me.

Talking to my friend who is in law school in Lubbock, I was telling him about my new place in Brooklyn: how fresh and nice it is with the remodeling, how close it is to work, how large it is, etc. When I mentioned that it was just one easy train ride from my house to work, he laughed and said it was just like the movies, getting on the subway and going wherever you want to go. And that is one huge change that struck me. In Texas, riding the train, much less the subway is completely foreign.


I have one friend in Dallas who used to ride the DART, but other than him, no one I know has ever ridden a train in Texas. I remember it being so strange to walk into Grand Central Station for the first time and see the tunnels leading off to the LIRR, the Amtrak trains, all the subways, and seeing a huge message board listing the dozens of places that you could reach from this one huge terminal. I love going into those big hubs, it makes me feel like I'm back in the grand old age of train travel, back before cars, when trains were the fastest things in the world! I like to picture the tunnels and tracks spreading out in a gnarly web, diving underground, popping up above-ground, dipping into stations, cars emptying and filling back up.



The drawings in this post are some of my favorite section drawings ever, I love the idea of all these different levels interacting. To me there is something utopian and thrilling about the idea that all these levels can be so harmonious and happy together.







Thursday, August 25, 2011

Back in New York City, cont'd

Week one, in short.

Sunday, flew in, dropped bags at friends house, went to meet potential roommates. Interview/speed-dating went great, arranged to meet second roommate next night. Exhausted from a day of travel and passed out early.

Monday, up at 5:00 to catch three trains to meet coworkers, drove upstate, had meeting, drove back. Went into office about 2:30, hugs and smiles and greetings all around. It was great to see everyone. Looking forward to seeing Colette and the boss-men when they return from their respective vacations.

Tuesday, onto a new project, familiarizing myself with a new set of drawings. I read the contract documents, client interviews, etc., which was a tad dull. These are some of the overlooked parts of being an architect. And an earthquake at lunch! The building was gently swaying, we ran to the window to look out, (I feared it was an explosion) and then we went back to work. About an hour later, two coworkers who had been out of the office came back and asked why we didn't evacuate with the rest of the building! Whoops.

Wednesday, anxious about finding an apartment, hoping to hear back from potentials. Then I got a wonderful text from one of the brothers who I'd met last weekend telling me they wanted me as a roommate! Very very exciting!

Thursday flew by, it was quickly happy hour time! Because Shane was moving back to Texas, it was a Hoedown-themed happy hour: chips, pickles, flannel shirts and country music.

Friday was the day I moved into the new place (which meant simply throwing my meager possessions in a pack). But before that, the whole office was nervously watching the progress of Irene all day. Several people who lived in the flood zones left early to try to prepare, and I went searching through filing cabinets finding crank-powered emergency flashlights (with radio and alarm functions) and distributing them to people in the office.

Saturday morning I bought some last-minute provisions from the newly-opened supermarket just up the street (talk about a grand opening) and sat around reading and chatting with Jaime and Tim most of the day. Waiting for the storm to hit was pretty dull, and all of Irene's might that we witnessed was a bit of wind and bit of rain. I woke up Sunday morning with the power still on and the sun shining between clouds.

A pretty packed week: First week of work, a new apartment, my first earthquake, and my first hurricane! Hopefully this week will be peaceful.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Back in New York City

Its as if I never left! Long line at the cab stand at LaGuardia, surly driver who didn't want to drive to Bushwick, great Chinese food in Williamsburg!

I woke up extremely early Monday, yesterday, to take the train to Jonathan's house so that we could pick up Shane and drive upstate a ways to visit the house I worked on last fall. It was such a beautiful drive up, about an hour and a half north of the city. Things turned green and idyllic really quickly once we left the city. Parkways are my new favorite road system; no commercial vehicles, just cars!

The site of the house was beautiful, forested and green. We got out of the car and it was so fantastically cool, it couldn't have been 60 degrees! It was great to jump back into work with a field trip, and it was edifying to see all the things I'd been drawing last fall starting to emerge from the ground. The project was not as far along as I'd thought; delays with the permitting had pushed back the start date. They told us the foundation walls will be poured Wednesday. It sounds like I might get a chance to go see the progress a few more times too! Shane is leaving this week, so I am going to be taking over his role on the house, which at this point is basically to just troubleshoot any questions the GC sends us. (Thats some architecture/building industry jargon right there, GC=General Contractor. Clever, eh?)

This is going to have to be a post in two parts, as it is now time for my second day of work. More to come later, my followers few!