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| First day on our beautiful site. |
Today we visited the Old William's Grocery Warehouses. It's basically a few concrete block walls with no roof. The location, however, is a prime spot in the city and for community involvement. It's close to the local arts festival held monthly. The space and location gives opportunity for public and private spaces, and the open area is versatile for our design. We also won't have very many restrictions in the design because we don't have to worry about historical accuracy for tax credits. We also found out that we will be designing the public access-way area in front of the warehouses, so there's a lot of opportunities for designing in that area.
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
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Day 2
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| Out measuring. |
Today the “Warehouse Women” spent the morning documenting the site. Ling composed a panoramic image of the front façade of the Warehouse, while Erica, Susana and Lydia went to work measuring the exterior and interior of the overgrown, mosquito infested pit that we call our site. After cleaning up and eating lunch we met with our client, Mr. Roger Nickerson, to discuss the requirements of our project. Mr. Nickerson expressed to us the need for an art gallery venue in McComb for all of the residential artists as well as for traveling artist to display their work.
The exterior walls of the building should remain as they are with minor visual changes. Color and landscaping will be added to make the structure more inviting and artistic. The space must include a gallery for all forms of art, including music, an apartment for traveling artists, a classroom, a reception area, and restrooms. After exploring the Warehouse in its current state, the “Warehouse Women” envision a cultural and artistic space made for social gathering and art education. There is potential for a serene outlook off the back landing of the warehouse that can be used as a private space whereas the front of the Warehouse can be transformed into a public and social gathering space. The site would be a pedestrian only area with no interfering traffic.
After a very productive day at work we are all looking forward to relaxing with Taco Tuesday, the season finale of Glee and our late night cemetery workout. We have a busy day tomorrow checking our measurements, finalizing our photo collection, researching and developing our project intent and program.
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
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Day 3
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| Our beautiful reception. |
Waffle Wednesday started off with our daily meeting with our professors. We were told to set up a work schedule from now until the end of the project. We further developed the program of the Warehouses based on
what we came up with yesterday. We realized that gross area is way bigger than our actual net area. None of us ever thought that having too much space to build would be a problem. We finally got some precedents from a couple of books Marsha suggested which allowed us to go even further with the program by dividing the spaces in categories including: traveling artist space, local established artist space, modern artist space, a music area and public space. Today we had an early, yet amazing lunch at La Mariposa in Magnolia. The huge hamburgers Mr. Nickerson’s friend cooked for us made our tummies happy…. VERY happy. During the afternoon, Erica researched the codes for the building while Lydia, Ling and Susana worked on putting together the outline of the site and building program. We were interrupted while working due to a massive building fire down the street. Luckily it was an abandon building that caught fire, but still very scary. We tried to stay at the office working in order to wait for the hottest hours of the day to pass by so we could go back to the site and finish measuring and taking pictures, but ended up going at 3:30 resulting in sweat, burns and tons of mosquito bites. While at the site, we measured only the creepiest and dark places that we have been putting off until today. We found furniture, clothes, food left overs, and some other stuff, which makes us think that homeless people live there…eek. It has been a very productive day today. We are all just ready for Walmart and weenie Wednesday.
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| Erica also stepped on a nail today. |
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
______________________________________________________________
Day 4
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| Brainstorming day. |
This morning started off with a trip to the Magnolia Court House to sit in on a bid opening that Mr. Steve Cox invited us to. It was quite interesting and unknown to many of us. After the bid opening, we ventured back to the Cox Architecture building to meet with our professors to go over our preliminary program and concept ideas. Marsha was so excited about all the possibilities that our project has that we had to take her pen and paper away so that she would not design the whole thing for us. We received a lot of helpful feedback from them and began space planning. We were amazed again that too much space was the issue here. After numerous hours of sitting in silence and thoughtful doodling, a design idea finally clicked. Since the Warehouse is adjacent to the railway, our main concept follows the idea of diverting off a main path such as when train tracks divert for servicing purposes. We all collaborated for the next hour or so arranging and rearranging our plans to meet all of the requirements to our satisfaction. Our class was rewarded with ice cream bars from our professors which made our days work worth it. Much work is still to be done; however, we believe our design block has finally passed. After sitting at our desks for the past eight hours, the girls decided to take part in a Zumba class tonight at a local dance studio. Wish us luck!
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
______________________________________________________________
Day 5
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| Susana resting during Noon tunes. |
Today started off like every other morning: another bowl of cereal, another hour of “Saved by the Bell,” and another class meeting with our professors. Of course we are all a bit groggier this morning due to our late night cinematic adventure last night. At the meeting, all of the teams reported their progress and we were sent on our way to continue working. The Warehouse Women continued developing floor plans, researching codes, making diagrams, working on façade and roof designs and began working on a preliminary SketchUp model. We were all so happy when lunch was delivered from Broadway Deli and took a relaxing hour break to eat and listen to the locals sing at ‘NoonToons.’ Our afternoon was basically a continuation of the work we put in this morning. We discussed materiality and aesthetics, roof design in order to maximize northern light and minimize east/west light and we developed a grid system that ties all three sections of the Warehouse together, which is something we have been struggling with since we first started planning. Tomorrow is our second client meeting, so we are trying to develop and produce as much information as possible for him to critique and for us to receive feedback on. Tonight we were invited to Mr. Steve Cox’s house for a BBQ, so we are all looking forward to a night of hanging out with good company while eating delicious food.
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
______________________________________________________________
Day 6
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| Lydia and her thinking balloon. |
Due to our late night adventure at the Ice House in downtown McComb, everyone had to wake up after only four hours of sleep, which is more than we get during the semester. Our first matter of the morning was a client meeting with Roger. Roger really liked all of the additions and refinements to the program. We were given lots of great feedback from Roger. We were all reminded that we need to keep this renovation as economic as possible. Roger also liked our façade design, which includes tearing down a portion of the concrete wall to make way for a contemporary entrance to the facility. After our meeting, we all got wedgies - Fox’s Pizza Den wedgies. After our lunch, we sat down with Frank and Marsha to go over our meeting and our designs. During this meeting, we discovered that Frank and Marsha do not always agree. It was a few programmatic organization changes, but it caused a lot of controversy. In the end (an hour later) we all came to a solution that really strengthened our program. Now, we will need to design our roof structure and design our street planning for the pedestrian/gathering area in front of the warehouses that will tie into the café’ at the Post Office Library. More dancing tonight? Only if Royce makes his mac-and-cheese.
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
______________________________________________________________
Day 7 and 8
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| A house divided between work and play. |
Sunday was a nice sunny day. Part of the “family” went out to play soccer and enjoy of the weather and others stayed at home either sleeping, eating or just relaxing. During the afternoon some went for snowballs, while others took an afternoon siesta. At night half of the group played Apples to Apples and the other half worked on their project.
Monday was a working day, and the four of us worked individually or in groups of two. We divided the work so each of us worked on different parts of the project. Ling and Susana worked on the apartments’ floor layout as well as the exterior part of the building that will someday link the Post Office with the Warehouse and the Art Festival. Erica and Lydia worked really hard on the roof design; they were trying to finalize it so we could move forward with the project. But, it has been really challenging to design this part of the project. After three different roof solution attempts, we are still trying to figure out how drainage and natural light can work together to make it physically attractive to fit in our project.
Due to Memorial Day, we get to have a few hours of fun after work. We are going to a mysterious place with BBQ and swimming waiting for us!
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
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Day 9
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| Just a reminder of where we started. |
It has already been more than a week since we first started working on this project and looking back at what we have done, we realize that finally all of our ideas and drawing are coming together. Again, the group worked individually. This makes us very efficient because each of us is doing a specific task that will eventually be put together with the rest of the group’s work. We finally finished our roof design. But even after finalizing our design, Lydia and Erica had to edit it because the structure changed the lighting abilities of our roof design, and the effect we no longer visible. In the end, we actually went back to a different idea we had before combined with the roof we have designed now to allow optimum north lighting and a fitting façade. The floor plan of the apartments, the studios, the classrooms, the artist co-op and gallery are more than half way done. For the exterior “park” that we suggested for the project, we are currently on hold because it has not been decided if there is going to be a rising or lowering of the land. Maybe, after a long day at work, if the family is not very tired, we might go out to play soccer!
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
______________________________________________________________
Day 10
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| Women expressing their emotion. |
Today has been a roller coaster of a day. This morning the four of us worked quietly and productively on each of our tasks. Erica worked on the current site plan. Lydia finished up the model. Susana designed more of the courtyard and entry. Ling finished up the apartment layouts and worked on the second entry. The SketchUp model is basically done, as is the roof, all of the photos, the apartment layouts and some of the street planning are also complete. After lunch we began to worry as we heard that our project was supposed to tie into the Post Office team’s project. We were nervous that all the work we have put in the past few days would be a waste, but after talking with our professors we realized that only minor changes and additions would need to be made to our building in particular. We do, however, have a new task of creating connecting courtyard/festival area in between the Post Office and Warehouse. Tomorrow we will meet with their team to discuss landscaping and other options of how to tie our two projects into the arts festival.
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
______________________________________________________________
Day 11
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| Stole this from Marsha! |
There are only a couple of days left here at McComb and our project is going really good. During the morning, while working, Lydia and Erica enjoyed of the “time lapse” photo-shoot Jeremy was doing and coordinated some movements for the shots. We then met with the Post Office team to discuss site plan issues. We talked about what we were going to do to the space between their pavilion and our performance entrance, which had not been developed yet. This was a complicated thing to design due to the change in elevation between the Post Office and the Warehouse, the pedestrian circulation coming from the existing Pavilion and Farmers Market and the overall flow of both projects. After some sketches and ideas, we came up with a solution that we are sure will create a great environment for our projects and the surrounding buildings.
For the Warehouse, we finished the floor plans and the Sketch-up model. We also tried out two different rendering programs to see which of them gave better results for the project. We still need to figure out some lighting details, because the renders came out a little darker than what we expected. We also started working on the elevation drawing, but have not been able to finish it due to some missing information regarding the ground elevation change in the southern part of the site.
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
Today began a little later than usual. After checking out the hot spot in town and dancing out the energy we stored up while sitting at our computers all day, we all came back to the house around 4 a.m. to crash for about 4 hours. Work started at 9:00 a.m. but the morning flew by even faster than usual due to our busy work schedule trying to finalize our material for our last client meeting. At 11:30 a.m. we all headed to the Dinner Bell for an amazingly large and hearty meal. After lunch we met with Mr. Nickerson one last time before heading to Baton Rouge. His comments were all positive and he seemed to really enjoy and appreciate the work we put in. His favorite parts of the building are the saw tooth roof to optimize the northern light, the large colorful windows that allow for natural ventilation and the exposed truss roof throughout the majority of the building.
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Day 12
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| Lunch and the Dinner Bell and Lydia's list making skills. |
This afternoon Susana worked on the rendering settings for our model and took mass amounts of pictures of our site and building from every angle with Erica. Erica has also been working on the floor plan and site plan. Ling has been working on finishing up our SketchUp model, while Lydia has been working on the program and SketchUp model as well. After finalizing the program we discovered our building is 88% efficient which is exceptionally efficient.
We cannot believe our two weeks in McComb has already come to an end. Tonight we have to scrub the Mission house down and pack up so that tomorrow morning after we clean up our work stations we can head back to Baton Rouge to continue producing our final materials for the presentation.
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla______________________________________________________________
Day 13 (sort of)
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| We're back home! |
Today has been quite a depressing day. The Warehouse Women had to meet in studio at 7:00 a.m. to finish some things before Susana headed off to the airport to go home for the summer. The four of us still plan on working together via email, phone, and Skype. Not only did we have to wake up early and lose one of our members, but it also was a gloomy and rainy day outside. It was a major change to our weekend off which we spent swimming, playing games and just relaxing. Our site plan, floor plan and elevation are all completed as of today. Ling is working on the section drawing tonight, Lydia is finishing the SketchUp model and renders tonight, and Erica is finishing our building layout for the laser cutter. Our goal is to finish building our model and have all our views rendered by tomorrow afternoon. We are in serious production mode but feel confident with the work we have completed and the time we have left.
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla______________________________________________________________
Day 14
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| Lydia hard at work on the model. |
Day two back in Atkinson Hall was a bit more upbeat than yesterday. We listened to Disney music all day, accompanied by Royce, who knew all the words. Lydia began building the physical model of our project. We spent two hours using the laser cutter to perfect the model, down to each truss and railing. Erica worked on our drawings to prepare for the final presentation. Ling began using photoshop to bring life to our renders, adding paintings and people to gallery space. All the way from Costa Rica, Susana used our 3d model to finish the renders of our interior spaces. We finished off the day by making faces in Jeremy lapse camera. Can’t wait to see his reaction when he discovers it!
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla______________________________________________________________
Day 15
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| Our beautiful model! (minus the people) |
Today was another day full of boy bands and Disney music. It has been interesting to hear how many of these “kid” songs people know word for word. Some even have dance moves! The Warehouse Women are still in major production mode. Lydia finished the model today except for the fact that she forgot to put the people in before she put all of the trusses on so we now need tweezers to add them in tomorrow. Erica completed the plan completely and it is amazing. She is working on finalizing the rest of the ACAD drawings tonight and tomorrow. Susana rendered out last render and did an amazing job with lighting them all. Ling has completed three out of five of the renders in Photoshop. The entourage and materiality looks amazing as well. We are all super excited to see our project in the final stretch. The last order of business to discuss is the name of our Warehouse. We have a few options and will vote tonight. Stay tuned to hear the result tomorrow, same time, same place.
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla______________________________________________________________
Day 16
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| Finished boards! |
Our time working on the Warehouse is almost over, and everything is now coming together. We finalized almost every drawing, and Lydia mounted them to the boards. Our model now has inhabitants now that Lydia brought her tweezers to carefully place them between the trusses. Ling has finished all of our interior renders and is now finalizing the large exterior view down the bike path. Erica has finished the plan, elevation, and site plan and now only has to complete the section through the building to finish up. Susana created a brochure to pass out to everyone at the review. We’ve worked very hard, and it’s great to see everything completed. Oh, and we now have a name! It’s Studio 282-Art on the Tracks (282 is the address on Railroad Avenue). We hope that our adventures have entertained you!
The Warehouse Women
Erica Geromini
Lydia Brontoli
Ling Chen
Susana Constenla
