School Days

What I did during other people's presentations in architecture school ('03-'07):

Matt's review

Mike's review

Doug & Nick                                                                   Will Cannady (glasses) & visiting jurors

Wendy's review

David 

 Andy Todd

Lunchtime sketches in Columbia, SC

The South Carolina Statehouse is a great place to take a lunch.  The monuments on the grounds show a complicated history.  Civil War generals memorialized next to Civil Rights activists:

Wade Hampton on horseback with the African American monument in the background, to the right of the Statehouse.

Ben Tillman's statue is at the far right.  Several groups have called for its removal. 

The Koger Center for the Performing Arts (right) is one of my favorite buildings, designed in the late 80s by local firm GMK.  To the left is the new Darla Moore School of Business under construction.  It was designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects (his website opens with a pretty cool clip of him sketching) with our firm as engineers.

Favorite lunch spot near our office, Drip on Main Street.

New York City

Sketches around town:

Quick snapshots from different visits.

Grand Army Plaza, Sherman on horseback being led by a winged female Victory.
"Ain't that just like a Yankee, makin' the woman walk." 

Group watching David Peel and his band at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village during 23rd anniversary of the Tompkins Square Riots.

Cathedral of St. John the Divine, perpetually under construction, from Amsterdam Ave, near Columbia University.

Madison Square Park and the Flatiron Building.

Clinton & Rivington                                                        19th century cornice

                       

Broome & Orchard                                                          Delancy & Suffolk

Broome & Orchard

"Over the Sea to Skye . . . "

After my semester in Paris I booked a cheap flight to Glasgow, rented a car, and drove north and then east, covering as much of Scotland as I could.  The first day I made it to Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye after a rough drive in the rain.  The next day, sunny and beautiful, I walked several trails and toured Dunvegan Castle, the seat of the Clan MacLeod for over 800 years.  Below are three views of the castle.

My ancestors emigrated from Skye in 1802. About that time the Chief of the clan had the castle renovated in the Scottish Baronial style, pepper-pot turrets and all.  My crowd were poor farmers, tenants of the Chief on land one loch over.








































The ship Duke of Kent left Skye in August of 1802.  Few passengers aboard expected to make it across the Atlantic alive.  They were desperate to leave, victims of the Clearances.  After a rough passage they finally made it to America.  My great-great-great-great grandmother Effie MacLeod was a passenger with her parents and a one-year-old son.  She was also six months pregnant when they left.  After landing at Wilmington, North Carolina, they settled in the Sandhills region along a tributary of the Cape Fear River.  An account of her voyage is told by the historian Jim Hunter in his book Scottish Exodus.  See this link for an audio clip of Hunter recounting Effie's story:

Dunvegan from above on the Two Churches Road trail.

Paris '06

While in architecture school, I did a semester abroad in Paris in the Spring of 2006.    Here are a few of my early attempts at using watercolor.  

 Place des Vosges

I had gotten married on New Year's Eve of '05, and my wife and I spent the first week of '06 together in Paris.  She was able to spend a total of two months with me of the five I was there.  We shared a small walk-up apartment on the fifth floor of an ancient, tumbled-down building with another married couple, just north of the Centre Pompidou.  It was cheap and it was great.  The first few months were pretty cold and rainy, but when the weather warmed up, it was easy to get inspired.  These pictures really show the crowded public spaces and people enjoying Springtime in Paris.

Sacré-Cœur
 I think I did these over a period of just a few days.  I and everyone else, it seems, were ready to get outside.

Place de l'Opera

Centre Pompidou




And a few quick sketches:

From Le News Café on the Rue d'Assas looking into the Luxembourg Gardens.

                

Gendarmes                                                                      Young Love

Saint-Germain-des-Prés

I remember the Alamo . . .

Flew to San Antonio.  Above is a sketch while waiting in the Charlotte airport.

On the plane.  What else can you do?

The Alamo at sunset.

San Fernando Cathedral.

Chicago

NCARB meeting in Chicago back in September.  I rode the Elevated from O'Hare to downtown.  Great way to see the different neighborhoods coming into town.

Alexander Calder's Flamingo sculpture, a giant red elephant lumbering through Mies van der Rohe's glass boxes.

The Chicago River from Wacker Drive near the hotel.