What Happens When You Move to New England

     So you were expecting Design 5 right? Well, when you leave a two year program for a 4 year program with the added engineering aspect, you gain 3 more years of fun gen ed's and accumulations of architectural engineering classes. 

     
     I decided to move away. And if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me "why the hell did you move to Connecticut", I wouldn't need to be studying to have a good job. I was so sick of Florida. I could tell you everything about every single street, and destination, and I was tired of that. I didn't want to see the same people from high school, I was over the tourists, and cast members are the devils. To summarize it, I moved because I moved. 

     The first day of class I was given a warm welcome to New England, and their educational system. From design 1 thru 4, we weren't supposed to have a base on any of our models/designs, excluding windows, doors, and wall-like additives. DAY ONE of design 4 (design 4 at my new school is on par to Valencia's design 5) I was expected to know what an elevation was, understand codes for buildings, meanings of egress, etc. I was so lost, but so happy I was where I was. I like to learn when I am under pressure. No negativity towards Valencia, but the amount of information on realistic architecture and sustainability was at a loss. One thing I can say is they are so lenient on deadlines here at UHart- I was terrified to not have my axis/models ready for Baldwin. I like have a strict timeline, and if you're not done, you are DONE. I am so very blessed that my professors at Valencia kinda forced us to hand draw/design most things, because it gave me a great upper hand. So many people in the program started off using Revit and other programs to execute ALL of their assignments. Sorry but rectangular building with the paint bucket tool for "bricks" isn't enough. Baldwin would ask you to come back next semester when you're ready to work.




     So I will leave you with my first task in "new Design 4". We were asked to design a multi-use building including retail on the first floor, incubator space on the second, and finally residential on the third. I wanted to tie together each floor with similar details even though we were told to define each different space. I wanted the building to still read as a working unit altogether. This was a very fun first assignment to do since I'm not at all used to how Northern multi-use building look/work. 
***Fun fact, not many know what mylar is up here***

     For my materials and methods class, my professor should get an award. Its probably the most informative class I have ever taken, and it saves my ass for anything I need to know code-wise, or with means of egress. The textbook has EVERY building code (northern standards), material cost, egress requirement, etc. 

     The real majority of the semester within "new design 4" involves a master plan, and building idea that is still in the works, so stay tuned.



Thanks for keeping up with me! -M

Design 3- Assignment 2

So moving on into the next phase of design 3, we're still using the previous project's ideals i.e. the 12 series of pictures and drawings. 12 pictures, 12 drawings, and now 12 models. 

The materials were gonna be using involve that of plexi, white museum board, chipboard, wire, and no if ands or buts... Wax. We are told to chose 3, including wax, as our lowest limit. I've chosen to go with plexi, chipboard, and wax and possibly wire. Tbd. 

Anyway, we made 12 process models. PROCESS. That means ugly. And the uglier the better. It just means you're using additive and subtractive thought freely. 

So this bad boy is pretty ugly if I don't say so myself. 

Either way, the time schedule we have is around two weeks. I'm currently behind on finishing my PROCESS models but that's due to personal reasons. I have jumped ahead and finished three process models completely and finish one model entirely, so 1 out of 12 done, where most people will have a secure 12 process only done. You win some and lose some.

This is my first completed model. I plan to have my professor look at it and I definitely want to discuss color flow of the material with her. I think the wire will add and pull together the industrial look I am going for. 

Thanks for keeping up with me ! 

-Michelle C. Harter

Design 3- Assignment 1

So design 3 has taken off this Fall semester and I have the same professor. She's like, Michelle you need to take someone new next semester. And I'm like, yeah I know!! I just love her teaching methods.

I signed up for her in the beginning of this journey because I was told that she's tough, she'll make you cry. And believe it or not I cried this assignment, skipped a class as well. But I signed up for this.

So the project is surrounded by the idea of graffiti. We watched the WWII video on "Kilroy was here". So we needed a graffiti mark in our drawings. I'm getting ahead of myself. 

We needed to take pictures of an artifact that impacted us, in a 12 shot series. Black and white, little-to no background. 

I went through maybe 4 iterations of pictures before I finally got it down. 

I thought, a water bottle is important to me! I run all the time. On the first day of pinning up, i found out it wasn't personal enough. Then I attempted to tell a story about my asthma. 

I thought the sneaker idea would come across more personal. I sent her like 2 other iterations by phone and those weren't clear enough. When this set was pinned up, the background was still too messy and the story was hard to understand. 

So then I decided to skip class, change my concept completely and wing it. Honestly the constant rejection killed my spirits. I needed a day off from this. 

The new iteration I finished at home before redoing it for the final project. 

Thanks for keeping up with me ! 

-Michelle C. Harter 

Design 2- Project 3

So the day has come where we submit our final. The Bloomingdales armatures took route to their new vertical standings. This model consisted of plexi glass which was later cut, basswood spray painted white, museum board, and wire (optional). 

I utilized score marks solely on the plexi and some Mylar to add definition to the layers. The preparation and occupational spaces began to be visible once the basswood and museum board was added to the armature. 

Here is some process: 

The building time frame consisted of messy planning with cardboard armatures, and expensive plexi later cutting. Until we reached the building week where it all came together quite quickly.

Here is the finished product:

*The drawings were pinned up at Valencia College*

Thanks for keeping up with me!

-Michelle C. Harter

Design 2- Assignment 1

So last Tuesday we took a trip as a class to the Millenia Mall, in Orlando. I was super excited due to the fact it was a mall (I over shop). We measured, scaled, took snapshots, and drew the Bloomingdale's 3 public viewed facades. The main entrance being the first one, the side which was much longer than both other 2 facades due to the ramp, and the third facade which started on the second floor just above the ramp from facade 2. 

Thursday when the drawings were due, I was running late to class and by the time I got there (11 minutes late) the other professor already dismissed U.S. My friend told me the criteria of the homework due Tuesday of the upcoming week so we bought our paper and went on with our weekends. 

When I hear draw the facades on a horizontal paper, I assume draw each facade next to eachother side by side. This became my first iteration...

My professor on Tuesday had us all pin up our work and she observed each one. I received many compliments from other classmates about the detail I put into my drawing. When my professor got to my drawing she asked who printed it out on autocad, I burst out laughing and replied I drew that! I'm guessing that was a compliment, but I haven't worked with autocad yet so who knows. 

Here's more of my first iteration. 

My professor told me to re do my drawings with less detail as well as with the new scale the whole class agreed on. 

This was the new result, pretty plain, but it will help me get to the next step by building my armature with the longest facade for our final project. 

Stay tuned! 

Michelle C. Harter

Design 2- Project 2

So this next project in Design 2 involved a fruit, and a broad explaination. 

My fruit was the kiwi, originated in China but I emphasized on New Zealand which is kinda the second origin location. We couldn't use color, graphics (obviously), or anything too obvious. Basically the project was impossible at first. 

I went through around 8 iterations of my drawings and paintings for this process. Check em out! 

So this one, according to Steven, looked like a dolphin. I had no idea how to paint... So I just shot into the dark with this one.

This next one I actually attempted some geometric work into the painting. I learned to use my ruler to make straight lines look crisp. 

I then started to add some aspects of the actual vegetation, utilizing the half circle as the section of the kiwi.

I was like let's waste money and try a hybrid! Didn't work. But I was able to use this material for the final product. 

After that, I decided to start all over, a new location, much more zoomed out. I thought the idea of less geometric vegetation would increase the rational ideas of my drawings. 

I took the main landmass, brought it down a notch, and then added random lines to give it an architect appeal! 

I fixed some kinks and my professor was okay with the final product for now. There was more to straighten out. 

My professor suggested to change the orientation and lower the hue of the groves and this was my final product. 

I'm pretty proud of the process. 

I was scored a 4.0 on the final iteration of this project and showcased. 

Thanks for keeping up with me!

Michelle C Harter