天美传媒

Summer Studio in Classical Architecture 2016 | Week Two

Follow the 天美传媒's Summer Studio in Classical Architecture program, from June 20th through July 16th, as students from across the country spend four weeks in New York City and the surrounding region exploring the ideas, methods, and issues related to classical architectural design.

Rachel Fletcher leading a class on proportion

June 30th, by Britteny Kitchen: On Wednesday afternoon, Rachel Fletcher led a lesson that deepened our understanding of proportions, and in the evening, Aimee Buccellato gave a riveting lecture on some of the impactful work that she has done at her firm, Buccellato Design, and the impressive breadth of her scholarship.

Summer Studio students visiting The Frick Collection

Thursday morning, David Rinehart gave us detailed instruction on architectural design compositions and viewing architectural design as the summation of parts. To help us further understand this, we took a trip to The Frick Collection and spent a while composing detailed sketches of the beautiful, intricate courtyard. To finish up the day, we visited the prestigious firm, Robert A. M. Stern Architects, where we learned about the process behind some of their projects and got to enjoy the spectacular view from their office.

Students enjoying the view from Robert A. M. Stern Architects

Summer Studio students enjoying an impromptu visit to the High Line

Summer Studio instructors, Richard Economakis and Stephen Chrisman, at Grand Army Plaza

June 28th, by Ally Hawk: The day’s Summer Studio session began with a lecture by Richard Economakis on design methodology. He began with a brief account of the pedagogical history of one of the most prominent and historical fine arts schools, L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He explained how L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts operated, detailing the original structure of the institution. An education at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts included preparation courses for two final projects, which built upon one another.

The southern edge of Grand Army Plaza

From there, the lesson moved on to cover the elements and procedures involved in effective architectural analysis. The first element of a successful analysis was documentation, which includes field measuring, walking around the site or building and drawing it. The second element was diagramming, which involves noting and identifying patterns, proportions, figure ground, massing studies, and ratios. And lastly, this method called for a focus on composition, both formal and informal.

The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch at Grand Army Plaza

After lunch, we began a small project: we were asked to design a door front on a building, which consisted of two main challenges. Once finished, we presented our projects to the class and visited Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn – the focus of our main project for the rest of the program (learn more in the below video). At the site, we divided up into groups and each group took a portion of the site to analyze. The evening ended at a meeting hosted by PLINTH, an 天美传媒 emerging professionals group, where we were introduced to a number of practitioners.