2008-2009 Peter Abiles

Germany

Hello,

So not much is new since last week, working on final drawings for out presentation which is April 28th. But besides that, I have been accepted to study abroad in Berlin Germany next semester. Pretty excited about that, a few friends from the architecture program and I will be over there from Aug 30-Dec 11.But i will be staying longer, my parents and sister will be flying over to meet me and we are going to travel a little more, I use to live in Germany so we are going to go visit our old house/town. Needless to say i cant wait for this semester to be over and then go to Germany. 

Also on another note this weekend is Junior weekend, its when the corps and civilian students receive their rings. I decided to get one, so I went to the civilian dinner where they made a presentation and we received our rings, there are also other events that go on this weekend like a dance, comedian, and some other things but unfortunately architecture comes first. 

Its going to be a long week coming up so i might not have time to post next week, Let everyone know how the presentations went. 

NU 101 and Easter

Hey, 

So I forgot to write last week and it was actually a week full of events. So last weekend was NU 101 weekend, its held for all incoming freshman. They can come and see what clubs are on campus and also go to there respected majors and learn more about the specific program. I was involved with both the club aspect and the architecture major aspect of NU 101, I am the media rep for the NUGBC which is the Norwich University Green Building Collective. We are an organization that is trying to raise awareness of green practices, both at Norwich and also in the students and faculties personal lives, we have done numerous things from light bulb exchange to starting the recycling program in the dorms, we have many more plans but they need some more time and effort. Anyway back to NU 101, after representing NUGBC I helped at the Architecture building, this year we did something different for the incoming freshman. Along with the question and answer portion of the morning we had a little design Charrette, a Charrette is a term used for solving a design problem. We gave them one hour in groups of two to design a summer dorm that would go on the Upper Parade Ground, and after they came up with their designs we had a critique, where some faculty and me and the other students that helped act as the jury. It went well and then incoming students seemed to have enjoyed it. 

So this weekend is Easter weekend and it is one of the few weekends where the campus seems like it is dead. Most everyone went home, but since i live too far away for a weekend trip i stayed behind and am continuing to work in studio. Good time to get some work done with minimal distractions, hopefully by the end of the weekend i will have made some significant progress and wont have to strain myself to hard next week. 

Thats it for now i have until April 28th to get all my stuff done so time is running out. 

Mud Season

For all of you who dont know about Mud Season it is the period of time after winter when all the snow melts and it rains a lot, so everything is wet and muddy. But I dont mind, gives me an excuse to go out and drive my jeep on some muddy dirt roads. Besides mud season we are coming to the end of the semester so everything is piling up. Paper, presentations, and projects are going to be due soon, makes for a somewhat stressful end of the year. 

Besides that at least all the snow is going and when it is not raining it is really nice outside, nice change of scenery for the last push of the year. Right now I am mainly working on my studio project, we have less than a month to when we present, so now we got to get everything going. 

That is it for now,

Peter

Last Week Before Spring Break

Hey Everyone,

So the last week before spring break is coming up, which means two things. One finally get a break and two every single one of my teachers has some sort of assignment that needs to be turned in before spring break so therefore it is going to be a ruff week. Architecture wise we have a midterm review on wed, and Fri. not sure when I am presenting, but either way I have till wed. morning to have what I want done for the presentation. The midterm review isn't like a final review where you need a ton of work, but in order to get some good feedback from the critique you need a good amount of stuff. 

On another note this past week we got some snow so I was able to go to Sugarbush and go skiing on Tuesday before my class, I only have one class on Tuesdays and it starts at 4PM so gives me a nice window to go hit the slopes. 

Well anyway got to get back to work. 

Beaux Arts

Hey,

Beaux Arts was this weekend, Beaux Arts is an Architecture Dance/Ball that the Thesis class puts on every year. It also is along side with Alumni weekend, this allows the Alumni to come back and give presentations and also to help out with portfolios and possible internships. The theme this year was Villains and in the past it has been, commercial icons, and anything but clothes. 

Apart from Beaux Arts, nothing too much is going on we are getting more snow right now suppose to get a foot today, should make for some good skiing this week. Right now I am waiting to year back about an internship that I applied for so hopefully that will work out. 

Thats it for now.

GMCR

Hello,

So last time I wrote I said that our studio was trying to set up the Coffee college with Green Mountain Coffee. Well last week we were able to go to their campus and participate. We were there for about 3 hours and they explained to us how they deal with the various farmers that they deal with and how the farmers grow the coffee. After getting the background of the farmers and how the whole system works we did a coffee tasting. We tried three different types of coffee, a Central American, African and an Indonesian coffee, we compared the three based on color, smell, and of course taste. After tasting all the coffees we were allowed all the free coffee, hot chocolate, and tea that we desired while we finished up the rest of the day. 

Since we are designing a public building that evolves around a museum/public aspect on friday we took a trip to the ECHO center; the echo center is a hands on aquarium located in Burlington, VT. After visiting the Echo center we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Burlington mainly Church St., Church St. is part of Burlington where no cars are allowed to drive and haas a bunch of stores ranging from retail to bars. 

Thats it for now, and right now its 34 degrees which is pretty warm for this time of year!

Coffee

Hey everyone,

So another week has passed and so far school has not been to stressful. But I am sure that will change soon, right now in studio we are still working with GMCR (green mountain coffee roasters) and are developing ideas still at this point. In the future we hope to take part of a coffee college where GMCR would have us taste an assortment of coffees and tell us the differences and how they are brewed. 

That is all for now

2009

 

So winter break is over and now it is back to work. Unfortunately my break and many other architecture students’ breaks were not full of relaxation. Part of the architectural curriculum for junior and seniors is to make a portfolio of the work that you have done since being in school. Upon returning to school we had to turn our portfolios in and then several of our professors are reviewing them and since I am a junior I will receive feed back on what I should change about the format of my portfolio and any issues I should address in my design; the senior turned there portfolios in as part of their application for the Thesis program.

 

Now I am back at school and back to work in the studio, our project this semester is focused around Green Mountain Coffee, we are designing a facility for either a museum or some sort of center in Waterbury where there headquarters is located. Besides that there is a good amount of snow and have already experienced temperatures in the -20’s. 

DONE!

So our architecture final projects are over and done, they reviews went well and the professors seemed to be impressed overall with the work that was done this semester. As for the little time that is left this semester I have one final and that is in Active Building Systems that is on Tuesday and then I am done for the semester. Though since I am a third year architecture student we are required to put together a portfolio of all our work that we have done over the past three years. This is so the professors can see how we have progressed and also to lets us know what we might want to work on; this is also to help us prepare the portfolio we will submit for the masters program. So part of my winter break will be dedicated to making this portfolio, besides that I will be taking some time to relax for once. 

Break

Hey Everyone,

 

So it has been about two weeks since my last post, sorry about that. So the past two weeks have been pretty hectic, and even though we are on break it is still hectic. Last time I wrote I said that we had a pin-up, that went fine the professors told us what to fix and some things to consider when we start to work on our finals. So that is where I am at now. Unfortunately my studio class is presenting on December 1st, that is the day we get back from break; this means that we are spending part of our break working on our projects so that we can present. But besides that I am taking time to eat thanksgiving dinner and see some of my friends over this short break. The nice thing is after Monday I will basically be done with schoolwork for the semester!