Instructor Feedback

Angelo Logan, August 08 Intensive
Feedback by Heinrich Hermann following final review on Aug 23, 08

Hello Angelo,

As I look at my notes from the review and revisit the paper copy of your proposal, these thoughts come to mind:
· During the week in Boston you managed to identify an appropriately smaller part of the huge complex you had selected and it strikes me now that it would allow you to focus in one building on both components you initially aimed at, i.e. at historic preservation and sustainability, and that you have to deal within the same building with both new and existing construction. I find it overall a very promising, useful and potentially very valuable project.
· My assessment of you based on working with you during the eight days of the intensive is that you are a very serious, committed, dedicated, and thoughtful practitioner. I also got the impression that ‘Design’ does not come easy to you (suggested by the vignettes/sketches on the case study diagrams page as well as those on the Lemp Brewery page (where the fenestration overlooked the very important stone banding)). Also, in your floor plan sketch of the sketch problem, the plan leaves an enormously deep zone of space on the right which makes one wonder what your thinking is of possible floor plan layouts given the unavailability of light in parts of the space – but you could of course have been thinking of unit-internal light wells); the heights of the trees you grow will play a role in the configuration of the light wells around the courtyards, unless they are open to the sky.
· I suggest therefore to restrict your ‘large scale’ case study focusing on urban restoration/intervention to only one, namely the historic Pabst Brewery.
· Beyond that, your precedent study will have to focus much more on typologies of very specific bearing on your proposed design, such as interior courtyards, plantings in courtyards, winter gardens, roof terraces, appropriate housing plans that correspond with your basic layout ideas, access paths to interior courtyards, access paths to housing units in the way you suggested versus several stair cases, the strategic location of elevators in your layout (or the avoidance of them given the limit in height)……
· Given the image you showed of the dilapidated roof, my guess is that at least the roof, possibly all slabs as well will have to be demolished
· Once again I suggest you look a common European approach to historic preservation that seeks to use new intervention as a way to enhance the qualities seen in the old, both by deferring to the old and intervening forcefully, while subtly (think of the example of Carlo Scarpa). Here you have to find your own approach, of course, but it would be very helpful to you to expand your frame of mind and explore such ideas as well.
· This could be a way to help you formulate the ‘thesis’ dimension of your thesis better, e.g. the work’s relation to time and the ‘intensifying’ of the felt presence of time through your intervention
Good luck with it all, Angelo, dive into it intensely!

Due for all:
By Sunday, Aug. 31: complete your assessment of the Thesis Assignments between Intensives 3 and 4, scan, and email me for comment
By September 7: upload revised pages on Angel