Taiwan-Summer 2011

Hey guys I thought today (Randomly) would be a good day to post some of my pictures from Taiwan. Keep in mind these are unedited and I haven't put too much thought into what into what's going up. Here it goes!

There are alot of pictures so click below to see all of them! Oh and don't forget you can always scroll through the higher resolution images by clicking one of the pictures. Enjoy! 

Ballard Community and Designers Meeting

Friday we had a quick meeting/review with the Ballard Community Council to give them an update on our progress and developing ideas. Here is part of what we showed them. We got some good feedback and direction/voiced concerns over the course of the day so that now we can address them over the next two weeks. Please Click the Picture for Higher Quality Images

I think from here we are moving to a more over-arching theme of Health in the project. Taking the health themes expressed on page 1 and pushing them and calling them out throughout the whole project. Thanks for checking it out!
Until next time!

Healthy Places

Hey guys quick update on how this week is progressing. My professor has encouraged us to think in the direction of healthy places and healthy neighbor hoods. So what kind of health are we talking about? There is obviously the health of body then the less talked about health of mind and finally we need to promote healthy relationships. I want to take this new angled look at the project over the next few days. Here is a couple images to go with that.

Also, in other news, tonight Alice and I went to a seminar/ demonstration of Photoshop at the Adobe building in Fremont. It was pretty cool, artist David Julian was there showing some of the techniques he uses in his art. It all seemed pretty basic techniques, such as using masks, but he uses them in a way that stuff turns out really well.

Camera Posts in Rhino 4

Hi guys. Today I am going to be doing a quick tutorial on making rhino camera shots. Its quick and dirty. I am Helping out a friend tomorrow on this subject and just wanted to make sure I can still do it so here we go.

First I've set up a basic land form that you may want to camera shot different angles of.

This first thing you want to do is make some "camera posts". Now usually if you want a specific view you are trying to get a view of a human at your site. So I've made my camera posts 5.5 feet tall and put them at several corners of the landscape. You can put these posts anywhere you wish. Its easiest to put them at corners, edges, intersections, etc because then you can snap the end of your line to one of those objects, just make sure your snaps aren't disabled at the bottom of your screen.

This is the landscape in perspective view after the posts have been added. Also when you are drawing your post lines make sure you are holding shift on the vertical scale so that your posts are strait. make sure you draw them in them first in the top view then finishing them in the front or right view to ensure that you aren't flying off into space.

So now you want to first double click the perspective title in the perspective viewport. Then right click that and hover over "set camera" then on the next menu click "set camera and target". Then with click the top of the post you wish to be the source of your first view. Then with the second click on where you want the view to be looking. You will probably get something like this. pretty narrow viewport.

So here I wanted to get a slightly more panoramic view so double click the perspective title again to go back to your four viewport screen. Then in top view click release then click and drag slowly the edge point of the camera box to widen the view. If you cannot see your camera outline thus are not able to manipulate it right hit F6 or right click the perspective title >>> set camera >>> show camera. now you should have a more desirable view.

Now to save your view you want to click and hold the little car icon at the top of your screen. and click the grey car with the floppy disc icon next to it. The command bar is going to request a name but be sure that when you name your view you DO NOT include any spaces in the title. You pressing space bar will end the titling and start new commands. Once your view is saved you can always access/manage it by pressing and holdign the red car again but this time clicking on the grey car with the pointing finger above it. Click the title of the view you want and your set! These views will exist regardless of what new modeling is added or old modeling is manipulated, You can even delete or hide your camera posts for rendering. Hope this helps!

Until next time!

I Love Hexagons!

I heard some quote or something the other day about how you should never say that you don't have enough time in life to do this or do that, because you have the exact same amount of hours in a day that the great doers of the world had/have. Then the quote went on to name some great accomplishing people, Einstein, Mozart...etc etc. And it kind of struck me. Its true? The more i thought about it and discussed it with a couple people. Yea that the quote is a little bit generalized, but nonetheless it has kind of given me some fresh encouragement that I'm not sure is correct.

My biggest issue in life I think is that I want to do so many different things. Sometimes I get frustrated with the whole path of things that you have to finish one thing before you can start another. I have to finish this degree before I can start another. I have to make money in this profession before I start another. But are those people who were great, did they always stick with one thing. What if you have several passions? How do you choose which to pursue. I guess my question is can I pursue all of them????

I dont think it's indecision as much as...indecision.. whatever.

Back to Ballard. This last week are putting together some design refinements for another presentation to the Ballard Community council on the 24th of February. JJust been putting together some basic graphics to show them which will go through another round of work before our final on march 9th.

In other news, I finally met with my professional mentor! She was great and encouraged me to apply to more internships. It was great to meet with somebody that is fairly recently out of a Landscape Architecture program and so is very familiar with the current Landscape Educational experience and had some great advice! and im not just saying this in case you read this! :D Anyways.

This is what we are working on the Ballard Project. Some rough graphics. Click the images for Larger, more clear views.

and next I am trying to come up with some ideas for an overlying portfolio theme thing... here is something i threw together today.

I love hexagons.
Until Next Time!

LID Enhanced Greenways and Stops as Destinations

Hey guys, today we met with community members of Ballard and bounced some ideas off them on the future of Ballard around a series of Rapid Ride Stops. It was a good experience and it always helps to work with real people to get a sense of real world concerns. I have found myself concerned more and more with the financial side of projects. I was telling my partner today, I dont see a beautiful canopy spread across the intersection, all I see is a giant $ falling crushing the entire project from reality. What I am interested in is rooting out community support and community groups that are already established and working with them to make some of the project cheap, and thus more likely to happen. Because in the end what does it always come down to? Will power and money? Mostly money. Here is a couple photos I took while working in the studio on Sunday for the Monday meeting.
I should mention those green corridors being sketched out are planned to be Low Impact Developement (LID) enhanced greenways, meaning that they share the road with the little vehicular traffic that exists there.

Next we move into the digital stage and further look into funding and areas that we can possible do some rezoning....touchy.
Until next time! :D

Internship Applications as Practice Portfolios

Yesterday I submitted an application to another internship and I came to realize that as I apply to internships it becomes a little easier each time to submit "sample work" It's an abbreviated portfolio so to speak. Now the last internship I applied to I was even less satisfied with my application than this one,but this one I have started to think about the style I want to show, and themes and types of works I want to put forward. Here is what I submitted yesterday.

The reason for these particular pieces is that the call for applications specifically mentioned the adobe suite, CAD, and Sketchup, so for this particular submission I didn't include any Rhino or physical model building.
Until next time!

Getting Dirty Digging

Hi guys, today I'm just going to be giving a quick update about what the future of the quarter is looking like. It looks like its going to be fun! I have to admit that thus far the quarter has been pretty slow going, and I think that is mostly my fault for not taking full advantage of my time. This quarter in Restoration Ecology we are going to be getting our hands dirty in restoring part of the Union Bay Natural Area. We have compiled a rough, super simplified, restoration plan and now are doing peer reviews. After the reviews we will be revising and adding to the plan then submit it for final approval to our professor. Once we have approval we can get on with the dirty work! Just wondering....should I buy more waterproof boots? Probably...
The next hands on activity is we have the option, which I am taking, to help design and build a rain garden at a residence in the Ballard neighborhood with Mithun.Also very very exciting. Yes I know, to some of you building a rain garden is not a huge deal but its a first for me!.
More new stuff, I am debating on getting a kindle or kindle fire for reading the large amounts of online reading that this program requires as I find myself falling further and further behind in assigned readings. But most likely that's just an excuse I'm using. Need to find a job first!. Anyways, we are also having our mentor meet and greet this Friday. There is going to be food, drink, and some interesting presentations!. Now what picture should I include on this post....how about one of my desk! Delicious...