1 and 2 Weeks

My time in Seoul... and Korea... and Asia is coming to a close shortly. Hopefully the close won't be too long, I'd love to get back here some day.

In one week I will be done with my studio project and in two weeks I will be home back in New York. Within that time frame I hope to never rest and continue to explore... and (I guess) present my work well also. Actually I am really looking forward to completing this terms work. June, my studio professor really has been a great friend and mentor. He has pushed me to challenge and solidify my ideas, pretty fun. The week after review I'll pretend I am a tourist to Seoul and try to see a lot of sights, and live it up.

By the way I am really STOKED about my first minutes back in the US! I have an almost 6 hour layover at SFO. So I plan to jump on the BART, run around San Francisco, hopefully meet up with my great friend Alyssa and before getting on the plane... scarf down one animal style at In-N-Out Burger! So as much as I'll be missing Korea, that morning and lunch in San Francisco will make my homecoming glorious.


I really will miss my Urban Issues class.


Oh and for those who wonder what I actually have been working on this semester (or why I am here) here's some photos of one of the many models I have made. I know people might see this as crazy (which is pretty valid I'll admit) but its supposed to be a conceptual model of an apartment complex and how units can be arranged or stacked.

Adopted Family T-Giving!

Andy (Babe) and Jordy (Babe)

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It culminates with the best of the best... Family, Food, Football.

This is the first year I will be spending Thanksgiving outside of America and without Family. Luckily I have great roommates here. So they are my new adopted family. We get along really well and enjoy our time together, and have helped eachother grow and adjust to the new culture. Friday will be our day of celebration with our friends and professors.

Willie and Nick


If Jordy, Nick, Willie and Zimm are my adopted family then Taejun is our step brother. Of course we get along as step brothers. To be correctly Korean Taejun is my older brother. Hyung-Taejun. I couldnt have survived here without him... thanks older brother.


Zimm lighted the fire by motivating us for the whole turkey day feast.

Happy Thanksgiving!

99th %... No thanks

In a world of architecture its so easy to get lost in your work and methods. And life seems to be outside the box (studio) while you're stuck in it. It's easy to get competitive and try to be the best. Luckily here in Seoul the culture requires you to get out. We go out for everything, which as you can imagine I am 100% in full support of. Competition is a different story.


If you study really hard or have worked forever at a specific task you are probably in the top percentile of that particular facet of life.

In life I'd hope be in the 98th percentile at a bunch of things as opposed to being in the 99th percentile at one thing. Here is my list; inspiration and motivation:

Architecture:
I am 70% finished with my Masters so I guess this qualifies me more than the majority, but I don't really have a drive for it compared to other things. Maybe it's just been architecture overload for me for the past couple years and perhaps my sub-passions have helped me focus and motivate me to continue architecture.

Music:
I use the term music in a broad matter here. Its so refreshing to find a new song that I enjoy. I research music a lot. Mostly through blogs and bands that I like. There is a song or type of Music for every occasion or emotion, or train ride, or movie. If you want to hear what I'm listening to now, just shoot me a line. Going to a great concert is an incredible physical and mental experience... ha that kind of sounds like sex. Maybe that'll help explain!

Cities:
There is nothing more suspenseful to me than venturing to a metropolis that I have never experienced before. I love riding on the subways or just walking around parks, or finding particular demographic neighborhoods. I love bars, fish markets, alleys, coffee shops, churches, and local people. I'm pretty established at researching and determining the vibe a particular city projects.
My list of international cities has doubled this year. So I've learned a lot.

Photography:
Ok this one is a bit vain... Though, I'd like to think someday I'd be pretty good at this.

Drip Castles:
I could probably give up all the above to just spend my entire life at Lido West (pre or post-high tide) studying drip castles. All day.




What are some other peoples' 98th %?

The Future

Whoops I forgot to tell you guys... a week before we went to China I saw the future. No I'm not kidding it was the future. It was ehhh... ok I guess.

Actually it was pretty wicked. We went to Song-Do City in Incheon about an hour west of Seoul for our Urban Issues class. It's a master planned city in the process of being built. Half the site is currently water. Its being built on "reclaimed land." Or in simpler terms: dirt thrown into the sea.
Crazy eh? The motivation for Song Do City is to create an international free economic zone. Based on its in really close proximity to the airport (15 minutes.) When we asked one of the Urban designers if the project was setback at all she nodded with certainty "yes" and said completion has been pushed back till 2015.
I said to myself "pushed back, 2015, are you kidding me?" Can you believe all those lots will be skysrcapers by 2015? Unbelievable.




You can see the new bridge to the airport in the background. It was built over water. Now they are pushing earth under the bridge into the sea, to make land for the city.


Come on little kiddies lets go to the fair to learn about the future city!

I vote that if we ever come across another planet that we let Korean developers take handle of it. They could build that shit up in seconds. Uhhh well that might not be a good thing. Lets just hope Song Do works out.

Dear Santa...

I have been a very good boy this year, and I have worked weally hard...
I weally weally want a Kowean twuck!


I see them all over town and they are the coolest things ever. They are so small and have wheels the diameter of a frying pan, and people half the size of me drive them. It could help me a lot when I'm back in St Louis. I could bring big materials like sheets of wood and 2 x 4 around town to help me build things.

PLEASE Santa. I really really could use a Korean pick-up truck.

Love,
Jimmy

Best of the Rest: Beijing

Here are some of the other amazing sights in Beijing. I need to get back to Seoul though.


The birds nest is probably the biggest victim to inaccurate criticism. It was seen by the whole world last summer via the television but the scale and tectonics of the building are incredibly impressive when experienced up close.

Forbidden City




We were lucky to meet some great friends to show us around the city this is Fan Fan and Way Suwan they are Urban Planning majors at Peking University which is one of the top schools in a nation of 1.3 billion. They were very kind and showed us around the Summer Palace.


Lama temple. Inside this temple is an 85' Buddha carved from a single trunk of white sandalwood... unreal.

After trekking to Cuandixia my camera battery had died. Which was quite relieving really. So the last day and night was spent wandering the hutongs and neighborhoods by foot with no camera or Ipod.

It just felt awesome.

A picture is only worth a thousand words. Go explore.

Tunes: Fall Music

As a music binger it's probably healthy for me to broadcast my passion.

When fall comes around my brain usually has a hard time functioning on my recent go to genre - Electro. I don't really care for bittersweet songs that remind me of the summer, but I need something that's more laid back and sophisticated. A type of music that has a matured (like the weather in Fall) feeling and perhaps urban vibe. So I always find myself returning to Trip-Hop.

Trip-hop works because it gives off the same erie feeling that can often be associated with the Fall. Days are getting shorter and colder, trees lose their leaves, summer is over... winter is coming. Its change.

6 Underground from the Sneaker Pimps is probably the best example of trip-hop. It has a great quazi-creepy feeeling but is still relaxing. It make's me want to go ride around the Berlin metro on a cold Fall night. Pretty random and odd but kind of cool right?
I'm sure you have heard a couple of trip hop songs The Garden State soundtrack is an example. Among my other top trip-hoppers there's Morcheeba, Massive Attack and one of my favorite bands of all time Zer0 7, who just came out with a new album last month that I think is great.

In other tunes news here are some lyrics that inspire me.

"This aint a song its a call to arms"
Sam Roberts Band Up Sister

"I've taken far too many chances on these less than idealistic romances"
Los Campesinos! We are All Accelerated Readers

"Yeah, I've got love handles but I cannot handle love."
Said the Whale Howe Sounds