3/17 &3/19

3/17

Today we walked around Campustown! It was really interesting hearing how the changes to campustown came from joint collaboration from U of I, the business owners, and the city of Champaign.

It was really interesting to hear how surveying the students changed the landscape of Campustown. Originally, there were multiple lanes going in each direction and very narrow sidewalks, but now it's been transformed into more of a place by expanding the sidewalks and decreasing the number of lanes through that section of green street.

It was also kind of funny seeing houses built right in to so many of the buildings on green street! For some of them, it makes sense, but for other ones were they just built it into the building, it makes no sense to me.

It was also kind of cool learning about the canopies over the north and south sides of the streets. It makes more sense that the north side gets a larger canopy, and now I understand why the campus flowers' canopy always seemed so big.

3/19

Turned in models today! Almost break!

3/10 & 3/12

3/10

Today we visited downtown Champaign. It was really cool learning about the history of Champaign, and how it used to be called West Urbana, and how Urbana was named after Urbana, Ohio by immigrating pioneers.

Something that I found kind of cool was the fact that Champaign tried to increase commerce by creating an outdoor-walking mall, but instead of increasing it, sales dropped. They ended up going over some of the sidewalks so that people could drive over them again, and commerce picked up once again. You're still able to see traces of this in the way that the sidewalk is still cobblestone.

In addition to this, it was really interesting how there were at least four churches located right by the park. This is because for a long time, shops couldn't be open on Sunday, so the park provided wholesome, after-church activity for families.

3/12

Today we brought in our models. It was really weird cutting up the work someone else did. Next week the final presentation is due! I'll definitely have to work on that!

3/3 & 3/5

3/3

Today we went to BIF on our class tour. It was really interesting learning all about the LEED certification process. BIF is certified under some sort of LEED (I don't believe we ever figured out whether it was bronze, silver, gold, or platinum). However, it was slightly disappointing that buildings get points for simply adding features to their building. For instance, the panels that BIF has on parts of its roof were filthy, which doesn't allow for a whole lot of energy to be taken from the panels. They're still getting points for this however, simply because they're there. It's the same with the shower/changing stalls at BIF by the bike rack. Most people don't know it's there, and it's kind of a wasted space. Last year I wrote a paper on LEED and how, in theory it was an okay idea, but in reality it was awful simply because you could just add a lot of things to a building to get certification.

On a side note, I really loved the main staircases at BIF.

3/5

Today I went to the EXPO and conversed with WJE (Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.) The following is an abbreviated record of the conversation we had.

-What kind of projects does your firm take on?

-Well, we're engineers, architects, and material scientists and we look at buildings with problems so it could be as small as a residence, or as large as a large commercial building.

-What kind of problems do you typically find in buildings?

-All sorts! It could be structural, as bad as a collapse, or as small as a water leak and everything in between. Condensation, material issues, interface detailing problems, planning issues, you name it.

-How big is your firm?

-We're a little over 500 people. We've got 18 offices across the country. 19? 19, it's already growing!

-Do you guys spend a lot of time on construction sites?

-Yeah, we spend a lot of time in the field doing investigations, and then if we're involved in the repairs we spend a lot of time at the site as well.

- So, you said you hire material scientists too?

-Yeah, we do. We have our own laboratory, which is unique in our consulting field, and we have our own chemists and engineers with a material science background.

-What is typically a starting salary for you?

-That's a really good question that I don't know the answer to! I think it depends on what level you're entering the company at. We're not really involved in that. We just attract the good people.

-What's one of the biggest projects you guys have taken on?

-There's a lot... Notable projects that were big were... the I-35 collapse, the big dig project in Boston, we actually did an investigation of a plane crash once, alcatraz...those are just some of the more well known ones. We do a lot of work for state capitals as well.

2/24 & 2/26

2/23

Today we visited the Erlanger House on Indiana Avenue. It was really cool seeing how the houses on the street were very open and welcoming because they had a front porch and a doorway that was visible from the sidewalk, but when you reached Erlanger House, it seemed kind of cold and unwelcoming in comparison. The front door was hidden behind a corner and, had it not been for the stairs, I wouldn't have found it right away.

Walking into the house was very interesting because of its unique design and minimalist style. There were so many open spaces, and the fact that there were very few vertical walls, and that they didn't go all the way to the edge made the house seem bigger.

I think the fact that the house was designed for a dance instructor really shows. The light-switches on the floor as well as the staircase (which was really cool) shows that legs and feet were a huge component of the Ms. Erlanger's life. (Kind of a weirdly worded sentence... not sure how else to put it though, so oh well!)



2/26

Today we brought in our first drafts for our shoebox project. Looks like I'll have a lot of work to do!