Monday, April 30, 2007
A Brief Note!
You will have to forgive the fact that I have not updated this thing in a while, but I have not had a wireless connection, until now. I actually have been keeping up with these posts on my computer, I just have not been able to post them. If this continues, which it most likely will, I suggest subscribing to my blog, or just coming back and checking every week or two, when you have some free time, with that being said, you can check out the first part of my trip below!
Lago di Como
My next stop included a stint in Como, which is about 45 mins north of Milano, situated on Lake Como, right next to the Swiss border. I actually have some friends that have been studying here the entire semester (lucky them), so stopping here on my way up to Switzerland was a no-brainer.
I took a day trip to Milano, just to get to know the city, and found out that I wasn’t really missing much. Even my travel-guide book said that there is not much to do in Milano, because it is Italy’s primary industrial and commercial city. Although I do go and visit Il Duomo and went up to the roof and walked all around it. That was actually a lot of fun, but other than that, I walked around the city, through some parks, saw a medieval castle, and went to the Palazzo dell’Arte, before heading back to Como,
I took the next day and went and explored around the Lake. Gorgeous, gorgeous lake. The small and quaint town of Como is located right on one of the southern ends of the lake (the lake is shaped like an upside-down Y giving it to southern tips) and is cradled by mountains that are covered in green, with houses and villas peeking out on the hillsides. Lake Como is actually pretty big and it extends up into Switzerland and has plenty of small towns all around its coasts. I explored around two of these towns, Lenno and Bellaggio (that’s all I could fit in a day) and simply enjoyed the beauty of the place. I found out that George Clooney owns a villas here on the lake, and was pointed out from a distance while on the boat ride.
Exploring the water edge of these towns was very interesting because of how easy it was to walk around. While you cant walk around this huge lake completely because of the mountains, the places where there is life was very active and pleasant to be around. Cafes, shops, hotels, and private residences make up the majority of the lakes edge, and having this mix worked very well in these towns. Combined with beautiful natural setting, all these towns were great to be around, people were out shopping, sun-bathing, eating, or just taking a stroll through the parks and gardens.
Whlie in Lenno, I was able to explore around a Villa Balbianello, which is on a tip that jets outs into the water and was originally built by one of the Cardinals of Como, back in the 18th century. This villa was also the film location of a few scenes from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (sorry, I’m a huge SW fan) If you recall Queen Amidals’s villa on “Naboo” where she later gets married, yea well that was the spot where I was. It was also the location for part of the newest chapter in the James Bond saga, “Casino Royale”.
As for Como, well that’s about all, I was glad I was able to visit my friends while here, and glad they took some time to hang out especially since they very busy while working on their final projects to finish out the semester.
I am excited about the next days in Switzerland, before I go to Turkey at the end of the week, and really start getting into all my waterfront cities.
View of Como, from the funiculare.
The mountains and house surrounding the lake.
Villa Balbianello.
The view from Villa Balbianello.
I took a day trip to Milano, just to get to know the city, and found out that I wasn’t really missing much. Even my travel-guide book said that there is not much to do in Milano, because it is Italy’s primary industrial and commercial city. Although I do go and visit Il Duomo and went up to the roof and walked all around it. That was actually a lot of fun, but other than that, I walked around the city, through some parks, saw a medieval castle, and went to the Palazzo dell’Arte, before heading back to Como,
I took the next day and went and explored around the Lake. Gorgeous, gorgeous lake. The small and quaint town of Como is located right on one of the southern ends of the lake (the lake is shaped like an upside-down Y giving it to southern tips) and is cradled by mountains that are covered in green, with houses and villas peeking out on the hillsides. Lake Como is actually pretty big and it extends up into Switzerland and has plenty of small towns all around its coasts. I explored around two of these towns, Lenno and Bellaggio (that’s all I could fit in a day) and simply enjoyed the beauty of the place. I found out that George Clooney owns a villas here on the lake, and was pointed out from a distance while on the boat ride.
Exploring the water edge of these towns was very interesting because of how easy it was to walk around. While you cant walk around this huge lake completely because of the mountains, the places where there is life was very active and pleasant to be around. Cafes, shops, hotels, and private residences make up the majority of the lakes edge, and having this mix worked very well in these towns. Combined with beautiful natural setting, all these towns were great to be around, people were out shopping, sun-bathing, eating, or just taking a stroll through the parks and gardens.
Whlie in Lenno, I was able to explore around a Villa Balbianello, which is on a tip that jets outs into the water and was originally built by one of the Cardinals of Como, back in the 18th century. This villa was also the film location of a few scenes from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (sorry, I’m a huge SW fan) If you recall Queen Amidals’s villa on “Naboo” where she later gets married, yea well that was the spot where I was. It was also the location for part of the newest chapter in the James Bond saga, “Casino Royale”.
As for Como, well that’s about all, I was glad I was able to visit my friends while here, and glad they took some time to hang out especially since they very busy while working on their final projects to finish out the semester.
I am excited about the next days in Switzerland, before I go to Turkey at the end of the week, and really start getting into all my waterfront cities.
View of Como, from the funiculare.
The mountains and house surrounding the lake.
Villa Balbianello.
The view from Villa Balbianello.
Ciao, Venezia!
I was a bit nervous about my trip to Venice for a few reasons; for one I had to fly out of and into a remote airport, because I flew Ryanair, the really really cheap airline in Europe, but it was really easy in terms of transportation because a bus took us from Paris to the remote airport and a bus picked us up in Treviso (about 45 mins inland from Venice) and dropped us off right at Pizzale Roma, which is the main transportation hub when getting into Venice. From there it was really easy to catch a vaporetto (water bus) and take it to my stop. However once I got off my stop, I had no idea where to go to get to my hotel, it was late on a Sunday night (nothing opens on Sundays in Italy) and all the streets in Venice are very narrow, tall, and well they don’t make you feel the most comfortable when your in my situation, me being a first timer. After asking around at a couple of other hotels that I walked by, I finally found my place. It was a nice place, especially since I had a room that should sleep 4 all to myself. And the shared bathroom was extremely huge and extremely clean. Anyways that was my first night, I couldn’t wait to explore the city in the next few days.
My stay in Venice, consisted of exploring the primary and popular places in Venice, such as Piazza San Marco, Ponte Rialto, and Accademia. Although on my last day I was able to take a quick trip to the island of Murano, which is known for its amazing glass creations. I was able to see demonstrations on their glass blowing techniques and how easy they made it look. All their shops had the most amazing and gorgeous glass souvenirs and decorations for the house, but as you can imagine it was all very pricey.
Walking around Venice, and experiencing the city was something surreal to me the whole time. It was like being a little kid again and going to Disneyland for the first time. You’ve heard about the place, from friends, movies, books, etc. You know it exists and once your finally there you cant believe your actually there. It was a feeling like that.
Venice is truly a city of its own. For three days I did not know was a car was, because I did not see one. Everyone walked everywhere, or took the vaporetto, and you never knew what to expect around every corner, since the city’s layout is harder to piece together than a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. But that didn’t matter, this is Venice. I actually took one afternoon to walk around the inside of the city without a map or anything, just to see where I would go and end up and I remember being surprised by the actual scale of the city and how quickly I could get from one side to another.
Looking at the waterfront was particularly interesting because there isn’t just a waterfront, the whole city is built on water, and you can never really escape the water, even if you tried. You are always walking on a bridge, over canal or walking alongside a canal, constantly being around the water. The dynamic of being able to create this type of relationship between man-made and nature is stunning to experience and one of a kind in the world.
The Grand Canal.
Me by one of the many bridges in Venice. (Im learning to use the self-time function on my camera on this solo trip.)
From Ponte Rialto at night.
My stay in Venice, consisted of exploring the primary and popular places in Venice, such as Piazza San Marco, Ponte Rialto, and Accademia. Although on my last day I was able to take a quick trip to the island of Murano, which is known for its amazing glass creations. I was able to see demonstrations on their glass blowing techniques and how easy they made it look. All their shops had the most amazing and gorgeous glass souvenirs and decorations for the house, but as you can imagine it was all very pricey.
Walking around Venice, and experiencing the city was something surreal to me the whole time. It was like being a little kid again and going to Disneyland for the first time. You’ve heard about the place, from friends, movies, books, etc. You know it exists and once your finally there you cant believe your actually there. It was a feeling like that.
Venice is truly a city of its own. For three days I did not know was a car was, because I did not see one. Everyone walked everywhere, or took the vaporetto, and you never knew what to expect around every corner, since the city’s layout is harder to piece together than a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. But that didn’t matter, this is Venice. I actually took one afternoon to walk around the inside of the city without a map or anything, just to see where I would go and end up and I remember being surprised by the actual scale of the city and how quickly I could get from one side to another.
Looking at the waterfront was particularly interesting because there isn’t just a waterfront, the whole city is built on water, and you can never really escape the water, even if you tried. You are always walking on a bridge, over canal or walking alongside a canal, constantly being around the water. The dynamic of being able to create this type of relationship between man-made and nature is stunning to experience and one of a kind in the world.
The Grand Canal.
Me by one of the many bridges in Venice. (Im learning to use the self-time function on my camera on this solo trip.)
From Ponte Rialto at night.
One of the glass craftsmans making a horse in Murano.
Oui, parle francais!
Ok, not really, but I was amazed how much French I retained from the all of 2 years I took of it in high school. I definitely knew enough to get by, although there was this one incident with a taxi driver, where I pronounced the last of part of my street incorrectly and he had no idea what street I was talking about, go figure, bah, those lousy French, just like those lousy Democrats, just kidding. [Simpsons Reference]
Anyways, I arrived in Paris at 10am, local time and had only slept 3 hours the night before, and no matter how hard I tried, I could only muster an hour of sleep on my flight to Paris, including a layover in Frankfurt. Once there I had to wait a ludicrous amount of two hours for my shuttle to arrive. Welcome to France, eh? Once I got to my hostel, I checked in and immediately when to get some food since I had not eaten in a while. I stayed in a quaint hostel in the 5th arrondisement or “district” of Paris, also known as the Latin Quarter. Lucky for me it was only a few blocks away from the Cathedral du Notre Dame, which meant I was also close to the Seine.
My very short two days in Paris, I concentrated on exploring life along the Seine. Needless to say it was amazing to see the energy that exists along this famous river. Old-fashioned steamboats are converted into restaurants, various boats cruise up and down the river given fancy excursions or simply providing an additional means of transportation for the people. The banks of the Seine also constantly have people walking all along, all age groups of people, at all times of the day, including senior citizens. Most people seemed to be out for a quiet stroll with their significant other, while others were walking with open wine bottles, having lots of fun.
While Paris is an extremely huge city, and lots of places sights, museums, attractions to visit, I was quite surprised to find a huge quantity of these places right along the Seine, and if not, no more than a 10 minute walk from the banks of the river.
Alas, my stay in Paris had come to an end, two days is obviously not a whole lot of time and it flew by as expected, but I was also anxious to move onto the next city.
Along the banks of the Seine.
La Musee du Quai Branly.
La Defense at sunset.
The Eiffel Tower at night.
Paris at night from the Eiffel Tower.
Anyways, I arrived in Paris at 10am, local time and had only slept 3 hours the night before, and no matter how hard I tried, I could only muster an hour of sleep on my flight to Paris, including a layover in Frankfurt. Once there I had to wait a ludicrous amount of two hours for my shuttle to arrive. Welcome to France, eh? Once I got to my hostel, I checked in and immediately when to get some food since I had not eaten in a while. I stayed in a quaint hostel in the 5th arrondisement or “district” of Paris, also known as the Latin Quarter. Lucky for me it was only a few blocks away from the Cathedral du Notre Dame, which meant I was also close to the Seine.
My very short two days in Paris, I concentrated on exploring life along the Seine. Needless to say it was amazing to see the energy that exists along this famous river. Old-fashioned steamboats are converted into restaurants, various boats cruise up and down the river given fancy excursions or simply providing an additional means of transportation for the people. The banks of the Seine also constantly have people walking all along, all age groups of people, at all times of the day, including senior citizens. Most people seemed to be out for a quiet stroll with their significant other, while others were walking with open wine bottles, having lots of fun.
While Paris is an extremely huge city, and lots of places sights, museums, attractions to visit, I was quite surprised to find a huge quantity of these places right along the Seine, and if not, no more than a 10 minute walk from the banks of the river.
Alas, my stay in Paris had come to an end, two days is obviously not a whole lot of time and it flew by as expected, but I was also anxious to move onto the next city.
Along the banks of the Seine.
La Musee du Quai Branly.
La Defense at sunset.
The Eiffel Tower at night.
Paris at night from the Eiffel Tower.
New York, New York
When I started to plan my trip out and look at my flight options I realized that most of my options, in particular the more affordable ones had me stopping in either NYC or DC. I decided to exploit that and turn that “layover” into a 3 day layover. I had never been to NYC and I have a good friend who recently moved there, so the cards just somehow fell into place.
I was only there for 2 full days of sightseeing, and exploring seeing as how I arrived there late night and although my flight was in the afternoon on the third day, I had to be at the airport around noon or 1 which meant that morning was devoted to packing.
After planning this part of my trip, two more coincidences fell into place. A co-worker of mine in San Diego knew that my fellowship was on studying waterfront cities and asked me if I had heard of a guy named David Grahame Shane. Professor Shane teaches at Columbia University in that Architecture and Urban Design Program and is very well educated when it comes to cities and architecture on the waterfront. He was originally going to come to San Diego as part of the AIA Lecture Series, but was unable to due scheduling conflicts. Anyways, she gave me his contact info and advised that I should pay him a visit while I was in New York. His schedule worked out great with my very limited version and was able to meet with me for about an hour and a half and provided me with some great insight and tips to look at while visiting the cities I was going to.
On a somewhat related note, but unrelated to my fellowship was me meeting with Mr. Robert Ivy, the editor-in-chief of Architectural Record. While there was no relationship to my fellowship it was still professionally related and I couldn’t pass up a great opportunity.
About a month prior to my trip to New York. I was attending the Alpha Rho Chi 60th National Convention in Memphis, Tennessee, where part of our agenda there was to initiate Robert Ivy as an Honorary Member. Before he left Memphis, he was kind enough to extend an invitation to all brothers of Alpha Rho Chi, to visit him and his office if we were ever in New York. This had to be too good to be true, but upon exchanging emails with him he was also able to meet with me briefly while I was in New York. Needles to say visiting him and the Architectural Record Office was quite exciting. I even got a sneak peak at some projects going into the May issue.
As for the rest of my visit to New York I was able to do some of the standard tourist stuff; the top of the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim, Lever House, the Seagram Building, Times Square, Battery Park, etc. But I know that I definitely must come back to this great city and spend at least 5 days there. Hopefully I will get a chance to do so when I come out to the east coast next fall to visit grad schools.
Here I am with Robert Ivy.
And Professor Grahame Shane.
I was only there for 2 full days of sightseeing, and exploring seeing as how I arrived there late night and although my flight was in the afternoon on the third day, I had to be at the airport around noon or 1 which meant that morning was devoted to packing.
After planning this part of my trip, two more coincidences fell into place. A co-worker of mine in San Diego knew that my fellowship was on studying waterfront cities and asked me if I had heard of a guy named David Grahame Shane. Professor Shane teaches at Columbia University in that Architecture and Urban Design Program and is very well educated when it comes to cities and architecture on the waterfront. He was originally going to come to San Diego as part of the AIA Lecture Series, but was unable to due scheduling conflicts. Anyways, she gave me his contact info and advised that I should pay him a visit while I was in New York. His schedule worked out great with my very limited version and was able to meet with me for about an hour and a half and provided me with some great insight and tips to look at while visiting the cities I was going to.
On a somewhat related note, but unrelated to my fellowship was me meeting with Mr. Robert Ivy, the editor-in-chief of Architectural Record. While there was no relationship to my fellowship it was still professionally related and I couldn’t pass up a great opportunity.
About a month prior to my trip to New York. I was attending the Alpha Rho Chi 60th National Convention in Memphis, Tennessee, where part of our agenda there was to initiate Robert Ivy as an Honorary Member. Before he left Memphis, he was kind enough to extend an invitation to all brothers of Alpha Rho Chi, to visit him and his office if we were ever in New York. This had to be too good to be true, but upon exchanging emails with him he was also able to meet with me briefly while I was in New York. Needles to say visiting him and the Architectural Record Office was quite exciting. I even got a sneak peak at some projects going into the May issue.
As for the rest of my visit to New York I was able to do some of the standard tourist stuff; the top of the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim, Lever House, the Seagram Building, Times Square, Battery Park, etc. But I know that I definitely must come back to this great city and spend at least 5 days there. Hopefully I will get a chance to do so when I come out to the east coast next fall to visit grad schools.
Here I am with Robert Ivy.
And Professor Grahame Shane.
The Lever House
The New York Skyline from the top of the Empire State Building.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The Power of the Waterfront
As some of you know, my proposal was geared towards looking at waterfront cities in the Mediterranean. Below is a map of the specific cities that I will be studying as part of my fellowship.
1. Izmir, Turkey
2. Thessaloniki, Greece
6. Genoa, Italy
7. Monaco
8. Marseille, France
9. Barcelona, Spain
While these are my designated cities that I will be studying, I will be stopping along the way in other places that catch my eyes. To find out what these other destinations might be you will have to come back and visit my blog.
If you want to read the introduction of my proposal (a brief generalization on waterfront cities, continue reading, otherwise you can scroll past it.
"The fabric of various cities around the world is linked to bodies of water that contributed to their founding, their subsequent development and their rise to power. Although we live in a world that is increasingly dominated by suburbs, the success of many waterfronts is a tangible sign of the vitality of cities There is an inherent magic in water that draws people together at certain places or for special events. This can exhibit the resilience of cities to adapt to changed circumstances, to new technological impacts, to seize opportunities and build a continuing image upon themselves, as well as create new or altered neighborhoods for their inhabitants."
1. Izmir, Turkey
2. Thessaloniki, Greece
3. Piraeus, Greece (Port of Athens)
4. Palermo, Sicily, Italy
5. Naples, Italy
6. Genoa, Italy
7. Monaco
8. Marseille, France
9. Barcelona, Spain
While these are my designated cities that I will be studying, I will be stopping along the way in other places that catch my eyes. To find out what these other destinations might be you will have to come back and visit my blog.
If you want to read the introduction of my proposal (a brief generalization on waterfront cities, continue reading, otherwise you can scroll past it.
"The fabric of various cities around the world is linked to bodies of water that contributed to their founding, their subsequent development and their rise to power. Although we live in a world that is increasingly dominated by suburbs, the success of many waterfronts is a tangible sign of the vitality of cities There is an inherent magic in water that draws people together at certain places or for special events. This can exhibit the resilience of cities to adapt to changed circumstances, to new technological impacts, to seize opportunities and build a continuing image upon themselves, as well as create new or altered neighborhoods for their inhabitants."
The Chase Leavitt Travelling Fellowship
In Spring 2006 I was fortunate enough to have received The Chase Leavitt Travelling Fellowship from the USC Architectural Guild. Since I missed out on studying abroad for a semester, I decided to apply for this fellowship where I would create my own study abroad program.
A brief background on the fellowship; when applying the student is charged with presenting a particular subject or area in the architectural field that they would like to further pursue and study on their own. The student then has to answer the usual who, what, where, why, how questions on their particular study subject and proposed trip.
After 1 round of cuts and a presentation to the USC Architectural Guild I was able to secure my award, which needless to say was very exciting!
The time of my fellowship departure is ever so near, and many people have been asking me how come I am travelling now as oppose to last year. Well the main reason for post-poning the trip an entire year was timing. I wanted to visit my cities of study during a particular time of the year, Spring/Early Summer being the case here. And with graduation coming up, and the pressures of looking for a permanent job, I just felt that I could better plan and focus on this fellowship by delaying it a year.
The time is finally here, as my friend Pat would say "Here we gooo!"
A brief background on the fellowship; when applying the student is charged with presenting a particular subject or area in the architectural field that they would like to further pursue and study on their own. The student then has to answer the usual who, what, where, why, how questions on their particular study subject and proposed trip.
After 1 round of cuts and a presentation to the USC Architectural Guild I was able to secure my award, which needless to say was very exciting!
The time of my fellowship departure is ever so near, and many people have been asking me how come I am travelling now as oppose to last year. Well the main reason for post-poning the trip an entire year was timing. I wanted to visit my cities of study during a particular time of the year, Spring/Early Summer being the case here. And with graduation coming up, and the pressures of looking for a permanent job, I just felt that I could better plan and focus on this fellowship by delaying it a year.
The time is finally here, as my friend Pat would say "Here we gooo!"
Monday, April 16, 2007
WELCOME!
This blog is meant to have all of you follow my travels as I embark on the 2006 Chase Leavitt Traveling Fellowship. As many of you already know, I received this great award last year shortly before I graduated from USC. The time has come for me to depart now, and I can not wait to see what kinds of adventures are in store for me. Please be patient with me, as I do not know how often I will be able to post, but please check back from time to time, as always please send any comments, suggestions, or ideas my way! BONZAI!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)