Mulling Under Freeways

It was second year Architecture studio at Sci-Arc. 1b, Lindquist/Magar studio was a psychological roller coaster and I was eager to wrap my talents around a tangible design project. When we were settled in, in walks this tall, statuesque man with a coolness I haven't seen since the 70's (when the age of cool was fading from social memory), stalks in our company and introduced himself: Norman Millar. Studio days with him was inspiring, grueling, frustrating riddled with sleepless nights. He gave us an urban project based in a corner shopping plaza on Sunset Blvd. I remember being so happy with what I designed. We had to choose via the Iching from eight different building types to set our designs on, study them for form , logic of space and program, structure and function. Mines was based off an Morphosis project for a Japanese apartment building(if I remember correctly) they had based on a narrow lot size. The project was a Hostel/Community Service building. Teachers would stay in the hostel suites above and classroom/studios and a faculty room with offices on the lower floors with an outdoor public space/auditorium. At the time it was a lot to swallow (but as a working architect this doesn't even scratch the surface of what we have to do to get our buildings built!). Again, I was very happy with my design and a little naive. When my turn came for a desk crit, he stood back and gave a coy grin and asked me, "These spaces, will it be like standing under a freeway?" For some reason my head felt like it just exploded. He explained his reasons but he didn't have to go very far with them. Spaces to him were human, all spaces had a human value and relationship with the body and its imagination. Over exaggerated spaces become cold, impersonal and without the intimacy needed for humans to defines themselves. Scale is a very important character in architecture and we should always design what is needed first then bring in aesthetics.

Now that I'm designing project myself, I, at times, am reminded by those words. I live near the 405 freeway and sometimes I walk to Fox Hills Mall just to feel the day on my skin. At times I stand under the overpass and realized the impact of what he saw in my project and appreciate the time he took to share his criticism.