Thesis: The Architectural Problem

Now that I finally have an ENTIRE day to myself, I think it's about time I started showing this blog some love. This year has been crazy with job and school and more school, and then more school on top of that. This has been such a formative year for me, with my summer experience in Namibia giving real confidence in my ability as a designer. And I just realize that I did not write a single post about it. Dang. Ok. Alright, you know what, fine. I'm releasing everything, this entire thesis. There will be pictures, there will be videos, there will be generalizations and there will probably be a couple of nuggets of social commentary. It's gonna be great. Are you ready? I'm ready.

Shelter

Two bus patrons at Peninsula Towne Center

My thesis all started with me. I'm a college student in Hampton, Virginia with no car. This means that I need to either ask all of my friends with cars for a ride, or ride the bus. Since friends have their own schedules most of the time, I prefer to ride the bus. Based on my previous posts detailing riding the HRT, you can see that it can be a somewhat complicated process, and I consider myself something of an expert user. I've used the bus to go to work, do shopping, go to job interviews, and even dates. But have you ever tried riding the bus in the summer? Most of the stops don't even have benches, and the ones that do have metal, which is like sitting on a stove on a hot summer day. And the shelters are built like green houses, with glass and metal trapping in heat like a microwave. If you were inside you baked, and if you were outside, you still baked. Winter was not much better, with no shelter whatsoever at some stops. The shelters did at least give you the comfort of sitting while you froze. Clearly, these are less than ideal conditions. 

Visibility

Bus stop schedule board in Hampton

Equally important is the aspect of visibility. I have personally waited for over 30 minutes for a bus, only to have it drive right past me. I've had to wait for 45 minutes for a bus, not knowing how soon or late it is coming. And to some, that might not seem like a big deal, but combine that with the conditions I've described above, and the picture becomes, if possible,  even more unpleasant. Making sure that passengers and buses can see each other is very important. A facet of this is safety, as lighting and increased surrounding visibility can reduce crime. There can also be emergency notifications built into the bus stops. You can actually find these systems already on college campuses and in certain retail parking lots. So I feel that visibility is more than just being able to physically see the bus, it's also about being able to see around you, knowing when the buses are coming, and maintaining safe spaces for people to wait. 

At bus stops you expect to see a bus schedule, that will tell you when the next bus is coming. Not so in Hampton. Instead, their schedules tell you how often the buses are coming and their hours of operation. Which can be useful, but only if you know exactly how long ago the last bus was. Without that information, the schedule is completely useless. And in places where buses only  operate every 30 minutes to an hour, people would often rather just leave than have to wait a half hour or more to see if they can catch the next bus. 

You can, of course, check the next bus on your phone. Bus routes can be found at gohrt.com and you can find an entire detailed travel itinerary by using the public transportation option on Google Maps. You can even call H.R.T. to find the next bus at your stop (make sure you know the intersection). However, without a phone, all of that becomes impossible. Phones with internet capabilities are infamous for being battery drainers, and even regular phones can die at inopportune moments. This can leave you stranded mid-trip with no information. Nowadays, people often don't wear watches and keep time using their phones, so even if you knew the bus times from memory, you still wouldn't know how how soon the next bus is once your phone dies. 

Power

But how will you power all these functions? Bus shelters can be very expensive upwards of $3000 per individual shelter. Including these additional but necessary functions of visibility, from schedules, notification systems, and lighting all need electricity to power them. In a move to make these stops more self-sufficient, I am proposing that they be solar powered. We have seen this implemented on a wide scale in San Francisco, with their city-wide shelters coming with solar panels on top. 

Architects and designers from all over the world have come up with innovative concepts, some experimenting with novel forms, others trying to stuff as much tech into it as possible (looking at you, MIT), and then others going for the straight whimsical (looking at you, Japan). But none of these solutions are truly trying to deal with these problems from the three areas of shelter, visibility, and power all combined in one design. And that is what I aim to do with my thesis.

My next post will deal with specific bus stops and solutions from all over, trying to see their successes and failures. 

Seaside Series: The Second Morning

After waking up at 8:30 in the morning for breakfast, the class met up in the Seaside Institute building to do an exercise with mapping urban spaces, landmarks, and temple fronts. Our professors are Ray Gindroz and Mason Andrews, who also take Hampton University students to France for study abroad studio. When we finished the exercise, we went out into the town and started sketching and analyzing the spaces created by the buildings.

Up bright and early to continue exploring the town!

Morning exercise with Jessica showing the base buildings.

A better view of the academic village at breakfast...

Sketching the Post Office from the shrimp shack, and trying to look between Kelvon and Snow's heads

Walking between the houses on the beach front

Mr. Gindroz talking to us about our sketches inside the pavilion.

One of my perspective sketches

Professor Gindroz and Professor Mason

Everybody settling down into sketch mode...

2013 Sailing Season: Edward Teach Memorial Regatta

The sailing team only had one home regatta this year, which was the Edward Teach Memorial that we have every year. This regatta is hosted by Hampton University at Strawberry Banks. The event doesn't get a lot of Hampton publicity, and since Strawberry Banks stopped being a boys dorm, most students don't even know where it is. During the school year, most students aren't allowed to go there, even though it has a very convenient beach. But once every school year, all of the college sailing programs in the Hampton area congregate there and take advantage of the great winds and sailing the location has to offer. This is also usually our first regatta of the season, so it is usually the first time that our new sailors get to participate in a real regatta. 

First person in the Marine Science Center is always a great achievement. Don't be fooled by the sunny looking weather outside, it was freezing cold in September. From what I can tell I have on 4 top layers in that photo, and I'm not even in the water yet. 

Mrs. Schuker providing us with our regatta breakfast. Always super healthy, and I get to choose which brand of orange juice I want before anyone else. 

Coach Ambrosi giving us a briefing before the regatta starts.  

Coach discussing race committee things with Dr. Schuker the head of the Marine Science department. 

Who knows what they're talking about....all these boys are from the islands, so when they get together, they turn off their American accents, so they could be talking about sailing or football. 

The lovely Veronica Maccari, our "A" Divvision skipper eating her strawberry yogurt. This is her first year at Hampton University as Coach also recruited her from Italy. 

Josh is also new to the team, and is one of our "A" division crew

This regatta was a great start for the Hampton University sailing program, and was the only regatta we won the whole fall season. We somehow didn't have enough cups for the prize giving ceremony, so we had to have a singing competition to see who would get the full set. 

My regatta trophy!

2013 Sailing Season: War Memorial Regatta

I don't post often enough. This semester has been a pretty hectic one for me, trying to balance out the academic, athletic, and social. The athletic side was sometimes the most frustrating, because those weekends become pretty crucial in the middle of an architecture project. Trying to stay in contact with my group when we have a presentation the next day was hectic too. But on the whole I think I was pretty successful.

During this sailing season I had some of the best regatta results of my sailing career. We made our main goal of the year, participating in the War Memorial Regatta at Old Dominion University. The regatta itself was intense, freezing cold water, crazy high winds, and fierce competition. I was sailing with my usual skipper Guidi, and the boat took on several gallons of water throughout the day. It was still pretty fun. You know you're working hard when you're taking off layers in 40 degree weather. 

Old Dominion University's Sailing Center. A new building, with a classroom, lockers, bathrooms, and offices. I nearly designed a similar building for the Hampton University Master Plan project we just did. 

Everybody paying attention during Saturday's skipper meeting except.... Guidi.....and I guess me too since I was taking the picture. 

The Italian Sailing Ladies!

Hampton University Sailing Girls, all rocking the blue and white in one form or another. This was our first day with our new Varsity Sailing jackets and boy did we use them. 

The "B" division! Notice that my jacket is the only one with the first name, since my last name is almost 15 letters and would have wrapped around my entire arm. Still love it though. 

Please pay attention to the girl on the far left wearing SHORTS! And she wasn't close to being the only one. Even if I kept sailing into my fifties, I don't think I will ever be about that particular lifestyle. 

Veronica and Albert in boat #6 getting ready to head out for the first race. 

Boats lined up on the ramp getting ready to take the plunge into the icy depths. Being in B Division has its perks, since we are usually not the ones who have to put the boats into the water, but we are usually the ones who have to bring them back in after almost 8 hours of sailing. 

Kimannee and Guidi discussing strategy and wind shifts and other things that are generally over my head. I just pull the ropes!

It's always crazy to me how the water on the shore looks really calm and flat, but when you're in the boat looks like the scene with the Kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Return of the shorts in November from Princeton, and we're waiting for the boats to come back in so we can head out. 

Team Italia again, all wearing our new jackets. So stylish. And so many pockets!

All together now! Please ignore my salt covered spray pants.... I think the boys were busy drying off and warming up in the van.