ID TERMS

Hi Andrew,

Can you email me the ID terms. Had to post could not find your email address.

Thanks

Good News & Presentation Schedule

Students:

USP 3 Final oral presentations in class.

Reminder: All students are expected to make a short 5-7 minute oral presentation in class during the last week. Presentations can be made using Power Point slides, or on posterboard.

The schedule is:
July 29: last name begins with A-H
July 31, last name begins with J- Z

All students must attend both classes July 29, 31. Final papers due on or before July 31 at 5pm. No late papers accepted. Extra credit given for papers turned in on July 29.


Also, as many of you lost points not as much on the essays, but on the Multiple Choice and IDs, I'd just like to emphasize that we will be grading the final presentations and papers really on the amount of effort you put in, not on your ability to remember particular names and dates.

So if you have:

• a quality presentation
• sufficient, quality research
• clear writing
• engagement with the class themes

-you will receive a top mark on this part of the course.

And remember we will be assigning extra credit, probably ~3 points, for those papers that are turned in on Tuesday. So buckle down over the weekend and turn in the best paper and presentation that you can.

Theses & Arguments

Students:

The grading is coming along, and I just wanted to put out a couple of exemplars of very fine opening theses statements.

On Essay #1 Banham

"Banham's view of Los Angeles departed distinctly from that of many architects and urban planners who saw LA as a meaningless sprawl, and undifferentiated no man's land. Banham felt LA had purpose and merit in is development and architecture; it had followed a unique path specifically suited to its distinct ecologies and history."

• The strength of this opening is that it situates Banham among his contemporaries, and recognizing that his views oppose much of the architectural criticism of LA. Most importantly, it distinguishes between LA as planned [which Banham does not argue] and having a purpose and uniqueness [which is what Banham celebrates].
  
• The weakness is the use of "distinct ecologies": Banham does not say that LA's built environment follows the natural environment [think of his criticisms of Surfurbia as privatizing and closing off the beach], but instead selects what he sees as architectural styles that have PRODUCED 'ecologies'. As writers sometimes frustratingly do, Banham has his own meaning of ecologies here, meaning more like the way architecture makes you feel, or the milieu of a particular place like a freeway or a beach town.
  

On Essay #3
"Barcelona represents a unique city that took upon the challenge of preserving its historic areas as well as promoting it city as a globally prominent destination. This section will discuss the historic significance of Barcelona and what strategies Barcelona officials took to preserve public space."

• This opener offers a wonderful sense of the multiple changes simultaneously taking place in Barcelona, both preservation and renewal. It also brings in a sense of history and the role of globalization, key issues discussed in Return to Center.
  

I hope you can see that I was not looking for anything fancy when I say that I wanted a thesis, just something more than a preview of what you are going to say. For example, almost all of the essays on Banham or Whyte merely told me what the ecologies/architectures are, or what the elements of effective public spaces are. Those are good, but could be improved, methods of opening an essay.

Overall the work on the essays are really quite good and I'll be returning them to you tomorrow so you can know where you stand going into the final presentation/paper.

AC

Reply to all Questions

Avi and everyone else:

To answer these questions, not entire in order:

The full guidelines for the paper are in the syllabus, but the length is 10-15 double-spaced pages. Please do not go over 15 pages except for the bibliography.

Expect to have only 5-7 minutes for your powerpoint presentations unfortunately, as we'll have almost 15 people going in each class meeting.

Your examples from Banham and Relph are for better or for worse accurate. Study to that level of depth for Banham, which I think is feasible since he only has 4 ecologies and 4 architectures. Studying to that level of depth for Relph is less feasible, but what can I say? Sometimes school is difficult. But don't kill yourself trying to nail down every person and building he discusses, instead think of the major architectural/urban planning movements he discusses, and find some key people & buildings for each. I think your list does a good job of that.

As for sample questions, these were discussed in the review session. Again as follows

IDs:
Modernism or the International Style
Mies Van Der Rohe
The Illinois Institute of Technology
*Remember I am expecting 3 things from each ID: definition, significance/example, and citation. You can cite lecture where appropriate, but I expect at least 5 different citations across the 10 IDs.


Essay:
Discuss 3 of the 4 following architectural & urban design periods discussed by Relph. Modern Town Planning, the First Machine Age, Modernism & the International Style, and Postmodernism.

**Remember I am expecting a thesis statement in your introductory paragraph; even though the prompts are open-ended, you need to give me a clear argument. Simplicity is ok, even preferred! But I do not want a simple regurgitation of the books or lecture, I need to hear your thoughts and opinions on the material. Remember, I've already read these books and I know what they say--what do you think of them?


Multiple Choice:
Who among the following postmodernists argued that contrary to prevailing opinion, there is much to learn from Las Vegas' architecture and design?
--Denise Scott Brown
--Phillip Johnson
--Michael Graves
--Frank Gehry

For Herzog's book, I said in the review session that you should focus on the cities he discusses and what we can learn from them. Why does he choose the cities he does? How do they differ? What are his conclusions about successful/unsuccessful public spaces?

If I missed anything let me know. See you tomorrow.

The Modern Urban Landscape

I think I might be doing an over kill on the terms... any suggestions on which ones I can cut out... this is my list for the Relph book only... although alot of these were also covered in the lecture also.

Broadacre City
Burnham, Daniel
Chicago World Fair
Chrysler Building
City Beautiful Movement
First Machine Age
Garden City
Garden Suburbs
Home Insurance Building
Howard, Ebenezer
Le Corbusier
Five points of architecture
Radiant city
Levittown
Mies van der Rohe
Modernism
Radiant City
Second Machine Age
Louis Sullivan
Wright, Frank Lloyd


Also what should we take aways from the Herzog book for the Midterm.. this book is a great source for the final project but I am not sure how you plan on testing on it?

Mid-Term Four Ecologies

Hi Andrew,

The Banham book is a little hard to follow or really take notes for the Midterm on... for this book what should we do to prepare for the test?

These are the possible ID terms I pulled out...

1. Surfurbia
2. Autopia
3. Trasportation Palimpsest
4. Fantastic... do you suggest anymore?

I feel Banham is not really using these IDs as ID's but as an overall way of explaining what is going on in LA. How will you test on this book because a lot of what he is saying is in the first person? I also feel he is not really coming to any real conclusions he is just rambling on about LA... just my opinion...

Midterm Review

Is it possible to get a sample essay for the midterm... also can you post possible ID termssss?
Can you also post a sample multiple choice questions so I know what level to look at the material.


Cheers...