Journal 11: Tues. March 25th, 2014

Government Meeting

Wow, it has been a whole week since I wrote last. To be honest, it was a pretty non-productive week. Senior year hasn't been a walk in the park like people say it is. But anyways. I am writing about the government meeting I went to. This started out as a requirement for my Government class but then I saw the opportunity to include my WISE project as well. I attended the Planning and Development meeting, at 6:00, at City Hall. Walking in, I was surprised. I thought it was going to be a very formal meeting but the board members kind of walked in casually with jeans and hoodies. There were Architects, along with Engineers all in their suits and ties ready to announce their projects. As the meeting went along, I wanted to just tap someone on the shoulder and just blab about my awesome WISE class and project, but I felt it just wasn't the time or place. This being my first time going to a government meeting, I was a little out of my comfort zone, which is what WISE is about, exploring new things, but I wasn't quite ready to make that leap and talk to someone.
In the end, I thought it was an awesome experience and plan on attending the next meeting, April 22nd. Maybe I will engage in a conversation then.

Journal 10: Tues. March 18th, 2014

Starting to Model

     I finally have started to model! I still have not received an email from the City regarding the blueprints for the school. At this point I have no time to waste, I need to get started! I am going to a government meeting Tuesday the 25th that will talk about Planning and Development projects in Ithaca. If I see someone there that might be able to help me I will definitely ask them. With the modeling, I realized my plan kind of went away. For me, when I am modeling, I can't have a plan. I just do it. I actually started modeling G and H building first. I got the outline and bottom indent done. I do not know the height of the building but I plan on measuring later this week.
    

Journal 9: Mon. March 17th, 2014

BarnSong

This Monday we spent class watching a previous students WISE project, well two actually. A student chose to build a barn with his father, and another student chose to film it. I thought it was a pretty cool project for the both of them!

After watching BarnSong I understand more that the WISE project isn't about picking a project and finishing it, it is about the experience. Austin chose something he really liked and tried his best. I think that is what's important. The steps you take to set a goal, the hands on work in the community, and talking to new people is what the WISE project is about. I've learned that finishing your project is important, but won't be the end of the world. 

Some questions I have about BarnSong is how did he present his project at the end of the year? And did he do a follow up Presentstion when everything was complete? I want to know how it all works if you come up short at the end of the year. 

I think a big message that was received during the film was time. Always give yourself extra time. I am already experiencing that with my project. Things are taking much longer than I expected. I think I need to start planning my project more realisticly instead of reality. He set goals and tried to meet them but couldn't complete, I am going through the same thing.

Journal 8: Sunday March 16th, 2014

This Weeks Tasks

I think a good way for me to stay on track for this project, every Sunday, I make an outline of what I need to get done the week coming. This way I know what I need to do and I can get it done!

This week...

Monday: Hopefully I get the blueprints! Mondays are the day I meet the rest of my WISE class to discuss our progress. 

Tuesday: Start modeling. Start with Kulp. 

Wednesday: Finish up Kulp, and move on to the Gyms. 

Thursday: Model the Gyms. 

Friday: Finish Gyms and start on J and H. 

Journal 7: Sat. March 15th, 2014

Mentor Meeting #1

Yesterday, Friday the 14th was my first mentor meeting with Mr. Cowell. Although it was short, it was nice to have someone check up on me and see how I was doing. I explained to him how I am waiting on the blueprints and while talking he realized I might be perfect for a task he needed help on. He asked if I could draft the parking lot. I have gone back and forth with making the parking lot in my SketchUp model. I came to the decision not to make it in my computer model only because it might take too much time and it just would not look good. Drawing it though would be fine! Mr. Cowell needs it done by April 24th. I think that is plenty of time for me to draft the parking lot. If the parking lot is not in the plans I hope to get from the City, I can always just take some measurements myself.
Overall, it went well and I am happy I get to do some drawing in this project.

Journal 6: Fri. March 14th, 2014

Project Plan

I am still waiting on getting the plans of the school so in the mean time I have been working on a plan for how I am going to get this project done. There are only 52 schools days left until the WISE project is due. Thinking about that, and thinking about how much I have to get done, I get worried.
I am now getting worried about the plans. I am not sure if I am going to be able to get them. If not, I am going to be a bit behind but I will deal with that when it presents itself to me. Once I am ready to model, this is how I am going to do it...

1. I am going to model the school in a very non-detailed way first. I will start with modeling Kulp. I see this being one of the more challenging buildings so I will just get that out of the way. Hopefully with the plans I can model it but I can also take pictures to ensure accuracy. 
2. After Kulp I will model the new and old gym. The new gym is very modern and detailed. At this point I will not worry about all the details, I will just be doing the basic "outline".
3. After the gyms I will move to J and H building. These two are pretty much boxes so it won't take me more than 10 minutes with the dimensions. 
4. Next I will model D and E building. Again, fairly simple buildings. 
5. After D and E I will move on to F, G and K. 

Once I get the basic shapes of all the buildings I can then start to detail with windows, doors, etc. This is the part that will take the most time. I will work in the same order as above just with detailing.

My goal is to have the basic model done by April 8th, and the final model done by May 2nd. This should give me enough time at the end to create the actual 3D model with the laser cutter.

Journal 5: Thurs. March 13th, 2014

Overview of SketchUp

Seeing that my project is going to be largely based on SketchUp, and knowing that not everyone knows the program, I thought it would be a good idea to show some very basic models step-by-step. Hopefully this will help you understand better. 

SketchUp is actually very easy to use! I'm sure that everyone can get a hold of it once they play around with it for a while. 

The program opens to this screen.

This shows a very basic over view of some of the tools SketchUp has to offer. (The lady in the middle opens with the program. I named her Loyla). 

Now that you know some of the tools I will be using here is a very simple model step-by-step.

1. Open a new document and create a square using the shape tool. 

2. Now you can extrude it up. This will make the 2D shape you made extrude up into a 3D shape. 

3. The model I am making is a house. Every house needs a roof. I will first make a triangle on one of the edges. 

4. Now I can actually extrude that out to the other side to complete the roof. 

Here we have a very simple model just to show how the program works. This took me about 10 seconds. I am very familiar with the program, but making something as detailed as the High School will take some time. Once I start a model like the one above, get it all detailed, at the end it will look something like these. 

These are the two houses I am most proud of. The High School model I am making will include details like this. These houses took me anywhere from three weeks to 2 months. It will be difficult to finish my project but if I stay focused and work I can get it done! 

Journal 4: Wed. March 12th, 2014

Setbacks

The past few days I have been trying to get the blueprints of the school. This task has shown to be harder than I thought. I started out with asked a teacher who said he had no idea, and directed me to the main office. After thinking about it and talking to my friend, Stephen, I went to the City of Ithaca's website. Maybe the city has them? I contacted the City Of Ithaca Building Department and checked to see if anyone could help me there. Still awaiting on a response, I am kind of stuck. I have been planning the steps I will take once I actually start modeling. Hopefully I will have a schedule soon. 

Journal 3: Thurs. March 6th, 2014

  Changes to SketchUp

   Checking items off of my list to do, I came across the task of starting a new SketchUp file. Once I opened the program I got a pop-up saying there was a new version of SketchUp. I then went to SketchUp's website (http://www.sketchup.com/) and I was very surprised! SketchUp for the past 5 years has been owned by Google. SketchUp was a way for people to model buildings across the world and upload them into Google Earth. That is what I was doing for years. Google sold SketchUp to a company called Trimble and everything changed. Google Earth no longer displays models that people have created, instead models automatically displayed from Google. This was actually quite disappointing. All of the models I worked hard on were no longer in Google Earth. SketchUp has now become a strictly Architectural Program, not something people can do for fun. Of course people can play around with it, but the fun of having your models in Google Earth for everyone to see is gone.

     The 3D Warehouse is where everyones models can be uploaded, viewed, and previously reviewed by Google so see if it was worthy of putting in Google Earth. Going to the 3D Warehouse (https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/?redirect=1) I was surprised once again. Everything changed. The format of the website, the way the models are displayed. I thought it would be a good idea to get to know the new website and check up and see if all of my models were still there. Fortunately they were.  

     After spending hours learning the new 3D Warehouse I then updated my SketchUp. Thankfully nothing in the actual program changed! All of the changes that have occurred since I last used SketchUp are definitely upsetting, but will not affect my project. The only change is now I do not have to model the topography because I will not be viewing it in Google Earth. 

     These next few days I hope to get the blueprints of the school, and get to modeling!