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| First meal in Phoenix |
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| Loving all the grass fields in arid Arizona |
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| ... and water features |
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| Our hands are actually two feet apart |
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| Phoenix Pubic Library |
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| Most comfortable chair ever |
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| Mattia, Lisa, Nate, Jeff, and Me |
Acclimating to Arizona
Coming from the Great Lakes, I felt quite parched when we landed in Phoenix, Arizona for AIAS Forum. Mattia, Lisa, Nate, Jeff and I set out to explore the city and headed to the Phoenix Public Library, which looked a lot closer from our hotel room window. The warm weather was a nice change from the usual Michigan weather. The five of us Detroiters started to realize that despite the arid climate there are an awful lot of water features, pools and vegetation that requires sufficient amounts of water to survive (most of them were in fact, dead). We all had a good time laughing and making jokes about limitless supply of water in Arizona.The night ended with a trip to a club like none other I've ever seen before; it was in an abandoned barn style building that had large patches missing in the roof that allowed for views of the night sky. It was quaint and had a rustic, chic theme: the drinks were served in mason jars and there was a lemonade stand. We had a good time meeting with other people from different schools and watching people dance!
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| Fooling around before our keynote lecture |
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| Speaker ordering a martini during his lecture |
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| All dressed up for the 20s themed New Years party |
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| Girls from IIT! |
New Year!
My final day of 2011 was spent in small group forums and a final keynote lecture, where the speaker ordered a martini during his lecture. After the lecture the President of AIAS proposed to his girlfriend in front of everyone! I was especially excited because I am able to cross "witness an engagement" off my bucket list! It was quite a memorable night.
University of Detroit Mercy AIAS Chapter won the National Chapter Honor Award and the five of us were handed a plaque on stage by the President of AIAS.
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| Theatre area, allows for moat around the stage on hot nights |
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| I love this picture |
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| Pretending |
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| Goofy |
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| Chapel of the Holy Cross |
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| Eagle head in the rock |
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| People were all over the sides of the roads playing in the snow |
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| I'll catch you Mattia! |
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| AIAS |
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| Beauty |
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| Album cover |
Road Trip: Arcosanti, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon
We're going on a road trip!! We woke up nice and early and rented a car and started our journey. Upon Nate's request we went to Arcosanti, an urban utopia in the making. We got the tour and it was really cool to get a taste of the lifestyle within the community. Next destination: Sedona. Apparently that was everyone else's idea too, because when we arrived we waited in a huge line to get up to the top of the church. It was a beautiful sight from the top of the hill. We piled back in the car and headed toward the Grand Canyon, which I was most excited to see. It was funny to see people with winter clothes sledding down the sides of the roads and making snow men when there was barely any snow, especially since we were all in T-shirts! I will never forget when we were driving and Adele's song Someone Like You came on the radio and we all started bursting out singing it.
Biking to Cosanti
The day started off with everyone splitting up to do their own things: Nate was going to go to Cosanti, Mattia and Lisa and I were going to explore Phoenix and go to the desert and Jeff headed back to his Grandmas to go to an aquarium. Fortune had it that we ran into Nate in the streets of Phoenix and on a whim I decided I was ready for his 15 mile biking adventure to this place I knew nothing about. After some convincing he allowed me to join him, but made sure I knew I wasn't allowed to complain or bike slow. We set off for the bike rental store, rented some ten speed bikes, and started our journey by biking in a few misdirected circles and then we were off to Cosanti. The whole ride I presume we looked quite silly wearing jeans and no athletic gear whatsoever. We arrived sweaty and thirsty at Cosanti and after some exploration asked the lady in the gift shop where we could get some water. As we were sitting on a bench drinking our water I saw Paolo Soleri feeding birds in his backyard and Nate started freaking out. Apparently, Paolo Soleri, the architect of Cosanti and Arcosanti, is Nate's favorite architect. This guy is about 92 years old, we were determined to shake his hand. We got a tip that he usually heads over to the gift shop after he feeds his birds so we watched and waited for him to come out. Eventually he did, and the lady at the gift shop introduced us to him (an exception made only because of Nate's extreme interest in his architecture) and told us about our studies in architecture. We shook hands (!), but he barely talked, just mumbled really. Nate asked him a few questions, to which he said he forgot the answers, then he lead us toward a book, which he gave to Nate and even signed for him. AWESOME! Then he just walked away, but before he got to far he noticed our bikes and asked if they were ours, we said yes and clear as day he said, "I rode bikes, don't stop riding bikes" and then went back into his house. Not knowing each other really at all, the beginning of our bike ride started out quite, but by the end we were definitely talking non-stop. It was enlightening to listen to the ideas and knowledge of a Masters student. I had an excellent time.
Ending note:
I became interested in Forum mostly because I had been itching to go to Arizona for the past couple months and it gave me a great excuse to get there, but I walked away with a whole new appreciation for the field of architecture and a renewed interest in changing the world for the better. It was so incredible to collaborate with 500 plus students of architecture who all have similar interests and lifestyles. The experience of Forum definitely has me interested in going again next year (in Savannah, Georgia), I'm not sure I feel the same about Arizona.
