Sub-Spanish

Happy All Saints' Day Everyone! Last year I FINALLY went to see the All Souls Procession for "Día de los Muertos" (the Mexican equivalent to this Spanish-Catholic holiday) and it was definitely worth it. So any of you in or near Tucson should definitely check it out...super fun!

OK, now lets get down to business. I know you've all been dying to know what FAMOUS architects I've been hanging around with and what language BLUNDERS I've made lately. Well, I thought that those topics would be separate posts, but unfortunately for me and you those two worlds have recently collided. Yes, come near and I will share with you the story of my recent humiliation in front of Alicante architecture community.

I am holding the card of some AMAZING Alicante architects that I received from them when I went BY MYSELF to visit their studio. OK, I'm sure that even my friends from school have never heard of these guys, and even my boss is much more widely published, but they are FAMOUS to me.

I had been very familiar with this website before realizing that it is the product of Alicante, and I considered myself very lucky to meet its creator when I interviewed for the job here. (There was a FANTASTIC semester-wrap-up symposium of which he and my boss were the directors.) His site, though mostly in Spanish, is very popular in the international architecture blog world. (Could mine be the next for the big time??? Doubtful.) It was on that blog, that I first heard about the project featured in the images in this post. I had recently returned from my first journey to España, and was bummed that I had not seen it when I was in Valencia (though I never got near Alicante). It turns out that this TRAM stop is not only a few km from our place here, but the first completed project by Subarquitectura.

It also turns out that Subarquitectura are three young guys (as in the oldest of them is only 4 years older than me!) that were once students and employees of my boss. We have had a few great collaborations with them since they formed their own studio, including this widely published project where we shared the bill with some of my architectural IDOLS! (Sounds like a great reality show...¿no?)

Anyways, I was compelled by my boss to call up these guys ON MY OWN, and presumptiously ask if I could swing by their studio to get to know them. I was also to offer my English letter-writing services which have been an asset to my boss. It was GREAT! They are three really cool guys who went through a mini-presentation of every project they have done in the last two years, and they are BAFFLED as to why an American would end up in Alicante. The studio consists of three friends hanging out, getting geeky with architecture and trying to make a living doing it. LIVING THE DREAM in my opinion!

They did ask me to write a letter in English to take advantage of my boss's adventures in Boston. I was supposed to utilize José María's contacts to get them the opportunity to present their work at some school there. After a few weeks of struggling with the vague description of the letter I wrote it and sent it to them and the boss.

WAIT....where's the humiliating language blunder in this?

Turns out that I found out 15 minutes later in a reply email from the Subs (really, many locals refer to Subarquitectura and those who work there as "los Sub") and the boss, that I COMPLETELY misunderstood my letter writing assignment. I was SUPPOSED to know from my conversations with the Subs that they had previously been approached by the director of structures at that school for information about the project you are looking at. He developed a relationship with them and included this project in the structures curriculum in their graduate level courses. I was SUPPOSED to then write a letter as if it were coming from the Subs to endorse a meeting with my boss while he happens to be in Boston. WHOOOPS! (Anyway I THINK that is what I was supposed to do...I have not heard anything since my last submission to them.)

As for the TRAM station. It is INCREDIBLE! Sorry for the grainy photos...I had left the ISO at 1600 from taking a picture of a delicious salad. I will give a special prize to ANYONE who can tell me how these 10'x10'x120' steel cubes are appearing to FLY IN MID-AIR!

Also, because of my advice to him, my boss was able to watch "his" team get their second World Series victory and attend their homecoming parade. I received several text messages and camera-phone pictures from him describing how "AMAIZING" (sic) it was.

See Paul Work!

First of all, I need to get this out in the open: this blog isn't as fun as my wifey's blog! She has great anecdotal stories of her daily adventures and she presents them with a wit that is all her own. I can't compete with that! My daily adventure is WORK, and the stories I do have are usually presented with way too much background information and all the candor of an IRS audit. I know that you are all looking for a flavor of what life is REALLY like for us, so here it is...me at WORK.

I had already gotten the job when I sent this image to José María. He asked me to participate (from Arizona) in their work for a competition for this enormous University housing project in Zaragoza after my email comments to him made me FAMOUS in the office. (No really...I am immortalized on this site for said comments...look for the "Paul S." and translate/read at your own risk!) He asked me to answer for him the very question that I asked him about his own project, which was "So how does one really move through that building?" I answered him with this diagram which shows circulation in red and social gathering space in orange shining through the translucent white cubes which are the actual dorms. (Since you were all wondering what the HECK this drawing was!...yeah...I know...you're probably still wondering...I tried.) They didn't use this image for the final presentation boards, but it secured me a place in the boss's heart. For this, I was invited EARLY to Alicante.

Actually the above image is the real reason I came to Alicante early. The studio was invited to compete in an exclusive competition for the first of many buildings for a University extension campus here in Alicante. Above is a photo I took of the final "physical model" (as in, not a computer model) which I did not even make a piece of. So this is the answer to your collective question "What do you do all day Paul?" Until this Monday morning I was designing (the initial concept was done before my arrival, but I am given responsibility/freedom to make any developmental design decisions) and drawing floor plans, sections and elevations of this project with two other chicos. I mapped schematic diagrams of mechanical systems, made a gajillion digital models and struggled to understand and communicate these things in my broken spanish. Now isn't that more exciting than surviving an attempted purse-snatching at Pans & Company?!?!? (Actually I WAS there for that!)

These days I'm working on this project. A(nother) competition for subsidized housing projects here in Alicante. We're still working at a conceptual level, but it is SUPER fun! (for someone like me, that is) The orientation and up-down movement of the volumes respond to solar orientation and beachy views, while everything else is to grab as much developable space as zoning will permit. I would totally live in them, except the neighborhood is less dense (aren't I the urbanism junkie?) and a bit far from the city center. My boss is in Boston watching the World Series right now, so things are a bit relaxed around the studio. He will be in Boston until mid-November as he tries to arrange a year long sabbatical for 2008-2009. WooHoo! Party at work! (Actually he is not such a bad guy to have around.)

Still to come....me hanging out with FAMOUS (to me) architects and ceaseless stories of language blunders!

Spain is not Kansas

A coworker asked me on Friday, "How close is Arizona to Kansas?" This caused much laughter and the repetition of the phrase:"This is not Kansas." (This is the translation that they were given for The Wizard of Oz.) It turns out that they are right.

Truthfully, this is not that much of a shock to me, and it should not be for you. However, since I can already hear you all clamoring, "Tell us what exactly makes Alicante all that different from Topeka" I will indulge you with a few examples.

Finally! This is my OFFICE!

1- The Spanish work day

Have you all heard of the siesta? Of course you have! Here is how it works for me:

9:30am - I arrive at work, and everyone else shows up within the next 10-15 minutes.
11:30am - I leave with everyone at the office to a nearby café for our daily 30 minute breakfast break
12:00pm - Back at the office
2:30pm - I leave the office for my 2hr lunch break.
4:30pm - After eating, hanging around the house, walking on the beach or taking a brief nap, I get back to the office.
8:30pm-9pm - The evenings in the office usually fly by, and usually end in a mad dash to complete some drawing, email or graphic before leaving. So the end of the work day is anywhere from 8:30pm until the time that such a task is finished.

I have heard that not everyone enjoys the breakfast break that we do, and schedules obviously vary between offices. Being architects (that is, a hard-working bunch) we tend to work later than many, and this is no different than Kansas. I neither love nor hate this schedule. The day surprisingly goes by much quicker with the multiple breaks, but should an 8.5hr workday really end at 8:30pm? I often find myself walking back to work from lunch at 5pm (If it is one of many late-lunch days) realizing that if I were at a typical job in the USA I would be walking the other direction. One reason not to hate the schedule is that it aligns quite well with the Spanish meal schedule.

Wifey wants me to mention that she does cook (not always salads), but how amazing did this look?!?!

2 - The Spanish meal schedule
8-8:30am - I wake up
10am-12pm - Typical breakfast time
2-4pm - Typical lunch time
8-11pm - Typical dinner time
11:30pm-12:30am - Bedtime

Much like the work schedule, there is much to love and hate about the meal schedule. Pros: I usually have a granola bar or bowl 'o' cereal when I wake up, so my typical Spanish breakfast (media tostada con tomate: half a toasted baguette with finely diced tomato and olive oil) that I have at 11:30 is a perfect snack. Lunch is big and relaxed (and wifey is always fixing something delicious). Cons: Dinner is too close to bedtime. Afternoons tend to be very unproductive. I eat too much (but that's a problem anywhere or anytime).

3 - Nomenclature
"I'll have that to you by...I'll call or see you in...Meet me in the office in...
...the morning" - anytime from 8:30am-1pm
...the afternoon" - certainly no earlier than 4pm and as late as 7pm
...the evening" - after 9pm

These definitions are not TERRIBLY different than Kanasas, but are punctuated by the fact that one is seldom given any specific time-frame. As with all things Spanish, everything is skewed a little later (as with the arrival of our visas). When I first arrived, this took some getting-used-to. I was always asked to meet with someone "in the afternoon," and all further inquiries (eg "What hour would be best?") were met with shrugging shoulders.

Next issue will be past the basics and on to what I've been up to lately!