Posts

A quick, sad goodbye

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Hi friends,

Unfortunately with COVID-19 becoming more serious and as new knowledge comes to light and as Ohio State takes many precautionary measures, I was asked to leave Westminster early. I am incredibly sad that my time was cut short, but I am happy to do whatever is safest for everyone. I apologize for not being able to say goodbye properly. I want to thank everyone at Westminster for welcoming me with open arms into the community. I had an incredible experience living at Westminster over the last nine months. I enjoyed learning from and listening to all the residents that I met. This program was a great privilege to learn from amazing individuals and be part of an inclusive community. I am excited to take everything that I learned to my new job after graduation in May. I will be working in Clinton County, Ohio as a county planner working with older adults among many other tasks. I will cherish my memories made at Westminster, and I cannot wait to come back and visit when all this passes us. Until then, stay safe everyone and if anyone wants to email or call to keep in touch, please let me know! My email is emilyylongg@gmail.com. Thank you all for being absolutely wonderful neighbors!

Here is a picture of my last sunrise in apartment 912! ❤️

My next project: Signs

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I am so happy to see more residents are visiting my blog and commenting. I love it! This past Monday I had lunch with about 7 residents in The Crossings. It was really nice to chat about things going on with me, the residents, and notable events happening at Westminster. We talked about my acoustics report for The Crossings, and possibilities for my next project.

I am looking into improving wayfinding and signage around Westminster’s campus. With so many buildings, addresses and entrances, it can become confusing on where to go. When visitors come, especially during busy times like OWLs, it seems that people are always asking where is this, how do I get to that, etc. So, I’m hoping to record the current signage and propose easier to read signage, better locations for these signs, and maybe a few new locations for directions. I’m really interested on hearing what residents have to say about the wayfinding through the entire campus. Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to improve our direction signage!

Lunches with me!

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Life can be busy! One thing I have noticed at Westminster is that residents are busy with meetings, events, and traveling. There is no doubt that my schedule can be tricky too with work, school, and all my other extracurriculars. It is for this reason, that I’m asking residents to take a pause on a couple of Mondays for the semester to come eat lunch with me in The Crossings. There is no particular topic in mind to discuss, just looking for some company over the lunch hour to start the week off right!
The following dates I’ll be waiting in The Crossings for you to come join me! 🙂
Monday, Feb 17th at Noon
Monday, March 23 at Noon
Monday, April 20th at Noon

I’m back! With a report in hand!

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Hi everyone!

After a long holiday break at home, and wild start to my spring semester, I’m finally getting back into a routine. I was able to spend 3 weeks during my last academic holiday break at home with my family. As always, I love spending time with my parents and it was great to relax at the end of 2019. I started this semester participating in a two week long design competition through the Urban Land Institute. A team of students and I reimagined a six block piece of land in Miami, Florida. This included everything from building form to finances to roadway infrastructure. It was exhausting but so much fun! All that being said, I’m getting back into my normal routine!!

Before the holidays, I finished my project on The Crossings. I was able to package together a report on how to better improve acoustics in The Crossings. I heard from experience experts, residents and from acoustical experts about the issue. It was really an interesting, investigative experience for me. If you click on the link below, you can see the full report!

Acoustics Report: The Crossings

A great week!

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The past two weeks have been amazing at Westminster. Everyone has been really supportive as my semester is coming to a close. One of the residents, Mark, introduced me to a few of his friends in the other parts of the campus! It was really nice to be shown around and met a couple new friendly faces. I also attended a social hour on my floor. Each floor of Thurber Tower has a common room outside the elevators, this turned out to be a perfect spot for a floor gathering. I’m really appreciative of all the goodies provided and the support given before a big presentation at school!

A mini tour

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Ohio Living Westminster Thurber is absolutely beautiful, so I wanted to share a few photos with you about my day to day views! I live in an amazing studio apartment on the ninth floor of Thurber Tower. Despite the noise of traffic, I consider myself lucky because my balcony faces downtown! If you were curious about what my apartment looks like and my balcony view, check out my photos below!

Sunrise

Night view

Some of my own and collected artwork in my apartment!

Here is a view of the inside of my studio apartment, excuse any messes!

I’m already decorated for the holidays!

A little more about me!

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I wanted to take this blog post to show you a little bit more about myself! I am originally from Maria Stein, Ohio but moved to Columbus about 5 years ago. My parents still live in the area, but my brother, sister-in-law, and my niece, Izzy, live just up the road in Worthington. I am a people person and love spending time with family and friends. My boyfriend, Hunter, and I have been together almost two years and we both are in our masters program together for city and regional planning. We really enjoy traveling and have been on two study abroad programs together, one of which we met! My life is pretty busy right now with my internship, school, student activities, and being the Student In Residence. Though if you ask anyone close to me, I do like being busy! I also love painting, camping, cooking, and keeping up with the news. Below are some photos of friends, family, and me. I couldn’t upload a ton of photos, but there are many other people important to me that I would include too!

Here are my parents cheering me on at the half marathon!

My cousins have been with me through everything, we are definitely a close knit group of women!

My beautiful, cute niece, Izzy!

Recently, my friends, Noelle and Allison, visited our friend Gianna in Denver!

This picture is from the first time I studied abroad and met some lifelong friends, Evan and Kevin, and my boyfriend, Hunter!

A Day in the Life

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I’ve lived in Westminster for almost four months now, and I absolutely love it. I For this blog, I wanted to share some of my every day experiences. I enjoy attending events and participating in activities as my school and work schedule allows. There are some pictures below that help tell the story!

If I come home for lunch during my work day, sometimes I’m lucky enough to catch the sing-along group in the Thurber Tower lobby. They are really talented and always put a smile on my face!

Westminster Thurber Tower is a polling location, and it was fantastic to just stay home and vote!

I attended one of the three weekly shuffleboard get togethers this morning. It was so much fun to watch, and I hope to try it out next time!

The Crossings: Information Gathering

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Last week, I held two meetings to discuss the acoustics in The Crossings. About a dozen residents attended sharing their input and experiences in the restaurant. We talked about some of the physical challenges, possible solutions and key things to consider when looking for solutions to the acoustical issue. I heard from multiple residents about how important it is to hear each other in the restaurant. Residents use The Crossings as a gathering and communication space to spend time with others and socialize. They had multiple ideas about how to absorb sound, such as tapestries hung on the walls, ceiling tiles or even rearranging the room. A prevalent hearing issue in the restaurant are for people who wear hearing aids. Hearing aids pick up background noise rather than their table mate’s voice. One of the residents stated, “acoustics for this room was probably way down on someone’s list.” A good portion of the discussion revolved around architectural issues within the building not reflecting the needs of the residents. But through information sharing during these meetings another resident mentioned, “I think we can improve it.”

It was so helpful to hear how residents experience the restaurant to help direct me on what to research for possible solutions. My next step is to talk to some experts! Stay tuned!

My first project: The Crossings

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So, as you all might be wondering, and as some of the residents are asking…what am I doing with my time at Westminster? The answer to that question will look a little different for every student that comes through this program. Natalie is a social worker and her focuses while at Westminster will look a little different than mine. This is one of the cool parts of this program, that different students with different backgrounds will be able to experience this program from a multitude of different perspectives— hopefully keeping it interesting for residents! Since, I am a city planning student, I’m always interested in how we interact with physical spaces, and how they help or maybe sometimes hinder our quality of life. My first project that I’m working on is The Crossings. The Crossings is the restaurant on the first floor of Thurber Tower. The acoustics are poor and it is extremely difficult to hear while dining, especially when it is busy. I’ve been tasked with improving this space! I’m holding a couple meetings with residents to hear their opinions and ideas about what exactly is the problem and where hearing is the hardest. I’m also speaking with a couple students and professors who know more about this than I do, to consult their expertise. I’m excited to co-investigate with residents how this space can be improved so residents, visitors, and families can better hear each other while dining.

The Crossings Meetings will be held at:

Saturday, October 19 from 9:30-10:30am

Friday, October 25 from 9:30-10:30am