Author: Dan McDonnell

Catch you on the flip side [of the equator]

Now that we have returned to Columbus and are back to work, I can certainly say that this trip has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I used my STEP money to help me pay for this education abroad, and of course the point of STEP is to create a “transformative” experience for all of us who participated. I really thought through and discussed multiple times how I thought that this trip would be a transformative experience, but now that it is over I can fully understand it without any speculation. Since I had never traveled outside of the US or Canada before, experiencing a new country and culture was amazing, and fills me with happiness and excitement to continue to travel throughout the rest of my life. I can’t believe how many sketches and pictures I came away with, and will be able to keep these memories forever, not to mention remember all the things I learned.

Some of my favorite experiences included eating the food (an As Chacarero is now one of my favorite foods), visiting the college campuses and comparing them to our own, relaxing and sketching on Santa Lucia, hiking in the Andes, and getting to actually use Spanish for the first time.

Santiago as a city is so much more dynamic than anything else I had experienced, whether it is at a small scale like the street performers that would run out at a red light, or on a massive scale like how the cerros influence the organization and culture of the city. We got to experience little quirks like ringing a doorbell in Valparaiso to buy a cookie as well as grand views and vistas by climbing high into the Andes or looking out from Costanera. I think that although I learned a lot about sketching, architecture, landscape, planning, etc., along the way, the trip has inspired me to not take anything for granted, to not miss out on new opportunities, and to just appreciate the world that we all live in. I’ll be able to take all these lessons with me throughout my academic career, into my professional career, into my personal life, and the next time I travel.

Leave that building alone…

The Hapag Lloyd building in Valparaiso inspired me for this post, if you don’t remember it, I’ve included a quick sketch that may remind you of this distinct port authority office right near the coast. The glaring part of this building is the contrast between the international style of the top half in contrast to the neoclassical facade of the bottom half. Since Valparaiso is a UNESCO site, the facades of these old buildings could not be changed, so when the Hapag Lloyd company took over, they kept the old facade but built upwards, in a completely different style. The windows of the old facade now have the same blue glass windows that the top half does, making it look like someone stuffed a big glass tube into the old building, and it is full to the brim. This particular building, which is not very successful in its renovation attempts, made me wonder what other buildings that have been renovated in contemporary times did correctly. The Precolombian museum was a renovated old building, but it is much more successful in that way. Is it simply because it doesn’t have a boring glass cube sticking out of the top? Perhaps, but it comes down to decorum– is it an effective/appropriate use of the local history to make a building like the Hapag Lloyd HQ? Here the answer is no. The blue glass windows on the lower half of the building make it seem like the central glass structure reaches all the way to the ground and the stone facades are simply slapped on to the sides. There is no continuity between the two halves of this building, and it takes an interesting concept/potential and completely fails at executing it, unlike the renovations of the Precolombian museum, or so many other projects that have revived classical/neoclassical buildings in a contemporary way.

Hapag Lloyd Building

Stop and see that Metro Stop!

I would like to discuss something that we all saw, and occupied, today at the PUC campus: the metro stop. I’ve included pictures, but there are a few of these large, raised tunnel structures along the green line that we took to get to PUC. As soon as I saw these, I was reminded of a very similar metro stop, specifically the L stop on Mies’ IIT campus in Chicago, IL. The stop on PUCs campus has a lot of framework on the end of it currently; however, the others (visible from the top of the Innovation Center) did not have these so try to ignore that, focusing more on the actual structure. The PUC stop has lots of visible ventilation, and less prominent ridges on the exterior. The IIT one has no visible ventilation (cold Chicago Winters) and large ridges on the sides (reference to Mies’ tendency to use external structural beams, or even add unnecessary ones?). Additionally, if we look at how they effect the surroundings, while the PUC one feels very alone and additive, the IIT one effects the building it crosses over, ‘bending’ it to allow it to pass. Unlike IIT, the PUC campus is a collection of works by many

PUC campus – green line metro stop

L stop IIT campus 

Escaleras Excitement!!!

Despite seeing a lot of really beautiful things today, I wanted to talk about the stairs in the Precolombian art museum because that was the one thing that I was most surprised about. Of course I knew that the descent into the dimly lit gallery was significant, and I expected the exhibit itself to be amazing, but the variance of the stair structure was very interesting. I first started to notice on the way down that the gap in the center was shifting horizontally: the landings were not all the same length, and as I started to look at it more, I knew I wanted to draw it to see it in a way that is otherwise not possible. The blackness of the material really exaggerated the darkening effect of delving into the depths beneath the surface. Here I attached the sketch of the stairs.

Dan’s Pre-Departure

I can’t wait to arrive in Chile, feels like I have been stuck inside Knowlton for the past couple weeks so the sun is very welcome.

Anytime I have traveled somewhere very recognizable, like to see the Statue of Liberty, or the Hollywood sign, it almost feels like a dream to actually be seeing this famous thing in real life for the first time ever. I feel like, with how much we have studied and learned about Santiago, that seeing some of these buildings/parks/etc. will evoke the same feeling. Not only that, but I have never left North America before, and even then I just went to Toronto. Being so far away in a completely different culture will be a completely life-changing experience. This trip will be a much-needed change during a long semester and I’ve maintained that experiencing such a different culture and seeing how the culture effects their architecture will be an eye-opening/ mind-opening? experience that will benefit me as a person and academically. I always used to love drawing when I was young and have really enjoyed doing it more often in class, but I’m excited to actually put my skills to the test trying to document all the amazing sights we will see. I love traveling and this type of trip where we see as much as possible is right up my alley. Hopefully they have as many coffee shops as we do here.