Lavonia Vegas

I’m working on a few lines in response to a discussion I had the other day in my contemporary practice class about Critical Architecture. I’ll post it eventually.

But, on to the most recent adventures of the future Bennetts. We went the megalopolis of the South that is Lavonia, GA. There are so many people there that they out number the cows [I think]. We spent a few days with my grandparents, checking up on and spending time with them. They are getting very lonely because they don’t really leave the house that much anymore because my grandmother doesn’t move very well. But, This weekend was good for them to see their grandson and future grandaughter! We got there pretty late, after a pretty intense discussion that exposed a lot of insecurities we both had about our pasts that we later talked about and devised strategies to address them. Its sobering sometimes when you think you have an area of your life undercontrol, even dominated, and then something shows you that you didn’t. I was relying on myself to deal with things that I need to give to God. That seems to be the theme of the season I’m in.

In the morning [after a night that some of the boundaries for our relationship broken – see Ashley’s blog], we went to the best restaurant this side of the Mississippi [River]. Its an all-you-can-eat family style southern food glutton fest. They bring out five entrees, 6-7 vegetables, fruit, and then dessert for as long as you can stuff it in. It was good. The restaurant is part of a huge property that has chalets, stables, petting zoos and nature trails that all combine to make a great place to take a vacation. Ashley and I plan to take a trip there on our own in the next few years. On the way back from the Dillard House [the restaurant], we stopped at the “world” famouse Tallulah Gorge, where the famous Wallinda walked across it on a tight-rope. Its a beautiful view from a lookout/tourist store that has benches where we sat, looked out, and ate ice cream. It was a good day, and a great thing for my grandparents to do to get out of the house.

We stayed for church in the morning [no problems that night] so we could take my grandmother [she can’t go on her own and hasn’t been in months]. We/I saw a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in a while who often think I am my dad. My grandma saw all her friends that she normally doesn’t get to see. The church had been spruced up a little bit since the last time I was there. They have three plasma screens in the sanctuary in addition the the projector screen they already had. They also had a music minister. We ate the left overs from the Dillard House for lunch and then headed back to the ATL.

We decided to take advantage of the extra time to go out for dinner and just spend sometime talking away from school, work, family and the wedding. It was a neverending pasta kind of dinner, and we were there for more than two hours. It was a good time, and we needed it. After dinner we met up the Browns, the senior pastors of Resolution Church, where Ashley feel we are called to be. We talked to them about how the church has come to be and where they see it going. We also discussed where Ashley and I can serve. It was a really good time, and I definitely feel like we got to know them better. Its so amazing/wierd/great/different/awesome at how quickly we feel like we are becoming part of the Resolution family. We just met for the first time 8 days ago, but they told us they missed us at church sunday morning and we were just chilling at there house as if it was something we always do. Its grood. great. good. great and good.

Tonight is the second meeting of ENCM on GSU’s campus, and I’m excitied for it! We are going to have an ice cream social, and introduce the topic of this semesters’ studies: leadership, facilitated by the Habitudes book. Ashley and I will head to GSU an hour or so early to start handing out cards to let everyone know about the ice cream social. Like Ashley has said, the students at GSU seem to not have many friends, so we hope we can reach those people who are desperate to make friends. There is so much potential at that campus, and I’m excited to see what God does there through Resolution!

God Bless. Be Real. Be Excellent.

For clarification…

Just after reading, I wanted to make sure we are all clear on something.

Mike and I are excited about helping be apart of Resolution Church because God is doing amazing things there. We are so priviledged to be apart of what they’re doing in the greater Atlanta area, and blessed to be reaching GSU with them. We are not a blessing to them nearly to the capacity that they have already blessed us and all they come in contact with. I didn’t want either of us to come off cocky, or like “oh, they’re so lucky that we’re here.” It’s merely God’s brilliance, and the fact that He’s changed all of our lives, that have ultimately led us to this place and this ministry. Just wanted you all to know we are thrilled that we are just beginning to see God’s plan for us here, it is really encouraging to both of us! God didn’t put us in Atlanta for no reason – hooray! I hope that clarifies anything, and I apologize if we came off any other way.

Lots of love!

Studio Update 1

So this begins my updates for my studio project. Everything in this post after [and possibly up until] this sentence will be boring to 97.3% of the world, so in the meantime, that overwhelming majority can go research the impact nanotechnologies has/will have on the recovery process after surgeries and report back to me with what you find.

As mentioned in a previous post, my design studio is starting slow, with a three week warm up project focused on building material research and tectonic develpment of the traditonal nine square plan through the design of a pavillion. The intention of the project is not the overall composition of the pavillion, but rather the exploration of the use/intentional mis-use of the material. I was assigned precast concrete, a material that is so common we often fail to recognize it. My goal is to use it in a way that calls attention to itself because it is uncommon. Here is the current stage of development [2 days in]:

Today in class, we decided [at my suggestion] to switch projects for two days and work with someone else’s material. This is similar to a design workshop I did when I was studying in Genoa, Italia and it worked great. It allows you to open your mind to other possible uses for your own material, or at the very least it gives your mind a break from your own project. I’m excited to see how it turns out.

Thats all for now. God Bless. Be Real.

Top 10

I’m listening to my iTunes by play count tonight, and here is the order of the Top 10 Artists. There are a few that I didm’t expect to be on that list.

1. Jovanotti – Come Musica

2. David Crowder Band – Remedy

3. Fall Out Boy – “Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things To Do Today” [awesome drums]

4. Audio Adrenaline – Get Down

5. Love and Theft – Its Up To You

6. Lecrea – Rebel Intro

7. Coldplay – Fix You

8. Audio Adrenaline – Chevette

9. David Crowder Band – Glory of It All

10. Jason Mederis – Lonely Hearts Club

Resolution

Greetings, Hello, and Good day, and what a great day today has turned out to be! But first, I shall re-cap yesterday’s doings. Ashley went apartment hunting really early in the morning [noon] after Miss Feyh left to complete here trek to Tallahassee from WV. Thanks again for spending a few days with us! Anyway, I compiled a list of 5 apartments and an accompanying google maps itenerary to check out some places in our price range/safety standards/region. The first place we went, Glen Park, may as well have been the only place we looked at. It was the median of the costs/month of the list I had made, but there was so much at this place that the others didn’t have. We looked at a one bedroom apt [approx. 900 sq ft] with a kitchen, dining room, and living room. It was much bigger than I had anticipated, and the building itself was in good condition [not too old and newly renovated]. The complex sits on nine acres of wilderness basically, with a nature trail through the woods [and over the river] to the other side of the complex. They had two swimming pools, two tennis courts, multi purpose [basketball] court, internet cafe, recreation room [gym], carwash and a clubhouse. We went back today after church/lunch to drop off an application to see if we are eligible to live there starting in January. We really feel like this is the place we should live.

Speaking of feeling something being right, we visited the Every Nation church plant here in Atlanta called Resolution Church. From the moment we walked into the service [3 minutes late to the tune of a John Owens song] we knew something good was in progress. The church, started in January, has been meeting in a movie theatre[er] three times a month for sunday morning services. The fourth sunday of the month is a community service day when they target an area or a group of people for ministry [homeless, elderly, etc]. After the service [see Ashley’s blog for details about the service] they had a meet and greet outside the theater in the hall where we got to meet everybody, including the lead pastor @SterlingBrown. We told him we were from the ENT church and were doing our pre-marital counseling with the Fishers, and he went on temporary information overload. He explained to us God recently told him there would people coming his way to help out with ministries in the church, and then we showed up. He went on to say how exhausted he was becoming doing all the website, graphics, and video stuff, and I was like, “For whats its worth, I’ve done all that for a church in the past.” He got so excited he hugged me, followed by a chest bump. Ashley commented afterward about how blessed Sterling seemed to be by our being there. So, needless to say, we will be going back to Resolution to start getting more involved. We both feel that it is the place we are supposed to be.

But all that happened before noon…For lunch, we met up with a new buddy of mine who sits next to me in studio, Josh Crews, and his wife. They are both 24, and went to UF [unfortunately] but are really nice. They’ve been married for a little more than two years, they are both from Jacksonville [Josh says there were only two people in his high school with the desire  to do anything with their lives, and he married the other one], and they live in Decateur [45+ mins from us]. We had a nice lunch at a New Orleans-esque bistro and spent an hour and a half or so getting to know each other. It was good times. I’m sure Ashley will have more details.

Now to the present and architecture. I’m working tonight on phase two of my first project for a pavillion in the lawn of the COA. It is intended to be used for pin-ups, presentations, galleries, ect. Each student was assigned a material to develop and use in innovative ways. I was assigned pre-cast concrete, and have been relying heavily on Louis Kahn for examples of pre-cast units and part to whole relationships. Tonight, I’ll be expanding my research on the material and look for solutions that use large panels [as opposed to the small pieces I started with]. I also will have some models for class tmrw afternoon. I have had ideas in my head/sketches of large [20′] panels being connected held together by very small pieces that seem too small in fact to hold up the pieces. I’m not quite sure how this will work, so I plan to figure it out. I’ll post my results, sketches, images tmrw evening.

For now, I’m going back to work.

God Bless. Be Real.

p.s. Pray for my butt.

Day 1: The Journey Ahead

Dramatic title, I know. Don’t worry.

School has started, and it took two days for it to really sink in. With all the orientations and meetings with faculty and advisors it dragged out the aniticipation for classes to start to the point that the first day felt like orientation still. All-in-all it was great first day! I got my parking permit before the orientation for the grad studios, and because I waited so long to get it, I had to settle for a spot in a garage on the West side of campus, on the opposite side of campus from the COA. It is, however, across the street from the campus recreation center, so when I’m able to get back in to sports and hightened activity I’ll be close to my car when I’m ready to go home.

Now, onto more important things: the first day of studio! We met at 2:00p in the old architecture auditorium [just renovated, like finished on saturday] for the first day orientation and introduction to the studio faculty. This is also when each studio professor introduced the content of their studio for the semester. We were instructed to list our preference of studio from 1-4 [1 being the highest] and hand it in for a lottery. My preferences were as follows:

1. Mark Cottle: Designing for Design education. Annex for the school of architecture.
2. Brian Bell: Civic Engineering. Building and public space with equal presence.
3. Jeniffer Bonner: Civic Shelter. Urban insertion. [very poorly presented. originally my first choice]
4. David Yocum: Truths, Consequences. Case study of Breuer’s Atlanta Public Library.

Thankfully I got my first choice! Prof. Cottle has been all over the world teaching and learning and he definitely acts like it. He throws French and Italian expressions in his speech under his breath to make everyone feel like they don’t know what he is talking about. Needless to say, I like him. I’ll have to see how he operates as a professor as the semester continues.

After the orientation and faculty introductions, which were dominated by Lars Spuybroek flashing his and his students publications andproving why he is a distinguished chair at the college, we met shortly with our professors and were handed the design brief for a three week charette of sorts. The project is an exploration of materiality and in the executions of that material. The end result is a pavillion in the courtyard of the COA to be used for end of the year presentations and the occasional ‘grande fete’ as my professor so elequently added. Short and sweet to get warmed up.

After all of this, the department was taking all the students out for drinks at a local watering hole, but I opted out for a way better evening celebrating Ashley’s birthday [Happy Birthday!]. You can check her blog [see link to right] for a complete and thorough account of the evenings events. She even has dialogue quoted, so you know its good. Anyway, it was a great evening, and a prefect end to the first day of school.

Over the next indefinite period of time, I’m going to try to post as much of my graduate work for thoughts and criticism. I’ll put up images from studio projects as well as my writing for my digital cultures theory course. Any and all criticism from all walks of life are appreciate, even from Donny Fisher.

My final course schedule is as follows:

1. MWF 2-6p Options I Studio – Mark Cottle
2. TTR 9.5-11a Adv Modeling and Animation
3. TR 4-7p History and Theory – Digital Cultures 1990-2009
4. MWF 10.5-12 Building Envelopes

I’ll end this update with thoughts from my time The Word. I’ve been reading 1 Samuel to try to get over my [unnecessary] fear of the old testament, and it has proven to be good so far. Who knew there was practical stuff in the first half of the bible. The first part of Samuel is about parenting, and made a much bigger impact on me than I think it would have even a year ago. The first chapter addresses Hannah, the more loved wife of Elkanah, who had not been able to have a child. She prayed and waited for years asking God to give her a son. And what more is she promised to give him up and dedicate him to the Lord’s work once he was born. It shows me the selflessness that is required of a parent, even when it means giving that child up after years of praying for it.  The other parenting extreme, touched on in the next few chapters, is the High Priest of Israel Eli and his disobedient children. Ultimately, Eli and his family, the descendants who protected the Ark of the Covanent, are cursed because of the wickedness that Eli allowed his sons to commit. They are all killed/die.  This confirms the semi-fear I’ve had of parenting: I, as a father, will be held accountable for how my children were raised.

Th other thing in these first chapters is how focused Eli and the people were focused on the Ark of the Covenant, and not the Covenant itself, or even God for that matter. The Ark had become an idol to the people of Israel, and they suffered for it over the next few centuries that were plagued by attacks from the Philistines. The point is we need to be reminded from time to time who we serve and why we do it. period

God Bless. Be Real.

Peace up. A-town down.

Hello from Atlanta!

We’ve been here for nearly a week now, and we are starting to get a feel for the area. Little by little, Cole and the Loomis family have been introducing us to some of the local flavor, including The Diner, TJ Max, “Peachtree”, and the neighborhood at large. I am hoping to find a hole-in-the-wall cafe that nobody knows about so I can sound like a local, but before that, I need to learn my own address.

Ashley and I have begun our search for a church home here in Atlanta, starting last Sunday morning with Vinings Lake Church. It was a pretty small place, but the church was growing fast. They have 3 services. I liked the pastor [sports fan] and the atmospher was nice. Its definitely on the list to consider. This weekend we may be checking out Cumberland Community Church. Their website, cumberland church.org,  has some nice things to say about it. We are trying to be very intentional about what church we end up in and would like to get plugged in somewhere and start serving as soon as possible. Life groups, or community groups as they are called up here, are very important to us, as well as ministries that we feel we can serve well in. We pray that we will find the place we are supposed to be in the next month.

As far as school goes, I finished registering for classes yesterday after a two day fiasco over my health records and immunizations. I ended up needing a TB screening [negative, which means good in the medical world] and a Tetneaus shot. My left arm feels like I’ve been punched repeatedly all day. Here are the classes I’m taking for the Fall semester:

1. Options 1 Studio – course content to be decided.
2. Advanced 3d Modeling and Animation
3. Arch Theory – The Digital Turn 1990-2009
4. TBA

I’m probably most excited for the Digital Turn theory course. It consists mostly of readings by Eisenman, Spuybroek and others. Should be very intersting.

Thanks to the Fishers for stopping by today on there way to Tallahassee from NC. Ashley didn’t know they were coming, and screamed when she opened the door and saw the four of them standing on here door step. It was a fun few hours.

Thats all for now. God Bless. Be Real.

Back from Vacation

Over the next couple of months I will blogging about my wedding preparations with my beautiful fiance, Ashley Lynn. I will also be starting graduate school on August 17th [Ashley’s birthday] at Georgia Tech University, and I’m sure I will be including what I learn there. So to start everything off like I said, here are updates on the wedding planning:

• We are still searching for a reception hall! After being turned down from a place that we had already reserved, we are looking elsewhere around the Clearwater area to find a place that fits in our budget. The Eastlake Woodlands Country Club is at the top of our short list, and we may decide to go with them by the end of the week
• Ashley has her dress, but I have no information beyond that.
• I am trying to finish the invitations so we can mail out the “A-list” batch as soon as possible.

I will be in Tallahassee until July 30, when both Ashley and I go back to Clearwater for a week to have our wisdom teeth removed. Fun!! Then we move to the ATL around the 6th of August! Its going to be a packed two weeks!

God bless. Be real.