155 - AIA24 Recap Part 1

This episode, hosts Kurt Neiswender and Jamie discuss their recent experiences and adventures, including a behind-the-scenes look at the AIA 24 conference in Washington, D.C., soccer updates, a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leahy House, an urban sketching tour, and a look into the MLK Central Library renovation.

 Introduction and Catch Up
 Soccer Talk and Brand Conversations
 AIA 24 Conference Highlights
 Student Placement and Networking
 Urban Sketching Adventures
 Visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leahy House
 MLK Central Library

Transcript

Kurt Neiswender: 0:32

hey, Jamie, well welcome. How are you?

Jamie: 0:36

I'm good. We just did the, just the you know did our green room catch up, you know, hanging in there. This is episode one 55 had to get the green room shout out in there because, you know, some folks don't even know that that exists. So, you know, it's like a subreddit, you know, we talked about those a lot too.

Kurt Neiswender: 0:55

Pre pre Reddit. Yeah. We can make it a thing. We have a, a friend, friend of the podcast watching along architect who's

Jamie: 1:06

and asking about the soccer. So of course I wanted to bring that up. They know, they know, they know we're on brand, you know the on brand conversations. No, I didn't, I didn't actually, well, I, I mean, yes, I I did watch the game. But I didn't go, I didn't go to the game. But the other thing that, that transpired, I mean, I think we're just going to skip the USA Columbia, like sports talk of the, you know, the round football because that was not good. So we're hoping that the game tomorrow against Brazil, Oh my God. Is going to be better. Yeah. So these tune ups for, you know, Olympic and then World Cup, you know, eventually coming here. Yeah, we need to do a little bit better, but, but, but this is for, this is for Kurt here too. This is not just for those listening on the stream. Did you know that there was a friendly in Texas, maybe the biggest game at my alma mater. The football, not the football football, not the Aggie football, but the football, the real football, the beautiful game. Yes. Mexico versus Brazil at Kyle Field in a friendly. Holy moly. 85, 000 people. Is that is that the full capacity there? No, no. Capacity is like 105, 000, but still very impressive.

Kurt Neiswender: 2:31

Got a little, got a little escaping out the back about the back there. So yeah, don't worry. Now we're now that we're in the episode. This is the clip it out part of the show that edited down. So Where was I? Well, we talked about football, some exciting stuff, but we should save that for a future.

Jamie: 2:55

We can revisit it. We can, we can, we can, we can revisit it. I'm just,

Kurt Neiswender: 2:58

you know, yeah, I'm not caught up at all. And

Jamie: 3:01

yeah, yeah, Kurt, Kurt, Kurt is just like, I'm like, I am back home. Oh my goodness.

Kurt Neiswender: 3:08

So, and then everything. Client work catches on fire. It's all good, right? Yeah.

Jamie: 3:15

So episode one 55, this is, we're going to, we don't have an official title for this one yet. We'll maybe we're going to kind of maybe you know, work some stuff out. We use the A. I. to let the, to generate it. Please, please don't tell me that's what you're using to create your first draft.

Kurt Neiswender: 3:32

No, no, no, no, no.

Jamie: 3:34

Okay. Maybe. Siri, Siri, what do you think this episode should be called?

Kurt Neiswender: 3:39

Siri's not A. I. Kind of, but like, I guess they just made some updates.

Jamie: 3:45

Apple just dropped that. They're like fully leaning in on the AI. So all those conspiracy theorists with their yarn on the, on the whiteboards in their walls, you know, thinking that their phones were listening to them, they just have to get out a whole nother bag of yarn. So.

Kurt Neiswender: 4:03

That's a

Jamie: 4:03

lot.

Kurt Neiswender: 4:04

That's a lot of yarn. I'm going to a lot of yarn. I'm going to need more wall space. Yeah. For my yeah, for me, we should flash some sketches real quick.

Jamie: 4:12

I think I think we should. I think I think we need to get into it. So just

Kurt Neiswender: 4:16

and we have a few. Sorry. I mean, interrupt you there. But you know, we'll talk a little bit about. Some of them, some of them are just there for a tease to the, to the second half of this recap conversation just cause we can't fit it all in one conversation.

Jamie: 4:34

So Kurt, what's hashtag AIA 24 mean?

Kurt Neiswender: 4:37

Well, so if you were at the AIA American Institute of Architects National Conference in Washington, DC, And wanted to let the world know about it, then you would use the hashtag AI 24. Because as in past years, we used to use the just hashtag a 23, a 22. I don't know how far back we went with that, but unfortunately there is a company. Called a 24 that has a lot more clout and leverage than architects. It would be confusing to you anyway. That's a, probably a non sequitur deep tangential conversation. But anyway, we, we, you and me and, and a lot of our friends, you know, took pictures, videos, and then tagged a lot of our posts with AI 24, try and coalesce around a common, a common theme.

Jamie: 5:38

Capture the moment. Capture the moment. Recap it afterwards. Lots of great summaries. Lots of great ways to see other parts of the event that you weren't able to do because frankly, you know, 15, 000 architects, you know, in Washington, D. C. over four or five days. That's a lot of people, a lot of stuff you certainly can't catch it all the way I described it to folks who haven't attended the national conference, but have been to maybe their state conference or a similar kind of professional development industry conference, maybe, you know, in a regional level, you go to the conference, you look at a time block, there's three sessions in that time block, only three, three, maybe four, and, you know, one or two of them look really great or really appropriate for yourself. You go to AIA 24 and it's more like Seven or eight or nine sessions in a time block and, you know, half of them look amazing. And then there's also some tours and the expo floor and, you know, alumni gatherings and a billion other things. Yeah. And there's meetups and there's a billion other things that you're the attention is being pulled to. So definitely an all gas, no breaks kind of Which,

Kurt Neiswender: 6:55

which hopefully as I think about it, hopefully It sounds, it doesn't sound as scary to most, to most listeners as you're describing it, but it's a little, it can be a little overwhelming at first, but we've, I would say by now we would call ourselves veterans of an AI conference. I've forgotten now how many total, we had a streak of at least what? Seven in a row, eight, seven, at least six, seven, and then COVID. So we broke our streak and then they've been live again for the past three years. And so now, but we didn't go Chicago, Chicago, I think was kind of a dicey call. So many people came home.

Jamie: 7:43

Yeah, they weren't, you know, the health from a health concern. And it was like maybe not. And Kurt and I did go to Chicago on the last go round. So

Kurt Neiswender: 7:50

you know, 10 years prior about,

Jamie: 7:53

so we, we, we may be, you know, maybe, maybe right, made the right call for ourselves,

Kurt Neiswender: 7:57

but yeah, you know, speak, you know, speaking of convention expo spaces and convention center spaces that McCormick center is like even more, more scary than the DC convention center, it's mostly I thought it was anyway, DC was a nice. Nice size the whole building, right? You know, where the learning is, where the expo is. It wasn't too complicated to navigate. Again, veteran status helps us figure out the buildings a lot easier than say a, a a, a rookie or

Jamie: 8:32

a newbie But anyway, that's not, that's not the key. And that's not the key. That's not the key takeaway. No, no, no, no. We're not, we're not trying to, to. Place any like shade on anyone who's went for the first time or hasn't been yet. I think, you know, all, all in all absolutely wonderful experience. You know, even some of the folks that I work with, I've, I've shared with them that, you know, I want to get them to these conferences. You know, just so that they can start to experience it and, you know, and make, you know, broaden their network, you know, in the, in the way that they want to and I think that that's, you know, that's the real benefit to these experiences is that there's things that you do in your job. There's things that you're interested in, and then there's things that you surprise you, you know, that you, you weren't expecting and that delight and joy of those kind of moments is, is, is pretty great and to, to, to do it amidst, you know, kind of your peer community is, is pretty special.

Kurt Neiswender: 9:28

Yeah, I would, I would agree. And then, you know, over the years. Bumping into old friends, fellow committee members that, you know, you served on a, a volunteer committee in the past, you get to bump into them. And, you know, actually 1, 1, positive 1 anecdote that I can share is that our friend Shane and Christiansen. Principal at Cushing Terrell in well, their head, I think their headquarters is Billings, Montana, where Shannon is, but they

Jamie: 9:57

have Austin presence too.

Kurt Neiswender: 10:00

Wow, that's yeah, I didn't realize how, how multi office they were, but I reached out to Shannon. I had a, I had a 1 of my. Favorite students, what can I say that?

Jamie: 10:11

Well, you can tell you, you can have, you can have more than 1 favorite child.

Kurt Neiswender: 10:15

Yes. 1 of my 1 of yeah. Yes. But a student that I worked with a little bit and, and had a good time teaching. She was traveling to, or wanting to spend the summer summer out in the mountain West there. And I reached out to Shannon. She, and she was able to place her in the Boise, Idaho office. And hopefully and I, so I got a chance to thank Shannon and so, you know, Hey, that's, it's power of the network, right? That's the, that's the part I, I enjoy the most. Plus it's, you know, one of my students that I can help get into the profession and take that first step that we all had had to take so many years ago.

Jamie: 10:55

Well, yeah, I mean, and we both be remiss if we didn't sort of also acknowledge along those same lines. Young architect forum alumni, you know, vibes is that Shannon was there. That's how we met Shannon. You know, she was doing sort of the same experience that we had, you know, both myself representing texas and kurt michigan. You know, the, you know, we've, we spent a lot of time with our friend claris in florida. And, you know, so she sort of completed our planes, trains, automobiles, travel loop for this, you know, a I. 24 experience. But I think that the other part is that you know, from the election standpoint of national officers there were three YAF alumni pursuing national office, which is, you know, is no, you know, no small thing. You know, I, I think that that level of service and commitment and decision to do those types of things is definitely a personal one and professional one for certain, you know, for that matter, but you know, all three of them are really great individuals and, you know, just congratulations to all three. I'm going to kind of leave that one there, if that's okay with you, Kurt, because I think we'll probably come back to it in, in our part two recap, but this is part one. We're trying to keep it short short and tight and succinct. Which we're not good at

Kurt Neiswender: 12:14

given, given that you know, Danielle snuck outside to enjoy the evening. We might have a few extra minutes, but yeah.

Jamie: 12:21

So before we get into the full on recap, the stuff's on the screen, Kurt's curated as he's ably really well to do. He's got some ideas for this episode. I'm all in even though it's going to go fast, but what coffee are we drinking now that we've returned home?

Kurt Neiswender: 12:38

Oh, yeah, that's like, that's question number one that we didn't lead with. So I have just before I left, I picked up a bag of what is called, the flavor is berry kiss from Rootless Coffee in Flint. Which it's, It's it's, it's not a flavored coffee, you know, they, they don't do that sort of thing. It's just, but the, the way they roast it sort of brings out a little bit of a berry flavor you know, so a fruit flavor and a little tartness. So in the, in the front, you know, and then, and then as the coffee flavor, the sort of darker notes, like the chocolatey or hazelnutty, you know, stuff kind of comes in, but similar to, to I think was the other special run, which I don't know if I got you any of that one, which disappeared, but

Jamie: 13:25

I think I've not had either of the ones that he's talking about folks, but they both have a good one. That's a good one. So it sounds good. But also,

Kurt Neiswender: 13:34

you know, Rootless has a new batch for us because we ran out. So now we have Coffee Sketch Podcast Coffee second round. Batch 2.

Jamie: 13:43

Yeah. Excellent.

Kurt Neiswender: 13:45

Just as good as the first batch. But anyway, yeah, what about you?

Jamie: 13:48

So, again, I went local as well and I brought my props. So this is Little City. So a little different than what I've been drinking of late, but decided that I would pick some up after returning home and it is a guava strawberry and kind of a little bit of chocolate, so kind of notes to it. So again, has that sort of citrusy kind of fruity, you know, You know, first part of the palette, and then like you were describing sort of that chocolate kind of, you know, as you're sort of sipping it longer. But yeah, I, I'm, I'm kind of digging it. Haven't had it before. But I do like their stuff. And another, you know, you know, Austin original,

Kurt Neiswender: 14:34

we might have to do a little swap. Right. I'll send you the berry kiss and you send me one of those from little city. Cause we have to compare sounds very similar, which sort of maybe it's not too surprising between you and I these days. We we may have merged our brains through a neural link of,

Jamie: 14:55

start to spend too much proximity together. Yep. Yep. Exactly.

Kurt Neiswender: 14:59

People absorb, absorb it all. Although, so that's a good segue into some of the sketches. So I, I happened to lose you on Saturday during the urban sketching session. Me and a friend of the podcast slash my co pilot co driver, we drove out from Michigan. So we needed to drive back to Michigan. So in the meantime, I was trying to find a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Jamie was sketching which is a session we did together last year or joined last year, which is the urban sketching, sketching cohort. And I, you know, we, we made the tough decision to sort of divide and conquer Jamie conquered. I divided. So the 1st, 3 sketches here on the left are from that trip. Right? And then so the 1 in the middle, I'll zoom in a little bit is always the, the, the sort of fun summary of, of the day, because all the attendees. They do the throw down, right? You call it the throw down. And put all your sketchbooks in the middle and just kind of, and, you know, share and keep it, you know, keep it positive and, and, and well, the critique kind of constructive, right?

Jamie: 16:13

Oh, yeah, it's, it's, it's all about the energy of, of that many folks, you know, doing the same activity over a length of time and then immediately wanting to, you know, kind of celebrate and share it. In kind of a moment, a capturable moment for everyone. So I didn't even get a chance to tell you this because, you know, of all of us trying to, you know, make a mass exodus out of DC and, you know, the whole planes, trains, automobiles, craziness, this didn't even come up, but I did the sketching tour and, you know, we were going to do the throw down at the last site. And it was a Sir Norman Foster building. And we all, you know, we all had done, you know, kind of multiple sites in smaller, kind of more nimble groups. And we all kind of collectively grouped back up at the Sir Norman Foster site, kind of a couple, you know, multi story buildings, you know, retail on the bottom, mixed use and then sort of a, a plaza space. Well, that plaza space apparently has some really aggressive security guards, and so those security guards did not like groups as large as ours hanging around, you know, talking loudly and excitedly about our sketchbooks. And so when, oh yeah, oh yeah. And so there was a lot of hand gestures. Imagine talking to an architect and, and all of us getting prepared to throw our books down on the pavement and stand in the circle and talk about it. And they were like, Y'all have to leave.

Kurt Neiswender: 17:44

I mean,

Jamie: 17:45

and we're like, we're like, what? And they're like, no, no, no, you have to get out of here. And so shout out to that space. They, you know, they missed a grand opportunity to you know, host an impromptu event that costs them nothing. But yeah, so we went back over to you know, a former Carnegie library, this now an Apple store and Stood on their lawn and they did not bother us at all. And they were

Kurt Neiswender: 18:12

confused though, because they, they're a digital tech store. And they're like, what are these things?

Jamie: 18:18

What's this

Kurt Neiswender: 18:19

talk about AI on Monday? And like, what's this book thing?

Jamie: 18:23

Yeah.

Kurt Neiswender: 18:24

What are all those pointy objects?

Jamie: 18:26

We will, we will get to that conversation about digital sketching in part two of this recap. So. We'll leave, we'll just leave that one there too. I'll

Kurt Neiswender: 18:35

tell you. So, you know, I want to squeeze in. So probably about the, maybe a little before you did this throw down. So we went, so me and a Cormac and Scott, we went, gotten, gotten the rental car that we were then going to take back to Michigan, got to the Pope Leahy house, which is a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Designed house for, well, it was designed for Pope family, I believe. And then the Leahy family acquired it. And then it now resides on the, the property of George Washington's daughter's estate, which is called Woodlawn. And so it now has a home that it was, you know, no, no one will ever kick them out, but you know, I certainly hope it was moved twice. Which is crazy. You move a house. I mean, one time is a crazy anyway, the fun part of the anecdote, right? Is that, you know, so before we, before we even left Cormac was trying to plan this whole thing out. The website said if the Pope Lee, he house was closed because of Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday. So, Saturday, if anybody was celebrating. You know, Frank Lloyd Wright's, I think it was 157th birthday so June 8th. So we go, we were, we were first going to just walk around, like, walk around the outside, and just kind of

Jamie: 20:10

So, hold on, hold on, before you, before you give me the walk around. So, do people who celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday Who are in the know do do they arrive at dinner parties that you know that other folks are hosting and then move all of their furniture around because they don't feel like it's appropriately in the right spot and then proceed to proceed to explain to them that as an architect this this is totally more appropriate or bring your own

Kurt Neiswender: 20:44

furniture

Jamie: 20:45

or or bring your own furniture yeah. And we're really large brimmed hat and maybe a cloak. So

Kurt Neiswender: 20:52

that's, that's like one of the, the most ornate Franco would write inside jokes, but it's great. But yeah, the docent definitely gave us a little, a little bit of that. No, well, actually the furniture, the, the party furniture was outside on the lawn. So, so here's, here's the deal, right? We walk up. And they said, or are you here for Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday? And we were like, no, we thought it was closed. And he said, well, we only did that because it's the birthday tickets are actually 5 off. And you just go back to the Woodlawn estate to the desk over there, buy the ticket and then come back and you can go in and go inside, get the tour. Have a piece of cake because they had birthday cake.

Jamie: 21:39

There was cake. You didn't tell me there

Kurt Neiswender: 21:41

was

Jamie: 21:41

cake.

Kurt Neiswender: 21:42

Cake and coffee and gifts, gift shop. And coffee too. But it gets even better. Right. So we go over to the, the, the, the, the main estate, the Woodlawn estate and into the ticket shop. And Scott was right about to buy the tickets when Cormac flashed his veterans ID. And not only did he get free entry, but his whole group got free entry. So we didn't even have to pay. The discounted rate and they said, you know, thank you for your service head on back down the hill. So then we go back down the hill, walk into the, so it was 1 of those sort of things that we thought we were going to just be able to, like, lurk around and peek. You

Jamie: 22:34

basically were planning to be in the bushes taking photos of this building and get as close as you could

Kurt Neiswender: 22:40

without, yeah, without getting, you know, kicked out, which is probably another thing that architects like to do.

Jamie: 22:48

Right. And then, and then Cormac got the full experience of like his, you know his service, which, you know, you know, is, is important in and of itself, but that it's also associated, which he probably doesn't get as much. Connection to what he does as an architect you know, having those two things like link for a moment on something like this. So that's excellent. I, I love that.

Kurt Neiswender: 23:12

And they had cake

Jamie: 23:13

and there was cake.

Kurt Neiswender: 23:14

Oh, that was, that was a trip. So, you know, that part was, was good. And we, we had a good time. Unfortunately, you and I weren't able, the, the, the master scheme is we were going to try and link up after that. But as, as architects also want to do is if there's another site to see just nearby that you squeeze in more than you can actually. Well, and that so you guys were on on foot, but there happened to be a pride parade going on caused a massive traffic jam just to get into D. C. and then road closures. Inside where all of our hotels were to where I had checked door checked. So we sat in the car for a long time just to get the bag, just to then turn around and leave. Anyway, long story short, it took, we didn't get home till two o'clock in the morning to Michigan. So I'm sorry, apologies friend that we didn't, you know, this is my formal apology. We're not meeting back up with you guys at lunch, as I promised, which I hate to break promises. So, so there's that.

Jamie: 24:30

It's okay,

Kurt Neiswender: 24:31

but we were hoping that when, when we told you that Pope Leahy story that give me the pass.

Jamie: 24:38

Well, yeah, no. And, and that, that group shot also had your buddy, Lynn Craig from Clemson University that you were just like enamored with.

Kurt Neiswender: 24:46

Oh, yeah, he was one right over. We'll, we'll see. Yeah.

Jamie: 24:49

Kind of over there on the left. Yeah. And then another gentleman who I don't believe was part of the San Francisco crew, but is also apparently affiliated with another university. He's the gentleman in the Crocs. They're kind of in the center of your photo. Yeah. Amazing watercolor architect. And, you know, super kind words for everybody. Just his name is Terry and Terry Welker. And so,

Kurt Neiswender: 25:20

yeah, I know the name.

Jamie: 25:21

Yeah. And so yeah, so there was, there was, there was quite a few kind of really cool folks. The first part, the person that, that I had at my first station was Scott rank and. He, he's not an architect, but sort of an animator, visual illustrator, and had a really kind of neat take on using your sketchbook. I don't have that one posted here, but it's, it's kind of using your sketchbook as a way to kind of create a, create a story. Kind of story about the setting that you find yourself in and little vignettes which I do tend to do you know, where I might, you know, yeah, we've seen, we've seen some of that, yeah, zoom in and zoom out, but he had a really great fresh way to kind of describe it. So I will definitely be ripping off and borrowing that you know, like a storyboard Yeah. Really for film, right? It really was. I mean, it, it, it really was. So I, I, I loved it and, and appreciated kind of, you know, his take on how he set things up for each group. So just to kind of, you know, thumbnail this for folks who are kind of wondering what we're completely talking about. This urban sketch tour that, that they do at conference is kind of loosely a couple of different folks who've been organizing the speakers. I am not one of the speakers though. I have done that at our state conference here in Texas in the past. This is me just enjoying it as a participant and, and I definitely enjoy it and Kirk knows that cause he saw it last year. We missed you, buddy, but. You know, we, we, you go basically between a couple of different stations in a smaller group. So a group of about, you know, this was a pretty one, you know, pretty good size. I mean, we had about 15 to 20 people in each group and then kind of moved between four different stations and did, you know, and had about a like a, you know, a five minute talk, you know, or so and 15 minutes of sketching. You know, at each location and and then as Kurt was describing, then the sort of lay down of all the work at the very, very end with everybody, you know, you know, resumed and altogether. I think Kurt's leaning into the screen trying to find, you know, individual sketchbooks. But Super fun, super fun, super fun way to explore a city. And and, you know, take time to kind of, you know, lean into the skills. So loved it.

Kurt Neiswender: 27:40

Yeah. You know, one other sort of shout out to a friend in, in regards to sketching is our, our buddy, Steven Parker, who was on the podcast not too long ago. He ran his drawn out. Sketching, which we talked a lot about on his episode of the podcast. He ran his session. Also, I think it was at the same time as same time. Like,

Jamie: 28:02

like, like we were saying, yeah, there were there. You know, it's funny. I didn't tell Stephen. I didn't see Stephen. I don't know if you bumped into him or not. I was hoping to

Kurt Neiswender: 28:13

right at the last. I think it was Saturday morning and in the expo floor, you had wandered off and yeah, he crossed. Yeah,

Jamie: 28:24

but I did it. I did bump into a friend from San Antonio who has attended my sketch tour that I did at The texas society of architects conference and he's like oh there's some sketching sessions you know on saturday are you going to any of them are you involved in any i said why i'm actually going to this one just as a participant i said but my friend steven is doing this other one and he said oh i've been i thought about doing the health care you know kind of mental health sketching one. And he, and he's like, do you think I should do that one instead of the urban sketching? I was like, yeah, go and then tell me about it. Because we haven't, neither one of us have, both of us have wanted to go, but we haven't had the opportunity yet to, to experience Steven's session.

Kurt Neiswender: 29:11

Yeah, maybe we'll have to have bring, bring Steven back and see how that all shook out. Cause he had, I mean, he's been jet setting all over the country. Doing this thing and sounds like a really great program and I'm sure he had a great turnout on Saturday as well. And it's, yeah, it's just, it's great to see the, the, the tool. I mean, I guess it's a little bit on the nose for us, right? The coffee sketch podcast, but to see the tool that we're We brought up with and sort of affiliated with and, you know, the idea of a loose sketch to, to get ideas across become sort of weaving its way back in. Although we have another episode that's going to happen in the future, thinking about AI as a sketch, we kind of tease about AI, but, you know, they'll be, that's all I'll say about that. But in the, in the works, I think, you know, before, I don't want to keep what do you call it? Dropping too many hints, but, you know, we got a lot of things. Yeah. Well, let's, let's scan through energized

Jamie: 30:14

and plan for, well, let's scan through these real quick.'cause I know that you've, you've had a chance to only, you weren't with me on these, so you, you've only had a chance to sort of see them online as as well. So is this, is the

Kurt Neiswender: 30:26

is this the na the portrait calorie in the, it's, yeah, it's, yeah. We have, oops. Yeah, that, that sort of atrium dome canopy. From foster, right? That's correct. Yeah. So we

Jamie: 30:39

were, we were at the opening night party, which was in the, which was in the portrait gallery. So great space. You know, love being in that space. You know, I think we have a couple of friends who refer to it as maybe their favorite building in DC or favorite space in DC. Shout out to Brent to Ben on that one. But this is you know, kind of that classic one point perspective. And, you know, really that one point perspective where we are, you know, you know, positioning ourselves directly, you know, where everything is vanishing to that door on the horizon. And I didn't know about this vantage point. I hadn't seen it other than this urban sketchers who are scouting out these locations, you know, found this great spot. And I'm glad I got to experience it this way.

Kurt Neiswender: 31:27

That's a good view, a good vista right to the, to the building and having, I don't think we walked in that way. So it's kind of a nice like perspective. Yeah, we, I mean, this is, it's going to be tough to, to, to be quick because it's fun to dwell on, dwell on the the imagery. But is it, let's see the glass. It's fun to see the glass canopy. On the modern side here, sort of contrasting the is that also, oh, that's also the portrait gallery, right?

Jamie: 31:58

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Kurt Neiswender: 32:00

So

Jamie: 32:00

there was an opportunity to get a little bit closer at a second station. And this one was with Terry. And one of the things that he was talking about was you know, each of the, each, you know, each, each different station, you know, each, each station. Individual who sort of leading a piece of the sketching tour had a piece of the puzzle that they were trying to sort of express, you know, whether it was a tool or a technique or a way of thinking about the sketch in the moment and and his was sort of about framing. You know, framing particular views and, and using thanks you know, frame, you know, framing particular views and in kind of a unique way so that, you know, the, there's an inference you and I've talked about this a ton where the line sort of leads off the page or the line just sort of stops in kind of a white area and you get this sort of framed kind of aspect and you're, you Your brain sort of fills in those details or focuses on the things that you're wanting. And yeah, and where, where Kurt sort of sketching here with the red line you know, I was experimenting with it and I think if I were to go back and sort of refine this sketch, I really think I could make something really special out of it, you know, where there's this kind of hard edge that has this unique profile coming over my head with, with, with the glass canopy and then down the wall. Down to the sidewalk and that's sort of setting up this edge condition on the left side of the page and then the right is the focus of the image, which is really the entrance to that portrait gallery.

Kurt Neiswender: 33:37

Yeah, but I like, I mean, I think I was kind of flipping back and forth with the 2 because of the looseness. Yeah, I mean, you, you do some loose style, but not always this. It's not that much looser than your normal sketch. However, I understanding the speed at which you can have to produce these things and, and the sort of improv and compose it, compose it right. Yeah. Not just draw it, but actually sort of frame frame it as you were saying, but I love the, the way you just squiggled the shadow in behind the columns to just kind you know, get that. Darkness into the depth in there, and then I teased you. I circled the couple of lines that created some stone panels.

Jamie: 34:29

Well, and it's it's funny because I do that occasionally. Yeah, well, it's it's some of it is mental notes to yourself, right? And you know, and, and there's moments in those sketches where you, you find yourself pausing and looking at it a little bit harder and you go, oh, wow, the size of that, that piece of stone. That's pretty, that's pretty big relative to the thing next to it. I better, I better draw that, you know? Yeah.

Kurt Neiswender: 34:54

Well, the pen is not even gonna, it's not even gonna let you do it. Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, it's not just a brick per se, but it's brick pattern. Right in the stone panel, which is much bigger and that way you can go back and you can kind of like fill in some more bits if you want to know, fill out the field of the stone panels and things like that. So, yeah, no, this, this is cool again, you know, sort of a compromise miss that I, that I had to make. And then, I mean, we, we are going to talk about this 1, but we're going to. Save that right for, for the next one. So just, just as a, to be, to be discussed.

Jamie: 35:37

Yeah. My, my fair Verona, my fair Verona, we will get back to Mr. Scarpa. So yes,

Kurt Neiswender: 35:44

but that was fun. Plus we'll have some moving pictures about that one. But then last, then lastly, though, is that this, we passed a couple of times is, well, maybe on by car, I think I feel like I circled around this thing on Saturday a lot. And then on foot, which is the Mies van der Rohe I don't know if it's a named library. It's a library.

Jamie: 36:05

It's, it's MLK. It's there. Yeah. MLK central library. And Mecca new. I think they're Dutch. They, they did a amazing renovation of this building maybe 15 years ago or so. But one of Mies last projects and it's you know, quite an impressive library space and sort of the way it sits. On the street so close to the street so close to that that edge and that's that's what sort of struck me with this sketch was that I wanted to capture that where the building really, you know, as a, as a civic structure and engage and it's, you know, it's, it's the same, you know, miss typology of materials and. And geometry and structure kind of expressing itself in in the overall form of the building, but that transparency of that glass where. You know, the inside does become the outside, but at the same time, this very rigid geometry finds itself very pushed far to the street and it doesn't feel imposing. It, it, it really feels kind of welcoming. And I, I, I just, it, it sort of struck me as sort of the simplicity of pulling that off really, really well. And that it just. You know, 60 years later or so it still is just, you know, fabulous and then and then others have, of course, you know, helped accentuate it with the rehabilitation. But yeah loved it.

Kurt Neiswender: 37:45

Yeah, I don't remember if we passed it at night at the same time. Did you happen to see? I can't remember. We saw it.

Jamie: 37:53

We saw it sort of twilight ish. As we were going, going between alumni receptions. Yeah.

Kurt Neiswender: 37:58

Yeah. And it's like a, it's like a television set. Like it, you know, the insides come alive and the colors that I think Mekinu probably sort of snuck in there in little pockets against the white. You know, painted drywall and then, and then the, the dark metal steel you know, frame that means, you know, the means look, you know, if you want, as you'd mentioned but then the other aspect of it, as you were mentioning that the sort of openness downstairs is that the glass is sort of recessed in certain areas to create a sort of colonnade. And and the columns come down, but the glasses a little farther back, and it sort of helps identify a way to maybe find the entrance or, you know, access a certain side of the building. And so, yeah, it's, it's nice. I'm so I'm glad to have, you know, we've walked by a couple of times and then I think we drove past it on the on the way out. As you, as you

Jamie: 38:59

found, you meandered your way out of the city. Yeah.

Kurt Neiswender: 39:01

We drove past it a couple of times, which is, you know, it's never a bad thing. I

Jamie: 39:06

think that's a Chevy chase movie, but yeah, we'll leave it there. So yeah,

Kurt Neiswender: 39:11

but the here, let me flip back to the, to the main view, but the, yeah, so, you know, thanks for the the quick rundown good catch on that ML code library sketch. Because that that's a nice, it's something I need to go spend more time back at, you know, maybe. Right now I'll have to seek it out in pictures. But when we get back to DC one day, we'll have to make a special visit. But as, as we tried to keep the time tight for this episode, we, we,

Jamie: 39:44

we

Kurt Neiswender: 39:45

basically hit our

Jamie: 39:45

normal, we hit our normal mark. So, you know, it's okay. But so this is, this is me saying goodbye. And this is me saying, don't forget, this is part one of at least two parts of a recap from our experience in DC at the AI National Conference. So thanks y'all.