2011 . In Review

2011 has been another great year for me.  I got to experience so many awesome things and had life changing events happen.  I have so much to be thankful.  I have a great family, an incredible fiancee, and so many great friends.  My blog frequency has slowed downed a little of late, but thanks for always checking in.

I wanted to do a little recap of my year.  In my typical blogging style, many pictures, not so many words:

JANUARY

Studio trip to San Antonio and Houston...

FEBRUARY

Sara visits Baton Rouge and NOLA...

MARCH

Mom comes to NOLA for a mission trip (and Mardi Gras)...

APRIL

Spring Break trip with LSU to...Los Angeles, Yosemite, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Death Valley NP, Mammoth, Grand Canyon NP, Sedona, and Phoenix...

MAY - JULY

Spent the summer studying abroad in Italy.  Spent eight weeks in Rome.  While in Italy, I got to travel to the Monti Simbruini National Park, the Cinque Terre, Venice, Florence, and Sorrento/Capri.  I spent the final four days of my trip in Madrid, Spain...

AUGUST

Family vacation to central Tennessee for a lot of golf and a little bit of hiking...

SEPTEMBER

Beginning of internship at HadenStanziale...

NOVEMBER

SARA AND I GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!

DECEMBER

Trip to Illinois to visit family for Christmas.  Sara got to come with and meet lots of family she had never met before...

2011 was a fantastic year.  Hope everyone has a great 2012...

Houston

Houston was the last stop on our Texas field trip.  As I mentioned, this was an unplanned stop from the original itinerary but something that our professor has done with students before.  We got into Houston Thursday night around dinner time.  All of the girls wanted to visit the China Town in Houston so that is what we did.  We went to an authentic Chinese restaurant; it was incredible.  The girls ordered us all kinds of stuff and it was served family style.  By far the best Chinese food I have ever had.

Friday morning, our first stop was at Rice University.  We went to visit a pavilion, designed by James Burnett (a LSU graduate), that was built in 2008.  The Brochstein Pavilion is located centrally on the campus and acts a study retreat for students both inside the Pavilion and in the surrounding garden.

The second stop was nearby at the Museum of Fine Arts.  A famous sculpture garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi, is located in the courtyard of the museum.  After the sculpture garden, we went and visited the SWA Group office.  This is a very famous landscape architectural firm that has many offices throughout the country.

The last stop was at Discovery Green in downtown Houston.  This is a public park/greenspace designed by Hargreaves Associates.  The park is 12 acres located downtown.  It includes many rotating displays of public art, along with a lake, venues for public performances, dog runs, and recreational areas.

This was the last stop of our trip...back to Baton Rouge.  Overall it was a fun trip.  It is nice to get out of the studio every once in a while and see some built works.  Hopefully we get to get out more this semester.

Missions, Ranches, Overlooks

As I mentioned in my previous post, the goal of our studio trip was to take a look at the architecture and cultural influence that the Spanish and other settlers had on the South Texas region.  Two places that we visited in San Antonio were Mission San Jose and The Alamo.  Mission San Jose was a Spanish community that was settled 250 years ago just outside of the current city of San Antonio.  It is one of a group of Missions in the area that have been restored by the National Park Service.  The Alamo speaks for itself.

Mission San Jose

Mission San Jose

Mission San Jose

The Alamo 

The Alamo

After leaving San Antonio on Wednesday morning, we headed south the the TX/Mexico border.  Our first stop was in Laredo for lunch.  After lunch we followed the border south and made many stops along the way.  The more notable stops were at a historic ranch where the oldest buildings in Texas are located, at a Rio Grande Overlook to do some watercoloring, and in the tiny historic town of San Agnacio.

Los Corrales Historic Ranch

Los Corrales Historic Ranch

Rio Grande Overlook

Rio Grande Overlook

Our stop for the night on Wednesday was in Roma, TX.  We were supposed to stay here for two days working on a project, but the weather was awful.  Due to rain, we ended up heading to Houston for a day and a half instead of sitting in the rain in Roma...

San Antonio

Don't worry my faithful followers I am back.  My time in Johnson City for winter break came to an end last weekend.  I came back to Baton Rouge last Saturday because my studio went on a 'field trip' this past week.  Our studio professor this semester wanted to go on a pre-semester trip to South Texas, so that is what we did.  The plan was to go from Baton Rouge to San Antonio and then down to many locations along the Texas/Mexico border to do a sketch problem.  The goal of the trip was to explore how colonization of the Spanish people 300 years ago affects the culture of the area present day.

San Antonio was our first stop as I mentioned.  We were in San Antonio on Monday night and Tuesday.  We visited many sites there as well as ate all kinds of food.  On Monday we got into San Antonio around dinner time and ate at Mi Terra.  After dinner the guys from studio went down to the riverwalk to watch the National Championship game.

Tuesday was a full day of visiting different places.  We started out at the San Jose Mission, then went and visited the landscape architecture firm, Rialta, followed by lunch at Sam's Burger Joint.  After lunch we went to the San Antonio Botanic Garden.

After the Botanic Garden we went to the The Alamo (go Vols).  Next was on to the San Antonio library, because is was designed by a Mexican architect, and then to a 200 year old all girls school that has since been converted to an Art school.  After this we went to the river walk again for some dinner.

Girls School

San Antonio Riverwalk

San Antonio Riverwalk

Main Plaza

Main Plaza

I really enjoyed all the places we visited.  The history of the area and architecture was very interesting.  More to come...