Ian Korn Photo Industries

Re-Envisioning South Willamette

iank — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:00:11 +0000

In the Spring Term, my studio was about redesigning (or re-envisioning, if you will) South Willamette Street here in Eugene. The city is already involved in this process as they gear up for their next 30-year plan (an Oregon state requirement) and a possible expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary. South Willamette Street, despite having all of the components of a great place – interesting shops, all the necessities, a major transportation corridor, a large urban park, housing, and possible mixed-use space – is one of the worst places in Eugene to spend time, particularly if you don’t have a car. We were tasked, working with the city and the neighborhood, to come up with a plan that would make it a truly walkable, livable area that could be one of the best places in Eugene to live, work, and play.

Our job as architecture students was to present ideas for how the neighborhood could develop over time that would get residents and business owners in the area to think outside of their front yards and on a community scale. At times, this was scary for them, but it seems that they came around as we explained. The City is pursuing this as part of its Envision Eugene process, and has been using our work to help guide the conversation. The video above explains the whole thing in far more detail. For more information, visit this website: http://www.eugene-or.gov/oppsiting. If you click on Architecture Students’ Ideas, you’ll find my groups plan under “Vision 2.”

It’s nice to know that your work matters.

We were also asked to develop a prototype for a new development that would fit in the context of our redesigned South Willamette, and see how dense would could realistically get. I designed a 5-story, two building complex that contained apartments, offices, cafes and retail as well as creating a new pedestrian thoroughfare and two public plazas that connected the very popular Woodfield Station to Southtowne Shoppes. You can see two renderings below the fold.

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Instagram

iank — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Not every photo I take is on a fancy camera. No matter how much I want to, I can’t carry my Nikon SLR around with me all the time to take photos of anything that catches my eye. Usually, however, I do have my ipod on me. Sometime in late winter I discovered a really awesome app called Instagram, which lets you take photos on your ipod, run them through one of many filters, and then post it to the web – linking with Twitter, Flickr, and a host of other services as well as Instagram’s own feed. You can follow your friends or anyone whose photos you like. It’s pretty nifty, and people can get really creative with it.

Here are some of my favorite Instagram shots… so far.

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Whiteaker Block Party (Part 3): Fire Dancers

iank — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:00:35 +0000

(You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.)

At the end of the day, just as we were getting ready to leave, we took one more walk along 3rd Avenue and came across a large crowd in the Wine Garden ooohing and aaahing at some kind of flashing lights in front of a jazz band. So we decided to give it a shot. We found a group of fire dancers performing and worked our way to a front. I had a lot of fun taking these photos, especially the really long exposure shots. The band was great as well, especially that awesome Radiohead cover they performed. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the names of either the band or the fire dancing group.

Pictures, as usual, below the fold.

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Whiteaker Block Party (Part 2): Adventure Galley @ Ninkasi Brewery

iank — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:00:05 +0000

(You can find Part 1 here.)

One of the best parts of the Whiteaker Block Party had to be all of the music, all day long, absolutely for free. Since I’m an architecture student, they don’t let me out much, so I don’t see (or photograph) a lot of shows anymore. This was one opportunity I was not going to miss, especially when one of the bands was Adventure Galley, one of the most talked-about Eugene bands and winner of last year’s Myspace Rock the Space Contest. I’ve got to say that these guys are the best local band I’ve seen so far. They performed on Ninkasi Brewery’s patio to an excited Eugene crowd. Check them out after you check out the photos below.

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Whiteaker Block Party (Part 1)

iank — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:30:19 +0000

A lot of friends have asked me what it’s like living in Oregon since I moved here a year ago. Honestly, I find it kind of hard to describe the culture shock I’ve had to deal with moving to Eugene. This city is small – next to Martos, it’s the smallest town I’ve ever lived in – but, despite the glaringly obvious (and, frankly, disturbing) lack of racial diversity, there is a surprisingly wide array of things to do and see. People here intrigue me, because Oregon is such a place of contradictions – on the one hand you have the hipsters of Portland and the hippies who never left (as well as many people who want to be hippies), and on the other you have gun-toting conservative christian TEA Party members; you have huge trees and tons of rain, yet you turn the corner to find the dunes or cross a mountain range to find barren desert; you’ve got peace activists and bike riders and angry pickup drivers; you’ve got drunk football fans and people who don’t know the first thing about the game… and I’ve only just scratched the surface.

Like I said… Intriguing.

In December I moved out to a neighborhood called the Whiteaker that I like a lot, partly to get away from the “blast radius” around campus and partly to be closer to some friends from architecture. Named for the first governor of the state of Oregon, John Whiteaker, it is home to some of the more eclectic, artistic, and liberal people living in Eugene, an appropriate karmic reversal to that politician’s outspoken pro-slavery stance. If you were to visit, I could point you in the direction of at least three communes, a park full of junkies across from a dive bar, some of the coolest late night spots in town, a hostel that hosts art shows, and some of the best taquerias in town, just to name a few of the things keeping my neighborhood interesting.

As a celebration of the neighborhood’s character, each year they hold the Whiteaker Block Party, with street vendors, food, drinks, live music, and general good vibes free for all. Especially compared to the Eugene Celebration (an annual overpriced snooze-fest), it is a vibrant and lively day-long summer festival.

Here are some photos. And stay tuned for more from Adventure Galley’s performance at the Ninkasi Brewery and night-time fire dancing.

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The Best Model Shot

Ian — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:41:37 +0000

It’s Spring Break! Thank God! I’ve been working to update my portfolio so I can start the hunt for a summer job. So I’ve been going through a bunch of photos of models I took over the last two terms, thinking about including them. This is, by far, my favorite: a close-up of the laser cut 1/16″ breakdancers on the corner across the street from my project. If you don’t make school fun for yourself, then what’s the point?

Assignment 5 – Final Facade / Perspective Rendering

Ian — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:51:13 +0000

Spring Term is finally OVER! This was the term that just would not end – or, if you prefer, the term that just kept on giving. I have two weeks of vacation over which, of course, I will be working, picking up the shattered pieces of my life.

Anyhow, above you will find a scanned copy of the first page of my 7-page pin-up for the final review a week ago. I created it using Revit (which is a wonderful program I taught myself this term), then exported it to SketchUp for a few missing pieces and to put it into context (streetlights, people, walking down the boulevard, etc.). I laid this out in InDesign with the rest of the stuff on the sheet and printed that out as a backer. I added a hand-drawn element (the diagram in the lower left-hand corner) and traced the whole thing to vellum, then added color with marker. So, part digital, part hand media. Click through for an 11×17 pdf file, if you’re interested in seeing it bigger or reading the text.

Facades

Ian — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:04:51 +0000

For your viewing pleasure, two facade studies from my current studio project. Not sure what the final thing will actually look like – probably something in between these two. These are hand-drawn, not digital, just so you know. Click through to embiggen if the mood strikes.

Assignment 4 – Plan & Section

Ian — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 05:18:07 +0000

Here’s a (hastily digitized) plan of the Third Floor of this term’s studio project as of the last midterm. A section is below the fold. To see them in their full 1/8″ scale glory, click on either image. Be forewarned: they’re big.

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The Zen of Spam

Ian — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:07:46 +0000

You wouldn’t know it, but this site gets a ton of spam. Thank God WordPress has a fantastic spam filter. Every now and then I like to wade into the spam bin and go through to make sure it’s not actually catching something legit. I think that’s only happened once. But the other reason I love reading through the spam box is because the spam itself has a weird poetic quality. Most of it is trying to flatter you into posting their comment so they get the link, and some just lists an ad, but others… well, here’s a selection of the best. Enjoy!

Stevia – ‘-` oh that is a nice piece of information, kinda refreshing on my brain ;:”

Shanti Alegre – Do you have any other related blogs and/or relevant fields of expression. This tips has caused in me some quasi-cascade effect that has resulted in a great rearangement of my knowledge almost akin to a complete paradigm shift in the way I perceive the world. Thank you so much for this and I guess you wil accumulate a ton of Karma and positive chi due to your fantastic undertaking in this blog!

Gruitersx1 – I was conclusion the other period that there must be a technique for my kids to business at familiar with what they learn in class. Then it belabour me – songs!! Take a melody going hoop-shaped and arched in their heads and they’ll never overlook it!

And the winner of Most Ironic Spam Comment of the Week…

Burberry Handbag – Adult females are materialistic gold diggers. Beware.