In the Wednesday presentation, all our classmates have a good presentation, I can learn different research skills from each group. group 1 has the slideshow which highlights the referent text to remind themselves of the important part of the research. group 2 was using photography to compare the change of zoning each period. group 3 uses the data to tell us about the economy in their research. and the last group was using the map data to analyze and compare the population, land use at different times. in conclusion, I do not only get the information about MetroTech also learn how to use a different source to present the information to our audience.

It was interesting to see how everyone approached their research for this assignment. From what I observed, my peers linked together their research material really well. I witnessed great usage of 3D  and 2D sketches/models outlining the boundaries of focus for the site. What my group could of done better after assessing what our peers have done is probably introduce some more questions  regarding the topic at hand, we could of added a bit more focus in regards to our boundaries for this research but Economics is such a wide scope. Looking into other resources like Social Explorer would of been a great tool for us as two of our classmates discovered an economical component to it’s applications.

https://books.google.com/books?id=huI3AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA1&lpg=RA2-PA1&dq=metrotech+environmental+impact+statement+volume+1&source=bl&ots=IT2pzhNks-&sig=ACfU3U1Adf0NEnH5T2OuRWfw8eEFSo3Ang&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwix8Ojv17LlAhUPnFkKHc0qDk4Q6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=metrotech%20environmental%20impact%20statement%20volume%201&f=false

During the third trips, we are mainly focusing on the architectural side of the building. As we walking around the square, we found some similarities and differences between each building.

first of all,  all the building are modernized and has glass window on the first floor, and most of them are selling foods.  One interesting difference that we notice is the height. some of them are super tall and some of them are only few stories high. we also discussed about the positive and negative side of the square. It’s convenient for the people who are in the square to walk between the building and the people from outside of the square have easy access of the square.Inside the square, there are chairs set for 4 people, which is the representation of the social, and there are chair only fit for one person, which is represent non-social. Since the building is business wise, the negative side of the square is that the place will feel empty after 5PM.

This trip was different from the other one we did before. In this trip we focused more on the architecture of the buildings.  We were able to see the difference between old and modern buildings. There is a big difference between the two of them, the old building were more unique, you could see details and different type of design. This is important because these details require more people, work, and more money to be done, for example in the Offerman building which was built in the  1890 you could see the unique design with the arches and the windows between each store, when in the other hand the modern buildings require less labor to be done and is cheaper. The one problem you could see with modern building is that most of them is that they are not unique, most of them look the same. Similar designs and similar materials are used in the modern building we have today. We also practice more on the observation skill by doing voice memos and analyzing metro tech on how people move, the idea behind how it was built and more.

In the third trip, we were more focus on the architecture styles of buildings in Metro Tech. We visited the Offerman building which built by 1890 in Duffield St. The ground floor of the building is used for the retail space and the other floors is used for the loft apartment today. The Offerman House recognized a landmark building right now. It is a kind of Romanesque architecture building, and the design is the symmetry style. Its exterior decorated by limestone, buff-colored brick and soft terra cotta. In the ground floor, each line stone is between the windows, and the arches are decorated above the windows. Also, the windows in the ground floor and arches are different scale. On the left side of the building, the Corinthian order columns is supporting the horizontally lintels in between the double-hung window. We think the window in the retail floor is bigger than others because it could invite people to come inside to visit and shop.

The other things we focus on is the buildings in Metro Tech are changing. The new modern building close to the Offerman house is built with steel and curtain wall. That building is the art work and high-rise building. And based on the map of 1940, we can see many houses and building between Duffield St and Willoughby St. But today, there is only one big masonry building in that block and the JP Morgan Chase takes the entire building. At the left block of the JP Morgan Chase, we still see there are two wood material houses but without people live there.

According all the material we examined in the Metro Tech, we could see there are some old style building renewed and replace for the other stores or apartment, and some building is already gone and built the new style buildings and use new material to instead in some areas. We are glad to find out the cheaper, faster, more convenient material to build the building. We know how to use different material to resolve the heat, light, fire and air problems. But sometime if we destroyed the ancient building, we will hard to rebuild again because of limited material resources and high price.

In the trip we focused on looking at the different architecture. Looking into the architecture we noticed the differences between the modern building that have more of a simple modular design and the design of a historical buildings that have a complex design focused into details that were made uniquely. We understood how they modernized those historical building by changing the use of it instead of destroying it and starting a new building. Then we moved on to take about the proportion of the building in the area some building would take up the whole block and on the other block you would see houses that are 3 family houses next to a tall and big company building. the building building that takes up the whole block creates it own disadvantage because there is a back to the building where they want to create commercial stores and most people aren’t interested in have their space at the “back” of the building. – Jennifer

During our third walk around trip, we focused mainly on the architectural aspects of the buildings in the Metro tech area. As we walk around the area, I can see that the older buildings have more character than the newer one. We can see in the old buildings that it has more details and more designs in it. We also learned that some of the older buildings are being renovated and used for a new purpose. For example, the 1890 – 1891 Offer man building is now being used for lofts and studios and underneath it is a retail store. Seeing how even though the buildings are older, they still find a way to restore its history and keep it standing rather than demolishing it. – Rikkie

Our second visit to MetroTech was just as exciting as our first but we looked at MetroTech from an Architectural standpoint by analyzing buildings that were built in the 1900s and those that are being built today. The first building we looked at was the Offerman building which is now used for retail space and apartment complex. We also examined the well-detailed exterior and noticed the floral detailing in the stone cornices, Corinthian order columns that supports stone lintels running horizontally, bricks used in the common bond style followed by double-hung and clerestory windows. The second building we looked at was the MetroTech Center. This building is owned by JP Morgan Chase and before this building was built the lot had smaller lots with three to four-story buildings now there is a heavy masonry building that covers the entire lot, with an extension connected by a bridge that uses the ground floor for a public plaza. It is strictly a commercial building that doesn’t have much retail space on the lot we examined, it seems to only have a barbershop on the ground floor. The rest of the building is used for office space. The exterior is made from brick that is placed in the common bond style with soldier brick around the lower window bays. On the ground floor, there are large marble tiles that range from the first to the second floor. So far I think our exploration through the MetroTech area has been fun and also a wonderful learning experience that will definitely help us with our group research.