May 19 , 2000
I, Heather Chitwood , hereby submit this as part of the requirements for the degree of:
Master’s in:
Design
It is entitled: The Aronoff Center for Design and Art at The University of Cincinnati: Simulating Reality
Approved by: Professor Dennis Puhalla, Chair Associate Professor J. A. Chewning Assistant Professor Marty Plumbo THE ARONOFF CENTER FOR DESIGN AND ART AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI:
SIMULATING REALITY
A thesis submitted to the
Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF DESIGN
In the School of Design of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning
2000
by
Heather A. Chitwood B.S. Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995
Thesis Committee: Professor Dennis Puhalla, Chair Associate Professor J. A. Chewning Assistant Professor Marty Plumbo The Aronoff Center for Design and Art at the University of Cincinnati: Simulating Reality
Heather A. Chitwood
(ABSTRACT)
The intention of this project is to create a virtual, 3-Dimensional environment
representative of Peter Eisenman’s Aronoff Center for Art and Design, which
houses the Colleges of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University
of Cincinnati. Architectural drawings and photographs of the building cannot
describe the space of the building. Rather, they can only depict the building’s
form. A 3D model of the building would be useful in that it could convey more
depth to the viewer. The final multimedia piece will be used to introduce
prospective and new students to the building’s layout, provide a detailed
overview of the building and the theories behind its creation, and allow people
who do not live in Cincinnati to experience some aspects of the building’s form.
According to Eisenman, architecture has left the “mechanical paradigm” of
physical structure for the “electronic paradigm” of the information superhighway
and the “virtual reality headset. Virtual reality is a new possibility for reality,” he
says. “Actual places” will be supplanted by a “place of communication.”1 This
project hopes to achieve some similarities to virtual reality, or the feeling of
emotionally being somewhere while not physically being there.
1 Slatin, Peter. “Virtual Places.” ARTnews (Apr 1994): 27. The scope of the project involves the determination of the target audience, evaluating the communications objectives, gathering preliminary data on Peter
Eisenman and the Aronoff Center, and assessing the delivery environment. In the case of this project, the target audience will be anyone with an interest in
Peter Eisenman’s architecture. This includes, but is not limited to, current and prospective students in the study of architecture, as well as professors in architecture who may never have seen the Aronoff Center in person. The target audience will also include current and prospective students in the college of
Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning who would like to learn more about the building. This paper presents the background information about the architect and the building itself, and evaluates different methods of 3D-modeling and the incorporation of that model into multimedia format.
Acknowledgments
During my four years as a graduate student in the School of Design, I have had
the opportunity to work with many wonderful people. My artistic skills have been
much enlightened, and the knowledge I have gained from working with these
people is immeasurable. These people include Leslie Blade, J. Chewning, Ann
Firestone, Tony Kowanari, Karen Monzel, Carrie Nixon, Marty Plumbo, Dennis
Puhalla, Margaret Voelker-Ferrier, and McCrystle Wood.
I am also grateful for the support of my close friends Fran Cash and Nancy
Hopkins, who were always willing to give me helpful suggestions and honest
critiques of my work.
I appreciate the support from my parents Ron and Patsy Hoenes, who always
believe in me, no matter what goals I am trying to acheive.
Finally, I am thankful for the unending support from my husband, Denny. He is
always willing to help me with my various projects, no matter what hour of the
night it is. Without his encouragement and words of motivation, I would probably
still be working on this thesis. Table of Contents
Figure Table 3
Part I 5
Introduction 5
Peter Eisenman 5
Eisenman Buildings in Ohio 8
Theory behind the Aronoff Center for
Art and Design 10
Aronoff Center Specifications 15
Aronoff Center Wireframe Generation 17
Computer Modeling 25
Granting the University’s Wishes 26
Pastel Color Scheme 27
Poor Choice of Materials and
“Value Engineering” 28
Part II 31
Thesis Design Process 31
Kinetic 3D Studio MAX 31
AutoCAD Release 14 33
Maxon Cinema 4D 34
Visualization 35
1 Modeling the Aronoff Center in
3D Studio MAX 37
Multimedia Presentation 38
Building History 43
Peter Eisenman — Other Buildings 44
Part III 46
Conclusion 46
CD-ROM Installation Guide 47
Bibliography 48
2 Figure Table
Figure 1: Peter Eisenman 5
Figure 2: House of Cards I 6
Figure 3: House of Cards II 6
Figure 4: House of Cards III 6
Figure 5: IBA Social Housing 6
Figure 6: DNA Helix 7
Figure 7: The Wexner Center 8
Figure 8: The Columbus Convention Center 9
Figure 9: The Aronoff Center for Design and Art 10
Figure 10: The Eisenman “L” 13
Figure 11: The Aronoff Center for Design and Art 14
Figure 12: The Engineering Research Center 15
Figure 13: Aronoff Center Auditorium 16
Figure 14: Cafeteria from Above 16
Figure 15: “Box Geometry” forming segmented line 19
Figure 16: “Box Geometry” transformed to curved line 19
Figure 17: Phase Shift Plan 20
Figure 18: Phase Shift Section 20
Figure 19: Torqued solid / Torqued Trace Series, Plan 20
Figure 20: Torqued solid / Torqued Trace Series, Section 21
Figure 21: Stepping — Functional Notation 21
Figure 22: Box Geometry 21
3 Figure 23: Atrium Overlap Plan 22
Figure 24: Atrium Overlap Section 22
Figure 25: Existing Building Outline 23
Figure 26: Existing Building with Chevron 23
Figure 27: Composite Box Geometry / Existing Building Traces 24
Figure 28: Incorporation of Columns 25
Figure 29: North side of Aronoff Center buried in the hill 27
Figure 30: Internal Signage 27
Figure 31: Pastel Color Scheme 28
Figure 32: Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center 32
Figure 33: Aronoff Center Entrance modeled in 3D Studio MAX 38
Figure 34: Initial Layout in Director 39
Figure 35: Revised Layout in Director 40
Figure 36: 3D Map Rotation Sequence 41
Figure 37: Final Layout in Director 42
Figure 38: Individual Movie Screen in Director 43
Figure 39: Building History Screen in Director 44
Figure 40: Peter Eisenman Screen in Director 45
4 Part I
Introduction
The intention of this project is to create a multimedia piece that will be
representative of Peter Eisenman’s Aronoff Center for Art and Design. This
paper is not intended to convey the building’s form to the user — it cannot. The
Aronoff Center is vastly different from other forms of architecture. In some
cases, one must see it to believe it. Therefore, the user must examine the final
piece, distributed on the accompanying CD-ROM, in order to understand the full
scope of this project.
With the accompanying CD-ROM the Aronoff Center can be seen in all its three-
dimensional glory, and studied by current and prospective students at the
College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati,
or even allow people who do not live in Cincinnati to experience the
overwhelming aspects of the building’s form.
Peter Eisenman
Peter Eisenman was born on August 11, 1932 in
Newark, New Jersey. He received a Bachelor of
Architecture Degree from Cornell University (1955), a
Master of Architecture Degree from Columbia
University (1960), M.A. (1962) and Ph.D. (1963)
degrees from Cambridge University, and an honorary Figure 1 Peter Eisenman
5 Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Illinois Chicago (1986).
Early in his career, Eisenman’s work entailed the elaboration of an autonomous,
self-referential architectural language that defied the particularities of site, not to
mention the conveniences of daily life. Undeterred by conventions, history, and
commonplaces about how people live, he labored to achieve a pure,
uncontaminated architecture that would transcend the real. His Cardboard
House Series involved mathematical and geometrical sequences, and even
though most of them remain unbuilt, he still regards them as architecture. In
1978, he followed up with the Cannaregio Project for Venice. In this project,
colors symbolized things (gold for the mysticism of the alchemist, red for the
martyrdom of Giordano Bruno), and a grid of Le Corbusier’s unbuilt hospital
design was superimposed on the irregular contours of Venice’s streets. Two
years later, a different project incorporated another set of imaginary lines — the
Mercator grid, 18th-Century walls, and 19th-Century urban demarcations —
which were divided and overlaid upon one another in order to generate an IBA
Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 House of Cards I House of Cards II House of Cards III IBA Social Housing
6 housing project for a Friedrichstrasse location adjacent to the Berlin Wall.2
Although his reputation as an “architectural impresario” was at its peak, he suffered the taunts of those who accused him of engaging in the construction of
“paper architecture”. In 1980, after many years of teaching and writing, he decided to focus his efforts on building, and as he said “to get dirty and practice.”
Although many critics view Eisenman’s work as an expression of the theory known as Deconstruction, Eisenman himself has said that he is not a
Deconstructivist. It is important to note that the project for the Aronoff Center was produced in 1986, two years before Deconstructivist Architecture took place in MOMA.3 Destabilizing, decentering, deconstructing, or displacing traditional hierarchies or repressive conditions came to mean, in Eisenman’s designs, recovering things such as preexisting but subsequently lost land divisions, or abstract divisions such as the Mercator grid.4 As sources for his designs, Eisenman includes archaeological excavations, mathematical models such as fractals and the “Boolean cube”, chemical compounds such as DNA, and the Moebius strip.
The Aronoff Center for Design and Art, Eisenman suggests, is like ‘the plates of an armadillo’ or ‘the segments of an airport Figure 6 DNA helix baggage carousel’.
2 “Eisenman’s Bogus avant-garde.” Progressive Architecture (Nov 1994): 70. 3 Zaera, Alejandro. “Eisenman’s Machine of Infinite Resistance.” El Croquis (1997): 57. 4 “Eisenman’s Bogus avant-garde.” Progressive Architecture (Nov 1994): 70.
7 Eisenman Buildings in Ohio
Ohio has been the location for three of Eisenman’s recent projects, each with a
different look and feel. The Wexner Center is a combination of brick, glass and
steel, consisting of diagonal lines and towers that remind the viewer of
traditional buildings. At 580,000 square feet,
the 2-story center, completed in 1989, was
Eisenman’s largest creation to date. The
Center was surrounded by controversy when it
first opened, and although this controversy had
to do not with the building’s architectural
originality, which is undisputed, some critics
argued that the center did not serve well in its Figure 7 functional capacity.5 The Wexner Center
Fortunately, the good parts stand front and center. Eisenman based his design
on the 12.5-degree shift in the street grid from city to campus, and slipped the
new building in between two older ones. The slashing, gridded structure, made
of white-painted steel that he deployed to dramatize his in-between building is
splendid and can be called one of modern architecture’s great pathways.
However, the building’s flaws are out in front as well. Eisenman decided to block
the main campus axis, which leads directly and dramatically to the library
5 Henderson, Justin. “Unconventional Wisdom: Peter Eisenman reinvents the convention center.” Interiors (June 1993): 82-85.
8 building. Critics called this a terrible mistake, which he compounded by blocking the view with a “whimpering little amphitheater” that already is falling apart. On top of that, he added “not doors” and a dozen or so of his patented leftover spaces.6 According to Eisenman, “People either love the building, or they hate it, but what I love is that they are concerned.”
The Columbus Convention
Center is a big box broken up with an assortment of abstract forms. The design is said to be at once strangely familiar and quite unfamiliar.
It is simultaneously Figure 8 The Columbus Convention Center suggestive of the rail yards that once occupied the site, nearby highway ribbons, and overlays of delicate fiber optic cables that represent the information age.7 In an interview, Peter
Eisenman admits that the original structure of the building had to be modified because the tipped grids made people dizzy. They could not retain their balance and would lose orientation. He believes this was because people were used to orienting themselves in Cartesian geometry.8
Finally, the Aronoff Center in Cincinnati, can be seen as a lively concoction that
6 Forgey, Benjamin. “Hype and Pretense.” The Washington Post (October 7, 1996): G1, G7. 7 “Columbus Convention Center.” El Croquis (1997): 80-87. 8 Zaera-Polo, Alejandro. “A Conversation with Peter Eisenman.” El Croquis (1997): 14.
9 appears - both outside and inside - to be
tumbling merrily down a hill.9 Eisenman
admits that this building opposes longer
resistance to absorption than the Wexner
Center or the Columbus Convention
Center: Figure 9 The Aronoff Center for Design and Art Walter Benjamin has said that people viewed architecture in a state of distraction, as opposed to painting. We look at painting because it is framed and placed on a wall in a museum. Architecture is always in one sense framed by a ground, and this framing we look at as if it were habit. The Aronoff Center in Cincinnati, on the other hand, requires you to pay attention. You have to struggle not to pay attention. It causes one to pay attention without simultaneously grounding you.10
Theory behind the Aronoff Center for Art and Design
Peter Eisenman is committed to an architecture which emphasizes meaning
over form and broadens his expressive features. He feels that architecture is no
longer just about aesthetics, but also about economics, politics, and history. In
the early 1980s, he began to incorporate memory and history into his designs,
and took a stand against rationality, clarity, and purity in architectural form.
Eisenman wants his buildings to be narratives. With the design of the Aronoff
Center of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, Eisenman replaces the
narrational emphasis with an intent to realize architecture as a spatial creation.
These buildings treat space as their ultimate meaning, to be grasped intuitively,
9 Forgey, Benjamin. “Hype and Pretense.” The Washington Post (October 7, 1996): G1, G7. 10 Zaera-Polo, Alejandro. “A Conversation with Peter Eisenman.” El Croquis (1997): 20.
10 not intellectually. Eisenman has begun to link architectural design to fiction and
poetics, aiming to create buildings which are self-referential and not merely an
end to a predetermined theoretical cause.11 For Eisenman, theory is like a
machine that automatically produces art when it is followed through
systematically. The work he does is idea-let, and thus, there is always the
transformation of certain concepts that provide consistency and drama. Because
he also incorporates scientific devices, there is a raw relation to truth outside the
human condition.12
Peter Eisenman is acutely aware of the importance of theory in generating
critical interest in his buildings:
I don’t think you can practice signature, authentic, or singular architecture without some theoretical base. But it has lost its underlying ideology. It’s no longer driven by the need to change people or society. One has to distinguish between theory and ideology. While the underpinnings of my work used to be ideological, I don’t think that they need to be any longer. Yet they are not purely pragmatic. Pragmatics is a form of theory. I cannot have a theory that does not impinge on the history of architecture.
I have been trying to build into my later projects the question of uncertainty, of where or what defines what. Cincinnati [the University of Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center for Design and Art] is a very good example. It’s what I call interstitial space. There are two definitions of interstitial. If you take a balloon filled with air and you pop it, the air just escapes. There is inside, outside, and the balloon in between. Now let’s fill the balloon with water. If you push on it with your hand, it takes on a different form. The hand presses in and the water presses out: The inside pressures the outside at the same time that the outside pressures the inside. Conceptually, this is what we’re trying to do. It doesn’t have to do with
11 Morgenthaler, Hans. “Peter Eisenman’s Realist Architecture.” http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/eisenman/morgen.html (Accessed: 2/21/1999). 12 Jencks, Charles. The Architecture of the Jumping Universe. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
11 conceptualizing the metaphysical environment from the body and that which surrounds it. Instead, the body and its surroundings - the container and the contained - interact. Take the example of the sand in the hourglass. It’s calibrated to contain the sand so that if you turn it upside down, the sand will define time because it’s constrained by something outside of itself. This is the traditional architectural condition. But if you take the sand in your hand, unconstrained, and let it drop out, it will pile up. As it piles up, you cannot predict where the piling will suddenly shift because it won’t be able to sustain itself and it will collapse. That’s what I call an internal time. And it’s a time that allows for unformed material to begin to take form. I work between the water in the balloon and the sand that is forming itself.
Now add program.
One of the constraints of architecture is how you deal with its metaphysics - time, space, presence, absence - which is what architecture is about. At the same time, architecture must satisfy function. But if it merely satisfies function, it’s not going to do anything. It’s easy to do a house because you can satisfy the function in any number of shapes and forms and still do other things, the same with a museum. But when you get to concert halls, football stadiums, and the like, you are dealing with a very defined program. These functional containers are givens. But they aren’t the balloon. They’re the water, the inside. We’re going to create the balloon that takes pressure from a symmetrical stadium or concert hall, as well as from the context of the environment. We are trying to say, “How do you make something that acts as a football stadium or a concert hall, but doesn’t symbolize its function?” That is, it doesn’t look like a football stadium or a concert hall, but like something that has emerged, like the sand pile, of its own will, from the context.”13
Eisenman never questions the fundamental tenets of traditional Western
geometry, but rather forces those tenets to submit to the destabilizing pressure
of time. Even the most regular, immutable structurally stable form - like a square
or cube - if allowed to move against itself in time, that is, not only in relation to
13 Eisenman, Peter. “The Peter Principles.” Interview by Architecture (Nov 1998). Architecture, 87 (Nov 1998): 87-93.
12 the regular grid from which it was born (through excision or extrusion) but in
relation to any earlier position, any segment of its own duration will begin to emit
qualities entirely irreducible to static geometry. All of Eisenman’s early or
“classical” work consisted of variations on this single operation: the mobilization
of the static points of traditional geometry and their transformation into
oscillators. This meant that every form came accompanied by an “associated
space” - one that was never fully the isotropic space of the rational grid, but
“singular,” particular only to itself, one that described the double beat of a
specific, two-step oscillation. The famous Eisenman “L” describes the steady
state, or interval, of one such oscillation: shift any point on a square to a
different point on both the x and y axes -
and, if the shift is less than the metric of
the original square, two Ls will always be
produced in inverted, reciprocal, and
oscillatory relation to one another.14 Figure 10 Eisenman “L”
Peter Eisenman’s buildings are known for their slicing diagonals, tilting forms,
and complex floor plans. All convention is ignored, and the buildings may be
both exciting and frustrating at the same time. “Eisenman’s buildings are rare,
and every one of them is something of an event,” wrote Paul Goldberger in The
New York Times in 1996 on the occasion of the opening of Eisenman’s Aronoff
Center for Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati.
14 Kwinter, Sanford. “The Genius of Matter: Eisenman’s Cincinnati Project.” Peter Eisenman and Frank Gehry (July 6, 1991): 8-9.
13 Many people, when they first confront the Aronoff Building will quip that it is amazing that the architect gets such things built. Few of them will realize that they have said something important.15
Even though the Aronoff Center occupies an unpromising site, on top of a parking garage and shoved between two other buildings, Peter Eisenman is still able to push the boundaries, creating spaces
Figure 11 that are bewildering and exhilarating. The Aronoff Center for Design and Art
According to Eisenman:
Developed from within the place itself - the site, the existing building, and the spirit of the college - the work was to find the building in the site. Its vocabulary comes from the curves of the land forms and the chevron forms of the existing building setting up a dynamic relationship to organize the space between the two. We worked together with the students, faculty, administrators, and friends of the College so that the building was not a monument to architecture, but rather an evolutionary process of work which everyone can say “was created by us.”
The project is going to challenge and change the mode by which the College educates students. We can no longer train people to design the superficial and the inconsequential. Design disciplines have a far more important role in our age of information that is dominated by media, than ever before.
Therefore, we need to rethink, for a unique college, what it is they do, how they do it, and why they do it. This means that we had to
15 Kipnis, Jeffrey. “P-Tr’s Progress.” El Croquis (1997): 36.
14 rethink what a building has to be to house such activity. The building is to be a model for this kind of leadership. The building should express an attitude about society and about design’s role in the society, and how the College will meet that challenge.”16
Aronoff Center Specifications
The DAAP building was commissioned
and built as part of the University of
Cincinnati’s master plan, developed in
1989. The master plan is to add more than
one million square feet of new academic
and research space to the university’s
campus. Eisenman’s building has since
been joined by Michael Graves’, Henry
Cobb’s, David Childs’ and Frank Gehry’s
buildings and will soon be joined by an Figure 12 The Engineering Research Center Michael Graves additional structure designed by signature
architect Robert Venturi.
The $35 million Aronoff Center for Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning
opened in October, 1996. The structure includes a 350-seat, multipurpose
theater suitable for lectures, performances, film and video presentations; 91,000
square feet of studio, lab, and office space; a 5,100 square foot exhibition
16 Eisenman, Peter. “Project Descriptions and Gallery: Aronoff Center for Design and Art, Cincinnati, Ohio (1988-1996).” http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/eisenman/projects.html (Accessed: 5/18/2000).
15 gallery; and a main library with 80,000
volumes.17 The building also incorporates
145,000 square feet of existing facilities
into its design. The Aronoff Center “is a
very intriguing building,” notes Jay
Chatterjee, Dean of the College. “The
space is always expanding and contracting, Figure 13 Aronoff Center Auditorium always presenting a changing aspect as
you look from one area to another, making the mere act of walking down the
hall into a thoroughly engaging experience... I think that anyone who is at all
sensitive to architecture will exult in the sheer exuberance of expression in this
building.”
Eisenman’s exploratory, anti-orthodox approach
has transformed the usually marginal areas of a
university building - stairways, cafeteria, pockets
of areas where students can loiter, relax and
converse - into the emphatic focus of the
Figure 14 building. Classrooms and lab areas are aligned Cafeteria from Above
off the main pathway of the gradually inclining stairway that loops through the
building to the right of the main entrances. The center’s eleven separate
entrances may appear confusing, but they are actually highly accommodating of
17 Weathersby, William, Jr. “New Building by Peter Eisenman Kicks off Major Expansion at University of Cincinnati.” http://www.etecnyc.net/etecw3/archt/arch19.htm (Accessed: 2/21/1999).
16 the students, who arrive from every conceivable direction for class. Some levels
do not lead directly to the next; in a structure with so few right angles any
attempt to orient oneself as a conventional university building is futile. Although
all the classrooms are ordered off the central walkways, much of the circulation
in the building feels random.18
“Any space created for a school of design should somehow reflect the activity
carried out in the building,” Eisenman adds. “It would seem to me that design
instruction always involves innovation and risk, as well as history and process -
in other words, all the issues that are involved in the disciplines to which the
school is devoted. For the students, living with, and working in, this building
ought to be an education in itself.”
Aronoff Center Wireframe Generation
The Cincinnati project can be said to comprise two formal series. The first is an
angular, contrapuntal, “digital”, a disposition of rigid elements in deliberate,
regular variation (a linear definition of the exiting structures). The second series
is almost randomly undulant, anexact (vague but rigorous), continuous, multiple,
and “soft.” Eisenman adopted the geological paradigm of plate tectonics,
sedimentation, and a soft structure in order to weaken the rigid structure of the
earlier form.19
18 Murphy, Jan. Metropolis (August/September 1998): 81. 19 Kwinter, Sanford. “The Genius of Matter: Eisenman’s Cincinnati Project.” Peter Eisenman and Frank Gehry (July 6, 1991): 8-9.
17 The idea of self-similarity, a process analogous to symmetry-breaking in
science, was part of the theory behind the Aronoff building. In science, the
process of symmetry-breaking explains observed complexity within a nonlinear
system that is described mathematically by simple laws. For example, friction
and air resistance must be disregarded as experimental nuisances in order to
reach the essence of the science of mechanics. The physicist is often faced with
understanding outcomes that are separated from the underlying “simple” laws of
physics by a long sequence of hidden symmetry breaking. These include the
idea that space can be curved, that mass is not constant, and that the relative
position of the body effects the measurement of the space between the object
and body.20
Likewise, in relation to the Aronoff building, self-similarity is a process of
repetition that produces an asymmetry. It suggests a recurring pattern inside a
pattern with a formal relation of one to the other. Thus, it sets up a duality
between the original form and the copy or trace of that original form. The
original and the trace are then superimposed to create a third form that
incorporates them both. This notion is applied to the design process in order to
produce a level of complexity that allows the distinction between the old and the
new buildings to become blurred.21
In the beginning of the design process, a series of three-dimensional rectangles,
20 Barry, Donna. “Connecting the Dots: The Dimensions of a Wireframe.” Eleven Authors in Search of a Building. New York: The Monacelli Press, Inc., 1996: 48-59. 21 Ibid.
18 which provided the basis for what came to be known as “box geometry,” were placed side to Figure 15 “Box Geometry” forming segmented line side to form a segmented line
(Figure 15). This line was then transformed into a curved line in order to contrast with the hard Figure 16 “Box Geometry” transformed to curved line rectilinear edge of the three existing buildings on the site (Figure 16). In one of the two moves to transform the segmented line into a curve, the box geometry was overlapped horizontally based on a logarithmic function. In order to maintain the nonlinear nature of the relationship between the boxes, the algorithm that produced this logarithmic function was developed so that no overlap would be sequentially repeated.22
The algorithm that was derived simultaneously with the overlap introduced a tilt or twist to each box in the x-y axis. This was the second move made to accomplish the curve. The exponent and phase of the plan tilts do not correspond to the exponent and phase of the overlaps, thus reinforcing the idea that nothing in the lines is constant or predictable. The resulting conditions are neither regular nor random, but merely an index to be marked in space.23
The original geometric phase is shifted twice along the x-axis in order to produce a series of three phases, one for each functional level of the building
22 Ibid. 23 Ibid.
19 (levels 400, 500, and 600). Each phase maintains the form of the original x-y twist (Figure 17). Figure 17 Phase Shift Plan However, the torque applied to each box of each phase varies at A6 600 level each level, so that there is no one- A5 500 level to-one relationship possible in section (Figure 18). The uppermost A4 400 level
600 level has the most extreme Figure 18 Phase Shift Section torque, while the lower 400 level has the least torque.
This series of phases (torqued solid series) is shifted and copied along the x-y axis (Figure 19) and dropped in elevation (Figure 20) as Figure 19 a complete series. This lowering Torqued solid / Torqued Trace Series, Plan in the z plane blurs the section, while the shift in the y plane blurs the plan. This series of phases traced over the torqued solid series is referred to as the torqued trace series. The original phase is then copied to form a self-similar series, which is then copied to form a self-similar trace. The two series create an overlapped figure that became the atrium space of the building.24
24 Ibid.
20 The stepping phase was introduced into the diagram in order to provide both the 600 level 500 level formal and functional notation 400 level required for the stepping contours of the site. The Figure 20 Torqued solid / Torqued Trace Series, Section diagrams could not merely be placed level on the site. The east edge of the site became the 200, or mechanical, level of the building, while the west edge Figure 21 climbs to an elevation referred to Stepping - Functional Notation as the 600 level. Each of the boxes steps consecutively in elevation, and is vertical without a torque along the z-axis. This distinguishes the stepping boxes Figure 22 Box Geometry from the torquing boxes, so that one can be read against the other. Finally, the two series are shifting in order to provide the notation for stepping “on and up” the slope while providing the double, or trace, that steps into and out of the same slope. This combination of the torquing and stepping series of phases forms the portion of the diagram known as the box geometry.25
25 Ibid.
21 The superposition of the solid form with the trace form creates the third element. This is a negative space produced from the overlapped condition. Beginning as an exterior
Figure 23 element at the east, 200-level Atrium Overlap Plan garage, College Hall ascends through a series of platforms to the 400-level entry plaza 600 level and forms the main interior, or 500 level 400 level central space. The negative space continues to rise Figure 24 Atrium Overlap Section through another series of platforms, programmed as critique area, to the 500 level. At the entry to the library in the west segment, the negative space rises again to the 600 level and exits to the west.26
The Aronoff Center is the fourth addition to an existing group of buildings: the original Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) building, the Alms building, and the Wolfson building. Each building is articulated around a stair tower, which allows them to have independent floor to floor heights, with the 500 level in the Aronoff being the only common elevation. The L-shape of the eight-
26 Ibid.
22 foot-wide corridor in the original
DAAP building can be described as a chevron. These dimensions were used to extend a similar figure across the site and into the two ALMS DAAP WOLFSON other existing buildings, which Figure 25 Existing Building Outline became one of the devices that connected the existing buildings with the new one.27
The outline of the three buildings and their structure, along with the extended chevron figure, forms a composite figure. This figure is shifted to make the chevron orthogonal to the north edge of each existing building. The northernmost Figure 26 chevron is aligned with the Alms Existing Building with Chevron building, and is referred to as the Alms trace. The southernmost chevron is aligned with the Wolfson building, and referred to as the Wolfson trace. Then, the composite of these traces is coupled with the plan of the original existing buildings to create a blur between the original and the trace. This makes it difficult to distinguish the existing buildings from the new construction.28
27 Ibid. 28 Ibid.
23 The combination of the existing building traces and the box geometry forms the overall diagram for the Eisenman project.
The chevron figures of the traces displace portions of the boxes that lie within particular chevron zones, defined as the space between two chevron figures. Figure 27 Composite Box Geometry / Existing Building Traces The portion of a box edge that passes through any chevron remains in its original location, while the portion a box edge between two chevrons shifts parallel to itself along the y-axis. The boxes of each phase are then connected at the overlap. This connection can be seen as an interlock. Because these blocks are immobile, their movement can only be implied. The leading edge of a trace is produced by overlapping the previous box edge, which obscures the interlock while creating the illusion of movement. In the transverse section, the boxes are joined by an extension.29
The structural grid of the building is organized by the 500-level torqued solid phase of boxes. The rectilinear column grid moves through the space independent of the form of that space. The walls pass in and out of the columns, as well as through them. These columns are vertical on one side and
29 Ibid.
24 slope with the profile of the building’s geometry on the other and thus, are read against the round columns that are a part of the trace of the existing building. Not all columns are necessarily structural, but are rather incorporated in order to integrate structural members into the box geometry.30
Computer Modeling
When a building reaches the level of complexity of Figure 28 the Aronoff Center, the architect is compelled to Incorporation of Columns invent methods and technologies with which to illustrate and build in an industry and system where “standard practice” is a dictum. At the same time, the architect cannot violate the fundamental rules of construction.31 Because the structural design of the building presented special engineering challenges, the architects had to “toss away all conventional wisdom and try to visualize the building as a shape. Computer modeling was indispensable,” says Tim
Raberding, president of Progressive Engineering, the engineering business unit of Lorenz & Williams, Dayton, Ohio.
“We had to develop the geometry of the building on our computer in three dimensions using xyz coordinates because of the shape of the building,”
Raberding says. “The modeling helped everyone involved visualize the project
30 Ibid. 31 Ibid.
25 during both design and construction. We made the modeling available to the contractors to help them plan their layouts of the building.”32
In an interview with Peter Eisenman, he states that his work is ultimately about conceptualizing other methods. “That is what I started working with computers, because all we can do as humans is to draw axes and places. The computer conceptualizes and draws differently. I rely more and more on computers because through them we can produce things we could never produce twenty years ago. For example, morphing is a vectoral operation. An axis is a neutral vector that has no direction, magnitude, or intensity. A vector has direction, magnitude and intensity. It confronts form and space differently from an axis.
Computers can analyze vectors in a way that a human could not”.33
Granting the University’s Wishes
There were a few aspects in Eisenman’s original design that unfortunately could not be incorporated into the final building. Benjamin Forgey argues that for a product that is supposed to stand out, the center cuts a disappointingly modest figure. Mainly, this is due to the site. From the south side, the addition is hidden by the three earlier buildings, and its west and north sides are half buried in the hill. Only the narrow, east elevation is visible enough to dramatize the building’s dynamic character.34 Due to the wishes of the University administration, the
32 “University Arts Building Presents Structural Challenge.” Civil Engineering (Nov 1996): 10. 33 Zaera-Polo, Alejandro. “A Conversation with Peter Eisenman.” El Croquis (1997): 13. 34 Forgey, Benjamin. “Hype and Pretense.” The Washington Post (October 7, 1996): G1, G7.
26 knoll upon which the DAAP building is
sited was not reduced in height, as
Eisenman originally wished. This is
quite tragic since half the height of
Eisenman’s building is hidden behind
berms and grass mounds.35 Figure 29 North side of Aronoff Center buried in the hill Pastel pinks, greens and blues are
used. Again, as in earlier designs, Eisenman wanted to use much bolder
colours; again, he demurred to the University’s wishes. The ridiculous bright
yellow parking kiosk was obviously erected without consultation with Eisenmen.
The internal signage throughout the building is a
debased form of Roman typography on brown plates,
and raised the question, ‘who selected it?’ (certainly not
Eisenman). These petulant thoughts are raised here
only because, given a radical design of such quality, Figure 30 why spoil it with badly considered extras?36 Internal signage
Pastel Color Scheme
Much has been made of the building’s pastel color scheme, but Eisenman says
the colors are “not used as colors”, per se. They are coding. They are a Braille
for people who are not architecturally sensitive. Most people aren’t. So we
35 Zardini, Mirko. “How to Judge Peter Eisenman? (The Aronoff Center at the University of Cincinnati).” Any 21 (January 1998): 27-31. 36 Ibid.
27 created a system of notation, so that people will ask, ‘What about those colors?’
You can read the whole system of how the building was designed by knowing that pink represents ‘step blocks’, green is ‘torque’ and blue is the ‘chevrons.’”
These are the ways Eisenman ordered
Figure 31 the computer to manipulate the spaces Pastel Color Scheme
— to step them up and down, to “torque’ or rotate them. The chevrons represent the angle between two of the older buildings that Aronoff is meant to tie together, the Alms Building and the DAAP Building.37
Poor Choice of Materials and “Value Engineering”
Perhaps the most often discussed aspects of the Aronoff Center besides the choice of colors, are the poor choice of materials used. Although the shell of the building looks grand and fantastic, it is a lightweight construction of synthetic
Stucco and gypsum wall.38 This synthetic stucco is considered the architectureal equivalent to food coloring and gruel. Non-tectonic and void of any intrinsic qualities, this faux-material and others like it are often chosen today for large,
37 Foreman, B.J. “DAAP: In Your Face.” The Cincinnati Post (October 8, 1996): 1D, 3D. 38 Murphy, Jan. Metropolis (August/September 1998): 81.
28 difficult forms because they are inexpensive, highly plastic, and easy to use. As such, they are typically found in the construction of pseudo-historical buildings, theme parks and miniature golf courses. The finishing matierial for the exterior was originally a far more convincing Italian tile.39
Eisenman has emphasized that “there are not precious materials anywhere in the building.” Although the gypsum wallboard in the interior and the façade’s synthetic stucco were inexpensive and afforded flexibility of design, they are also easily damaged - which is a problem, considering the vagaries of university maintenance budgets. After less than two years of occupancy, the Aronoff
Center looks worn, scuffed and bruised. Dents in the walls can be repainted, and indoor-outdoor vinyl industrial carpeting replaced, but the center requires more constant vigilance and care than a university of some 35,000 students can bestow on one of many buildings on a 212-acre campus. As one faculty member puts it, “There is a general consensus that the building didn’t deliver what we hoped for. We had hoped for something better, better materials.”40
Udo Greinacher, an assistant professor of architecture questioned “whether we can inhabit the building. There is a neatness policy here based on the fragile building... I’m worried that the “hands-off” attitude isn’t going to promote good citizens. I have to say ‘Don’t do this’ and ‘Don’t do that.’ I feel like a parent.”
Gerald Michaud, a professor of Industrial Design, says the center has
39 Kipnis, Jeffrey. “P-Tr’s Progress.” El Croquis (1997): 46. 40 Murphy, Jan. Metropolis (August/September 1998): 81.
29 “outstanding details.” It’s a building that will be a joy to walk in over time, [but] we don’t have great maintenance budgets around here. Corners can’t be protected, for example. If maintenance is able to keep up with it, there will be no difficulty.”41
Most of these problems could have been avoided if it wasn’t for “value engineering”, a term that generally means cost-cutting and is a sore point with
Peter Eisenman:
“You know what value engineering is? It’s people who don’t understand, saying the culture and art and all the things that are important to the well-being of a society don’t matter...as long as we get enough lights and enough square footage, enough place for storage, it doesn’t matter about art. And that’s what value engineering took out of this building — a lot!”
“It’s something that happens two-thirds through the construction of public buildings,” he says, “but, listen, we can’t complain. You try for a lot and you get somewhat less than a lot, but we got a lot for our money.”42
41 Ibid. 42 Foreman, B.J. “DAAP: In Your Face.” The Cincinnati Post (October 8, 1996): 1D, 3D.
30 Part II
Thesis Design Process
By using computer graphics, one can examine every aspect of a design before the item actually goes to market. In the scope of this project, computer graphics will be employed to allow the visitor to stroll through a three-dimensional space.
The design of the building already exists in actuality. The goal of this project is to convey the same sense of the building’s form using a digital format.
The first stage of the design project is almost always conceptual. The designer must assess the situation thoroughly before committing to a single idea. The designer must brainstorm and come up with numerous options from various directions while investigating their validity.43 In the case of this project, it is important to understand which computer program is the best to use in the creation of the building model. Several 3D software packages have been considered, including 3D MAX, AutoCAD, and Maxon’s Cinema 4D.
Kinetix 3D Studio MAX
3D Studio MAX has been used successfully by many architecture firms in the design of their buildings. With this program, the designer is able to produce high-resolution still renderings, animated fly-bys, lighting studies, and VRML output for 3D walkthroughs on the Web.
43 Bartlett, Brandon. 3D Studio: Architectural Rendering. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing, 1996.
31 Most architects begin with models generated in AutoCAD(r) R14 and then bring them into 3D Studio MAX. However, the use of 3D Studio MAX alone is a logical choice when high precision is not required. Mark Thompson, CAD manager with
Haysom Spender Architects, notes, “Models are exceptionally realistic because
3D Studio VIZ offers a flexible format that lets me place photographs and film as the backdrop for many designs. This added realism further facilitates client communication.”44
London-based architectural designer Zaha Hadid has a reputation for testing the boundaries of architectural design. No matter how difficult the project at hand,
Hadid continually rises to the occasion with unique designs, often involving the innovative use of space, light and shadow. To accomplish these feats, she relies on Kinetix modeling and animation tools to successfully demonstrate how light, time and space can dramatically enhance an architectural design.45
Hadid plans to use 3D Studio VIZ Release 2 in modeling her latest architectural design challenge - the
Cincinnati Contemporary
Arts Center. Hadid previously relied on 3D
Studio MAX to create designs complete with 3D Figure 32 graphics and multimedia. Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center
44 http://www.kinetix.com (Accessed: 2/21/1999). 45 Ibid.
32 Once she discovered the capabilities of 3D Studio VIZ R2, Hadid decided to carry her work a step further by leveraging the CAD-like tools and AutoCAD integration in 3D Studio VIZ R2. This would allow her to still use the same sophisticated animation and modeling tools she found useful in 3D Studio
MAX.46
Hadid summarizes, “3D Studio VIZ R2 is essential to helping us tackle complex design problems, since its sophisticated set of tools was specifically developed to resolve architectural design issues.”47
AutoCAD Release 14
AutoCAD is used by many architects as a 2D drafting tool. Because they have to prepare a set of construction documents, which will be used in the construction of buildings, bridges, and highways, CAD software is useful in that it reduces the amount of excessive “erasing” and redrafting of the drawings.
AutoCAD Release 14 software delivers enhancements in areas that most influence efficiency: exceptional performance, smart drawing tools, high-quality presentation features, and time-saving reference, faster, and Internet file-sharing capabilities. Other improvements make the software easier to learn, manage, and customize to a user’s specific needs.
The AutoCAD Release 14 software modeling toolset makes it easy to turn
46 Ibid. 47 Ibid.
33 design ideas into drawings. Release 14 adds fast photorealistic visualization capabilities, for example, to the Phong and Gouraud shading tools and integrated ACIS-based solid-modeling features introduced in Release 13. Other modeling improvements include an accelerated Zoom Extents feature, a combined real-time pan and zoom option, and substantially fewer regenerations than previous releases.48 In addition, drawings from AutoCAD can be brought into Kinetix 3D Studio MAX and further updated.
Maxon Cinema 4D
Cinema 4D XL is packed with high-end modeling, animation and rendering tools demanded by modern film and video professionals. Extended modeling features, including NURBS, enable the user to easily create organic objects in real time. In addition to these features, Cinema 4D has stability across all platforms.
Cinema 4D uses adaptive anti-aliasing, authentic light refraction, authentic reflections, depth of field, lens effects, and volumetric effects to generate images that are photorealistic. In addition, it can output QuickTime VR panoramas and animation. It incorporates an expandable material library with a choice of projection types including spherical, cylindrical, uv-mapping, and displacement mapping. An unlimited number of objects, cameras, light sources, and animation tracks and effects per object can exist in a single project.
48 http://www.autocad.com (Accessed: 2/21/1999).
34 Visualization
Visualization is not a new concept. It can be traced back to the first time anyone ever graphically described a concept, thought, or design. However, in the world today, there are new tools with which architects can explore and express their designs. The designer’s tools for visualization have been limited to hand sketches and scale models for thousands of years. Today, tools such as photorealistic renderings, walkthroughs, and dynamics sections are available and bring with them visualization opportunities that were only dreamed of a few years ago.49 In this project, 3D Studio MAX will be used in order to take full advantage of these new advances in technology.
After evaluating the software packages available to me, 3D Studio MAX appeared to be the most logical choice. Being familiar with the software, a huge learning curve would not need to come into play. As an architectural package,
AutoCad might be extremely useful. However, having no detailed plans of the
Aronoff building, it seems an unneccessary step to build a floorplan in AutoCad before importing it into 3D Max. As most of the surfaces of the building are not
“straight up and down” but rather “angled”, to build them up from scratch in 3D
Studio MAX appears to be the best solution.
Once the skeleton of the building is completed, the interior space must be considered. The various pieces of furniture throughout the building must be
49 Bartlett, Brandon. 3D Studio: Architectural Rendering. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing, 1996.
35 evaluated, and it must be determined if each piece contributes to the overall end product. There are several problems that exist in modeling the interior of the building. The texture maps generated for each section of the interior may not be in the correct scale, and will therefore have to be modified. Second, it is important that items be placed in their correct context. The person examining the building through the computer must have a feeling that the setting is realistic. Third, the effects of correct lighting must be considered. In reference to the DAAP building, there are many overhead skylights. It is important that the
3D model conveys the same sense of openness as the building.
After the 3D model of the building is complete, the project must then be transformed into a multimedia format. Director, the multimedia authoring software created and marketed by Macromedia, will be used to transport the viewer into the 3D environment. Macromedia Director is part of a specialized genre: software used to create other software, and because Director can incorporate sound as well as still and moving images, the productions created are referred to as multimedia. On top of that, since the productions can include a high degree of user feedback, the word interactive multimedia is often applied.50
Director is the premiere tool for authoring in the multimedia world today. Director produces graphic motion with the same techniques used by conventional animators, in that it places elements on individual layers and moves them
50 Roberts, Jason. Director 6: Demystified. Berkeley: Macromedia Press, 1998.
36 through the scene one frame at a time. Although laborious at times, the end result are objects that move in a believable fashion. Most other authoring platforms do not use a frame-by-frame system, which might be faster, but the finer elements of action are usually harder to control.51 Thus, Director seems to be the ideal solution for the task at hand, which will involve many screens of animation in order to allow the viewer to navigate through the building.
Seamless movement through the building, on the other hand, might be difficult to accomplish. One possible way to accomplish this would be with the incorporation of QuickTimeVR (QTVR) movies of each navigational sequence.
QTVR allows the user to render key scenes, which represent each place where the viewer can stand and look around. These points are referred to as nodes.
However, further studies would need to be made into this form of media in order to understand whether or not the movement between the nodes can be extrapolated into Director.
Modeling the Aronoff Building in 3D Studio MAX
The construction of the actual 3D model has been allocated the most time, as the structure is extremely complex in nature. By taking digital pictures of the building’s various levels, several computer models can be constructed in 3D space. Starting with the entrance at the third floor level, and moving up to the grand stairway from the fourth to the fifth floor, the models are representative of
51 Ibid.
37 the building’s open spaces.
The central element of the
internal space is a longitudinal
walkway that extends up the
sloping landscape from east to
west. It originates with an
exterior ramp leading from the Figure 33 Aronoff Center Entrance modeled in 3D Studio MAX parking area to an above-grand
entrance, then proceeds inward, winding alongside the existing building, and
literally comprising the new addition.52 The goal of the computer models is to
give the viewer the feeling of moving through this continuous cascade of stairs
and platforms.
This was a difficult process to undertake as the models were made completely
from photographs. Nothing in the building is parallel and nothing seems to be
exactly vertical or horizontal. The shadows from the overhead lights play on the
walls and floors of the building, casting even more random elements that need
to be incorporated in the computer renderings.
Multimedia Presentation
Once the 3D modelling process was underway, the controls for the multimedia
piece could be tested and evaluated. Several different versions were made and
52 Zardini, Mirko. “How to Judge Peter Eisenman? (The Aronoff Center at the University of Cincinnati).” Any 21 (January 1998): 27-31.
38 critiqued by fellow students.
In the first layout (Figure 34), actual photographs of the Aronoff Center for
Design and Art were used. The initial idea was that users could “click” on
different images that would represent virtual ones. Once that image was
chosen, a movie would begin to play that was representative of that section of
the building. A map of the building was also displayed in the upper left-hand
corner so the user could know what section was currently being explored.
Figure 34 Initial Layout in Director
Some thought the use of actual photographs in the piece distracted from the
virtual images. As a lot of time and effort went into creating the virtual images, it
39 would be unwise to confuse the user by showing the actual images on the same
screen as the virtual ones.
The size of the screen was also discussed and evaluated. In the beginning, it
was a standard 640 x 480 pixel screen. However, it was decided that most
users today have screen resolutions of at least 600 x 800 pixels. Therefore, it
was decided that a larger screen size could be used.
Figure 35 Revised Layout in Director
Different formats were evaluated in Director, with a lot of focus being placed on
how the user would know which section was being shown.
40 Initially, the map showing the relationship of the movie to the location in the
building was a 2-D top view of the Aronoff Center. This map did not work well,
as the user only knew which part of the building he was exploring, not which
floor was being shown. This problem was solved with a 3-Dimensional
representation of the building, that rotated from top to side, keeping the user’s
current section shaded in blue (Figure 36). With this model, the user could
easily see what area was being protrayed. Once the movie began to play, an
arrow would appear, allowing the user to follow the motion of the camera path
Figure 36 3D Map Rotation Sequence throughout each particular section of the building.
The next step was to determine how the user would interact with the various
movies, as well as determine how much background information should be
presented. Because the 3D movie renderings are the focus of the project, it was
decided that the movies should always be accessible to the user. Therefore, the
buttons which allowed the user to go to each movie section are placed along
the left-hand side of the screen. No matter which section the user is exploring,
he could always go to any one of the movie sections. In addition to always
having accessibility to the movies, smaller icons, representitive of the other
sections in the project are placed at the bottom of the screen. At any point, the
user can decide to move on to another section of the program.
41 Figure 37 Final Layout in Director
Figure 37 illustrates how the final layout was organized in Director. Once the
user begins the program, he has the option to explore the various movies, or
journey to other sections, including the history/background information on the
Aronoff Center, Peter Eisenman’s other forms of architecture, and a credit page
detailing why the program was created.
Any time the user goes to one of the movie sections by clicking the icons on the
left-hand side of the screen, a new window will appear. The small icon that was
chosen will appear in a larger format, the 3D map will rotate to let the user know
what section is being explored, and a brief explanation of that part of the
building will be shown. By clicking the “Play” command, the movie will begin. By
42 examinining Figure 38, one can see the layout described.
Figure 38 Individual Movie Screen in Director
Building History
The icon that represents the section on “Building History” is in the form of the
Aronoff Center. To get to this section, the user clicks on the building icon, and
that portion of the program appears on the screen (Figure 39). Here, the user
can learn useful background information about the building including why the
building was built, how the architect decided about its form, and why the colors
were chosen. In this section, the user is also given the option to watch several
videos in which Peter Eisenman discusses various issues involved in the
43 Figure 39 Building History Screen in Director
building of the Aronoff Center for Design and Art. By watching these clips, the
user can learn even more about the building.
Peter Eisenman — Other Buildings
If the user wants to learn more about Peter Eisenman’s other buildings, he can
choose to explore the section on Peter Eisenman by clicking the drafting table
icon at the bottom of the screen. In this section, some background information is
given about Peter Eisenman himself, and there are links to his various other
buildings. The user can choose to learn more about the Cardboard House
Series, Cannaregio Town Square, IBA Social Housing, the Wexner Center and
44 Figure 40 Peter Eisenman Screen in Director
the Columbus Convention Center by clicking on those images at the top of the
screen. A brief paragraph about each of the different buildings allows the user to
learn more about Peter Eisenman’s architectural syle (Figure 40).
Finally, to exit the program, the user can click on the “Door” icon at the bottom
of the screen. Here, he will be asked if he is sure he wants to quit before the
program ends.
45 Part III
Conclusion
This thesis, along with the accompanying CD-ROM, has documented the
process of taking an existing building and transforming it into a 3D virtual
building, easily accessible to people not just in Cincinnati, but all over the world.
In creating the virtual building, aspects of the actual building were studied and
incorporated into the computer model. Once the models had been constructed,
they could be placed in a multimedia authoring program, which in this case is
Macromedia’s Director. Thus, the users of the program can navigate through the
space of the Aronoff Center for Design and Art from the comfort of their own
computer.
Additionally, the elements of the building’s poor use of materials could be
avoided. The users could see how the building looked during its first weeks,
rather than how it looks at the present and in the future. The use of a virtual
model allows Eisenman’s creation to remain forever preserved in an ideal
environment.
46 CD-ROM Installation Guide
In order for the program to run properly, it is necessary to create a folder on
your computer’s desktop and drag all the files from the CD-ROM to that folder.
This is extremely important. On some systems it may actually run off the CD,
but it will be extremely slow. On other systems, it may not run properly at all off
the CD.
There are two CD-ROMs — one for the Macintosh platform and one for the PC.
Be sure to use the correct CD-ROM for the platform you are using.
Once you have dragged all the information to your harddrive, run either the
program entitled DAAPpc.exe if you are running on a PC, or DAAPmac.exe if
you are running on a Mac. From there, the program should be self-explanatory.
47 Bibliography
Bartlett, Brandon. 3D Studio: Architectural Rendering. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing, 1996.
Davidson, Cynthia. Eleven Authors in Search of a Building. Ne York: The Monacelli Press, Inc., 1996.
Eisenman, Peter. “The Peter Principles.” Interview by Architecture (Nov 1998). Architecture, 87 (Nov 1998): 87-93.
“Eisenman’s Bogus avant-garde.” Progressive Architecture (Nov 1994): 70.
Foreman, B.J. “DAAP: In your face.” The Cincinnati Post (October 8, 1996): 1D, 3D.
Forgey, Benjamin. “Hype and Pretense.” The Washington Post (October 7, 1996): G1, G7.
Henderson, Justin. “Unconventional Wisdom: Peter Eisenman reinvents the convention center.” Interiors (June 1993): 82-85.
Jencks, Charles. The Architecture of the Jumping Universe. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
Kwinter, Sanford. “The Genius of Matter: Eisenman’s Cincinnati Project.” Peter Eisenman and Frank Gehry (July 6, 1991): 8-9.
Levene, Richard C. and Cecilia, Fernando Marquez. El Croquis: Peter Eisenman 1990 1997 (1997): 83.
Morgenthaler, Hans. “Peter Eisenman’s Realist Architecture.” http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/eisenman/morgen.html (Accessed: 2/21/1999).
Murphy, Jan. Metropolis (August/September 1998): 81.
48 Roberts, Jason. Director 6: Demystified. Berkeley: Macromedia Press, 1998.
Slatin, Peter. “Virtual Places.” ARTnews (Apr 1994): 27.
“University arts building presents structural challenge.” Civil Engineering (Nov 1996):10.
Weathersby, William, Jr. “New Building by Peter Eisenman Kicks off Major Expansion at University of Cincinnati.” http://www.etecnyc.net/etecw3/archt/arch19.htm (Accessed: 2/21/99).
Zardini, Mirko. “How to Judge Peter Eisenman? (The Aronoff Center at the University of Cincinnati).” Any 21 (January 1998): 27-31.
49