4 Week's Notice

Dear readers,

In exactly four weeks I start school again. Yes, after nearly ten years in professional practice, I'm heading back to school for a Master's degree, specifically the Master's in Urban Planning at City College's Urban Design Program, headed by Michael Sorkin and located in the great city of New York.

What brings this on, you ask? Well, going back to school for a Master's degree (I have a five-year Bachelor's degree from Kansas State) has always been on my mind, though in varying degrees since starting my first job. I've seen it as a way to pursue something more defined than undergrad, more personal, and reflecting some experience with practice and "how the world works." Now with marriage and the prospects that that brings, this might be the last chance I have to pursue this goal. But more importantly, the Urban Design Program's focus on sustainable and pedestrian-oriented planning is something I feel strongly about and feel is timely and important, for reasons that don't require too much explanation here.

Regardless, here's a quote that might help illustrate what I'm thinking, taken from Michael Hough's City Form and Natural Process, written in 1984 but still apt (if not even more) today:

As environment and energy issues assume a higher profile in the future, it will become increasingly necessary to broaden the horizons of urban design to meet new goals. Urban land as a whole will be required to assume environmental, productive, and social roles, as fundamental components of the urban design process...Many of the problems generated by the city and imposed on the larger natural environment will have to be resolved within it.

I'm mentioning this here to alert readers that August might be a slow month in these parts. I'll need to make multiple trips to New York to find an apartment, help my wife find a job, register for classes, and all that other good stuff that goes along with going back to school and uprooting one's life. I plan on keeping this page, my weekly page, and the archi-tourist going, though the frequency of posts on this page will be determined by my schedule and workload. Each one of these pages are a great outlet for me, my interests, and my wanderings about the world and the internet, and I don't plan on any of that lapsing anytime soon.

Sincerely,

John