wolverine

Here's a picture of me in front of a crazy house in a bad part of Detroit. For some reason the lens was fogged. My Dreamhouse. The street is even painted too! BTW, no one lives in these houses. They're either burned out or abandoned.

I think I'm going to stop procrastinating so much in college this upcoming semester--- although I did get all A's this past semester. Plus, I'm going to lay off drinking so much beer. I'm starting to gain weight from it.

Well, the laptop works, but not very well. The processor is damaged, and it shuts off a lot. But since I am home on break, I can use my parents computer which is a new Dell desktop and can handle the abuses GMax dishes out. This likely won't happen again to my computer if I just use my cooling system, but I didn't think I would need it since this model wasn't that big. But then again, I had other stuff running at the same time. So I restart on the Dime building, and it should not be so hard because I remember how I made it! I'm just going to need help with light nighting issues when it comes time, but I'll scroll back up for Bud's info. nofunk, join the party who missed an exam. My umich web-based email is malfunctioning and not receiving incoming messages. I don't use Mulberry which is more reliable (now I do). But anyway, I went to show up for this exam, and the room was dark. I looked all over Mason and Haven halls and couldn't find it. Later I emailed the professor and told him I couldn't find the room because it said room to be announced on the syllabus. Well, the professor told me he had sent it out in an email and it said I had received the message. So I went to the Fishbowl at Angell Hall and checked my email, and sure enough, my inbox had 120 new messages! One of them being his. The professor was very nice and let me take it in his office alone, and just lock the door after I was done. I got an A on it. YAYY! Also, check out my project I completed for that History of U of M class, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ifmuth/project/index.html I know you all will enjoy it. To view building descriptions and such, click on Building List The interactive map was never finished, as well as some of the buildings. But I plan to finish it in the future. I got an A on that project too, despite it not being finished!

Hey guys, just thought I'd let you know I was nearly 90% finished with completing the Dime Building. I was going to suprise you all with it, and I've been working on it all day. But I never saved it. I have absolutely no idea why I never saved it!! Well, I went to attach a few splines and the the program sat for awhile. Then my processor status dialog popped up and said my computer was reaching 200 degrees F and then it got hotter and hotter and hotter, and Gmax continued to do nothing, and then --- pshhhhhh ----- The computer shut off. The processor overheated to the point of melting, and now I am getting damge reports. So it appears I will get my third new processor on this 1.5 year old computer. I'm going to have Sony downsize the processor again. It was originally at 3.2 Ghz inside of a laptop, which I thought was ridiculous. It was lowered to 3.0 ghz, and then when that one went out, I got a cooling system, which made things better, but it's back at my dorm, so my laptop has no way to keep itself cool. Therefore, unless I am able to use another computer, the website and the Dime Building have been cancelled. Sorry all. The Dime Building, the Christmas gift simtropolis almost received.

I really don't like sprawl, personally becuase I live not far from Detroit in which the suburbs killed the city. Please don't contradict me on that point, nearly everyone in Michigan knows this. But I think new urbanism is great because it is taking us back to creating downtowns and walkwable enviroments instead of big box shopping with huge sprawling parking lots -- which I consider to be boring and ugly. DT, you are right, people can choose to drive and live where they want, but the government (or at least state goernments are trying to change that). In Oakland County, Michigan's sprawliest county, they are going to create a gas tax which would deter people from driving their cars. Many people would think that is unfair because what about the people that need to drive all the way to work? Well, take the bus, or other mass transit!! Keep in mind, this tax only happens in certain areas where mass transit is available. The tax will also encourage poeple to live near business centers which will in turn build up density. A big blow against sprawl in Michigan came when the city where I live, Ann Arbor, sought to completely eliminate it. They set up a smart growth act, created a greenbelt, cut infrastructure upgrades in rural areas, and created inter city tax incentives. The result? Well, people wanted to build new houses in spread out subdivisions, but they couldn't. And although they could have moved, they wouldn't be close to the excellent job they had in Ann Arbor, which they did not want to sacrifice. To cope with the demands, developers built higher density living, houses closer together, and maintained a traidtional urban neighborhood. It worked really well. And now Ann Arbor is building highrises which is allowing the city soar in population, instead of losing it to sprawl. If we want to have low density living, there needs to be smart growth. I believe Kmannkoopa covered that quite well with his example of Queens, NY. Where walkable commerical districts exist within city BLOCKS of housing, not far from an urban core --- which DT mentioned as being a hybrid. Therefore, when I build my cities in SimCity, I make them have urban cores, but not a lot of sprawly outgrowth

Wolverine studying very hard for his architecture exam on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. Actually, its really pointless, considering I need to get a 35% percent on it to get an A in the class. Hard work pays off!!

baldy! Oh my gosh that is crazy! How could the school even pursue a case like that. The fact that the writing is similar is only cirumstantial. I bet you could sue the school for their actions, and have them pay damages of taking your time, and falsely accusing you of something. Speakikng of a run in with the law. I had a bit of a problem the other day, but nothing I did wrong: It was about 12:15 a.m Saturday morning. Since everyone is busy and studying, I decided to do the same, but I needed a lot of caffine to keep myself awake so I decided to go to the grocery store over on South University. Now, South U. isn't too far from where I live, but I decided to take my bike because I didn't feel like walking. So I got to the store, and I got some pop and was walking out getting ready to hop back on my bike. Now they were out of plastic bags so they gave me a paper one with out handles. I was struggling with my U lock on the bike and at the same time trying to hold the bottle around the neck in the paper bag. The task was quite a struggle, as the lock was icy, the seat was wet and I was trying not to sit on it, and the bag had no handles. I know I probably looked kind of ridiculous----- Apparrently a nearby officer thought I was drunk. And seeing how young I looked, and with a bag in the shape of a bottle, he was curious. He came up to me and asked what was in the bag. I told him it was a bottle of cherry coke. Now, if I wasn't on my bike, I would kindly open the bag and present it to him. But I had just gotten a hold of everything and I did not want to show him. He then asked me to give him the bag. Knowing my rights as to what kind of searches are legal and what are not, I replied No, I'm sorry officer, I'm not going to do that. I had no fear, because I had nothing to hide. He was a bit taken aback, and then came forward to grab it out of my hand, and then told me to get off the bike. I replied Officer, if you come closer, I will file a report against you to the city and to the County Government. What you are conducting is an illegal search, and you have no proof. At that point, he turned and walked away. Like I said, I could have made less trouble by showing the contents, but I'm not going to be searched just because he thinks I had alcohol. There is no proof. Although your situation is far worse, baldy, it seems as though the law has done something illegal themselves! Also speaking of Ann Arbor City, we are getting a new city hall finally. It's supposed to be twice to tripple the size of the current edifice, and will hopefully have more character than our existing bland and boring building. JB, that is pretty interesting about US 112. You can still see guide signs to that stretch off I-94, but thats where that extension is into downtown Ypsilanti to get to it. I always thought it would be cool too if Michigan Ave. went through Ann Arbor. The road seems to have some prestige to it.

And I can't wait till I get done with my projects and exams!!!!!! This Red Bull is just not cutting it anymore, and my supply is running low!!! What am I going to do!! What am I going to do !!!!!!!!!!!! ___________________________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suburban Nation is a very good book. I guess I have such a great interest in this thread because I am minoring in Urban Planning here at the University of Michigan. Speaking of Best Buys, they have come out with a new urban prototype that fits pretty well into downtowns. It basically looks like an old fashioned department store from the outside, and has everything on multiple levels on the inside. I saw the picture in a book, so I don't think I'll be able to find the picture, but it good that Best Buy and even home depot have begun to make attempts to deviate from big box shopping.

I'm glad I know another person here who hates suburban sprawl as much as I do. Probably because it kills the culturally and architecturally superior core cities and inner suburbs with REAL shopping districts. And don't tell me sprawl doesn't hurt these areas. Because it does. New Urbanism is fast growing building trend today in the U.S. It's breaking down the blandness of modern suburbia, and bringing character, and traditional architecture back into the enviroment to make our cities more vibrant and appealing. Cities with sprawling parking lots, and bix box shopping are beginning to see the end of their boom and people are now finding interest in shopping in cities with actuall downtowns and storefront retail. New Urbansim is also good for the government. The careless building of wide spread out developments of homes and business parks are what drive states into debt. With few businesses on A LOT of land, there isn't a very good tax base, and a lot of money goes down the drain to bringing infrastructure out to that huge shopping mall waaaaay out in what was once a corn field. But we didn't know better, until recently. Lecture over. I love this CJ. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more!

Wow, long time no talk. I promised you the BSP Website the other day, but let me fill you in on what's going on. Because my assigned projects for my architecture courses range in scale and difficulty, and we don't know what they are until the day they are assigned, I cannot easily make predictions as to how long it will take to complete them. I am getting them done though, despite the large amount of time they take up. That left me with the projected time which I would fill doing the BSP. But awhile back I mentioned I was doing a huge research project that will serve as the new online campus tour for the university. This meant research for all the historical background info on the university, doing writeups for nearly 200 structures, and getting those pictures and writeups on a well designed webpage with proper citations and such. I had plenty of time to work on this project, but I had actually pushed it back to work on the BSP. Now it has caught up with me, and the BSP will have to wait until my vacation when I will have NO WORK TO DO. I'm very crunched now with a final exam and project deadlines. In fact, I was succesful at getting a week long extension for two projects after the due date, which will help relieve some of the stress, but the BSP will have to wait for now. I'm not even going out this weekend. But you guys will have to expect the site by New Years Day, or maybe before Christmas because of a very important reason: When I apply for the architecture school, the university likes to see related work you have done outside of the classroom. Be it constructing a website related to architecture (but not necessarily), photographs of cities or buildings, and drawings you have completed. They also like to know if you are part of any teams that do related work. After I showed one of my professors my model of Ford Field, he was very impressed. I also showed him the future BSP website. He thought the BSP was going to take me over the top and into the school. The university considers us to be an actual organization and qualifies to be put on a resume. None of YOUR work will have anything to do with me of course, because its YOUR work! But because we are team dedicated to something that is related to architecture, that is what impresses them. I will be using my own models and the website in my portfolio. Therefore, in order for it to be included, I must get the site done by early January. So I would really count on it. Because finishing this website is no longer a hobby, its my future!!!

Ahhh, thanks for taking me back to my former hometown JBSimio! I didn't realize they had to move houses to make way for Arthur Hill as it occupies A LOT of open space. Then again some of the surrounding neighborhoods were built after 1950. BTW, there is a very extensive Saginaw photo thread (3 Parts) over at urbanplanet.org...... http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=4827 http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5065 http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5067 . I created these threads over the summer, and although I am a former resident of Saginaw, I don't feel all of the captions are correct, as I relied on some of the locals for some information of buildings of the past. Downtown (East Side) Former post office, now a museum Downtown Library Waterworks Oldtown (West Side) Court Street neighborhoods Small neighborhood commerical strip. And..... My Lion-Heart aches... WHY?!

Finally, YOUR DETROIT: It's a bit dark because I used my flash, but this is the atrium of the Compuware Headquarters. View of Campus Martius from Compuware building D's best Your's truely. The above pictures are not branded for copyrights, but are being used to develop a Detroit website. Because I have a huge problem (and so does Allan) with our pictures getting stolen and reposted all over the internet, please keep a watch out if you see them turn up anywhere else under a username other than Wolverine or our other BSP member Allan. If you do, let us know. This has been a huge problem for us this past year.

JBSimio, my apologies for receiving your PM so late. The last time I was on ST was 1:45. I then took a long nap and woke up at 3:30, only to go downstairs to socialize with friends, and come back up to leave for Detroit. We plan on doing this again, so you'll see more chances On the way to Detroit, things were rough. I-94 was congested and we ended up taking side roads to the downtown. We ended up in some really bad areas of Detroit's West Side, but it was nothing to be scared about. Seeing the grand opening of campus martius was impressive. Allan, Aaron, and I took a lot of photos. Special thanks goes to Ray over at Urbanplanet.org who let us out on the observation deck of the compuware building. Detroit looks so beautiful from high up despite the hazy sky. There was also plenty of action going down on the street. There were so many people at the restaurants nearby, that we had to go to Pizzapaplis in Greektown. On the way there, we met Baldy and his wife who were on their way to see the festivities. The pizza was great as always and then we headed back to see the Christmas tree lighting. We then, unfortunately, lost Aaron in the crowds, and we then we all split up and looked for him around Detroit, since we figured he had wandered off to a building a few blocks down. We finally found each other and explored the city further. Then the rain started coming down hard, and we decided to head back to the car around 11:00. All in all, it was a fun night in the D. Pictures to come soon.

Allan will be picking Aaron and I up from Couzens Hall around 4:00 - 4:15. Apparently that is when Aaron has his last class. So we will probably be there around 5:20 after we are parked an all. BTW, a crazy story. I met Aaron over at urbanplanet.org. Of all the people that are members of this international community, little did I know that he lived in the room beneath me in my residence hall. Is that crazy or what?

^^ ________________________!!! ^^ Noo, you are much a part of this team as everyone. Ford Field is my only project that I have done on the BAT. When did I start it? Last April, and look how far it is. You've completed an entire building. Don't feel so pressured. This project is something we do in our freetime. Everytime we get a new member on the project, things pic up, and everyone gets motivated. Early in the summer, we were all too busy to do stuff. As a student here at Michigan also, I know how homework can get. I have a huge load of work to do yet and it's 1:55 a.m. Things get crazy, and we can wait on the model.

Yesterday was the first time I ever saw Burton Tower lit up at night. I know this isn't what the tower really has, but it would be cool if you had an upward spotlight showing the clock. Maybe place the spotlight about a floor beneath the clock. Also, someone told me only the first and third and tenth floors are actually lit at night for security reasons. But DO NOT upload it without lighting. There are some members here who will make rude and inappropriate comments without appreciating your true work. And worst of all, they don't even know how to B.A.T. Anytime I see their behavior, I write down their names. I'm hoping that they will be purged from the community sooner or later.

I will be up at North Campus tomorrow, would anyone like me to render and export there models? I am also pleased to announce that I have fixed the problem with the website and progress is rolling on. Also, would you guys like profiles about yourselves on the members page? If so, let me know.

Wow Jon! That is really unfortunate the way your football career ended so shortly, although it must have been cool to play over in Europe. But still, that is quite a bit history you got there. You know what is really strange though, minutes before I read your post, one of my friends here was telling me how he was coming to Michigan on a track scholarship but got injured and that scholarship was removed. Talk about deja vu!! I apparently did not know that my best friend was actually a New York All State Track runner, had set records at his school, and received other scholarships at other universities. However, he wanted to go to Michigan to get a good education. I never knew about this all until today. I was suprised he had never told any of us, but then again, he is really a humble guy. Then 2 minutes later, I read your post, and I call Mark back into the room showing him that he is not the only one who had unfortunate athletic career at Michigan. And yes, if you would have ended up playing for the Detroit Lions, you never know, it could have been the Jon Decker Project.

Thanks for the clarifications Allan, I will definitely be there. And all nigthers are cool man! You guys, this absolutely ridiculous, I can't believe tech support over at the 3dfa isn't responding my post. And it's not like they are getting a swell of them. In fact, my question was the only post in the past two days, you think, considering I spent $50 on their software, I would get some sort of response within one day. But now the thread is up to nearly 220 views, and no responses. I know the staff at the company are busy updating the software since a new version comes about every six months, but do any of them check the support forums? I'm usually a patient guy, but I'm not going to wait over three days for the answer to what is likely a trivial question for them. I'm going to send a direct email to the company, but I have no clue when I'll get a response to that since the last time I emailed them to modify my email address, they never responded with the confirmation. I'm getting ticked, and if I don't get a response by next weekend, I'm going to ask for my money back. Technical support was purchased along with the software since it is not available to trial members. They are pissing me off, and I want to get this site done!

yep no problem. Email them to barrysandersproject@umich.edu Yeah, the only way to get a full ride here at Michigan is to be dirt poor since tuition rates are based on income. Feel free to visit Michigan any time though. What are you majoring in?

Uh, I thought Allan told me we were going Friday. This thread moves to fast. It is keeping me attached to my computer and away from homework. Now I'm going to fail all my classes!

I used to live on Mackinaw not far from Arthur Hill High School. But I never went to high school there since we moved to Frankenmuth, MI when I was in junior high. I was actually kind of glad we moved there because there were more opportunities. It was nice to be able to join the football and track teams without having to try out. I still love Saginaw though, and it is nice to see it making so many improvements. But nothing compares to the good 'ole A2!! (Ann Arbor) I always loved the corner of Michigan Ave and Court. Such a vibrant district even when the downtown across the river was in a slump. It is nice to finally see a new building gonig up on that site where everything burned down. I wonder how high the new building is going to be. One of my friends here at college is also from Saginaw said it's going to be a midrise building, which means it could be anywhere between 4-7 stories. On another note, I'm getting really heated with the 3dfa. I buy their software, and ask a very general question about it in their support forum, and nobody responds. The thread has well over 200 hits by now, and still no single response. I cannot do further work until that question is answered. I suppose that is okay since right now I have a lot of homework, but on Thursday I will have time to do a lot of work on the BSP. I would also like to restate Baldy's invitation to the Grand opening of Campus Maritus in downtown Detroit. It should be an intersting event.

I removed my signature because it was so large.