The Bavinger House is located in Norman, OK and built in 1955. Goff inspiration was a castle-like shape with a sense of earthy environment. You can see the home against the forested landscape. The walls were made of ironstone that is replaced periodically with large blue pieces of glass cullet. The roof spirals and is 96 ft long. It covers the whole house and is supported by cables connected to the center mass. The house almost look like a sail boat. The outside walls seems to grow out of the landscape and surround the house, then connects to the earth. The interior have floor pods that radiates off of the central axis but no interior walls. It is an open floor plan with each pod serving a different purpose such as a bedroom or study space. Goff inspiration was that he wanted to build a home that had no beginning or ending. The home was damaged in 2011 during a storm. Because of the vacancy, the home became choked with vegetation. There was a dispute in 2011 as to who own the home and restoring the home, the University of Oklahoma or Bob Bavinger, the current owner of the home. Bob Bavinger said the only solution was to demolish the house. All that is left of the house is an empty clearing. There is a video walk through available for those that want to visit the house.

https://www.archpaper.com/2016/05/bavinger-house-demolition/

This building is my very first experience of seeing professional basketball in person. This memory of my first time coming here to watch that game will forever be one of the greatest memories I will forever cherish. The first time I walked in the gym and stood at the top of the stairs to where I could see the entire arena as the players are warming up on the court. Every time I go to watch another game I make it a point to take a minute and just look around at the top of the stairs and take in the moment of how amazing it is. I can’t help but think how unbelievable it must be to play in an arena like this.

This is the tallest building in San Antonio. Below it is a convention center that holds very important conferences that benefit the city of SA. This building can be seen about 20 miles from SA and is a light show at night. You can go up to the top via an elevator that takes 2 minutes, and you can have a very nice classy date with your boo thang! My first experience was (damn that building is tall), I got right up underneath it and realized its close to 100 ft tall. next to it is the AT&T center where the SA Spurs play basketball! I also wanted to stay away from it because I am incredibly afraid of heights and want nothing to do with the restaurant up top!

Yes this is indeed the entrance to my high school building. I know it may not look like the most extravagant high school but this very place has a special place in my heart. This is where I spent the majority of my life it seems like and I’m happy to say that is so because of all the great people I have met regarding this building. This building created a home and a sort of identity for me growing up as people always ask “where did you go to school?”. My answer will always be written in stone that I went to Berryhill. Now it is a little weird whenever I return to the school because of how much time of my life was spent here but even with that I can always call this place home.

This house belonged to Ruth and Sam Ford and located in Aurora, IL. It was designed in 1947-1949. As you can see it is not in a traditional shape but in a unique round shape. It is referred to as the Round or Coal house. The home was designed with a 50 ft. center circle and two circular bedroom wings. The materials used was coal, steel, glass, cedar and hemp. He wanted a design that resembled an informal, gathering around, friendly environment. The original construction remains the same since construction. Goff inspiration came from his experience with the Quonset hut, a steel structure with a half-tube shape.

I’ve always been fascinated with unique things and always want to be different. I love to have things that no one else have and this house would be one of them. I love the creativity, the uniqueness and the details. In my opinion it looks like a museum.

https://www.aurora-il.org/655/14-Ford-House-1949

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/228941/ruth-and-sam-ford-house-aurora-illinois-section

This is one of the most iconic historical buildings in San Antonio. Living in SA for 13 years has allowed me to have many encounters with this building. Texas history states this used to be a fort that resulted in the last stand of early days Texans against the invading Mexican army. The aesthetics of the building give you an old world vibe and gives you an idea of how the structure of buildings were composed of back in the day. The front door is the entrance into the fort thats behind it. My lasting impression will always be how the battle was fought hard and long even though the Texans were severely outnumbered. The famous “come and take it” slogan is a great depiction of the events that happened here.

Paul Andreu (1938-2018) was a French architect who was well-known for designing a number of airports in the . He designed the largest airport in France (and second-largest in Europe), the Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris. Located in Roissy-en-France, it is also known as the Roissy airport.

The airport design and construction began in 1966 and was completed in 1974. Paul Andreu oversaw this design and its subsequent expansions.

The original airport consisted only of what is now Terminal 1, a tall circular hub surrounded by seven satellite buildings where the gates were located.

The ten-story central building has an impressive design with its overlapping bridges between floors.

In subsequent years the airport was expanded and more terminals were added.

In 2004, a part of Terminal 2E, which had been added in 2003, collapsed and killed four people.

The collapse was apparently due to some technical issues, combined with too little margin for error in the safety design. The collapse naturally upset Andreu and prompted a break in his work.

The Oklahoma Aquarium brings many memories to mind whenever I even hear someone talking about it. The first time I ever came here was when my grandparents brought me because there was senior citizens discount going on. This ended up being the first of many times we would go there as I was instantly fascinated by everything about it. From that day on I have been increasingly fascinated by underwater wildlife and this building brings me face to face with that fascination. Whenever I walk inside this place I instantly think back to all the memories I’ve shared here with my grandparents when I was younger. I went here not too long ago with my niece and nephew just walking through the doors and seeing the first tank of fish probably gave me more excitement than the kids I was with.

This fitness center is essentially where I grew up from the time I was in middle school up until a senior in high school. Most of the time this building consisted of my friends and me coming here to play some pick up basketball or just get some shots up for some practice. In the summer we spent most of our afternoons here whether we were getting some practice in or using their weight room. This building alone has tons of good times and good memories for me and that’s for sure the most special thing about this building for me. To this day I still hang around Chandler Park some times and every time I see this building it gives me great nostalgia.

The image above is the lobby of the fitness center and not much time was really spent in this portion of the building. Only time my friends and I would spend time in here would be waiting for our parents to pick us up after we were finished. This building to me symbolizes an escape. I was able to come here to have fun and spend time with friends, a care free and stress free environment.

This is my last blog post and I cannot miss the place that has been the most meaningful to me during my time in college, and perhaps during my life.

When I first came to college I knew no one. The first weekend in Norman some friends in the community I would soon be a part of welcomed me and one, who quickly became my first friend at OU, invited me over to his apartment for lunch on Sunday, the day before classes began. His apartment was in building G of Traditions East. His girlfriend and her friend’s apartment was right above his. But the apartment that would become the most important to me was at the other end of the building. I did not really know any of those residents yet. I had been introduced to a few of them, but that was it. A week later we discovered that one of those residents was in my English class. Another was the leader of my small group. As the semester went on I got to know these two well, through studying some great English literature and through studying the Bible. Soon enough I came over to their apartment to study English. Then I began to come over occasionally to socialize, and got to know the other residents.

As a few of us freshmen were coming more often to hang out at that apartment, the residents one day decided – let’s have an open-door policy! For the rest of that year I half-lived in that apartment. I grew to be friends with others who came and others who lived there and we slowly built a group of friends that was remarkable not only for its closeness and kindness, but also for its openness and quickness in accepting new members. And there was the remarkable feature of a front door that remained open 24/7 – a gesture of hospitality well-backed by the residents’ quickness to provide space, friendship, food, and comfort to any in need.

Through this apartment I began to realize the importance of a space in building community. With a couple of others who had also benefited from that open apartment, I moved into Traditions East the next year – and got the apartment right next door! We were quick to also adopt an open-door policy, and our next-door double open apartment set up became a well known feature among all our friends and broader ministry community. I also put a lot of care into how I arranged the space: what furniture we had and where we put it, making spaces for people to socialize or for people to study or for people to hide and read. We who had been hosted so much the year before learned from how that apartment had benefited us and applied it in hosting others.

The next year I moved in to the apartment which had first opened its doors, as roommates shifted around. I had the chance to live for a year in the now well-known and established hosting apartment. Again, putting in work to make a welcoming atmosphere was where much of my effort went in arranging that space. Again and again we hosted social events, meetings, and anyone who just needed to be around a wholesome community.

I have since moved off-campus to a larger apartment, where we still have an open-door policy, though it is not quite the same. Looking back on my time in Traditions (whether visiting or living), one of the things that impresses me most is how much happens in little, generic spaces. I worked at the Traditions apartment complex for a long time, and I have seen a lot of identical apartment spaces. Some are nice, many are fine, and some are quite repulsive. This would have appeared as an average fine or nice apartment (depending on the day); but any time spent in it would make it clear that it was no carelessly maintained, neglected space. So much of the character of a place is determined by what goes on in it, and how much people put into it. We took an average apartment and made it an excellent spot. We found a use for every inch of space, showed plenty of attention to the provided furniture, decorated the ceilings and walls, and channeled the light and the views through the windows. As I observed in Cate Main, I also observe here – it’s really the little things about a space that make the biggest difference: those things which affect the intangible components in the experience of a space.