During my childhood my mom worked as a lawyer on the 19th floor of the Chase Tower in downtown Oklahoma City. I frequently was able to go to work with my mom and really enjoyed messing around in her office. I thought it was the largest building in the world as a kid when I’d look out her window over the flat and spread out downtown Oklahoma City. At the time, it was the largest building in Oklahoma City but was overtaken by the Devon Tower in 2012. I always felt excited when I was able to go to work with my mom. I’d often wear a little suit and dream of having my own office in a skyscraper someday. I never really thought of it as a pretty building but always enjoyed the corporate feel of it.

Opened in 2000, in downtown Houston, Texas, Minute Maid Park is my favorite sports stadium in the country. Throughout the years I have attended many Astros games here, in which they have both won and lost. Some of my earliest childhood memories involve being a Minute Maid Park and watching the Astros play; despite the outcome, I always remember having a good time and wanting to go back. During these strange times, this is one of the places that I wish I could go back to the most.

This building was designed by architect Mies Van Der Rohe and constructed in 1957 as a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The Seagram building has a stone lobby that compliments the glass and bronze outside features. At the time of it’s completion the Seagram building was regarded as the most expensive skyscraper ever built with a $41 million construction cost. The building represents the desire for elegance and beauty of taller buildings and the welcoming invitation to congregate around the building in a plaza located in front of the Seagram building. This building has been recognized as an official landmark by the state of New York. Mies Van Der Rohe was regarded as a unique architect as he never actually attended any design school yet he directed a school himself.

Billy Bob’s Texas is located in the heart of the Stock Yards in Fort Worth, Texas. This iconic building is known as the worlds largest honky tonk, ( a country bar). When talking to Fort Worth natives they always love to say to visitors “wanna go down to the honky tonk” because it is a must see location. The rustic wooden floor interior is perfect for line dancing and connects back to when saloons were very popular in the wild west. When you walk through the building you come up to a long hallway where the walls are filled with hand prints and signatures from the different people that have performed there. This hallway gives a unique personalized touch to the building and it is always enjoyable to see how your hand size compares to the ones on the wall. Billy Bob’s large open floor plan allows for easy access to different parts of the bar such as the pool tables, eating area, and dancing floor. This building was only created in 1981 but the moment you walk in you are thrown back in time. I love going to Billy Bob’s for different occasions and I think it is a staple in Fort Worth. However Billy Bob’s is a bit outdated in my mind and I think in the future it needs to be updated to still have that rustic old time feel, but also be able to keep up with the modern aspects that are constantly changing.

Congregation Ahavath Sholom means a lot to me because it is the synagogue my family started going to when we moved to Texas. This building has become a second home to me as I would spend my Saturday mornings there during services, and Sunday mornings there with my friends during Sunday school running up and down the halls just trying to avoid class. From the outside the building looks small but when you enter it is large in size as it has a pre-school, a small sanctuary, a large sanctuary, a library, many offices, and a large space for lunches/ entertaining. My favorite part of the building is the main sanctuary, where the red velvet chairs are engraved in my mind and there are beautiful mosaics along the walls depicting different stories. The main sanctuary is used primarily for bar/ bat mitzvahs and high holidays . During these different occasions the room fills with people ready to celebrate others and the vibrancy of the colors that come from the mosaics ties everything together. I’ve been going to this synagogue for the past 10 years and I am excited to see the changes that will be made to it in the future to make it more modern and appealing.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem. This was on the most massive structures I have ever been in, and the detail on the floor and the walls on the inside is beyond impressive. I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre because it was part of the itinerary we had for the trip and it was extremely beautiful. I found it really interesting when I heard that one person holds the key to the church and that the key is over 850 years old. I was not sure what to expect when we were heading towards the church, but the size of the arches and columns were much large than I had expected. When we entered there were mass crowds of people walking around and praying over the tombs. Jerusalem is a city with so much history that no matter how many times you go there is always something new to learn and a new site to visit.

FFA was a big part of my life before college. Every year in the spring I would show cattle at the Oklahoma Youth Expo at the Jim Norick Arena. This place is honestly very outdated. For as much is it gets used with livestock expos, high school basketball games, and other competitions you would think that it would be a little bit more in tune with today’s designs. The seats are all wooden and uncomfortable, the bathrooms are old, and the concessions are visible dated. It’s a nostalgic place, but it definitely needs to be brought up to date.

This is the photo I took when I visited the library for the first time. I spent a lot of time studying in this library. I think our library really provides a wonderful helpful environment and resources for us. 

Personally, I really like the various learning equipment and venues in the library. It gives people a sense of space and security while creating a positive learning atmosphere. The appearance of the library is also very impressive at first sight. The castle-like buildings and the surrounding greenery give people an unforgettable feeling. I put it on the top 1 of my favorite places on campus.

I have spent several sleepless nights and many days at this place. I’ve always been a fan of the exterior of the building, it’s very aesthetically pleasing. Each study-able floor inside has a complete different design and vibe. Walking in on the main floor is kind of a fast paced, quick study sesh feeling put forward by the surrounding wooden walls and trim. On the level below that it is much more modern looking and offers a place for long study sessions. The lowest floor belongs to graduate students, but after sneaking down there a few time to study it is a mixed design between the two floors above it, offering a very classy yet very studious vibe.

Although Aldo Van Eyck is much more known for larger and more modern structures of the 60’s and 70’s, but he made an impact in his early career as well. In 1947, Aldo Van Eyck began with playgrounds. This may seem an insignificant section of his great career but it is everything but. Following WWII Amsterdam was a place of recovery and dysfunction. These playgrounds served as a break for children in a city where almost no public playground had previously existed. At the same time, this project was able to make significant use of empty plots throughout Amsterdam. Van Eyck’s use of minimalistic design was intentional in encouraging children to use imagination. This project helped to lay the ground work of modernism.