Tag: architecture

My Takeaways from a Graduation at Georgia Tech. in Atlanta

May 26,2023

We drove from Ottawa to Atlanta, a distance of close to 2000 kilometers, to see our granddaughter, Susanna, graduate in architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology.

How could we miss our granddaughter’s graduation? We did not but made me think we have a grandson graduating next year in Oregon; a granddaughter graduating, I think, in Colorado in two years, and another grandson graduating in Virginia the year after. Should we follow this precedent, that would be quite a travel plan for the next few years! Unfortunately, we missed the graduation of our eldest granddaughter who graduated from the University of North Carolina during the Covid shutdown.

Arriving in Atlanta during rush hour, exciting enough, was made even more challenging when we missed our destination, despite using Google Maps on my cell phone. The Google Map showing arrival in seconds just before my wrong turn, suddenly turned into seventeen minutes and a fifteen-mile drive. My four-letter word vocabulary quickly expanded, but it did not help. We had to get back on the interstate and circle back.

In the meantime, my son, Tony, was messaging us inquiring about our whereabouts. By the time we arrived back to where we should have turned left, Tony was standing on the street corner waving to us to be sure to make the left turn to arrive at our hotel, the Midtown Garden Hilton. 

The hotel was within walking distance of the Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, where the 2023 commencement exercises took place, and we walked to the stadium early in the morning.

The closer we got to the stadium, the more people joined us, forming a veritable migration by the time we stopped at the entrance to the stadium where a metal detector gate let people through, one by one. The only items allowed to be taken in were cameras, cell phones, and wallets, and I noticed that some people sported a new and useful product to enter metal detector gates: a plastic see-through purse carried by women.

The wall-to-wall crowd at the entrance gate exuded enthusiasm, I heard people talking proudly about their offspring getting a university degree from one of the elite institutions in the United States. Many of them were formally dressed while others donned jeans. We wore casual, informal clothing matching the early summer weather.

Once inside, we saw the graduating class sitting in rows of chairs in the middle of the stadium floor, facing the end of the football field, where a covered podium was constructed, above which a huge TV screen showed the action on stage. By the time we walked around the stands to the front, close to the podium, the stadium was a third full of its 55,000 capacity. The buzz in the air was loud and palpable, and we had to shout to communicate.

All the best seats were taken, especially those with a backrest. So, we rushed forward, up a few levels, and then down, trying to find seats from where we could take the best pictures of the President shaking hands with the graduates one by one, congratulating them on their achievement. We even found private boxes which had a good view of the ongoing events, but these rooms were glassed in, and we could not hear clearly what went on downstairs. After investigating the layout of the stadium and searching for good seats, we took seats close to the front of the football field.

Although it was not pronounced, I detected a slight accent listening to university president, Angel Cabrera’s introductory speech. He hails from Spain and received his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in 1995, a nice elevation from student to president in twenty-four years. The Glee Club sang the national anthem following Dr. Cabrera’s speech.

Harrison Butker, the commencement speaker, surprised or perhaps shocked the audience with his recommendation on what the graduating students should do with their lives: he said they should get married and have a family. Now Harrison is not only an NFL hero, a football player with the Kansas City Chiefs, who wears two Super Bowl Rings, but also a Georgia Tech graduate who played football for the university. But his advice on how to conduct your future life created a stir in the audience; my other two granddaughters, college-age, immediately reacted with: “Who is he to tell me to get married? And you do not have to be married to have a family!”

Harrison’s argument centered on what he called the loneliness experienced by today’s youth, despite the connectedness people think they have through social media. He said you will not be happy with whatever you accomplish unless you share it with someone. To him, the sharing was with his wife and family that motivated him today and made him happy.

I thought Harrison was entertaining when he talked about teamwork and perseverance but disappointed when he brought religion into the commencement address, by recommending marriage. But his comments were no surprise, Harrison is a devout catholic and belongs to a conservative group that promotes the practice of an older version of Catholicism, including the belief that sermons should be in Latin.

Dr. Cabrera thanked Harrison for his speech and wondered aloud, with understated humor, how many marriage proposals would take place today.

The graduates were called onto the stage, to shake hands with the president, and proceed to pose before the “Rambling Wreck”, for an official photo. (The Rambling Wreck is a fully renovated Model T Ford, the school’s mascot that is driven around the stadium before each football game.)

The activity on the stage was projected onto the large screen above it for us to see each graduate walk by with their name on the screen.

I was dumbfounded in the beginning, seeing all the Asian and South Asian names following one after the other; of the first fifty graduates called to the podium, I counted twenty-nine Asian names. What is the ethnic composition of the student body here, I asked myself. According to recent statistics, twenty percent of the students are Asian or South Asian. Then I realized that the first to be called were the computer science graduates.

Much as I tried to get ready to take pictures of Susanna when she came by the Rambling Wreck, I had both my camera and cell phone ready, I missed the perfect shot. The pictures I took are out of focus. No matter. We joined up with her after the ceremonies at the architecture building, and took some pictures of her in her gown, along with family.

To celebrate her life milestone, the family went for dinner at NoMas! Cantina. The Cantina served Mexican fare in a space furnished with artifacts from Mexican artists, all of which are available for purchase. A unique place. I thought it was funky with umbrellas hanging from the ceiling, and masks and artifacts decorating the walls. Consistent with the Mexican theme, we started with a margarita, served in a two-foot-tall glass bottle, bulging at the bottom. It was sufficient for eight people.

The dinner punctuated a successful four years of study. So what is next Susanna? I asked. Following a stint with a large architectural firm in Atlanta this summer, she said she will attend Clemson University in South Carolina to study for a master’s degree in architecture. 

Sistine Chapel Exhibit Review: A Mixed Experience

Janury 27, 2023

Three Views of the Sistine Chapel

I was underwhelmed viewing the Sistine Chapel touring exhibit, produced by Entertainment Events Inc. (EEI) of Hollywood (showing only the ceiling frescoes painted by Michelangelo). The first showing of this exhibition was in Montreal in 2015, after which it toured the world and arrived in Ottawa in December 2022.

 In Ottawa, EEI presented the exhibition at the EY Convention Center, in a large, industrial type of space, like an airplane hangar. It just did not have the aura for showing biblical scenes painted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Chapel. What frosted me was the advertising for yoga classes at high prices, taught in front of the paintings. I found the combination of appreciating renaissance paintings with concurrent yoga exercises jarring. But the receptionist told us the yoga classes were fully subscribed; I could not see myself putting my body in yoga poses with great effort and appreciating the artwork simultaneously.

There were no brochures or handouts to describe and explain the paintings, this was Covid times. Instead, you had to bring your cell phone, to which you could download, via a QR code, the explanatory comments. Once we figured out the technical challenges, we found the commentary useful.

Before looking at the pictures, we listened to an introduction to how Michelangelo accepted a commission from Pope Julius II and built a scaffold to paint the ceiling at a height of sixty feet in the Chapel. Michelangelo used vivid and colorful paints on wet gypsum and completed the work between 1508 and 1514. EEI used high-definition photographs to reproduce the paintings in full size.

The full-size biblical scenes were twenty feet above the floor at the EY center, enabling viewers to see the pictures, including brush strokes, in granular detail; that was a major benefit of this show according to EES, compared to seeing the same pictures sixty feet above the ground in the Sistine Chapel.

This exhibition was attractive to art buffs and religious historians, especially those familiar with the Bible; but to me, it does not compete with seeing the real Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, which we visited in 2015. The comparison is like watching a football game on TV versus attending in person. It is hard to describe the excitement of walking through the Sistine Chapel with hundreds of people, all sighing with wonder at the pictures, even though they are sixty feet above you, and seeing not only the ceiling but also the walls, painted by other renaissance artists. But at the touring exhibition, one could take time to study the Michelangelo painted frescoes at a close distance without a crowd.

Although the excitement was tangible within the Sistine Chapel, there were detractions: some people took photos despite being warned not to do so. And the guards kept hushing people to be quiet. As well, when we went, the crowd filled the Chapel wall to wall, and the guards nudged us to move on to let the other visitors come in.

I found the best way to see the Sistine Chapel (if you have internet access and a computer), is to log in to https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/tour-virtuale.html This site provides a virtual tour. You can look at all sides, plus the floor and the ceiling of the Chapel. If you want to see more details, you can enlarge the pictures. You may miss the excitement of being in the Chapel, but you do not have to travel to Italy, line up with hundreds of tourists at the entrance and have a limited amount of time to look at the paintings.

Walking through the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, and looking at stories told by the colorful frescoes, made an everlasting impression on me. I found this quote that reflects my sentiments: “Without having seen the Sistine Chapel, one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving” (Johann Goethe, August 23, 1787).

 Having seen the original work, the touring exhibition was disappointing for me but would be attractive to people where the touring exhibition goes. If your city is not on the touring exhibition schedule and you do not have the time and money to visit the Vatican, the website above provides an excellent way to see the inside of the Sistine Chapel.