The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which was originally known as the Museum of Non-Objective Art, has come to be known as one of the most iconic yet unusual buildings in all of New York. This museum is located on some prime real estate; 5th avenue right across from Central Park. The timing of the construction of this building is even unusual in the sense that the idea of the building was done in 1945 but the actual construction of the building did not finish until nearly 1959. This delay is thought to be because of the various wars that went on at the time.

This building pushes boundaries by creating a circular building that is made out of the heavy material of concrete.  Upon entry, one would glance up and notice the glass dome at the very top of the building. This building holds six floors of art and exhibits that are connected by one continuous, winding ramp. The building is part of the art, expanding the exhibit to include the building itself. While a good idea, many artists complained that their art was not being displayed in the way that it was intended to be seen because of the sloping walls. This was the last project built by Wright and was opened for business just six months after his death. 

Fallingwater is arguably the most famous of Wright’s pieces of work because of how highly praised and admired it has been over the years. Not only was it admired by the residences and visitors, but the American Institute of Architects actually named this residence as the “best all-time work of American architecture”.

This house was designed for his friend, Edgar Kaufmann, who requested a holiday home for him and his family. The building began to undergo construction in 1935 and was completed just three years later. Kaufmann requested for the home to face the Bear Run Nature Reserve Waterfall, but Wright outdid his request by actually planting the house on the landmark itself. This house became part of the natural scene because of its natural color palette and its low, horizontal framework. Wright wanted to physically and spiritually embrace the natural world into the daring and evolutionary construction of “the House over the Waterfall”. This residence eventually opened as a museum in 1964.

The Robie House has been noted as one of the ten most influential pieces of architecture in America. This piece of architecture pushed boundaries at the time of its construction and has continued to shape how our society views architecture to this very day. This house was completed in Chicago in 1910 and has come to be recognized as a symbol of the prairie style. The prairie style was influenced by the expansive landscape of the midwest and became known as the first truly American architectural style. Wright continued to work on a style that was more suited for the environment and eventually developed what is considered to be America’s first unique architecture style. This style is characterised by horizontal rooflines, overhanging eaves, continuous windows and natural materials, which are inspired by the landscape.

One can see these influences throughout the Robie House, which features low-set walls and broad terraces and balconies. The walls are made up of rows of long and narrow red bricks, with linear limestone elements integrated to further emphasize their horizontality. Also, lots of windows offer natural light to get into the residence. Today, the house has been turned into a museum for all to go see and visit. 

Wright was approached by Hib Johnson, who wanted to revamp his office building. Wright initially found the proposal itself to be underwhelming. He thought that the offer to build an office building in an ugly suburb was not exactly up his alley.  While he would normally sink his projects among nature, this project was found in the middle of a “worthless” little town. But, after talking to his wife, who reminded him that he had only built two houses within the past seven years and was nearly broke, Wright accepted the offer.

With this in mind, Wright designed the building to resemble a fortress that protected his masterpiece from the outside world. This fortress came with no windows along the sides and the only main entrance was found hidden in the parking garage. One of the other interesting aspects that comes from this building is the fact that a skylight serves as the primary source of light for the main workspace. The workspace also has an open floor plan, which was new for the time. Another aspect is how Wright used biomimicry when creating the pillars that can be found throughout the complex. Wright mimics the form of a Californian cactus by using open steel mesh, making the columns fairly hollow. These pillars are now able to conceal wires. Overall, this building was innovative for numerous ways and gave Wright another chance at his career.

Holland Hall was where I went to school from the age of three all the way until my highschool graduation at the age of eighteen. This school was where I encountered some of my greatest friendships, where I achieved some of my biggest goals, and where I found a second home.

Holland Hall is a fairly small school, in the sense that I graduated with a meer class of seventy. Out of these seventy peers, twenty-five of them began at Holland Hall at the age of three with me. I have literally grown up with this tight-knit group of students and they have walked along  beside me through some of my best moments as well as some of my lowest moments. Not only did I know everyone in my grade’s name, but I knew their family and what they were like as a person as well. This also applied for the teachers as well. I was close with a lot of my professors over the years, but there were a handful of faculty members that I was close enough with to text them for advice, sit and cry with them in their office, or go out to lunch with. I felt so known and loved at this place. This school was my community for most of my life.

The building pictured here was specifically where I found my passions, my interests, and my strengths. This is the building that has our sports locker rooms and workout facilities.  Sports were where I found my identity throughout highschool and one of the things that I was known for. To me, everytime I see this building or interact with any relationship that spurred within these walls, it makes me so happy. I feel overjoyed because of everything that these walls gave me; friendships, achievements, memories, and so on and so forth. I could go into detail about all of the great memories that I made at this school, but I can summarize it all by saying that I would not be the person that I am today had it not been for my enrollment at Holland Hall and my involvement in both tennis, field hockey, and cheer.

Personally, my religion is a huge part of who I am and how I choose to live my life. Religion is a guiding principle in my life and I truly became grounded in this fact after attending this church. I have attended LifeChurch for years and it has had a tremendous influence on who I have become as a person. 

While I have jumped around from location to location, primarily because of the fact that I grew up in Tulsa but currently live in Norman, the connection that I feel to each of these different buildings is one and the same. Honestly, all of the LifeChurch locations tend to have a similar look to them, making it easy to transition from one to the other if needed. This building provides me with hope, peace, and rejuvenation each and every Sunday. LifeChurch is somewhere that I have found my identity and community in this world. The people that go here with me are some of my closest friends and mentors. This is where I genuinely learn how to live my life. No other building or organization has impacted me more than this one right here. It shapes how I view the world, the choices that I make, the people that I enjoy spending time with, and gives me purpose. LifeChurch is something that has been a part of my life for years and will still be present in my life for a long for-seen future. 

The Colosseum in Rome is one of the greatest architectural masterpieces in all of history. This building has a history that will be remembered for centuries to come and gave me one of my own most memorable moments. 

This past summer, I was given the opportunity to study abroad in Italy. This trip got me out of my comfort zone because I traveled with a group of people that I was not too familiar with. On top of that, this trip was just overall so exhausting for me because I had to focus on my schoolwork, was constantly surrounded by people, and was always on the move as we ventured from city to city. However, through the difficult classwork and exhaustion, this trip ended up giving me so many of my fondest memories and sweetest friendships. 

The Colosseum, in particular, connects me to great memories because of all of the pictures that I took in front of it. This was one of our first travel days apart from this class. All of the other days were simply spent in the classroom or doing homework, but the travel days gave us a chance to really connect with our classmates. This travel day was when I met some of the girls that I became so close with. These friendships deepened as the rest of the trip went on. One thing that was so great about this trip was that, these people are still going to school with me now, so I have been able to continue the relationships for years to come. So, what began with simple pictures in front of the Colosseum, ended up rolling into friendships that were close in Rome and have gotten even closer in Norman. 

Notre-Dame Cathedral holds a special place in the hearts of the French people, as well as in my own. I first encountered this architectural gem during my freshman year of highschool while on a french exchange trip with my school. This trip for me was hands down the most courageous thing that I had ever undertaken up until this point. I had stepped way outside of my comfort zone by flying to a foreign country that hardly spoke my native language and staying with a family that I had never met. Throughout middle school, I was relatively shy and not very confident in myself, whether that specifically pertains to my looks, my abilities, or my French fluency. Choosing to go on this trip symbolizes my first “big kid” decision.

This was the trip where I found my voice, quite literally. I was going to school with the French schoolkids and living with my exchange student, but I struggled to find the guts to really immerse myself in the language. I had gotten by with the basics of, “please”, “thank you”, and “hello”, but not much beyond that spectrum, simply because I was too nervous to get something wrong. This continued for the first couple of days. Then one day, it finally came to me; my voice. While out on the town sightseeing, we ended up stopping in front of Notre Dame. Here, there were merchants out front selling everything from hats to shirts to flowers. I really wanted one of the key chains that had miniature versions of Notre Dame on it. I walked over to the merchant and said in english, “May I have a keychain, please?” He responds, “En Français?” I mustered up the courage to speak up and practice my French to the local man. I responded with, “Puis-je acheter un porte-clés?” He smiles and goes, “You have a great accent.” After that, I felt so much more confident in, not only my french-speaking abilities, but also in myself as a whole. Ever since that moment in front of Notre Dame, I have been a much more confident person. Even though that was a simple story, I think that because I was in such a vulnerable place in my life, being that I was away from my family and away from what I had always known, hearing encouragement from somebody really affected me in deeper ways than I could have ever imagined. So, in summary, in front of Notre Dame was where I stepped out of my comfort zone and found some confidence!