In beginning this project, the question of what the essence of aviation is is the most important to answer. Is it simply the feeling of going fast? Or is it the ability to see the world through a bird’s eye? Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises provided an answer:
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The Dream of Aviation
“Which would you choose: a world with pyramids, or without?”
Airplanes are like dreams. They are both temporary escapes. You may take off from the ground, but man must always still return to it. Forever chained to the ground, these temporary escapes to the sky embody humanity’s defiance of the impossible. It is the dream of floating far above what you know, man’s attempt to act as if they are in control of their little piece of the world – to see for themselves if there truly is some God behind that beautiful blue curtain. But always, man must return whether he wants to or not, whether intentional or not, the ground is where man is told he belongs. However he tries he cannot escape. Acknowledging this, he yells in defiance, no! If I must forever be tied to this boring, slow rock then I will bring it with me in my endeavor. This is where a dream meets craft. And man prevails! He fashions together trees and stone and manages to escape, if only for a little while. The dream is realized, but its greatest affect is its inspiration. A dream can drive others to attempt insane feats like attempting to fly. Seeing a plane can drive others to even crazier heights like devoting their lives to aeronautical engineering to make those impossibly beautiful machines lighter and fly faster and farther. What can possibly be next? Space? Don’t be absurd, that’s impossible.
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Hammondsport Main Museum
Ithaca Site
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Curtiss’s World Concept Drawing Inspired by Christina’s World (1948) by Andrew Wyeth
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White Cubes The first model this project challenges is the universal museum model that the writer, Hiroyuki Suzuki, identifies: “Flexible neutral exhibition halls were created to correspond to the full dimension of artistic expression and gave birth to museums consisting of ‘white cubes.’ ... The Chichu Art Museum is above all a project to transcend the Modernist white cube model of the museum. It is also an attempt to recapture a local culture and its individual qualities which are on the verge of disappearance in our global society, and to recover the specificity of place, which has been neutralized by the idea of universal space.”
Hangars The second model this project challenges is the aviation museum model which do not deviate from the ‘hangar’ which produces a flexible open floor plan with which planes can be taken in and out of. These are structurally intensive and demand long span systems that can accomodate the large artifacts. However, this experience with planes may be overplayed. So perhaps a more intimate, dark, and almost claustrophobic experience with the planes can be created through different architectural gestures. Shanghai’s Long Museum encloses its exhibition spaces with a series of rotated concrete arched T-columns. These became an interesting departure point for the project as these columns, much like early planes, look extremely heavy yet they aspire to and do lift off the ground dramatically. Nostalgia The third model this project challenges is the nostalgia of early aviation. Much of this era is romaticized and commodified from vintage becoming a trendy commerical aesthetic today to the allure of the obscure, planes are a cursed dream. Yes, let us celebrate what Glenn Curtiss has done and achieved for American aviation, but let us not forget the consequences of progress. Planes were conceived initially as beautiful things, but their use has distorted that initial purpose. “Humanity has always dreamt of flying, but the dream is cursed. My aircraft are destined to become tools for slaughter. But still I choose a world with pyramids in it.” 11
Light Study Section Models
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Light & Dark Chart These models became collages of light and structure. The first two iterations were tests of the arched T-column where it was varied to produce different direct and diffused light and dark conditions. The intention was to abstract these volumes sectionally in a single plane so that each volume could be seen at once as a pseudo-reference chart of light. Then these volumes would be rearranged in plan and incorporated into the site. Sequencing and the spacing between each large volume and its transition space became the next challenge.
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Site intervention Diagram
Program Diagram Skyspace Small Skyspace Museum Gift Shop Mechanical Room Restroom (1) Marvel
Repair Shop Mech. Room
Medium Dark Box
Minor Repair Shop Offices (2) & Kitchen Museum Cafe Dark Box
Offices & Kitchen
Carrier Pigeon
Large June Bug Carrier Pigeon Robin P1 Hawk XP-31 Swift
X-Large
Robin P1 Hawk Lobby XP-31 Swift
CS-2
June Bug
Cafe Lobby CS-2
Restrooms
Program Diagram 1’ = 1/64”
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Gift Shop
Marvel
Elevation Sketches
Sequence & Artifacts
Sequence Diagram 1’ = 1/64”
Curated Artifacts 1’ = 1/64”
1911 Curtiss Marvel
1929 Curtiss CS-2
1925 Curtiss P1 Hawk
1933 Curtiss XP-31 Swift
1929 Curtiss Robin
1925 Carrier Pigeon
1908 June Bug
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Final Iteration Section Model
Timeless Age is but a number. The desire to fly is timeless.
Curtiss CS-2
1925 Curtiss P1 Hawk
1933 Curtiss XP-31 Swift
1929 Curtiss Robin Specifications - Length: 27’ 5” - Wingspan: 42’ 6” - Powerplant: 1 x Curtiss B8 V8 air cooled piston engine, 40 hp Performance - Max speed: 39 mph
rrier Pigeon
1908 June Bug
Number Built: 1 Crashed Jan. 2, 1909
The plane that put the name Glenn Curtiss on the map right after the Wright brothers. After his success with motorcycles, Curtiss used his engines in the June Bug to win the Scientific American Cup and its $25,000 prize. On July 4, 1908 with a huge crowd gathered to watch the spectacle, the June Bug flew 5,360 ft. in 1 minute and 40 seconds to win the prize. 24
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Takeoff 10 ... 9 ... 8 ... 7 ... 6 ... 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
Specifications - Length: 37’ 9” - Wingspan: 56’ 7” - Height: 14’ 8” - Powerplant: 1 x Wright T3 water cooled V12 engine, 585 hp - Crew: 3 Performance - Max speed: 103 mph - Range: 1,018 mi Armament - Machine gun and bomb
1929 Curtiss CS-2
1925 Curtiss P1 Hawk Number Built: 83
The CS-2 was used to break a number of world speed, distance, and endurance records for seaplanes. In June of 1924 it set five records for: distance (963.8 mi), duration (13 hours 23 min.), speed over 500 km (73 mph), speed over 1,000 km (74 mph), and speed over 1,500 km (74mph). Distance and duration were broken again in July and October of the year. 26
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Rediscovery A buried artifact, forgotten, but now excavated.
1929 Curtiss CS-2
1925 Curtiss P1 Hawk
1933 Curtiss XP-31 Swift
1929 Curtiss Robin Specifications - Length: 28’ 9.5” - Wingspan: 41’ 11” - Height: 12’ 1” - Powerplant: 1 x Liberty L12 water cooled V12 engine, 400 hp - Crew: 1 Performance - Max speed: 125 mph - Range: 525 mi
rtiss Marvel
1925 Carrier Pigeon
Number Built: 10
1908 June Bug
Intended to be sold directly to the U.S. Postal Service, the Curtiss Carrier Pigeon was the first plane design made specifically for air-mail. The plane was used by National Air Transport Inc. The Post Office, however, cancelled all air-mail contracts in 1934 on suspicion that the mail carrying contracts had been awarded through collusion during the previous administration. 30
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cursed dream Capturing flight while capturing flight.
Specifications - Length: 23’ 0” - Wingspan: 31’ 6” - Height: 8’ 9” - Powerplant: 1 x Curtiss V1150-3 liquid cooled V12 engine, 435 hp - Crew: 1 Performance - Max speed: 155 mph - Range: 300 mi Armament - 2 x 7mm machine guns
Curtiss CS-2
1925 Curtiss P1 Hawk
Number Built: 202
The Curtiss P1 Hawk was an open-cockpit biplane pursuit (hence the “P” naming scheme) fighter aircraft of the U.S. Army Air Corps. In 1924, the P1 Hawk made a dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight across the US. Refueling five times, pilot Maughan covered 2,670 mi in 20 hours and 48 minutes. It was armed with two fixed forward firing Browning machine guns. 32
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clearing 1 Amidst a forest of willows and concrete you emerge here.
Curtiss CS-2
1933 Curtiss XP-31 Swift
1925 Curtiss P1 Hawk
Specifications - Length: 25’ 8.5” - Wingspan: 41’ 0” - Height: 7’ 9.5” - Powerplant: 1 x Curtiss OX5 liquid cooled V8 engine, 90 hp - Crew: 1, Capacity: 2
Specifications - Length: 26’ 3” - Wingspan: 36’ 0” - Height: 7’ 9” - Powerplant: 1 x Curtiss V1570 water cooled V12 engine, 600 hp - Crew: 1
Performance - Max speed: 100.5 mph - Range: 480 mi
Performance - Max speed: 208 mph - Range: 370 mi
Number Built: 769 Cost: $7,500 (1938)
Used primarily by private owners in the U.S., the Curtiss Robin was one of the most manufactured Curtiss planes at 769 built across several different iterations. It is a high-wing monoplane and was used in movies, by the U.S. Army Air Corps, Paraguay’s military, Cuba’s national airline, and also to deliver newspapers. 34
Amidst light, concrete, and shadows you emerge in the clouds.
1929 Curtiss CS-2
1925 Curtiss P1 Hawk
1929 Curtiss Robin
clearing 2
1933 Curtiss XP-31 Swift
Armament - 4 x 7mm M1919
1929 Curtiss Robin Number Built: 1
Although Curtiss considered this plane design significant because of the new technologies it offered, it was outmoded and fell short of performance expectations. The Curtiss XP-31 Swift featured the first closed cockpit on a U.S. pursuit aircraft, but was also the last to have fixed landing gear and externally braced wings.
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Takeoff Section
Rediscovery Section
Cursed Dream Section
Clearing Section
Longitudinal Sections
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S. L1
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S. T4
S. T2
S. T1
S. T3 b
Site Plan
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Planes on Display
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Site Plan Blueprint
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Study for Final Building Model
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urn Sequence
oof Glazing
Opaque Wall Section 1’ = 3/4”
Opaque Wall Section 1’ = 3/4”
rete ‘Flying’ T umn Structure
ncrete Walls
Plan
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This series of close up photographs of the final model attempt to trace the path of spatial experiences of the project through the serene Ithaca landscape, back indoors, and then back to nature as one might experience in person.
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On the Chichu Museum:
“It has been my desire to return to the origin of architecture and contemplate light from the side of darkness.�
Ando