Ozayr's review

Today, Ozayr, his students, his TA's, and I all trekked to Erginoglu and Calislar Architects (who produce beautiful work and will be lecturing at the University of Minnesota on October 14th, 2011). The students laid out the pencil drawing they've been producing for the past three weeks in the office's courtyard and then we had a final discussion of the work. It was a great event, followed by a Turkish barbecue of Durums (which are made of lamb, lettuce, and onion in a wrap) and beer. The work looked beautiful and it was a really nice conclusion to the students' time here.

dinner at Akdeniz Hatay Sofrasi

Last night, we went to dinner with all of the students at an amazing restaurant. You can see that we ordered a one meter long shish kebab and had this lamb that was cooked under a pile of salt that they ignite at your table. Once the flame goes out, they crack open the salt with a mallet and chisel. Delicious!

Mosque interior by Sinan

Today we got inside a small mosque designed by one of Turkey's most famous and revered architects, Sinan, who produced somewhere between 400 and 500 buildings in lifetime. Really stunning. In the lower left are Josh and Kirk, TA's for Ozayr's class. They're great tour guides.

Istanbul textures

Galata Tower

Here are a few shots looking up at Galata Tower from it's base.