Chemistry, finally

April 14, 2025April 12, 2025Leave a comment

Here is my possibly final drawing of the now completed new wing of the Chemistry Building at UC Davis, drawn a month ago, when the bare tree still gave a good view. I’ve been sketching this for a long time now, since before the pandemic started and the old walkway between the two wings was still there and about to be demolished. I’ve been in at least one meeting inside already and it’s a lovely modern space. I like what they have done with the courtyard. I drew this after work when the sun was shining and it wasn’t too cold. In the foreground are those standing stones, a piece of public artwork whose name always eludes me (if only I would just look it up, but that requires effort) (ok fine, it’s Steve Gilman’s ‘Stone Poem’ from 1982, I looked it up; you can read more about the outdoor sculptures around UC Davis in this handy guide by the Manetti Shrem). So this concludes my drawings of this whole construction, on to the next one. I saw a new building with interesting curves being built out on La Rue near the sports grounds, problem is I never want to cycle over there, but it looks like a good piece of construction to observe so maybe I will sketch it.

You can see all the sketches I’ve done of this construction (and others of the Chemistry Building over the years) in my blog posts with the tag: petescully.com/tag/chemistry. Or in this Flickr album, without all the accompanying waffle.

Chemistry latest – pretty much finished

September 16, 2024Leave a comment

The new quarter is upon us, it starts in a week. The quieter days of summer are over, and the busy busy is back. I’m usually well up for it, but I’ve enjoyed the slightly less stressful couple of months; the last year was a lot of work, a lot of headaches. Still, I’ll feel different when the game starts, I always do, and every year I get energized by the start of Fall quarter on campus. Here is another campus sketch from August, the latest in the new sing of the Chemistry Building, whose development and construction I have followed for about five years now. You can see all those posts by following the ‘Chemistry‘ tag. When a building gets to that end stage, it does become a lot less interesting to draw as it stops being an active moment in time and becomes its long-term self, interesting in the fact that people will come in and out a lot but there won’t be many outwardly different changes. I’ve drawn the Manetti Shrem a lot less since it was finished in 2016, and I’ve not drawn the Pitzer at all since then. Walker Hall I’ve still drawn a few times, but that building is starting to look different already as the freshly planted trees on the Hutchison side are starting to grow and break up the long expanse of architecture. I have probably got one more Chemistry sketch left in this series, the final-final-final one, but the one above is pretty much the end result already, the fences are down and the landscaping more or less done. The windows are all installed, and I think all that needs adding are the people. I wish we had a new building sometimes; ours is relatively new, having opened just a couple of months before I joined UC Davis, but growth happens. I have had a small part in drawing some maps for new rooms in existing buildings, but imagine being part of designing a completely new building, that must be exciting especially when it all opens. The Teaching Learning Complex for example, that was so fun to watch all that come together. This one has been too, and as I pass this way every day it has been easier to follow. I’m looking forward to taking a look around inside once it the new academic year starts.

chemistry latest, almost nearly there

March 7, 2024March 7, 2024Leave a comment

The latest chapter in the construction of the new extension on the UC Davis Chemistry Building, it’s nearly ready. I was going to hold off on sketching it until it was all done, but the light was nice as the sun was going down after work this week, with a properly active sky, I stood up on the ledge at Roessler Hall for a more elevated view. I hope I can get a look around inside once it’s done.

make me understand or i’ll forget

January 23, 2024Leave a comment

First two-page panorama of 2024, click on the image to go to my Flickr page and see it bigger. In fact you can see all of my two-page (or more-page) panorama drawings in one album there, currently 218 of them and counting. Cast my mind back ten years ago, I decided to go a little bit overboard with the two-page panorama sketching, I called it ‘Panoramarathon’, sometimes I called it ‘Januarama’ or whatever because they were mostly in January 2014, when I was for some reason ridiculously productive. I’ve been looking back at some of those and even doing ‘ten years later’ versions, I’ll post that later. I have drawn the scene above more than once or twice over the years, usually from slightly different angles. This one shows the Heitman ‘Hog Barn’ on the left as always, with a bit of the South Silo, the Bike Barn occluded by trees, those standing stone thingies, that big leaning tree and on the right, the newest bit, that Chemistry Building wing whose construction I’ve been following in my sketches for the past four years. One change from sketches made over a decade ago is there used to be another big tree to the left of the big one there, it had a more interesting shape to draw, but was unfortunately in the way of the path they wanted to make so off it went to the big carpentry shop in the sky. I like all the colours. I know I draw these scenes over and over, Davis is not that big and I always say I’m bored of drawing everything again, but if I lived in London or New York I’d probably get bored of that too wouldn’t I. I like drawing the changes, as we’ve established. But it is January and all I do think about is going somewhere very far away with my sketchbook and no hurry or schedule, especially when there’s a lot on your mind you just want to plough it into a book that you’re filling, that’s where I put all my ‘stuff’, my sketchbooks.

chemistry – latest news

October 28, 2023October 27, 2023Leave a comment

And so onto our favourite current construction project on campus, one that’s been going on for a very long time now, the Chemistry Building’s new wing. Last time out it had gone from green coverings to orange, and then into a very Fonzie-esque black leather with studs. Now the final cladding is going on and it’s a kind of fashionable grey rectangular tile pattern (a bit like the Tottenham stadium) which was being placed as you can see here. This being another in-progress view, it’s fun to look back on those in years to come, it will never look exactly like this again. I like this sort of documentation.

chemistry latest update

September 21, 2023Leave a comment

Time for an update on the Chemistry Building at UC Davis, since I can’t help but keep drawing it. If you’ve been following you may remember that they are building a great big wing on the side of the building, and in my last sketches it had been covered in some kind of lurid green plastic, before starting to morph into an orderly orange. As you can see from above it was completely orange, and the window spaces were covered in woodchip boards. Some vertical strips of shiny metal were also appearing, as this building reached a new stage in its long metamorphosis. I feel like I’m a nature documentary commentator, watching this building grow from a cocoon. It’s nature’s way.

Years ago, I posted a series of sketches showing part of what used to be this view in four different seasons of the year, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, with trees being the indicator of change, and the gleaming white building standing ever-present and unyielding in the background. You can see that here: https://petescully.com/2017/01/13/to-everything-turn-turn-turn/. I’m still here drawing. Those trees are gone now, and the building has changed. Things have to keep changing, to give me something to draw. As you can see above, the orange has given way to a new black skin, like a leather jacket, replete with shiny metal studs and more long metal strips. I observed this from a different angle, outside the old Hog Barn building. Below, you can see where I sketched the building again this week, stood in a different place near the Bike Barn, and by now the building has gone full Fonzie. Those metal spots look like stars. It’s a shame it won’t stay like this, but it would look out of place; Rock Hall is nearby and this would be the heavy metal wing. As you can see, it now has glass windows installed. I wish we could get a new building for our department, I’d help design it, and then spend most days sketching it until it was ready. This one is nearly ready. It needs to hurry up, I’m running out of angles to draw it from.

Chemistry Building latest news

July 23, 2023July 21, 2023Leave a comment

I have this compulsion to draw the construction projects on campus – it gives me something sort-of new to draw, and I can pretend I have some sort of special purpose or something, like I’m some sort of official documenter of change on this campus, when really I’m just obsessed with filling my sketchbook and find drawing relaxing. When I get a good lunchtime sketch done I feel satisfied and it propels me to be productive for the rest of the day. That’s what I tell myself anyway, but I remember noticing that in times when I was super busy at work, I also got more sketching done in my spare time than at other times of the year. Like in some Januarys, always one of the busiest times of the year, I would be drawing these big panoramas almost daily. Anyway, this is yet another update of the Chemistry Building’s new wing. As I write, the whole thing is now covered in orange. They covered it in green, then in orange, and the end result will be white, so the Irish flag is fully involved in this one. Incidentally, when I was in Scotland I witnessed some of the Orange marches for the first time ever, both in Edinburgh and in Glasgow, that was interesting (but nothing to do with the Chemistry building). I’m not sure when this building’s construction will be fully done, but rest assured there will be a sketch of it posted on this site, because I can’t help myself can I.

You can see the rest of the in-construction sketches of the Chemistry building, and all previous ones pre-reonovation, at: https://petescully.com/tag/chemistry/.

chemistry latest

June 4, 20231 Comment

Here’s my latest sketch of the Chemistry Building’s redevelopment, with this bright green covering going over that newly built wing, ahead of the final cladding going on top. In fact the whole thing is covered in green now, I should do an update. The green on my page is unusually bright. I used that very strong Daniel Smith Phthalo Yellow Green paint, which glows like something out of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Well it is the Chemistry building. I showed this to someone and they were shocked, thinking that this would somehow be the final colour of the building. I mean, I wish more fairly conservatively designed buildings had an out of place massive neon green wing attached to them, but it’s pretty unlikely we’d do that. It is Chemisty though so it would get a, haha, reaction, geddit. I can’t wait to see the end product though, I expect it will fit seamlessly with the rest of the building.

chemistry building, latest update

March 2, 2023February 27, 20232 Comments

I like drawing construction as you know. This particular project, the redevelopment of this side of the UC Davis Chemistry building, feels like it has been going on for hundreds of years. They started building the new wing itself fairly recently though, and the steel framework was being put in place in December, a good three years after I sketched the old walkway being demolished. Above, one of the steel beams being moved into place. It reminds me of playing Donkey Kong years ago, with little Mario running up the girders and jumping over barrels. My brother used to sit on the end of my bed and play that all night.

I drew the Chemistry building from a slightly different angle to get the last burst of that fire-red blossom in the view.

And the most recent attempt was earlier in February, when I drew from by those standing stones next to the Silo, but pretty much got bored with drawing so left it like this.

and it’s never gonna be the same

October 21, 20202 Comments

Still working from home, but coming to campus a couple of times a week at least to do stuff in the department, although the lack of people on campus really is depressing, the start of Fall quarter is usually about the buzz and energy of everyone being around, but there’s none of that this year, with most people working from home and most students taking their classes remotely. This is the Zoom Generation. What a year. Nobody really knows when this will end, but end it must, and construction goes on for when we are all back. I wonder what impact the pandemic will have on future architecture? I’d be interested to follow developments in the next few years with global pandemics in mind now that is a thing. In the meantime here are some sketches I did in the middle of September on the UC Davis campus of some of the ongoing construction projects. Above, Walker Hall, which is nearly ready. You can see all my other Walker Hall sketches at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/albums/72157678149480548. This will be the new Graduate Center, and I attended a virtual walkthrough last week which was really exciting. Last time I was in the building was two years ago when I was invited to sketch inside during reconstruction, I was able to explore the space and try not to fall through holes in the floor, and I got my photo of me sketching with the hard-hat which was what I really wanted. It’ll be great to see Walker Hall finally open. Here is the ongoing construction project at the Chemistry Building, that started at the end of 2019. This part of it anyway, the other parts of the huge building have been undergoing work for a few years already. You can see the sky was sorta blue on these days, the AQI was still high, but the smoky skies were intermittent. Not so on the day I drew the sketch below, when skies were dull and brownish/orange from smoke. I wasn’t outside for long, but I ate a sandwich at the Silo and stood outside to draw the view of the new Teaching and Learning Complex rising over the skyline. Building work keeps on going.