Video of Jim Urbina making a sand model

[Josh Smith]

How cool is this?  It made it onto another thread, but I felt like it deserved its own thread.  Click on this link to see Jim Urbina sculpting a small scale model of a green complex while at Old Macdonald.  

http://vimeo.com/3455358

Thanks to Will Smith for this.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Sooooo much harder on a clay site......

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks for posting this Josh. I really enjoyed the Pete Dye story. I couldn't help thinking though, that when someone like Jim digs around in the dirt they create a golf course, whilst when others dig around in the dirt what remains is something similar to what a dog usually leaves behind (sic!).

All the best

[Jon Wiggett]

I used to do the same when I was designing castles as a kid

Jon

[Jim Colton]

Name this hole:

[Emile Bonfiglio]

Clearly that is #12 at Augusta!

[Jeff Doerr]

Name this hole:

Number 7 at Ballyneal!!!

[BCrosby]

Must be the famous green at Myrtle Beach that is bounded by a milk carton-shaped bunker in front and a big blue UAV in the back?

[Frank Pont]

I think using 3d graphics works quite well to explain what you want done, both to the shaper, but maybe more importantly to the client, who will certainly not understand the sand box story that well.....

Here is an example I did in Sketchup and what we built in reality





With current computer power you can almost produce such a mock up in a couple of hours. Of course its different from reality, but I think it shows a lot.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Is no one frightened to say.......that video is totally embarassing..... or do you think its good?

[Jud_T]

I thought the video was excellent.  My guess is if more guys played in the sand, we'd all be better off.  I guess the trick is to take that sense of play and try and translate it to a computer or a drawing if necessary, but without losing the sense of movement or natural flow, which is clearly not the easiest thing to do.  Maybe that's why those guys are some of the best shapers and transition guys around.  They're literally out playing in the dirt and their moms never told 'em it was time to come in and have dinner with the grownups...

[BCrosby]

Any peek into the creative process of architects is useful and interesting. I thought the video was terrific, particularly the first several minutes.

Bob

[Ross Harmon]

Name this hole:

Wow. Great work Jim!

[Bill_McBride]

Name this hole:

Riviera #6

[Mark Hissey]

Is no one frightened to say.......that video is totally embarassing..... or do you think its good?

Jim does this all the time in the field. It is part of his creative process and he is brilliant at it.

Totally embarrassing? Not even remotely. You need to see these guys close up. They are brilliant and Jim is up there with the best of them.

So yes, it's not just good; it's great.

[Peter Pallotta]

I have to say, I too found it really good. I've never met Jim, don't know much about what he was doing or explaining, and can't understand how what he was doing here (in the video) could help him out there, building an actual green; but I've been around enough creative people in enough creative fields to know/sense that I was watching the unselfconscious and flowing movements of someone who's approaching 'effortless mastery' in his particular vocation -- and that in itself is worth it for me.

Peter

[Ally Mcintosh]

The video is far from embarrassing but it's no more than a nice little anecdotal ditty either. The key thing he mentions is the ability to visualise shapes and how they flow in to each other. All successful architects and shapers need that skill. Actually using the sand to come up with these shapes is by far the easiest method of assisting in this process, far easier than drawing them and far easier than just building them from your head. So if all aspiring GCA's on this forum were given a sandy site tomorrow (with no experience), it's probably the method they would use to get across a concept too.

[Tim Liddy]

I cannot resist to add to the conversation. Mr. Dye and I working on ideas this past week at Ford Plantation in Savannah. Sketching in the sand is such a great way to express 3 dimensional concepts. Graphic Thinking.

[Dan_Callahan]

It'll be time to worry when he starts sculpting Devil's Tower out of mashed potatoes.