introduction. 01 THE PERSON + THE DESIGN / cape town seattle + in between I am an urban designer and South African-American who grew up near Cape Town. My professional and academic experience spans work and projects in numerous countries: South Africa, United States, Canada, Panamá, the Bahamas, and the Netherlands. My primary career experience spans urban planning & design, architectural & landscape design, community engagement, transportation planning, and marketing. My secondary experience includes public-relations, political liaising, diversity management, event organizing, organizational structuring, and stakeholder engagement. I believe my international background, multidisciplinary acumen, diversity and social-responsibility credentials, and my intense passion for cities are most influential on my professional development. I graduated from the Masters of Community [Urban] Planning program at DAAP at the University of Cincinnati, OH in April 2017. ‘Linking the Lake,’ was my design thesis in transit-oriented, inner-city revitalization. Whilst working in conjunction with the City of Toronto and TO-Core [comprehensive plan for downtown Toronto], I proposed design solutions for the infrastructural disconnects between downtown and the burgeoning lake shore. I purposefully pursued this ambitious thesis to study that one thing that cities facing growth pressures often prize the most: sustainable, affordable, and inclusive, interconnected growth. Being a non-traditional student, I had prior experience in numerous design fields, but chose to pursue a concentration of urban design within urban planning.
CRUX / southern cross The smallest, but brightest constellation in the night sky; this gem of the southern hemisphere is unseen by most of the human race living in the north. Here at the bottom of Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, it is circumpolar, remaining in the night sky year round. This is the place I call home, located at a latitude of 34° south. To this place, the world’s fairest cape, I owe my formative years and creative inspiration.
Moving on to a new chapter in Seattle, I am excited to become part a city I have long desired to live in. Having targeted my career and geographic maneuvers to end up in the Pacific-Northwest, I hope to become a change-agent once more, as I was in South Africa. I want this region to become a North American beacon of urban resiliency and an example of commonsense, denser, more sustainable cities embracing tomorrow.
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urban design. 01
52º19’50’’N / 04º46’25’’E
AMSITY [schiphol aerocity] / amsterdam noord-holland netherlands 2018 | I was brought onboard as an urban planning and design contractor as part of a two-person team, to compile a comprehensive urban, transit, airport/ height restriction, and development analysis of a 617Ha [1,524 acres] developable parcel adjacent to this top-15 global airport hub. In addition to this, comparative analyses were done with smart-cities and aerocities around the world from South Korea, the U.A.E., to Singapore. Aviation and height restrictions heavily influenced the planning process and acted as a rigid design parameter. The scope broadened to include airside-terminal concepts, urban design, transit layout, and land-use concepts. The outcome was not only the comprehensive scoping and development analysis report, but also included models and urban and transport design concepts intended to shape the future of this multi-billion euro [€] development. The more advanced design phases of this project is ongoing and governmental approvals are being sought.
ABOVE/RIGHT: deconstructed site masterplan
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BELOW: main multi-modal thoroughfare cross-sections
BELOW: consolidated site overview
BELOW: pattern language of polder agriculture, city, and airport
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urban design. 02
43º38’40’’N / 79º22’50’’W
LINKING THE LAKE [thesis] / toronto ontario canada 2017 | Toronto has triple wicked urban problems: wide swathes of inner-city rail, an elevated urban freeway, and wide, pedestrian unfriendly, at-grade arterials. All this is within the heart of a burgeoning city known for its fiscal prudence. This is coupled with a growing housing unaffordability crisis and lack of inner-city developable land. Toronto’s primary urban activity zones straddle this arterial road and rail drosscape. The ‘TO-Core Downtown Comprehensive Plan’ seeks spatial unity and a reconnection to its gleaming and burgeoning lakefront. In consort with this framework, and the City of Toronto’s planning department, this design thesis created a ABOVE: cross-sections at Bay & Lower Simcoe Streets, showing new surface grade & underground infrastructural elements transit-oriented-development [TOD] solution above and around the infrastructure, unlocking 55,669 m2 (599,216 sqft) in horizontal developable space and significantly more urban-open-space opportunity. A new, grade adjusted, near-seamless, rail-capping street-level space is created out of underutilized airspace adjacent to Union Station and some of Toronto’s most desirable commercial and urban-residential real-estate. ABOVE: urban analysis, site maps, & cartography of the site
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ABOVE: branding/imagery
BELOW: new buildable area analysis
ABOVE: hand-sketches of the site when built out
ABOVE: overhead site rendering
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urban design. 03
38º12’36’’N / 84º33’41’’W
DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION PLAN / georgetown kentucky united states 2016 | Georgetown is ailing from a typical, middle-American urban ailment: oversupply of strip auto-oriented commercial, and a lack of life and investment in its historic downtown. Luckily, this small Kentucky city has a vast Toyota plant keeping it economically vibrant. With Lexington’s rapid growth, just 30-mins to the south, and attracting Toyota employees with their more diverse urban offerings, the Georgetown council approached the University of Cincinnati-DAAP community planning master’s studio to reimagine their downtown. Their wish was to retain talent and attract new residents by offering a vibrant, small-town, amenity-rich alternative. The Georgetown Revitalization Plan process included council meetings, public consultation meetings, presentation of urban analysis and design outcomes, plus the all-important downtown revitalization design and planning documentation and submittal to the mayor and council. The document was roundly accepted and the mayor was quoted saying, “The quality of service and document’s content was far superior to consultants we’ve hired before.” This resulted in neighboring Paris, KY embarking on the same process the following year. The portion I was personally charged with, N Water Street & Royal Spring Park street revitalization and urban park project, was given implementation preference by the council in 2017 and has gone out to tender. The downtown design was also awarded the APA: Ohio student project of the year 2016.
RIGHT: schematic masterplan of downtown Georgetown, new construction hypothesized in white
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BELOW: landscaping plan for streetscape & park improvements
BELOW: regional urban/rural analysis; defining logical growth boundaries
BELOW: botanical schedule/seasonal color-change infographic BELOW: regional traffic analysis
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urban design. 04
33º38’40’’S / 19º26’38’’E
HIGH STREET VISIONING / worcester western cape south africa 2011 | Experiencing urban blight and a capital exodus from the Worcester CBD, and with High Street in desperate need of upkeep and urban vision, a streetscape and urban revitalization scheme was designed. High Street as the main downtown thoroughfare, is plagued by heavy freight traffic, a pedestrian unfriendly environment, and chaotic public transit [minibus taxi] movements. This scheme proposed a road diet, without negatively impacting parking ratios. The 8,100 linear feet of streetscape redesign included new hard and soft landscaping, a formalized informal street market row at Church Square and new lanes for public transit stops. The design also proposed replacing normal intersections with fountain-centered traffic circles (roundabouts). Improved street and pedestrian lighting and bollards were included therein. This formed part of the initial design works of the Breede Valley Partnership, in conjunction with the Breede Valley Municipality, Worcester Tourism Association, and Worcester Business Chamber. This vision has not yet secured the necessary government funding. However, it positively influenced the argument for the adoption of the now extant Business Improvement District, and its continued efforts to implement urban improvements.
RIGHT/OVERLEAF: CAD detail / hard-landscape plan
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BELOW/OVERLEAF: aerial rendering of the streetscape vision for High Street
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urban design. 05
33º38’32’’S / 19º26’37’’E
CHURCH STREET & SQUARE VISIONING / worcester western cape south africa 2010 | Church Street is the historic heart of the Worcester CBD. It too, is plagued by under-utilization by potential touristic and retail activity. This is often attributed to social ills and a less-than-ideal urban environment. Compared to other Western Cape historic centers, it looks poorly kept. The Worcester Business (chamber) and Tourism Association with the Breede Valley Partnership envisioned a redesign.
BELOW/ADJACENT: CAD detail & hard landscape plan for Church Street
This would entail improving the streetscape through road diets, allowing for larger pedestrian and al fresco dining pavement areas, improved lighting, more harmonious and historically sensitive paved surfaces, slowing traffic speeds, and faux-square creation at intersections. These designs were presented to the aforementioned entities, the Breede Valley Municipality and Genesis Project steering committees. Adjacent is the urban open space of Church Square at 4 Ha (9.9 acres) in size and is the spatial and cultural heart of Worcester. The impressive Dutch-Reformed Mother Church anchors its northern flank. Sadly, it is windswept, seldom utilized and poorly landscaped. A redesign was proposed under the same aforementioned NGO’s and council. Sight lines needed to be preserved along the High Street-Mother Church axis through the Garden of Remembrance. To become a urban open space worthy of use, humans needed to feel protected by landscaping on the east and west flanks with various mountain sight line pathways with seating alcoves and nooks. A grand space would adorn the Mother Church approach. These designs were presented to these NGO’s and the Breede Valley municipal planning department.
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RIGHT: Church Square hard landscape CAD plan
BELOW: placemaking & destination branding signage
LEFT: Church Square soft landscape CAD plan
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urban design. 06
33º41’02’’S / 19º18’37’’E
VAN RIEBEECK STREET VISIONING / rawsonville western cape south africa 2010 | The village of Rawsonville in the Cape Winelands faces numerous transportation, built-environment design, and economic challenges. The Breedekloof Tourism Association lamented the unsightly main thoroughfares and their negative contribution to place-building. Land-use is haphazard, lending to questionable aesthetics, despite numerous historic structures. Van Riebeeck and Brand Streets form the main arteries through the village, unfortunately under the jurisdiction of the provincial department of transport, with little local control. If the community was to realize its potential as a wine agri-tourism hub, the streetscape needed to have some sense of place. It was envisioned that the streets be reconstructed as ‘rural village main street,’ rather than the current situation of ‘village interrupting a provincial highway.’ Traffic calming measures of raised crosswalks and intersections with varied pavement materials was proposed, and much needed soft landscaping was added to the foliage-devoid streetscape. A B.I.D. was envisioned with building aesthetic/design guidelines, both working in consort with infrastructural improvements to catalyze further placemaking. The designs formed part of the Local Integrated Transportation Plan [LITP] package and was submitted to the Provincial Government of the Western Cape. The local municipality lacked funding and vision to carry out the moving of utilities; therefore, soft landscaping was significantly limited in the final scheme. Aurecon was announced a preferred bidder and the project was completed in 2017. RIGHT/OPPOSITE: aerial render of Rawsonville’s main thoroughfare
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BEFORE
AFTER
LEFT: quick depiction of street-lighting & landscape improvements
ABOVE/ADJACENT: 2010 aerial [top] & 2018 aerial [below]
ABOVE: CAD detail of Van Riebeeck-Brand Street intersection
ABOVE: placemaking & destination branding signage
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urban design. 07
39º06’20’’N / 84º33’21’’W
INCLINE DISTRICT [PRICE HILL] / cincinnati ohio united states 2016 | In the planning masters Urban Design Practicum, each group of students was to select a hillside neighborhood in inner-Cincinnati, and address a lack of development by overturning topography as geographic divide and turning it into an economic and urban design asset. Price Hill was selected just west of downtown and its pejoratives were turned on its head by proposing giving it the ‘urban grunge-chic & art’ treatment. Along with the utilization of the western hill-scarp for a boardwalk mixed-use development and re-installation of the Price Hill Incline Rail, the plan was to turn the neighborhood into a destination district. New intra-neighborhood nodes were proposed. These interventions, along with special zoning overlays, urban realm upgrades at targeted nexus, and an economic catalytic project to revitalize the edge of the hill, aimed to facilitate growth and reinvigorate community identity and uniqueness.
TOP-RIGHT: hand-sketch urban vision for Grand-Price Place neighborhood node NEAR-RIGHT: aerial concept for Grand-Price Place FAR-RIGHT: proposed adaptive parking/open-space concept & intersection improvements for St. Lawrence Square
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ABOVE: general area & zoning map TOP-RIGHT: precinct wayfinding design & proposed street lighting BOTTOM-RIGHT: north-south cross-section of Incline District & boardwalk looking from the east [bottom of hill]
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urban planning. 08
33º43’52’’S / 18º58’24”E
BERG RIVER CORRIDOR / paarl western cape south africa 2012 | Paarl is the third largest city in the Western Cape [pop. 190,000], with a unique setting amongst vineyards along the Berg River. It remains plagued by the Apartheid Urban Construct; the river is used to divide rather than bind. The city looks away, rather than towards the river, employing an underutilized, industrial and warehousing district to drive a ethnic wedge through the urban area along the river. In discussions with the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership, a wish was expressed to develop this corridor as a spatial bridge over the real and metaphorical divide. There was a logical want to use the attractive Berg River as a corridor for improvement and cohesion, rather than a method of division. This was an unsolicited proposal that was published by urban think-tank, Future Cape Town. It aims to bring commercial, industrial, market-rate and affordable housing to the corridor. It also makes NMT and Metrorail transit improvements, alongside road connectivity enhancements between west and east Paarl. As of 2019, only a limited amount of the projects envisioned have been implemented by the Drakenstein Municiplaity [govt. seat: Paarl].
RIGHT/OPPOSITE: development & transit corridor plan
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urban[rural] planning. 0933º41’58’’S / 19º16’27’’E FAIRHILLS AGRI-VILLAGE / rawsonville western cape south africa 2009 | South Africa’s turbulent Apartheid history has left much of the majority land-poor, as the 1917 Land Act restricted non-European land ownership. Redress was sought through policy interventions by the South African Department of Rural Development & Land Restitution. Two elements thereof was to empower current farm workers, granting them shared ownership of the agricultural production and broadening tenure and land rights. As part of the largest FairTrade project of its kind on the African continent, the aim of the Fairhills Association was to create an agri-village. This would grant agricultural workers security of tenure on their own communally [trust] owed land, with their own homes, small-scale economic enterprises and civic services. It was also designed in a manner to minimize energy usage, utilize gray-water, ensure greater climate resiliency, and foster community economic independence. This design was approved by FairTrade South Africa and presented to the aforementioned national government department for [LRAD] ‘Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development’ program funding. Unfortunately, in the year following design submittal, the LRAD program exhausted national government funding. However, Fairhills Association managed to implement parts of the empowerment plan and development mandate, outlined in this plan, in other locations in a more deconcentrated method.
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RIGHT: agri-village cottage-housing rendering
BELOW: 3 bedroom unit plan
BELOW: 2 bedroom unit plan [render]
BELOW: 1 bedroom unit plan
BELOW: color coded plan for the Fairhills agri-village
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urban analysis. 10
08º57’10’’N / 79º32’15’’W
‘CASCO VIEJO’ ANALYSIS / ciudad de panamá [city] panamá 2016 | Tasked by a socially responsible developer, specializing in historic neighborhood revitalization of El Chorrillo, Santa Ana, and San Felipé in Ciudad de Panamá [Panama City], our team of three performed an in-depth urban and historic analysis of Casco Viejo [Old Town]. This old sector of Panama is designated World Heritage Site. The study included an analysis of developable parcel potential, historic structure revitalization potential, landmark-building viewsheds, traffic flow, parking, and pedestrian walkability analyses. In addition, basic urban morphology, like nodes, paths, edges, and intra- and inter-neighborhood connectivity were carefully assessed. We delivered a comprehensive document of development and historic revitalization recommendations, including long-term integration and connectivity into greater Panama City. The analysis would inform numerous, restorative, multi-million dollar developments for years to come in Casco Viejo.
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RIGHT: general map of Casco Veijo, relative elevation, buildings, & parks BELOW-RIGHT: pedestrian priority given by thoroughfare BELOW: Casco Viejo nodes & corridors
LEFT: viewshed map of landmark building line-of-sight RIGHT: development & revitalization potential map with 500 m & 1,000 m radii to Metro station
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transport plannning. 01 33º38’41’’S / 19º26’41’’E LITP | TRANSPORTATION FRAMEWORK / breede valley western cape south africa 2009 | The Breede Valley has numerous transportation challenges, pertaining to lack of capacity on roads, dangerous at-grade intersections, high pedestrian fatalities, few public and non-motorized transit [NMT] options, and a backlog of maintenance. These issues informed the LITP [Local Integrated Transport Plan], an unsolicited proposal for the Province of the Western Cape, that covered the sub-governmental region of the Breede Valley. The designs focused on improving NMT connectivity, traffic flow on arterials, reducing vehicle speeds in pedestrian-priority areas, proposing vital heavy-vehicle bypasses, and looking at public transit options. Proposed provincial road rehabilitation designs were meant to catalyze local, rural, economic investment, in addition to improving decaying infrastructure. During 2010, when the Western Cape provincial government was revising its own LITP, this unsolicited proposal was presented to the Department of Transport, Department of Economic Development and the Breede Valley Municipality. Eventually, the ideas and projects proposed herein was assimilated into the official LITP. As of 2019, infrastructural projects worth approximately ZAR 1.5-billion had been built in the Breede River Valley. Projects can be directly traced back to the original vision of the unsolicited LITP published a decade earlier.
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TOP-RIGHT: Transportation framework plan for Worcester & immediate environs BOTTOM-RIGHT: N1/R101 interchange redesign
ABOVE-RIGHT: The LITP master plan map RIGHT: Local Integrated Transport Plan [LITP] cover and content pages
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maps & graphics. 01
47º36’15’’N / 122º19’50’’W
SEATTLE / CASCADIA MAPS / seattle washington united states 2018 | A series of graphic-rich, highly topographically detailed maps were made for a range of locations around the world. These cartographic representations were not meant to be used for navigational purposes, as this role has been taken over by digital maps. These are works of ‘map art.’ These are maps for map enthusiasts, and for those who want to have their favorite geographic location on vivid display. Data used includes OpenStreetMap, NASA SRTM 30 m elevation data, local government mapping & surveying agencies, and Google Maps/ Earth. Programs employed were ArcGIS 15, ArcGIS-Pro, and Photoshop for finishing and detailing. Maps range from being a near constant 41-inches wide to a minimum of 55-inches to maximum of 72-inches in length.
RIGHT: figure-ground and tranportation map of Seattle OPPOSITE: Vancouver portion of the 1:300,000 Cascadia [W Washington / SW B.C. topographical map - not depicted at scale
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maps & graphics. 02
33º55’16’’S / 18º25’43’’E
CAPE TOWN / W. CAPE MAPS / cape town western cape south africa 2016 | Included titles in this map series: REGIONAL MAPS // New Zealand / 1:1,000,000 Tasmania / 1:325,000 Victoria [Melbourne & Environs] / 1:300,000 Western Cape [Cape Town & Environs] / 1:300,000 W Oregon & SW Washington / 1:300,000 W Washington & SW British Columbia / 1:300,000 Hawaiian Islands / 1:300,000 URBAN MAPS // Wellington, New Zealand Cape Town, South Africa Rejkjavik, Iceland Pittsburgh, PA, United States Cincinnati, OH, United States Seattle, WA, United States
RIGHT: Cape Town map in a ‘blueprint’ style of all roads, transit, and property lines OPPOSITE: full sample view of 1:300,000 Western Cape topographical map - not depicted at scale
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maps & graphics. 03
39º07’54’’S / 84º31’08’’E
UNIV. OF CINCINNATI VIEWSHED ANALYSIS / cincinnati ohio united states 2017 | Despite the outcome being a viewshed analysis of this architecturally diverse campus, the actual goal was to discover new, potentially revolutionary methods of displaying urban analyses through maps and infographics. In addition to the new graphic depiction of viewsheds, another method of determining the visual impact of landmarks was devised: viewcast. Where the viewshed is from the perspective of the observer, and viewcast is from the perspective of the landmark. Thus, a viewcast is the lit area cast as if the landmark were a light source, areas in darkness are therefore not visible from the landmark. Another goal of the project was to utilize as many graphics programs as possible. To depict these images, the following were used: Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, & Illustrator; SketchUp & V-Ray; AutoDesk CAD; and ESRI ArchGIS.
RIGHT: light-cast version of depicting the viewcast of landmarks on campus FAR RIGHT: deconstructed [stacked] map of all landmark visibility sheds
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LEFT: additional graphic depictions, including viewroses to display declination and distance in urban voids; plus panoramas of these locations, as well as V-Ray simulations of viewsheds and viewcasts
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architecture. 01
28º33’50’’N / 81º35’30’’W
PARK & PLANT / winter garden florida united states 2007 | The client bought a prominent corner lot on the eastern edge of Winter Garden’s central business district; the corner of Park and Plant streets became the project’s namesake. The design brief was to design a mixed-use building, in adherence with the traditional ‘main street Americana’ look-and-feel of this small downtown. I focused on making the design temporally ambiguous, rather than make an individual architectural statement. I wanted this downtown’s growth to feel organic and non-contrived. It was subsequently awarded the Orlando Business Journal’s ‘new property development of the month’ in March 2007. The developer approved the design; however, the real-estate crash of 2008 resulted in the project being canceled. I was the lead designer of this project under the employ of JWB Architects.
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RIGHT/OPPOSITE: sketch elevations with the facade floorplan for reference. Logical layout with the West Elevation to the right was swapped for portfolio formating purposes.
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architecture. 02
33º36’57’’S / 19º26’35’’E
FAIRWAY HEIGHTS HOUSE / worcester western cape south africa 2012 | The client bought an oddly-shaped triangular plot in an exclusive golf estate development in Worcester. The site is steep, sloping quite precipitously from the plot’s rear down to the south-east towards the cul-de-sac. It boasts panoramic views of the golf course, town and valley. The client asked that the house have some contemporary flair on a general, neo-traditional aesthetic. The views took design preference in orientation and natural light capture. An open planned living area, wrapping around a central fire place, is situated frontand-center on the 2nd floor. A kitchen is situated aft taking advantage of easy, at-grade access out back, with outdoor life centered around the large front deck and the built-in braai [South African barbecue]. The large garage and workspace is located on the 1st floor, further elevating the home to take full advantage of the natural slopes and the views. The master bedroom and TV-Room [S. African for ‘family room’] is on the 3rd floor, opening with glass French-doors and ample windows to a north-facing sun-deck [southern hemisphere sun tracks north]. Placement of sun-awnings and windows are strategic, taking the sun’s track into consideration for energy conservation, in this hot-summer Mediterranean [Köppen: Csa] to cool semi-arid climate [Köppen: Bsk]. The elevations and floorplans were handed to the client for further consideration, awaiting their repatriation from Saudi Arabia.
RIGHT: elevations
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BELOW: colored floorplans [US-nomenclature: story or floor]
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landscape arch’. 01
33º57’30’’S / 18º47’48’’E
WILD MUSHROOM BOUTIQUE HOTEL / stellenbosch western cape south africa 2011 | The owners of the Wild Mushroom Boutique Hotel bought a historic, rural homestead and required a manicured garden to mirror the grand building and its picturesque surroundings. The design brief was exceedingly complex, with differing themed areas within one expansive garden on a sloped site. The piazza courtyard needed to have a Mediterranean feel; the front lawn, a English-formal, genteel atmosphere; the owner’s garden to the north required an indigenous, Bushveld savanna theme; a Japanese-inspired zen-like sanctuary was proposed south of the new hotel; and, the pool area required a warm, sub-tropical atmosphere. The unlikely juxtaposition of incongruent outdoor spaces was a complex one. The sloped site, making it a complex project, was a saving grace in making a seemingly incongruent design-brief, work. Levels with retaining walls became not only a feature of interest, but a method to compartmentalize outdoor spaces without absolute division. This enabled complexity in the landscape to be viewed as a mosaic of themes, rather than stylistic confusion and chaos. Due to the hefty capital investment in the landscaping, day and night visual impact was a key requirement ensuring universal use. Therefore, landscape lighting was extensive, impressive and awe-inspiring. The total PPP-adjusted project expenditure amounted to whopping $75,000 [PPP: 4.774: ZAR-USD 2011]; in a nation with very inexpensive labor, construction and botanical materials.
RIGHT: landscape overview CAD plans; botanical-trees, botanical-shrubs, hard-landscaping, and electrical plans on separate sheets [not shown]
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BELOW-LEFT: before
BELOW-RIGHT: after
BELOW-LEFT: the pool area to the front entrance after a few years BELOW-RIGHT: the ‘owners garden’ indigenous-Bushveld garden enclave
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