ABIGAIL FIALA landscape architecture portfolio
abigail fiala afiala@ksu.edu 314.780.0690 905 Bluemont Ave. Apartment A Manhattan, KS 66506
Venice, Italy
Education
Kansas state university Master’s of Landscape Architecture, Class of 2017 Dean’s Italian Studies Scholarship 2016 Ealy Scholarship Recipient 2016-2017
relevant experience smithgroupjjr
Landscape Architecture Intern | Chicago, Illinois | May - August 2016 Responsibilities include creating illustrative plans, graphics, and renderings; performing punch lists and site visits, attending client and office meetings, creating construction documents, collaborating with landscape architects and architects on design projects. I worked on a variety of project types from small-scale site design to higher education master planning.
bartlett & west Landscape Architecture Intern | Lawrence, Kansas | May - August 2014 Responsibilities included interacting with clients on a variety of projects, attending client meetings, creating 3D models, creating construction documents, and creating design concepts for projects including bus shelters, community college campuses, and military bases.
campus involvement scasla
Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects | Member 2015 - Present Student Liaison | Spring 2016 - Present Coordinate with members of Prairie Gateway ASLA Chapter and plan Alumni events
kappa alpha theta sorority Member August 2012 - May 2016 Recruitment Guide | January 2015 - August 2016 Served as a mentor and guide to a group of 30 incoming freshmen and sophomores during the process of formal Sorority Recruitment. Acted as a counselor and provided comfort and advice to women struggling with their transition to college life and educated women on Kansas State’s Panhellenic organizaitons. Recruitment Director | January 2014 - January 2015 Planned and executed the week prior to and week of formal sorority recruitment at Kansas State. Managed a $5,000 budget, coordinated the schedules of 150 women, and led leadership and team building activities during the week of recruitment. Filmed and edited official recruitment video, and successfully recruited 62 new members to Kappa Alpha Theta.
student homecoming committee Committee Member | April 2014 - August 2016 Assisted with the planning and execution of the week of Homecoming at Kansas State University. Reached out to KSU Alumni and community members to market the events of the week, organized and facilitated competitive events during Homecoming
work experience Bourbon and Baker | Server | Manhattan, KS | April 2015 - Present K-State Recreational Services | Group Fitness Instructor | Manhattan, KS | February 2014 - Present
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Life/Death Landscape 7 First Christian Church 13 Northwestern University Jacobs Center 19 Block4 23 Parcels and Peppers 29 The Orvieto Public Art Project 35 Artwork
Olympiapark, Munich: Waterfront Munich, Germany | 2016
life/death landscape Manikarnika Ghat is a small site along the Ganges river in Varanasi, India and is considered to be the holiest cremation ghat on the Ganges. According to Hindu beliefs, if your ashes are spread in the Ganges river after your death, you will be free from the cycle of reincarnation and achieve Nirvana. It is because of this that millions of tourists and religious pilgrims visit the ghat each year to witness the cremation ceremonies and say goodbye to their loved ones who have passed.
Life/Death Landscape is a design solution for Manikarnika Cremation Ghat in Varanasi, India that takes an unorganized, messy, and dangerous holy space and popular tourist destination and transforms it into a space where religious ceremonies, pilgrimages, everyday activities, and tourism activities can take place all while respecting the tradition of cremation on the ghat. Large, flexible multi-level spaces create areas that react to the Ganges River’s frequent changes in water level while also providing useable areas for all types of visitors to the ghat.
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LIFE/DEATH LANDSCAPE Completed: Fall 2015 Team Size: 1 Student Location: Varanasi, India Project Type: Cultural Medium: Photoshop, SketchUp, Illustrator, Sketching Site Plan
Open Space in Monsoon Season
Open Space in Dry Season
Circulation by Use
Wood Storage Zones
Boat Docking Zones
Cremation Zones
Meditative Zones
design for flexibility Manikarnika Ghat experiences a vast amount of change in water level throughout the year. Designing for a variety of programs and creating multipurpose spaces is vital to the success and organization of the Ghat.
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design with sensitivity Manikarnika Ghat is one of the holiest cremation sites in India. Access to the Ganges River and ample space for families to process to the water is vital to the cremation process. Spaces that allow river access at any season make this process easier for the families and those performing the ceremony.
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Vienna, Austria | 2016
first christian church First Christian Church of Manhattan, KS is a project that was carried through conceptual development into design documentation. The steep grade change of the site presented many challenges when creating a planting palette and series of construction documents, but the final product embodies a journey through the native Kansas landscape to a hill retreat where
members of First Christian Church can find comfort in nature and focus on faith. Construction documents for this project included a grading plan, layout and dimensioning plan, earthwork diagram, end area earthwork sections, irrigation plan, planting plan, irrigation plan, and construction details.
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first christian church Completed: Fall 2014 Spring 2015 Team Size: 1 Student (Grading Plan: 3 Students) Location: Manhattan, KS Project Type: Site Design Construction Documents and Details Medium: Photoshop, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Vue, Illustrator
keeping things native The site for Manhattan Christian Church is located on a hill overlooking the rest of the town and therefore is a perfect place for quiet reflection. Native plantings, Kansas prairie grasses, and wildflowers create a retreat-like experience removed from the town that allows patrons to be at one with nature.
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Grading & Earthwork Estimation Plan
Layout & Dimensioning Plan
Wood Decking Detail
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Chicago, Illinois | 2016
northwestern university
jacobs center As part of an ongoing design competition at SmithGroupJJR, interns worked in pairs with partners from a dierent discipline to create a conceptual design for the Jacobs Center building at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The concept developed for the Jacobs Center site is to transform the outdoors and bring it inside as well as create connections between the building
and historic Deering Meadow to the south through dynamic planting forms that create activity nodes such as study space, cafĂŠ areas, and lounge seating for students and faculty in the exterior space. Carrying these dynamic amoebic forms through to the interior to a central greenhouse-inspired fourstory interior courtyard inside the building ties the site and building together.
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Northwestern university
SHERIDAN ROAD
jacobs center Completed: Summer 2016 with SmithGroupJJR Team Size: 2 Student Interns Location: Evanston, Illinois Project Type: Building Renovation & Site Scale Design Medium: Photoshop, AutoCAD Civil 3D, SketchUp, Lumion, Sketching
FOSTER STREET
north
jacobs center
making a main street Northwestern University’s campus lacks substantial East-West connections from the CTA Purple Line stop on Foster St. to the inner campus to the east. Creating a Main Street Corridor on the southern facade of the Jacobs Center will bring students into campus and provide a Gateway visible from 16 Sheridan Road.
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Florence, Italy | 2016
block4 Located o of 4th St. in Manhattan, KS, Block 4 is a mixed-use development created for the CLARB Wayne Grace Memorial Design Competition designed to encompass how landscape architectural design can positively influence the economic sustainability of a neighborhood. The design of both the building and surrounding site of Block 4 was based on six benefits of economically sustainable design: - Creating a sense of identity - Reducing maintenance cost through strategic design
- Reducing running costs for homes and businesses - Increasing productivity in the workplace - Increasing retail activity and tourism - Increasing property value and renal rates By implementing a design that embodies the entirety of the site and provides a variety of green spaces ranging from a public plaza to private green roofs, the community can gain the six benefits of landscape architecture and improve its economic sustainability.
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block4 Completed: Spring 2015 Team Size: 3 Students Location: Manhattan, KS Project Type: Mixed-Use Development
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Medium: Illustrator, Photoshop, AfterEects, Premiere, ArcGIS, SketchUp
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green from every window The driving concept for Block4 was to provide visitors and residents with a wide variety of public and private green space environments for them to fully benefit from the surrounding landscape architecture.
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St. Louis, Missouri | 2015
parcels and peppers Parcels and Peppers is a strategic plan for the City of St. Louis that addresses the issue of vacancy and abandonment within the urban environment. This project received an ASLA Central States Award of Excellence for its success as “a tool for city planners and residents to understand the richness & complexity of the city’s vacant lands and their opportunities for transformation.” City planners were given an encyclopedia of over sixty different strategies and ideas for
transforming vacant and abandoned spaces within the city at a variety of scales ranging from “mild” and easily achievable to “spicy” largescale development projects as well as a marketing plan for the city that involved a way to crowdsource information on vacant lots in various neighborhoods. Parcels and Peppers could become a starting point for transforming the City of St. Louis and other urban areas facing the same issues.
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parcels and peppers Completed: Summer 2015 Team Size: All-Studio Location: St. Louis, MO Project Type: Planning/ Urban Design Medium: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, ArcGIS
CRITICAL MAPPING A series of maps showcase the eect abandonment and vacancy in cities can have on student performance. Students living within 0.5 miles of a vacant or abandoned parcel in St. Louis score 5-10 points lower on the ACT than students who do not.
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spice scale Strategies for addresing vacancy are organized by “spiciness� and accompanied by photomontages and supporting matrices that provide more detail about how they could be implemented in the City of St. Louis
Photomontage: Transit Oriented Development
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Orvieto, Italy | 2016
the orvieto public art project Orvieto, Italy is home to centuries of history and is visited by thousands of tourists each year for its rich art and architectural culture. Despite its many galleries, studios, and artistic destinations the city lacks any form of public art. The Orvieto Public Art Project is a framework plan identifying potential locations for future art installations that provides a history and material inventory of several sites within the city to be used by local artists as inspiration for public art in Orvieto. The Duomo di Orvieto, the city’s mostvisited historical and religious
tourist attraction, lies in a piazza with little program. The Orvieto Veil is an art installation and kinetic sculpture that attaches itself to the north side of the Duomo and acts as a symbolic continuation of the Duomo’s façade as well as a pavilion roof, seating element, and light feature. This installation transforms the Piazza del Duomo from a simple plaza containing a church to an unforgettable celebration of the Orvieto Cathedral and acts as a physical representation of the church’s namesake, Mary of the Assumption.
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the orvieto public art project Completed: Spring 2016 Team Size: 1 Student Location: Orvieto, Italy Project Type: Framework Plan/Art Installation Medium: Watercolor, Colored Pencil, Ink
framework mework plan
A map p of the city calls out several potential ntial locations for future art installations llations as well as provides an inventory ntory of materials on-site and highlights ights a prominent landmark nearby. by.
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via duo mo piazza del duomo
orvieto veil The Orvieto Veil is inspired by kinetic sculpture and the work of Ned Kahn. The structure shimmers and moves with the wind, representing the namesake of the Orvieto Cathedral, the Assumption of Mary.
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Venice, Italy | 2016
artwork Painting and creative expression is a part of what defines who I am as a landscape architect. I express myself through my art and have been painting for over ten years. I often find that my art informs my designs and vice versa. It often expresses visually what I cannot achieve merely with words.
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artwork Completed: Various Dates Medium: Watercolor, Oil, Acrylic, Mixed Media
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Capri, Capr Ca pri, pr i IItaly i, taly ta ly y | 20 2016 16 6