ADRIAN SHARP
PORTFOLIO
RESUME
ADRIAN SHARP
ADDRESS : 709 46th St. S. . Birmingham . AL . 35222 EDUCATION
Master of Landscape Architecture Auburn University . May 2012 Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design Auburn University . Graduated May 2010 Certificate of Study in French L’Institute Catholique de Paris . Summer 2008
TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY
EXPERIENCE
Adobe Suite CS5: Photoshop . Microsoft Office: Word In Design PPT Illustrator Excel . . Digital Photography Google Sketchup ESRI GIS
.
Landscape Designer & Project Manager Sub-contracting with Adams Gerndt Design Group in the design of a 3 acre lakehouse property that was destroyed by the April tornados. Provided with the task of creating a resilient landscape while equally fostering social identity.
Lake Martin, AL
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Current
Freelance Landscape & Garden Design
Birmingham, AL
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2008-present
Birmingham, AL
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2008-2010
Autocad
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Fluent in French
Worked on various individual projects throughout the city of Birmingham; grading sites, establishing gardens, and implementing design/build elements. Landscape Design/ Gardening Worked for Clayton Richards, LLC as a site coordinator for garden design projects. Built a diverse range of perennial and rose gardens, managed the construction of such elements as retaining walls, hardscapes, and built structures, and directed the general design integrity through the construction process. Study Abroad
Paris, France
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Summer 2008
Studied French at L’Institute Catholique de Paris in July 2008. Traveled extensively through European cities including Barcelona, Cannes, Lyon, Geneva, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, and Vienna.
AWARDS/ HONORS
Skinner Scholarship Auburn University Board of Trustees Scholarship College of Architecture, Design and Construction Award Semifinalist - One Prize - Mowing to Growing Competition Boykin Community Center Outreach Design Award Center for the Living Arts Charette Leader Outstanding Project Exhibition - Suburbia Transformed 2.0 Competition Landscape Architecture Honor Society Sigma Lambda Alpha ASLA Award of Merit - Alabama Chapter
REFERENCES
Rod Barnett David Hill Michael Robinson
Contact Information
Phone: 334-884-5449 Phone: 334-844-5434 Phone: 334-844-5486
Phone: (205) 994-5734
Fax: 334-844-5419 Fax: 334-844-5419 Fax: 334-844-5419
2006 2006, 2009 2010 2010 2011 2012 2012 2012 2012 rod.barnett@auburn.edu hill@auburn.edu mrobinson@auburn.edu
Email: adrianrsharp@gmail.com
01
‘PROJECTS’ PROJECT
02
HOBSON CITY GROWTH PLAN
03
AFRICATOWN STATE PARK
SPRING 2010
FALL 2009
SUMMER 2011
04
DAUPHIN STREET LOT
05
SUBURBIA INFILTRATED
06
THESIS - ENTERING THE INTERSPACE
FALL 2011
Spring 2012
FALL 2011- SPRING 2012
CONTACT INFORMATION EMAIL: adrianrsharp@gmail.com
PHONE: (205) 994 5734
MOTON PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECT
SEMIFINALIST - ONE PRIZE Mowing to Growing Design Competition
Auburn, AL
Receiving funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, the Moton Public Housing Project, part of HUD programs in Auburn, AL, sought to build a safer, family-friendly environment for its residents, while cultivating the idea of the landscape as a performative piece within community. The design strategy acknowledges a range of important factors dealing with security such as thresholds, open space, and lines of sight, while a deeper intent to bridge connections between social and ecological qualities the sight has to offer became paramount in the objectives. Broad porches and front gathering spaces, dictated by the layout of the buildings, encourages strong social relationships between neighbors, while supplying distinct degrees of ownership to the various spaces. The purple martin became the target species in an effort to promote diverse environments for those species likely to share certain niches within the landscape, thereby increasing ecological and interactive robustness between tenants’ and their surrounding environment. 3.36 acres of lawn that was once cut on a weekly basis have now been replaced with native grasses and wildflowers that only need maintenance on a yearly basis. These grasses and wildflowers provide much needed habitat for birds and small mammals that have been neglected during the development of the typical low income housing project.
01.1
90%
of the existing site is typical turf, providing little to no wildlife habitat
MOTON PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECT
The project appeals to the landscape as not only a place at which assorted ecologies meld together, but as a place in which the potential for social and cultural progress is rich. The landscape is constituted by spaces in which all the factors in the communal realm meet, and therefore fosters a complexity of relationships that could not emerge in the privacy of the interior. The possibilities created by a purposeful landscape encouraging interaction and community engagement are crucial to those transitioning into another chapter of their lives.
01.2
A dense woodland through the center of the site helps to de-institutionalize and demarcate spaces, eliminating the bleakness these types of bureaucratically driven environments tend to foster.
HOBSON CITY FUTURE DEVELOPMENT PLAN Hobson City, AL Established in 1901 as the first AfricanAmerican municipality in Alabama and recognized by the National Register of Historic Places, Hobson City was a once thriving community actively committed to the advancement of its citizens in a time afflicted by inequalities. An historic park and cemetery, as well as school and once prosperous commercial district existed here. Due to poor governance over the previous few decades, the town has entered into a period of economic hardship. Myself and other students in MLA studio took on this project with the goals of preserving and stimulating a significantly historic community. A series of boards and models were presented to community members and the mayor, and plans were drawn out to bolster H.C. as an example of a self-sustainable, selfgoverning community in the 21st Century.
02
A once prosperous African-American municipality outside Oxford, AL, Hobson City has lost much of its populace in recent decades, leaving a richly historic area disconnected from its cultural heritage.
Democratic Design: In meeting with the mayor and city council members, the democratic process in design of public space was an integral concept. The studies were geared towards illustrating broader ecological and economic assets the community possess, and how they can begin to stimulate new ideas into the future development of that community. The creation of a trailhead to the Appalachian Trail, business incubators, and storm water management strategies were a few of the key discussion elements these designs motivated.
AFRICATOWN STATE PARK Pritchard, AL Downtown Pritchard is about 10 miles Northwest of Mobile, and represents a district marginalized in nearly every aspect of public life. While the current economic and social trends are discouraging for the community, a rich illustrative history exists here that is unique to its place in American culture. The community was first established by former African slaves, the last to be brought into the Americas illegally in 1860, at the onset of the civil war. Their relatively short exploitation into slavery allowed this diverse range of Africans to retain their existing heritage and establish a free locality based on mutual cultural customs. Using land originally part of the Africatown settlement, the city of Pritchard is currently founding a state park. It is their intention to establish a new revenue stream for the city as well as the hopes that the park will become a major tourist attraction for the Mobile metropolitan area.
03.1
Zip lines, towers, and elevated trails allow one to engage with the environment from different levels. Birdwatchers and outdoor enthusiasts can observe migratory species from an ideal vantage point.
The land being mostly in a floodplain along Chicasabogue Creek offers a wide contrast in environments and a variety of potential both ecologically as well as recreationally. The designs development ushered in a series of elevated trails, biking paths, viewing towers, and zip lines, while addressing access to the creek as a main point of intersect between recreational and ecological forces. The design research process also revealed an historic rail line who’s conversion to trails could potentially connect the park to downtown Mobile for pedestrians and bikers.
Contrasting
Urban Growth and
Coastal Ecologies with
Climate Change
03.2
Tidal Fluctuations: Since the majority of the site exists within a floodway adjacent to Chicasabogue Creek, an intensity of interactive ecosystems on various scales provides a unique opportunity for people to move through and become a part of these relationships to both the subtle topography and rich species diversity.
DAUPHIN STREET COMMUNITY ART LOT Center for the Living Arts Mobile, AL This design is centered around the idea of a planted basque of honey locust at the threshold to Dauphin Street. The basque will serve to create an intimate atmosphere upon entrance to the site as well as clearly defining the interior and exterior of the lot. A central stage allows for a diverse range of possible social and cultural interaction to occur, and surfaces of stone, turf grass, pea gravel, and concrete nurture a variety of textural experiences with the site on the ground plane. Movable seating and tables tend to the idea of adaptability and choice. Small interventions to existing aspects, including the flourishing of the trumpet vine along the western wall of Weber’s, the creation of an opening in the fern wall at the back end of the site, as well as the preservation of the large oak tree promote character and sustainable initiatives. A water cistern under the stage and a circulating rock pond seek to manage the storm water runoff from the surrounding buildings while providing visual as well as audible cues. All elements in this design foster the idea of Dauphin Street Lot as a generator of culture, community, and identity in the urban fabric of downtown Mobile.
04
PHASE 1 - Initial Condition
PHASE 2 - 5 Year Growth and Removal
PHASE 3 - 10 Year Growth and Removal
Growth of Honey Locust Trees: 25 honey locusts’ will be planted in a basque to promote competition and rapid upward growth. After 5 years, a few will be removed to promote the developing growth of the canopy. After another 5 years, the final trees will be removed to create 3 prominent rows of trees with 2 intimate outdoor rooms and an intricately woven canopy. The idea is for the growth of the trees to dictate the spatial arrangement, both at the human scale and in the canopy layer.
SUBURBIA INFILTRATED
Suburbia Transformed 2.0 Design Competition
Cahaba River Watershed and Site Location in Relation to Waterways
Birmingham, AL
State Scale
Birmingham Metro Area Jefferson County
In recent decades, the growth and development of suburbs surrounding Birmingham, Alabama has resulted in the dramatic increase of impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt, the intensification of development and subsequent erosive forces, and a dramatic rise in pollutants from lawn care and automobiles. In what was dense woodland nearly forty years ago, a series of hillside communities, duly named Cahaba Heights, have emerged out of the rolling topographic landscape, adjacent to one of Alabama’s most diverse and longest free-flowing rivers, the Cahaba. The site at 3401 Hillway Drive serves as a microcosm of its broader context, emphasizing a large overbearing driveway that consumes more square footage than the property’s single family home itself.
Shelby County
All water passing over the site flows into the Cahaba River, eventually making its way into the Alabama River to the south. The Alabama is the main water body flowing into Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Since Birmingham is the largest metropolitan area in the state and sits at the headwaters of these larger systems, development in this area holds a great deal of ramifications for downstream water quality. Effectively, the water processes flowing through the site impacts the fourth largest estuary in the United States (Mobile Bay) and one of the most biologically diverse rivers in the Southeast (Cahaba River).
tributary stream at property’s edge
Cahaba Heights
Neighborhood Scale
Other Group Members: Sudha Thalapiya Yimiao Li
05.1
Site
Cahaba River
‘Suburbia Infiltrated’ Master Plan Birmingham, Alabama Cahaba Heights Neighborhood Hillway Drive
Local Birmingham quarries provide crushed pea gravel and aggregate stone to create permeable parking. The new parking arrangement solidifies a clear progression of transitional spatial arrangements while providing an invaluable management of stormwater as it moves through the site
A wide stair provides a concrete threshold into the newly planted spaces that was previously all impervious driveway The driveway has been removed, thereby increasing water infiltration rates, promoting new plant growth, and solidifying new spatial opportunities. Parking has been allocated to the front edge of the property adjacent to the road, and a small 2 foot retaining wall acts as a clear threshold entrance while adressing the functionality of the new parking arrangement
Low- maintenance clover provides manageable groundcover that requires little to no mowing while acting as a spong for stormwater runoff
Front gathering space offers a series of intimate views from the house and vice-versa
Apple, Fig, and Peach trees provide new resources to a space that was previously an energy sink
‘Low Maintenance’ Ivy adds attractive texture to planting beds without mowing or fertilizers
Re-Used Railroad Ties add a cohesive element of gentle steps to navigate the site’s topography while reflecting upon the materiality of the natural conditions on site
New understory trees screen interior spaces from neighbors
With the reallocation of the automobile, the remnant driveway becomes a veranda covered by the existing second floor deck
New stair offers better connection to rest of property
Existing Oak Hickory Pine Forest is extended further into the site, increasing habitat resource, connecting the site to broader context, and introducing a contrasting spatial experience to the rest of the site
Clearly defined open space addresses a range of social possibilities close to house
Groundplane deck encloses shared outdoor space and gives vantage point over garden
A wildflower garden amplifies the diversity and richness of textures and colors already present on site
N
Stream Deck elevated 2 feet off the groundplane allows water to flow underneath during various scales of rain events
A weir creates small pooling of stream water, increasing infiltration and forming a greater connection to the water flows on site
SCALE 1” = 10’
SUBURBIA INFILTRATED
Outstanding Project Award - Suburbia Transformed 2.0
Suburbia Transformed 2.0 Design Competition Birmingham, AL The project takes on a dual intent in addressing a house destroyed by the April 2011 tornados and the recurring water quality issues associated with the Cahaba River watershed. The two single largest design moves include the removal of the driveway and the consistent reuse of materials from both on and off site. Areas that were once energy sinks and consumptive by nature now become lushly vegetated spatial arrangements that offer new productive engagements with the environment, filter and increase storm water infiltration, and strengthen the existing ecological diversity of the woodland now allocated to the edges of the site. The project aspires to the understanding that if all suburban properties of this type developed in this way, a clear transformation in water quality would occur in our rivers and waterways.
SUMMER
05.2
FALL
WINTER
SPRING
Surface Area of Site Existing Impervious Surfaces
Proposed Roof Impervious Surface
20%
Low Maintenance Groundcover
High Maintenance Lawn
Current Condition
10%
20%
55%
Flowering Plants
35%
5 Year Growth
Woodland
35%
15 Year Growth Woodland
20%
25 Year Growth
The new garden embraces future growth as a vital Thecomponent new garden embraces growthand of a future healthy as engaging a vital component of a healthy environment. and What engaging environment. What previously previously required a high required a high degree of maintenance degree of maintenance and and energy consumption is now evolving consumption is now intoenergy a productive property characterized evolving into aregime. productive by its minimal maintenance property characterized by its minimal maintenance regime. 5 Year Growth
15 Year Growth
25 Year Growth
THESIS
The Terrain of Urban Infrastructure: Entering the Interspace Theoretical Framework:
Landform offers an infinite variety of spatial arrangements that humans can experience. In occupying spaces encompassing landforms, we have the capacity to directly engage with a given terrain through a mode of perceptual and sensorial relationships. While we familiarize and further our understanding of a terrain based on our own spatial relationship to it, so too do other elements of life respond to a range of factors that shape spatial identity
06.1
and performance. Dynamic conditions of topography directly affect a terrains hydrological conditions and thereby dictate subsequent factors of an environment, essentially shaping the nature of microclimates and potential establishments of plant and animal communities. The forming of countour lines and the building up of form to the land becomes the catalytic force by which all other aspects of the terrain derive thier characteristics. By
molding terrain into various forms, I am seeking to find out which types of terrain offer the highest degrees of variance in regards to spatial experience. An increased awareness or spatial comprehension of the landform one moves through, on, around, or within allows the individual a dynamic engagment in which perceptions are constantly changing from high to low, diminutive to vast, grandiose to humble, and everywhere in between.
A series of drawings represent various spatial arrangements of landform. Different categories of terrain are meant to specify distinct characteristics within the broader landscape.Topography molded in paper mache models creates varied conditions through which the rest of the landscape adapts itself to.
THESIS Atlanta, GA Terrain/Site Analysis:
While the urban realm can be rationalized spatially in a host of various ways, be it funtional, aesthetic, or cultural, there are limitations to its organization based on the restraints of built form. It is in approaching terrains of infrastructure
that one finds spatial opportunities not presented elsewhere in the urban context. For the burgeoning southern metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia, the interstate system produces a discernable impression on and distinct
spatial difference to the surrounding urban forms. It is at the largest crossroads of two major interstates, I-20 moving east/west and I-75 moving northeast/ south, that the landing and grounding of site has begun to take shape.
The mapping of intensities and flows through Atlanta reveals a host of different intersecting forces that play a primary role in the functioning of the city. Layers are reflective of thier importance to the urban condition in numerous ways, including social, cultural, and ecological impact.
06.2
CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT OF ATLANTA
Spatial Analysis of the Central Business Core of downtown Atlanta unveils the predominant nature of transportation infrastructure as a motivating force for the city. The sheer vastness of the I-20/1-75 interchange just south of the CBD caused further investigation and eventually led to the grounding of a contextual site.
N OW NT W DO
OR CT E NN CO
MIDTOWN
GRANT PARK NEIGHBORHOOD TURNER FIELD
THESIS Atlanta, GA Memorial drive creates the main edge to the central business district, and Washington street acts as the main threshold into the site as it crosses past memorial, leading one directly into the largest interspaces. Existing sidewalks, a small pocket park to the east, and the Washington street bridge make this the ideal location for entrance into the site.
06.3
One of two large mounds will become visible, even before one enters into the space. The immense object would immediately represent a vast difference from the surrounding terrain. A smaller bridge for pedestrian and bicycle use is added to the existing bridge with it’s sidewalks, giving the choice to not become overborne by traffic. Immediate
spatial proximity to the bridges would be experienced; their vigorous dimensional characteristics occurring at all levels, above, below, and to all sides. The unique aspect of the interspace becomes an entanglement with the surrounding infrastructure and ones perceptions, whilst wholly removing oneself from the proximity of the movement.
400 feet 1/4 Mile
THESIS Atlanta, GA The interspace is not meant to consist of the same functional or civic components that already comprise a city. It sits as an amalgamation of topographically arranged engagements that seek to divulge the inherent spatial impacts of such a terrain. Its role is that of a wholly new occupied space, or more
06.4
specifically, series of spaces. It represents a fusion of divergent elements within the urban condition, a place in which the city becomes an entirely new set of spatial experiences. Through its arrangement, infrastructure and landform no longer occupy the periphery of sensory perceptions, but rather demand
an acute focus to the thickening ground plane strata. As one is squeezed through both path and field, both earthen wall and highway underpass so as to emerge to vasts precipices of height and prospect,an accommodation to the elevated sense of perceptive qualities reaches its zenith.
CONTACT INFORMATION EMAIL: adrianrsharp@gmail.com
PHONE: (205) 994 5734