ALEXA THORNTON Por tfolio
ALEXA THORNTON alexa.L.thornton@gmail.com 503 · 913 · 7784 education: b.arch landscape arch minor University of Oregon, 2019 I am a curious and self-motivated person who is passionate about social and sustainable design. In my future career I hope to incorporate art while balancing the built and natural systems in designs with the ambiguous-yet-ambitious goal of improving people’s lives. When not found in studio, I am on walks to sketch scenes or tinkering with my plant collection. media experience: Autodesk AutoCAD Autodesk Revit Rhinoceros Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe InDesign Microsoft Office Model Making Hand Drawing
PUERTO RICO PLANNING
MILLRACE REIMAGINED
MALHEUR FIELD STATION
PORTLAND CRYSTAL CLUSTER
DEXTER LAKE BOAT HOUSE
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TECHNICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
HAND DRAWINGS
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block interior view flooded rhino, photoshop
PUERTO RICO PLANNING site:
San Juan, Puerto Rico
design studio:
4th year, winter term 2018 professor:
Javier Bonnin
block concept section hand drawing
project description:
This studio’s objective is to develop strategies for the neighborhood along the Martin Pena Channel that help it adapt for projected sea level rise. The neighborhood started as an informal settlement on land that was originally a mangrove marsh surrounding a waterway that connected two lagoons. It is currently a neighborhood in need of desperate repair. A gradient of porous blocks balances the needs of the people, reintroduces the native mangrove forest, and accommodates for the 6’ sea level rise in the next 100 years. Blocks are composed of modular units, public platforms, and series of stairs. Due to frequent site flooding the ground floor is mixed use and contains open aired sacrificial spaces, platforms, courtyards, and retaining walls to support mangrove growth. Eventually the entire ground will be flooded and the roofs and platforms will replace the lost public space. The gradual dissolve of the urban block allows natural systems to take over. This urban planning weaves together the built environment, the water channel, and mangrove marsh.
site flooding
soft edges
site section
block dissolved rhino, photoshop
site study / concept art hand painting, india ink on vellum
M I L L R AC E R E I M AG I N E D site:
Riverfront Research Park, Oregon design studio:
4th year, fall term 2017
professor:
Mark Eischeid
project description:
Recently renewed attention has been brought to the Research Riverfront Park, an area along the Willamette River owned by the University of Oregon that contains a small neglected river way called the Millrace. Current plans proposed by the University contain several turf ďŹ elds along the banks of the river and large building developments that will shade the historical urban farm. However, my proposed plan for this site will instead balance the needs of the University while also restoring natural habitat with respect to the history of the site. This plan involves drastic interventions with the way water ows through the site in order to establish habitat, introduce human interaction, and ďŹ lter the water before it returns to the river.
site vocabulary hand sketches
millrace site section
willamette river site section
site plan
steps to millrace
moments at millrace
native oak savanna
bike parking
millrace board walk
seasonal wetland
dining hall porch view revit, photoshop
MALHEUR site:
Malheur National Refuge, Oregon
design studio:
3rd year, fall term 2016 professor:
Jenny Young
FIELD
S TAT I O N
project description:
Currently the field station in Malheur refuge occupies the leftover facilities of the 1960s Youth Corps Center. Assigned with the task to design a new field station my solution was to reuse the existing foundations in order to reduce impact on the rich and delicate landscape. By keeping the existing foundations, my proposed plan keeps costs at a minimum but also proved to be a design challenge due to its formal organization in such a vast and open site. My final design consists of a layered scheme of housing, studios, workshops, a dinning hall and a welcome center.
design principles
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field station site plan autocad, photoshop, illustrator
field station east-west elevation
field station north-south section
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2-3 bedroom cabins
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1 bedroom cabins
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dining hall
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gift shop & museum
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studios
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dorms
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workshops
ramp up
ramp up
dining hall plan
dining hall column & truss diagram
dining hall axon revit, illustrator
dining hall concept collage
rethink program
rethink housing preliminary concept diagram illustrated with Scarlet Weaver, photoshop, illustrator
Cabins , Editions Taschen, Author P
P O RT L A N D site:
Portland Southwest Waterfront, Oregon
school commerce grocery health care
design studio:
3rd year, spring term 2017 professor:
Nancy Cheng studio partner:
employment green space
Philip Jodidio, Illustrations Cruschiform, 464 pages
Scarlet Weaver
C RYS TA L
C LU S T E R
project description:
Predicting the future is impossible. The world is in the process of great change environmentally, socially, and politically. It is not the job of a designer to predict the future - it is the responsibility of a designer to dream it. In this dream, the design of a building empowers the users. People are regularly disempowered by our built environment. Quality of life depends on access to opportunities, and those opportunities are made possible through architecture. The design of this complex achieves attainable equality through a community focus and social interaction for reconnection with oneself, green spaces for reconnection with nature, and the use of color for the reconnection of self expression and equality for all colors. The goal of this project was to create a colorful place where people are happy and healthy in with easy access to services that fulďŹ ll their biological and social needs within their reachable environment. This complex provides a variety of resources readily available to people within the place they live.
building massing concept hand drawing
site section
site plan concrete core for shear bracing
clt oor plate for support and sustainability
steal columns support
double skin to allow for natural ventilation
NW atrium floor plan atrium gardens rhino, photoshop, illustrator
service floor plan
SE atrium floor plan sky park rhino, photoshop, illustrator
section perspective physical model, photoshop
DEXTER site:
Lowell State Park, Oregon design studio: 2nd year, spring term 2016 professor:
James Givens
BOAT H O U S E project description:
Dexter lake is well known in the rowing world for its ideal conditions. This studio’s assignment was to create a facility for the UO and local rowing teams. I have designed a building that not only addresses the shell storage problem, but also celebrates the rowing culture and landscape surrounding the lake. The facility is simple in design, with a level open to the public and a level exclusively for the teams. Openings in the oor allow the public to view the elegant form of the shells. Additionally, glazed walls and a large deck allow visitors to view the lake and races. The building is tucked into the sloped landscape and elongated along its east-west axis parallel to the shore.
design principles
recreational parking forested
pedestrian traffic car traffic
summer sun winter sun
existing site
north elevation autocad, photoshop
views out views in
706’
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B 704’
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702’
700’ 3
698’
+/- 695’ - 696’ APPROXIMATE LAKE LEVEL B
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1 LOBBY 2 OPEN TO SHELL STORAGE 3 CLUB ROOM 4 VIEWING DECK 5 PUBLIC BATHROOMS 6 KITCHEN
main floor: public viewing, classrooms, gym autocad, photoshop
west elevation autocad, photoshop
7 MEETING ROOM
lower floor // shell storage, locker rooms autocad, photoshop
8 ACCESS TO SHELL STORAGE 9 TEAM OFFICES
10 ERG AND EXERCISE ROOM 11 CLASSROOM
Steam or hot water
Sections can be added or subtracted according to heat load requirements
Boiler nozzle Water level for steam operation
Boiler water Breeching connect to chimney Hot gases
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5
Access door Burner Combustion chamber
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Fire brick or other fire retardant material
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(a) Hot gases
Steam or hot water
Breeching
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Boiler nozzle
Water level for steam operation
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Boiler water
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Fire tubes
Access panel
Access plate
Baffles Access door
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Combustion chamber
Burner
Fire brick or other fire retardant material
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(b) Steam or hot water
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Boiler nozzle Water level for steam operation
Hot gases
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Access plate Baffles
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Breeching
Fire tubes Burner
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Combustion chamber Fire brick or other fire retardant material
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5
(c) Steam or hot water
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Breeching
Boiler nozzle Water level for steam operation
Access plate
Boiler water
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2
Baffles
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Fire tubes Access plate
Combustion chamber
Burner
Safety device port
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Grondzik, Walter & Kwok, Alison. Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings 13th Edition. Hoboken: Wiley, 2019.
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Over the past year I have worked alongside a team of peers and professionals to help Convection 4 n of Mechanical illustrate the new edition atio adi r t 2 and Electrical Equipment for Buildings. I en Emitted cid was tasked withIn illustrating a new chapter radiation 1 for the book as well as updating and creating new drawings for existing chapters. These drawings required research and an understanding what was most important 3 to convey to readers. All drawings were created in Adobe Illustrator. Re
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I L LU S T R AT I O N S
Heat accumulates
T E C H N I CA L
Skylight: rotating Clerestory: rotating
Window: rotating Window: sliding
Window: rolling
10 minute on-site sketch
20 minute on-site sketch
watercolor
watercolor
HAND
D R AW I N G S
drawn from observation
sketchbook face series pencil on paper
pencil & colored pencil