ANDREW MCGEE
SELECTED WORKS
SYMBIOTIC INFRASTRUCTURES
YOSSARIAN 40N 73W 03 - 08
FISH FARM 09 - 14
PIECEMEAL CENTRALITIES
PLAZA REPUBLICA 16 - 21
INVERTED HOUSE 22 - 26
THE DETAIL AS DRIVER
FLOWER MUSEUM 28 - 32
PERFORMATIVE WOOD 33 - 38
SYMBIOTIC INFRASTRUCTURES These projects operate with the notion that seemingly invisible or banal urban infrastructure - a highway tunnel, an island, a river - provide immense opportunity for architectural intervention that can address larger scales and functions within the city, beyond immediate site or context.
YOSSARIAN 40N 73W
FISH FARM
Yossarian 40N 73W
Yossarian 40N 73W A Recreational Island for New York City
Academic [Spring 2010 Architecture Studio] Professor Felipe Correa Recreational Facility I 750,000 sf Willets Point, Queens, NY The island typology is one that is not unfamiliar to the lifeblood of New York City. Many of the small islands that pepper the city’s shoreline have been utilized in the past for various utilities that required separation from the masses quarantines, mental hospitals, prisons, iconic symbols of the city itself - and were artificially augmented in many cases to better perform these duties. Willet’s Point provides an opportunity for the city to engage with a new island, one created for recreation and remediation. Positioning itself over existing highway infrastructure, the recreational facility and resulting island are intimately connected to the circulation of the region while remaining unplugged from the cacophony of the contemporary city, allowing for reflection on the urban condition and one’s place within it. Formerly a salt marsh, the site is remediated to return as such, stationing the facility within an augmented nature that prophesies the renegotiation of boundaries occurring with the onset of sea level rise and climate change. 2010 Flood Condition
2050
2100
06 I 07
Island Viewed from the Air
The Islands of New York City and the location of Yossarian
Phase I: Transfer Development Rights to Periphery Promote local engagement with regional project
Phase II: Bury Existing Highway Condition Reconnect fabric to waterfront site / marshland
Phase III: Excavated Soil Augments Island (160,000 m3 ; enough to fill 25% of Giants Stadium)
08 I 09
Facade System tensile skin
secondary structure
primary structure
Program +05
venues
+04
circuits
+03
courts
+02
aquatic
+01
parking
Field Condition
00 entrance -01
circuits
exhaust stacks promenade mesh panels structural glass barrier monumental sub-structure
Island Access
subway entrance remediated salt marsh
freeway tunnel
subway
Axonometric of Island Components
10 I 11
Figural Taxonomy of Programmatic Adjacencies
12 I 13
View of City from Roof Deck
Entrance from Subway
Longitudinal Section
Freeway View Underneath Recreational Facility
14 I 15
FISH FARM
FISH FARM
Remediating Chicago’s Waterway Academic [Spring 2011 GSD Architecture Studio] Professor Jeanne Gang River Barrier + Limnology Center I 400,000 sf Bubbly Creek, Chicago, IL The history of the Chicago Shipping and Sanitary Canal is one born on the back of Industry. Serving as a way point for water based cargo transport throughout the US, a staging space for the meat processing factories made infamous by The Jungle, or the threshold into the fishing and recreational markets of the Great Lakes Region, the Canal has deeply influenced the economy and lifeblood of the City and its constituents for over 100 years. The invasive Asian Carp now threatens this gateway. This project attempts to utilize the unsettling characteristics of the Asian Carp as the driver for a new industry in Chicago: a biological resource with Agricultural, Fuel, and Food Implications. A Barrier Wall that stops the Carp from invading the Great Lakes is constructed in the waterway, and doubles as a recreational circuit and spectacular promenade for the surrounding neighborhoods. At its terminus, the Limnology Center acts as a destination and educational tool for the local population to engage with and embrace the new Carp Industry.
The Pest: Asian Carp
Carp Infestations of the Mississippi since 1980
18 I 19
Possible uses to mitigate overpopulation of Carp in local waters
Phase I: Construction of Barrier and Limnology Center as Spine for future development
Phase II: Development of parcel infrastructure supporting re-routed shipping and new Carp Lagoon industry
Phase III: Remediated Waterfront brings industries that take further advantage of the edge, allowing extension of public access
20 I 21 Future Urban Vision, with Barrier and Limnology Center as Anchor Points of New Waterfront Industry and Programs
Barrier Connection to Limnology Center
22 I 23
Axonometric Detail of Section of Barrier
Viewing Spur for Carp Lagoon Collection
Roofscape of Floating Programmatic Volumes
24 I 25
Limnology Center Straddling Barrier
Exploded Laboratory Components
26 I 27
Section AA’
PIECEMEAL CENTRALITIES These projects find themselves confronted with reassessing notions of public space, both in the city and in conventional architectural typologies. Adopting a fine grain, complimentary approach to existing conditions, access to and activation of these public spaces as new centralities becomes possible.
PLAZA REPUBLICA 34 - 45
INVERTED HOUSE 46 - 55
PLAZA REPUBLICA
PLAZA REPUBLICA A New Fine Grain Open Space
Competition Finalist (August 2011) Collaboration with Somatic Collaborative, Mariusz Klemens Public Plaza Renovation I 50,000 sf Plaza Republica, Quito, Ecuador This proposal transforms a derelict urban surface into a new, cultural landscape that provides the city with a high quality fine grain open space. The project restructures the old plaza into three new interconnected spaces - an open lawn that faces the existing park, a new courtyard and gallery space that redefine the entry to the existing underground theater, and an elevated platform that holds a small botanical garden made up of endemic Andean species and offers expansive views towards the park and the historic core. These three elements act as anchors for a multiplicity of social and cultural activities to unfold within the spaces of the project.
Site Plan
32 I 33
View from Adjacent Building
How to generate a quality public space adjacent to important city park ?
Create a new type of public space complimentary to the park, where A+B can generate a new centrality in the city.
The space can then serve as an anchor for other institutions and cultural activities in the area.
Ultimately, the space can be a point of entry to the district when a new metro line is completed in the next few years.
34 I 35 Axonometric of New Plaza
Phase I: Remove existing platform over street
Phase II: Recast Plaza surface to new contours
Phase III: A low lying T-shaped building inserted at corner holds gallery, cafe, and service spaces
Phase IV: Raised platform and new bridges are constructed
Time scale diagram showing a multitude of uses during different portions of the day and week.
36 I 37
Uses, Circulation, and Water Management
38 I 39
Roof Plan
Ground Plan
40 I 41
View approaching from HIstoric Core
Elevation from park across the street
INVERTED HOUSE
INVERTED HOUSE A New Dormitory for Harvard
Fall 2009 Core III Architecture Studio Professor Jonathan Levi 200 Bed Student Housing I 150,000 sf River House Quad, Cambridge, MA Conventional notions of the student dormitory often conjure visions of narrow halls flanked by cell-like rooms and book ended with over-sized and under-utilized common space. To complicate matters, the nature of the Harvard House system is rooted in notions of secrecy and a manufactured tradition that undermines the utility of its spaces. Inverted House projects the events of its interior outward and dissolves traditional unit aggregation strategies in favor of a clustering approach that maximizes interaction between its inhabitants, while offering a new perspective on notions of common space. Broken into smaller typological bits, these shared programs are appended to each unit type, allowing sophomores, juniors, and seniors to play host to one another in a more dynamic academic and social setting. On a large scale, the sacred courtyard typology is unhinged to allow for larger scale urban events and interaction to occur while still maintainig a staging space for formal student activities. 9 River Houses + Inverted House
Hotspots of Pedestrian Circulation
Public and Private Open Space
44 I 45
CHARLES RIVER
Site Map near the banks of the Charles
Conventional Harvard Brick promotes isolation
Inversion creates transparency to interior
Disintigration designates public and private
Distortion accomodates large scale programs
Typical Unit Floor Plan
Cross Section
Various Class Units form Micro Aggregated “Neighborhoods�
Circulation within Neighborhoods promotes constant interaction with students from other years and units
Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors play host to one another in an environment that fosters new forms of collaboration.
48 I 49
View of Sophomore Common Space and Neighborhood Stairwell
-1
0
+1
Larger common spaces are broken into bits and appended to each unit type, allowing different students to play host to various functions within the Neighborhood cluster
Approaching Dormitory from Riverfront Side
50 I 51
Activities within project outward into unhinged public coourtyard
Approaching Dormitory from Harvard Campus Side
THE DETAIL AS DRIVER
FLOWER MUSEUM
These projects attempt to utilize the scale of the detail as a generator for large scale implications on site and production practices.
PERFORMATIVE WOOD
FLOWER MUSEUM
FLOWER MUSEUM Greenhouse Production and Exposition
Research and Speculative Proposal (July 2010) Collaboration with Professor Felipe Correa Flower Museum / Prototype Staging I 35,000 sf Tumbaco, Ecuador This proposal sites a flower museum and a demo production center in the equatorial Andes Mountains. Scalar diagrams of this global trade are juxtaposed with a new, more sustainable greenhouse typology and a post harvest demonstration gallery exposing visitors to all stages of the production process. A recreational circuit and a small hostel is attached to the top of the museum, allowing visitors to explore the surrounding terrain and enjoy grand views of the Andean Mountain range in the distance, giving a new context to the scale of operations occurring on site.
Recreational Circuit
Hostel Space / Roof Deck
Gallery Space
Lobby / Gallery
Post Harvest Viewing Space
Greenhouse Space
Exploded Axonometric of Program and Circulation
Post Harvest Gallery
56 I 57
Site Plan
58 I 59
Building approach from the West
Section through Greenhouse space
60 I 61
Detail Test of Plywood Facade Condition
62 I 63
Overall View from the East
PERFORMATIVE WOOD
PERFORMATIVE WOOD Dynamic Kerfs as Form Finding Device
Fall 2010 Options Architecture Studio Professor Achim Menges Collaboration with Brad Crane, Marshall Prado, Yang Zhao Wood Research / Prototype Installation Gund Hall, Cambridge, MA This project seeks to engage the novelty of kerfing and wood bending in a broader discussion regarding Architecture’s current agendas in form-making and fabrication technologies. While the desire for formal novelty has pushed technological advances within the field of design to a blinding pace, the intelligence regarding methodologies of production remains in its infancy. The solution to this disconnect first requires asking the right questions, not about geometry, but about material. The disconnect between designer and fabricator are proliferated, perhaps even magnified, when digital fabrication meets biological composite in the form of wood. This project promotes the notion that the calibrated discontinuity of wood fiber can be the code and form enabler of a complex wood system.
66 I 67
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15 Kerfing Tests
Steam Bent Kerfed Test Member
Unkerfed Test Piece only slightly flexes
Kerfed Test Piece flexes greatly without failing
Network of kerfed pairs creates potential for larger formal system
68 I 69
1/8� Basswood Test Pieces
Single Piece of 1/8� Basswood, Laser Cut with Dynamic Kerf Pattern
Kerfed Basswood has extreme flexibility, unlocking potential of Wood not as a dimensionally defined unit, but as a robust and dynamic material
Robot Saw allows for fast and accurate production of highly varied kerf patterns
Robot Saw Cut Kerf Pairs
70 I 71 Steamed Full Scale Test Pairs, in Jig to activate distortion
Steamed Full Scale Test Pair, in Jig to reinforce distortion
Dynamic Kerfing allows for double curvature distortion
72 I 73
Final Installed Prototype
74 I 75
Final Installed Prototype
ANDREW MCGEE
Contact: 917.456.7116 andrew.s.mcgee@gmail.com 18 W. 95th Street, Apt. 1B New York, NY 10025
Academic: Harvard University GSD (2009 - 2012) Master of Architecture with Distinction University of Michigan (2003 - 2008) B.S. Architecture with Distinction B.A. English Literature with Honors
References available upon request