Benjamin Janes - M.Arch Portfolio

PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO.

PORTFOLIO. PORTFOLIO.

M.Arch

Benjamin Janes

Threaded Together Market.

ARCH 683: PDXChange Studio

Instructor: Elisandra Garcia-Gonzalez Portland, OR Fall 2021

A HYPER-LOCAL TAKE ON ONE OF PORTLAND’S MOST NOTABLE INDUSTRIES, THE THREADED TOGETHER MARKETPLACE IS AN EFFORT TO RE-CENTER PRODUCTION AND CRAFT IN THE CONVERSATION AROUND SHOE MAKING AND CONSUMPTION AS A VISIBLE, CELEBRATED, AND INTEGRAL PART OF THE COMMUNITY.

Since Phil Knight and Nike set up shop over the West Hills three decades ago, the Portland area has become a mecca for shoe design. Alongside dozens of freelance shoe designers, no fewer than 8 national and international footwear brands call Portland home, yet few of them produce any part of their products in the United States, let alone in Portland. All the while, streetwear, couture fashion, and fast fashion have intermixed to create a culture of waste that alienates con sumers from the craft and artistry shoe making entails.

The Threaded Together Market is a vertically integrated production facility for independant shoe designers and brands that allows them to showcase their process from beginning to end. The facility contains space dedicated to each step of the production process, from the initial design sketch, to spinning renewable plant fibers into thread, to weaving that thread into fabrics, and finally to sewing the shoe into it’s final form. Supplementing this process is the building’s urban nursery, which grows Oregon Grape and Yarrow, both native species which can be used to create natural dyes designers can use. Additionally, the nursery functions as a hub for bees and local pollinators, whose beeswax can also be harvested by makers to waterproof their footwear.

The building is centered around a public atrium and ‘community shelf’ which features ‘shoe eleva tors’ which can be used by workers to move the shoes between production spaces. This visual spectacle helps to engage and educate the public about each step in the shoemaking process. At the ground floor, the shelf breaks to form the marketplace, spilling out to the edges of the building and the sidewalk. After hours, these streetfront community shelves allow the building’s unhoused neighbors an opportunity to exchange their worn out shoes for new ones produced in the market.

Situated at the corner of a transit mall and a future pedestrian street, the project grows out of an existing storefront to become a beacon for craft and sustainable production.

LEFT: The shoe production process begins with raw material delivery of tree fibers from nearby forests, which are then carded and spun into threads. These threads can then be woven, waxed, and dyed before being sewn together

and sold, either as custom tailored pieces or as off-the-shelf sizes.

RIGHT: Sitting at the corner of 5th St, a transit mall, and Flanders, a future bike and pedestrian corridor, the building is well situated for acces sibility, and could become a community hub for a neighborhood with a rich connection to streetwear and fashion but a need to revitalize its identity.

The public spaces revolve around the central atrium, defined by the ‘Community Shelf’ that spills out towards the street at the ground level, as a invitation to the neighborhood.

ABOVE: Large swinging doors open the market up to the street, where warm wood tones draw users up and into the market and the central atrium community spaces.

RIGHT: At the ground floor, the building opens up on both street fronts to invite the public into the market, with platforms gradually stepping up towards the second level and the atrium above. At the ground level and above in the production spaces, rooms are loosely defined by shifting, open partitions that also function as storage for materials, plants, and products.

Porous floor plates and wall systems allow for visual and sensory connections between production spaces,

LEFT: Production spaces wrap the central atrium, which is accessed on both the public and private sides of the community shelf via metal catwalks with grated floors that allow for light transmission. The shelf acts as a mediating boundary between public and private spaces.

RIGHT: The atrium organizes the building, serving as both lightwell and as a non-traditional runway. A larger, more formal runway and pre sentation space sits at the top floor, connected to the final sewing and assembly space. The production spaces sit above the market on the ground level, spiraling up through the building and connected by the shared community shelf and ‘shoe elevators.’

Lloyd Creative District.

ARCH 584: Urban Design Studio

Instructor: Nico Larco

Collaborator: Samuel Wylie Portland, OR Spring 2022

BUILT IN THE SHADOW OF A DYING MEGA-MALL, THE LLOYD CREATIVE DISTRICT IS AN INTERGENERATIONAL CREATIVE ARTS NEIGHBORHOOD THAT EMPHASIZES INCLUSIVITY FOR A LARGER SEGMENT OF ARTISANS AND PORTLANDERS, WHILE PRESERVING THE ORIGINAL COMMUNITY SPIRIT LLOYD INTENDED AND THE MALL CREATED.

Once one of the largest malls on the West Coast, the Lloyd Center has been slowly dying for years and risks bringing the surrounding neighborhood of corporate office buildings along with it. It’s largely empty, lacking connections to its neighbors, and with more parking stalls than residents. Yet with some of the best transit and potential bike infrastructure in the city, plus a wealth of easily developable sites, the neighborhood is also primed for re-development.

This project aims to take one of Portland’s prime assets - the creativity of its residents - and nurture it in a new neighborhood. Here, various scales of opportunity allow for residents to live, work, and play throughout their lives, in contrast to similar industrial ‘creative’ spaces throughout the city. Pop-up shops and live/work studios create entry points and testing grounds for young artisans and entreprenuers. Small condos and family-sized apartment buildings, connected by pedestrian-friendly streets and green spaces provide opportunities for creative singles, families, and retirees to live alongside each other in a more vibrant community.

At the core of the proposal are the new ‘Green Loop’ - a city-wide bicycle and park network - and the re-imagined mall site. By thickening the Green Loop, each of its streets through the district can develop different characters. One side becomes a lively shared street (woonerf), while the other becomes a transit and bicycle communter highway, surrounded by lush plantings.

The mall, meanwhile is broken out into a number of community programs, including a new arts school, athletic facilities, maker spaces, and a community center. Across the street, Holladay park has been re-programmed to become a center of neighborhood life.

Collaboration: Conceptual and schematic designs were done as a team, with responsibility shared evenly. All images presented here are by author, unless noted otherwise.

As the missing pice in Portland’s ‘String of Pearls’ along the Green Loop, the Lloyd envisions creativity as more than just a civic asset, but an educational, economic, and residential one as well.

ABOVE: Compared with the other neighbor hoods along the Green Loop, the Lloyd District lacks a clear identity. This scheme serves as both an extension and contrast to the Central

Eastside, where creatives can be nurtured througout their careers and lives.

RIGHT: Art and creativity is more than just a civic asset - in this district, it helps inform edu cational programming, residential communities, and workspaces.

NOTE: Sketches to the right by Samuel Wylie.

‘Living Above the Shop’ - Bar

Low-Rise Walkup Apartments

‘Living Above the Shop’ - Block

Mid-Rise Apartments - Bar

Townhomes - Single Loaded

Mid-Rise Apartments - Block

Townhomes - Double Loaded

High-Rise Apartments - Slab Tower

Mid-Rise Apartments - Infill

High-Rise Apartments - Point Tower

A primary axis of civic and commercial activity is formed along Multnomah St, with hubs of activity located at Holladay Park and where it intersects the Green Loop.

LEFT: Throughout the district, the abuncance of parking lots are redeveloped into a spectrum of housing typologies, ranging from medium- to high-densities, and with focuses on providing accesible public and creative work spaces.

ABOVE: Along with creating clear corridors of public space and a better hierarchy to the neighborhood, a clear focus of the plan was to fill out many of the lots with housing, although each is closely tied to nearby public amenities.

NOTE: Plan by Samuel Wylie.

WALKABLE BLOCK SIZES BEFORE AFTER

ADAPTIVE REUSE + INFILL DEVELOPMENT

Where the thickened Green Loop intersects Multnomah, a small public park is created, acting as a gateway to the neighborhood from downtown.

ABOVE LEFT: This area shows off many of the neighborhood’s sustainability features, from sub-divided blocks that encourage walking to infill development, better surface permeability and urban tree canopy.

BELOW LEFT: Many of the sustainability moves relate to stormwater, which is treated as a feature in the park. Wide sidewalks and public plaza spaces encourage pedestrian activity outside of artists shops.

ABOVE: A curbless environment, strategic plantings and furniture, adn more contribute to a more humane and pedestrian-friendly environment.

Multnomah serves as a primary core for the neighborhood’s civic and commercial activi ty, culminating in the re-invention of Holladay Park and the Lloyd Center.

ABOVE LEFT: The Lloyd Center Mall’s prize jewel, its ice skating rink, is relocated to a more prominant location along the street, across from the neighborhood’s anchor retail locations, with large aperatures inviting the public in.

BELOW LEFT: The remains of the Lloyd Center’s floor slabs are preserved as part of the central pavilion between the new school and a re-programmed and expanded Holladay Park.

ABOVE: More active programming encourages more use and a better sense of safety in the park, while also providing great opportunities for small-scale artisans to sell their wares to a larger audience.

Verde.

ARCH 584: Social Housing Infrastructures

Instructor: Justin Fowler

Collaborators: Steven Cagle & Sofia Chavez Portland, OR Winter 2022

WORKING WITHIN AN EXISTING PARKLAND SITE, A NEW SCHEME FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING EMERGES THAT EMPHASIZES JOY, COMMUNITY, AND PRIVACY AS DRIVERS FOR PERSONAL GROWTH AND HEALING AMONG ALL ITS RESIDENTS.

A former orchard, Verde’s site has been used for public housing for decades. However, with only 72 one-bedroom units across six acres, its aging structures are in dire need of replacement and densification given Portland’s housing emergency. However, the past has also taught us that cramming as many people as possible into a space without regard for their mental and physical health is a recipe for disaster.

Verde maintains the parkland-like qualities of the existing site and its many trees, while boosting unit counts to 153 and focusing on larger, family-sized units. These units are dispersed across three separate buildings, with a number of community notes created at intersection points as both formal spaces and as landscaped spaces. These community spaces form one end of a pri vacy gradient which extends into the individual units, buffering the most intimate spaces to allow residents to choose the level of connectivity they desire from moment to moment.

In doing so, the scheme works to promote joy and community among its residents, crucial com ponents in the healing and growth processes for the many residents whose trauma comes with them to their new homes. Additional supportive services, such as communal gardens and a neighborhood Headstart pre-school, work to ease some of the burdens on these families.

Collaboration: Conceptual and Schematic designs were done as a team, with responsibility shared evenly. All models, images, and graphics presented here are by the author, unless noted otherwise. Image to the left by Steven Cagle.

Courtyard Garden

One of the key existing assets of the existing site was its park-like quality, including many mature trees which the building contorts itself around, forming both public and private garden courtyards.

ABOVE LEFT: The courtyards of the project range from very public and communal spaces to more private and contemplative ones, each aimed at different healing and growth needs.

ABOVE RIGHT: As the plan contorts it creates several courtyards, a few of which directly inter face with community programs housed on the first floor to create indoor-outdoor spaces.

RIGHT: The site’s slope allows for easy water flow, which serves as the inspiration for a series of connecting ‘portals’ through the buildings.

NOTE: Collage by Steven Cagle.

J B M E

K C N F

Leasing Staff Lounge Kitchen / Dining Community Study

Mailroom Lunch Room Restrooms

Bike Room

Community Patio Open Play O G

I A Playground

L D GROUND FLOOR

Outdoor Learning

Lounge Classrooms H

Meeting Rooms

Along with landscaped courtyards, com munity spaces are scattered throughout the project at a variety of scales, for gatherings large and small alike.

LEFT: Primary public spaces - a Headstart preschool and community clubroom - are located on the ground are connect out to courtyards. Each building also has its own, smaller community room with lounge and

kitchen spaces to foster resident connec tions.

ABOVE: Beyond being assets for the residents themselves, some portions of the design encourage interation and engage ment with the wider neighborhood.

NOTE: Top collage by Steven Cagle.

Community Headstart - Playspace

Entry Plaza

MODULAR SERVICE CORE

Bathroom, Kitchen, and Laundry

STANDING SEAM METAL CLADDING

SIP EXTERIOR WALLS

CLT UNIT SEPARATION WALL

5 - Layer Panel with Concrete Topping Lounge L Kitchen / Dining M 2ND FLOOR

BUILDING ASSEMBLY COMPONENTS

Semi-modularized construction offers opportunites for replicability and quickened construction sequences, without trade-offs in unit design quality.

ABOVE: Different types of modular compo nents allow for units pieces to be quickly craned into place atop cast in place foundations..

ABOVE RIGHT: Unit types range from 1-3 bed

rooms, but all all feature light and ventilation on two sides to promote healthier living.

RIGHT: As a result, units have ample access to views of the site, more social semi-private porch spaces, and minimal yet high-quality finishes that create wide ranges of privacy and space.

NOTE: Collages by Steven Cagle.

The tight mixture of public, private, and nature programming comes together to create a calming but vibrant environment for residents.

BELOW: Community spaces are key drivers for the project, but elevating the units above the

ground, semi-public porches, and unit support spaces act as filters to ensure privacy can be maintained as desired by residents. Intensively planted and photovoltaic roofs help respect the natural environment of the site even where it’s been disturbed.

Thank you for reading.