Benjamin Leavitt | Academic Portfolio by ben leavitt

BENJAMIN LEAVITT ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO

CONTENTS

.............................. CURRICULUM VITAE 3 NOMADIC PROPERTY (2012-2013) 4 DISPLACED GROUND (2012) 18 MUSEUM OF THE URBAN ASSEMBLAGE (2011) 22 THE BOARDWALK (2012) 26

FIT FITNESS CAMP (2010) 30 SHIFTING GRADIENT HOUSING (2011) 32 TRANSLATING GERHARD RICHTER (2010) 34 RHIZOME LIGHT MODULE (2011) 35 TECTONIC PRECEDENT: FALLINGWATER (2010) 36

COMPLEMENTARY FORM (2007) 37

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BENJAMIN LEAVITT

.............................. 1167 York St San Francisco, CA 94110 415.490.6433 benleav@gmail.com ..............................

EDUCATION

EXPERIENCE

CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, San Francisco, CA Master of Architecture, May 2013 Cumulative GPA: 3.687

LMNOP-Design, San Francisco, CA Carpenter/Contractor, June-July 2013 Constructed and installed parklets/public plazas, called Experiments in People-Watching, in two locations along the Embarcadero of San Francisco: next to the Exploratorium and the Bay Bridge.

LEAVITT STUDIOS, Boyertown, PA Metal Sculptor, 1992-2008 Designed and built large-scale metal sculpture and ornamented architectural features to be installed in both public and private locations.

CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, San Francisco, CA Teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Assistant, Materials and Methods (Fall 2012) and Visual and Digital Media (Spring 2013) Instructed and assisted students with coursework related to construction techniques, model making, software, and graphics.

FORSYTHE GENERAL CONTRACTORS, San Francisco, CA Assistant Contractor, 2007 Worked in all stages of home building, including framing, drywall, cabinet installation, interior finish work.

ZACK|deVITO ARCHITECTURE, San Francisco, CA Intern, May-August 2012 Designed a residential interior remodel project from schematic design through design development and construction documents. Assisted with two other residential projects and two restaurant projects. Produced graphics for marketing.

METROPOLITAN CAMDEN HABITAT FOR HUMANITY, Camden, NJ Americorp Intern, 2002-2003 Worked in all stages of home building and renovating, including framing, drywall, finish carpentry, cabinet installation, roofing for a nonprofit housing developer. Taught and supervised volunteers in these projects.

FREELANCE CARPENTRY, San Francisco, CA and Philadelphia, PA Lead Contractor, 2004-2011 Worked in all stages of home remodeling, including framing and finish carpentry, designing and installing built-in and free-standing furniture, cabinet installation, window and door installation, flooring, drywall and plaster refurbishing, electrical.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, CA [In]Architecture Summer Program July-August 2009 OBERLIN COLLEGE, Oberlin, OH Bachelor of Arts, May 2002 Major: Environmental Studies; Minors: Studio Art & Politics. ..............................

ACADEMIC HONORS JURY PRIZE NOMINEE Studio 2, Spring 2011 FIRST PRIZE

Warm-up Team Charrette Project,

Fall 2011

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PERSONAL INTERESTS Reading theories of art, architecture, and politics, as well as fiction. Making works of art and design. Riding bicycles. Cooking and bread baking. Appreciating music and film.

RED ROCK ARTS, Oley, PA Assistant Contractor, 2003-2010 Worked in all stages of home remodeling. Installed timber frame pergolas. Designed and installed boulder-based water feature.

SUMMARY OF SKILLS Proficient in a variety of software, including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, Rhino and Grasshopper, Maxwell Render, Autocad, Vectorworks, Google Sketchup, and Microsoft Office. Familiar with ArcGIS and Adobe After Effects. Experienced in manual and digital fabrication and modelling techniques, including framing and finish carpentry, and metal forging and fabrication, laser cutters, and CNC routers.

BOX DOG BIKES, San Francisco, CA Lead Carpenter, 2007-2009 Designed, built, and installed multi-tier bicycle storage units and shelving. Refurbished plaster and drywall walls. Installed exterior wall-mounted sign. Installed bamboo floor in showroom. Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;NEILL CONTRACTING, San Francisco, CA Assistant Contractor, 2008-2009 Worked in all stages of residential remodeling, including constructing and installing cabinetry and shelving, installing interior finish work and constructing exterior decking and stairs. 3

NOMADIC PROPERTY

spatial opportunism of the commons MArch thesis project (2012-2013) Instructor: Hugh Hynes The system of real property ownership, consisting of land or buildings, delimits urban form and experience and often inflexibly prioritizes private value over communal experience. This project is a critique of dominant property conditions which favor a binary distinction of public and private ownership and use. As an alternative this project explores the concept of the commons: the sharing of resources and the community that results. Though there are pre-modern precedents of the commons, it is now a concept that is in resurgence as seen through examples such as open source movements, creative commons, coworking, and sharing economies, as well as communitarian movements. These examples demonstrate how specific objects and proprietary use have become less important in an age of networked association and expanded sharing of information, tools, and resources. This project takes the form of a field manual for diverse groups of spatial agents to identify specific property conditions and act upon them in association. The case study of Treasure Island illustrates conditions of proprietary and jurisdictional failure and its potential for common use. Treasure Island is a constructed island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay and the site of a decommissioned Navy base which now lies in a state of dereliction with its many vacant remnants. Due to its relative isolation within a metropolitan area, the site simultaneously offers conditions of association and autonomy.

1+2 3+4

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URBAN FABRIC 1. OPEN AND ADJACENT SPACES 2. INTERIOR VOLUMES

CORE AND PERIPHERY 3. OPENINGS 4. LOBBY/ATRIUM

WATER’S EDGE 5. COASTLINE 6. INFRASTRUCTURE

1. OPEN AND ADJACENT SPACES The site is initially pioneered by a group of nomadic anarcho-communitarians who utilize appended vehicles that cluster into communal formations. These spatial pioneers choose to locate themselves adjacent to an existing building in order to tap into infrastructure and resources. These communal formations then begin to become building appendages in themselves. The existing building can act as an overlapping space for multiple associated formations. Instructions: •

Link up with other modified vehicles to create formations and communities.

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Connect front and rear frames with tension cable.

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Enclose with membrane material.

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Front end may also be used without a vehicle to connect to buildings through facade openings.

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Assemble rotating end frames with braces that slide in tracks.

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Mount rack and tracks to vehicle’s roof.

2. INTERIOR VOLUMES Once access to the inside of existing buildings is acquired, the interior volume can be subdivided through partitioning to allow distinct programs and constituencies to share the space. The space in between then acts as a site of overlap and collaboration between these groups. The amount of overlap and the opacity of partitioning is determined by the the programmatic overlap. Instructions: • Assemble diverse but associated groups of constituents. • Partition off space in an existing interior volume according to program needs. • Create continuous space between dicrete partitioned off spaces for mixing and overlap between programs. • Extend this continuous space between other existing interior volumes.

3. BUILDING PERIPHERY: OPENINGS Many existing buildings offers the distinction between core and periphery, such as this existing panoptic former Navy barracks building on Treasure Island. At the building’s periphery, individuals housed in the units append their window openings with a sort of inverted fire escape that brings them up to the building’s roof where they congregate in a hackerspace of open source techy experimentation. Instructions: •

Measure existing building openings.

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Clamping brackets attach to the tops and bottoms of openings.

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Spring loaded frame adjusts to different window heights.

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Ladder affords connection between openings and convergence on the roof space.

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Flexible membrane enclosure.

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Plank inserts onto frame as corridor.

4. BUILDING CORE: LOBBY/ATRIUM While at the building’s core, a developer upsets the building’s panoptic logic to create a series of residential congregation spaces arrayed along a double helix formation that offers both spatial continuity and distinct subcommons. Instructions: •

Existing builing core.

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Existing Spoke-like corridors.

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Floor plates connect adjacent spokes.

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Stairs Spiral up and connect between floorplates as two opposite helixes.

5. WATER’S EDGE: COASTLINE Treasure Island has ample coastal access. Most of the coastline is made up of reinforcing riprap and is considered to be public property, with little other function than reinforcement. Through utilizing modified barges as forms of mobile property lots, the domain of the commons can be extended into the territorial ambiguity of the bay water. Barges are able to house many different architectures and programs and are reconfigured and linked into various formations through a connective architectural “hinge.” Instructions: •

Acquire generic barges.

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Attach hinging modules as a flexible connective architecture between barges and also to connect to the land, pinned and cemented into the existing riprap.

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Place architectural and programmatic elements of one’s choosing on the barges and configure according to desired associations.

6. WATER’S EDGE INFRASTRUCTURE Exisiting disused infrastructure along the water’s edge can be utilized as a form of infrastructural logistics to afford a changing definition of the commons. A startup incubator is architecturalized through establishing an open frame through which containers can be plugged in and removed. Instructions: •

Gain access to a disused pier.

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Build an open framework that accomodates light, air, and habitable surfaces.

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Install container gantry crane on tracks to allow for mobility of containers to plug in and load/ unload from a ship.

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Plug in customized modified containers in formation as fit.

METROPOLIS

SUBURBIA

TYPOLOGICAL URBANISM

disPLACED GROUND an introverted concentration of difference

Advanced Studio (Fall 2012) a collaboration with Max Sanchez Instructor: Brian Price The mass production and replication of efficient typological forms of high-rise urban development has subverted the agency of architecture. Aggregated to the urban scale, these spatial products form an urbanism distinct from the congestion of the metropolis. Formally and programmatically it is the vertical repetition of sameness. These buildings lose connection with the ground level, the space of public interaction, and isolate their inhabitants into a cellular array of privacy. However the architect can, in turn, take this as a new site condition and treat it as a new form of ground upon which to act. This project seeks to break up this repetitive sameness by offering a form of difference that would connect these isolated figures. Hong Kong is particularly dominated by typological development. We have chosen a grouping of public housing towers to test our hypothesis through inverting the conventional outwardly oriented urban block and instead establishing a limit at the perimeter and creating linkages through a collection of different communal programs and distinct atmospheres on the interior. Rather than producing heterogeneity by relying on urban dispersal at the ground level, difference is produced through an introverted city of collective environments.

CELLS/PODIUM

DISPERSE/ CONVERGE

BOUNDING

INWARD DEVELOPMENT

ANALYSIS AND DEPLOYMENT DIAGRAMS

FORMAL STRATEGIES

OVERALL SCHEME AXON

STREET PERSPECTIVE

THEATER PERSPECTIVE

CENTRAL PERSPECTIVE

LANDSCAPE/CLASSROOM PERSPECTIVE

CROSS SECTION PERSPECTIVE

LONGITUDINAL SECTION PERSPECTIVE

MUSEUM OF THE URBAN ASSEMBLAGE Studio 2 (Spring 2011) Instructors: Jason Johnson and Christina Marsh Within seven glass vitrines reside temporary installations of the program at this museum of architecture and the city in downtown San Francisco. Each one acts as both functional interactive program and exhibition space for new concepts in program driven architecture. The vitrines are all open on one end to allow an orientation for interacting with the program contained within and a stair path provides a direct connection between each vitrine. Simultaneously a system of ramps run around the vitrines to offer different views and understandings of the work on exhibit within. Thirdly a system of staggered elevators, each only making stops at the bottom and top of its path, is distributed throughout the museum. These elevator cars also function as camera obscuras, projecting a changing view of the city as one moves vertically. These elevators both connect the split up gallery spaces and disrupt the conventional vertical procession through the museum, potentially offering a different experience with each visit.

PLANAR DISPLACEMENT DIAGRAM

CAMERA OBSCURA ELEVATORS DIAGRAM

SOLID-VOID DIAGRAM INTERACTION-EXHIBITION DIAGRAM

SITE ANALYSIS DIAGRAMS

PUBLIC-PRIVATE DIAGRAM

PROGRAM ANALYSIS DIAGRAMS

CIRCULATION DIAGRAM

FINAL MODEL

MODEL EVOLUTION

EXTERIOR PERSPECTIVE

CROSS SECTION

SECTION PERSPECTIVE

INTERIOR PERSPECTIVE

THE BOARDWALK Comprehensive Building Design Studio (Spring 2012) a collaboration with Ken Lin Instructors: Michael Tauber and Christopher Haas Located on a large site in Half Moon Bay, CA between Highway 1 and the Coastal Trail, a relatively flat plot between the nearby hills and the ocean, this project derives from the agricultural character of the region.

ARRIVAL PERSPECTIVE

The building is sited on the southwestern corner of the site in the interest of capturing the pedestrian and bicycle traffic along the coastal trail.The entry threshold along this corner is envisioned as an extension of the path. As one travels along the length of the building, it recedes into the site, giving way to a terraced elevated plaza, or boardwalk. Inspired by the sand dune landscape, the building spreads out, with its form changing in increments. The building is arranged into two bars that converge and diverge. creating the large open space of the market hall with the convergence and separate programs at the divergent extremities.

BRIDGE PERSPECTIVE

Utilizing the primary material of wood in a way that exploits its syntax of components and joints, the structural system is composed of a hierarchy of members which create a lattice-like roof structure that extends past the walls. The facade utilizes a louvre system as sun shade and light diffuser for the largely glazed market hall.

SITE PLAN

RESTAURANT PERSPECTIVE

WESTERN OVERALL PERSPECTIVE

GROUND FLOOR PLAN CEDAR SIDING 3/4”X4” WATERPROOF MEMBRANE PLYWOOD SHEATHING

CEDAR FRAME SLIDING GLASS DOOR

CLEAR FIR SIDING PLYWOOD SHEATHING FIR FRAMING MATERIAL CLEAR FIR WINDOW JAMB

CEDAR LOUVRES 1”X2”

SLIDING DOOR TRACK BOLT SLIDING DOOR TRACK CLEAR FIR FLOORING 1” X 6” WATERPROOF MEMBRANE PLYWOOD SUBFLOOR

CEDAR DECK BOARDS 5/4” X 6” CLERESTORY AWNING WINDOW ALUMINUM FLASHING

PLYWOOD SHEATHING WATERPROOF MEMBRANE PRESSURE TREATED DOUBLE SOLE PLATE CLEAR FIR LIGHT SHELF

ALUMINUM FLASHING FOUNDATION BOLT

3 IN. = 1 FT.

CEDAR FRAME SLIDING GLASS DOOR

DETAIL @ CLERESTORY

CONCRETE FOUNDATION WALL

DETAIL @ DOOR SILL

WALL DETAILS

MARKET HALL PERSPECTIVE

FINAL SITE MODEL

ENVELOPE STUDY MODEL

DETAIL MODEL

CROSS SECTION

LONGITUDINAL SECTION

FIT SINGLES FITNESS CAMP Studio 1 (Fall 2010) Instructors: Genevieve Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Heureux and Antje Steinmuller Fit is a fitness boot camp with an emphasis on connecting singles. It is located on the Albany Bulb, a manmade peninsula created through landfill into the San Francisco Bay, in between an upper and lower parallel paths. The difference in topography and the variable density of vegetation between the two paths privileges a voyeuristic view from the upper path to the lower path. The design of this fitness bootcamp accentuates this relationship, opening up narrow views between programs with a venetian blind-like screen.

VIEW-CIRCULATION ANALYSIS - FULL SITE SCALE

Positioning and adjacencies of programmatic spaces are determined by investigating perceived inherent inclinations toward exposure and voyeurism between each space. Voyeurism, the ability to see others between programs, is a condition that is vertically determinative; when one is higher up, there is a more expansive view. Exposure, ability to be seen by others between programs, is horizontally determinative.

VIEW-CIRCULATION ANALYSIS - LOCAL SCALE

SITE ANALYSIS MODELS

FINAL MODELS

FRONT ELEVATION

CROSS SECTION

SECTION PERSPECTIVE

SHIFTING GRADIENT HOUSING Studio 3 (Fall 2011) Instructors: Chris Falliers and Darell Fields This multi-unit housing project in the Mission District of San Francisco emerged from an analysis of the sidewalk divided into a gradient of zones based on physical boundaries and implied territories. Pedestrian circulation flows and spaces of interaction emerge from this shifting condition in which the zones of the sidewalk both concract into rapid circulation and expand into a public plaza. I am essentially extending the threshold into the building allowing for both an extension of the street life and circulation (exterior in) and an extension of the interior living conditions (commercial, dining, residential; interior out). This extended threshold acts as a filter, incrementally both allowing and filtering out entry into the site. At the center of this plaza is a restaurant/cafe that extends both out toward Mission St and into the central exterior garden space between the two residential bars.

PRECEDENT ANALYSIS: OKURAYAMA APARTMENTS BY SANAA SIDEWALK GRADIENT: COMPOSITE OF SNAPSHOTS

The residential units are also organized based on this idea of layered enclosure and exposure, creating a gradient between interior and exterior and introverted and extroverted interaction. The units are placed within a thin curving bar typology. The floors of this curving form are shifted and staggered as they stack, opening up space for interaction between levels in some cases, differentiation in others, and extension to the outdoors onto balconies, enabling both continuity and differentiation of experience.

CROSS SECTION

TECTONIC MODEL

UNIT STUDY MODEL

FACADE STUDY MODEL

FACADE STUDY

SECTION PERSPECTIVE: UNIT SCALE

SECTION PERSPECTIVE: SITE SCALE

TRANSLATING GERHARD RICHTER Visual and Digital Media 1 (Fall 2010) Instructors: Genevieve L’Heureux and Antje Steinmuller

LINEAR SECTION DIAGRAM

ORIGINAL PAINTING

LINEAR PLAN DIAGRAM

LINEAR MODEL

PLANAR PLAN DIAGRAM

PLANAR MODEL

VOLUMETRIC PLAN DIAGRAM

VOLUMETRIC MODEL

RHIZOME LIGHT Advanced Geometry Fabrication (Summer 2011) Instructors: Jessica Lisagore and Marty Marfin This lighting system is composed of a number of identical modular joints which are strung together with a lighting source creating a branching form that emits light through its translucent composite material (made from organic hemp fabric and bio-derived epoxy resin). The light form is endlessly reconfigurable and accomodates the addition or subtraction of modules for differing scenarios.

MODULAR SLEEVING

LED ROPE LIGHTING ROTATION ALONG SHAFT AXIS

TWO-DIMENSIONAL ROTATIONAL POSSIBILITIES

TWO-DIMENSIONAL POSSIBILE CONFIGURATION

POSSIBILE CONFIGURATIONS WITH THREE-DIMENSIONAL ROTATION

TECTONIC PRECEDENT: FALLINGWATER Materials and Methods (Fall 2010) a collaboration with Danny Le and Chris Wardana Instructor: Andrew Sparks This model was created as a tectonic precedent study. Frank lloyd wrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s original building used sandstone quarried from the site to construct the walls. This language of stacking is expressed in the ground and the stone walls. The floors are cast and extend out past the light enclosure as cantilevered balconies over the landscape.

COMPLEMENTARY FORM (2007) a collaboration with Greg Leavitt Designed and constructed in collaboration with my father, metal sculptor and fabricator Greg Leavitt, this abstract sculpture is composed of two discrete figures that complementarily form an overall round portal or framelike gesture. This sculpture was commissioned for a private residence located outside of Philadelphia.