Energy Interface

ENERGY INTERFACE Brooke Helgerson Design Thinking Spring 2014 Instructor: Derek Hoeferlin Teaching Assistant: Ashley Hoolihan Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Sam Fox School of Design + Visual Arts Washington University in St. Louis

CONTENTS 2 12

_overview _premise : systems

34

_site : light

92

_program : power

130

_references and credits

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use 120 V

overview

production 25 kV

ic typ

2

ort

200

kV

of ion ress rog al p sp tran

er to end us er pow

distribut ed gen

prod

uction

= us

e 120

V

transp ort 100 kV

transport 35 kV

eration

Premise : System

Architecture can be infrastructural.

In normal architectural practice, designing one building at a time is the typical way of operating. Buildings are ‘projects’ in the firm, and are not thought of in the larger context of how they interact with each other. Because of this, their design and eventual realization loses the potential to work with salient issues taking place at multiple scales throughout the entire city.

Infrastructures, including resource delivery types like gas, water, and electricity, work systematically across the whole city. They interact with the user at an intimate scale, at specific points of connection that are standardized and easy to understand. These scales of delivery work both individually and as a collective, giving the system flexibility and adaptability.

As useful and necessary as they are, however, our infrastructure systems are underdesigned, and in many places they underperform. Architecture, and its spatial elements of inhabitation, have something to add to this conversation.

What if buildings were considered as part of a collective system?

The processes of energy generation and transmission depend on each other in order to deliver power to cities. Power plants are the center in this system, though they are located on the outskirts of cities. Distributed generation systems are a new innovation that depart from typical centralized systems by bringing power directly to their users. Its early stages of development is an entry point for considering infrastructure as an architectural question.

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overview

Forest Park Southeast 4

railroads Grand Avenue

SITE

armory

I-64

4

Premise : Node Energy Generation

The Infrastructural precedent gives architecture the opportunity to have a wider reach within the city. Architecture can also inject its processes, such as the spatial qualities initiated by the requirement of inhabitation, back into the system. Our infrastructure could be much more richly designed to not only serve our daily needs, but also spark our curiosity as it starts to expand into three dimensions.

The node of the distributed energy system is a power generator. Its smaller, more local nature brings energy into the heart of the city. Each node is related to each other, and can share the power generated between them. Each one is also specifically related to its own surrounding neighborhood, and serves users in that area. Architecture comes into play here by providing specific responses to the needs and opportunities of each location along the system.

The site at Grand and I-64 has many opportunities to connect to travelers in the city: pedestrians on the sidewalk, drivers on the highway, and metro riders.

Layering on the site gives a unique above and below condition where the power plant can give way to interactive public programs below. Visibility of the site to the city opens up ideas for spatial screens that both protect and announce the activities inside.

Midtown - SLU 5

I-64

Gran d Bo ulev a

rd

overview

me

tro

The Grove 6

Armory

Grat

i

Custom Home

SITE

Grand

I - 64 E/W

Site : Layered Infrastructure

site area : 27,500 sq ft front setback : 10’-0” side setback : 4’-0” rear setback : 15’-0” FAR : 2.0

AirGas

Midtown 7

CORTEX

electricity heat/exhaust recovery

combined heat and power electricity only

natural gas diesel landfill gas bio liquids/gases

microturbine

reciprocating engine gas turbine fuel cells renewables

4MW output to CORTEX

4x Capstone C1000 1MW 30’ x 8’ x 9.5’ each minimum sf = 7,000

minimum sf = +/- 10,000

geothermal fuel cell algae batteries/storage typologies biofuel osmotics pneumatics vibration

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semi-private workspace/garden plot private room for calculations demonstration/venue space viewing space/informal museum metro interior waiting area coffee shop/bar

subscriber shared

non-subscriber/publi

ic

Program : Energy and People centralized generation distributed generation off-grid

power plant

gas turbine generators + heat exhaust pedestrian access and circulation maintenance space subtotal

energy gardens

research plots pedestrian circulation informal museum metro waiting space subtotal proposed

day

night

site area FAR allowances buildable

4 @ 250 sq ft 5,000 sq ft 1,000 sq ft = 7,000 sq ft

5 @ 2,000 sq ft 2,000 sq ft 5,000 sq ft 500 sq ft = 17,500 sq ft 24,500 sq ft

27,500 sq ft 2.0 = 55,000 sq ft

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overview

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Power Plant : Spectacle / Accessible Electricity generation was once the newest technology on the market. Over the past century and a half, the excitement has largely died away, and power plants have moved outside of the city. They are considered dirty and unsightly, and potential carriers of threats to health and home.

The proposed distributed generation system is made up of several small generation sites that are dispersed throughout the city, together adding up to larger outputs of power. Their size and way of producing energy are safe and manageable, allowing them to move back into the city. In this way, the power plant becomes an integrated and accessible part of our cities.

Power generation can become a spectacle again.

This proposal for distributed generation is something that people can see and interact with. Each node will be a place that announces itself through architecture, and will offer an experience in which people can ask and have answered their questions about the building, and about energy. Infrastructure usually lacks this visibility, and as a result, we don’t think of how to innovate its user interface. Architecture offers exactly this: How does the power plant open its entry to the sidewalk on Grand Avenue? How is the threshold of the facade screened? What events might the energy gardens support? How might the building evolve over time as the renewable research being done below can come online to power the electricity generation above?

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PREMISE : SYSTEMS infrastructure / inspiration distribution / spatial conditions architecture / inhabitation

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Infrastructure as Inspiration I am interested in architecture at the scale of cities, and the things that make them work: the complex processes, customs, regulations that provide the ritual of daily life, but also the eccentricities and insertions that make it more interesting.

Infrastructural systems, such as water, public transportation, and light operate at this scale, and can thus serve as a precedent for architecture. With this in mind, a building can be thought to play a role beyond itself within the landscape of function and invention in the city.

Architecture as infrastructure reframes the design problem of the building and imagines how it can influence and respond to the context and processes going on around it. In this way it can begin a more interactive conversation with the city.

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infrastructure

Roads and Highways

Duluth, MN, 2012

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Buses and Metro

New York, NY, 2012

Light

New York, NY, 2012

Infrastructural Effects

Water and Waste

Elkview, WV, 2014

Infrastructural systems such as roads, water, and light, but also wireless, radio, and municipal administration protocols, set clear precedents for systems that have a wide distribution across the city. They each adhere to their own rules and logic of placement and interaction at certain points with their users. They fulfill direct needs, such as resource delivery or street lighting, that provide for particular conditions, such as comfort or security.

These infrastructures also unwittingly articulate space in the city by drawing people to their points of interaction, be it wireless hubs or bus stops.

These systems run fairly smoothly, as evidenced by the fact that we only really notice them when they are out of order. This lack of visibility negates the huge power infrastructure could exert by nature of its expansive distribution.

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wireless

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light

waste

gas and water

Distribution Studies Infrastructure systems are distributed according to the resources they deliver and how people access them. These processes have physical manifestations that we often don’t notice, much less map or diagram. These systems’s spatial requirements take place broadly across the entire city, giving them license to influence users at a large scale. How do they work, and how can architecture act in this way?

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wireless

Delmar Blvd

light

Delmar Blvd

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coffee shop

private network

-system: centralized; field

public/ commercial network

-source: wireless company towers

user

-user: individual

delivery: router, cable company

-exchange: network owner to wireless provider

public/ outdoor light

-system: centralized; linear

private/ indoor light traffic light user downtown STL

delivery: electrical grid

-source: utility company - user: city, business, or individual -exchange: city (public) or individual (private) to utility company

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waste

Delmar Blvd

gas/water

Delmar Blvd

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garbage bin/ dumpster pickup route destination: garbage truck/ landfill

-source (of waste): individual -provider (of service): city -user: individual or household -exchange: homeowner/building owner to city

garbage truck

public building connection

-system: centralized; linear

private home connection

-source: water or gas company

gas/water line user in-home access

-system: distributed; linear

delivery: water and gas pipelines

-user: city, business, or individual -exchange: homeowner/building owner to utility company

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bus

Delmar Blvd

cellular

Delmar Blvd

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bus stop

-system: distributed; linear

bus route

-source: city

user delivery: bus

-user: individual -exchange: user to city via the bus operator

STL bus line

network

-system: centralized; field

connection device

-source: cellular company tower

user source: cell tower, service company

-user: individual -exchange: contracted user to cellular company

cellular users

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the articulation of public space created by infrastructure 26

Spatial Conditions of Distribution The ways in which these infrastructures and several others are organized set up particular conditions for public space. The distribution of people, shown in open black circles, follows patterns of use set up by the logics of the infrastructure itself. People gather around free wi-fi hubs and bus stops; they linger under street lights and at street corners; they are able to disperse and use their cellular networks wherever they are. They are free to move about in their own homes as well, with certain touch points for water, heat, and light.

These interfaces and their locations within their own systems have an incredible influence on the ways our cities develop...

What if architecture took some cues from this way of organization?

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distribution

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Spatial Distribution Potentials Architecture can take cues from infrastructural systems, such as lighting, in order to extend its reach beyond one site. Small interface touch points extended broadly could help architecture integrate with the people of the city. This would not necessarily take the form of a large structure, but could be viewed as a system of public rooms, a mobile architecture, or a surface condition.

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distribution

Park de La Villette, Bernard Tschumi 30

Metrocable Caracas, Urban Think Tank

Highline, Field Operations/DS&R/Friends of the Highline

Distribution Precedents

There are several precedents for architecture working infrastructurally, in systems. In each, there is attention to the individual node as well as the collective group. At each scale, the projects relate to and have an impact on their surroundings: at each node, there are localized responses and specific architectural inflections towards the immediate surroundings; at the larger scale, a broader service is provided to multiple localities and users by their engagement with multiple nodes along the system.

These systems are common in transportation infrastructures, and are beginning to be recognized in public recreation spaces. However, most infrastructures we interact with daily, such as water and light, are not addressed in this way. Their engineering and interfaces are ripe for a redesign, with architectural detail and innovation as a driving force.

Water Economies project, Lateral Office 31

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Inhabitation of Infrastructure Infrastructure serves as a great precedent for architecture. But architecture has something to offer here too.

If architecture were to appropriate infrastructure’s principles...

Architecture has more freedom to invent, and must provide for the eccentricities of inhabitation. These requirements can be tuned infrastructurally to focus on a systems approach, in which patterns of distribution and collection—of space, program, people—could be explored for their ability to address a particular need experienced in the city.

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SITE : LIGHT moments / experience of light history / electricity in the city system / current infrastructure opportunities / potential sites selected site / Grand Avenue

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Experience of Light The complex system of power plants and transmission lines give way at the individual level to moments of light, the reason the whole system is in existence.

This light comes to us as users in many forms, each charged with their own unique qualities.

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1

2

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Moments of Light in St. Louis

moments within the system 1

grand blvd: Fox and Powell Theaters 2

4

3

Cherokee Street

Choteau’s Landing 4

City Garden

3

city lights abstracted

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experience

ambient light from traffic streetlights 40

Site Case Study Choteau’s Landing: Ambient Surroundings

Light at Choteau’s Landing comes from the transportation arteries that surround it. There are a few operating street lights, but it is more interesting to look up and observe the slight changes in ambient light as vehicles move through the city above it.

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experience

designed light implements 42

Site Case Study City Garden : Pedestrian Scale

The lighting fixtures at City Garden park are low to the ground. They fulfill their purpose of lighting the pathways that people can percolate through, and their scale encourages stopping and sitting. Various special fixtures, such as lighted bunnies and a field of glowing orbs, add interest to this system. They are not truly interactive, but suggest a situation where people could influence the light that surrounds them.

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experience

standard city streetlight neighborhood streetlight 44

Site Case Study Cherokee Street : Walking Through

There are two sets of streetlights on Cherokee Street: one, the generic city type, and a second, more individualized type. This latter is more at the human scale. Both sets of lights here serve to outline the path through which visitors move. This is fitting for a street that is lively because of its many small shops and restaurants-- all that require people to wander in and out.

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experience GRAND CENTER atmosphere: entertainment scale: crowds

lighted building signs 46

Site Case Study Grand Center : Lighting to Announce

The lighting at Grand Center is a huge part of the experience of the area.

The lighted signs on the theaters serve to advertise the exciting events happening inside. This is supplemented by streetlights that line the roads and small parks in the interstitial space between buildings.

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A Brief History: Electricity in the City

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history

50

The Magic of Early Electricity “look from a distance at night, upon the broad spaces it fills, and the majestic sweep of the searching lights, and it is as if the earth and sky were transformed by the immeasurable wands of colossal magicians...�

Murat Halsted, Cosmopolitan Electric lighting made its first big entrance on the city scale during the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Illumination turned the entire grounds turned into a magical new world at night. During the early period of electricity, people were both enthralled and anxious about this new technology that worked without any direct combustion. Electricity would soon make its way to all corners of every city, including St. Louis in 1890.

Now, however, electricity is expected.

Streetlights and transmission form a monotonous grid across the city, with few opportunities for interaction that people first experienced during the Fair.

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history

St. Louis: Past

St. Louis: Present

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Lighting in St. Louis

St. Louis was first electrified in 1890.

Though today the systems have grown in size and extent, the actual pieces of infrastructure don’t look that much different than they did in the early 1900s.

Lighting, then, could be a prime place to begin an architectural intervention. Architecture can add a level of spontaneity and invention that infrastructure has not usually received in recent history.

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history

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CAN ARCHITECTURE BUILD ON ELECTRICITY INFRASTRUCTURE’S PAST EXCITEMENT TO IMAGINE A NEW TYPE OF PUBLIC SPACE? 55

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Current Electricity Infrastructure

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system

high voltage transport 200 kv

production level 7-25 kilovolts

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Components of the Electrical Grid

From the power generation plant, electricity goes through several changes at transformer stations sprinkled all over the country. These either amp up the voltage for long distance travel, or bring it down to usable levels. Before electricity reaches the home, it is typically brought in underground at a comparable low voltage of 120 v.

usable end levels 120-240 v

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system

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Major U.S. transmission lines

1,000 kilovolts 700-799 kv

Power in the U.S. is transmitted cross country along the electrical ‘grid.’ This grid consists of hundreds of miles of transmission lines strung across transmission poles and transformers.

The major routes represented here carry electricity at extremely high voltages in order to achieve maximum efficiency.

500-699 kv 345-499 kv

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system

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Major Missouri transmission lines and power plants

transmission line power plant power storage facility

Zoomed in to the state scale, the power grid breaks down into several layers of transmission lines that receive power from the power plants littered across the state. Many mimic the lines of major roads and highways.

Power can be transmitted both above and below ground, as apparent from the places where lines and plants connect, and places where they do not.

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system

Anheuser-

64

Transmission in St. Louis Venice - Union Electric

power plants high voltage transmission Trigen St Louis

SW Bell Telephone

medium voltage low voltage

The major transmission lines seen in the previous maps do not run directly in to the city of St. Louis. Instead, they are converted at transformer stations just outside the city to smaller voltages. Within the city, many different voltage levels can be recognized based on the various transformer structures that carry them, from very large to the size of a city street pole.

At left are a few of the lines of power in St. Louis.

-Busch

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system

source: GIS 66

Cost of Electricity in St. Louis

The low cost of electricity in St. Louis city compared to its surrounding areas make it a desirable place for development, especially in those fields which are high in energy demand.

$0.0970/kWh

$0.0562/kWh

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Potential Sites There are three significant moments in the area studied thus far where the path of the power grid makes a significant crossing outside the boundaries of order prescribed by the city grid: Gratiot and Highway 64, Central Industrial Drive and Vandeventer Avenue, and Lansdowne Avenue and Highway 44.

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opportunities

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Grid Differentiation

The trasnmission lines and transformer towers do not have to adhere to the lines of the city grid they hover above.

Instead, they criss-cross boundaries throughout the city. This offers a freedom from the norm, and gives the building license to breathe. It can set up its own rhythm in response to its surroundings, and can communicate more clearly with the other nodes on the system.

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opportunities

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Airspace

Looking at the transmission lines in the air instead of just what is visible on the ground suggests a new space of operation for architecture.

How can architecture operate at the scale of a system, and reach down and plug in to the city below?

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opportunities

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Gratiot and Highway 64

This site is tucked between the railroads and highway 64, and is currently open, vast, and empty.

It is also disconnected from its surroundings, even though there are many well-known destinations downtown, to the right.

What surfaces can architecture engage with here?

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site analysis opportunities

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Central Industrial Drive and Vandeventer

Interstitial spaces between the railroads leave several pockets of space open here. The transmission line also makes a quick jump over the railroads at this location-- reaching to the other side only to come back at the next tower.

How can the building take cues from the lines set up by transmission infrastructure?

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site analysis opportunities

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Lansdowne and Highwway 44

This site is the most residential, but is actually populated with the most transmission towers. The high voltage transport line ends here, and shifts its load to several smaller transmission typologies at the Ameren transfer station. These are for the most part separated into their own territory, but there are a few moments where the massive infrastructure is placed adjacent to homes and apartment buildings.

How can architecture address this strange juxtaposition of single dwellings and urban-scaled infrastructure?

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opportunities

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Plug-in Architecture

The moments where an architectural system can break the surface of the airspace and engage with the city below could the most interesting for future development of the project.

How can architecture work at multiple strata within the city?

Can it function as a system, but also provide moments of significant interaction for its users?

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Gran

d Bo ulev a

rd

I-64

me tro

82

Ave ue

Selected Site : Grand Avenue and Highway 64 The final site was selected for its proximity to the existing transmission line in St. Louis, and also for its visibility to the city. Its proximity to the Midtown neighborhood and CORTEX campus provide immediate clients for the energy production.

The site itself is pocketed right between Grand Avenue and Highway 64, and so can be seen at multiple speeds of transport. It also attaches itself to the existing pedestrian access point between Grand Avenue (above) and the Grand Metro Station (below). The building can respond to existing layers of transportation in order to experiment with how architecture can operate both on and above the ground. There is a whole new site at the level of the transmission line waiting to be explored.

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selected site

transmission towers

I-64

MetroLink

site west 84

east

Layers of Energy

Grand Avenue

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selected site

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Site : Boundaries

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selected site

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Site : Boundaries

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architectural strategy

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Site : Opportunities

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PROGRAM : POWER TO THE PEOPLE power generation / existing system program strategy / microgeneration architectural strategy / humanity within infrastructure

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power generation

The US power grid in various states of deterioration

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Problems with the U.S. Grid

The electrical transmission system in the U. S. has been the same for decades. It has grown a whole industry of energy trading around it that makes sure electricity is delivered where it needs to go. However, this efficient system is also fracture critical. When problems arise with the central power generator, the whole system is affected. Additionally, when any one piece of the grid fails, transmission is interrupted along the whole line of connections.

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power generation

Wentzville Assembly & Contiguous 3 MW

V

Howard Bend 39 MW

Labadie 2,412 MW

Meramec

948 MW

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Generation in St. Louis

Granite City Works

78 MW

Venice - Union Electric 491 MW

Trigen St Louis 31.8 MW

SW Bell Telephone 17.2MW

Anheuser-Busch

Milam Gas Recovery 2.4 MW

power plants coal

St. Louis is powered by a handful of generation stations. The ones further from the city produce much more energy, which is then transmitted at high voltage into the city. Many different types of fuels are used, but the predominant ones for production are coal and natural gas.

26.1 MW

petroleum natural gas biomass

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power generation

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Centralized System

In the centralized system, one power source (a power plant) is connected to a large swath of the city through various levels of transmission lines.

These are interconnected in a complex series of relationships that work to deliver energy to the end user.

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power generation

100

Centralized System : Blackout Effects If there were to be a blackout condition or problems at the power plant, the whole connected system would suffer power failures. This reveals the centralized system to be vulnerable to unforeseen problems and not able to adapt well. The end user, in this situation, must deal with a few hours or days of outages.

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power generation

102

Distributed Generation

In the distributed generation system, power is generated at multiple sites.

All are connected to the electrical grid. Each has a general area they service, but their multiplicity allows them to share power between local regions. This can help especially with peak demand, as generation sites that serve homes can send their power to businesses and offices during the highdemand daylight hours.

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power generation

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Distributed Generation : Blackout Effects With distributed generation, a blackout condition at one of the generation sites will not result in outages for the whole region served. Instead, power from the other sites can be shared with the site experiencing difficulties.

This more local system is a way to rethink the way infrastructure operates within our cities. It does not have to be tucked away, but can become integrated with the experience of the city. The idea that infrastructure can be designed breaks from our typical conception of what ‘infrastructure’ means, and expands the possibilities for what it could be. It can be up to architects to define the vision for what this infrastructure may look like, and how people can use it.

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power generation

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Distribution Potentials

Distributed generation systems look and act different, both at the local scale and also when zoomed out to the state and national level. Instead of a handful of generation sites in Missouri that must be brought back into the city by transmission lines, generation sites populate the cities and reduce the need for transmission.

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power generation Central West End center for emerging technologies cortex

biogenerator

Midtown Kings Oak ClaytonChaltenham Tamm

D

Forest Park South East Tiffany

The Hill Ellendale

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Clifton Heights

McRee Town

The Gate District

Downtown West

Proposed Network : Locally Distributed Power Generators

Downtown

power plants transmission lines microgeneration network site of interest

A ‘disruptive innovation’ is one that creates a new market and value network, that eventually will disrupt or replace the existing operations.

This term is typically used in business literature, but is increasingly being discussed among energy professionals to prepare for upcoming changes in the delivery of electricity in the U.S. New technologies and distributions are gaining strength, and may soon replace our outdated ‘electric grid.’

This project explores the potential of locally distributed plants to replace the centralized model in use now. In this method, large, isolated power plants and inefficient transmission lines would be replaced by several smaller plants that provide power to a smaller region. This allows power generation to become a site of multiplicity and adjustment, rather than one of mammoth production and fracture critical organization.

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Revising the Conventional Power Plant

Our typical conception of the power plant is a place that is massive, full of toxic exhaust, and separated from any direct connections with the city it serves. As power generation adapts itself to new ideas of distribution, these conceptions will change.

How can the components of the power plant be rearranged and redesigned to create an inhabitable place within the city?

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program strategy

exhaust tower

cooling tower

steam turbine steam

fuel source

coal natural gas petroleum

furnace

112

water tank

How They Work

In the typical electricity plant, fuel inputs are combusted in the presence of water to create steam that turns a turbine. This then activates a generator, which produces electricity. The power is then transmitted along a series of lines of varying voltage until it reaches the end user at the safe level of 120v.

generator

electricity output 7-25 kV

transmission towers 200 kV

transformer station 200-100 kV

power lines 100 kV

residential connections 120-240 V

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program strategy

Washington University, St. Louis

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Capitol Power Plant, Washington, D.C.

Salem Harbor Power Plant, Salem, MA

Proximity to the City

The idea of putting generation within the city is not itself such a new idea.

Many generating stations can be found in or adjacent to cities.

These often are located there to serve single clients, like universities or hospitals. They are not set up in systems, but rather act as isolated sites. This will change with their adaptation into distributed generation systems.

Penn Station Powerhouse, Queens, NY

Battersea Power Station, London, England

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program strategy

Ashley Street Power Station : 31 MW 1 home = 1.5kV 31 MW - 20,000 homes

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Capstone Microturbine : 1 MW 31 turbines = 20,000 homes

31 MW = 31 microgenerators

Alternative Mechanism: Micro Gas Turbines The power generating system for distributed generation cannot just repeat the processes of the larger power plant. Instead, they must utilize smaller systems that can be approved within city zoning limits.

exhaust

fuel intake combustion chamber generator

compressor 9’

air intake

heat recovery/cogeneration

8’

Micro gas turbines are a technology that has been developing in the past few decades. They have reached a point where they can be used costefficiently in small and large wattage outputs. They provide an immediately available production mechanism to test the distributed generation at the system level. They also are able to be fueled by multiple input sources, so can be coupled with biomass, solar energy, or wind energy as those technologies continue to develop into more cost-effective methods.

30’

117

CORTEX

electricity heat/exhaust recovery

combined heat and power electricity only

natural gas diesel landfill gas bio liquids/gases

microturbine

reciprocating engine gas turbine fuel cells renewables

4MW output to CORTEX

4x Capstone C1000 1MW 30’ x 8’ x 9.5’ each minimum sf = 7,000

minimum sf = +/- 10,000

geothermal fuel cell algae batteries/storage typologies biofuel osmotics pneumatics vibration

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semi-private workspace/garden plot private room for calculations demonstration/venue space viewing space/informal museum metro interior waiting area coffee shop/bar

subscriber shared

non-subscriber/publi

ic

Program: Program An Interface : Power and for People and Energy People centralized generation distributed generation off-grid

power plant

gas turbine generators + heat exhaust pedestrian access and circulation maintenance space subtotal

energy gardens

research plots pedestrian circulation informal museum metro waiting space subtotal proposed

day

night

site area FAR allowances buildable

4 @ 250 sq ft 5,000 sq ft 1,000 sq ft = 7,000 sq ft

5 @ 2,000 sq ft 2,000 sq ft 5,000 sq ft 500 sq ft = 17,500 sq ft 24,500 sq ft

27,500 sq ft 2.0 = 55,000 sq ft

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Finding Humanity Within Infrastructure

Even the most gargantuan infrastructural sites contain within them points of access at the scale of the human. They need to be operated, maintained, and cleaned. These points of contact bridge a gap between the machine and architecture, and offer a series of moments that blend the relationships between the two. These moments-- catwalks, stairs, ladders-- can be a starting point when thinking about how power plants can evolve within the architectural context.

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architectural strategy

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Appropriation of Past Industrial Architecture The nature of large machinery in industry has in the past led to very specific architectures to house it.

Over time those spaces have lost their grandeur as infrastructures become more and more hidden within our cities. While the specific languages of the past cannot be brought directly into our current reconception of what power generation can be, they can provide a reference for systems of access, solid, and void that can adapt to future energy technologies and networks. For example, as machines decrease in size, the void spaces left for them can become spaces inhabited by both people and energy.

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U L S n-

architectural strategy

w o t d i

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Pa est r o F

ast 4 E st 6 I e 4W I-6

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Cu ry mo

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15’

r rea ide

4’ s

10’

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Site Potentials

The site is situated at the threshold of community residential district and an industrial one. Being located within the industrial zoned area gives the building and program freedom, while the proximity to the neighborhood provides consistent clients for its energy use.

The site is surrounded by several unique transportation boundaries.

These can be seen as thresholds at which the project can reach out to the surrounding site. This sets up the opportunity to question the given boundaries and to engage with them in ways that redefine their perception.

They can now be reimagined as surfaces of energy, both transmitting the program from the inside and attracting people from the outside.

G

ra n

d

A ve n

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architectural strategy

Forest Park Southeast

railroads Grand Avenue

site south

SITE

armory

I-64

north

CORTEX

The Grove

site west 126

east

Armory

Custom Home

SITE

Grand

I - 64 E/W

Site Potentials

This particular site directs itself to providing energy to the CORTEX labs and offices. This client could work as a source of funding or innovation for the renewable systems being developed in the energy gardens, and provides a set of requirements that the project can use as specific conditions to design for.

Even more locally, the site is adjacent to the busy thoroughfares of Grand Avenue, the vertically stacked section of I-64, and the MetroLink. It is also positioned at the intersection of industrial sites and the busy Midtown neighborhood of St. Louis, containing CORTEX, SLU, and Grand Center.

Midtown - SLU

AirGas

Midtown

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architectural strategy

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Energy as Spectacle

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References

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Easterling, Keller. Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and its Political Masquerades. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2005.

“Interventions: Urban Think Tank,” in Praxis 13, edited by Ashley Schafer and Amanda Reeser Lawrence. Boston, MA: Praxis Inc., 2011, 90-97.

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Mau, Bruce, and Jennifer Leonard. Massive Change. London: Phaidon, 2004.

MIT. The Future of the Electric Grid: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011.

Muschamp, Herbert. “Public Space or Private, a Compulsion to Fill It.” The New York Times, August 27, 2000. Accessed online July 6, 2013 at: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/27/movies/art-architecture-public-space-or-private-acompulsion-to-fill-it.html Picon, Antoine. “Anxious Landscapes: From the Ruin to Rust.” Translated by Karen Bates. In Grey Room 01 (2000): 6483.

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Stoll, Katrina, Scott Lloyd, and Stan Allen. Infrastructure as Architecture: Designing Composite Networks. Berlin: Jovis, 2010.

World Wildlife Fund, OMA, and EcoFys. The Energy Report: 100% Renewable Energy by 2050. Gland, Switzerland: World Wildlife Fund International, 2011.

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Image Credits

Unless otherwise noted, all photos are by author 14-15: Google Earth image 16-17: St Louis Images: Roads and Highways: http://modotblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-64-st-louis-project-getting-national.html Buses and Metro: http://lacledeslanding.com/lacledes-landing-visitor-information/ Light: http://blog.airshipventures.com/2011/08/night-flight-overhead-st-louis.html Water and Waste: http://news.stlpublicradio.org/topic/inside-st-louis-sewer-system National Images: Duluth: http://cc.rsoe.hu/?pageid=news_read&hirid=1031 New York Subway: http://inhabitat.com/nyc/can-new-york-citys-subway-system-handle-hurricane-irene/floodingsubway-station/ New York Blackout: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203880704578089231838419440 West Virginia: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537781/Four-hospitalized-300-000-without-water-followingWest-Virginia-chemical-spill-hundreds-claiming-symptoms-exposure-tainted-water.html 21: Coffee Shop: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_23601524/colorado-coffee-shops-putting-limits-power-wi-fi 23: Waste: http://wasteindustries.org/concern-for-industrial-waste/ Gas/Water: http://www.kbbonline.com/kbb/news-and-features/Delta-Faucet-Named-W-2661.shtml http://paramountair.net/thermostat-fan-setting-on-or-auto/ 25: Bus: http://www.stltoday.com/news/traffic/along-for-the-ride/new-metro-buses-may-help-reduce-overcrowdingfor-grand-bus/article_d129c3aa-1a89-58b1-8022-a5072c2a5c9c.html Cell Phones: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/about-those-2005-and-2013-photos-of-thecrowds-in-st-peters-square/2013/03/14/aaf1067a-8cf9-11e2-9f54-f3fdd70acad2_blog.html 132

28-29: Underlay image is Google Street View 30-31: System Precedents Parc de la Villette photo: http://archhistdaily.wordpress.com/tag/bernard-tschumi/ drawing: http://archidose.org/wp/2011/11/07/supercrit-4/ Metrocable: http://reporterosenmovimiento.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/nacera-trunco-el-proyecto-del-teleferico-enecatepec/ drawing: p. 91, “Interventions: Urban Think Tank,” in Praxis 13, ed. by Ashley Schafer and Amanda Reeser Lawrence, Boston, MA: Praxis Inc., 2011, 90-97.

Highline: author’s photo drawing: http://www.thehighline.org/james-corner-field-operations-and-diller-scofidio-renfro Water Economies: http://lateraloffice.com/WATER-ECONOMIES-2009-10 34-35: http://www.scoopnest.com/user/NASA/444641890600636418 36-37: http://throbbingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2013/08/street-light-interference-phenomenon-sli.html 48-49: http://www.photographyblog.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=22256 50-51: http://www.element14.com/community/community/news/blog/2013/05/06/chicago-world-s-fair-120thanniversary-lighting-use-of-ac-first-night-time-football-game 52-53: Historic Photos (top): http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/scenes.htm Bottom row are author’s photos 54: http://waterandpower.org/museum/First%20Electricity%20in%20Los%20Angeles.html 133

Image Credits

56-57: http://www.marco.org/2012/04/09/led-light-bulbs-reviewed 72-81: Google Earth underlays 94-95: (Left to Right) 1. http://complex.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/12/24/power-station-military-assault 2. http://www.offthegridnews.com/2013/08/13/new-power-grid-report-card-reveal-dangerous-vulnerabilities/ 3. http://stoppathwv.com/1/post/2012/07/firstenergy-reliability-and-transmission-outages-in-west-virginia.html 4. http://tdworld.com/test-monitor-control/new-seismic-shock-system-helps-protect-power-grid 5. http://rt.com/usa/power-cut-us-canada-834/ 98-105: Google Earth underlays 110-111: https://webberenergyblog.wordpress.com/tag/aep/ 114-115.

Washington University: Author’s photo Capitol Power Plant: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/capitol-dome-seen-behind-capitol-power-plant-washingtonphoto-191404978.html Salem Harbor: http://350ma.org/2014/01/only-the-best-for-salem-stop-the-salem-gas-plant/ Penn Station Powerhouse: http://forgotten-ny.com/2005/04/end-of-the-hunters-point-smokestacks/ Battersea: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/london/9481027/Beautiful-views-from-Londonsrooftops.html 116. http://www.builtstlouis.net/industrial/union-electric-light-and-power.html

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120-121. http://www.csj.ualberta.ca/imaginations/?p=3523 http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444327204577618120559279762 http://ceramics.org/ceramic-tech-today/with-6m-in-hand-nsf-and-epri-soliciting-novel-rd-proposals-to-cut-water-useat-power-plants http://dangerousintersection.org/2014/01/14/exploring-an-old-steamelectrical-power-plant-in-st-louis/ http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/petroleum_planet/ 122-123. https://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniemartinez/393486198

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