Brandon Kroger: Architecture Portfolio by Brandon Kroger

Brandon Kroger (513)-833-6103 krogerbj@mail.uc.edu

The Knowlton School, Ohio State University School of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati

Contents Academic Work

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Architectural Butterflies Meditations on Koolhaas Fulton Place Masterplan Barack Obama Presidential Library+Conference Center JUEA Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s House Secrets: Columbus Professional Work

The Highlands Recreation Center

Architectural Butterflies Honors Research Studio+Seminar with Nour Al-Qarra and Aaron Weaver Instructors: Dow Kimbrell, Sandhya Kochar, Critics: Ann Pendleton-Jullian, Alex Maymind, Jonathan Rieke, Curtis Roth, Stephen Turk Time: Spring 2017

In current conversation, the once canonical architectural diagram of the 20th Century, nowadays, seem to operate as a set of reactions to contemporary trends at once commodified, and thereby supplicate to architectural ubiquity. These canonical diagrams can be reclaimed, and interrogated through this taxonomy of species. The 20th Century diagram is portrayed as a genus and observed speculatively as the progenitor of new species of diagrams. Speciation leads to the questioning of the entrenched meaning of the prime, thereby re-presenting latent desires, and questioning the overall canonical nature of the diagram. This system cultivates a taxonomy of infinite variations, whereby specific architectural traits, which at one time can be read as initially recessive, evolve and spawn difference. These species express themselves as hyper-objects, and represent a certain genetic filter by which they have evolved; these are desires not explicitly expressed in the original project. They perform as individual objects, just as a biological genus contains varying degrees of difference amongst its species. Each new species of diagrams redefines the original diagrammatic condition, not as a means of addressing its successes or lack thereof, but simply as a means of pointing to the infinite varieties upon which further speculation could exist. The project seeks to speculate a future condition via addressing infinite variations of diagrams. The main concern is one of architectural evolution. It calls for building upon what already exists to produce what could be. The project does not seek to judge the resulting diagrams based on their success or failure, but rather sees the new diagram as one facet in a diverse tapestry of future architecture. This taxonomy, as a collective, is meant to be about the both/and way of thinking., and re-presents through whimsy and surreality new architectural possibilities.

Portfolio Brandon Kroger

2-4-6-8

Portfolio Brandon Kroger

Unité

House of Suicide

Chapel of Christ

Bibliotheque National

Maıson Domıno 6

Initial diagram sets:

character

d hoc

austerity

sign l ti

ruin

reorganized

face

Architectural Butterflies Brandon Kroger

Configuration 25

Configuration 103

Configuration 68 11

Infinitely rearraged model set

Architectural Butterflies Brandon Kroger

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Fulton Landing Masterplan Cincinnati, OH AIA Cincinnati Exhibited

Instructors: Andrew Tetrault, Ed Mitchell, Michael McInturf Time: Summer 2019

The urban core of Cincinnati is continuously growing, and is geographically challenged by its two most characteristic features: hills and water. Thr proposed spot for a transit-oriented development, named Fulton Landing, presents particularly unique condition, ocuppying a thin slice of land between a hill and the river. The site is approached respectfully; knowing that the site floods, and given that high density was required on the site, a simple diagram was developed in order to unite these two contradictory problems. A large weaving path was cut through the site running neither laterally or longitudinally, but rather diagonally. Uniting two parks on either side of the property, the path divides Fulton into separate parcels, called “docks”. After initially cutting through, the individual docks were sloped in order to create park like spaces that mediated between the lower pedestrian path along the river’s edge, and the denser build-up along the northern road and existing railroad. In order to address flooding concerns, the river path is cushioned with wild gardens along its southern edges: this creates a riparian zone, where wild flowers are allowed to grow, but can also flood and potentially clean the river water as is moves west towards the city center. Greenery fills nearly every dock, carpeting almost the entire site, and allows buildings placed onto the site to appear as if follies in a landscape., occasionally breaking away and “floating” above roads, train lines, and the river pathway. This whimsical effect emphasizes the divergent qualities of the site. The design allows for an urban space that is at once dense, yet bucolic. Structures seem at once grounded yet appear to float away. The design at once ties directly into the site, and therefore the larger urban network; but it also promotes a new, dynamic potential for the future of the Ohio River, and the City of Cincinnati.

Portfolio Brandon Kroger

Fulton Landing Brandon Kroger

DAYTIME

Fulton Landing Brandon Kroger

EVENING

Fulton Landing Brandon Kroger

Meditations on Koolhaas Construction Ethic Study With Todd Funkhouser Time: May 2017

The Villa Dall’Ava, located in eastern Paris, is a seminal work in the career of Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. In order to understand Koolhaas and his architectural positon, we intended to study the early built works that a “ubiquitous aesthetic” as written about in seminal works such as SMLXL. The thesis behind the home, which was designed to be a work of Architecture, is one of quotation through the lens of banalaty; that is, Koolhaas is taking a tongue-in-cheek position towards the history of architecture. Quoting the likes of Le Corbusier, Meis van der Rohe, among many others, he assembles home assembled out of basic, conventional building methods and materials. In our study, we took a similar tongue-and-cheek approach and recreated a portion of the building using the same mundane building methods that Koolhaas used. We produced a model that was cast in concrete, wrapped in rigid foam insulation, and finally clad in aluminum siding. The wooden console was assembled per working drawings, and the exterior pool finished in a coat of weather proof primer and paint. Studies for the copper portion were completed on a smaller scale as well. The model therefore becomes a quotation-of a quotation-of a quotation, ultimately deriving from distillations of classical building principlies, and illustrating the cyclical nature of architecture construction. Our end product could certainly represent an ironic statement on the use of quotation in architecture, and blurs the line between quotation and outright mimesis.

Portfolio Brandon Kroger

Meditations on Koolhaas Brandon Kroger

Coping

Insulation

Cast concrete Cladding

Meditations on Koolhaas Brandon Kroger

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Barack Obama Presidential Library+Confrence Center Wolf Point, Chicago, IL, USA Instructor: Jackie Gargus Critics: Troy Malmstrom, Doug Graf Time: October-December 2015

The Barack Obama Presidential Library and Confrence Center is proposed structure honoring the life and presidency of Barack Obama, to be built after he has completed his final term in office. The proposed site is located in Chicago, IL, a city which Obama says â&#x20AC;&#x153;...all the strands of my life came together...â&#x20AC;? The site, a noted promintory that juts out into the Chicago River, was chosen due to its important location in the downtown area, as well as the commanding views of Lake Michigan, and the rest of downtown Chicago. The building is designed with the intent to construct a structure with significant civic value, and one that would serve the city of Chicago as an important convention center for city meetings, political summits and international visits. It also hosts a restaurant, cafe, multicultural ballroom and convention hall, among other things. Two programs, the hotel and the library, point in opposite directions to lock in visually with the Chicago River, as well as to lock into the urban landscape in the background. Torquing in the middle is the museum, where a model of the Oval Office, a picture gallery, and a roof top viewing platform. Philosophically, the project approaches the notion of landmark differently than traditional American monuments. Its materials are non-traditional and urban, and change over time and maintaining a distinct patina; it is reflecting its interaction with the city, and begins to breaks the vertical lines of the Chicago River cooridor. It therefore rejects the traditional static monument, and attempts to establish a narrative between Chicago, and becomes a representation of Obamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lasting legacy on both Chicago and the country; a presidency of reform, advancement, and promoting the American way.

Obama Presidential Library Brandon Kroger

Urban pinch point

Framer of divergent views Obama Presidential Library Brandon Kroger

conference

museum

library

viewport oval office exhibit orientation theater hotel

Obama Presidential Library Brandon Kroger

Jesuit University of Eastern Africa President’s Residence and Offices Kajiado County, Kenya, Eastern Africa Critics Ann Pendleton-Jullian, Critics: Ashley Schafer, Curtis Roth Time: Spring 2016

The Jesuit community of Eastern Africa proposed a new, state-of-the art university campus to be located just south of Nairobi, Kenya. Part of the new university scheme includes an office and residential complex to serve both the university, the community, as well as the greater East African community. Much of the project deals with the specific needs of the newly elected president, Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator; someone who is both a major leader in the East African community, yet paradoxically someone who maintains a simple, monastic lifestyle based upon internal personal an spiritual contemplation. Formally, the project develops via a kind of mitosis, starting with a single seed (Orobator’s living quarters) evolving into something much more substantial, growing from an internally focused objecct into something that begins to perform externally. These seeds, raised up with rammed earth, create “rocks” in the savannah, stoic and unwavering, that then inform the movement of bodies within Materially, these things reflect the traditional Masaai village, organized materially by the sacred and the profane. Windows slip and slide across these rocks on a wooden facade, opening and closing the project from the landscape, addressing a paradox that the president faces as “captian of the ship”, yet secluded in his contemplative monastic life. At one moment, the project is a permeable, flowing system, then suddenly the one can find themselves in an internally focused space: perhaps a chapel or a library, or even more radically, close the entire system, and become entirely internally focused.

Portfolio Brandon Kroger

JUEA Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s House Brandon Kroger

Traditional Maasai Village Tra

Sacred

Profane

Undergraduate JUEA Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Portfolio House Brandon Brandon Kroger Kroger

JUEA President’s House Brandon Kroger

Section A

Scale: 1/4”=1’0”

JUEA Presidential Library Brandon Kroger

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Secrets: Columbus Arts 611 Washington Street, Columbus, IN, USA

Critics: William D. Williams Time: Fall 2018

Columbus, Indiana is rich in architectrual legacy, and within the architectural community, represents a place excited about design and eagerly allows architects to experiment with new techniques. Thererfore, when tasked with building an archival library and rts center, one has to approarch the site with congnicence of the loaded context, but at the same time positioning architecture firmly in the 21st Century. It was also important to take note of the project’s significance to the local population, and think about how their daily interaction with historic architecture could influence their understanding of this project. Approaching the theme of “Secrets”; that is, attempting to accentuate surprise and serendipity in architecture in duble descrete ways. Formally, the project exists as two bars, creating an urban courtyard/alleyway space. One bar moves up and around interloking with the other, just barely peeking over to address the streetside, and to hint at some architectural possiublity beyond what is witnessed at street-level. Inside, sudden drops in section via ramping and doubleheight spaecs diverege from the humble exterior façade. Clad in a curtain wall system fritted to translucency, views out to the exterior give only hints to the conditions outside, hidden ghosts of program beyond. As one meanders through, just around the corner lies many other surprises. Sited immediately adjacent to a parking garage on an almost impossibly thin parcel, smaller exterior spaces are created, creating reading gardens and an outdoor theater on the southwest façade.

Portfolio Brandon Kroger

Secrets: Columbus Brandon Kroger

The Highlands Recreation Center Triadelphia, WV Client: Ohio County Development Authority, Wheeling, WV Team: Moody Nolan Inc./Mills Group, Inc Designer: Woojin Lim; Interior Designer: Alexis Gerhart Project Manager: Howard Blaisdell, Victor Greco Project Architect: Julie Cook, Kellie Cole Project Coordinator: Brandon Kroger

Located just outside Wheeling, West Virginia, and adjacent to the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, the Highlands Sports and Recreation Center was commissioned by the Ohio County Development Authority to act a regional venue for competitive sports clubs throughout the Ohio/Pennsylvania/West Virginia area, as well as act as a catalyst for economic activity in nacent retail development known as the Highlands. The project was initially concieved and studied as two large field houses, creating spaces for indoor turf fields, as well as basketball courts; however, Ohio County felt that the area needed larger, more robust facilities to house a larger variety of sports. Moody Nolan and Mills Group enthusiastically responded by designing space for a full size indoor turf football field, lacrosse field, soccer fields, and a large nine-court gynasium, including room for a popular local sport, pickleball. Other activities include a play/climb adventure wall, exterior U12 soccer fields, as well as a large, architectural tower feature complete with zipline. My role specifically was as a project coordinator, working directly with the project managers and designers to complete drawing sets and schematic diagrams, develop a working BIM model, and generate renderings. Moody Nolan worked from the planning stage onwards, up to and including construction documents. Much of the construction set was drawn and collated by myself, as well as others at Mills Group.

Portfolio Brandon Kroger

Concourse view

Entry lobby

Portfolio Brandon Kroger

BRANDON KROGER Experience Solomon Cordwell Buenz Architectural Intern August 2019 - December 2019

Skills Chicago, IL

Team member for the historic Tribune Tower Redevelopment; Assisted on consultant coordination tasks, permmitting submittals, and contractor requests for information and associated documents. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture Architectural Intern January 2019 - May 2019

Chicago, IL

Team member for a confidential 28-story tower competition in Shenzhen, China Assisted on construction phase project submitals for Expo 2020 Dubai Assisted on construction documentation for Steppenwolf Theater, Chicago Moody Nolan, Inc. Project Coordinator, Student Oriented and Sports Facilities Studio September 2017 - August 2018

Cincinnati, OH

Model Building: Cura (3D Printing) ZPrint (3D Printing) Makerware (3d Printing) RhinoCAM (CNC Milling PowerMill (CNC Milling) Matte/Museum Board

Portfolio Cincinnati, OH

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-kroger-6020a4117/

Portfolio:

Graduate Teaching Assistant Communications Skills II, Interior Skills III, Design Science I The Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University Bachelor of Science in Architecture, with Honors and Research Distinction, 2017

Drafting: Revit AutoCAD Rhinocerous3D Grasshopper (Rhino) Sketchup Bluebeam Revu

Columbus, OH

Education School of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati Master of Architecture, 2021 Joseph J. Straus Endowed Scholarship

Presentation: Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe InDesign Adobe Acrobat

Rendering: Enscape (for Revit) VRay Lumion

Team member on San Diego State University Aztec Rec Center competition Project Coordinator on Ohio County/Highlands Rec Center, Wheeling, WV Assisted on First Coast Aquatic Center schematic design, Jacksonville, FL Childress & Cunningham, Inc. Architectural Intern/Cooperative Education Student May 2016-August 2016

10029 Fox Chase Drive Loveland, OH 45140 (513) - 833 - 6103 krogerbj@mail.uc.edu

https://issuu.com/brandonkroger

Columbus, OH

Cum Laude Deanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s List 2012-13, 2015-16 Knowlton School of Architecture Studio Book Award, 2015 James E. Gui Competition Finalist, 2016

Involvement

References

Emerging Professionals, Moody Nolan, Inc. Participant

Columbus, OH

Arch Out Loud Open Ideas Competition HOME: 2018 (with Umar Mahmood), NYC Aquarium, 2016

Columbus, OH

American Institute of Architecture Students Member; Graphic Design Committee

Columbus, OH

Knowlton School Professional Mentorship Program Mentor: Scott Conlon, Ohio State University Department of Planning

Columbus, OH

Ann Pendleton-Julian Jacqueline Gargus Dow Kimbrell Sandhya Kochar

2016-2020