BRIAN VARGO 408.316.1088 or get more Info@BrianVargo.com
HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN
2015 (expected): Candidate for Master in Design Studies Degree, Concentration in Real Estate and Development
CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, SAN LUIS OBISPO
2011: Bachelor of Architecture Degree with Magna Cum Laude.
2006-2011: Member of Dean’s list, President’s list, and National Society of Collegiate Scholars
2009:2010: Danish Institute for Study Abroad in Copenhagen, Demark. Enrolled with merit based scholarship.
2009-2010: Richard Lee Fisher Memorial Scholarship, Don Floyd Memorial Scholarship, Peter Tax and Adam Jarman Scholarship
VARGO DESIGN Ongoing independent design work and publications: www.BrianVargo.com
1st Prize: HighLink, San Francisco, An international ideas competition for the removal of Highway 280 in downtown SF.
1st Prize: ReImagine the Electric Car, STC RIO Competition 2012, with Brandon Hall and Annie Peyton.
Academic Publication: PLAT 3.0: “Towards a Better Infrastructure: Is the Airport All There is?” with Brandon Hall, Yale 2014.
Academic Publication: BRACKET: AT EXTREMES: “Airnode” with Brandon Hall, Yale 2014.
JAJA ARCHITECTS 2011-2013: Design Architect and Project Leader in an award winning design firm based in Copenhagen, Denmark: www.ja-ja.dk
1st Prize: Hillevågsveien 24, Norway: Design team leader for 350 apartment development. To be realized 2015.
1st Prize: Ålesund City Plan, Norway: Design team for city’s masterplan, competition 2011. Plan adopted in June 2013.
1st Prize: Åndalsnes Waterfront, Norway: Design team, city boardwalk and schematic urban design. To be realized 2015.
Finalist: Reykjavik City Center, Iceland: Project leader for 100,000 sqft hotel and urban plan.
2nd Prize: Rjukan, Norway: Project Leader: Project leader. 2nd Prize in open international competition.
Straume Centrum Tower, Norway: Design team, 120,000 sqft office building and urban plan.
3rd Prize: Daegu Public Library, Korea: Project leader. 3rd Prize of 553 entries in open international competition.
Helsinki Central Library, Finland: Project leader for public library proposal.
SCHMIDT HAMMER LASSEN ARCHITECTS 2010 Summers: Design Intern for a renowned design office based in Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark: www.shl.dk
1st Prize: Malmo Concert Hall and Congress Center, Sweden: Design and Competition Models
1st Prize: Salt Crystals, Hotel and Entertainment Venue, Denmark: Design and Competition Models
TERRY MARTIN ARCHITECTS 2007,2008 Summers: Project management and drafting for high-end residential and commercial projects based in Los Gatos, California.
American Sleep Medicine Facilities: Project management and construction documents for 2500 sqft commercial project. Built 2008.
Ghuman residence: Project management and construction documents for 6000 sqft residential home. Built 2008.
Dvornik residence: Project management, construction documents, and construction administration for 3000 sqft residential home. Built 2007.
Legates Residence: Construction documents for 5000 sqft residence. Built 2007.
DESIGN BUILD SERVICES 2006, 2009 Summers. Construction management: On-site job inspections, material inventories, basic construction based in San Jose, California.
The Cravery Restaurant: On-site construction management for 3000 sqft restaurant: Built 2006.
4th Street Pizza: On-site construction management for 6000 sqft: Built 2006.
BETWEEN BOOKS AND TREES 3rd Place among 553 entries in open competition for community library in Daegu, Korea As a model for other community libraries, the Daegu Gosan Public Library should embody the universal access of information and knowledge sharing, letting its activity spill out and public life flow in. Our proposal uses the qualities of the existing site to create a cohesive environment that blurs the line between public space and public building. The library will merge the exterior and interior through a series of spatial transitions that create a reading space between books and trees. The existing site is framed by a line of trees and is adjacent to a wide park strip that protects the future library from the nearby traffic of a growing cityscape. The special quality of a green space within a dense city provides an opportunity for the library to take on a special meaning. By minimizing its architecture, the library can extend the experience of the trees into a profound reading space for the community to share.
BETWEEN BOOKS AND TREES The plan is organized around a central void that brings light from top to bottom. Desk spaces frame the perimeter of the central atrium, leaving room for large, flexible areas on each floor to accommodate a variety of shelf configurations as the library meets its changing needs. Group rooms are arranged on opposite sides of the plan to support functions beyond the central reading space. A forest of columns on a regular grid supports three simple floors above the ground level. The plan is designed with universal dimensions that enable the use of standardized elements. Group rooms are arranged on opposite sides of the plan to accommodate a variety of uses beyond the central reading space. The specific spaces and functions can be easily adjusted while maintaining the overall qualities of the design concept. This combination - both a robust identity and a flexible system - constitutes a design that can artfully adapt to the changing requirements of the program which will inevitably arise in further development. The fundamental relationship between the architecture and its context guides the library’s quality more than its formal gesture. By using the spatial qualities of the exterior trees, the library makes a timeless cultural statement that appeals across generations. The HVAC design follows the same structural principle of the architectural concept - minimal and highly efficient. The stepped volume is shaped by the angle of the sun’s average path throughout the year, minimizing the interior cooling load. The large, open interior atrium lets natural ventilation supply fresh air to all interior spaces. The library is in constant dialogue with its context through a minimal vocabulary. Its cantilevering floors shade each other, allowing profound transparency that brings the library’s books directly to the exterior. As visitors arrive, they follow a transition from the texture of the trees to the texture of the books. The glass facade is the minimal boundary between the two, framing a profound connection that defines the experience of the library. As the seasons change, the trees become a backdrop of color and light that creates a variety of experiences. For example, the winter library maximizes the amount of ambient light when it is most needed within the interior. The fall library casts orange and red hues within, shaping a dramatically different experience.
RJUKAN TORG 2nd Place among 53 entries in open competition for town square in Rjukan, Norway, 2013 Rjukan is a small town with rugged natural surroundings. Nestled deep within a wooded fjord, the city gets no direct sunshine for more than 6 months out of the year. But the town has a unique ability to harvest the natural environment - A new heliostat will bounce the sun’s rays off its adjacent mountain to the town’s central square. The design competition for this square will be the ideal chance to create the ideal stage for Rkukan’s new spotlight, illuminating the town’s daily life and its history as a special place. The mirror project continues the town’s long story of taming the rugged Norwegian landscape. At the center of that story is the power of water. Rjukan was firstbuilt as a company town around Rjukanfossen, a large waterfall that powered Northern Europe’s largest hydroelectric power plant for nearly a century. The new Rjukan Torg will connect to this historic identity by creating an intersectino between water and light. We envision a space that imagines the new ‘urban fountain’ as a spatial gesture - shaping the phenomena of light and water into functional and timeless experiences for the city’s future.
Diakonissestiftelsen Master Plan, Denmark
DIAKONISSESTIFTELSEN MASTER PLAN 50,000m2 Urban Plan, Shared 1st Prize Shared 1st Prize in invited competition, 2012 with Cubo Arkitekter and Henrik Jørgensen Landskab
My Role: Concept Development, Visualization The Danish Deaconess Foundation is a non-profit organization based in a series of historic brick monasteries in a quiet Copenhagen neighborhood. The foundation’s further development will include adding substantial amounts of living, working, and educational programs, greatly increasing the area’s density. This competition requires a strategic development to transform this historic context into a series of vibrant urban environments without disrupting the natural beauty of the historic architecture. Our concept focuses not on adding new buildings, but rather on extending the existing building-structure’s natural rhythm and using the variety of green spaces between their masses as a connective element. The new Diakonissestiftelsen will be linked by this green spine, allowing for diversity in scale and program while maintaining a cohesive identity. Such a gesture is infinitely flexible and allows for various collaborators to partake in the design process over the coming decade.
historic harbor
ÅLESUND, NORWAY
historic harbor
1st Prize in open competition for City Plan (2012), completed in 2014 The picturesque Norwegian city of Ålesund aims to build 150,000m2 of cultural, residential, and commercial program along its southern waterfront. But how can this be achieved without compromising the inherent quality and small scale of a regional tourist city? How can a new development reconcile its scale within one of Norway’s most historic fjords? Our proposal focuses on the historic qualities of the city in guiding its future growth. The city has historically centered around a natural sound that runs through new fishing harbor
new culture harbor
its oldest quarters. As both a vital natural resource and an incubator for public activity, this water space is the heart of the city, fostering urban development within a wide open landscape. In essence, the ‘blue space’ acts as the civic plaza, creating the gathering point for generations by concentrating the city’s activity. Further development should extend the urban qualities of the sound to create a series of protected harbor spaces. Our strategy orients the added elements of the city into urban-themed ‘blue spaces.’ For example, the culture harbor (visualized here) gathers the variety of cultural programs to be added to the city into one public space. This will demarcate Ålesund as a progressive city focused on the inherent qualities of its unique urbanity, while still addressing the needs of its future population.
new culture harbor
HIGHLINK 1st Prize in competition to redesign 280 overpass, San Francisco, California Imagine removing the traffic from a freeway in the middle of a city. The mayor’s office of San Francisco is considering just that, and has asked for ideas to fill the space left over by the removal of interstate 280. Highlink is a winning proposal that asks for something more substantial – Rather than just remove the overpass, can we repurpose its existing structure to create new value for the city? The HighLink is a vibrant promenade, filled with a natural landscape of recreation areas, gathering spaces, and refuges for wildlife. This new urban space will add value to the adjacent parcels freed by the removal of the freeway, and help shape a cohesive identity for the adjacent development of Mission Bay. the HighLink will act both as destination and link between two parts of the city, ultimately creating a layered urbanism that gives back to the community in the city. Built to withstand heavy traffic, the overpass is already structurally robust. By supplementing that structure with a simple irrigation and drainage network, large trees can line a vegetated pathway of community gardens, grassy fields, and imaginative landscapes. Moreover, the entirety of the HighLink can be universally accessible – All members of the public can safely scale its gently slopped pathway. This proposal has garnered ongoing attention as a viable alternative to demolition of the freeway.
REYKJAVIK CITY CENTER: HOTEL AND URBAN PLAN Finalist in open competition, 2012 The Kvosin district in the city of Reykjavik is one of the most historic places in Scandinavia, with its oldest buildings estimated to be constructed over 1000 years ago. The competition for a new hotel and urban plan for the city center must balance the ambitions of a 7,500m2 development within this rich historical context. Our proposal focuses on meeting the scale and urban quality of the existing buildings, while defining an open ground floor that connects three adjacent squares. The new hotel snakes around existing buildings to articulate a perimeter block and frame the public space of Reykjavik’s city center. Working together, the combination of new and old create a coherent, yet diverse, environment. It is this quality that will both add value to the quality of the proposed hotel and promote the urban activity of the Kvosin district. This environment is further defined by limiting the nearby roads to only pedestrian access, and articulating each of the three squares as having a different level of urban activity. Working at this scale involved a detailed understanding of the complex urban conditions in a historic cityscape, construction of historic buildings and local Icelandic culture. Our proposal was one of six finalists in an open competition with over 70 entries, and was acclaimed for its comprehensive vision of Reykjvaik’s city center.
HELSINKI CENTRAL LIBRARY, FINLAND Open Competition Entry, 2012. Our proposal, the ‘Learning Landscape,’ will create a library that brings the qualities of nearby Töölönlahti natural preserve into the heart of Helsinki, creating an iconic gesture for Finish culture. We propose to lift the library’s volume above a completely open ground floor to extend Töölönlahti’s landscape directly into the city. This creates a topography of programmed spaces within the ground floor lobby. The inside spills out and the outside flows in, creating a dynamic terrain of public life, active spaces, and imaginative reading nooks. The lobby is the library’s major interactive space, completely transparent to the exterior and extending over the entire footprint of the ground floor. The dynamic space shaped by the terrain of the landscaped lobby are complimented by a simple volume containing the library’s collection above. The library’s need for flexibility is accommodated by two efficient floors of collection and reading area, contained within a regular envelop. This anchors the landscape to a reference point and signifies the building as a timeless cultural statement. By shifting a conventional atrium into a stepped topography, the Learning Landscape extends the park from the ground floor directly into the library.
30,000m2 Tower Finalist, 2011 Council for Tall Buildings in the Urban Habitat Student Competition Advisor: Doug Jackson
HYPERFLEX CTBUH Student Competition International Finalist Vacancy is a structural issue in urban architecture - office towers are built to stay approximately 15% empty at all times, regardless of the economic cycle. Why is this significant factor disregarded by the standard architecture of the generic office block? Are there other opportunities to investigate how architectures can design large scale buildings that will inevitably include vast areas of vacant space? Hyperflex follows the same structural logic of the extruded floor plan typology, but extends that logic to greater reachs. The “floors” of the repetitive system stack without reinveting its’ predecessor’s structural vocabulary. Circulation and mechanical cores ascend to regular intervals, just as the typical office tower. This limited vocabulary maximizes the potential of its further articulation, inviting tenants to make their otwn space within a gneric domain. The new tower is broken inthree zones to create a basic hierarchy and in interaction with the the neighboring city. This simple gesture balances the limitless flexibility of a continues strip of office space, fertilized for a variety of ongoing uses throughout the building’s life.