Christopher Fletcher Academic Portfolio for Graduate Applications

Perrysburg, Ohio 2022 cflet448@gmail.com | (419)-250-5495

Education

Bowling Green State University - Bowling Green, OH

Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Environmental Design - April 2022

Work Experience

Teaching Assistant in Design Representation

Fall 2019 - Spring 2020

Midwest Church Design & Construction (MCDC)

Architectural Intern / Designer, Summer 2021 - Current Atelier HAY Research Fellowship, Fall 2021 - Summer 2022

Involvement

The American Institute of Architecture Students

Chapter Marketing Director, Spring 2019 - Spring 2022

AIAS Midwest Quad Conference Planning Team Marketing Director, Fall 2019 - Fall 2020

Perrysburg High School Robotics Program Vice President, Spring 2016 - Spring 2018

Awards & Publications

AIAS / Graphisoft In Studio Render / Sketch Competition

2nd Place, Fall 2021

Topological Transmutation of the Urban Heat Island: Experimenting Ecological Urbanistic Intervention of Public Space in Toledo

Contributor, Fall 2021

The Plan Journal, Volume 7-2022-Issue 1

AIA Toledo High School Design Competition

3rd Place, Senior Design Competition, Spring 2018

AIA Toledo High School Design Competition

2nd Place, Sophomore Design Competition, Spring 2016

Timber Nest

ACSA Timber Competition Pages 03 - 07

UpTown

BGSU Senior Capstone Pages 08 - 15

Suspension

Conceptual Word Project Pages 16 - 17

Retain Reveal Revitalize Senior Urbanism Studio Pages 17 - 23

Research Publication

The Plan Journal Page 24

Timber Nest

Program: ACSA Timber In The City Competition 2022

Faculty Advisor: Yong Huang Team Members: Jack Collins, John Kent, Chris Fletcher

Prompt:

Embracing new structural and ecological possibilities of wood construction, entrants will design a mid-rise, mixed-use complex that includes short stay housing, a large community wellness facility, and an urban marketplace, all interlaced with a new urban transit center.

Entrants are challenged to propose construction systems in scenarios that draw optimally on the performance characteristics of not one but a variety of wood technologies and are encouraged to think about the site as a testing ground for socially, materially, and environmentally progressive and innovative models of sustainable urban living.

This fourth edition of the Timber in the City considers a site, the midtown Atlanta Arts Center, located in Atlanta’s Heart of the Arts, known for its dense number of art galleries, museums, theaters, historic buildings, and the proximity to Georgia Tech, the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design (the first Living Building Challenge-certified structure in the South), the Innovation and Technology district as well as Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta campus.

The Timber Nest, rooted in one of Atlanta’s transit hubs, transforms a complex transportation site into an adaptive home as a sustainable building model for the city.

Bowling Green State University | 2022

Roof terraces provide diversified public space and angular urban edge defines public entrance.

Superimposed residential tower onto public transportation infrastructure.

Bending façade optimizes surface area and volume of apartments and provides opportunity for fenestration.

Rigid timber frame structure system provides flexibility for residential unit arrangement.

In response to the current housing crisis the Timber Nest accommodates 100 units (24 x 2 BD, 52 x 1 BD, 24 x Studio) with additional shared community open space for healthy living.

Future expansion through infill could add 50 units increasing current occupancy by 50% to accommodate 150 units in total.

Future expansion through increased building height (FAR) could add 50 units increasing current occupancy by 50% while maintaining shared community open spaces.

Timber Nest

In response to the current housing crisis, the Timber Nest maximizes the number of residential units while maintaining healthy, productive, and enjoyable living/working environments through a massing strategy of super-imposition.

Hovering over both the metro line and bus stations, the Timber Nest celebrates downtown Atlanta’s urban dynamics. By overlaying dwelling units onto the existing transit hubs, the design explores a new high-density and mixed-use typology for a more sustainable urban living condition.

The Urban Corridor and Community Corridor bridge the residential tower above and transit hubs below through a composite bridge structural system and programmatic intervention. An elevated green park at the Urban Corridor level provides public amenities including adaptive urban market spaces. Additionally, a public swimming pool is integrated into the train station’s roof top structure that not only mitigates noise pollution and vibrations of the passing trains but also anchors the site as a unique urban feature for the entire community.

We use Passive Design Strategy to overcome the complex site constraints imposed onto the linear “L” shape plot area. By placing residential units along the 360-feet long-narrow-band, we maximize the naturally ventilated spaces between units and reduce excessive heat gain through minimizing west façade exposure. Residents not only enjoy their private balconies but also benefit from shared communal spaces between units with a design that promotes collective and engaging social activities through the layered vertical neighborhood.

Winter Solstice: passive solar design optimizes the amount of sunlight to enter the apartment units

Summer Solstice: passive solar design prevents excess heat gain in units

Structural cavity between two vertical units provides naturally vented MEP and duct workspaces

Uptown Junction

Program: Fourth Year Senior Capstone | Design In The City

Faculty: Linda Beall, John Missell

Prompt: Drawing upon analysis of the city, develop a significant urban intervention at a building scale in the heart of Toledo, Ohio.

UpTown Junction proposes transforming the Uptown district of Toledo, Ohio into an innovation district.

Through an analysis of Uptown Toledo’s past and present, an urban village is proposed to connect people to various underutilized amenities.

These amenities, such as the Toledo Museum of Art, Mercy College, and the Ebeid Center, are dedicated to enriching Uptown’s community.

The urban village at UpTown Junction will provide a collaborative and open space for existing and future institutions to better connect to the surrounding community.

Innovation Districts: Zones in cities where public and private actors work to attract entrepreneurs, startups, & business incubators, generally with the aim of revitalizing depressed downtown areas.

Bowling Green State University | Spring 2022

Observations | Uptown Toledo | Spring 2022

The Toledo Museum of Art 2. 4. 5. 6. 8. 7.

TMA Glass Pavilion by Sanaa

University of Toledo Visual Arts

A dip in topography and in the built environment at the heart of Uptown. Proposal for a high-rise, to connect Uptown and Downtown. 1. 3.

The urban village will serve as an intersection of Uptown Toledo’s resources. Creating a more complete and cohesive community by uniting various resources and institutions in the district with the thing they need most: people.

Inspired by decay, this design creates intimate public spaces in-between the building forms, while preserving connections to the surrounding community.

Proposing the next layer - the next future for Uptown. Modern materials growing from the past.

On all sides, brick veneer gives way to glass curtain walls as the building rises.

The facade design pays tribute to The Glass City. Recognizing the past, while being open to what the future brings to Toledo.

Typical Apartments | 12th Floor

Gym & Apartments | 8th Floor

Suspension

Program: First Year Design Representation

Faculty: Scot MacPherson

Prompt: Abstractly demonstrate the elements of a given descriptive word through drawings and models.

Definition: Suspension, noun

1. temporary removal, temporary withholding.

2. the act of hanging, the state of being hung.

It was quite difficult to abstract such a literal word.

Many of the study models and concepts brought before the faculty were too literal or only had a weak connection to the word.

From chemistry, rain, gravity fields, and even atoms, seemingly nothing was an elegant enough way of looking at the word.

There was always a different perspective to consider.

The idea that everything is somehow supported and that suspension could be thought of as the lack of perceiving said support is the concept that won.

It’s all about perspective.

Bowling Green State University | Fall 2018

Retain, Reveal, Revitalize An Urban Intervention

Program: Senior Urbanism Studio

Faculty: Scot MacPherson

Prompt: Redevelop the master plan for the Government Center area of downtown in a way that engages the needs and interests of multiple stakeholder entities and communities.

Toledo, Ohio is a classic rust-belt city. With the loss of industry and economic prospects since the 1970s, the city of Toledo has seen a diminished population and an increase in crime.

The urban core of Toledo is now a shell of it’s former self. Abanonded and forgotten medium and high density buildings have given way to surface parking lots that litter the gridded streets.

The sights aren’t all grim however, as decades of political-will and public investment have added a convention center, a hockey arena, a baseball field and a night-life district named Hensville. Toledo Metroparks was also awarded best park district in the United States for their developments in 2020.

These resources are all a great start for bringing the people back to downtown Toledo.

It’s time to further build upon these achievements, by making sure the downtown is accessible to all those who live in and around Toledo.

Bowling Green State University | Fall 2021

Transit System

Light-Rail and Subway systems converge on the downtown grid from all around the Toledo metropolitan area.

Left: Los Angeles metro light rail system. The majority of the metro runs above ground, while the dense downtown goes underground.

Pedways

Underground pedestrian walkways provide a route to important areas downtown during all weather to citizens. Linking underground parking, shopping, entertainment and even East Toledo.

Left: Toronto, Canada’s PATH network of underground walkways and shops keeps the downtown core of Toronto bustling even during the harsh Canadian winter.

By creating an open and easy to understand metro system, Toledo can draw more people to the city center to live, work, and play in the urban areas.

Walkable developments are crucial for local businesses to thrive.

The majority of the system will utilize light-rail while urban areas will use an underground metro.

A new dimension in Toledo’s center A transit hub & grand landmark

Revealing The Canal

The Miami & Erie Canal terminated here in Toledo Ohio. This canal was the largest in North America at over 400 miles long. It allowed trade to connect from the great lakes and Atlantic Ocean, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

In a way, the canal made Toledo a grand entrance to a large portion of our nation. Toledo can revive this forgotten gateway.

A Positive Intervention

The return of the Miami and Erie Canal as a transit hub and public center can be used as a model and a catalyst for the cities around Toledo.

The Canal District consists of a series of retaining walls. These walls divide the space into different uses that strengthen the core of the city.

From sustainable year-round urban farming to recreation and wildlife preservation, this urban intervention turns back the clock on Toledo.

Retaining what is, while revealing what was.

The Gems

These stark, glass shapes tower above the canal district, shining as beacons of the future emerging from the past.

Providing housing for year-round urban farming and a transit hub, these structures are monuments to the history and potential of the glass city.

Late 1800s Toledo Urban Decay Green-space Palimpsest Intervention Canal District N

Urban Aquaponics

The core of the city

Open Green-space Urban Farming

Great Black Swamp Nature Preservation “Canal”

Transit Hub & Pedway

Retain what is.

Reveal what was.

Revitalize Toledo.

Topological Transmutation of the Urban Heat Island: Experimenting Ecological Urbanistic Intervention of Public Space in Toledo

Team Members:

Yong Huang - Author

Jack Collins - Research Assistant

Christopher Fletcher - Contributor

John Kent - Contributor

Cody Ellerbrock - Contributor

Laura Miles - Contributor

Megan Daly - Contributor

Josh Davids - Contributor

Abstract:

The exodus of urban dwellers to suburbs and the countryside, dramatized by the pandemic, has both escalated the UHI effects of cities and expanded the carbon footprint at a greater pace, further contributing to the climate crisis. Traditional remedies to mitigate UHI are reactive to existing urban conditions and less well-equipped to address the complex urban issues holistically at multiple levels. This design-based research explores topological transmutation as a design strategy that could renegotiate, reconnect, and recreate new centers of public space. Toledo, a legacy city in the Midwest, was selected as the model for this design-based research due to its intensifying social inequality, urban decay, and climbing UHI effects. Prototypes of adaptable and sustainable design concepts were tested in selected sites representing typical urban situations, Urban interventions to the public space are envisioned to enrich everyday spatial experiences in the streets, neighborhood, and the city.