CHerlich Portfolio

Christopher Herlich Urban Planning + Design | Photography | Web Development Portfolio | 2015

Site Analysis & Design Rationale

ROOTS 2015 Urban Land Institute Hines Competition entry

1 mile TREME-LAFFITE 0.5 mile 0.25 mile TULANE-GRAVIER

IBERVILLE

FRENCH QUARTER

CBD

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The ULI Hines Competition is an interdisciplinary, team-based student urban design competition. Over the course of two weeks, I worked with a team of two other planners, an urban designer, and an architect to create a development scheme in response to a case brief. The 2015 competition was based in New Orleans, on a site immediately adjacent to the Central Business District and bisected by the I-10 highway overpass. We were required to produce a site plan, narrative, representations of the proposal, and a full financial analysis. I worked closely with one of the other planners to conduct the financial analysis, and with the 3rd planner and the urban designer to create diagrams to explore existing conditions and justify our design interventions.

“Roots” Site Plan

University Medical Center + VA Hospital

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“Urban Lounge”

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Veteran Rehabilitation Center

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Jazz Walk

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K-8 Charter School

New Orleans Public Library

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Medical Research + Hospital Support

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Lafitte Greenway

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Iberville Housing Development

Job Training Center

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Youth Music School + Music Therapy

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Greenway Retail + Equipment Rental

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Fire Station

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Charter School

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Industrial + Flex Space

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Louis Armstrong Park

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Gallery Space (Historic Building)

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Structured Parking + Green Wall

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St. Louis Cemetery

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Student Initiated Retail

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Community Church

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Faubourg Lafitte Development

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Mixed Use (MU) Medical Office + Retail

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Market Rate Housing

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Workforce Housing

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Affordable Housing

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MU Residential + Retail

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Commercial - Restaurant

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Neighborhood Retail

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Start-Up Commercial

Five Motivating Principles Social Infrastructure: Ensuring a secure future by engaging local anchors. Creating a support network for current residents while attracting new residents to the area, helping them grow together into a neighborhood community.

Neighborhood Stability: Providing the people of North Claiborne with the resources to come together and shape their future. Giving families, professionals, patients, and other locals a chance to improve lives and social connections.

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Veterans’ Services: Upholding New Orleans’ commitment to provide for its veterans by giving them the tools to grow in place. Allowing vets to recover mentally and physically in a supportive and nurturing setting.

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Talent Retention: Inspiring people to stay in North Claiborne and enliven the metro New Orleans area. Creating an active, engaging, and dynamic atmosphere that the young and aspiring will want to experience and preserve.

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Healthy Living: Programs and facilities that bring people outside and encourage them to engage with each other and the built and natural environments in active, mindful ways.

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_Gabriela

8:00 PM

The Urban Lounge @ Claiborne Ave. _Karen

2:00 PM

New Orleans Public Library

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_Derek

4:30 PM

_Ray

_Kelly

11:30 AM

Veteran Rehab Center

My Backyard

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COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER

Outdoor Reading Program

9:00 AM

Jazz Walk

NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC LIBRARY

Claiborne Ave Outdoor Reading Program

VETERAN’S

CENTER Back to the 60’s & 70’s MUSIC SCHOOL

JAZZ WALK

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This place is such a great asset for our community!

While my kids are at school I’ve been coming here for job training classes which are preparing me to go back into the workforce #SocialInfrastructure

Had a great time playing some tunes for the vets at school today! Such a great day to walk to school and now I’m hanging out with all my neighbors in the backyard! #NeighborhoodStability

Louis Amstrong Jazz Legandary 1901 -1971

AMSTRONG PARK

I love that my community cares about my needs. It is so great to be surrounded by people who support me.

Places like this center remind me why I chose to serve. #Veteran Services

What a beautiful view on my walk to work! Looking forward to working with my favorite veterans at the rehab center. Today I’m thinking light aerobics on the greenway! #HealthyLiving

This is why I love this community. There’s a place for everyone and I have the opportunity to live, work, and enjoy everything the area offers. #TalentRetention #Roots

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Dixieland, jazz, swing, traditional pop, scat

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Portal Design & User Interviews

Build JS objects for categories, sources, & vintages Update interface to display categories

Data Selection

Selects relevant sources based on categories

Select Category

System Map

Urban Informatics Portal System Map

Query database for categories, sources, & vintages

Update interface to display sources

Build query for variables based on source selected

Select Source

Query database for variables

Build variable objects

Update interface to display variables

Update selection object

Select Variable

Update interface to display available years & visualization types Visualize data based on default settings

Visualize Data

Add to Selected Data

Data View (non-spatial)

Layer View (spatial)

URBAN INFORMATICS PORTAL

Update interface to display available years & visualization types

Update interface to hide or make visible toggled layers

Open Layer Options

Update interface to show expanded layer options panel

Select Visualization

Update interface to show selected visualization

Select Vintage (Date)

Update interface to reflect selected vintage

Remove Layers

Select Geographic Scale

Updates selection object

Edit Legend

Aggregate or disaggregate data based on selection

Select/Deselect Selected Layers

Open Layer Options

Update interface to show expanded layer options panel

Select Vintage (Date)

Update interface to reflect selected vintage

Update interface to display aggregation level

Update interface to display selected layers

View Selected Geographies

Remove Layers

Updates selection object

Toggle Desired Layers

Update interface to hide or make visible toggled layers

Query database for selected locations

Update interface to display selected layers

Select Locations

Select Category

Selects relevant sources based on categories Update interface to display sources

Update interface to display new selections

Select Source

Build query for variables based on source selected

Query database for variables

Build variable objects

Select Geographic Scale

2014 Global Information Engagement Program Fellowship

Download Data

Update interface to display available years & visualization types

Toggle Desired Layers

Aggregate or disaggregate data based on selection Update visualization to display aggregation level

Query data table and feature class for variable and geometry

Deselect Locations

Query database for selected locations

Update interface to display new selections

Clear Selection

Remove all selected layers from query

Select Locations

Update interface to display empty visualization

Query database for selected states

Update interface to display new selections

Add All Locations

Query database for selected locations

Update interface to display variables

Update interface to display new selections

Build the visualization

Select Variable

Update selection object

Query database for selected districts Update interface to display available years & visualization types

Update visualization to display map Update interface to display new selections

Visualize data based on default settings Query database for selected towns/villages

Update Visualization

Query data table and feature class for variable and geometry

Select/Deselect Selected Layers

Update interface to display new selections Build the visualization

Filter Locations

Query database for selected locations

Update interface to display new selections

Update visualization to display map

Update Visualization Download Data

In the fall of 2014, I was awarded a fellowship through the University of Michigan’s School of Information. Over the course of the school year, I worked with two School of Information students, one specializing in interaction design and the other in database design, in partnership with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements in Bangalore to begin developing the Urban Informatics Portal, a project housed within the IIHS Urban Informatics Lab.

Paper and Electronic Prototyping

Planners and architects in India often have incredible difficulty accessing urban data: demographics, economic information, even political boundaries. At times, the only way they can find such data is in hardcopy reports, if they can convince government agencies or other researchers to share their work. Researchers too often duplicate others’ efforts, and IIHS became increasingly concerned that its staff were consistently repeating the same processes for the same information.

The Portal is a database coupled with a dashboard that allows users to access, map, and download data via a web browser. By putting all of IIHS’ data resources in one location, the goal is to conserve effort and promote data standardization. The Portal was intended to first serve researchers at IIHS, who focus on urban change in India, and eventually would be open the general public.

My responsibilities on the project included project management, precedent and user research, graphic design, and client relations. I created and maintained weekly work plans, translated our partners’ needs into technical specifications, and created a cohesive graphic language for the Portal that built off of the existing IIHS brand.

User Interviews and Testing

The UofM team spent two months on the ground in Bangalore, working side by side with IIHS researchers and project managers to complete a working version of the Urban Informatics Portal. We presented our work to the other GIEP Fellows, IIHS staff, and other GIEP partner organizations in June of 2014.

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In 2015, I was hired by the GIEP directors to provide technical and project management guidance for the 2015 GIEP Fellows.

Portal Design and Features

Urban Informatics Portal Splash Page

Basic Data Mapping

by District

Graphic Design & Next Steps

Urban Informatics Lab Proposed Style Guide & Pattern Library

UIL

Additional guidance documentation provided to IIHS team

UIL

Zoom In

Remove Layer

Show Layer

Zoom Out

Download Data

Hide Layer

Chart View of Mapped Data

Data Label Data Label Data Label

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Site Analysis 10

Local Development and Outdoor Amenities

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FRANKLIN GREEN

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2014 UM/Urban Land Institute Case Competition Entry 2

Franklin Green

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Employment Intensity Greater Downtown Detroit

Co-Working Space Density Greater Downtown Detroit

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The UM/ULI Hines Competition is a team-based student urban design competition.

Over the course of one weekend, I worked with a team of three other physical planners to create a development scheme in response to a case brief. The 2014 competition was based in Detroit, on a site immediately adjacent to the Central Business District and one block away from the Detroit Riverfront. The competition is intended to help students practice for the ULI Hines Competition, so we were again required to produce a site plan, narrative, representations of the proposal, and a full financial analysis. I assisted with the site planning, market and financial analysis, and renderings and diagrams for the proposal.

Construction Plan

Phasing D

Demolition

Phase I

Franklin Green Site Plan

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Renovation

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Residential/Cafe/Coworking Office/Pop-up Retail

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Outdoor Courtyard

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Community Market

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Residential / Retail

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Restaurant / Residential

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Residential / Retail

Phase II

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Phase IIII

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New Construction

Multi-Family Residential

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AGORA 8 The University of Michigan Journal of Urban Planning + Design

AGORA Volume 8 Staff Editor in Chief

“AGORA, the University of Michigan Journal of Urban Planning + Design, is produced by students from the Urban & Regional Planning program at the University of Michigan. The Journal is intended as a means for students in the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning to share their work with those inside and outside the University. We encourage any and all submissions that explore and challenge issues related to planning and design in the spirit of a marketplace of ideas.”

In my first year, I served on the creative staff, helping to create the Journal’s layout and graphic conventions, laying out an article, and selecting photography for publication. The chair of the Department of Urban & Regional Planning, Dr. Richard Norton, commended our staff for taking Agora to “New Heights” (the title of his letter published in the Journal), pushing the Journal in a new direction and setting a high standard for layout and design in particular.

In my second year, I joined the executive board of Agora as Co-Director of Production and Development. In this position, I oversaw the operations of the Journal’s website (www.agoraplanningjournal.com), contributed to the layout of Volume 9 of the Journal, managed the photography selection for the publication, and helped manage the layout staff during the editing process.

Creative Director Articles Editor Production Director

Alexandria Stankovich Sergio Escudero Alexandra Markiewicz Eric Huntley

Editorial Board

Aja Bonner Cole Grisham Terra Reed Erin Royals

Editorial Staff

Tricia Pontau Shirley Rempe Katy Ryan

Creative Staff

Betsy Cooper Pier Amelia Davis Chris Herlich Brad Vogelsmeier Xiang Yan

The 9th edition, titled “Divisions”, goes to print on March 30, 2015.

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Morning Rush Hours (0700-1000) Dominant Age Bracket

BLOCK-LEVEL SPACE USE ANALYSIS 2015 Spring Break Externship - Utile Architecture + Design

Working with Elizabeth Christoforetti (Utile/MIT Media Lab) and Will Cohen (Utile), I explored the use of public space surrounding the Downtown Crossing neighborhood of downtown Boston, MA. Starting with more than 10 million location-based datapoints collected over a 6 month span, we hoped to discover who was using which spaces at which times during the course of a day. We focused on two time ranges: the morning commute and the evening post-rush hours and identified age as the most readily available demographic variable. We were intrigued by the ways use and form can better suit the people who are actually using a space.

I worked with PostgreSQL, PGadmin, QGIS, and Illustrator to first clean and prepare the data, perform spatial analysis, and then present the results graphically.

My work took one week and became part of a larger project housed within the MIT Media Lab’s Social Computing Group. The following questions inspired the work: Who favors which places? How does this influence design?

How can programming be tailored to actual use?

Is it possible to “automate William H. Whyte”? What are the intermediate steps between current analysis capabilities and that goal?

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36-45

46-55

56+

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18-24

Evening Post-Rush (1900-2300)

Change in Dominant Age Bracket

Dominant Age Bracket

36-45

46-55

56+

Younger

Older

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25-35

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18-24

From Morning Rush to Evening Post-Rush

Regional Context & Site Selection

SPACE OF DIVISION/ENCOUNTER

Median Household Income

UP 516: Planning Representation, Term Project

Percent Non-White

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Alt

In “UP 516: Planning Representation”, students learn visual representation and communication skills via a cumulative term project. The semester began with mapping explorations the city based on a “space of” in the city of Detroit, and my partner and I explored a Space of Division. We first researched divisions in the city, deciding to focus on Alter Road, which helps form the division between one of the most downtrodden neighborhoods in Detroit and the very wealthy suburb of Grosse Pointe Park. After mapping demographic and political data, we took a finergrain approach to analysis, traveling to the intersection of Kercheval Avenue and Alter Road and photographing conditions on both sides of the city line.

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Gross Pointe Park

This intersection is a Space of Division.

What would it take to bridge such a strong division? Ideally, the people of Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park would spend more time in the other municipality, freely and comfortably crossing what is ultimately an arbitrary border, and develop a greater understanding of the landscape just beyond the frontier. A space that bridges such strong divisions must be productive. It must foster all kinds of interaction, whether a casual conversation or a heated debate. It must feature something - static or dynamic - that can bring the people of Grosse Pointe Park and the people of Detroit together to experience each other. Rather than asking people to venture deep into an unknown place to familiarize with the Other, such a space must foster conversation as a means of introduction.

This is a Space of Encounter.

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Detroit

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Though they share a border the two cities share little else. Detroit - particularly the Far East Side adjacent to Grosse Pointe Park - is largely African American and predominately low-income, whereas Grosse Pointe Park is largely white and high-income. The demographic, political, and spatial differences between the neighboring cities are starkly apparent along Alter Road, which runs parallel to an actual wall dividing Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park. Standing on Kercheval Road, one looks to the west and sees dark, abandoned, or decrepit buildings, and then looks to the east and sees boutique shops, street decorations, and meticulously maintained school grounds.

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Local Context & Site Analysis: Space of Division

Space of Encounter

The Space of Encounter at Kercheval and Alter Road is a pedestrian space that creates a ten foot deep basin and a gathering space at the heart of the intersection. The pedestrian surfaces are permeable pavers to manage stormwater, and the ramps leading to the basin feature terraced pavement along the sides, acting as seating.

At the center of the space is a set of platforms which allow for seating, informal or formal performances, or demonstrations. Sides of the platform feature a two-foot wide splash drain, where water can collect after rain events and form a simplistic water feature. Stairways are built into the walls near the intersections in order to maintain a connection between the social space and any commercial activity at the conventional street level.

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The space is minimally programmed, allowing it to be molded by the differing people of Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park into a space that suits both peoples and allows for discourse currently absent.

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Use Cases

PHOTOGRAPHY Published + Unpublished Work

Photography is a hobby and a tool: it is one of my outlets for creative expression, but it also helps me see a city, neighborhood, or site in new ways and allows for quick and accurate documentation of urban features (and people).

I have always enjoyed taking photos but I became far more serious about it during my trip to India in the summer of 2014. The following images are a sample of my work, some of which have been published in the Agora Journal of Urban Planning + Design - a red building icon at the bottom of the page indicates such a photo.

“How can you pick?� | Bangalore, India

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“La Ramblas” | Barcelona, Spain

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“It’s hard to sleep when there’s so much to see” | Chicago, IL

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“Hello” | Pondicherry, India

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“Urban canopy” | Pondicherry, India

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“Shhh” | Paris, France

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“Summer in the city” | Chicago, IL

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“Everyone wants to leave their mark” | Naples, Italy

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“Thoughtful ride” | Chicago, IL

Christopher Herlich cherlich@gmail.com | 978.590.6325 | www.linkedin.com/cherlich