Table of Contents Zion Triangle Garden/Bench Intervention Warby Parker Store Redesign & Branding NY District 4 Spacial Research Project Warren, OH David Grohl Alley Redesign Hollywood Hills Bridge/Observatory Design Carl Shurz Park Revitalization/Implementation Project
Zion Triangle
Garden/Bench Intervention Parsons The New School for Design Urban Interventions - Fall 2013 A public plaza in Brownsville, Brooklyn with hidden potential was an understatement. Our goals, as an urban design intervention team, was to visit the existing site, document the current condition and find what the surrounding community believed to be missing within the space. With an obvious lack of greenery and 98% of surfaces within the gathering area defined as ‘permeable’, with concrete poured across the plaza, a personal designer’s desire for more plantings matched up perfectly with the user’s complaints for a lack of seating. Partnering with the New York City Business Improvement District and the Department of Transportation, our proposals needed to be reasonably achievable within the structural timeframe of the semester. Thus, meaning one thing; the urban interventions had to follow the parameters of temporary design. Understanding that anything constructed or built on the site could not disrupt the current condition, but simply add to the landscape as an overlay, I experimented with the idea of a portable greenhouse run as an educational program through the elementary school behind the plaza. Through sketching, graphic design and a further exploration into the opportunities and restrictions of the area, my greenhouse was transformed into a bench for seating with a garden/flower box concept. A small street to the east of the plaza was temporarily painted over to communicate a new use for it, an extension to the triangular plaza for safe, walking enjoyment and not car traffic. Interested in engaging this new piece of concrete, as well as furthering the visual communication
of this new pedestrian friendly space, I chose to place my lightweight, portable bench in that area. Through using the space as an inspiration, the Garden/Bench translates that subtle triangle shape into the design. The ‘egg crate’ type of construction of the piece of outdoor furniture lends to its easy building and assembling understanding. The slots of openings give the seat ‘breathability’ for winds from the street to pass through the furniture, rather than shuffle it across the plaza like other lightweight temporary pieces. In addition, this design would make sure that this piece of furniture keeps this small plaza open to the eye and does not create fence type divisions.
Warby Parker
Store Redesign & Branding Art Center College of Design Los Angeles At A Scale - Spring 2012 Through a combination of studying the existing branding aesthetic of the online only (at that time) eyeglass distributor, Warby Parker, in addition to redesigning an abandoned lot in the downtown Los Angeles’ Chinat-own district, the design mission was to cross the two and create a proposal for the company’s first ever retail development store. A new logo would be created with a proper marketing color scheme and vision of the interior would be created through the shoppers walk through. In addition, the product purchasing experience would be created through floating cashiers with iPads or a counter to be approached and the construction/architectrure of the new building and the characteristics to go along with it. The space that was capable of housing this new company was a very cramped street in the heart of Chinatown’s Chung King Road, known for it’s hanging lanterns and close corners. In an attempt to showcase the store to the casual passer by and let the beauty of the glowing street fill the store, I experimented with the idea of movable walls that could open up the space, the concept of an indoor-outdoor interaction, yearning to design an open space with lots of light. Thealleyway created shadows early in the afternoon given its narrow nature, so proper light and circulation around the store was crucial, especially given the nature of the product. Inspired by the company’s current motif of natural elements, vintage flair, living room comfort and bright exciting future, I decided to draw up my own image of a store with all of those
native to the southern California climate, I would construct an open grid for the façade of the building to let in as much natural light from the street as possible. Utilizing the use of mirrors in the store would bounce light around and styling the eyewear into set up ‘stories’ around the space (e.g., on a shelf above a desk full of coffee rings, placed on book shelf next to a type writer) would accentuate that one was walking around a floor-plan of a neighbor’s house, leaving clients with an ease and enjoyment to stay in the store and try on eyeglasses.
NY District 4 Spatial Research Project Parsons The New School for Design Urban Research Lab - Spring 2013
Housing within New York City is a heated topic when discussed with anyone that lives in the Big Apple or is knowledgeable about the urban developmental scene. This topic is not likely to cool down on the news front any time soon given the spatial research completed, interviews recorded and info-graphics produced about rents, housing, affordable or not, public or not. The revealing project used a multitude of techniques for gathering information from certain communities in the downtown Manhattan area, all with a goal to find out more about housing within the city. Why do people live in certain areas? How long do these individuals reside in these neighborhoods and why? How racially diverse are streets and buildings? Why do working class professionals rent over buy or vice versa? Forming into research groups, we first used field skills of observational surveying, sketching out environments, engaging participants on the streets, over the phone and in person interviewing, all in an effort to discover connections under the housing umbrella. Secondly, gathering our newly developed information back to the table, we took this time determining a more technical and exact approach. Continuing to learn about these communities, through using GIS software, demonstrated the similarities within our ground research in the final product, giving us a more spatial outlook on the land we had spent surveying. Learning how these people lived was honorable, but gaining a skill set to translate ground research into an informational and visual graphic gave the chance for this data to be passed on in an organized, easily understood and thought provoking way.
Warren, OH
David Grohl Alley Redesign Parsons The New School for Design Urban Design Studio II - Spring 2014 Trying to see past the dilapidated sidewalks and the crumbling core of the downtown and empty park, that was treated as a main square across the court house, essentailly anchoring the heart of this city, was Warren, Ohio. If this was the heart of this American neighborhood, then where were the people? I was determined to find the area’s niche or hidden gem of culture. I found David Grohl Alley, a narrow space between an unused parking garage and an aging repair shop, an alley that was named after the Foo Fighters band member who was born and raised in this very town, an alley covered in art, guitar sculptures and home of the World’s Largest Drumsticks. That was it, my angle as an urban intervener to help bring life back to the streets through the town’s own back alley system. My research and design work began from that point, as I experimented with different functions for the alleyway. Examining uses that were missing from the town that the residents would enjoy most, such as, connections with other alleyways, to initiate more of a walking culture throughout the town and how to use this design opportunity to deal with current issues of the town, for example, safety at night and reckless teenager theft and crime. Through interviews and research, I began to understand what the residents loved about this space and what it offered to its youth and subculture. Deciding to capitalize on the design footprint that existed, rather than to blanket the alley with my own ideas, I went forward with a rock n’ roll-punk-grunge lighting system intervention. My goal was to enhance safety at night while improving what the town already loved, including the man they intended to honor.
Hollywood Hills
Bridge/Observatory Design Art Center College of Design Environmental Making Lab - Spring 2012 The view from the Griffith Observatory, at the peak of the Hollywood Hills, is breathtaking. One can see the entire downtown Los Angeles skyline, Hollywood and even the Santa Monica pier, that jets into the Pacific Ocean, if you are lucky on a clear day. This observatory is anything but nestled within the natural ecosystem of the southern California mountains. Instead it stands quite boldly at the edge of a cliff, like a white marble domed castle. The trails of the park that surround this icon have many dips and falls as you walk through, all made of packed down, flattened dirt from years of hiker’s footprints. Giant trees surround you at every level of the hills. Elevation and gravity feel like concepts of the past, only those living below in the suburbs experience that, but up here one feels like they are floating among the branches. Our site for this environmental design project had the term ‘landscape tourism’ written all over it, partially because of where the intervention of construction was located, but also because we were selling a moment, a feeling. When creating an outpost, observatory, or bridge at the edge of this assigned cliff, one is creating an interaction with environment. That blend between the earth and the human was an interest of mine. Drawing upon inspirations from the local nature, I examined twigs, seeds, flowers and leaves I collected, modeling my observatory after the curves of the dirt path I walked, as well as the bends of the branches that stretched above. Using the same material that shot up like thick wooden bars on every turn of the path, I placed my bridge
along the cliff, side by side all the others warm colorings of wood, blending it into the trees. I continued to embody that feeling of weightlessness into the design, giving the hikers the ability to look below their feet as they walk over a glass viewing circle at the end of their journey, embracing a view below, above, and around them, remembering that the city of Los Angeles exists only through a faint haze off in the distance.
Carl Shurz Park
Revitalization/Implementation Project Parsons The New School for Design Designing Process / Designing Place - Spring 2014 This linear piece of green parkway in the town of Yorkville, on the Upper East Side, provides a quaint and quiet haven for the neighborhood along the East River, stretching from 84th street northward to 90th. Through many mapping exercises, examining the space from a plan view perspective and researching first hand by walking the site on foot, many challenges came to the forefront of a redesign. Traffic flow, connectivity through the space, separation between human and K9 use of the park and wasted space opportunities between the youth/ recreational center and the rest of the park, are just some of the issues that will be resolved with a proposal park expansion west. Treating the block above 89th street, between East End Avenue and York, as an extended piece of greenery, would unify many unwalkable areas of the park, increase green space and connect the soccer fields and basketball courts directly into the park. Pushing the cap of the FDR freeway north towards the 90th street line, would also lead travelers straight to the Ferry Terminal and avoid unnecessary confusion and misdirection, not to mention, opening up more access to the river and unlocking a potential tourism attraction, connecting this park to the greater waterway traffic. This newly designed space would create new community functionality to the park, including; wider walking paths to the water, picnic table and umbrella lounge space, a new open lawn with elevated hills, complete with crossing path connectors, and a sunny outlook point for observers to enjoy views of Queens, the East River and south over the rest of the expansive green space.
Urban Design BS, 2015 Parsons the New School for Design 432 East 88th Street #202 New York, NY 10128 (443) 766-9468 cwhepner54@aol.com