CHRISTO P H E R SEIFE R T
CH R IS T O P H E R SEIFE R T
Master of Architecture Yale University Bachelor of Science in Architecture The Ohio State University
TA B L E OF CONT E N T S TOBACCO WAREHOUSE ARTS CENTER
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KUNSTHALLE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD
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BOB & JANE. THE NEW YORK CITY SUPERBLOCK.
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MODEL HOUSE. CHICAGO, IL.
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AN INTROVERTED LIBRARY
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A HOSTEL FOR MUSICIANS
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VL O C K B UI L D I N G P R O J E C T
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SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK
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LIGHT STRUCTURE
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FORMAL ANALYSIS
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ROME. CONTINUITY & CHANGE.
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A FORMAL STUDY OF ROUSHAM
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TOB A C C O W A R E H O US E ART S CE NT E R
A proposal for a performance, media, and visual arts center on the edge of Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo called for the preservation of the brick walls of a former tobacco warehouse, and the creation of indoor and outdoor stages, a box office, gallery space, and bookstore. The proposal is a scenographic ordering of the site, drawing the Brooklyn bridge into the view by composing a cantilevered tower as a frame and creating a formal entry into Brooklyn Bridge Park with a landscaped allee. Yale School of Architecture | Fall 2010 Critic: Sunil Bald
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Fig. 2 Existing site condition Fig. 3 Aerial view of the site 7
TOBACCO WAREHOUSE ARTS CENTER
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Fig. 4-11 Scenographic strategies for the tobacco warehouse and adjacent alley. 9
TOBACCO WAREHOUSE ARTS CENTER
Outdoor Theatre
Allee Entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park
Entry Gate
Box Office
Courtyard
Indoor Theatre
Stage
Fig. 12 Exploded Plan view Fig. 13 Site Plan with Brooklyn Bridge Park 11
TOBACCO WAREHOUSE ARTS CENTER
KUNS T H A LLE BROO K L Y N NA VY Y A R D
The proposed conversion of a pier and decommissioned dry dock in the Brooklyn Navy Yard into a site for a Kunsthalle and artist’s studios called for the preservation of an adjacent dry dock and the rail right-of-way, on the north side of the pier, for the use of cranes servicing the dry dock. The design calls for articulating the complex as a series of pavilions, both on the pier and in the decommissioned dry dock, connected by a promenade of ramps and bridges as a way of breaking down the industrial scale of the site. Yale School of Architecture | Fall 2011 Critic: Peter de Bretteville
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Fig. 15 Model viewed Southwest Fig. 16 Model viewed Northeast Fig. 17 Site plan 15
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Atrium
Temporary Exhibitions Gallery
Painting Gallery
Director’s Office
Administrative Wing
Conference Room
Fig. 18 Plan Lower Level Fig. 19 Plan Main Level
Main Entrance Pavilion
Atrium
Temporary Exhibitions Gallery
Painting Gallery
PLAN__UPPER PIER LEVEL scale 1/16” = 1’-0”
Sculpture Gallery
Main Entrance Pavilion
Curator’s Offices
Arts Education Center
Artist’s Studios
Atrium
Painting Gallery
Long Gallery
Fig. 20 Plan. Upper Level. Fig. 21 Daylighting study model of an artist’s studio. 19
KUNSTHALL BROOKLYN NAVY YARD
BOB & J A N E . TH E NE W YO R K C I TY SUP E R B LO C K.
Bob & Jane: the New York City Superblock is a re-examination of the hackneyed dichotomy of the Robert Moses and Jane Jacob debate. The diametric opposition of “Bob” and Jane extends almost exclusively from Death and Life and Great American Cities from which is read the opposing nature of Bob and Jane’s respective ideologies of the form of neighborhoods, the function of the street, the role of planning within city building and perhaps most evidently, what constitutes order within an urban environment. This understanding neglects what Jane Jacobs saw as her most
important works, The Economy of Cities and Cities and the Wealth of Nations. Bob and Jane, however, share a similar understanding of the city as an economy. Both Bob and Jane understand the city to be not just the geopolitical boundary which defines the city proper, but recognize the city to be but the center of a complex network of economies, infrastructure, political communities, and human relationships. Yale School of Architecture | Fall 2012 Critic: Gregg Pasquarelli
Fig. 23 Prospect Park, Grand Army Plaza and surrounding Park Slope neighborhood, Brooklyn. Fig. 24 Section through Grand Central Terminal. Fig. 25 Entrances to the Holland Tunnel along Canal Street in Manhattan. Fig. 26 Stuyvasent Town and Peter Cooper Village, Manhattan.
The city operates at a number of scales--- many not necessarly related to the human scale. For Jacobs, the city accumulates from the individual dwelling, to the street, the block, the neighborhood, and the district; up to the scale of the city as a whole. Between these diverse scales, seams and connections can be found throughout New York City. The pourous edges of Central and Prospect Parks offer passage from the scale of the street to that of the large landscapes. Both park’s Grand Army Plazas frame grand entryways that present the park in miniature as a way of creating a dialogue between city and park as opposed to the juxtaposition of city and park along the park’s edges. Grand Central Terminal and the Terminal City development are the grandest and most complex example of a weaving together of the disperate scales of 23
the city at a point of their convergence--creating a grand gateway by which one enters the city at is center. Two scales of the city-- both infrastructural-- have however failed to intergrate politically, formally and programmatically into the city: the metropolitain scale of transporation, exemplified by the interstate freeway system, and the cosmpolitain scale, exemplified by the city’s international gateways at JFK and Newark Airports. A problem also arises within the building of cities when principles applied used to understand one scale of the city are applied to the another scale. Principles of efficiency and standarization which allowed Moses to to construct New York’s metropolitain infrastructure were, promblemmatically, applied to the design of neighborhoods.
BOB & JANE. THE NYC SUPERBLOCK.
T H E L INC O L N
T UN NEL &
T H E S C AL ES
OF T HE C IT Y
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The twleve blocks between 30th and 42nd Streets; and 9th and 10th Avenues sees the convergence and uncomfortable friction between the many scales of city. The Lincoln tunnel connects I-495 to the Manhattan grid and the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 9th Ave and 42nd Street; Penn Station at 33rd Street and 9th Avenue provides a far insufficient point of connection between the city and the international airports, the national, regional and local railroad networks of Amrak, PATH, and the Long Island Railroad, and the city’s subway system. This point in the city remains far underdeveloped is in need of a vibrant and connective network of urban spaces which will bring many singular uses which converge at the site into a complex knot which will more successfully balance the many scales of the city.
BOB & JANE. THE NYC SUPERBLOCK.
Fig. 27 (Previous Spread) The Lincoln Tunnel entrance and exit ramps between 30th and 42nd Streets and 9th and 10th Avenues in Manhattan. Fig. 28 (Previous Spread) Diagram of the transportation network which converges around the Lincoln Tunnel, Penn Station, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Fig. 29 Photomontage The UnitÊ d’Habitation; the Arcade; the Street. 26
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T H E UNIT E,
T H E S T R EET ,
& T H E AR C ADE
The Unité d’Habitation is
the modernist housing typolgy par excellence. Within it is provided all of the conventionally accpeted elements which make up the neighborhood-- the elementary school, the shopping 27
street and residences extending the entire width of the structure to provide access to light and air. The Street is the basic unit by which Jane Jacobs understands the structure of the city. The streets of a city, like the individual strands which make up a rope, cannot be understood in isolation of through a simple and reproducible formula. Rather, the streets which make up the city form a more complex whole than merely the sum of its parts. The Arcade offers a form of synthesis, or connective tissue, which has the ability to bring modernism’s “streets in the sky” into a direct relationship with the Jacobian understanding of the street.
BOB & JANE. THE NYC SUPERBLOCK.
Fig. 30 Photomontage. Grand Central Terminal and Park Avenue reconsidered. Fig. 31 Construction of Terminal City on the air rights over the train tracks servicing Grand Central Terminal, Manhattan.
PARK
A V EN UE
W ES T
There is friction between the scales of the city and least three possible models exist for the mediation between the disparate scales. One model is that of the Park Avenue & Terminal City development which 29
composes a classical artifice as the humanizing translation between the scale of the railroad yard and scales of the Manhattan street. Terminal city elegantly covers and hides away the rail yards under a boulevard and adjacent real estate. Another model is that typically deployed by modern planners: ignore the vast differences in scale. This laissez-faire appraoch to mediating between the scales of the city produces the found condition at the Lincoln Tunnel entraces. The model proposed here is different. The model for a new “Park Avenue” around the Lincoln Tunnel Entrances proposes the use of several typologies woven together: the superblock, the Unite d’Habitation, the Arcade, and the linear park as a multimodal boulevard.
BOB & JANE. THE NYC SUPERBLOCK.
lincoln tunnel
port authority
the highline
moynihan station
port authority
moynihan station
Fig. 32 (Previous Spread) Site plan. Street level Fig. 33 Site plan. Below street level 33
BOB & JANE. THE NYC SUPERBLOCK.
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BOB & JANE. THE NYC SUPERBLOCK.
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BOB & JANE. THE NYC SUPERBLOCK.
MOD E L HO U SE . CH IC A G O , I L.
This 1500 square-foot house takes Chicago as its context--- both Chicago’s architectural legacy as well as the standard 25-foot by 125-foot lots which structure much of the city. The legacy of Modernism, and in particular that of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, has had a profound impact not only on the city of Chicago, but also on how architectural form is conceived to the present day. Certain tropes of Modernism persist--- namely, visual and spatial continuity between interior and exterior, the conception of the building envelope as a surface rather than a mass, and the composition of facades and openings in them as either the presence or absence of figural
mass rather than the articulation of openings as a puncture within a continuous envelope--- which stand in stark contrast to an earlier tradition of Chicago architecture. The house takes as its inspiration an earlier tradition of Chicago architecture: that of Burnham & Root, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. In particular, it aspires to the model of Henry Hobson Richardson’s JJ Glessner House on Chicago’s Prairie Avenue. Yale School of Architecture | Spring 2013 Critic: Thomas Beeby
Fig. 39 (Previous Spread) H.H. Richardson. J.J. Glessner House. North Elevation. Fig. 40 (Previous Spread) H.H. Richardson. J.J. Glessner House. Plan, Main Level. Fig. 41 (Previous Spread) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Brick Country House. Plan. Fig. 42 (Previous Spread) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Seagram’s Building. Details. Fig. 43 Site plan. Entry and Kitchen Levels with landscape. Fig. 44 Front (West) Elevation. Fig. 45 Courtyard (South) Elevation. 40
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Fig. 46 Plan. Kitchen and Living Levels. Fig. 47 Plan. Bedroom Level and Library Loft. Fig. 48 Plan. Master Suite Level and Library Loft. 43
MODEL HOUSE. CHICAGO, IL.
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Fig. 49 Section. Entry Portal, Living Room, and Library Loft. Fig. 50 Section. Kitchen, Bedrooms, and Master Suite. 45
MODEL HOUSE. CHICAGO, IL.
AN IN T R OVE R TE D L IB R A R Y
The topography of a sloping site along a river was the only information available about the site conditions for a new library. The design braces for the least desirable site conditions and turns the visual focus of the library in upon itself. The library, raised above the sloping site with parking and entry from beneath, is broken up into three discrete pavilions---a reading room; stacks and circulation; and seminar rooms-- with the space between them landscaped as heavily planted gardens. The three pavilions are wrapped in a continuous facade of undulating wood panels which obscure the view of the library’s surroundings. The Ohio State University | Fall 2009 Critic: Jane Murphy
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Fig. 52 Plan Fig. 53 Logitudinal Section. Through entrance, circulation, restrooms and office. Fig. 54 Logitudinal Section. Through stacks, terraced reading room, and conference rooms. 49
AN INTROVERTED LIBRARY
A HO ST E L FOR MU SICIAN S A project to build a Hostel for Musicians on a 17-foot-wide site on Orange Street in New Haven’s Ninth Square neighborhood, an up-and-coming destination for performance venues and recording studios, called for the accommodation of nine musicians with shared sleeping quarters, studies, bathrooms, lounges, kitchens and practice rooms. Additionally, a 14-ft-high and 10-ftwide clearance along the entire length of the site was needed to accommodate the parking of tour busses and/or tractor trailers. The proposal calls for a split-level configuration with the practice rooms at the back of the complex staggered at half-stories between the living and sleeping quarters at the street front. Yale School of Architecture | Spring 2011 Critic: Joeb Moore
Fig. 57 Plan. Ground Level. Fig. 58 Plan. Second Level. Fig. 59 Plan. Third Level. 52
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Fig. 60 Plan. Fourth Level. Fig. 61 Plan. Fifth Level. Fig. 62 Plan. Roof Terrace. 53
A HOSTEL FOR MUSICIANS
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Fig. 63 Section. Through practice studios, stair, living and sleeping quarters. Fig. 64 Model. South Elevation. Fig. 65 Model. North Elevation. 55
A HOSTEL FOR MUSICIANS
VL O C K BUIL D IN G PROJ E C T
Since 1967, the Yale School of Architecture has offered its students the opportunity to design and build a structure as an integral part of their graduate education. Unique among architecture schools, this program is mandatory for all first-year students. This year, the school has partnered with Neighborhood Housing Services, a local nonprofit agency devoted to affordable housing development, to build a two-family house in a low-income neighborhood in New Haven. This year’s brief called for a 2500 square foot house on a narrow lot at 456 Orchard Street, with approximately 900 square feet
devoted to a rental unit. The design for this two-family house takes seriously the notion of affordability to create spaces that are both intimate and luxurious within a small building footprint and tight envelope. Yale School of Architecture | Spring 2011 Critics: Traddie Davies & Andrew Benner In Collaboration with Adrienne Brown, Owen Detlor, Caitlin Gucker-Kanter, Ann Morrow Johnson, Nicholas Kehagias, Jing Liu, Noah Morganstern, Talia Pinto-Handler, and Mathew Suen
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Fig. 67 (Previous Spread) Site Plan. Ground level with landscape. Fig. 68 View from entry looking North through living and dining areas in renter’s unit. Fig. 69 View from entry looking West through dining and living areas in owner’s unit. Fig. 70 Section Perspective. Looking North through owner’s and renter’s units. 60
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Fig. 71 Front (East) Elevation. Fig. 72 Rear (West) Elevation. 63
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Fig. 73 North Elevation. Fig. 74 South Elevation. 65
VL O C K B UI L D I N G P R O J E C T
UP
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UP
UP
Fig. 75 Logitudinal Section. Looking South through owner’s and renter’s units. Fig. 76 Plan. Ground Level. Owner’s unit. 67
VL O C K B UI L D I N G P R O J E C T
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Fig. 77 Plan. Second Level. Owner’s and renter’s units. Fig. 78 Plan. Third level. Renter’s unit. 69
VL O C K B UI L D I N G P R O J E C T
Fig. 75 Section. Looking East through owner’s and renter’s units. Fig. 76 Section. Looking East through owner’s unit. 70
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Fig. 79-80 (Following spread) Detail Sections through Front (East) elevation. 71
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Fig. 81 Model. Front (East) and South Elevations Fig. 82 Model. Rear (West) and South Elevations. 75
VL O C K B UI L D I N G P R O J E C T
cafe
gallery
SO CR A TE S SC UL P T U R E PA R K B O A T HO U SE A proposed boathouse, and the proposed site, along the shore of the East River at the Northern edge of Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria, offered its own suggestive adjacencies. Of particular interest was that of viewing. In a play on the architectural type of the belvedere, an architectural frame for a view, the design choreographs different understandings of the building from different vantage points--- from the southern entry to the sculpture park, the architectural composition collapses into a gabled frame and operates within the landscape like that of a sculpture curated within the park. The build- ing articulates its site with differing landscape conditions: those of the boat launch, the lawn, the amphitheater, and the belvedere. Yale School of Architecture | Fall 2010 Critic: Sunil Bald
Cafe
Bike Rental
Gallery
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Fig. 84 Plan Fig. 85 Model viewed North 79
SOCRATES SCUPTURE PARK BOAT HOUSE
L IGH T ST R UC TUR E
Composed of over 5,000 pieces of origami, “Light Structure� is an exploration in the resulting compositional consequences caused by variation within a structural system; namely, what happens when a modular structural element--- the individual piece of origami--- is altered. What is produced is an elegant drapery of origami which acts as a light-mediating screen. The Ohio State University | Spring 2008 Critic: Susan Melsop | with Liberty Longalong & Kathryn Welsch
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Fig. 87 Strucural Study Fig. 88 Construction Diagram 82
LIGHT STRUCTURE
F OR MA L AN A L Y S I S
Yale School of Architecture | Fall 2010 Critic: Peter Eisenman
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Fig. 89 (Previous Spread) Comparative analysis of Danato Bramante’s cloister at Santa Maria della Pace in Rome and the cloister at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino. Fig. 90 Analysis of a floor plan from Sebastiano Serlio’s I sette libri dell’architettura. Fig. 91 Comparative analysis of Francesco Borromini’s San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane & Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza 86
FORMAL ANALYSIS
ROME . CONT IN U I TY & CHANGE.
The culmination of a month-long fellowship in Rome was a concentrated study of a work of architecture to be realized in the form of a single drawing. Sant’Agnese in Agone in Rome’s Piazza Navona was of particular interest because of the number of architects whom had a hand in its design and realization. Sant’Agnese was begun by Rainaldi in 1652, taken over by Borromini in 1653 until his resignation in 1657, and the appointment of Rainaldi’s son, whom was replaced by Bernini whom in turn was again replaced by the younger Rainaldi. The drawing was a vehicle to synthesize my understanding of the multitude of proportional systems, formal tropes, and spatial strategies of the varying architects. Yale School of Architecture | Summer 2012 Critics: Alec Purves, Stephen Harby
A FOR MA L ST UD Y OF R O US H A M
Designed by William Kent (16851748), Rousham House and Garden is one of the finest examples of English Garden design of the Seventeenth Century. A formal analysis of the house and landscape begins with the drawing of an axis between the drive and the River Cherwell. Upon this elemental relationship, Kent devises a complex landscape composition. Yale School of Architecture | Spring 2013 Critic: Bryan Fuermann
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A FORMAL STUDY OF ROUSHAM
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A FORMAL STUDY OF ROUSHAM
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A FORMAL STUDY OF ROUSHAM
-SIRHC REHPOT TREFIES