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The interior benefits from the unique approach to exterior circulation and structure. Beyond a central concrete core, the building’s floors are largely unhindered by structural elements unless absolutely necessary.

The skyward-pointing, planar roof rests on two of the ramp’s sculpted volumes and acts as the final “zag” in the building’s zigzagging silhouette. The lifted plane creates an open and airy space for reading and conversing. Spacious and open reading rooms, meeting rooms, and offices fill the floor below, all with access to tall windows. The ground floor is largely open to walking traffic, framing the adjacent avenue’s markets and bodegas. Storage, archives, and a small auditorium are located in the basement, which is also accessible via a continuation of the exterior ramps or interior elevator core.

Through the confluence of aesthetic circulation and embedded structural logics, the new Queens Public Library offers itself to the borough as a building that is worth exploring both inside and out, from any direction.

Special thanks to project partner: Tetsuo Kobayashi

Summer 2020

Competition: Young Architects Competition

Location: Mojave Desert, California

MOjAVE DEsERT: sCORChiNg AND sAND-swEPT

Among the resolute, sand-swept stones. Among the ancient, unyielding Creosote bushes. Below the stark and scorching sun, new architecture endeavors. This proposal for the new Hyperloop Campus, located in the Mojave Desert, will investigate the potential for a harmonious interplay between the contemporary and the ageless: a building that is reverent to the antiquity of its site and simultaneously stands as a beacon for the potential of the future.

COFFiN TO CRADLE

The base of the building is a towering colonnade, a robust, but intricate, amalgamation of the great classical architectural vernaculars. Emulating the styles of classical Greek, Gothic, and Egyptian architecture, the foundational pedestal of the campus is a love-letter to antiquity. In this way, the ageless desert coalesces with the ageless perseverance and creativity of humanity.

Seemingly levitating above the massive base, is a stark, shimmering metal form which approximates the shape of a sarcophagus. Large, perforated metal panels present an immediate contrast to the stone base below. It is within this metal form that the entirety of the Hyperloop Campus is located. State-of-the-art laboratories and living quarters will provide researchers and students with the tools to catalyze our modernity and propel us into the rapidly approaching future. It is a sarcophagus working in retrograde, birthing new discoveries and technologies.

sTEEL-CLAD OAsis

The interior is divided into three floors. The first is primarily a space for the public, containing facilities aimed at welcoming and informing guests and residents. The second floor is laid out for scientists, researchers, and students to gather, work, and learn in stateof-the-art laboratories and classrooms. The final floor houses the dormitories and fitness center for on-site residents.

The perforated metal panels—and select, key locations where these panels peel away from the inner box—provide stunning, panoramic views of the Mojave Desert from nearly every spot within the building. The interior of the building provides a welcome respite from the harshness of the wilderness outside but tactfully frames the site’s untamed beauty.

Fall 2022

Advisor: Gary Bates

Location: Seneca Army Depot, New York