2015 Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architectural Scholarship

DOMINIC ANTHONY LACIVITA JR

Undergraduate Architecture & Design Portfolio

PORTFOLIO

Dominic Anthony Lacivita Jr Bachelor of Architecture Degree Candidate Class of 2015 Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA ZIMMER GUNSUL FRASCA ARCHITECTURAL SCHOLARSHIP ZGF Architects LLP & The Oregon Community Foundation May 2014

CONTENTS

SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY

CULINARY ARTS COLLEGE

PLAZA AT 40TH & MARKET

VELODROME

SKYSCRAPER

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CATALINA FOOTHILLS

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SANTA CATALINA MOUNTAINS

SENIOR LIVING COMPLEX Location Central Tucson - Tucson, Arizona Course Studio 4.3 - Site Design Studio Critic Jeffrey F. Krieger, AIA, LEED AP - President, Krieger + Associates Architects Associated with the University of Arizona, the goal of housing complex is to offer residents an optimal living experience as senior citizens who are alumni or retired professors of the university who desire safe and healthy living along with the commradery and support of their aging counterparts. This programmatic setup recognizes that residents, beyond living, require spaces for social interaction, recreation, and continuing education.

A particular focus of this project is aimed towards researching and designing for a specific climate different than our mild temperate climate in the American Northeast. In this case, a low-humidity desert climate of Tucson has allowed for the exploration of new design principals as it relates to this location.

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2. Dog Run / Walk

3. Garden Area

4. Playground

Two Bed Unit

Two Bed Unit

One Bed Unit

Shared Space

In terms of site planning, this project has a very unusual climate for a student accustomed to the northeast. This is a senior housing complex in Tucson, Arizona for the elderly with associations with the University of Arizona. A look was taken towards sustainability and community. Under the particularly different site conditions, I conducted a more extensive climate data study than I normally would for a project. Extremes in heat and in cold and low humidity are just a few factors that had to be taken into account for this design.

My concept of “community and comfort� is carried though the project from the units to the site plan. The most important driver of my solution was the prevailing winds, which come from the southeast direction all year. The angle of the buildings is based on this wind direction as well as gives the central courtyard the only good view from the site – mountains in the distance to the northeast. This courtyard is based upon the idea of reinforcing community in the central location where all circulation routes go through. On the ground floor, housing units exist only at the extremities, creating an unobstructed space to allow the winds to penetrate through the courtyard. Couple this with evaporative cooling from the shallow pools and ample shading, the central community space would be a comfortable place to be in this desert environment.

Mirror Line

Parking Below Grade

Ground Floor

Typical Second & Third Floor

Short Section [A]

This airflow is even emphasized by a simple gesture to mold the earth from the completely flat site to slop up towards the site dividing walls. This also allows the first floor level to be propped up several feet from ground level, creating more space for the semi-underground parking and enabling it to be open and airy on the sides. Also using light wells from the courtyard, the parking resultantly reflects the building parti and reinforces the concept of my design. By removing parking from the surface and with threestory buildings, my site is very minimal on impervious coverage.

The units are also organized in a manner where the living and dining spaces are part of an open floor plan, where air movement easily cuts though the unit when the entry and balcony walls are opened up. Although the units opposite the courtyard are purposely misaligned for privacy, the offset is minimal enough to allow an air flow that makes the entire complex one system.

Perspective Sketch from Street

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Long Section Through Courtyard

Prevailing Winds & Courtyard Orientation

Circulation

Unit Concept & Air Flow

View of Santa Catalina Mountains

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CULINARY ARTS COLLEGE Location University City - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Course Studio 4.2 - Site Design Studio Critic David B. Brawer, AIA, LEEP AP - Partner, Brawer & Hauptman Architects

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Along one of the main axes of the city of Philadelphia, on what is currently a parking lot next to a highline freight rail, students were asked to use this location to design a building per the requirements offered by a competition held by the American Institute of Steel Construction. The building is house an independent college of culinary education and have elements open to the public. Among the mains points of this assignment is to explore the use of steel in the building, an acknowledgement of transparency to the curious passerby, and consideration of designing next to a busy railway and a part of the city with a lot of traffic.

CAMDEN

Operable Louvers

Air Intake

Panel Connection

Facade Unit

As part of an AISC competition that studio past year, I was challenged to design a facility to house a college for culinary arts. Beyond kitchens and classrooms, the program required a large lecture space, a library, and a restaurant. However, the most important part of this competition is the steel structure of the design.

The site is currently a parking lot on one of the city’s major axes, near downtown. I determined that this building should be designed as a “bookend� building, with seven floors to compare to context. This height provided me the space to create a continuation of a park two blocks to the south.

Both have a large train trestle running through them, which encouraged my decision to use a completely glass wall on the western side - to face out towards the park, the steel highline, and to implement on a large scale a double-skin unitized glass panel system.

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Restaurant Library Seminar Room Pastry Kitchen

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Teaching Kitchen Demonstration Lab Lounge Classroom

9. Office & Administration 10. Dean’s Office 11. Restrooms 12. Service

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Under Existing Highline

West Elevation

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Typical Floor

Ground Floor

North Elevation

The building is designed with one strip of program per floor on the inner side. This allows light to easily penetrate though the west facade, through the corridor, and into the rooms. The street facades are composed of perforated metal panels to also let diffused light through, but more importantly to make the facade appear more solid during the day and to emphasize the brand of the college at night by making the street frontage light up through the panels. My overall goal was to create an identity for this new college in a district with many other already established institutions.

The idea of structure for this building is to utilize long trusses, floor to floor height, on every other floor for the length of the building. This emphasizes the steel technology and corresponds to the industrial nature of kitchens, and also creates open expanses on the opposite floors. Supported by large columns on each end, these trusses support beams that cross the narrow width of the building to carry the floor plates.

The design is very simple, with a single loaded corridor along the glass wall. This allows all of the building to have a large amount of natural light, controllable by operable louvers and shades integrated in the window units. During the day, this facade is smooth on the surface, yet textured of the louvers. The same facade becomes very animated in the evening, with the program inside becoming distinguishable from the exterior, particularly with the more active double-height program.

WEST PHILADELPHIA DREXEL UNIVERSITY

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PLAZA AT 40TH & MARKET Location West Philadelphia - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Course Studio 5.3 - Urban Design Studio Critic Anish Kumar - Senior Director of Facilities Planning, Amtrak

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CAMDEN

Following two terms of intensive team research and master-planning of the underserved neighborhoods immediately to the north and west of Drexel’s campus, students built upon those conclusions and designs by each individually focusing on a different intersection within the project area. I was given the intersection of 40th and Market Streets, where our plan proposed new high rise construction while taking into account its position as an important transportation transition zone within the West Philadelphia area, with direct connections to the Market-Frankford subway/surface line that crosses the city from east to west as well as our proposed re-instated trolley line that travels north to south along 40th Street. Our master plan suggested retaining only one building existing on the site - a massive apartment building to the east of the intersection.

Long Section Through Plaza, Looking North

Mixed-use Office

Sunken Plaza

40th Street

Subway

Mixed-use Residential

Pavilion

Existing Apartment

New Podium

Ground Level Retail Apartment Entry Trolleys

Lower Ramp Retail To Office Entry

Lowest Level Subway

Lowest Level To Cafe

Lowest Level Cross Over

Section, Looking South

Following two terms on intense teamwork in research, observation, discussion, and study of neighboring communities to the Drexel University campus, each individual was assigned a location within the resulting master plan to further develop and design. Leading towards goals my team had established during the master planning phase, I chose an intersection vital to the success of our master plan. Our plan, part of the Lancaster Avenue Corridor in West Philadelphia, proposes a reinforced street connection from a major city axis, Market Street, to the heart of the neighborhood, Lancaster Avenue.

Part of this revitalization of the street involves re-introducing a trolley line that is currently no longer on the site, and will take visitors and commuters along this axis to and from their destinations. This intersection I had chosen also happens to have a subway stop that follows the Market-Frankfurt line, a significant public-transit artery within the city. Coupling this with the fact that our master plan calls for razing of most low-story building in poor condition along Market Street, my project focused mostly on how to effectively transform this intersection by building up and make it more inviting.

a Ground Level Plan

Sunken Plaza Sequence

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The idea was, on the north side of Market Street, create a void in the earth that is adjacent to the distribution platform for the subway, allowing commuters to exit the station into sunken plazas while staying on the same plane. By creating different rooms on either side of 40th Street, the circulation also changes as well as the uses for the new buildings on the site. The western side includes a lawn with a series of integral ramps that bring one up to the intermediate platform.

The other side is more hardscaped and includes a pavilion, with a market at the base and an outdoor eatery along Market Street. This pavilion creates a place marker along the street while mitigating the fact that there is a stretch of sidewalk that edges the sunken spaces.

Plaza/Subway Level Plan

The Site overall saves a tall apartment building by creating a mid-rise addition with more housing and a plinth to make it actually front the sidewalk. On the west side of 40th, a mid-rise office tower is being proposed. All of these new components are mixed-use to support the traffic and the existing and new residents within the area. In totality, the plaza creates a well-defined space of interaction supported by retail, cafes, shops, restaurants, housing, and businesses.

Perspective from Lawn

Section Through Subway Station, Looking East

Perspecting From Top of Steps

WEST PHILADELPHIA

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PHILADELPHIA VELODROME

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Location Port Richmond - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Course Studio 6.2 - Integrated Building Design Critic Timothy P. Kearney, AIA - Principal, CuetoKEARNEYdesign While long-span structure is the focus and highlight of the velodrome project, other very important factors play into this design. Its location at Port Richmond allows for this building to not just be used for racing bikes, but also be a beacon of the neighborhood and a sign of revitalization.

The building has challenges with being at the edge of the neighborhood essentially becomes barren with the current existence of parking underneath a raised interstate as well as a tall blank wall between the people and the river. This project boils down to a question of whether or not an arena typology can be configured to support its community beyond event days.

CAMDEN

For a this project focusing on long-span structure, I also turned it into an exploration of making something that is inherently large and massive into something more human scale and urban as the context it is in.

Given three sites to choose from on the periphery of Center City Philadelphia, I chose the one with the most urban-planning potential - the edge of Port Richmond along the Delaware River. This site was tricky because it is currently a no-man’s land disconnected from the neighborhood by the elevated Interstate-95 with a large swath of parking area beneath, and then by another wide street and a high wall.

Planarity

Separate Masses - “Fingers”

New Urban Street Edge

Path - Street to Pier

My solution to this was to “bring” Port Richmond underneath the interstate to the other side to make the structure an element of the neighborhood rather than a border. Under the existing roadway, I have proposed two-level parking structures with street frontage to Richmond Street. Opposite that, my design takes away the existing wall, and replaces it with street frontage to the smaller scale “fingers” of the building that house restaurants, shops, and a large community recreation center that is associated with the velodrome.

The actual track to the velodrome is housed in the large forms that site above the “fingers,” and set back from the street to minimize its exceptional and imposing scale. The spectator entrance actually follows a longer procession from Richmond Street to elevate the user to the main lobby entrance, and give him a glimpse at the structure that is necessary for this type of project.

In this case, for the sake of minimalism and goal of planar purity, I decided to use a series of cable-stay bridge structures that span the short length of the arena. The roof is supported by one side, and in its cleanliness is to provide a simple uniqueness and visibility to the project and community.

Additionally, in terms of minimalism, the concourse level is designed to emphasize its planarity (as in the strong, simple and flat roof structure) by lowering all extraneous elements below the level, such as elevator shafts and concessions, by slowly ramping up at either end from those necessities.

South Elevation

West Elevation, Richmond Street

Spectator Entry from Richmond Street

Pier

Cables Roof

Sunshades Glazing Support Spectator Seating Race Track Concourse Level Concessions & Services

Large Recreation Program Recreation Center, Lower Level

Richmond Street

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NEW YORK CITY SKYSCRAPER Location Downtown Manhattan - New York City, New York Course Studio 6.1 - Integrated Building Design Critic Don Merril Jones, FAIA, LEED AP - Principal, Director of Sustainable Design, EwingCole

EAST RIVER

In the first course of the ‘Integrated Building Design’ studio series, students were asked to explore high-rise construction on an extremely constrained and challenging site. In New York City, this site is along the East River near the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan. Just to the north of the site is a designated historic district and immediately to the south is the very different financial district with Wall Street just steps away. Acting as a buffer between the site and the East River, the elevated FDR Drive creates a disconnect between the two and adds to the challenges of placing this one-million square foot building at this location.

BROOKLYN

For the first studio in Drexel’s integrated building design series, the project was to create a comprehensive design for a skyscraper on a rather challenging site.

Located in the transition zone of downtown Manhattan and the historic Fulton Market, the building site is also disconnected from the East River waterfront only by the elevated FDR Drive. Programmatically, this project was specified to include a retail base, office floors, and a hotel component within its million square foot requirement.

View from East River

Tower Elevations - South / East / North

Typical Core Floor Plan, Tower

Physical Model, Acryllic

Historic Buildings

Vegetation + Outside Space

Diagrid Structure

Facades

Planar Elements

Downtown

Historic

I distinguished my project from others first and foremost not through appearance or sculpture, but instead by respecting the historic district that cuts through the site while speaking to the corporate nature of downtown to the immediate south and west. To nestle the skyscraper into place, select buildings were removed from the site that were irrelevant to its historic nature, essentially using the southern portion of the site which is mostly a parking lot.

This project speaks in planes; using simple planar geometries in a very pragmatic manner, a basic yet striking aesthetic is made and allows a slender expression that reveals building program in a subtle manner. Additionally, the building, at its base, quite literally connects into the historic streetscape. While the south side of the building is a shorter flat facade with a shade structure to reflect the power and prominence of the corporate downtown, the northern side is divided into smaller masses, both to give the tower identity as well as break up the monolithic-ness of most modern skyscrapers.

Skyscraper Base Plans

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Ground Floor

Second Floor

Third Floor

Fourth Floor

Observation

Guest Rooms

Hotel Sky Lobby Pool, Spa, & Fitness Center Mechanical

Office, Zone 2

Mechanical Office, Zone 1

Ballroom & Conference Center Hotel Admin, Kitchen, & Commissary 2nd Floor Commercial Hotel Lower Lobby Tower Lobby

The forms on this side also allow a break-up of program: where the top mass contains the hotel rooms above a sky-lobby and pool on the roof of the shorter half of the tower. The entrance to the hotel is on South Street, in an existing brick building that is incorporated into the design. This helps bring the tower down to human scale while also separated usage entrances. By doing this, breaking up the building core, and creating a secondstory main corporate lobby, the building entrances flow smoothly while allowing for adequate service areas and lobby spaces for the small footprint the building has. All in all, this tower is meant to add a simple, quality, and efficient design to the New York City skyline.

Wall Section, North Wall

Physical Model, South Facade

View from FDR Drive