Eleanor [elly] Usick Portfolio

|| an EXAMINATION of PROCESS

E L E A N O R [elly] U S I C K

an architecture of unease. ......................................... 1 Design Build .............................................................. 2 Community Arts Corridor ........................................... 3 Operation Hybrid 3.0 ................................................ 4 Architectural Graphics ................................................ 5 Center for the Arts Redesign ..................................... 6 Villa Oplontis Antiquarium ........................................ 7

|| CONTENTS

Jeff Ament Residence ................................................ 8 Danh Vo at Ambika P3 .............................................. 9 Photography ............................................................. 10 Ivan Doig Archive Exhibit ........................................ 11 Building Construction ............................................. 12 Design Fundamentals .............................................. 13

PHILOSOPHY of DESIGN || Passion for process. The search for conceptual abstraction.

Freedom of spirit. Architecture with an attention to art.

I can be found at the intersection of architecture and people, art and communities, design and living. I am a student, a creative, and an art enthusiast in every sense of the word. In my work I explore materiality, abstraction, and emotion, seeking to bend the traditional rules of architecture into art. The built environment can include so much more than the walls that surround us. Think of architecture applied to the curation of spaces and artistic expression within; where the problem-solving nature of architectonic intervention meets the experience of human interaction. Rigor, determination, and sheer enthusiasm drive my work ethic as well as my personality. I am happiest when working with my hands, making neat things, and looking for adventures.

|| [UNCANNY] the in-between.

1

an architecture of unease.

(Chris Livingston [and] Barry Newton) Spring 2018 - Fall 2018 Between grotesque and sublime; the strange familiar. Study the uncanny.

Experience the uncanny. Expose the uncanny.

In the heterotopic world of near-ghost towns and abandonment lies Bearcreek, MT, a town once known for its prosperity. Now a blip on the map, Bearcreek emanates the characteristics on which the uncanny feeds: Life turned loss and decay. The implementation of architectonic interventions at the site of uncanny exposes the visitor to the history of distress that marked the town at its end. Pinching hallways, hidden figures, holes, and weighted ceilings all play a unique roll in the disclosure of discomfort and fear. This tortured site acts as a conduit for the exploration and exposure of the uncanny and the emotions it can elicit.

The use of the uncanny in this sense can cause a questioning of the world we live in while simultaneously forcing the audience to feel more deeply.

1920-1923: Coal mining almost ceased

1971: Town bought a firetruck

1967: Funds to attempt a restoration of City Hall

1966: Bearcreek Banner newspaper

1966: New street lighting installed

1965: “BC Coming or Going?”

1960: Red Lodge Mountain Opened

1956: “Town of BC Clings to Life Despite End of Prosperous Period”

1950

1936: Beartooth Highway Completed

1932: Bearcats 3rd place in state basketball championship

1931: Beartooth Highway Started

1929: Bear Facts paper started

1926: Tooth (thought human) discovered in the mine

1924: Basketball at the High School started (Bearcats)

1920: First High School graduation 1920: Automobiles came to BC 1922: Hard rock street created

1918: “Busy, boisterous community”

1917: Red Lodge Stage Road

1916: Bearcreek High School established

1915: Electric rail car from BC to Billings 1915: Bearcreek Miner newspaper

1913: Extension of Northern Pacific Railroad to BC

1910: Carbon County leading coal producer in MT

1909: First service line for water in BC 1909: BC Cemetery plotted 1909: Railroad to Washoe

1907: Grade School built

1906: Post office opened 1906: Yellowstone Park RR to BC District 1906: First hotel; Old Stone House 1906: Washoe established

1905: Bearcreek Founded

1900

1895: Carbon County Formed

1889: Northern Pacific RR from Laurel to RL

1887: First Mine Opened

1884: Red Lodge Established

1882: Land Settled

In the early 1900s, Carbon County, MT was home to thriving coal mines, colorful towns, and lively folks. On February 27th, 1943, an explosion at the Smith Mine killed 74 men. Bearcreek, MT declined from 3000 residents to 85; houses were burned, abandoned, and moved.

A mine, a town, a cemetery. Then, the uncanny was born. Now, it is exposed.

1900-1920s: 87 shops/businesses/etc.

1910-1919: “Prosperity and booming production” 1916-1924: Town was at its height

1907-1953: Smith Mine open 1930s: BC decline/exodus began 1930s: BC only produced 11% of MT coal

1970: “Census-rated MT’s smallest incorporated town” 1970: Last mine in the area closed

1964: Homes in BC began to sell

1963: “BC School District No. 13 was declared officially abandoned…”

1960: High School demolished

1953: Smith Mine closed for good

1950: Bearcreek High School officially closed

1950

1945: Smith Mine fire 2

1943: March 1st, The final victims were pulled from the mine 1943: February 27th, Smith Mine Disaster; 74 men killed

1940: Lamport Hotel destroyed in fire

1935: Houses began to be moved 1935: No water for 9 days

1933: Miner killed by falling coal

1927: Mines became more mechanized, putting men out of work

1923: Beginning of the end of the coal era in CC

1922: Strike from April to August

1919: Long miner strike; damaged equipment 1919: Post war depression struck BC

1916: Smith Mine fire 1

1913: Death from a mine accident

1906 Devastating Windstorm 1906: Riot/murder

1900

smith mine.

Exposure of the mine reveals a labyrinth of concrete masses. Each corridor in the object leads to a forced perspective of the remaining mine buildings that watch stoic and silent. Angled walls fight for space, pinching the audience and the escape. An abstracted version of the horrific realm of mining is brought to the surface years later. The anxiety of the movement through the space gives a hint to the uncanny of the mine itself and the disaster that devastated the town.

bearcreek, mt - townsite.

The town is a graveyard of empty lots, abandoned buildings, gaping holes, and repetitive panels. Where a hotel once stood, now a frame of translucence. The old school, now a hole in the earth. The theater has become an eerie reflection. Questioning and framing brings attention to what was lost; homes, buildings, businesses, and people. The strange familiarity of these objects lends themselves to the uncanny and the pre-existing heterotopia grows.

bearcreek cemetery.

A heavy concrete roof sits above the original procession of death, suffocating. The weight of the overhang mirrors the weight of grief, the finality of burial and the submersion into earth. 74 coffin-shaped elements protrude from the ceiling to the ground. The uncanny desire to watch the ground in a cemetery becomes the need to watch the ceiling as now the discomfort comes from above. Like walking through a forest of concrete, the dead watch stoic and silent.

2

|| DESIGN FUNCTIONALITY

Design Build (Bill Clinton) Spring 2019 Create beautiful functionality. Design furniture, sound, materiality. Experiment, explore, build, enjoy.

When given free reign of the wood shop, anything can happen. Over the course of one final semester, the sawdust went flying. First with a step back in time, a mid-century-modern telephone seat was designed. Beetle-kill pine was acquired for a range of blue-gray details and maple was used for structure. Digital fabrication met metal casting with homemade hardware in a unique experiment. (Rotary phone pictured, not included.) Another project arose from fortuitously water-damaged gym floor boards and dumpster diving. The result: a hard maple kitchen table with welded steel legs. In another section, musical instrument turned furniture. An attempt to marry sound and functional design led to a xylophone side table. A fused glass top resonates with the wood cavities below and a steel frame.

3

|| POVERTY and PRESENCE

Community Arts Corridor (Mike Everts) Fall 2017 Create a temporal, satellite high school in an existing building in Bozeman. Abolish poverty through the intervention. Influence the city with the presence of art and high school students.

N. Rouse Ave: the new Main Street.

Vacant lots near the fairgrounds were used to create a high school Arts Campus without internal hallways. The street became the new corridor for students and the community. Each vacant building held a different art studio. Redesign of the street itself was used to manipulate traffic and encourage new interactions. Each studio was then designed with specific qualities. The paint studio emphasized diffuse light and existed high above the street while ceramics depressed into the earth reminiscent of the nature of clay. A community corridor created new peer groups and interactions as a way to bring attention to the power of art, high schoolers, and poverty.

N. Rouse Ave as Inverted High School Arts Campus Corridor

Main City Lots Campus

Expansion of Studios into Community Space: Promote Diverse Peer Interactions

Create Community Event/Gathering Spaces

Manipulate Street to Engage/Slow Traffic

Studios Bleed into Street: Directly Engage Community Vacant Buildings as High School Studios Affects/Engages Whole Community

Inverted Industry to Green Space Gradient

SCOPE: Students Neighborhood Bozeman Community

Art as Movement

Inequiety Between Social Classes Competition and Bullying Lack of Diversity

Freedom of Expression

[Traditional]

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT COMMUNITY Painting

Ceramics

Sculpture

Drawing

Metals

Lack of Diversity

Creative Outlet

Inward Focused

Graphics

Photography

Presence of Students through Art Focus on Something “Bigger”

Print Making

Road as Corridor

SATELLITE ARTS CAMPUS Open Studio

Gallery/Critique Space Shared Interests

Classrooms

Entrance/Lobby

Lounge Office Restrooms

Mechanical

ROUSE as HIGH SCHOOL and COMMUNITY CORRIDOR

Shared Community Space: Arts Studios, Event Space, Art Shows, Community Engagement, Recreation Centers Mixed-Use, Multifunctional Space

[Traditional]

Main St. Focused Division Between Member Types Bozeman Cannot Support Growing Population

GREATER BOZEMAN COMMUNITY Multifunctional Space Mixes Groups

Diverse Population

Create Shared Interests Engagement with New Cultural Density

Generate New, Diverse Peer-to-Peer Interactions

Operation Hybrid 3.0 (Chris Livingston) Spring 2017

4

|| RESIDUE

A project of mayhem. Take seven wildly different programs: car restoration shop, hotel, planetarium, roller rink, butterfly garden, infectious disease lab, missile silo. Create a massive hybrid building in the heart of downtown Bozeman, MT. An examination of the site and surroundings resulted in a series of explorations of textures and residue.

Concept models utilized the textures of the programs to connect them to each other and the site. A peeling away of layers revealed the infectious disease lab and missile silo at the heart of the design, accessible to visitors and hotel guests. The roller rink acted as circulation around the entire building and the butterfly garden was housed underneath a single roof above everything else. Textures from the original site exploration were used in the final project in both model and material. The overlap of programs created a new layer of use and residue.

Architectural Graphics (Zuzanna Karczewska [and] Henry Sorenson) Fall 2014 - Fall 2018

5

|| re-PRESENTATION

Choose a fruit or vegetable. Graphically represent it in seven different ways. Larger than life, smaller, section, full, itself as a medium, beyond paper, etc. Create a graphic narrative of its essence.

Three artichokes were harmed in the making of these drawings. The leaves and intrigue of an artichoke led to the examination of layers. The artichoke drawn at full bloom, ten leaves off, twenty, thirty, and finally the heart.

The texture of the artichoke investigated at a magnified scale. The pages of a book as the leaves of the artichoke.

One leaf per page to transfer the artichoke to a physical, nonperishable object. Each layer peeled back revealed a new page with imprint, juice stain, heart, and mark. The final presentation was comprised of this series of explorations as the peeling away of the artichoke itself. Revealed leaves resulted in a revelation of layers, textures, and character.

Observation drawings. Design drawings. Exploration, architecture, character. Sit, observe, sketch, draw, and paint. Red line, ink armature, watercolor painting.

With an emphasis on the unique built aspects of architecture, observation graphics acted as an outlet for representation and a practice in style and examination.

Buildings around the Montana State University campus and small towns of Montana were the subject of these drawings. The pieces took the form of monotone, warm and cool, and colored pencil drawings. These drawings represent the span of an architectural education and the exploration of the world beyond.

|| ACCEPT - INTERSECT - EXPAND

6

Center for the Arts Redesign (John Britingham) Spring 2018 Jackson Hole, Wyoming. A Center for the Arts with a smörgåsbord of styles, architects, and flaws. Travel, explore, and ideate. How to make the center more cohesive, used, and inviting?

Old flaws were accepted with few changes to the structure of the design.

A new central stair and relocation of art studios to the first floor created a welcoming and artistic environment.

An intersection of uses, spaces, and times was designed through installation spaces and familiar geometry throughout the various elements.

Finally, an expansion of the existing framework increased programmability, use, and audience. The addition took the form of a black box theater on the northeast and a Z-shaped gallery on the south lawn. The gallery addition acted as an extension of the lawn with an accessible green roof to be used as a sledding hill and viewing area. Here Jackson’s “Stay Wild” met the Center’s “Wildly Creative” motive.

7

|| GAZE DISTRIBUTED

Villa Oplontis Antiquarium (Bradford Watson [and] Mike Everts) Summer 2016 Travel to Europe. Record “tourist gaze” photographs, sketch every site, practice one-two-three-five-point perspective, research the success of a museum, examine the “gaze” of the audience, explore how “distributed network” can inform an idea, design a conversation to become an antiquarium for ancient Roman ruins. Result: Unique historic spaces, when paired with juxtaposing elements, have the potential to engage multiple networks that lead to growth, innovation, and success for the town of Torre Annunziata, Italy.

“Tourist gaze” photographs led to an understanding of culture. Scenes and images were compared and contrasted to create unique compositions.

Sketches of memorable sites helped to inform a language and style of representation. Practice dictated a new way of viewing the built world beyond photography.

Bay of Naples Networks

Connection Current Weak Tie New Weak Tie

Torre Annunziata

Locals

Tourists

Scholarly

Boscoreale

Ruins

Undeveloped Historic Spaces

Pompeii Herculaneum

Villa A and B

Curatorial Antiquarium ts Componen

Distributed Networks Design Strategy

Unique Historic Spaces

Stabia

} Community Social Spaces

Events

Large Event Space Small Curatorial Space Small Event Space Large Curatorial Space

Weak Ties

Development

Torre Annunziata Sites Global Sites

On Site

} Innovative Tourism

Negative to Positive

Creation of More Weak Ties

Growth

Torre Annunziata Networks Analysis

Current Weak Tie Path of Travel Recent History

City Hall

Tourist Zone Armory

Movie Theater Pasta Factory

Military

Local Zone Train Station

Church

Park Space

Palace Church

Villa A

Ruins/History Industrry

Pasta Factory

Public/Cultural Schools Hotels

Villa B

Grocery Stores

New Networks Formed Possibility for Weak Ties

Clusters of Networks

Extending Networks; Creation of Weak Ties

Overlap of Networks Scholarly Network: Distributed/Decentralized. Strong and weak ties into the community and global networks. Clear pattern of growth and movement.

Tourist Network: Distributed. Fluid, ever-changing movement.

Few densities around points, little overlap.

Local Network: Centralized. Little movement or change. Centered around town with extension of points.

The Rome project centered around the ruins and objects of Villa Oplontis, located in Torre Annunziata, Italy. Through a study of tourist, local, and scholarly networks in the area, it was determined that these networks must converge at points. These points were born from unique historic sites that sat abandoned and decayed. The sites were used to house intriguing combinations of tourist, local, and scholarly events. A hybrid of programs housed both artifacts and events in an attempt to cultivate new interactions. The overlap of networks created weak ties between the networks. The connections formed were used to grow the potential of the town and in turn improve success. Theory and diagramming were tools employed to spark a conceptual idea and a conversation on the antiquarium.

(In collaboration with Lauren Waldenberg)

Jeff Ament Residence (Chere LeClair) Spring 2016

8

|| DUALITY

Draw the name of a living, famous Montanan. Design a residence for this person. Place it on top of an existing 22’ wide building in downtown Bozeman, MT. Final deliverable: one single model.

Jeff Ament, the bassist of Pearl Jam, born in Havre, MT and raised in Missoula, MT. A study of the artist uncovered an interest in photography, angst, and helping others. Playful nice guy met serious rockstar. An experiment in photography created images like Ament’s. These were then abstracted in 2D. The concepts behind them were analyzed and used to make 3D abstractions. Numerous iterations of these models combined to explore the characteristics of the musician.

Balanced and mercurial, solid and flighty. The final residence used these opposites to showcase Ament. Playful geometries made up the east side with solid concrete on the west and the first floor consisted of a skate park.

9

|| DIVERGENT ALLIANCE

Danh Vo at Ambika P3 (Michael Mazière) Fall 2019 Curation and Exhibit Design.

Re-imagine the works from two Danh Vo exhibits in London. Re-curate them for the gallery space at University of Westminster - Ambika P3.

Re-present them as a formal exhibit design.

Danh Vo is an artist, curator, and commissioner. He uses personal relationships and past history to explore, contrast, and reflect. A study of his works resulted in a curated exhibit rife with juxtapositions and relational opportunities. A collaboration between Vo and Ambika was imagined and a commission theoretically designed to fit the history of the space and Vo’s own principles. Opposing materiality was used as the backdrop for his smaller works and seating he designed was placed practically to encourage conversation and criticism. The two spaces in the gallery were divided by “Connection and Contrast” and “Contemplation and Contrast.”

10

|| a DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

Photography (an Exploration) 2013 - Present Look up. Look down. Look close. Look far. Practice photography with a flair of spontaneity. Capture moments of abstraction. Highlight the under-appreciated and appreciate the ordinary. A different world view in the most literal sense.

An interest in photography was sparked at a young age at camp during a photography elective. Camera in hand, there was a fascination for the world at a different angle and a desire to have fun and go adventuring. Through unique exploration, a series of photographs have been created that capture the smaller moments of life. While only a hobby amidst the greater design world, photography has led to studies and experiments in texture, materiality, architectural space, and personality. Unseen details have proved a gem. Photographs are often used at the beginning of a project to define the concepts, abstract the site, and determine the solution.

Ivan Doig Archive Exhibit (Mike Everts) Spring 2017

11

|| VOICES and VISTAS

Collaborate with real clients. Expose the archive of a deceased Montana author. Bring education to the fair.

Work in a group to create a memorable and relevant design experience.

Ivan Doig worked to showcase the extraordinary through the ordinary in his many novels. His efforts were donated to the MSU library, including journals, sketches, photographs, and sound diaries. An exhibit was designed to bring awareness to this archive at the Bozeman County Fair while simultaneously researching professional practice and introducing a new demographic.

With an emphasis on his childhood spent on the ranch, this vernacular was used to create an experience.

Interactive and informational “sheep wagons” became the means with which to educate on Doig’s life and works. The exhibit was fully realized and reached over 2,300 in five days.

(In collaboration with Lauren Waldenberg, Alix Sykes, Laura Steppel, Nathan Heldt)

kid’s area interactive archive writing competition entrance writing center doig’s books

c.b. booksellers

Iteration 1: Multiple “Sheep Wagons”

Iteration 2: Simplified

Ivan Doig Exhibit Structure 13 June 2017

semi-shear fabric canopy

3/4” conduit 1 1/4” conduit 2” x 2” wood

1/2” x 4” wood

1/4” x 1 1/2” wood lattice

7/16” x 4’ x 8’ OSB

3/16” metal custom “sheep feet” pads

New Paving; ADA Accessible

Building Construction (Chris Livingston) Spring 2016

Drainage to River ft.

64 46

4665' - 0"

.

5' - 0

.

6 ft 466 . ft 68 46 0 ft.

7 46 .

2 ft 467

100'-0"

"

13' - 5' 3/4" 4667 - 0"

ft.

64 46 46 6 4 46 670 ft466 6 ft.

72 8 ft ft. . .

New Paving; ADA Accessible

|| TECHNICALITY and DETAIL

ft.

ft.

66 46

ft .

46 72

4667 - 0" 13' - 5' 3/4"

64 46

ft.

"

46 74

0° N W2

5' - 0

633' - 4"

- 0"

.

ft.

.

12

ft.

4670

4678

ft 66 46

Existing Parking Lot

BM

4672 ft.

5' - 0"

ft 68 46

New ADA Parking

.

46 66 ft 46 46 68 ft .

70 .

46 ft.

72 ft.

'-4 300

E 20° "N

- 0"

.

4665' - 0"

50'

ft 4676

Enlarged Site 1" = 30'-0"

°S

New Paving; ADA Accessible

2 A102

E 20

ft.

68 46 ft.

70 46

- 0"

ft.

W 20° "S

A simple project was designed for the purpose of learning the building construction basics. This project was carried through the semester in Revit where the systems and details were created, explored and illustrated. As an exercise in fundamentals, the semester concluded with a set of construction documents and a knowledge for the future. Wall sections defined the building materials, assembly, detailing, and functionality.

Call-outs referred to the specifics within the building code and were used as a model for design and problem solving. Building construction; an indispensable study in the practical and technical amidst the simpler pleasures of abstraction and conceptual design work.

136'

4666

'-4 300

136'

Learn about construction documents Drainage toand River construct a document. Put together a project like the real world. ExFFE= 100'-0" ploded details, building systems, wall sections, site plans, and schedules.

110'

- 10"

PLAN NORTH

KEY BM

BENCHMARK

PROPERTY CORNER

PROPERTY LINE NEW TOPOGRAPHY EXISTING TOPOGRAPHY

FFE = 100'-0" = 4667' ON CIVIL

ACTUAL NORTH

|| OBSERVATION and ABSTRACTION

13

Design Fundamentals (Zuzanna Karczewska) Spring 2014 Explore a nature center. Identify a phenomenon. Create a natural installation. Abstract, construct, examine.

3D wood construct becomes a wall, becomes an observatory. A first look at built architecture.

As an early project, this served as an introduction into design thinking, conceptual emphasis, and built structure. Ice was identified as a significant player in the natural elements of the Cherry River. The layers of ice were explored through installations, drawings, models, and architectural design. A 3D construct with an emphasis on density and difference led to the abstraction of a wall placed by the river as a study in shelter and seating. The wall was followed by the first concept of building through an observatory. With tendrils reaching into the water, the observatory interacted with the ice that it was originally built upon as well as the human reciprocity with space and nature.