ELEANOR BIRLE
Selected Works, 2023
Academic Work:
1. Public Library | Cooling Center, Professor Marc Tsurumaki, 2022
2. Transforming Seasonal Grounds, Professor Ziad Jamaleddine, 2022
3. Collective Domesticity, Professor Alicia Ajayi , 2021
4. Reconstituted P.S. 64, Professor Miku Dixit 2021
5. The Outside In Project, Professors Laurie Hawkinson + Galia Solomonoff, 2021
Professional Work:
6. Pine Bluff ArtSpace, designLAB architects, 2019-2021
7. Curley Community Center, designLAB architects, 2018-2022
8. Christie’s Auction House, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects, 2022
Columbia GSAPP,
Fall 2022 Public Library | Cooling Center Professor Marc Tsurumaki Individual Work
In New York City, most public library branches operate as Cooling Centers in the summer months. Currently, this designation means nothing more than that the building is open and air conditioning is turned on.
On the site of a branch library in East Flatbush (Brooklyn’s hottest community district), this project uses biomaterials, thermal mass, and passive strategies to imagine a new public library form - one where cooling and thermal comfort are integral to the design.
A public library branch uses biomaterials and thermal mass to regulate rising temperatures in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Columbia GSAPP, Spring 2022
Transforming Seasonal Grounds
Professor Ziad Jamaleddine in collaboration with Maxine GaoSeveral previously underused rural summer campgrounds adjacent to Islamberg, a Muslim hamlet in upstate New York, are transformed into a productive landscape, food storage + preparation facilities, and prayer grounds operating year-round.
This project is a cyclical practice that transcends the typical seasonality of camp land, drawing inspiration from the seasonality of Islamberg and the existing relationship with neighboring communities in an informal network. A landscape of posts - oriented facing Mecca - creates a framework for a spectrum of enclosure conditions determined by season and topographical placement.
Underused summer campgrounds are transformed into a yearround productive landscape and prayer grounds for interfaith neighbors in Northwest New York
Multi-generational housing and community space designed to facilitate collective domesticity in
the South Bronx, NY.
Columbia GSAPP, Fall 2021
CollectiveDomesticity
Professor Alicia Ajayi in collaboration with Kim LangatHow can infrastructure that exists within the streetscape (such as scaffolding, the fire escape and the stoop) begin to weave itself within the space of the home to create collective domesticity that begin to blur the lines of ownership?
Evidence of collective domesticity that exists within the street scape, is a means of autonomy that subvert devices of ownership. Collective domesticity is especially important to ensure a sense of home within multi-generational housing.
The proposed 100 unit residential complex sits atop a community center and adjacent to the Bronx Documentary Center, connected by a scaffolding-like network built by the spaces between units, becoming social circulation, covered bike storage, decks, and front porches for residents.
Research - Existing Conditions
Village, NY.
Columbia GSAPP, Spring 2021
Reconstituted
P.S. 64
Professor Miku Dixit Individual Work
P.S. 64 has been defined by it’s unusually long period of abandonment and decay. Portions of physical building material have begun to migrate into the surrounding neighborhood as the building dissolves, leaving the historic building exposed and hyper-public. During this period of abandonment, the building shell has been used in an ad hoc way to meet changing needs of the community, operating as a dance studio, community organizing space, and art exhibit area.
The new P.S. 64 lends pieces of the physical masonry building --informed by close consideration of the historical buildup and construction methods-- back to the neighborhood to create standalone pieces of program made from reconstituted masonry that can operate individually after hours, or together during the school day to create a community campus.
An abandoned historic masonry building dissolves into a public elementary school and community campus in the East
A design-build pavilion
activates a public plaza and facilitates safe outdoor gathering for students at Columbia University.
Columbia GSAPP, Spring 2021
The Outside In Project
The 600-pound inflatable canopy above Avery Plaza is anchored by four steel beams in Avery and Fayerweather Halls and four anchor points, and is fabricated by areacubica. During construction, students installed LED lights within the inflatable to establish an omnipresent glow below the canopy at night. LEDs are powered via solar panels located at the base of the pavilion.
The canopy uses a rain chain to divert water from the platform and prevent water buildup and additional weight. The platform program features social distancing circles organized in three colored arrangements to accommodate casual meetings, outdoor seminars, and formal lectures. A projector-stand and large screens are built into the platform to accommodate hybrid events. To create a stark contrast with the artificial materiality of the inflatable, the ground component celebrates natural textures including four live-edge cedar benches.
Professors Laurie Hawkinson & Galia Solomonoff 20 student design/build team
Adaptive re-use of neighboring historic buildings
creates education, gallery, and community space for an arts nonprofit in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
designLAB architects, 2019-2021 Pine Bluff ArtSpace
Three person design team, Concept - DD In collaboration with AMR architects 2021 Merit Award, Arkansas AIA 2021 Outstanding Achievement in Adaptive Reuse Award, Preserve Arkansas
Beginning in early 2019, designLAB and AMR Architects of Little Rock, AR, collaborated on a project initiated by the Arts and Science Center (ASC) for Southeast Arkansas to renovate two existing 1920s buildings. The goal was to create a community-focused arts venue that will support the revitalization of downtown Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
The ARTSpace on Main features a community gallery for local artists, flexible workshop space to host art, yoga, dance, and culinary arts classes, a small makerspace, a wood shop, scene shop, and costume shop, as well as a small ceramics studio and an outdoor “Arts Yard” for large-scale projects an events. It also houses the offices for the Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission, and will be the first stop for many visitors downtown. The adjacent building next door operates as a mixed-use building with a 70-seat blackbox theater for small community productions. The building also includes five apartments for resident artists with accompanying studios. The project contributes to the revitalization of downtown Pine Bluff, and serves as an established entry point for the planned development of an arts and entertainment corridor.
Photos by Tim Hursley
Photos by Tim Hursley
designLAB architects, 2018- current Curley Community Center
Three person design team, Concept - CD
Currently Under Construction
The Curley Community Center hosts a wide range of recreation activities and community events for the neighborhood of South Boston, and surrounding communities. designLAB is working closely with the City of Boston Public Facilities Department to complete a full interior renovation of the building, so that it will better support contemporary user groups and needs. The building also supports staff space for the Boston Centers for Youth and Families, and various other community groups.
Built in 1932, the historic building is central to the urban fabric of South Boston. Purpose-built as a bathhouse by Mayor James Michael Curley, the Curley Center has been a locus of activity for nearly a century. Today, the center hosts a wide range of programs, from fitness classes, to summer campus, to daily senior lunches, and year-round beach access, along with traditions such as the L Street Brownies’ New Year’s Day Plunge. The re-imagined Curley Center will continue to support these programs for its ever-growing community, while also tackling issues of transparency, accessibility, safety, equity, and resiliency.
An upgraded historic community center for a neighborhood on a rapidly shrinking shoreline in South Boston, MA.
FF&E Diagram
Section - between street entryway and deck
Concept Diagram - Program Stacking