Portfolio for the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture

POSSIBILITIES IN DESIGN FOR PEOPLE AND PLACE

Undergraduate Portfolio

EMILY SALVI

Emily Salvi

Phone number: (+1) 9146062143

Nationality: American Date of birth: 27/10/2002

Email address: esalvi715@g.rwu.edu

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Home: 35 Buell Rd S, 06759 Litch fi eld (United States)

WORK EXPERIENCE

Market Assistant

The Providence Flea [ 02/02/2024 –Current ]

City: Providence, RI

Country: United States

• Assist with check-in and organization of fl ea market tables on site

• Manage parking between food trucks, vendors, and customers

• Administer, collect and organize tax permits for the state of RI

• provide customer service to fl ea market guests and vendors

Farmers Market Hand Fieldstone Kombucha [ 10/08/2023 –Current ]

City: Bristol Country: United States

• Package and transport company merchandise to and from Markets

• Set up table and booth, organize supplies in a presentable manner

• Socialize and greet market patrons to maintain a community atmosphere

• Facilitate sales and subscriptions of Kombucha

AIAS Studio Mentor Roger Williams University [ 30/08/2022 –17/05/2023 ]

City: Bristol, RI Country: United States

• Assisted Professors with desk critiques and formal critiques of Freshman studio sections

• Hosted tutorials on skills such as Drafting, Indesign, and Plotting

• Guided students through project development and design

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Bachelor's of Science in Architecture Roger Williams University [ 17/08/2020 –17/05/2024 ]

City: Bristol, RI Country: United States

Website: rwu.edu

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Mother tongue(s): English

DIGITAL SKILLS

Google Drive/ Microsoft Word/

This portfolio takes you through my commitment to understanding how architecture connects people sharing a space, how it connects people to their local community, to the heritage of their land, and how we can even connect people back to a forgotten or decaying built environment.

625

Spring 2022

81

Fall 2023

7

Spring

PROJECT ONE

THE GREEN ASH BUILDING

This project’s focus was the representation of Chicago’s character as a city and landscape while creating a sense of partnership between the residents themselves and the community of Chicago as a whole. My design achieved this through the focus on the Green Ash Tree. In history, the Ash Tree became a

significant figure in the treescape of cities across America after its precursor, the American Elm fell to disease. However, the Ash Tree is facing a similar threat, and this building partners with its residents to give saplings back to Chicago’s landscape and give a beloved tree a second chance at life.

Conceptual

625

PROGRAM

FIRST FLOOR

SECOND FLOOR

THIRD FLOOR

FOURTH FLOOR

FIFTH FLOOR

SIXTH FLOOR

To keep the connection between the residents and the Ash Tree special, each unit has a green balcony as well as shared upper-floor, outdoor spaces that provide a view of the tree grove and the North Branch Canal. There is also a shared kitchen on the Fifth Floor to allow residents their own experience with the produce provided by the building’s greenhouse year-round. Section A

A grove of Ash Trees sits on the Western Front of the Building, providing shading as well as a community space with the neighborhood. The greenhouse at the top prioritizes the growth and preservation of Ash Tree seeds and saplings to be given back to Chicago’s cityscape. In addition to Ash Trees, space in the greenhouse can be used to grow produce by which a street-front market facilitates the sale of locally grown produce back to the neighborhood, providing funding for the Ash Tree Preservation Project.

ARCHITECTURE FOR SUSTAINABILITY

5 pm, August 20st, Ground Floor Market

Peak season concurs with the harvests from the Greenhouse. Produce grown alongside Ash Trees is sold back to the extended community of Chicago and offered to residents at a discounted rate. In the off-season, the market functions more as a corner store, carrying essentials such as cleaning supplies, toiletries, and other non-perishable goods for building residents and the local community

10 am, December 21st, Fifth Floor Greenhouse

Year-round activities in the Greenhouse are centered around Education, Care, and Upkeep. Preparation for spring includes the clearing out of garden beds, educational tours, and re-unifying goals between investors, residents, and preservation specialists to ensure longevity and continuity.

PROJECT TWO

STILL HERE: Remembering Heritage in the Place of Providence Children’s Theater

“Still Here” is a mural designed in partnership with the Tomaquag Museum to establish Narragansett tribe representation on a site that was important to their lifestyle and heritage. The Mural depicts Lynsea Montanari, Tomaquag Museum educator and Narragansett Tribe Member holding a photo of Princess Redwing, a Narragansett activist and educator who founded the Tomaquag Museum in 1958. The Painting is located on the other side of Weybosset Street, the meeting spot of three different trade routes.

Model investegating Native American Basket-weaving techniques as Theater

Various

Models Section Model depicting Final Programing + parts of Mural Accessible for

EXPERIENCE

Backstage + Classroom programming registers to the heights of specific images in the mural. Practice Room A, for example, frames a view of the Pink Lady Slipper Flower. A courtyard resides on the second floor to allow indoor spaces to interact with the photo of Princess Redwing, The outdoor classroom located on the fifth floor sits under the Red Wing Blackbird and looks over the historic Customs House

THEATER + BASKET

Traditiionally, baskets were used by Narragansett, Niantic, Mohegan, Pequot and Wampanoag tribes as physical vessels for trade goods, keeping safe the fruits of their harvest. The idea as a basket for a container for the theater inspired the woven facade design seen on both the exterior and interior accoustic panels.

PROJECT THREE

FUNCTIONAL HOUSING FOR CATHEDRAL SQUARE

This project began with an Ethnographic Research Process that addressed how institutional pressures and the dominance of the I-95 highway suffocated the commercial spaces that would have lined Cathedral Square’s beautiful cobbled streets and brickwork. Cathedral Square was once a bustling civic square with markets and festivals, now it struggles to maintain its artist co-operative, and its outdoor squares are neglected by private theater companies that could activate the space.

BUILT ENVIRONEMENT LOCALITY

The Tal’Dorei Housing Community adaptively re-uses the Gilbane Headquarters turning an office building into a mixed-use housing, with 295ft of commercial frontage, as well as a private office and studio spaces arranged around a sprawling courtyard. The original brick structure’s 21,000 sqft footprint was expanded and hollowed out to 44,888 sqft to accommodate a need for a multi-faceted beacon of character in a neighborhood devoid of civic opportunity.

7 JACKSON WALKWAY, CATHEDRAL SQUARE, PROVIDENCE RI,

Original Building Facade

Old

Footprint New Construction

COMMERCIAL FRONTAGE

Programming for Commercial Space came through observation of neighborhood services lacking from the ethnography. The Florist and Cafe respond well to traffic coming from the Cathedral, whereas the Tutor Center and Daycare come from a lack of childcare services. Finally, the Dance Studio and Art Store are set up to employ local art centers such as AAS 220 + Providence Theater Company with more resources

PROJECT FOUR

AN INTERVENTION ON PITKIN AVE

For this elective theory class, we were asked to create detailed dossier of considerations that an Architect would need to be aware of before coming to a site and establishing a plan. The assignment was to find the best approach to achieve a successful park, based on the people and place of the depressed neighborhood we had chosen.

Brownsville’s built environment is filled with several failures that were taken by broad sweeps from people on the outside looking in. Because of its reputation, picturesque parks once established in Brooklyn get reconstructed for safety concerns, housing blocks come with mazes of fences and walls that nullify street life, and possible sight locations are plights of wilderness upheavel and abandoned infrastructure.

STRENGTHS

- large number of subway and bus lines

- ongoing improvements are being made to the transportation infrastructure, including bike and safety improvements

- Pitkin ave acts a strong economic asset

- there is a high percentage of community organizations dedicated to improving Brownsville

- pop-Up and seasonal markets are on the rise

- large number of successful community gardens

- ample street space for vendors + outdoor dining

- private gardens are successful and valued by the community

- the city has an active climate goal to expand tree cover (currently its achieved 17%)

- several old buildings that will cater to opening small business

Betsy Head Park (above) with several variation + layers of screened fencing as protective boundary for children.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: THEORY AND PRACTICE (ELECTIVE)

SENIOR YEAR FALL 2024

Fences, walls and existing interventions on street life (above) Fenced-In opening of an art gallery (left)

Disheveled playground inside NYCHA Housing Block

Images of Brownsville’s dense housing blocks established by NYCHA in the 1950’s after an intense period of blighting + demollition that created a dense, under-serviced Afro-Latino population.

URBAN SOCIOLOGY

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: THEORY AND PRACTICE (ELECTIVE)

From NYCHA (2016)

Map one depicts dense housing blocks (yellow) on top of open green spaces seen in map two. Map one also shows the isolation of commercial space (red) to Pitkin ave, and the Industry Belt (purple) that drew the dense Afro-Latino Population to NYCHA housing. Map two also depicts several private + community gardens sprinkled around Brownsville. These gardens are small, easy to maintain and loved by the neighborhoods around them.

AVERSION TO ART/ COMMUNITY PATHWAY

taken from google maps (2022)

New facade for a reclamation project completed in 2018.

The building was refurbished for housing and the mural was installed by the Pitkin Ave BID, however

the mural has been defaced after only 4 years.

The text below the mural that’s been covered over by graffiti is meant to read alquote from Theodore Herzl, “It’s not a dream if you will it”

Located at the entrance of the intervention, this mural appears to be drawn by a preschooler. It has faded out to pastels and includes a paragraph inscription stating the mural was completed in 2009.

This mural has not been touched in 14 years.

The second mural looks a child-like dream of Brownsville, which is confusing as the words “it’s not a dream” are the exact words defaced on the first mural.

The perpetrator is telling us that the dreams of institutions don’t matter here, it’s the dreams of the children and their families that do.

SUMMARY + CONCLUSIONS

“What is being valued in Brownsville?”

- Private Gardens - Small, easy to maintain

- Childcare - Eyes on the street - Public Transportation - Aid to Pitkin Avenue

NOT A PARK

Market Square w Garden Network to produce an “ecological street life”

“What wil be successful in Brownsville?”

-Pop up Markets -Small Business

-Child-Centered Spaces -Collaborations

-Visibility -Aid to Street Life

Move Away from Landscape as “Problem”

Shift to Landscape as “Place”

Brownsville is a conversation of several failures that were taken at broad sweeps It does not need a large open space that will take away from the limited commercial real estate, but a series of attractors to bring people back to Pitkin Ave.

- Parallel to Pitkin Ave to provide multiple exit points back to commercial street allowing for conistent surveillance and foot-traffic through the spaces

-Several different intentional gardens (produce/herbs/medicinal/wildflower show flower)

-Gradual increase of treecover in accordance with city goals

I suggest several small parks in a link or chain, increasing the commercial space the park has access to, and connecting it to private gardens + plazas it may run into.

Brownsville is only defined from the outside “Sense of place” is important to wellbeing Need to collaborate with business on Pitkin Ave to allievate safety and fiscal concerns

LAND

BROWNSVILLE PARKS + GARDENS