EMILYWILLIAMS ARCHITECTURE | PORTFOLIO 2017
Emily Williams “Architecture is more than a simple object - it is a tool through which we can positively impact the world around us. It is capable of bringing the best out of society in ways that have previously been unknown or misunderstood.�
INTRODUCTION In the Present:
My interests in design are vast, but can be summarized into rehabilitative and urban designs. I completed a semester abroad in Florence, Italy, where I gained a greater understanding of urban design. I believe that urban design will greatly impact the future of architecture. Much of the world’s land is already occupied by existing architectural forms. The future of architecture will be defined by how designers address necessary changes to what already exists.
Looking Forward:
The next step in my future is to study architecture and urban design at the Graduate Level. I am currently pursuing dual Masters’ degrees in both architecture and urban design at the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative. Once I graduate, I will then use my Masters’ degrees to obtain a LEED accredited architecture license and a career in architecture and urban design.
RESUME: Education:
Kent State University
B. Sc. | Architecture (2012-2016) GPA: 3.71 M. Urban Design| M. Architecture (2016-2018) GPA: 3.95
Work Experience:
Makovich and Pusti Architects and Engineers Inc.
- Berea Design Guidelines - Designed housing additions for predominant styles in Berea, Ohio - Designed floor plans - Site Measurements - Construction Documents
Hengst, Streff, and Bajko (HSB) Architects and Engineers Designed and edited fit plans - 3D modeled and rendered Tenant Spaces - Documented existing site conditions and performed site measurements - Edited and completed construction documents - Submitted building permits
Related Experience: Design [Re] Build 2015
Student Volunteer | Renovating an abandoned house in Cleveland | Kent State University
2014 Alpha Rho Chi 100th National Convention Study Abroad 2015 - Florence, Italy Study Trip 2017 - Havana, Cuba
Honors and Awards: Dean’s List | 5 Semesters President’s List | 1 Semesters Elliot Family Architecture Scholarship Glen and Nancy Schultz Architecture Scholarship
Computer Skills: AutoCAD Rhino Adobe Design Suite Revit Sketchup
01
02
CONTENT UNDERGRADUATE WORK 01 Experience Through Exposure - part one
04
02 Experience Through Exposure - part two
08
03 Senior Capstone Project - hop-en city
12
GRADUATE WORK
04 Graduate Design Studio
18
05 CLExHAV - index studio
22
PROFESSIONAL WORK 06 Berea Design Guidelines
28
07 Scully Residence
34
INTERESTS AND HOBBIES 08 Sketching and Drawing
36
09 Photography
38 03
01
YOUNGSTOWN ACTIVITY CENTER Experience Through Exposure Part One
Project Goals: This project is a prototype of a cultural and
social hub designed to promote active engagement in the participatory process. The center is a laboratory for social change, forcing people to interact with one another through a series of activities. It is a living charette, creating a space for diverse groups of people to meet, engage, and communicate.
This project cultivates an appreciation for the cultural and physical infrastructure of the city through the exposure of different elements within the site. The facades of the three edifices on site are pulled away to expose the structures and activities within the buildings, causing a visual understanding of cultural elements in the city. The substation located in the space between the two main building forms is stripped away to show the functions within the interior, encouraging visitors to better understand physical elements in the Youngstown area. By creating a space for people to gather, the site promotes the interaction among people of different backgrounds while creating amenities that will promote the overall safety, wellbeing, and interests of Youngstown’s future visitors. 04
The Business Center:
From the floors of the Richard E. Mills Project, workers can see activities occurring within the public space, as well as those occurring in the adjacent Harshman Building.
The Public Space:
The space is intended to first draw the viewer’s eye first toward the area’s physical infrastructure before then seeing the different activities occurring in the adjacent buildings. Both facades are made of materials that will enable viewers to visually engage with interior activities. 05
Adaptive ReUse Conditions Site: Three buildings hosted the means for adaptive design:
The Harshman Building, the Richard E. Mills Project, and the adjacent substation. The space between the Harshman Building and the Richard E. Mills Project played an essential role in developing connection between these two structures. The need for building additions developed a relatively thick overlap where the building shells came together the openings within this structure became spaces that encouraged its visitors to stay.
Exposure and Additions Experience Through Exposure: The Harshman Building -
A third story was added to the existing structure, and the addition from the 1970’s was replaced with a lighter, more open structure. The Harshman building houses the private advocacy spaces, like the drug and addiction clinic, needing less exposure than other more public oriented spaces. The facade was designed to meet these needs.
Experience Through Exposure: The REM Project -
The facade of the building was stripped away to reveal the interior structure, as well as show the inner workings of the different functions within the space.
Experience Through Exposure: The Substation -
An operable facade was added to draw attention to the substation’s interior function, exposing the users of the space to hidden attributes within the city. Operable bars were attached to facade exposure elements in the substation and the Harshman Building to make a connection between these two spaces.
06
07
02
YOUNGSTOWN CATALYST Experience Through Exposure Part Two
The building and its surrounding site expose the public functions of the city through social interaction and visual intrigue. This interaction enables people to share ideas, goals, and histories, creating an environment that will positively promote Youngstown. Upon first entry into the building, visitors will be exposed to a variety of social and cultural activities within the wide atrium. The amenities provided will promote a forum through which people can actively engage in the Youngstown community. By exposing the public functions of the building, people can see the inner workings of different elements of the city, therefore becoming more engaged with the Youngstown community.
Project Goals: The overall goal of this
project is to create a design through which visitors can actively engage with one another and members of the community. It will promote the city and the surrounding neighborhoods. The building will cultivate a diversity amongst people, allowing for the generation of new ideas and interests in the future of the city. 08
09
Generating Diversity: Different people bring different
ideas and knowledge to a project. By combining different perspectives into a single forum, people can engage with one another to develop a variety of innovative strategies to change the city’s perception. This hub will provide a location for people to learn from one another; the city officials can receive feedback from citizens purely through interaction in a single space.
Experience Through Exposure: Due to a visual connection
between a variety of social, advocacy, and business spaces, people are exposed to a wide range of experiences occurring within a unified forum. The overall building form is en envelope that wraps around major building functions, making the interior moments particularly decisive. The architectural shell is essentially a wrapper for the more cohesive elements inside the building.
10
Interior Development Building Proposals: The goal was to increase
community engagement by exposing certain business and advocacy activities to the public. The project is designed to promote interaction between different groups of people and create a forum through which they can actively promote the city of Youngstown. The commercial activities were divided by a “street� into Public spaces exposed to the social center of the building, and private spaces that looked outside the building.
Developing a Sense of Community Community Steps: The purpose of these
steps is to promote a series of smaller scale interactions between a diverse range of users. Each series of steps is broken down into a platform for shared activities - the function of the activities is to promote the exchange of different experiences and different backgrounds, enabling citizens to create their own sense of place within the city.
11
03
SENIOR CAPSTONE PROJECT Hop en City Hafen City. Hamburg. Germany As a senior thesis, I designed an urban agriculture co-op that would grow hops on residential terraces. Those hops would then be harvested and used for a special beer developed in the first floor brewery. I worked with structural and mechanical engineering consultants to create a document set highlighting the functional qualities of the building. The primary concept for the design revolves around a specialty residential program. This program is reliant upon the residents participating in a coop where they will grow and harvest hops before sending them to the brewery to be made into a seasonal brew. The hops are grown on terraces located on most of the residential units facing the south side of the building. The integrated process enforces the use of environmental services as a part of the built design. The mechanical , water, and lighting systems were implemented as secondary to the passive systems
12
Building Form After running the design through a series of environmental efficiency tests, the model was formed to allow necessary sunlight to hit the southern facade - enabling the hops to grow. The form was built as a step-down structure with an orientation that would maximize views toward the River Elbe. The design of the residential units and office spaces stand in slight contrast to the design of the first floor brewery. The brewery is slightly different from the rest of the designed form to highlight its programmatic use. Several roof typologies were explored to differentiate the form of the brewery from the flat roof of the rest of the built structure.
13
Hops Garden Terrace The terraces show the collective nature of the project’s program - the terraces are used to grow and harvest the hops.
Views from the terraces are directed across the river to the city’s tourism center - The Uberseequartier. The Marco Polo building is the primary built structure on the other side of the river. The orientation of the Hop-en City design was positioned to give a greater visual connection to the city’s historic and cultural districts.
14
15
The Residential Unit A series of residential units were developed, ranging from lowincome housing to 3-bedroom apartment units. The hops program implemented into the housing developments also provide incentives to its occupants, offering decreased rent options if they participate in the growing and harvesting process. The surrounding images show one of the typological designs for the residential unit.
16
Passive Systems Southern Elevation - The building was
oriented for a long south facade that requires protection to mitigate heat gain during the summer, and allows low sunlight during the winter. Louvered shading devices overhang the terraces, providing structure for the hops and protecting the interior environment from excess heat gain. In the winter, these sunshades have been calibrated to provide little shade when the sun is at a lower angle. Light shelves are used to reflect daylight off their surfaces deep into the interior.
Western Elevation - The prevailing winds
run west to east along the site. The building envelope was designed to integrate natural ventilation and mechanical systems. The double-skin facade is regulated by mechanical thermal controls when the ambient temperature is not adequate enough to provide the desired interior environment.
17
04
GRADUATE DESIGN STUDIO Embracing Walkability
The goal of this project was to utilize the potential of walkability to the existing Hough neighborhood. Due to the ease of access to existing transit networks, the neighborhood has the potential to become a central urban hub within the growing institutional district. The Health line that runs down Euclid Avenue provides significant access to various parts of the city. The site was broken down into a series of small mixed use nodes, following the rules laid out by Jeff Speck in his book, “Walkable City.� Density and public use are two dominant themes used to develop the urban nodes within the expanding neighborhood. The newly developed green extending from the Case Western Reserve Campus was extended into the site as a band of pedestrian and bicyclist routes were added. This main strip then branches off into a series of smaller routes that would enable the forms of the various buildings to take shape.
18
Use Corridors Pedestrian and Bike Corridor The main intervention becomes a major crossover as people move from the institutions toward Hough. Bicyclists and Pedestrians are provided an easy change point, rather than being forced into the outer boundaries of the Hough neighborhood.
Terrestrial Corridor Bands and patches of Riparian zone fill underdeveloped lots. Many of the green zones serve multiple roles as urban farming areas, recreational zones, and educational hubs. The Terrestrial corridor is broken by pedestrian streets and made continuous only at the tree or roof level.
19
Nodic Activity The proposed site conditions are broken down into several activity nodes: the Dense Urban Zone, the Mixed Use Branch, and the Centralized Business Core. Each of the proposed nodes provide different and necessary amenities to the Hough neighborhood. The aesthetic design of each of these nodes differ to distinguish their use.
20
Rules of Walkability
21
05
CLExHAV Index Studio
International Design Exchange Studio Project Narrative: The project focuses on increasing pedestrian access between El Carmello and the surrounding neighborhoods, creating microecosystems to mitigate the pollution of the Almendares River, providing an interactive educational experience for existing and future users, and developing a coherent and consistent boardwalk along the river.
Project Goals: The project focuses on developing the riverfront in several ways - increasing pedestrian access between Miramar and Vedado, creating micro-ecosystems to effectively clean up the riverfront, and developing a coherent and consistent boardwalk along the river - thus diversifying the area’s use. The infrastructural network of communal space encourages long term stewardship, while maintaining the neighborhood identity. Through the use of clustered housing, the community’s existing social and cultural dynamic is preserved. The modularity and flexibility of the housing system enables the community to define their own economic structure.
22
In collaboration with a Master’s of Landscape Architecture student, I embedded a series of ecosystems into the new grid. Following the flow of the river, each of the ecosystems were implemented to naturally revitalize the currently polluted river.
The order of the ecosystems are as follows: forest, wetlands, lagoon, and grasslands - each of which provide necessary pollution control techniques. A boardwalk weaves around the 50’x50’ squares, providing access to these interventions from within the community. 24
Cuadriculita The goal was to provide necessary amenities to the 50’x50’ squares located within the context of a larger grid. Each of these images reflect the organic growth of the neighborhood around the squares. The structures designed are merely templates for what the spaces may look like over time - the grid platform enables the community to take a hand in creating their neighborhood. They will implement the values that they feel are most important.
Transformation Diagram: The image above shows an example of what the 50’x50’ square might look like as it is built up over time.. The residential spaces are built up in modules, enabling the neighborhood to grow at its own pace.
Pedestrian Bridge There are two bridges running across the Almendares River, one located at the north end of the river - La Linea, a famous historic institution, and a second bridge located at the southern end of the bridge, beyond the scope of the design interventions. After discussing a proposal with some locals familiar with the needs of the area, I proposed a pedestrian bridge to create a stronger connection between the Vedado and Miramar neighborhoods. Since one of the objectives of the class was to design interventions that would have far reaching impacts, the pedestrian bridge was developed to serve multiple purposes. It is an eco-bridge - there is a structure beneath the bridge with an ecological education center program to educate the community about the importance of each of the ecosystems implemented into the design: forest, wetlands, lagoon, and grasslands. Additionally, the bridge is an extension of the Almendares Park, branching the green corridor across the river.
Pedestrian Bridge
02. Boardwalk
06. Grasslands & Lagoon
The pedestrian path meanders along the river’s edge, bounded by clusters of houses on one side and naturalized zones on the other side.
04. Eco Bridge
On the Vedado side of the Almendares River, the bridge terminates at the lagoon and grasslands (the third and fourth naturalized zones used to revitalize the riverfront).
07. Community Squares
The bridge intersects with one of the proposed community activity squares. Houses are clustered around the squares, providing amenities for the surrounding spaces.
The pedestrian bridge acts as an extension of the four regenerative zones. It provides an ecological education center below the main path to enhance the green infrastructure.
01. Green Avenue
The bridge connects to an existing treelined avenue, branching out to the Miramar district.
03. Passage Park
The pedestrian bridge is divided into three separate passageways as it intersects the park: riverside boardwalk, green avenue toward Miramar, and Parque Almendares.
05. Parque Almendares
A tertiary path leading away from the bridge connects to the existing Parque Almendares, located at the southern edge of the site.
27
06
BEREA DESIGN GUIDELINES Makovich and Pusti
Program Used: Sketchup Guidelines are architectural standards for residential building alterations and additions. The guidelines ensure that the architectural design of current structures is maintained, and that the design elements are compatible with the surrounding houses. Neighborhoods can be broken down into districts based primarily on architectural style. Identifying a neighborhood as such recognizes that there is an identifiable visual and historic character to the area. The intention of a design guide is to encourage the vitality of the neighborhood through compatible elements including design materials, massing, scale, setbacks, and heights. Guidelines attempt to identify the fundamental characteristics of our residential communities and provide guidance with respect to design. The fundamental characteristics refer to the most common houses in a neighborhood. The extent of the example houses will also be a defining component of the neighborhood. The predominant style of the neighborhood may be limited to a block, or extend for many blocks. The guidelines are not intended to be an instructional manual on residential design, but rather a document used to address neighborhood design, and lay the groundwork for communication between homeowners, Design Professionals, and Builders. The guidelines highlight five major styles associated with various neighborhoods throughout Berea: Bungalows, Cape Cods, Colonials, Ranches, and Split Levels.
28
Bungalow Before: In the Example House, the elements on the exterior of the house seem out of proportion with the rest of the house - ie: the dormer is too small in reference to the large scale of the roof. Additionally, the porch railing is closed off, which blocks the social openness associated with traditional bungalow porch designs. After: Adding to the main story or attic space creates additional living space for those people looking to expand their house. The combination of the pediment and second story addition setback from the front of the porch decreases the massive appearance associated with building up. Though set back from the pediment, the second story addition aligns with the front and rear elevation, in order to maintain proportion and mass. An addition was designed to create more space on the rear side of the house. In this case, the side addition is set back from the main facade as not to make the elevation appear too massive.
29
Cape Cod Before: The original Cape Cod style house is a simple form with a variety of different design elements. Such components, like window and door openings, come into a variety of scales and styles, making them disjointed from one another. In this Example House, the front elevation of the Cape Cod lacks weather protection and definition over the formal entrance of the house. After: This full height reverse gabled structure is used to provide more head space in the attic, giving it the potential to be used as living space. In this design, the reverse gable addition matches the roof line and roof slope of the existing form. A front porch was added to the front of the house to increase exterior living space, add visual interest, and weather protection at the front entrance. Porches can enhance the existing character of the house without excessive expense. Additionally, the pediment adds visual interest to highlight the primary house entrance.
30
Colonial Before: In the Example House, the front elevation of the Colonial is flat and lacks weather protection and definition over the formal entrance of the house. The Colonial has a second story that covers half of the first floor roof line. The garage side of the house not covered by a second story lacks visual interest due to the expansive roof covering the first floor. After: Creating a second story addition can have a large visual impact on the front elevation of a house. In the case of these designs, simple modifications and additions to the house complement existing features and unify new and old elements. The use of modules decreases the visual impact of the addition. A porch was added to the front of the house to increase visual interest, and add weather protection at the main entrance. The porch also extends the roof profile of the garage across the front of the house, unifying both sides of the house.
31
Ranch Before: The original ranch house is horizontal - all of its forms are used to enhance its low-running profile. Housing additions would need to address the horizontal forms in the design. Openings on the exterior are often minimal to provide for privacy in the bedrooms. In the Example House, there is no visual definition or weather protection at the main entrance. After: The roof structure changes on this design, altering the house’s original form. A second story was added to the existing roof profile, adding additional bedroom spaces. Dormers were added to the roof to increase natural light and create additional head room for living space without overwhelming the mass and scale of the building. A porch was added to the front of the house to increase exterior living space and provide weather protection.
32
Split Level Before: In the Example House, the facade of the front elevation lacks character details that would give the house more visual interest. The front entrance is not protected from the weather - due to the abrupt ending of the roof line along the primary level, the formal entrance is not well defined. After: A porch was added to the front of the house to increase exterior living space and provide weather protection. The addition of the front porch also breaks up the front facade. In the case of this design, the exterior shell of the house was also redeveloped. By altering window styles, altering material selections, and changing paint colors increase visual interest.
33
07 SCULLY RESIDENCE HSB Architects Program Used: Revit In this case, I was tasked with taking the two dimensional designs produced by one of the principals and developing a three dimensional model in Revit to show to the client. This project was a residence built on beach property in Florida. As the project went through a series of design iterations, the model was developed to reflect the changes in the two dimensional designs. Once completed, views were established and the project was rendered through the cloud, with additional editing completed in Photoshop. Due to the risk of flooding, all of the main living spaces are located on the second and third stories of the house. The first level is primarily used for storage space. 34
Beach House The client asked for a simple housing style with clean lines and minimal materials and finishes. The interior was designed to allow light to flood the entry and promote views to the beach front. He also requested an abundance of exterior spaces around the main living and sleeping quarters - each bedroom has a private balcony and a shared balcony. Additionally, each of the spaces on the living level open up onto a large deck and swimming pool.
08 SKETCHING AND DRAWING Mixed Media Art Concepts
36
Italian Sketching Portfolio Sketching and Drawing Abroad During my semester abroad, I took a Sketching and Drawing course, in order to better understand my firsthand experiences. The adjacent images are a selection of sketches I drew during those months.
37
09 PHOTOGRAPHY I started to get into photography toward the end of my sophomore year of college. In photography, you have the ability to shape a view and highlight its most important features, similar to what we do as design professionals in the real world.
38
International Experiences
39
STUDENT PORTFOLIO EMILY WILLIAMS Contact Information:
Email: egwilliams0402@gmail.com Phone: +1 440 488 4600 Website: ewilli54.wixsite.com/portfolio