Urban Design + Architecture Selected Works Portfolio

GENEVIEVE FRANK Architecture + Urban Design Selected Works Portfolio

CONTENTS 4 URBAN DESIGN THESIS Affordable Housing for Millennials 24 U R B A N D E S I G N S T U D I O Aberdeen, Scotland: Collective Urban Path 40 A R C H I T E C T U R E T H E S I S The Human Experience and the Public Realm 52 A D V A N C E D D E S I G N C Cape Coral Downtown Visioning 62 A D V A N C E D D E S I G N B Chicago Cirque du Soleil Headquarters Tampa Symphony Tower 86 A D V A N C E D D E S I G N A Ipswich, England Art Museum

The Modern Art Museum | Tadao Ando |3

Plaza in Charlotte NC

Charlotte, NC AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR MILLENNIALS Urban Design Thesis Fall 2016 This project aims to create affordable housing that is designed to meet the requisites of the millennial generation. Millennials want walkable, bikeable communities that have access to transit and amenities.

In order to make the development affordable, the project will take advantage of brownfield-site funds will cut costs.

Incorporating sustainable infrastructure and elements, such as solar panels, rain gardens and harvesting, hydroponic rooftop farming, and plants for bioremediation will also help make the development more affordable in the long run.

The project will have a variety of housing options, including flexible units, where residents can essentially choose what they are paying for, live-work maker spaces, market rate units, and affordable units.

The project will be zoned as Transit Oriented Development-Mixed Use (TOD-M), and will exceed the minimum density required (212 units). There is no maximum FAR, which shows how the city is trying to encourage transit-oriented development in this area.

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Satellite Image: East/West Boulevard, Charlotte NC

5 Minute Walk 10 Minute Walk

50’ 100’

200’

SCALE BAR 1”=200’

Pedestrian Shed

Commercial High Density Residential Single Family Residential Green/Recreation Civic Industrial

50’ 100’

200’

SCALE BAR 1”=200’

Land Use

Primary Streets

Secondary Streets 50’ 100’

200’

SCALE BAR 1”=200’

Primary and Secondary Streets

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Framework Plan

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West Boulevard Street Section after Pedscape Plan Implementation

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GROUND FLOOR PLAN This graphic shows the ground floor plan. Important programmatic elements include an adaptive reuse neighborhood market, with attached garage door local restaurants, and a plaza for pop-up markets. Millennials want to support local businesses and buy organic, healthy items, so the location of this market is ideal.

Restaurants, retail, and flexible office space will line the main road and incubator spaces will help millennials jumpstart their new businesses and get exposure. Plazas with unique urban seating and a butterfly garden will encourage outdoor events, and the festival street can be blocked off for food truck rallies and festivals. LiveWork Maker Spaces have an artisan gallery at the end of the building that has a storefront overlooking the rail stop.

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UPPER FLOOR PLAN This graphic shows the plan of the site when cut through the upper floor of each building. The main building, called the King Apartments, has a rooftop terrace with a rain garden and rain water harvesting, solar panels, and shade structures. Garden plots line the terrace and are on other sections of the roof. The Queen Apartment Buildng has a hydroponic garden that can feed 200 people annually.

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STRATEGIES FOR AFFORDABLE DESIGN: AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR MILLENNIALS IN CHALROTTE, NC

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Sir Duncan Rice Library | Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

Aberdeen, Scotland COLLECTIVE URBAN PATH: GOLDEN SQUARE Urban Design Studio Summer 2016

Golden Square is located on Union Street, one of the two main arteries leading into the city center. As a public space, this location provides many benefits and is close in proximity to amenities. However, Golden Square lacks the energy and design needed to become a successful public space. The square is currently used as a parking lot and this valuable space should be given back to community for a multi-purpose gathering and event space.

The design goals for Golden Square included an inviting, useable space for all users that has a variety of programmed and un-programmed uses. It should have sufficient green space. It should connect to and be an amenity for the surrounding context, especially the Music Hall. The space could be used as an outdoor venue for the Music Hall, where concerts or cocktail mixers occur. By providing design opportunities for private and public events, Golden Square becomes a positive asset that encourages activities and adjacent redevelopment.

Partner: Yesenia Vega

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SITE Golden Square is located near downtown Aberdeen and north of Union Street, one of the most traveled, commercialized roads in the city. It is in a dense area, but most of the buildings are currently empty. Golden Square has the opportunity to act as a catalyst and revitalize the area.

The graphic to the right shows the commonly traveled routes within the Golden Square area.

Understanding how people travel and walk through the area will help determine the locations where design and interventions would be best.

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ACTIVATION This diagram explores the importance of activating Silver Street, the road connecting Golden Square to Union Street. The street has to be designed in a way that catches the eye of the passerby and encourages them to enter the space. The walls, overhead, and ground conditions should all be activated.

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PERFORMANCE SPACE

HABITABLE GREEN ROOF

TERRACED SEATING

COCKTAIL & EVENING EVENT SPACE

GREEN WALL

STATUE

EXTERIOR PLAN

INDOOR SEATING

BAR CAFE

WC

WC

INTERIOR PLAN

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SECTION A-A East to West

SECTION A-A East to West

SECTION B-B Seating and Green Habitable Wall

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SECTION C-C Pavilion

SECTION C-C Pavilion

SECTION E-E Cafe and Performance

SECTION E-E Cafe and Performance

SECTION D-D Entrance

SECTION D-D Entrance

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DAILY ACTIVITY

STREET MARKET

MUSIC HALL EVENT | 37

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Waterfront Park in Seattle

The Human Experience and the Public Realm Architecture Thesis Studio Fall 2015-Spring 2016

This master’s project focuses on interpreting the patterns, spaces, and encounters in cities, how they are perceived, represented, and remembered, and how they can be applied to a site-specific design project.

The research began with the study of what a city is at the urban scale. Simply put, the physical description can be summed up as architecture and all of the spaces in between, and can be applied as the same essential framework for every city. How, then, do cities vary so distinctly when they are comprised of the same building blocks?

The common denominator for the questions that arose is humanity.

People change the city, and experiences change people. It is a simple equation that begins to elude to the depth of this idea. Experiences begin to form the narratives of individuals that begin to define how the city is realized. These experiences occur in the public realm, or life between buildings.

This process illuminates the urban and social phenomena that should affect the way we design spaces. Designed spaces should be monogamous to the city to which they belong; architecture and the spaces in between should consider context, the users, and how people will interact and use the designed space. It is important to approach this idea from an urban scale to understand the lifestyle and the social theory behind why and how people utilize spaces.

How will this process look once applied to successful cities? Can it be applied to cities that do not have an enriched public realm?

This project looked at three large urban areas: the Northeast, consisting of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia; the Southeast, consisting of Charleston, Savannah, and St. Augustine; and the Northwest, consisting of Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. The following pages show the final work done for the Northeast study.

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NORTHEAST: BOSTON, NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA The Northeast is a diverse region. The cities were built in the beginning of American history, many of the structures still stand, and most of the street grids have not been altered. The historic fabric has been woven into the newer, denser, and more modern development occurring within the urban context. Public spaces are cherished and come in wide varieties like parks and plazas, both programmed and unprogrammed.

The cities, for the most part, are built to the human scale and are walkable and bikeable, emphasizing the importance of movement in all forms.

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B O S T O N, M A S S A C H U S E T T S My analysis of Boston began with the abstract representation of the narrative of the city. This model, nested in the historic street grid of Boston, embodies the journey that the critical tourist would experience as they traversed through the variety of public spaces, notably transitional and cultural spaces that exemplify the rich history and growth of Boston.

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Following my city-scale analysis, I felt it would be beneficial to explore the city at the street level. This would emphasize the focus on the human scale, rather than looking at spaces from plan-view. This section cut would take that abstract exploration and begin to show the variety of spaces that the critical tourist or resident would experience when traveling through the city.

The best way to do this was by taking a section cut through a successful public space. Boston Common has been a key anchor to the city since its conception in 1634, making it the oldest city park in the United States.

As the city grew, development around Boston Common was key. Ranging from residential-mixed use on one side to commercial on the other, Boston Common was home to a wide variety of people and uses. It was the ideal threshold, acting as an agglomeration of the 5 types of spaces.

How can we design a space that catalyzes off of the energy produced by Boston Common? The new public space needs to emphasize and enrich the public realm and not detract from the public sphere.

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Final Model

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Section Model

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Waterfront in Boston

Cape Coral, Florida BIMINI BASIN DOWNTOWN MASTER PLAN Advanced Design C/Community Design Studio Spring 2015

Af t e r ac quirin g a large p arc e l o n t he Bim in i B a s i n n ea r do wn t o wn , t he C it y o f Cap e Co ral de c ided t o s eek a n e w m ast e r p lan t hat wo uld c at aly z e de v el o p m en t .

T he m ast e r p lan c re at e s o p p o rt un it ie s f o r t h e C i t y t o de ve lo p a un ique ide n t it y an d se t s p re c ed en ce fo r o t he r F lo rida c it ie s t o c o n st ruc t a c o m p r eh en s i v e urb an f ab ric . T he st udio was divide d in t o g r o u p s t o c o m p le t e t he p ro je c t . “C an al Wo rks� f o c use s o n c o n n e c t in g a s er i es o f dist ric t s t hro ugh p arks, share d st re e t s, m u l t i - m o d a l gre e n way s, an d visual sit e lin e s. An e n ter t a i n m en t dist ric t in c o rp o rat e s a live - wo rk- p lay lif e st y le a t t r a ct i n g y o ut h wit h walkab le st re e t s an d de st in a t i o n s . Tw o m arin as p ro vide b o at in g ac c e ss t o t he b o t a n i ca l garde n s, c af e s, m o vie t he at e r, o f f ic e s, a n d o t h er am e n it ie s. A varie t y o f m ult i- f am ily ho usin g t y p es w i l l in c re ase de n sit y an d at t rac t a varie t y o f a g e r a n g es .

Walkab ilit y is e n c o urage d t hro ug h wide s i d ew a l k s , shade t re e s, an d sm alle r b lo c ks.

Par tne r s : Jo s h Fr ank, Jo e Cai az z a, K ayl a B ake r, Yu ki Wa ng

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MASTER PLAN Canal Works is a plan that focuses on what the entire city of Cape Coral has in common: 400 miles of canals. By connecting the Bimini Basin to the Rubicon Canal, more residents will be able to access this downtown area by boat. Sidewalks and park spaces will be created to connect the districts and encourage pedestrian use. This master plan will revitalize the downtown area by providing economic incentive and creating a 24/7 lifestyle. The three districts within the new downtown of Cape Coral will have a unique identity at the small scale, but also function within the larger scale by feeding off the connections and energy created. Most of the storefronts and retail are located on the “A� streets, which also require them to be lined with street trees for comfort and aesthetics. Cape Coral Parkway, which is currently used as a thoroughfare, will have slower traffic speeds and more stop lights to allow for safe pedestrian crossings. Linear parks will provide a safe refuge for pedestrians and also serve as a way to connect the districts. A variety of housing will be incorporated to offset the single-family housing currently offered. A museum, movie theater, bowling alley, marina, and local restaurants and businesses will thrive in the new plan.

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Overall Model

BIMINI HEIGHTS Bimini Heights will be the new, multi-family residential core. Located north of the Cape Coral Parkway, this district supplies higher-density living for those wishing to live in an urban environment. The residences frame a large park that provides a view and a place for neighborhood engagement and recreational activities.

The lawn is divided by a linear park that provides a view corridor to the observation tower. Amenities are supplied for the residents along this green belt that encourage social interactions and activities. The inclusion of a gym and wellness center promotes a healthy lifestyle, a farmer’s market supports local businessmen, and the library offers a quiet place from respite and gathering.

BASIN EAST Basin East will be the ultimate combination of a livework-play lifestyle. The Basin East district will be the center of Cape Coral’s entertainment lifestyle, with restaurants, bars, retail, offices, and museums. All of these services will be stitched together with mixeduse buildings and connected through parks, shared streets, multi-modal greenways, and pedestrian alleyways. Basin East will be known as the hip cultural center of Cape Coral that will attract visitors from around the region.

THE ROSE DISTRICT The Rose District will be the main commercial strip with a “main street” feel that provides a simple threshold between the active urban core and the quiet single family neighborhoods. The Rose District runs along the neighborhood corridor and will have increased density with 2-3 story buildings that house restaurants, local offices, and other amenities for residents. The Rose District is directly connected to Canal Works and the marina, boardwalk, arboretum, and botanical gardens.

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SECTION STUDIES

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Section Model showing the tiered boardwalk

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Poetry Foundation | John Ronan Architects

Chicago, Illinois CIRQUE DU SOLEIL HEADQUARTERS Advanced Design B Summer 2014

The proposed site is located in Chicago, Illinois, several blocks south of Navy Pier. Three of the site borders are Lake Michigan, while the western edge backs up to the interstate.

The project chosen for this site is the Cirque du Soleil Headquarters. Cirque du Soleil is a large theatrical company that focuses on the performance art of acrobatics.

The headquarters would include 6 performance spaces, practice spaces, living quarters for entertainers, and office space.

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SITE AND CONCEPT The project is located on an ideal site along Lake Michigan with uninterrupted views of the pier, the lake, and the rest of the city skyline. The project will have to address the interstate running to the west and how will limit access to the site.

The initial inspiration for the project was the idea of Cirque Du Soleil performers interacting with one another; how they touch, how they connect, and the resulting shapes they form. The parti to the right layered images of performers with the city grid.

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SECTION STUDY The original section study overlayed a map of the greater Chicago area, a smaller street grid of the local traffic, and a form that Cirque du Soleil acrobats create during the performance. This initial study provided the proportions and the concepts for the type of spatial qualities that would be created in the tower.

The performance spaces would be located in the center of the tower and would punch through the screen condition that lines the tower. These boxes would provide emphasis on the performance spaces and create a hierarchy within the tower.

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Ground floor

FLOOR PLANS The first foor plan shows the layout of the ground floor, with circulation in the center. Reception, meeting rooms, and common areas make up the bulk of the program.

The second plan is Level 15, where one of the main performance halls is located.

Level 15

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Final Model

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New York Times Building | Renzo Piano

Ta m p a , F l o r i d a SYMPHONY TOWER Advanced Design B Summer 2014

The intent of this project was to create an intervention that would inform and react to the downtown core of the city of Tampa.

Three art museums along with several performance venues form a fledgling Art District along the Riverfront. A space focused on the art, production, and performance of music will complement and enrich the downtown while providing another attraction to bring people to the heart of the city. Titled Symphony Tower, this project creates a visual connection to adjacent buildings in the Art District. This intervention consists of three performance halls, practice studios, classrooms, residences for fellowships, library of music, and museum exhibit space.

Symphony Tower vignette models focus on specific moments within the building and the types of spatial conditions that are created.

The first model (1) depicts one of the overlook views, where a cut-out occurs in the skin condition creating a constructed view of the downtown area. The second model (2) shows the layering of the private studios in the core of the building. The third model (3) shows the upper level of the concert hall expressing how people will view the performance hall before entering. The final vignette model combines three significant moments within the tower into one abstract structure, emphasizing important moments in the building.

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Vignette Model of screen system

Vignette model of auditorium catwalk

Vignette model of public and private studios | 75

Final Vignette Model | 77

FLOOR PLANS These floor plans show the ground floor level on both sites. The main parcel, at 400 square feet, houses the 30-story tower. The ground floor is designed to be very permeable and open, with triple high ceilings and overlooks on the second and third floors. A conference room and a few gathering spaces comprise the program on the first floor.

Across the street, the main concert hall plan takes up half of the block. The hall can seat over 500 people on the main level. The stage faces Curtis Hixon Park, and the design provides the opportunity for the walls to open up for a concert on the park.

A primary goal of the design was to create an artistic environment that was inviting for any resident or visitor passing by. The spaces created were meant to be used by not only the residents of the hall, but by anyone in the city.

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Tampa Street

Process Models

Final Model | 81

SECTION STUDY The program for the project relies heavily on the studio and performance spaces. These spaces, primarily located on the lower levels, are designed to encourage people meandering through downtown to visit the building and experience the music.

The private studo spaces have a balcony overhead to allow visitors to listen in without distracting the musicians.

The main concert hall, located in the adjacent parcel to the main tower, is connected at the second story by a pedestrian bridge. The main seating slopes down from the second story and can seat several hundred concertgoers.

The base of the building is very open and permeable to allow the sound of music to flow in and out. The courtyard has a variety of public and private spaces for impromptu concerts or lessons to occur. This allows the building to blend seamlessly with the surrounding context.

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Ipswich, U K MUSEUM OF ART Advanced Design A Spring 2014

The proposal is an art museum in Ipswich, England, for sculpture, carpentry, and electronic mediums. In addition to gallery spaces, the program includes classrooms, auditorium, cafe, and offices.

The site has a steep grade that requires special attention when designing how the building meets the ground. An intimate courtyard separates the first gallery from the main entrance and offers a moment of quiet respite. Inside the main builng, the western portion is dedicated to offices and classrooms.

The cantilever is a linear gallery space for sculpture exhibits. Diffused light enters the space through a layered screen around the perimeter of the cantilever. Skylights are cut into the ceiling and louvers deflect the direct sunlight, protecting the artwork while creating a unique daylighting condition for the space.

Kimbell Art Museum Expansion| Renzo Piano | 87

SITE Ipswich,

England is a town located 2 hours

northeast of London. The proposed site is currently home to an empty parking lot and a vacant technology center building.

Downtown Ipswich is 2 blocks south of the site, with a large plaza that serves as a gathering space for markets and other events. The site has an ideal location to serve as a liaison between the residential districts to the north and the business and social centers to the south.

A large park is located to the northeast and is used as a shortcut by many residents. Because of this, the site will be approached from the north, although the main entrance will be located on the south side.

The intervention will have to address the steep slope of the site.

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SECTION STUDIES The site has a very steep grade that requires special attention when designing how the intervention touches the ground. This section study analyzes how the project will fit into the site and the spatial relationship it will create.

The building will not simply sit on the site; instead, it will dig into the ground to create more levels in the site. The cantilever will provide a strong access that runs parallel to the ground and houses many of the exhibits. The classrooms and offices will be located in the secondary access that fluctuates above and below ground.

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SECTION STUDY This section model is cut north-south through the site and shows how pedestrian traffic would approach the museum from the southern edge and enter underneath the cantilever. The first building is the entrance gallery that includes the ticket office, backpack lockers, and information about the museum. An intimate courtyard separates the first gallery from the main entrance and offers a moment of quiet respite. Inside the main building, the western portion is dedicated to offices and classrooms.

The cantilever is dedicated entirely to the sculpture art exhibit. Diffused light is allowed into the space through the layered screen around the perimeter of the cantilever. Skylights are cut into the ceiling and movable louvers deflect the direct sunlight, protecting the artwork and creating a unique lighting condition for the space.

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“Architecture and urban design, both in their formal and spatial aspects, are seen as fundamentally configurational in that the way the parts are put together to form the whole is more important than any of the parts taken in isolation.�

-Bill Hillier, Space is the Machine: A Configurational Theory of Architecture

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