PORTFOLIO ARCHITECTURE
ROBERT GROOMS
UNDERGRADUATE
REPAIRING BALTIMORE’S BROKEN CHARM A PLACE TO LIVE AND WORK INSTITUTE FOR MATERIAL RESEARCH MINI BRIDGE MEGA CONNECTOR GRADUATE PIGMENTAL STUDIOS
Robert Grooms University of Virginia | 2009-2013 University of Maryland | 2015-2017
Repairing Baltimore’s Broken Charm ARCH 3020 | Spring 2012 | 12 weeks | Baltimore, MD Instructors: Lucia Phinney & Schaeffer Somers Digital media
By examining the Reservoir Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, I was tasked to create a program that would combat issues of vacancy, low-employment rates, and disinvestment within the area. I focused specifically on the existing community green spaces; as well as the alleyways as a secondary network of transportation that would bring the residents to a central location. This space will start to act as the central hub location of the community that will become the principal gathering space and training ground for numerous green collar jobs that will be required to maintain the many parks and green spaces within the neighborhood.
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1. 4.
THE ALLEYWAY AS A CONDUIT
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3. 1.
Ground Level
Section A-A
Second Level
A Place To Live and Work
ARCH 4010 | Fall 2012 | 12 weeks | Charlottesville, VA Instructor: W.G. Clark Digital and Hand-crafted media
There are encouraging trends related to houses in this country. One is that people have started returning to cities. The suburbs are for both infrastructure and travel and can not offer the vitality and sense of community that urban settlement can. Another trend is that people are beginning to work at home instead of commuting. This invites new ways of thinking about dwelings and how it may be intergraded with work and creation.
Fourth Floor
Fifth Floor
Roof Terrace
Ground Floor
Second Floor
Third Floor
STREET VIEW OF WORKSPACE/GALLERY
Situated within the context of downtown Charlottesville, Virginia my project called for a house that intergrates the privacy of living spaces with the public spectical of glass blowing. I wanted to make the art of glass blowing visual to the public while still connecting the public studio spaces to the private living spaces above through the use of two kilns that act as a center piece for the house visually and are very essential to the work of a glass blower.
ALLEY VIEW OF PRIVATE ENTRANCE
WINDS OF FORTUNE
INSTITUTE FOR MATERIAL
RESEARCH ARCH 4020 | Spring 2013 | 12 weeks | Charlottesville, VA Instructor: Shiqiao Li Digital and Hand-crafted media material
The Institute for Material Research: This project aims to work simultaneously with three possibilities: economic, experience, and art. Programmatically, it contains a goods workshop, a school of craft, farmers market, and a residential artist studio. By merging all three into one single entity, this institute aims to demonstrate “a full potential of materials” and to advance a “new economic life.”
Ground Floor
Second Floor
INSTITUTE FOR MATERIAL
RESEARCH
Installation of artistic and economic possibilities
Wind is the bulk movement of air, a material that is often unseen but always felt. The Wind Wall attempts to make what is not visible, visible and to give form to the formless. The Wind Wall is filled with micro-turbines that generate energy with each revolution. The production of energy by the micro-turbines becomes a process that is visible and experienced by all that inhabit the spaces within the wall. As the ‘shadow of the wind’ blows across the wall the production of energy by the turbines becomes a process that is poetic and visible relating wind as a material to its economic possibilities, and its artistic potentials.
Plan View
Aerodynamic Study of a tear drop Section View
Ground level within the Wind Wall
Farmers Market view of the Wind Wall
The micro-turbines situated within the Wind Wall are light, compact, and are capable of generating power with speeds as low as 2 m/sec. On average with a wind speed of 5 m/sec the micro-turbine can produce 131 kWh/yr
Wind
Micro-Turbines
Vertical Axis Rotor
Education Center
Mini Bridge | Mega Connector Belmont Bridge Competition | Spring 2012 | 2 weeks | Charlottesville, VA Group Project Digital media
Mega Connector redefines the Belmont Bridge as not just a physical structure, but a structure for change, expanding the Downtown Mall and establishing a new gateway to the city. The design anticipates a larger urban strategy, intervening as a catalyst for growth, civic participation, and forming new identities for Charlottesville. Mega Connector will forge connections on multiple scales, including Charlottesville’s connection to the greater region and its past. My role within the group specifically entailed investigating strategies that would reconnect the train station to downtown Charlottesville as well as our proposed design for the bridge. I was also one of the team members that were responsible for putting together the final drawings to be presented on our board at the presentation.
Pigmental Studios ARCH 600 | Fall 2015 | 12 weeks | Washington D.C. Instructor: Garth Rockcastle Digital Media
Located along the Georgetown waterfront in Washington DC, this project seeks to create a comprehensive design that is innovative, educational, and one that embodies the imagination of an animation film company such as Pigmental Studios. Situated in between an elevated freeway to the south, and the C&O canal to the north the building is lifted to the elevation of the freeway in order to allow a visual and accessible connection to the waterfront. The buildings is supported by an unconventional structural system that allows light to penetrate through to the collaborative design spaces, while exposing the building systems that are typically hidden from the view of the building users.
Family of Support Lift
Split
The building is held up by 5 support systems that work together as a Family of Support tied into a conventional steel box structure that houses the many program requirements that do not require a lot of natural light. Aside from carrying the structural load of the building, the Family of Support system also houses the mechanical systems along with the vertical circulation and egress requirements for the building.
Puncture
High Performance Envelope
South Elevation
Innovative Sustainable Mechanical System
Unconventional Structural Support
Canal Entrance
North Elevation
Collaborative Workspaces
Ground Floor
Program Analysis Fourth Floor
Creative Design Spaces
Integrated Common Area
Third Floor
Graphics/Support
Exhibition/Community Spaces Second Floor
Production
Loading/Mechanical
Mezzanine
Innovation
Comprehensive
Sustainable
Animated