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ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO a u b u r n
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BOSTON HOUSING fall 2007 studio COOK boston, MA finalist
to focus on the nature of the city and the condition of architecture as it occurs in the city. to learn how context affects design decisions. to gain an understanding of the consequences of important site conditions and influences on building form. to study building skin and public space, human scale and urban scale.
what reads as housing and what reads as retail. hanover house is easily identified through the context of balconies and scale. i studied the idea of a tower as a crucial piece to the context of downtown and importance of the site. the plans are devised in a way so that there are six one bedroom units, nine studio units, and five two bedroom units. the plan is simply organized with the mirroring of unit plans to create the building skin. everyone has access to a roof garden to give emphasis to the tower piece. this site is located in Boston’s historic North End alongside I-93. in front of our site is the big dig, a project placing the interstate underground to create green space above that connects back with the city.
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MEDITATION HALL AND BATH HOUSE spring 2008 studio VAUGHAN auburn, AL
two distinct activities that have relation with the human experience. the act of mediation has connection with the mind, the act of bathing has connection with the body. the joining of these two activities forms my proposal.
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one action associated with both meditation and bathing is the act of screening. i use tall and slender concrete pieces to help establish this act as well as to strengthen the grid upon which i designed. this act is repeated throughout the building with skylights and curtain walls around the baths, and is ultimately extended into the meditation garden space.
p a r t i : p r o g r a m
p a r t i : c i r c u l a t i o n
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CENTER FOR DANCE spring 2006 studio JACKSON tuskegee, AL honorable mention
to design a center for dance and the arts at Tuskegee University keeping the material of wood in mind. dance! inspired motion, in sync with ground and sky, with horizon and slope. the idea that dance is seen in four different perspectives at the same time, that dance can be connected with coreographed movement and spontaneous feeling. a center for dance, for this is what inspires me.
ICONIC: NIGHT CLUB fall 2006 studio BURLESON alexander city, AL
the object of this project was to learn and develop the skills necessary for going through the process of a very conceptual design. we took literal trash models and developed what was known as “the baby,” the beginnings of our concept. we developed “the baby” into “the teenager” to give our concept structure. “the teenager” was then transformed into becoming “the adult,” the finished result.
this studio was about developing an iconic structure and then trying to find the appropriate program to use. each of the students were allowed to pick their own program and site. i chose to develop a night club overlooking Lake Martin in Alexander City, AL.
OPELIKA LIBRARY spring 2007 studio GARMAZ opelika, AL
to develop a library for the city of Opelika located downtown in an area where redevelopment will play key to the city’s future growth with the material of concrete in mind. the site was dead so it was crucial to create a space and place that would welcome people and help regenerate life back into downtown Opelika.
i used the concept of light as a tool for helping regenerate what is lost in downtown Opelika. i created what i call “light stacks” that are situated in between normal stacks that give off light and extend up and puncture the roof. the “light stacks” have proportions of normal stacks and help distinguish between the childrens area and adults area of the library. i also incorporated what i feel is a giant light stack that i intended to relate to the city just as the light stacks relate to the library.
SECOND YEAR fall 2006 studio FAUST spring 2006 studio JACKSON
to learn about superimposition as a method to design development as well as to create a space meaningful to an individual both functionally and aesthetically.
ROMA spring 2008
i spent two weeks in Rome, Italy with a group of architecture, landscape architecture, and community planning students. these are a collection of sketches and pictures i took on my trip.
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SKETCH AND DRAW
a series of sketches and drawings i have either created or mimicked. some have architectural significance, while others are avocations. this is to simply show my enjoyment and passion with what i do.
URBAN STUDIO
fall 2008 studio MORGAN birmingham, AL
urban studio is a special program offered by Auburn University for which you must apply and be accepted. located in downtown Birmingham, the urban studio is a wonderful place to really engage in real life situations while learning and experiencing the urban side of design and planning. there are two main focuses, one being the small town design initiative and the second being a fifth-year thesis project.
the fall semester dealt with the small town design initiative. we as a studio spent 8 weeks designing a final revitalization plan for small communities in Alabama. the communities involoved were west anniston, AL and cullman, AL. the studio had to present at town hall meetings and gather ideas by visiting the communities. i spent a majority of my time working with west anniston and coming up with proposals for a revitalization of their community.
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all work done in the fall is a group effort and decisions are made in a collaborative process. these drawings were my primary focus during the project. there was a need to restore the heart of the community. as of now, there is a housing authority project located in the negiborhood center. my goal was to revitalize this central piece and restore it to a level that would prove to be a vital influence to the redevelopment of the community.
we also had the opportunity to work in the city of cullman, alabama. our goal was to enhance the urban fabric through the revitilazation of cullman’s downtown facade. we wanted to bring ideas in that would bring people back into the urban setting. each studio member was given a select number of street of which they had to document, draw, and find opportunites for new uses.
part of the advantage of the urban studio is the fact that you get to live in a city context and take advantage of what the city has to offer. documentation plays a key role in everything you do.
URBAN STUDIO THESIS cultural furnace spring 2009 studio SEGREST birmingham, AL
to study the urban context. to create a catalyst for downtown birmingham that will allow for an appropriate urban setting. to design for the culmination of community and culture. my thesis focused on drawing from context in every aspect to form my proposal.
it is crucial to understand context when working within an urban setting. this project became about recognizing opportunity to engage that context. birmingham, shifted on a 30 degree axis from true north, is introducing a new railroad reservation park that will take up 4 city blocks. our site anchors the eastern end to the park and instead of allowing the park to end at our site, my project became about allowing our site to become that “switch� that would allow the park to continue eastward to connect back to more important historical features of the city. new development and green space became very important.
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our site is an adaptive reuse / mixed use project that takes up one city block. the north end of our site has an old steam plant building that is still active today. the south end of our site is a parking lot. these two zones are divided by a street that will eventually become a pathway to a pedestrian entry into birminghams largest park that lies adjacent on the western end of our site.
i used the concept of railroad switches to help form a solution. adjacent to the north end of our site is an active railroad that divides birmingham into two zones, the north and south side. that rail line runs east | west through the city and connects the new park with the hisorical sloss furnaces, an old structure extremely unique to birmingham. right now, this connection from a pedestrian standpoint is non-existent. my idea of a cultural furnace is to re-establish this connection.
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urban studio classrooms, studios, administration, library, lecture hall, gallery, crit, workrooms, public meeting retail restaurant, art supply, spec., bar housing student and faculty units lobby space, laundry, community, mail, circulation museum gallery, storage, security, offices, lobby, library, sculpture garden misc. parking. service, circulation, mech.
my design incorporates a lightbox situated between the existing building and the new contemporary design of the south side to the site. this lightbox is an expression of an underground gallery and switch that can be seen at the farthest entry to the park 4 city blcoks away that connects the museum funtction of the existing building witth the new musuem construction shown in section. a deconstruction of the existing building occurs at our sites western edge to emphasize entry and respond to context as well conceptually to my ideas.
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the north end relates back to the more historic buildings of sloss furnace with the iconic smokestacks. it has a very industrial feel that relates to the railroad. the south side of our site contains a more contemporary feel which relates to the design of the new railroad park. the trick becomes relating these two styles together to form something that doesnt act independently, but rather becomes something that is seen as part of a whole, which is birmingham.