Preserve R e u s e Revitalize
Preserve, Reuse, Revitalize by Jelena Leviceva
Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
Professor Jim Jones Thesis advisor
June 12, 2017 | Blacksburg, Virginia
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This book signifies the end of my five-year-long studies towards getting a bachelor’s degree in architecture at Virginia Tech. I would like to express my gratitude to people, whose support during this journey I deeply appreciate. Most importantly, I would like to thank my parents and my sisters for their unconditional love and support; for their belief in me and my abilities; for my mom’s caring personlaity and my dad’s cheerfulness. I would like to mention and express my appreciation to my studio professors: Marie Paget was patient and kind with me as an international freshman, who struggled both with studio assignments and English language; Heiner Schnoedt was strict, funny, inspiring, and always available - be it to answer a project-related question or, when I shared my thoughts about switching from architecture, to convince me that I am talented and as capable as everyone else; Elizabeth Grant, whose passion for architecture and learning new things about it was very contagious, and inspired me to work and study more. Without my thesis advisor, Jim Jones, I would not be able to learn about me as an architect so much: he guided me through my explorations for this thesis, but also gave me enough freedom to do what I enjoyed doing. He had an ability to make me believe in my work, and focus on the important things. To W: you have been the most caring and the most supportive; you have been the voice of reason and the pillar of my confidence; you have been there for me no matter what. Thank you for your time, patience, love, jokes, wisdom and everything else. And to Kate: thank you for your friendship, for your open mind, and your passion for learning. I am lucky to have such a kind and inspiring friend.
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After spending some time away from home or favorite city, coming back and walking around it yet again might not always be easy. Even though you might remember every turn and every building on the streets that you have walked on so many times before, the urban image that you keep in your mind might not match the present one. The image of your city changes. Constantly. You notice parking garages, office and residenial buildings, stores, cafes, etc. popping up here and there - they are creating inconsistencies with the memories of the city you treasure so much. In the modern world, the unstoppable and increasing change of urban fabric seems to become a norm. Yet, there are things that are constant and stay the same, or, almost the same. Among monuments and historical architectural treasures, humble small residential buildings, abandoned schools, obsolete warehouses, etc. retain the warmth of familiarity and friendliness. They are the physical bridge between the generations of cities’ residents and visitors, they are the pillars of the urban fabric, the qualities of which helped them to keep their place through time. As architects, we have become increasingly aware of the importance of preserving not only prominent buildings, but also the humble ones. We rehabilitate schools, reuse warehouses and factories, and revitalize whole districts by doing so. Such projects are often challenging and pose a set of limitations, but, in the end, are very rewarding: it is through such projects that we uncover the plasticity of architecture; we cross and connect borders between the past and the present, the old and the new, the familiar and the uncomfortably intriguing. The purpose of street block in tle by learning tecture in, and
this project is to reimagine an abandoned South Lake Union neigbourhood in Seatabout its history, weaving the new archipreserving its identity at the same time.
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To preserve the site’s identity, I had to first find out what it was. My reserach began with the map of the South Lake Union neighbourhood. The most important characteristics of the neighbourhood are obvious here: the site is located between the business and residential areas; it is not far from the Space Needle (West), Seattle’s downtown (South), lake Union (North), and residential Capitol Hill (East); it is also close, but not too close for it to be a problem, to an I-5 high way. The change in the street grid in downtown, too, contributes to the character of the neighbourhood.
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The site is located close to a developing district: there are a couple of buildings under construction - business and residential , as well as newly developed Amazon campus. This means that the area is visited by people different age at day, but is also alive at night. A bus line also helps to connect South Lake Union to downtown, Seattle University, etc.
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A study of the relationship between the old and the new buildings in the neighbourhood. Elevation of the streets that form the street block.
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Learning about the existing Seattle Times (ST) building on the site was one of the most important elements of the site exploration. The office wing was designed in Art Deco and Neoclassical style by a Seattle-based architect Robert C. Reamer and was completed in 1931. It was the first building on the site and featured beatiful geomertical and floral ornamentation on iron grills and limestone panels. This office wing set the tone for the rest Seattle Times building’s additions, and was declared a historic Seattle landmark in 1996. Through the graphite drawing of the office wing I studied the rhythm of the whole building and its elaborate details. The original blueprints of the buildings that I received from the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, helped me to understand the building’s structure, its column grid, etc., and to discover the mezzanine level (which is not obvious from the outside).
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As I was preparing to write my thesis book, I did an extensive research to better understand and imagine preservation and adaprive reuse in architecture. The books that inspired this project include: “Small scale, big change“, A. Lepik; “Architecture as space“, B. Zevi; “Architecture reborn“, K. Powell; “The adaptive reuse process“, Kenney... Norman Foster’s Carre d’Art and Carlo Scarpa’s Castelvecchio together with some other projects were among the most inspiring examples of architectural repurpose.
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To preserve the identity of the Seattle Times building, as a place, where creative minds used to come to work together, the program for my project would be a cultural hub for a community, where artists, scultpurs, musicians, etc. could work, live, present their art and meet new people. The project would require an apartment building, a studio building and exhibition and performance space. The ST would become a winter garden and a cafe/bar. My design started with massing. I set clear objectives for the way my building would relate to its neighbourhood: it would offer a good amount of public space, expose the work of artists on every side of the street block, form a sheltered courtyard closer to the Amazon campus, be open to pedestrians, and mimic the diagonal grid of the Seattle downtown.
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As I explored possible ways of organizing the building’s program and volumes, I found the one that worked the best. Here, the sloped character of the site provides an opportunity to create a two-storey high space, with a roof that serves as an outdoor public garden on the same level as the main entrance. The mentioned two-storey high space at the lower part of the site provides various-sized studios for artists (S, M, L) stacked in two floors, open space for collaboration and rentable studios on the East side. The two floors of studios are connected by a long ramp that, as I later redesigned, runs across the collaboration space. On top of the work volume, the exhibition gallery is accessible for public and provides the main entrance to the building. It also serves as a connection to the volume with studios underneath - from here visitors can observe the artists’ process. I call this volume the Bridge. It also holds more studios on the second floor. On the same floor, which I treat as the ground floor, there is a performance pavillion. Lastly, the apartment building sits on top of the Bridge.
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Creating an attractive facade for the apartment building became an important part of the project. I started with the design A as a “sketch�, where I tried to communicate what I wanted the facade to be. It looked very ordinary and conventional, so decided to study the most common ways that architects use to make their building’s facades more dynamic. As I thought that designs C (operable shading panels) and D (colored facade elements) were too chaotic, I saw that the design B offered dynamic as well as pleasant look. As a sun protection, curtains would be available in each unit - they allow the facade to look more organized, and at the same time add coziness to the apartments.
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C A
B D
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This trio of perspectives on floor plans show as each of them has the next floors stripped away, except for the original ST building. The perspectives also expose the structural grid and its rotation under the apartment building. The underground level holds a parking garage, studios, open collaboration space, studios for rent, and an outside public space.
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Ground level offers a mezzanine with smaller studios that sits on top of the bigger studios, and the Bridge - an exhibition space that lets visitors peak inside the work space as it is partially lowered in the work volume. A public garden and a performance pavillion point to the main entrance of the Bridge.
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This last perspective shows how every part of the design comes together and offers a variety of public and private spaces inside and outside.
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The site plan demonstrates the project’s dedication to providing a flexible outdoor public space, which is about 50% of the project’s area. It is also noticeable how some of the buildings on the site deviate from the grid established by the ST building to mimic the grid of the downtown.
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These sections demonstrate availability of different spaces throughout the project. For the apartment building, there are a couple of atrium-like spaces that are aimed at creating a sense of community between two floors. It is also noticeable that the apartments are offered in various types, as fullheight lofts or medium-height lofts, for example, to accomodate different people. The height of the Bridge is aligned with the original Seattle Tmes building, and is divided in two different spaces. The division between live and work spaces is even more noticeable here, as one can see that the Bridge and the underground level do not share anything but the huge timber columns with the apartment building.
North-South section looking East. West-East section looking South.
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These two plans are of the undeground level and the mezzanine level show more in detail how the studios can be used by the artists, and the dynamical structural grid that supports the apartment building, the roof of the underground level and the Bridge.
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The plan of the Bridge and of the Seattle Times’s first floor demonstrate how they relate to each other and to the site.
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The exploded axonometric section and the 2-D section both demonstrate the organization of spaces and the structural system on the underground floor. It is also worth mentioning that the studio windows exposed to the South sunlight are frosted. On the mezzanine level, together with the second layer of glass, these windows create a beautifully dispersed light. On the underground level, the light bounces off of the walls to reach deeper into the L studios without glance.
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L Studio rendering demonstrates how one of the bigger studios can accomodate storage and working requirements of an artists who works with ceramics.
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M Studio rendering demonstrates how a medium-sized studio can be used by an artist, who works with various media but does not require a lot of spcae.
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Another L Studio rendering demonstrates how one a bigger studio can accomodate storage and working requirements of an artist, who works with big scale paintings.
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S Studio rendering demonstrates how it can accomodate storage and working requirements of a writer.
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Floor 8
Loft Floor 2.5
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Floor 2
Floor 5
Loft Floor 4.5
Floor 4
The apartmnet building was designed in a way that it would stimulate the residents to build a community and share their art with each other. At the same time, each floor offers versatile apartments that would satisfy requirements for the size and price of anyone.
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These renderings offer views at a community space on two different floors in the apartment building.
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The Seattle Times office wing is repurposed and reused. The new program of this building follows the idea of the project, which is to create a community hub. The building becomes a winter garden and a cafe/bar. The second floor of the building is partially removed to accomodate the trees, and the roof is replaced by a more leightweight wooden roof with some glazing. The roof of the cafe/bar becomes the focal point of the building, and signals that although from the South it looks the same, it is different on the inside and on the North side.
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Connect the old and the new