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Four Studio Design Projects
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Two Design/ Build Projects
ontents
Wood Construction Typ. Wall Section
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Cataclysmic Emergence Fall 2011 Design Studio Project
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Center for Regenerative Studies Spring 2011 Design Studio Project
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Miami Municipal Courthouse Fall 2009 Design Studio Project
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Meridian Street Facade Development Spring 2008 Design Studio Project
MCM Tot Spot
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ecoREHAB
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Colorado Art Barn
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Physical Models
Cataclysmic Emergence In 2008, the Detroit Department of Transportation proposed a 9.3-mile light rail transit system on Woodward Avenue from the downtown business district to the Fairgrounds at 8 Mile. On August 31st, 2011, the Federal Transit Administration declared the $528 million project to satisfy the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. The Woodward corridor is merely surviving while the neighborhoods to the east and west are experiencing high levels of abandonment.
Diagrams
In order to allow the residents from multiple neighborhoods of Detroit to interact and begin to develop a solidified identity, a transit system must be incorporated that connects such failing communities. This light rail system can begin to have large stations in neighborhoods that provide space for citizens from all across the city to sell goods and ideas and, in turn, create a montage of micro-businesses. It is the hope that the success of these micro-businesses could then reinvest in the city and be a catalyst for redevelopment.
rail system servicing neighborhoods on the east and west-sides of Woodward Avenue. In a similar fashion, the design acknowledges the abundant vacancy throughout the city and aims to repurpose the blight. This vacant land endures compression, extrusion, and bifurcation intertwined with the programming in order to preserve a glimpse of the hardships that have fallen on the neighborhood.
Plans
The undulation of the berm surfaces allows for the opportunity to manipulate compression and expansion experiences throughout the building. At instances of translational importance, such as the movement between the levels of the building, the berm surface is manipulated so as to reduce clearance height and instill a feeling of compression. This concept is further continued with the expansion from the lower level into the recessed courtyard on the south-eastern edge of the site.
On the perimeter of existing abandoned neighborhoods in Detroit, the automotive industry has formed berms to camouflage its surrounding context. This language has now made its way into these deteriorating neighborhoods to serve a different purpose—a catalyst for re-growth and the generation of a community identity. The forms emerge from the site to create spaces in which programming is infused. It is the nature of the programming, in conjunction with the language generated from the contextual conditions, which fosters an environment in which the community can begin to thrive. To signify a break from the historic past of Detroit, Michigan, Willis Street, the thoroughfare to the north-east of the site, has been removed and replaced with a light02
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CRS
Center for Regenerative Studies Each building utilizes strategies to reduce energy demands across the entire site. Evaporative cooling towers located in each building assist in reducing cooling demands in an area that has nearly 28,000 CDD. In order to provide a cooling rate of approximately 40 BTUH/sf, the cooling towers were designed at a height between 30 and 40 feet and an inlet opening of roughly 6% of the floor area. In addition to the evaporative cooling towers, operable windows near the floor and roofline allow for natural ventilation as well as stack ventilation.
The Center for Regenerative Studies of the College of the Seven Spheres is intended to create a recognizable community that is bound to not only reside and work within a regenerative design, but to lead a lifestyle that is sustainable as well.
Each building located on the campus follows a well-developed theme that involves the materiality of its construction, the orientation of its footprint to capture solar radiation, and a structural grid that creates primary and secondary components.
The built environment is designed with a unique collection of pattern’s from Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language to create an identity across the entire campus.
Three activity nodes, one centralized in the residential complex, one centralized in the academia complex, and another situated between the two complexes, create an axis that connects the entire built environment into a single entity.
With approximately 2,500 HDD, the heating demands in the area are greatly less significant. South-facing glazing and high thermal mass within the spaces allow for direct solar heat gain. In order to provide a wide range of comfort across the campus, each building is fitted with a singleduct VAV system capable of providing up to four air changes per hour depending on the occupancy requirement of the space. A small array of PVs create energy to offset the demand. This addition of PVs assists in offsetting the energy demands that can not by handled with the passive environmental systems.
• Activity Nodes • Work Community • House Cluster • Accessible Green, etc. These patterns are woven into the natural environment as well to take advantage of the topography present in the Redding, California area.
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The components were organized vertically in order to allow users of different heights to easily access the panels. In addition, the slats on the doors were stained in a specific pattern to allow the toddlers to match the colors vertically.
Muncie Children’s Museum
TOT SPOT During a five week workshop, a team of five students, including myself, designed and constructed a portion of the Tot Spot area for the Muncie Children’s Museum. In need of a constructive play area, the team decided to draw inspiration from the East Central Indiana region to provide a farm stand with an adjacent garden plot. Over the course of the workshop, the team continuously presented material to the client and was required to construct fullscale mock-ups to gain insight into how the design would be approached by toddlers. To streamline the process, each member of the group obtained a title and a focus area for the project. Kelly Goffiney: Photographer Ben Greenberg: Communicator Paul Reynolds: Digital Modeler Brian Watson: Foreman
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With the most construction experience of the group, I was nominated as the materials expert for the design and construction of the Funcie Farm Stand. In addition to selecting appropriate materials for the build, I focus on the construction details to ensure user safety.
The garden plot adjacent to the farm stand provides opportunities for all types of development. After laminating two pieces of rigid insulation, the undulating pattern and overall shape was milled using a CNC router. Holes of varying diameters were then located on the crests of the pattern to house the bases for the interchangeable components. A group of components was created for each season and each season contained three different pieces, each color and size-coded for correct placement in the garden. These components, along with mirrors in the shape of flowers and butterflies, were cut using a laser cutter to ensure precise fitting. The mirror objects were later placed on the picket fence located behind the garden plot.
Funcie Farm Stand, the constructive play area for the Tot Spot installation, consisted of three distinct areas. These three areas incorporated physical, behavioral, social and cognitive development opportunities for toddlers.
The final area in the Funcie Farm Stand constructive play area was the construction corner. The construction corner provided a work bench with several purchased toys. This area was strategically placed on the side of the stand in order to reduce the possibility of blocking the flow of movement throughout the Tot Spot installation.
The main building provided space for toddlers to engage in role play with a farm stand full of vegetables and fruits. In addition, the main building also incorporated a component for motor skill development. A manipulatable wall with three sliding components was constructed on the back wall of the building.
Finally, in order to provide a distinct boundary to the constructive play area, the carpet tiles were cut in a pattern that mimicked the free-flowing nature of the garden plot. The change in color scheme allows the pattern to continue across the entire floor while establishing the necessary boundary.
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Early during the immersive studio, we discovered a serious structural issue with the foundation of the house. At some point after construction, a previous owner had decided to partially excavate one of the bays in the basement. This decision resulted in jeopardizing the structural integrity of the foundation. Without spread footings, the ground below the foundation wall was eroding away. In order to remedy the condition, I suggested that we compact and terrace the grade back to the wall. The terracing was completed with existing floor joists that needed to be removed due to structural issues and conduit. On the first floor, one important project that I led was the rehabilitation of the bay window in the dining room. Originally, the ceiling height in the bay widow was a mere two inches different from the adjacent dining room ceiling. In order to make the bay window appear as a single entity, I lowered the ceiling of the bay window and framed the three windows as a unit. Within the bay window, I installed salvaged beadboard to add yet an additional distinctive feature.
of Muncie, LLC
Rehabilitative work on the property and house required a wide array of skills and understandings. In order to successfully rehabilitate 601 E. Washington, knowledge pertaining to structures, environmental systems and building technologies had to be utilized in a manner not typically found in the classroom.
ecoREHAB
Over the course of an immersive studio and a five month internship, I saw the majority of rehab work at 601 E. Washington Street. Known as the James A. Boyce house, this residence was one of the first Italianate houses constructed in Muncie, Indiana. Constructed in 1876, the James A. Boyce house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property in the Emily Kimbrough Historic District.
In the dining room, along with the entry, we installed salvaged flooring. The threequarter inch tongue and groove flooring was gathered from a housing being deconstructed in Muncie. After the process of installing the flooring, we sanded the floor to gain a smooth surface. We proceeded by applying two coats of stain to the flooring and three coats of a polyurethane in order to provide protection to the surface.
On the exterior of the house, I assisted in recreating the cornice work, performed several mortar joint repairs in the brick facade and conducted numerous repairs on the existing window frames. In addition, I assisted in constructing the new fence on the eastern side of the house. For the front door as well as the rear door on the south facade, I made custom stops for the arched transom windows.
During my internship I had several projects that I worked on alone. One of which was to build an encasing for the pipes around the water heater. In order to provide for future access, I had to build the encasing in a manner that allowed for it to be easily de-constructed. I also designed a portico for the front of that hose that I presented to the city’s Historical Preservation Committee.
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MIAMI Municipal Courthouse A municipal courthouse in Miami, Florida, requires attention to opposing design issues. From the governmental viewpoint, the structure should be secure and have a strong presence to the community. Because this courthouse is located in Miami, Florida, views are greatly admired. Kawneer architectural aluminum products and systems allow for this issue to be resolved in a simple, aesthetically-pleasing manner. The driving design concept in the courthouse design was softened-simplicity. In order to establish a structure with a strong presence, the overall form was simplified into a cube. In order to simplify this form further, two opposing faces were removed and the connections between the remaining two faces and the top were rounded. To create some contrast, another cube, at a smaller scale, was incorporated in the original form and rotated on the central axis. The same process was performed on this form; however, it was done oppositely of how it was done with the main form. These two forms, while opposing in orientation, create a sense of stability—stability that is needed in a municipal courthouse. The program within the building was separated into two distinct areas—those areas that are considered for public use and those areas that are considered for private use. The individual floors of the courthouse are divided according to use
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and aligned, from ground floor to the top, based on the level of security. This resulted in the first two floors being devoted to more public functions in an open plan, while the remaining three floors were devoted to administrative offices and the individual courtrooms. Because the site on which the Miami municipal courthouse is located is so large, site improvements becomes a major issue is the overall design. Setting the building back from the vehicular circulation around the site increases the security of the structure. Likewise, the incorporation of natural barriers, planted landscaping as well as catch basins, increases building security without simply adding bollards. In order to create an atmosphere to create cohesion within the community, it was critical to include site improvements to create areas for the residents to use jointly.
Sustainable initiatives drive the form and function of the building as well. With the humid climate of Miami, regular ventilation is not a plausible concept. However, with the multi-story lobby, the incorporation of nightflush ventilation allows for the heat collected within the building envelope to be expelled through the process of stack ventilation at hours when the building is not being used. Energy creation assists in reducing the amount the building requires from the grid. The use of photovoltaic arrays and vertical wind turbines by the railroad tracks assist in creating energy. To reduce the heat island effect, all existing vegetation on the site was maintained and further vegetation was added to the plan. The smaller of the two cubes in the building form incorporates a green roof and vegetation wall system reducing water run-off.
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Colorado Art Barn This project provided the possibility to create working drawings for a customized addition to an existing art barn in Colorado. As this project was done in groups of two, it also provided an opportunity to collaborate with another individual and approach the design in a team setting. After completing the initial design of the addition for the Art Barn, we worked together to gain a basic understanding of the tectonics of the project. With this mutual understanding of the scope of the project, we split the work up and focused on specific components of the working drawings.
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A portion of my involvement in the production of the working drawings was the site plan, the existing elevations, and the elevations of the proposed addition. In addition to these drawings, I produced the building sections for the proposal as well as detailed the components for the sliding entry doors.
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Meridian Street
Facade Development
The design and development of a building in its location depends heavily on the surroundings in which the building is situated. Directly south of the site is a sixstory building while a three-story building is located in close proximity to the north. The building must provide a gradual, transitional flow between the two present but differing scales.
Similar to the surrounding building stock, the proposal has an expanded first floor to compensate for commercial use. Furthermore, the building is a mixed-use development to take advantage of its close proximity to additional commercial developments as well as popular attractions within the city itself.
Diversified Materials: Create diversity and contrast on the facade by implementing a range of materials Contrasting Rooflines: Force the eye scavenge to the top of the building with multiple rooflines Range of Entrances: Establish a wide range of initial and final perceptions of the building while creating a main axis of experience Light Shelves: Incorporate fixed, exterior light shelves on the southern facade to increase daylight coverage
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physical models
Physical models were utilized during project development and presentations in order to communicate two-dimensional drawings and concepts into a more concrete threedimensional understanding. The models developed were also intended to understand a wide range of scales and concepts. As such, different types of models were created entailing a range of materials. While a majority of models developed pertained to the exterior and immediate context of specific designs, a few models entailed the urban scale and the environs in which a design was located. In addition, construction models depicting building and structural elements assisted in understanding the tectonics of design and the interaction of such components.
established a base understanding of the nature of such materials in real-world scenarios. These understandings were then able to re reincorporated into building technology knowledge. Model samples within this section include projects depicting a wide range in materiality as well as production process. The first example on the facing page, as shown in the first two pictures, was a model built out of bass wood with pieces fabricated by hand as
well as by using a laser cutter. The next three samples were built using both chipboard and bat board and solely fabricated on a laser cutter. The final sample on the facing page was formed with a plaster mixture. The formwork was milled on a CNC router and depicts the unrolled facade of the O-14 building in Dubai by Reiser + Umemoto. Finally, the model below was constructed using both a CNC router and a laser cutter. The high-density foam, shown in both green and white, was milled on the CNC mill.
In addition to utilizing different types of models, a wide range of materials were utilized for depicting the varying concepts. Common materials chosen for physical models included mat board, chipboard, and bass wood. In addition to these standard materials, additional materials such as highdensity foam, acrylic, and plaster have been utilized for various models. Multiple methods have been incorporated into the process of creating physical models. While study models were generally created by hand, final presentation models relied on additional technology in the production of model components. In order to produce more intricate details within the models, a laser cutter was utilized. This allowed a wide range of patterns and graphics to be both etched and rastered into the materials. In addition to the use of a laser cutter, a CNC mill was used to cut materials such as rigid insulation, particleboard and high-density foam. The most rewarding types of physical models incorporated true construction materials in full-scale mock-ups. These model studies
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