Zehui Li 2023 Work Samples Presentation

Zehui Li

Work Samples

Selected Works 2018-2023

ZEHUI LI

Personal: zehuil@alumni.cmu.edu

Tel: +1 (434)327-0400

EDUCATION

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, PITTSBURGH, PA

Master of Architecture (GPA: 3.63)

Final Studio Project: Growing Braddock Co-Lab. Topic: Urban Food Hub and Community Garden

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA

M.Arch Course Works and Research

ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, HANGZHOU, CHINA

Bachelor of Architecture (Minor: Industrial Design, GPA: 3.8)

EXPERIENCE

WRNS STUDIO, SAN FRANCISCO, CA

- Designer (Project: Peninsula Crossing, Burlingame, CA)

Organized large-scale project Entitlement Set for submission to the Planning and Zoning Department. Part of team that designed large commercial project from Conceptual Design to Construction Documentation. Constructed comprehensive project site model and led interns on creation of several physical massing iterations.

Assisted Project Architects in developing building details and material selection and collaborated with consultants to establish code-related drawings.

GOA ARCHITECTS, HANGZHOU, CHINA

- Assistant Architect

Assisted Principal Architects with design development and structural design for mixed use high-rise residential tower located in Tianjin CBD.

Created physical models, site plans, and representational diagrams for a private luxury resort project in Vancouver, BC.

Prepared presentation and submitted drawing packages for the Tea House Project in Cang Ma Shan, Shandong Province

STANLEY SAITOWITZ, NATOMA ARCHITECTS, SAN FRANCISCO, CA

- Design Intern

Assisted Mr. Saitowitz with client projects, produced 3-D and Autocad models and architectural detail studies, and prepared graphics and photography for an auto-biographical retrospective highlighting his iconic global design projects.

PERKINS + WILL, SHANGHAI, CHINA

- Planning and Design Intern

Member of Perkins&Will international project planning and design team, participating in client, building/zoning/ planning department meetings, government and community presentations. My design work included making major contributions to the T.Y. Lin Headquarters (Chongqing) & acclaimed Huzhou Silk Museum, both of which have become landmarks in their respective cities.

HONORS

“Balti(more)Food” Selected by EX-CHANGE 2021, Carnegie Mellon University, SoA “Park-Scape” Selected by EX-CHANGE 2020, Carnegie Mellon University, SoA Carnegie Mellon University, SoA Fellowship Award, SRTP Student Research Training, Zhejiang University

Third Place Award, Enterprise Student Design Competition, Zhejiang University

Honorable Mention, Structural Engineering Student Design Competition, Zhejiang University

SKILLS, EXPERTISE & INTERESTS LANGUAGE AFFILIATIONS

MODELING: Rhino, Grasshopper, Sketch-Up,Revit, AutoCAD, Revit

VISUALIZATION: Adobe Suite, V-Ray, Enscape

FABRICATION: 3D Printing, Laser Cutting

PROGRAMMING: JAVA, GHPython, Processing, HTML

Aug. 2019 - May 2021

Aug. 2016 - Dec. 2018

Sep. 2011 - July 2016

Sep. 2021- April 2023

Feb.- July 2019

May - Aug. 2017

July - Nov. 2015

English (Fluent), Mandarin (Native)

STUDENT MEMBER, AIA (San Francisco Chapter)

ALUMNI, Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association

LEED AP, BD+C

I N D E X

3 Growing Braddock Co-Lab

“Braddock District Food Hub ”, Academic Work

1 Peninsula Crossing “‘Bayshore Burlingame”, Professional Work

2 “Cloud Table”

“‘Dream Audio’ Retail Shop”, Professional Work

4 Balti(More)Food

“Vacant Lot Urban Farm Complex”, Academic Work

Peninsula Crossing

Bayshore Burlingame

Professional work, Concept, SD, DD, 25%CD Phase 2021-2023, Team Work, WRNS Studio, Size: Approx. 1.5 Million SF.

Peninsula Crossing proposes to transform 12 acres of underutilized waterfront space in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area into a dynamic life sciences neighborhood. The concept includes generous public gathering spaces to accommodate a wide variety of uses, including food and beverage facilities, recreation, and events. In addition to three new buildings, the proposed project includes shoreline improvements, Bay Trail extension, and new shoreline public space.

Site Model, 1”=32’-0” Scale

Site Model, 1”=32’-0” Scale

Building Massing Studies

The massing concept breaks down the scale of the buildings into slender upper-level volumes that face the public open spaces. The buildings are divided into upper volumes with a taut and ethereal glass and metal skin, and lower volumes that feature a solid earth-like texture and granular and pedestrian-scaled massing.

Site Model Draft 1, 1”=32’-0” Scale

Site Model Draft 2, 1”=32’-0” Scale

In a region long defined by unsustainable development biased toward cars and highways, Peninsula Crossing takes cues from the best of our great cities. Walkable and full of choice, Peninsula Crossing will attract talent with modern, healthy workplace environments while bringing significant benefits to the City of Burlingame and the local community

Cloud Table

“Dream Audio” Retail Shop

Professional work, Concept, SD, DD, CD and CA In collaboration with Yuan Jin, Zhehui Chang, Beixi Zhu Summer 2018, Team Work, Multi-Architecture

“Dream Audio” project is a three-month long comprehensive interior design work. The main idea is constructing a “cloud table” to accomendate constumers’ activities along with the shop assistants. Besides the massive fluid table, other furnitures such as cabinets, LED screens, closets and interior lighting are highly customized, along with careful consideration of details.

Exterior Elevation, Rendering 1

Exterior Unfolded Elevation

Retail Store True Axon

“Cloud Table”, Rendering

Interior Customized Shelf Elevation

Interior Shelf, Rendering

“Cloud Table”, Concrete Table Detail Drawings

Growing Braddock Co-Lab

Studio Work, Instructor: Sarosh Anklesaria Spring 2021, Individual Design Research Collabration With Leah Kendrick and Tyng Peck

In the Pittsburgh post-industrial district, Braddock suffers from urban issues such as vacancy, unemployment, pollution, and being a food desert. Although around 18% of the Braddock jobs are related to the foodservice, and both Fifth Season and Braddock Farm are located in the neighborhood, the Braddock residents still lack access to healthy food and groceries. The Growing Braddock Co-Lab project is fully inspired by the dual existing farm modes and the food, economy, and ecology context in Braddock.

Growing Braddock Co-Lab Aerial View

Food Desert in Pittsburgh

Many people do not realize how many Pittsburgh residents live in food deserts given the number of successful restaurants located in the city. These individuals want regular access to fresh groceries nearby. For people without transportation, this means a walkable distance during all seasons. Pittsburgh’s topography makes it difficult for people to get to the grocery store both physically and psychologically. Colder months make it difficult for people to go outside. Many areas lack access to public transportation. Grocery stores are simply too far away.

Food Producers and Processors

Food Distance from Braddock

Food-Related Jobs in Braddock

Circularity and Loop System

In this project, we turn to the concept of the circular economy, which represents a closed-loop, cradle-to-cradle approach to eliminate the concept of waste and to “take, make, and reuse” through energy-centric and material-centric means. I would choose standard pallet rack for the main structure, polycarbonate panel made from recycled plastic for the roof covering and steel sheathing panel for the indoor growing space.

Hydroponic, Aeroponic, Electricity & Materiality System

Urban Farming in Braddock

The neighboring Fifth Season and Braddock Farm present two existing farm modes where the Fifth Season works with efficiency and advanced agricultural technologies and the Braddock Farm stands for a traditional, educational and social community garden. However, the Fifth Season seems isolated from the on-going Braddock food and cultural movement, and industrially sealed façade denies a possible connecting interface that offers its healthy groceries back to the community. The Braddock Farm is also constrained by seasonality and producing efficiency

Bridging Two Realities

Food-Related Programs in Braddock

Site Plan

Co-Working and Business Incubator Space

The hybrids and potential connections among programs provide an alternative armature for community food production and education, commoning ground, job creation and local businesses’ money-making. The project’s imposition forms an architectural and urban gesture to welcome the community members to start a food exploration journey and occupy the space based on their desire and needs.

Co-Working and Business Incubator Entrance Perspective

Co-Working and Business Incubator Entrance Plan

The Collective Exteriority

The project aims to create an urban interface & influx by imagining a collective exteriority spacially, while serving as a cooperative community anchor that accommodates food hubs, art labs, and community commoning space.

Art Studio Corner + Food Education Anchor Plan

Art Studio Corner View 2

Art Studio Corner View 1

Farm Research Crossing

My project will not only function as a formal and aesthetical connection/armature for the community, but provide a social and communal cooperative hub that provides knowledge, jobs, food security and sustainability back to the neighborhood. The project thinks carefully about its ongoing and afterward social-cultural impact on the community. The overall planning would prioritize the circulations, programming, tectonics, materiality, sustainability and community use and avoid being partial to any stakeholders even though some of them are wealthy groups.

Farm Research Crossing View

Farm Research Crossing Plan

Accordingly, the various types of food growing space and outdoor farm land have to be planned carefully sense, we don’t want the project to another replica of Fifth Season. In terms of the obligation to the public, Trust to retrieve the agricultural value of the vacant lots by long-term tenure. In addition to that, the transforming proposal

Growing Braddock Co-Lab

Co-Lab Section Perspective

carefully in order to satisfy the needs of community members and commercial food growing partners. In that public, learning from the Braddock farm, our project will work with the community and Allegheny Land future zoning and legislation of the land such as in decades should be in consideration as well as the proposal of the project.

Balti(More)Food

“Vacant Lot Urban Farm Complex”

Studio Work, Instructor: Nida Rehman Fall 2020, Individual Design Research Collabration With Ryu Kondrup and Kirman Hanson

From the 1890s-1930s tuberculosis was a major cause of death in Baltimore, affecting mostly black families and reinforcing a narrative of black people as being inherently “dirty”. Against this backdrop, the city government enacted policies that systematically perpetuated a cycle of neglect, with a particular focus on housing. City legislation attempting to improve the conditions of low-income housing only sought to reform tenement housing, typically lived in by white immigrants, without any regard for the terrible housing conditions within the “lung block.” It is this historical landscape of disease that is echoed within the current state of Baltimore’s East Side, where the issue of access resulting from historical disinvestment has created a new landscape of neglect.

“Many early black Baltimoreans had fled the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions of South Baltimore, particularly black-inhabited Pigtown.... In addition, the expansion of Camden Station in South Baltimore and the consequent demolition of two hundred largely black-occupied dwellings had displaced many black families from the area.”

- Robert, pp. 72-73

“Baltimore as a ‘border city’ brought together southern racial traditions with northern urban-industrial economies. . . Many viewed tuberculosis as the wage of the race’s unwholesome desire to flee the rural agricultural rhythms that best suited Negro physiology and intellect.”

- Robert, pp. 11-12

“Such racial romantic and xenophobic flourishes did not characterize the entirety of the CHD’s view of the race question, yet they serve as a point of departure for a description of the ‘‘landscape of health’’ in Baltimore, with particular emphasis on the dialectical relationship between the developing geography of segregation and uneven development on one hand and the development of modern, bacteriological public health on the other.”

- Robert, pp. 14

Rhetoric of Disease

Urban Migration Landscape of Health

In the US, neighborhood long-term vacancy is highly associated with its health problems in adults, although the association between vacant housing and neighborhood health outcomes varies based on the development of the metropolitan area. Foreclosures in Baltimore are sold through a variety of methods including a standard sale through a Broker in the multiple listing service, real estate auction, and direct sale through the bank.

Baltimore Urban Farming Timeline

The Transformation from Vacancy to Community Food Complexity

Neighborhood Vacancy Typologies

Incremental Massing Strategies

The scaffolding system allows certain flexibility not only for the structure but also for the programming insertion and arrangement. The above five modules illustrate the mixture of community use within the identical structural frames, such as cafe, library, audio room and sitting pavilion.