Zehui Li 2023 Work Samples

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 submi�ed 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 Cu�ng

PROGRAMMING: JAVA, GHPython, Processing, HTML

Aug. 2019 - May 2021

Aug. 2016 - Dec. 2018

Sep. 2011 - July 2016

Sep. 2021- April 2023

1 Peninsula Crossing “‘Bayshore Burlingame”, Professional Work

Feb.- July 2019

May - Aug. 2017

July - Nov. 2015

May 2021

May 2020

Sep. 2019

May 2016

May 2014

May 2014

2 Growing Braddock Co-Lab

“Braddock District Food Hub ”

3 Balti(More)Food “Vacant Lot Urban Farm Complex”

4 “Cloud Table”

“‘Dream Audio’ Retail Shop”, Professional Work

5 Park-Scape

“Westinghouse Environment Center”

6 Spine Tower of Kinetics

“Hongkong Central Market Renovation ”

Miscellaneous works

Selected from 2015-2023

English (Fluent), Mandarin (Native)

STUDENT MEMBER AIA (San Francisco Chapter)

ALUMNI, Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association

LEED AP, BD+C

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.

Peninsula Crossing Bayshore Burlingame

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, 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 a�ract talent with modern, healthy workplace environments while bringing significant benefits to the City of Burlingame and the local community

Growing Braddock Co-Lab

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

In the Pi�sburgh 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 Fi�h 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.

Food Supply in Pennsylvania

Food system in state consists of several steps shown in the diagram. In addition to that, food transit is highly related to highway in Pennsylvania and food storage places are sca�ered around the highways. We could observe that the domestic food transition mainly comes from three sources: West Virginia, Ohio and counties in Northeast Pennsylvania. And global food supply are largely coming from Europe and distributed to ports in New York and New Jersey.

Individuals living more than a mile away from a grocery store is considered to be in a food desert. For rural residents, the nearest store is located more than ten miles away. In 2012, the US Dept. of Treasury reported that 47% of Pi�sburgh residents live in food deserts.

In Braddock the most common occupational groups include the Food Preparation & Serving Related Occupations (94 people), Healthcare Support Occupations (63 people), and Building & Grounds Cleaning &Maintenance Occupations (52 people). Residents of Braddock were mostlyworking in the food-related industry, which included jobs such as foodbeverage and service, chefs, waiters & waitresses, etc.

The map is a part of producers and processor within the Pi�sburgh Food Shed, a 5-mile radius from Fi�h Season, Braddock. The existing map breaks down producers and processors by product, including grain, dairy, meat, produce and miscellaneous products.

Many people do not realize how many Pi�sburgh 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. Pi�sburgh’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

Urban Farming 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. would choose standard pallet rack for the main structure, polycarbonate panel made from recycled plas�c for the roof covering and steel sheathing panel for the indoor growing space.

The neighboring Fi�h Season and Braddock Farm present two exis�ng farm modes where the Fi�h Season works with efficiency and advanced agricultural technologies and the Braddock Farm stands for a tradi�onal, educa�onal and social community garden. However, the Fi�h Season seems isolated from the on-going Braddock food and cultural movement, and industrially sealed façade denies a possible connec�ng interface that offers its healthy groceries back to the community. The Braddock Farm is also constrained by seasonality and producing efficiency

Bridging Two Realities

Hydroponic,

Electricity & Materiality System

Co-Working and Business Incubator True Axon Food Education Anchor True Axon

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

Art Studio Corner + Food Education Anchor

Art Studio Corner + Food Education Anchor Plan

Art Studio Corner Plan

Art Studio Corner View 1

Art Studio Corner View 2

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 a�erward 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 Plan

Accordingly, the various types of food growing space and outdoor farm land have to be planned carefully in order to satisfy the needs of community members and commercial food growing partners. In that sense, we don’t want the project to another replica of Fi�h Season. In terms of the obligation to the public, learning from the Braddock farm, our project will work with the community and Allegheny Land Trust to retrieve the agricultural value of the vacant lots by long-term tenure. In addition to that, the future zoning and legislation of the land such as in decades should be in consideration as well as the transforming proposal of the project.

Growing Braddock Co-Lab Section Perspective

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 a�empting 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

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

Section A-A

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 si�ng pavilion.

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.

Cloud Table “Dream Audio” Retail Shop

Exterior Elevation, Rendering 1

Interior Shelf, Rendering “Cloud Table”, Rendering

Exterior Unfolded Elevation

Park-Scape

Studio Work, Instructor: Jeffrey Davis & Matthew Huber

Spring 2020, Individual Work

Since the Westinghouse Park serves as a crucial public space (both zoning code and 6% area ratio) for the entire North Breeze Point Neighborhood, as well as the quite low crime rate in such community, I would like to introduce my building also as a part of the park on the site. By dealing with the “cubic objects orientation”, circulation and interior & exterior relationship in my design, I use a loop-like circulation in my design to introduce and enhance the engagement from outside of the park. Such architectural promenade as Le Corbusier promoted helps to provide experiencing diversity to the building and undermine the dark corner space existing where two objects meet each other. Meanwhile, the entire promenade and corridor respond to sunlight exposure, internal lobby spaces, and mechanical/utility spaces altogether

The park was formerly home to George Westinghouse, infamous for inventing the railway air brake in 1869 and for revolutionizing the electrical industry. The park now features a maintenance building on the workshop’s footprint, and acts as a public space for North Pointbreeze and connects to Homewood via a pedestrian bridge. Since the Westinghouse Park serves as a crucial public space (both zoning code and 6% area ratio) for the entire North Breeze Point Neighborhood, as well as the quite low crime rate in such community, I would like to introduce my building also as a part of the park on the site.

Given the nature of the public park space around the site, the design considers not only the basic character of the park such as access, topography, tree canopy and exsiting site infrastructures, but also the sorrounding community architectural scales. The design goal is to emerge the use of environment centers with the daily activities including dog walking, sports, children playing and sightseeing in the park.

The Brief History of Westinghouse Park

By dealing with the “cubic objects orientation”, circulation and interior & exterior relationship in my design, I use a loop-like circulation in my design to introduce and enhance the engagement from outside of the park. Such architectural promenade as Le Corbusier promoted helps to provide experiencing diversity to the building and undermine the dark corner space existing where two objects meet each other. Meanwhile, the entire promenade and corridor respond to sunlight exposure, internal lobby spaces, and mechanical/utility spaces altogether.

Corridor Gellary

Wet Classroom

Architectural Promenade

Skylight Optimization

Corner Models

Changing Room Wall Details

Event Room Wall Details

The pure cubic boxes embedded with func�oning programs provide the pure and clean looking from the outside of the building, as well as the method to “float up “ the building from the eleva�on. However, the internal corridor s�ll provides penetra�on and spa�al complexity internally in the learning center building. The main material chosen for the building, which is the locally made locust wood panel, offers a warm and so� feeling and cra�sman texture to the en�re building.

Entrance View From Playground

Courtyard View From Lecture Room

Spine Tower of Kinetics

“Hongkong Central Market Renovation”

Studio work, Instructor: Esther Lorenz Fall 2017, Individual Work

Hongkong, is not only world-famous for its urban density, but its powerful and flourish movie industries. The goal of our studio is to explore the connection between the urban morphology and moving making. The project starts with the scenes’ study in the Hongkong movies and then follows the short film making based on the urban scenery context. Following such procedure, spatial prototypes are generated and developed during the individual film-making process. The site is located in the Central Market and the objective is to renovate existing area for constructing a new city high-rise complex. Such high-rise complex appears to be the extention of current bustling city realities and stands as the reflection (mirror stage) of the underground metro system

Deconstruction of Motion and Time for the Short Film “Up”

Scene 1, Character 1, Scenario 2

Scene 2, Character 1, Scenario 2

In the city of Hongkong, the urban circulation system is serving not only as a transition, but also as a space connecting each different parts of the city. In this project, I used the Hongkong metro escalator system as a start point to explore that how the re-organized circulation including staircases, escalators, ramps and so on can influence or even participate into the high-rise buidlings. While the central market is renovated into the movie archive, a series of new programs are also inserted into the high rise building to create a dialogue between the high and low.

The above renders indicate how the the urban circulation system in Hongkong is serving as a space connecting each different parts of the city from urban context to the building parties. In this project the architectural language of Hongkong metro escalator system is borrowed as a start point to explore that how the re-organized circulation including staircases, escalators, ramps and so on can participate into the high-rise buidlings both in programs and physical appearance.

Miscellaneous Works

2015-2023

Professional | Academic | Research Works

Project 1111 Sunset, LA

El Camino

Project 255 Shipley, San Francisco, Project Model

Project 255 Shipley, San Francisco, Project Model

Project Onni Vine, LA, East Elevation

Project Onni Vine, LA, South Elevation

Hanging Garden Exterior View

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, Master of Architecture

zehuil@alumni.cmu.edu

+1 (434)327-0400