Portfolio by Marco Ortiz

PORTFOLIO 2011 m a r c o

a n t o n i o

o r t i z

s a n c h e z

Table of Contents Fall 2008 .................................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Portrait ................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Collage ................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Space .................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Fall 2009 .................................................................................................................................................................................. 6 Figure Drawing ................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Spring 2010 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8 Environmental Control Plan ......................................................................................................................................... 9 Bridge Design ................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Regional Map .................................................................................................................................................................. 11 Poster Design .................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Brochure Design ............................................................................................................................................................ 13 Fall 2010 ................................................................................................................................................................................ 14 Book Design .................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Portraiture ........................................................................................................................................................................ 17 Drawing ............................................................................................................................................................................ 18 Suburban Plaza Process Design ............................................................................................................................... 19

FALL 2008 a u g u s t - d e c e m b e r

Photography These black and white portraits were made for a photography class, using a Canon PowerShot SX100IS with full manual control. The pictures are part of the same series and they work as diptychs. Here, I wanted to make unconventional portraits. To do this, I portrayed the people with only half of their faces, which means that only one of their eyes appears in the photographs. In addition to this, there is a second primary object in the photographs besides the person. This second object combined with only half a face makes the spectator work: one is tempted to analyse the picture and try to find out what is the real aim of the photograph: the person or the second object. 3

Photography This cubist photograph was made in a photography class. Several pictures of a model cat were taken with a Canon PowerShot SX100IS with full manual control. The assignment consisted in making a collage. I decided to make a cubist photograph, since I had only seen cubist paintings. To do this, I saw some of Picassoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portraits, and saw how he used the combination of the profile and the front of the face. After this, I took a few pictures of the cat, front and profile, and using Adobe Photoshop, I divided the pictures into squares and arranged them to their coherent places in order to form the catâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s face. The final collage was printed as a 40 cms by 40 cms image. 4

Photography These photographs were made for a photography class using a Canon PowerShot SX100IS with full manual control. The assignment consisted in taking pictures of â&#x20AC;&#x153;spaceâ&#x20AC;?. I decided to take pictures of objects and give them personal spaces. This means that I gave the objects human attributes. In each of the photographs, different objects have their private space as if they were living beings. Two cigarettes are intimately close in an ashtray, within their intimate space. The title of the book has its own personal space within the book, while the pages create almost a protecting shell. Finally a word has its own home inside the parentheses, while being in an ocean of words. 5

FALL 2009

a u g u s t - d e c e m b e r

Drawing These drawings were made in a class called Drawing Fundamentals. They were made with graphite, with a model, and the assignment was to draw as much as one could in no more than three minutes. To do this, I first measured the proportions and reported them on the paper with rough but slight markings, then I continued by drawing more contents around those proportion guidelines. Finally, I added some shadows and made more rendering to add more depth and life.

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This is a group project of a class called โ Environmental Controlsโ . This was a semester long assignment, in which first the plan of a four-unit building was designed, and throughout the semester, several plans were made, such as the one for the heating system, the electric system, etc. It was a group project and each member designed one of the plans. This plan is the one I made, with the ventilation and heating system represented with thicker lines. I followed the official American guidelines for the placements of heaters, the controls, and the ventilations. The plan and the individual elements were made in Auto CAD, while the legend was added in Adobe Illustrator. 9

Architecture These are the front, side and top views of a bridge that I designed in a team project, made in a class called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Structuresâ&#x20AC;?. The design is a single lane load bridge that spans 96 feet clear over a ravine. The bridge provides a load width of 10 feet for vehicle clearance. Safety railings were also provided as an element of the structure. There are 3 ft. of bearing area at each end of the bridge, which bring the overall length of the structure to 102 feet. The structure is a combination of a bowstring truss with a warren truss. The arch allows the loads to be evenly distributed towards the sides, allowing the bearing area to compress against the edges of the support, making the entire structure stronger. In this design, the diagonal members forming a V are in tension, while the opposite members are in compression.In addition to this, a model of the design was built, using aluminum rods, at a scale of 1/4 in. = 1 ft. The model weighed 14 ounces and was able to bear 107 lbs. 10

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Graphic Design

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Map Source: Google Earth

Scale: 1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x2122; = 0.45 mi. 0 mi.

0.225 mi.

0.45mi.

Produced by Marco ORTIZ

This map was made in the Environmental Design Studio II. The assignment consisted in making a map showing the Artspace Buffalo Lofts, an apartment complex for artists, and its broad surrounding area. The map was done with Adobe Illustrator, by tracing the places of importance, the roads and the streets with the aid of a satellite picture as a base. Yellow and red were chosen as the colours for the roads, since combined, they make orange, which is the colour of the Lofts logotype.

Buffalo Lofts Source: Marco ORTIZ

Source: http://www.artspace.org/properties/buffalo/

as the Buffalo Electric Vehicle Building, is an important building for its architectural and engineering design, built of steel and reinforced concrete. The system allowed to build wide open spans, and for this reason, it proved to be very effective for industrial architecture, since it permits to build several layers of unobstructed floors. Moreover, the exterior walls have large windows that allows copious amounts of sunlight and fresh air. For the Artspace Lofts, it creates abundantly and naturally lit living and working spaces, ideal for artists and their families. With the open floor space and the addition of movable walls, the lofts become very versatile places , providing an infinity of variations of plan configurations.

Mural Arts Programme, and for other art-related businesses and organisations. The lofts are designed for occupancies varying between one to three people with monthly rentals from 216$ to 769$. To live here, prospective tenants will be selected by income, and also by showing a commitment to their art. For more information on the selection criteria, please visit the website. Artspace Buffalo Lofts has acted as a fundamental tool to promote art in Buffalo, by joining the artistic community, developers and the city in an unparalleled work that has produced economic growth in the area, while also promoting local independent artists. The original structure, the Breitweiser Building, also known as

Regional Cultural Centres

Local Surrounding Galleries

Grand Island

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North Tonawanda

425

W. Utica St. Tonawanda

Delaw are St.

Source: http://www.inlightartglass.com/

Erie

Transit Rd.

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Source: http://www.scenoart.net/

Anderson Pl.

Niagara Falls Bld

Artspace Buffalo Lofts is a project designed by Artspace, a non-profit organisation, HHL architects and ArchitectsAlliance. It consists of reusing the historic Breitweiser Printing Building, built in 1912 as a «daylight factory», where electric cars were manufactured. Located in 1219 Main St. in Buffalo, Artspace consists of a mixed-use, low income housing space for local artists. The habitable and working space is made of 60 units, which are divided into 36 loft units in the original building plus 24 units in a newly built townhouse building, at the back of the property. The space between the buildings has been left for common use. In addition to that, 9000 sqft. are used for a gallery, a storefront, the Buffalo

Source: http://www.artspace.org/properties/buffalo/

Source: Marco ORTIZ

Source: http://www.artspacebuffalo.org/

1219 Main St. Buffalo, N.Y.

Source: http://www.artspace.org/properties/buffalo/

Graphic Design

Artspace

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Bryant St.

263 Military Rd.

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Nordwood Ave.

Elmwood Ave.

Source: http://www.benartgallery.com/

Richmond Ave.

Sheridan Dr.

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Kenmore 5

New York S tate Thruway

Harris Hill

Genessee St.

Summer St.

Fort Erie

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Source: http://www.artspace.org/

E North St.

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Map Source: Google Earth

Source: http://www.etherealpainting.com/

West Seneca

Scale: 1’’ = 2.5 mi.

Source: http://www.steelcrazy.org/

0 mi.

1.25 mi.

Center Rd.

2.5 mi. Map Source: Google Earth

Produced by Marco ORTIZ

Visit www.artspacebuffalo.org

This is a poster measuring 20 by 30 inches made with Adobe Illustrator. It is an informational poster and its purpose is to make people aware of what the Artspace Buffalo Lofts are. It only uses four colours to make it more visually aesthetic and uncluttered. The layout is organized from top to bottom, from the least visually elaborate (pictures) to the most detailed (text and maps). I chose to organize it like this, since people can see larger images and the overall disposition from the distance, and once they are attracted to it and approach it, they can continue and see the details and read the descriptions on the poster. 12

Graphic + Urban Design

This brochure was made in the Environmental Design studio II. The assignment was to add two new lines to the existing Buffalo metro and to make a brochure for it, with no more than two folds in an 11in. by 17 in. page. The brochure was made with Adobe Illustrator. The metro lines added connected important areas of the city, such as two university campuses with the international airport. The other line connected a large park in the Northern part of the city, with its downtown and waterfront in the South side. 13

FALL 2010 a u g u s t - d e c e m b e r

Book Design This is a book that I made in a Book Design class at SUNY Buffalo. The assignment was to create a book about “life”. To do this, I decided to make a “flag” book. A flag book is a book folded as an accordion, and in each of its pages, there are flags sticking out. I decided to use this format since it allows seeing a single image when one looks straight at the pages. I used the idea that life has to be enjoyed and to represent this, I used dancing mice. These mice are cutouts made with brown Canson paper, then pasted into thicker black paper. 15

Book Design The flag format also allows seeing gaps formed by the flags. This was my aim to use this design. Since I represented the idea of enjoying life with dancing mice, and as I see life as a cycle, in which sometimes problems can come out, I represented the â&#x20AC;&#x153;problemsâ&#x20AC;? with cat eyes lurking from the gaps at the dancing mice. The materials used in the book were brown and black Canson paper and book-board, which I painted black with acrylic painting.

Drawing These are two portraits that I made in a class called Drawing Concepts. The top portrait was made on grey/beige Canson paper, using sticks of vine charcoal and a white pastel. It measures 17 in. by 25 in. The bottom one was made on white Stonehenge paper with a combination of charcoal and graphite, and measures 19 in. by 25 in. Both were made by looking at a photograph. The first one conveys the idea of a Film Noir, where the character is in a situation of alienation and anxiety. This ambiance is emphasized by the blurred background and the facial expression. Vine charcoal was chosen to help the creation of this feeling as well. The second portrait depicts a person in a normal, daily and comfortable situation, making a stark contrast with the other portrait. 17

Drawing These are two drawings made in a Drawing Concepts class. For the drawing on the right-hand side, the assignment was to simply make a very large drawing, this one measures about 50 in. by 40 in. Since the drawing had to be so large, I decided to draw something very small: a pinecone. With its exaggerated size, the pinecone takes another meaning, because it becomes very imposing and powerful, compared to its conventional view as a small, insignificant object. I drew it by taking a pinecone and observing it. Besides this, I also turned it over to have two different views, in order to have a composition between the negative space and positive spaces. The second drawing measures 32 by 8 inches and was made with graphite. The assignment was to draw space. When I think of space, I usually make a relationship with perspective. Since perspective and the feeling of depth and space are accentuated with narrow and long spaces, I decided to use a narrow piece of paper, and I drew a more unusual view of a rail track.

Environmental Design The following pages are sketches showing the process of how I made a new design for a shopping plaza in Buffalo, New York. The assignment was a two-month project in the Fall semester of 2010, in the Environmental Design Workshop III class. The assignment consisted in providing a new design, while maintaining the same existing stores and the same built surface area. Additional built surface area could also be added. I made the project in two main parts: first, I analysed the current problems of the plaza, then I made a new design, in which those problems were solved while offering new and better opportunities to the users of the plaza. The current picture is a satellite image of the actual plaza, with the Northern stores in their construction phase. It measures approximately 630 metres from West to East, and 470 metres from North to South.

Existing Plaza This is the plan of the plaza as it was when I studied it. This plan is the official plan of the developers of the plaza: Benderson Developers. In the first phases of the project, I analysed the problems in-situ and I spent time in the plaza to see what the problems were. The main problems that I found were the following: lack of ease of walkability and connectivity between stores, handicap accessibility, circulation and traffic flow, aesthetics and green spaces, and parking utilisation. The plaza was mainly designed for people to arrive in their cars, park close to their destination, and leave. The current design didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take into account pedestrians or cyclists, or people willing to visit several places at once. There was a lack of pathways as well as a lack of handicap facilities.Moreover, the massive parking area had a maximum parking occupancy of 48% in average during my visits, except for the parking lots in the restaurants which were usually full at eating times, but empty otherwise. This means that almost 25 600 m2 were an empty and unused concrete surface, which had the potential of being used as a green space. 20

Design Process To design the solutions in the plaza, I brainstormed and made about twenty new design proposals, however, not all them addressed all the problems at the same time, I am therefore including the most pertinent, illustrative sketches. In this sketch, I solved the problem of connectivity between stores by adding pedestrian paths between the new aligned retail stores. The stores in a straight lign layout give a more comfortable feeling than having big box stores. I also addressed the problem of lack of green spaces by filling everything with green areas. This design also allows a more fluent vehicular flow, by creating more access pooints. The problem with the design is that the total amount of built squared metres was below the existing one. Also, in this design, the parking is underground, however, it wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been big enough to accommodate the maximum occupancy that I had previously calculated. 21

Design Process In this sketch, I arranged the retail stores so that they enclosed small green areas or plazas, and I added a large park in the East side of the plaza. The parking in this sketch is also underground, underneath the green spaces (marked with dotted lines in the sketch). At first, I believed that this proposal had a lot of potential, however, I realised that each group of stores could become isolated from each other, making four individual groups, instead of all groups harmonically together. This is due to the fact that in this idea, there is a lack of connectivity between each group of stores. Furthermore, I wanted to do the new design as realistic as possible, and underground parking is usually not very viable in terms of cost. This is why in other designs I left the parking at the surface level. 22

Design Process In this sketch, I wanted to give to the whole plaza a more organic look, instead of having the usual squared buildings. Giving round shapes to the buildings would make them â&#x20AC;&#x153;mimicâ&#x20AC;? nature in a way, because in nature there are no straight lines. Furthermore, I wanted to connect retail areas with natural areas in a more harmonious way; almost as if being in a store is the same as being in the natural area. Another reason why I had the curvilinear configuration was because I thought people would be encouraged to walk more from one side to the other of the plaza, because they would be unable to see directly one end of the plaza from the other. This design had two main problems; first, it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have enough parking, second, round shaped buildings are difficult to build and also they are not effective for big retail stores. However, I thought that with some overhauling, and the addition of elements from other ideas, this plan could work. Besides this, it was very different from what other people in this project were doing. 23

Retail Stores

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Museum

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Mixed-use Area

Pa rk

Restaurants

Park

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Design Process

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Parking Garage

This is the previous sketch with some additional work and some details added on. Here, I added two parking garages at each corner, and diagonal parking along the retail stores, depicted in red. I included a mixed-use area: first floor with stores, second floor with apartments or offices. In addition to this, I added a car-free area, here depicted in yellow. This pedestrian area has mainly restaurants and small stores. I also added a museum, which doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist in the original plaza. Moreover, I wanted to give a square-type public space. I achieved this by making a square, which is enclosed by the museum, restaurants, and stores. The advantage of a plaza like this is that it gives a sense of place and encourages social interaction, since it can serve as a market in the morning or as a place for outdoor cafĂŠs in the afternoon. To maintain more natural elements, I also included a zigzagged water feature next to the restaurants, so that people eating outside could see the water and be more isolated from the nearby passing cars. 24

Design Process This drawing shows the details of the park in the previous design. I added several features to make it more appealing to people. First of all, I made three parks in one. This means that I designed a botanical garden, an English style garden, and a French garden. The French garden is very symmetrical, with fountains and flowers, while the English garden has more elements of surprise and is more picturesque. The botanical garden is a series of concentric circles with different plants, where people walk along them. In addition to this, I added an aviary, an area for unleashed dogs, a children playground, a kiosk for shows, and a lake with a water stream. There is also a place where people can buy soft drinks or ice-cream. The park has two entrances: one from within the plaza, and other from the neighbourhood outside the plaza. The park is also slightly raised and the main entrance is a massive staircase. In future sketches I omitted the staircase, since it is not friendly for disabled people. 25

Preliminary Plan This is a rendering I made with SketchUp of the same design. This was made for a preliminary presentation for the studio, one week after the first design solutions were sketched, and three weeks after the first studies of the problems of the plaza. The flaws here are still the roundness of the buildings and some â&#x20AC;&#x153;unusedâ&#x20AC;? spaces in the corners. Other aspects that I had to correct were the scale, because the buildings were too big, and the parking, since the garages were too far away from some of the stores. I also had to begin thinking about where and why I would locate which stores (since the assignment required to keep the same stores of the existing plaza). 26

3D Renderings This is a view of one of green areas in front of some of the stores.

3D Renderings This is a view of the outdoor restaurants area, with the zigzagging water feature. In this rendering one can see that work had to be done in the overall scale. The original idea was to have a more human scale, here, it is too big and isolating.

3D Renderings Aerial view of the park, with fewer details than what it was originally planned.

Problem Fixing

Retail Store

Pedestrian Strip

Chamfered corners create small «plazette» spaces, for people to rest, interact or observe.

After doing the previous renderings, I realised that the main details that I had to fix were the shape of the buildings, the scale, and the location of the stores. These diagrams show a tentative idea that I had to replace the round-shaped retail stores. I thought that by laying four octagonal buildings close to each other, they would create small “plazettes”, which are always appreciated by people. Besides this, in order to keep the entire place walkable and pedestrian friendly, I added a pedestrian strip parallel to the streets. This entire layout was intended to replace the round shaped buildings of the previous plan. 19 30

Problem Fixing In these sketches I was studying how the octagonal shaped buildings could be arranged into a curved configuration, so that I could fit them in the layout of my design. However, I felt that the octagonal buildings had a “heavy” feeling, which did not match with a more organic idea that I was trying to transmit. For this reason, I didn’t use this layout anymore. 19 31

Design Process

Retail Stores

Outdoor Restaurants

Mixed-use Area Park

In this plan I addressed the scale. Fixing the scale was very valuable, because it allowed me to better see how to impose my design. In addition to this, I eliminated the curved buildings, and I came back to the previous idea of having the big retail stores in a squared configuration. With this configuration, I also added parking within the space made by the buildings, instead of having green areas with underground parking as I had it in a previous design. Another change is the mixed-use area, which in the previous design was also in a round configuration, here, it is in a grid layout, with smaller, rectangular buildings. Finally, I also moved the park to the south of the plaza, so that the outdoor restaurants/car-free zone, the mixed-use area, and the park, would be all close to each other in the south side. Being in the south side also allows the buildings, pedestrians, and walkers to receive more sunlight. 19 32

Design Process

Anchor Store

This is another sketch of the previous plan. What I was doing here was to bring an anchor store in the southern portion of the plaza. The purpose of bringing this large store there is to attract a larger scope of people and to add variety to this side of the plaza, since most of the big stores are in the northern side, even if smaller stores are in the mixed-use buildings.

19 33

Design Process This is a more detailed plan with a larger store, called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Targetâ&#x20AC;?, in the southern part. Besides this, I also added surface parking to serve it. I was also planning to locate another large store in the park, however, this was a tentative idea. Moreover, I located the Target store in front of an open space green area, so that there was an empty visual axis: this means that there are no obstructions in front of the store and this allows drivers and people to see the store from the other side of the plaza. In addition to this, I tried to find a good place to locate a parking garage in a central area and also an underground parking garage that would serve people going to the pedestrian area. This would allow people to park, and then go and visit the place on foot. Furthermore, I was trying to find a proper location for the entrances of each store, in order to make them efficient for people, and to keep everything with a good connectivity.

Design Process This is a plan I made with watercolours and it shows most of the final layout of the stores section, as well as the final central location for the parking garage. I was still working on a proper configuration for the restaurant area, since I wanted to keep squared buildings, but accommodate them in a round shape. I wanted to keep the long faรงade of the mixed-use buildings facing south, for passive solar gain. I was also working on the streets around the mixed-use area, to keep a level of privacy for the residents. In this plan, I had colour coded the streets around the mixed area, I was planning to use shared streets, where cars and pedestrians could be together, however, I decided not to use them, since they are not popular in the United States. 35

Cross-Sections & Details

Mixed-use area streets plan

Cross-section of mixed-use area.

This is a small plan and a cross section of the configuration of the streets in relation to the buildings in the mixed-use area. There are two types of streets surrounding the mixed-use buildings: first, there are normal streets where cars can park in parallel; second, there is a small pedestrian street or sidewalk surrounding the buildings. The advantage of this is that residents will have more privacy and less noise, since cars are kept at a distance. For the same reason, the faรงades become more inviting and the atmosphere becomes more pedestrian. The cross section shows the presence of a sidewalk, parallel parking spaces, and the street, and also underground parking for the residents. The parallel parking is designated for shoppers. 36 19

Problem Fixing

Layout of buildings around the roundabout

Shared streets disposition through mixed use area

Coffee shop Drive Through in relation to other retail stores

In the top left sketch I was working on the layout of the restaurants around the roundabout, more specifically in the way I could configure the squared buildings into a round path, while making a sort of “plazette” with the negative space and the roundabout. In the top right sketch, I was working on a disposition of the streets around the mixed use area, in order to keep the privacy levels for the residents, and I was also working on adding a long pedestrian strip running from this area, to the northern side of the plaza, towards the stores. This would increase the pedestrian connectivity. In the bottom sketch I was trying to find a way to fit a small coffee shop, where most of the clientele used the “drive through”. I wanted to incorporate a seamless connection for incoming and exiting drivers to be able to go to the drive through if they wanted. 19 37

Preliminary Plan This is a plan I made in AutoCAD and it shows most of the final layout of the stores, the parking garage, and the Target store. I omitted the restaurant area since I was still trying to find the best way to lay them out. In this plan, I also specified the dimensions of the streets with their parallel parking. I was also working on locating a convenient place for the loading decks in the stores. These decks had to be wide enough for trucks to manoeuvre and unload the products.

GARDEN CENTER

AC MOORE PETSMART EASTERN MOUNTAIN

BABIES-R-US ULTRA

CHRISTMAS TREE

OFFICEMAX

FAMOUS

BEST BUY

FOOTWEAR

& BEYOND

BED, BATH

Preliminary Plan

LOWES

TIM HORTONS PARTY CITY

GOLF GALAXY

BARNES&& BARNES

MIXED

NOBLE MUSEUM MUSEUM

HOTEL HOTEL

GARAGE

MIXED

TARGET

PARK

MIXED

This is almost the same AutoCAD plan as the previous one, with several fixed details, such as the loading decks, a new shape for the museum, so that the newly added restaurants and the museum could make a small square. Some other details were added, such as water fountains, and colours for each type of zone: red for businesses, orange for mixed buildings, green the park and the green spaces, and yellow for any kind of car free areas. In this plan, there are very few details to fix.

Environmental Design Final Plan

LOWES

AC MOORE GARDEN CENTER EASTERN M O U N TA I N PETSMART

BABIES-R-US

OFFICE MAX B E D , B AT H & BEYOND BEST BUY

CHRISTMAS TREE

U LTA

FAMOUS FOOTWEAR

TIM HORTONS PA R T Y C I T Y

GOLF GALAXY

BARNES & NOBLE

MIXED MUSEUM

GARAGE

MIXED

HOTEL

TA R G E T

MIXED

MIXED GREENHOUSE

MIXED

REFRESHMENTS

This is the final plan, which I presented to Benderson Developers, the owners of the plaza. It was made with AutoCAD and rendered with Illustrator. Here, I added all the details in the park and I changed the shape of the zigzagging water feature into a more organic shape. I also added retractable bollards next to the pedestrian area, so that trucks can deliver products to the restaurants, and for visitors of the hotel to approach their cars when they have luggage. This design solved all the problems that the plaza had at first. In addition to this, it achieves the goal that I wanted. I offered a large pedestrian and bicycle friendly public space that allows contact and social interaction among the visitors, residents and employees. The sections are interconnected with pedestrian pathways, shown in yellow. 40

Public Square This is a 3D view made with a mixture of media: Adobe Illustrator, hand drawing, water colour, and Photoshop. I decided to make these views by hand, rather than with SketchUp or other computer software, because I wanted the drawings to transmit the organic and natural qualities that I wanted the design to have. This natural quality cannot be made with a computer generated rendering. The rendering shows the small square enclosed by restaurants, the museum, and the hotel. The square can have several uses, depending on the time of the year or the time of the day. Its purpose is to promote public life and interaction. 41

Mixed-Use Area This is a view of the mixed-use area, with the stores in the first floors. In this view, one can also see the Target store thanks to the unobstructed vista, and also the pedestrian strip in the background.

Pedestrian Strip This is a view of the pedestrian strip, with a water fountain and mixed-use buildings on each side of it. This strip goes directly to the big stores area in the north side of the plaza.

Outdoor Restaurants This is a view of the back side of the outdoor restaurants area, next to the undulating water feature.

Pedestrian & Cyclist Friendly Area This is a view of the restaurants, the museum, the plaza in the retail stores section and the park in the background. The advantage of the park is that it provides a large green option for this part of the region in the city, it also brings benefits at many levels: physical and psychological benefits, economic benefits, environmental benefits, such as reducing the heat island effect, and it helps make a stronger sense of community by giving a sense of place. These are all benefits that not only influence the plaza, but the region in general.

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B U F F A L O. E D U

UB School of Architecture and Planning