MARIA T. WILSON architecture & art
PROJECTS: cemetery boat house museum rome freedom by design case study art
CEMETERY pioneer and military memorial cemetery Spring’ 11 ALA 226 Design Fundamentals IV Murff/Nordfors The Pioneer and Military Memorial Cemetery is located in the middle of down town Phoenix. The street to the north is busy with pedestrian flow and cars from the nearby industry. In order to gradually implement a transition in to a more quiet and sacred place I made the entrance gradually enclose like a funnel. This cemetery is important because it contains some of the oldest graves in Arizona as well as a deep history. In the beginning of the project I was captivated by a small gravestone made for an infant named Otto. The inscribing on the grave let me know of the grief that followed his death. It reminded me that a place for the deceased does not affect the dead but the living. In order to show respect for the family that had to endure this loss I designed an addition to the cemetery that would flutter with life and activity. I focused on creating spaces for the community to engage. Incorporating a garden, terraced park, graffiti walls and an underground art gallery all while still respecting and relating to the crypt graves to the South East. This allows for a community sense of ownership, diminishing the deterioration and neglect to the cemetery.
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BOAT HOUSE thread: gms olympic training center Spring’12 ADE 322 Architectural Studio II Zingoni We began our journey with a trip to the state of Connecticut were we got to see the current conditions and needs of the existing gms rowing boat house. During the site visit we were able to sleep in the same house as the athletes. What I learned was their most important needs. Rowing athletes consume incredibly large amounts of food, have very strict schedules and need their private space. ”This is our home” is what one of the athletes said to me. In the design we focused on placing the gym as the central part, the “heart”. It divides the programming to better suit the athlete’s daily schedule. As we developed the project we uncovered a series of constraints. The 100 year flood line covered over 50% of the site and the set backs for this “residential zone” were 20 feet from the property line. Our design solution was to elevate the building platform by 12 feet. This allowed us to place the necessary inhabitable spaces above the water line and occupy the empty space beneath with storage for the rowboats. The site was also where the water run-off from the neighboring hills was dumped. We were not allowed to deviate the flow of this water elsewhere. Our solution was to create a pond with a running track around it. This way we created a functional use out of a constraint.
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MUSEUM addition to the Tacoma Art Museum Spring’ 14 ADE 522 Advanced Architectural Studio II Horton This project began with a class trip to Tacoma Washington where we visited and analyzed the existing museum and surrounding context. What became most apparent was the inability for the existing museum to be seen, thereby not optimizing on the number of visitors it could drive in. The museum is located in the intersection of various major highways, which average about 130,000 cars per day. This is the same amount as the total population of the city of Tacoma. It is also located next to an up coming citywide effort to make a park along the prairie line system. Both of these factors, combined with the main streets’ relatively low and intimate scale, prompted us to develop the necessary additional galleries in the back. This design move allows for a fluid continuation of the existing circulation. A shift in the orientation of the entrance on the ground floor allows the museum to invite people in to the artistic experience before they even enter. The existing stainless steel façade is not rejected but welcomed in to the new design; following the original architect’s intent of reflecting the surroundings but now with moments of views inside the museum. The galleries can be curated themselves, made of a double layer of plexy glass, the intent is that curators also begin to compose the messages being read by the freeway commuters. This will allow the museum to continue to function even when not open during business hours. The curated gallery volumes can be used as advertisement or become a work of art. The double skin is designed for maximum thermal comfort for the visitors and the works of art.
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FREEDOM BY DESIGN ADA planter beds for Mesa Urban Garden After attending AIAS forum, held in Phoenix during the winter of 2011, I was inspired and convinced of the benefits of integrating the student body with the community. I reinstated the non-profit Freedom By Design. The initial project was to be a bus stop celebrating a minority Mexican group in a rural farm area. After reaching construction documents we were told the project had been cancelled due to political reasons. The challenges of being a leader surfaced after this event. I had to motivate my team to continue with enthusiasm and energy to another project. The Mesa Urban Garden needed ADA accessible planter beds, and we were there to help. The planter beds were designed so that a person with accesibility constraints could roll under the work surface with ease. With this design it is not necessary for an individual to get out of their wheel chair to work. Shelves were also designed and welded in to the supporting brick structure so that tools and personal items could be placed away from the dirt of the bed. Working on a non-profit project with the community has its challenges, but the benefits far outweigh them. I am thankful I was able to learn hands on about the process of design to built work, and in the process meet some incredible people whose lives we have impacted for the better. Freedom By Design team, 2011: Captain: Maria Wilson Co-Captain: Marissa Mendoza, Design lead: Amineh Warrayat, Marketing and Historian: Lydia Hreniuc Construction lead: Brian Wilson
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ROME lapsus imaginus Fall’ 14 ADE 621 Advanced Architectural Studio III Rocchi The proposal “Inter-digestion� is a study of layering through time as a process. Growing, shrinking, adding and destruction. A dynamic sensibility of adaptability rather than the perceived static and structured permanence of architecture, exposing the latent desire in the context. This concept came about from the study of the Tempe, 1910 flood. The damages to the existing infrastructure were severe; the dam was built in a response. Now we are in a time were water is scarce. The dam changed the ecology of the place. This project seeks to implement an architectural theory of working with the natural processes of an environment. No longer looking at nature as an object which has been human centered, and focused on ordering and separating it from humans. But changing the way we view the built world to cohabitate the planet with nature. Resulting in an architectural ecological system.Lessons learned from imagination translate much further than the current Tempe area. We are in a world coping with rising sea levels. What will happen after another flood? Are we condemned to suffer destruction after every disaster? The response is an architecture that no longer fights against time or elements, but is adaptive and responsive to them. It follows the same system of a living organism in growth, decay and ultimately death that serves as the platform for new life.
“The nature of space reflects what it wants to be” -Luis I. Kahn
This image like all historical images, “shows and bears witness to what history has silenced, to what, is no longer here, and arising from the darkest nights of memory, haunts us, and encourages us to remember the deaths and losses for which we remain, still today, responsible.� -Eduardo Cadava
ART “I often find even more incredible, the magic of things, the magic of the real world.� -Peter Zumthor
“Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have make the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge.� - Urban Think Tank