mmcallister
M e ghan M c A lli s t e r M.Arch I / Yale School of Architecture meghan.mcallister @gmail.com
Architecture 2
Musical Instrument Museum
12
CASIS Headquarters
22
Narrow Lot Prototype
30
Bi-nuclear House
38
Vlock Building Project
36
Dance Machine
Urbanism 50
Re-thinking Housing in Mexico
60
New Olympic Harbor
Community Engagement 76
Reclaiming Industrial Hamburg
80
I wish my block to be...
82
Garagebacks Project
84
Better Blocks Philly
Professional Work 90
Audubon Master Plan
96
Northstar Residences
Musical Instrument Museum The tension between musical instruments as beautiful objects for display versus machines for producing sound comes alive in this new museum for Yale’s Collection of Musical Instruments. Two circulation systems with different speeds and lighting conditions allow brighter performance spaces to be threaded between more dimly -lit exhibit rooms. At the urban scale, the new museum is porous at ground-level, acting as a new gateway where the cross-campus green interfaces with the city. New Haven, CT / Fall 2014 / Critic: John Patkau
Music Campus Master Plan Proposed Buildings: Graduate Student Housing Practice and Study Rooms Musical Instrument Museum Museum Suppot/ Loading
Level 2
3
4
5
CASIS Headquarters (Center for Advancement of Science in Space) A diagonal urban pathway draws pedestrians from the water taxi terminal through the building and toward downtown Manhattan. This path essentially divides the building into two: an administrative building and a conference center. Articulated as a ribbon, the public sequence ties the two buildings back together. Beginning with a theater in the conference center, the public ribbon guides visitors past the payload control center, and then delivers them to a rooftop gallery where they can watch scientists working on the suspended space capsule with a view back to the park and river just beyond. Fall 2013 / New York, NY / Critic: Joel Sanders
EAST RIVER
FDR DRIVE
1ST AVENUE
WATER TAXI TERMINAL
38TH ST
PAYLOAD CONTROL
OFFICES GALLERY
LOBBY
LECTURE HALLS
EVENT SPACE
Narrow Lot Prototype This prototype for a single-family residence used the topography of the site to create a split-level house. The public spaces flow continuously on the ground level with the slope of the site. Two upper level ribbons contain bedrooms and bathrooms and can be offset further vertically or horizontally depending on programmatic needs, zoning, and the given site topography. The ribbons interlock around a central light well, which brings light down the kitchen, which is conceived as the symbolic and programmatic center of the home. Spring 2013 / New Haven / Critic: Joeb Moore
Precedent Study : MVRDV Borneo-Sporenborg
Bi-Nuclear House This bi-nuclear design encloses the private program, bedrooms and bathrooms, into two volumes that float within a continuous communal space. A two-story light well brings daylight through the center of the house. The private volumes each contain their own bathroom, which increases privacy and flexibility for the bedroom configuration. When replicated as a prototype, these volumes could also increase in length to accommodate additional rooms. The zoning code allows for the public space to flow into a partial third floor play space on top of the rear bedrooms. Spring 2013 / New Haven / collaboration with K. Bizycowski, B. Hancock, M. Cohen, J. Lee, J. Okai
Building Project: Details and Construction After the house design was selected, I collaborated with a small team to design the envelope details, including siding, window, trim and soffit specifications. Over the summer, I worked as one of fourteen interns that completed the construction of the house. I was involved with the framing, siding, flooring, and tiling, as well as installing the trim and soffits. Summer 2013 / New Haven / advisor: Adam Hopfner Envelope detail partners: J. Penniman, M.H. Lee, A. Su
Dance Machine Located on a corner lot adjacent to the highline, this dance center playfully modulates between the diagonal angle of the highline and the orthagonal street grid. The main theater volume is wedged through the site, dividing the site for three major programs. A monumental public stair flows from the highline to the street, and private studios are packed against the adjacent building. A glass canopy, reflecting the new modulating grid, encloses these three elements and helps to define a new public space atop the theater. fall 2012 / new york, ny / critic: joyce hsiang
Urbanism
Re-thinking Social Housing in Mexico An ambitious social housing policy was created in Mexico in the mid seventies for mass construction of low-rise, single-unit housing devlopments. The solution gave access to find a real home for many Mexicans, but has created many ‘suburbangettos’ that lack infrastructure, services and jobs. My partner and I are focusing on a site in Cancun. Our neighborhood has a high rate of abandonment due to the transitory nature of many migrant workers seeking wage labor in the tourism industry. Many of the migrants are from indgenous communities, and their typical cultural and community practices are hindered by the monotonous housing stock with little communal outdoor space. We are proposing a disaggregated indigenous university that will empower local residents and foster a sense of place for a more permanent community. Additionally. we are developing prototypes for housing and university incubators that can plug into the existing fabric. These prototypes will double the amount of shaded, outdoor space and offer opportunities for more communal living.The university pieces and demonstrative housing would be built first, and then the excisting fabric would incrementally morph over time. In progress - Spring 2015 / Mexico / Critic: Tatiana Bilbao collaboration with Meghan Lewis Photo by Livia Corona, courtesy of YSOA website
VILLAS OTOCH
CANCUN 10 km
100 M
Left and Right: Typ.Block, Existing Conditions
Left: Prototypical Unit Adaptations Right: Typ. Block, Proposed Adaptation
Concept Model
Olympic Harbor While creating housing for the 2024 Olympic Games in the short term, this New Olympic Harbor will also provide Boston with a smaller scale, working waterfront- an alternative to the new high-rises in the adjacent Seaport District. Strips of unique housing typologies modulate scales between the convention center to the water and from South Boston to the Seaport District. The western two blocks are raised on podiums, which allows for a coexistence of two public surfaces- a commercial zone at grade and an upper level public green network that can be kept secure during the Olympic Games. A series of canals and pedestrian greenways tie all of the blocks together offering dynamic views of the waterfront. A linear recreational park along 1st St offers amenities for South Boston, and restores an axial connection to Pleasure Bay. Spring 2014 / Boston / Critic: Alan Plattus collaboration with PJ Nakamura
Community Engagement
Reclaiming Industrial Hamburg In conjunction with HafenCity’s University of the Neighborhood Project, we indentified a series of sites that could be reclaimed through recreation in a postindustrial and largely immigrant neighborhood. We took each site and “re - designed” the game of soccer to fit each circumstance. Soccer then became a way to bring the community together, cross language barriers, and gain new agency over the spaces of the neighborhood. We designed graphics to explain the new rules, and organized a soccer tournament in which a wide variety of community members participated.
2010 / Hamburg / collaboration with: L. Grellmann, A. Courtot, I. Hurducas, M.Lendzinski, H. Vollmer
I wish our block had... [Yale Building Project] As one of the Community Engagement Coordinators for the Yale Building Project, I organized and ran an event to bring the community together on the block where we were planning to build. The purpose of the event was to brainstorm and understand the block through a mapping project. Multiple stations allowed residents to tag largescale maps with their ideas, memories, interpretations of the block. The project brought community members together to visually discuss initiatives to reclaim vacant/ abandoned spaces in Newhallville. Additionally, it allowed students to better understand the socio-spatial dynamic of the neighborhood and site. Spring 2013 / New Haven / collaboration with Hiba Bhatty
Better Blocks Philly Better Blocks Philly was a community-driven design demonstration project that took place during Design Philadelphia in 2011. The project engaged residents, artists and designers in creating a living/functioning exhibit of “Complete Street� concepts, with temporary traffic calming and streetscape installations, as well as pop-up shops and community events. I collaborated with the designers at Brown & Keener Urban Design, WRT and the South of South Neighborhood Association to develop the design, coordinate material donations, produce website content, and install the interventions. 2011 / Philadelphia / collaboration with: South of South Neighborhood Association Wallace Roberts & Todd ( WRT ) Brown & Keener Urban Design
pop-up stores Community Pool
bumpouts
chicane
mid-block crossing
Marion Anderson Recreation Center
catharine st
webster st
1801
1701
christian st
YMCA
17th st
YMCA Annex
eet
reet 18th st
parklet Edwin M Stanton School
Plan courtesy of WRT.
Professional Work
Audubon Center Master Plan [Atkin Olshin Schade Architects] Mill Grove is the first home in America of artist/naturalist John James Audubon. The 247-year-old farmhouse and rolling acres of pastoral fields and forest that make up the Mill Grove estate have enormous historical, cultural, and aesthetic significance. The Master Site Development Plan for the John James Audubon Center is a community-based strategic planning effort that sets forth a comprehensive vision for managing and interpreting the historic, artistic and natural heritage of the property. I was responsible for the editing and graphic production of the 175-page Master Site Development Plan Book. This involved numerous iterations with feedback from the client and the Pennsylvania and Montgomery County Parks Departments. A goal of the book was to clearly articulate the design process, as well as the methods utilized for interpretation and consensus-building. 2011 / Atkin Olshin Schade Architects collaboration with Lisa Dustin and Michael Schade
Northstar Residences [Bohlin Cywinski Jackson] Located on Lake Tahoe’s Northstar mountain resort, these fourteen ski-in/ski-out homes include three unique designs. As a summer intern, I collaborated with a five-person team using Revit for permitting sets and construction documents. I was responsible for the stair details, some interior elevations and specifications, and marketing renders. Summer 2014 / Truckee, CA Greg Mattola (Principal-in- Charge), Denis Schofield (Project Manager) Design team collaborators: R. Alt, A. Ellenbogen, K. Bouret