MATTHEW VARGAS DESIGN SCHOOL PORTFOLIO CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING 2005-2011
INTRODUCTION In the summer of my junior year at the Catholic University School of Architecture & Planning, I sat in on a lecture by architect David Guthrie. He said something along the lines of, “I don’t want to understand architecture. I want to understand the world. Architecture is a great lens for understanding the world.” That’s when I realized what I was really doing in architecture school. Up until that point, I probably thought I was in architecture school to learn how to become an architect. But the truth was, at the time, I had no idea with that meant. (It’s still vague at times) The more comprehensive objective of architecture school, as Mr. Guthrie articulated, was for me to gain a perspective of the world through the built environment by engaging in the numerous technical and theoretical issues in which it is based. The following encompasses work from the six and half years I spent in architecture school. Each project, regardless of the type, scale, or location has helped me uncover more about the logic in which the built environment is grounded. The study and practice of architecture and design offers me progressive clarity in the world I inhabit. For that alone, I am more than grateful.
GRADUATE
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RETROFITTING LANDSCAPE CASCO VIEJO BELVEDERE SQUARE
UNDERGRADUATE 32-51 AN ALLEY IS A PATH FOR LIVING INHABITING THE LANDSCAPE ALICE’S WONDERLAND
COMPETITIONS HUNGER? THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT COGO IDEAL THEATRE
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Parti Mo odel_Belvvedere Square Comm munity Center_2009
GRADUATE In 2009, I continued my architectural education at Catholic University’s School of Architecture & Planning, pursuing a dual master’s in architecture and sustainable design with a concentration in urban design. Over 6 semesters, I had the opportunity to travel twice internationally, first to Amsterdam and later to Panama. In 2011, I completed my architectural thesis design.
RETROFITTING LANDSCAPE SUBURBAN RETROFIT & LANDSCAPE URBANSIM
THESIS DESIGN _ 2011 As a graduate student in urban design, my thesis research focused around two major, yet somewhat conflicting, ideologies of urban planning: suburban retrofit and landscape urbanism. In a nut shell, suburban retrofit is the practice of taking suburban sprawl - disjointed, ineffiicient communites riddled by excessive parking lots, cul-de-sacs, and big box retail - and transforming them into livable, walkable communities through tried-and-true principles of urban design. Landscape urbanism, on the other hand, calls for an environmental approach to urban design. Rather than rely solely on the established rules of urbanism, it urges for infrastructural and ecological site conditions to be the catalyst of urban space. In this way, not only does urban design become wholly integrated with the surrounding natural context it also becomes very signature, since the urban form is generated by the characteristics of local ecology and environment. Given my research, the basis of my thesis design project was to introduce both suburban retrofit and landscape urbanism strategies on a site which lacked urban coherence or identity. This eventually led me to a site just southwest of Washington DC at the intersection of Four Mile Run and Potomac Yard in Virginia. The following outlines my process for taking an expansive suburban shopping center and transforming it into an urban landscape.
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PAST
Potomac Yard was once an expansive railroad yard as seen in the image and plan above, However, today little trace remains of this once significant piece of the urban landscape.
FUTURE
Currently, a new urban plan, see above, is slated for development on this site within the next 10 years. This thesis studied this urban plan in order to establish a sense of both scale and program.
STRATEGIES Given the above research and the existing conditions, I began to develop diagrams for generating an urban form:
1. Bringing the adjacent street grid through the site.
2. Working with the alignment of the abandoned rail bridge.
3. Making a connection across the rail lines and parkway to the Potomac River.
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CASCO VIEJO RESTITCHING PANAMA PANAMA’S S OLD QUARTER
PANAMA CITY
ARCH 603 _ 2010
For this Urban Design studio, we traveled to the old quarter, Casco Viejo, in Panama City, Panama. While some of the old quarter is still thriving, sporadic pockets lie in a ruinous, barren state. It was our objective to fuse the thriving areas with the barren pockets by respectfully injecting contemporary building fabric in an otherwise histori rriic setting. CASCO VIEJO
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EXISTING PLAN
PROPOSED PLAN
A REVITALIZED URBAN SPACE During the first half of the semester, we focused on repairing the urban fabric surrounding Plaza Herrera, a beautiful yet vacant public square one block from the waterfront. We observed firsthand the prominence of pick up soccer in this Latin American culture albeit without formal fields for play. For this reason we proposed a new soccer/sports square on the waterfront and linked it to Plaza Herrera via a new community boulevard. As a concept, the new square would be an active node while Plaza Herrera would remain a relaxing urban plaza.
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A 21ST CENTURY BUILDING In part two, we divided into teams and designed singular buildings within the newly stitched fabric. Erin Tumey and I designed a community arts center to act as a hub for local artists. The building is adjacent to the street which links Plaza Herrera with the new waterfront plaza. Given this juxtaposition, we approached the building as a porous pavilion which could be moved through in a variety of ways. We designed an interior “art alley” that could display the work of local artists, along with interior galleries, artist studio residences, and a café.
SECTION A
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BELVEDERE SQUARE
ARCH RCH 601 FALL 2009
REGENERATING A LANDMARK IN NORTHERN BALTIMORE ARCH 601 2009
In Belvedere Square in northern Baltimore,the Senator Theatre, a beautiful historic movie house, sits amongst eroded urban fabric and vacant retail space. For this project the team of John Lang, Kevin McNamara, Doug Pettit, John Radowich, and myself sought to supplement the existing urban fabric and bring identity to Belvedere Square by emphasizing the historic Senator Theater as a cultural landmark. By creating a film school as the backdrop to the Senator and relating a new community center on axis with the Senator, the Theater gains a new significance in the surrounding neighborhood. Some of the key issues addressed in this scheme include creating program and urban space to highlight a landmark, relating scale to the surrounding neighborhood and creating relationships acrossYork Road, a busy four-laned road,to establish Belvedere Square as a district.
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EXISTING FIGURE GROUND
PROPOSED FIGURE GROUND
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PROP POSED URBAN PLAN
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SITE SECTION A - WEST
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S SITE S SECTION C O A - EAST S
ENLARGED SECTION B - SCHOOL
ENLARGED SECTION C - HUB
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FILM SCHOOL ENTRANCE FROM YORK ROAD
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FILM SCHOOL PLAZA
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sketches from
the
netherlands During the first semester of graduate school, our urban design studio traveled to the Netherlands for a five day design research excursion. We were stationed in Amsterdam, but over the five days we made it to Hilversum, Utretcht, Delft, and Rotterdam. We had much to see and moved very fast. It was my goal to sketch, but we were constantly on the move, so I had to sketch and walk at the same time. The result is collection of quick, messy diagrams documenting our journey. Drawing at such a fast pace not only improved my sketching abilities but also allowed me to visualize and process what I see with speed and clarity. It was one of my most enjoyable experiences, and, to this day, it is my favorite way to sketch.
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UNDERG
Parti Model_Alice’s Wonderland_2007
GRADUATE In 2005, I moved to Washington D.C. and began my career as a student of architecture at the Catholic University School of Architecture & Planning. From drafting, to modeling, to sketching and digital fabrication, I constantly learned how to analyze and synthesize the built environment. While rigorous, the 4 years I spent as an undegrad was an invaluable experiecence, one I often look back on fondly.
AN ALLEY IS A PATH FOR LIVING REPACKAGING THE RESIDENTIAL BLOCK ARCH 401 2008
LeCorbusier once said “A house is a machine for living.� While the allies behind the duplexes in Northeast Washington DC perform an important service function, this project hypothesized that the alley is a path for living. By making several interventions, the typical residential block is re-packaged in a way that introduces a new row of living units geared towards recent college graduates and emerging professionals. In this way, a block could achieve both higher density and better diversity while remaining functional.
EXISTING
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EXISTING BLOCK
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PROPOSED BLOCK
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SECOND FLOOR UNIT PLAN
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FIRST FLOOR UNIT PLAN 38
SECTION PERSPECTIVE A
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INHABITING LANDSCAPE AN ADULT RETREA AT CENTER ON SUGARLO OAF MO OUNT TAIN ARCH 301 2007
For the second half of Arch 301, we e left the city and ventured to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain in Dickerson Maryland. We were challenged with designing an adult retreat center within the rural landscape. Given the mountainside and steep topography, the main concept of this building is stepped levels of privacy. The first level offers the most public spaces, the lobby and the library. Upon descending, the levels and spaces become more and more intimate culminating with the private guestrooms which leaves nothing between the guests and the mountain overlook.
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1. MAIN LOBBY 2. LIBRARY 3. KITCHEN 4. DINING 5. WORKSPACES 6. SEMINAR SPACE 7. SPA 8-11 GUESTROOMS
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SECTION B
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ALICE’S WONDERLAND
A CHILDR REN’S CAMP IN NORTHWEST WASHINGTON DC ARCH 202 2 2007
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Arch 202 was an introduction to designing with specific building program. For the final design exercise of the semester, we were given the program of a children’s sleep-away camp set in a residential neighborhood in Northwest DC. The program included classrooms, workspaces, a sports room, a cafeteria , a gallery space, and sleeping quarters for the kids and camp counselors. For this design, I laid out the given program on two floor plans as seen in the sketches to the left. This left an orthogonal C shape surrounding a void. Rather than left over space, the void seemed dynamic in that it could be the main gathering space for the campers and counselors. For this reason, I applied a “mesh” roof enclousre which contrasted the rigidity of the rest of the form.This mesh roof then helps to break up the rest off the building into smaller scaled elements as seen in the evolution below.
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sketches from
italy
In the spring semester of my junior year, I had the incredible opportunity to participate in Catholic University’s study abroad program in Rome, Italy. Our apartment and studio was located in one of Rome’s most vibrant piazza’s, Campo de Fiori (Place of Flowers). Living on this piazza, I was literally minutes from anything I needed in both for daily life and nightlife. I’d never before been so connected to my surrounding culture, and it has influenced the way I live to this day. Outside of experiencing Rome, we embarked on trips to: Northern Italy, including Venice, Vicenza, Como, and Milan; Central Italy, including Florence and Siena; and Southern Italy, including Naples, Sorrento, and the Amalfi Coast. As we navigated the various cities rapidly, sketching was a major component for understanding the urban environments throughout Italy. Featured here are some of the more representational sketches from the semester long trip.
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COMPE
CANstruction Build Out_National Building Museum_2011
TITIONS In between semesters, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in several design competitions alongside fellow classmates and co-workers. Competitions are always fun in that they’ve allowed me to engage in design issues I wouldn’t normally come across. I hope to continue to pursue competitions throughout my career.
HUNGER? THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT.
CAPITAL AREA FOOD BANK CANSTRUCTION 2011 HONORABLE MENTION WIENCEK+ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS+PLANNERS
Canstruction is a nonprofit organization that holds annual design and build competitions to construct giant sized structures made entirely out of canned food. In each city, after the structures are built and the winners declared the creations go on view to the general public as giant art exhibits. At the close of the competition all of the Cansculptures are dismantled and the food used in the structures is donated to the local food banks for distribution to community emergency feeding programs. The CANsculpture designs are generally influenced by popular culture, and, therefore, our firm, Wiencek+Associates, chose to design and build an 8 foot tall Iphone held by a hand, with the title of the piece: “Hunger? There’s an App for That!” The entire sculpture was modeled in Sketch-Up in order to determine total can quantities and structural needs. The only material used aside from canned food was custom cut pieces of gator board which was introduced at every level of cans in order to provide leveling and structural stability.
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CONCEPT SKETCH
STRUCT TURAL SECTIO ON
3D MODELING
APP CAN REPRESENTATION
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COGO
COMING TOGETHER IN RAINIER VALLEY, WASHINGTON GERALD D. HINES STUDENT URBAN DESIGN COMPETITION, 2011 THE URBAN LAND INSTITUTE
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The ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, offers graduate-level students the opportunity to form their own multidisciplinary teams and engage in a challenging exercise in responsible land use. Teams of five students, comprising at least three disciplines, have two weeks to devise a comprehensive design and development program for a real, large-scale site full of challenges and opportunities. The competition is part of the Institute’s ongoing effort to raise interest among young people in creating better communities, improving development patterns, and increasing awareness of the need for multidisciplinary solutions to development and design challenges. This particular competition was set in the Seattle suburb of Mount Baker, a promising forerunner for expanded transit-oriented development in the Seattle metro area. Located three miles southeast of downtown, the Mount Baker station lies in the heart of an economically and ethnically diverse neighborhood. The area around the station currently consists of commercial uses with large parking lots, two heavily-traveled thoroughfares, and single-family detached residential neighborhoods, yet the city and Sound Transit are hopeful that local residents and developers will realize a higher and better use that capitalizes on the new availability of mass transit. The design team consisted of Valerie Berstene, Lindsey Dickes, Brain Falasca, Miguel Maldanado, and myself.
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IDEAL CAMPUS THEATRE USITT COMPETITION 2009
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For this competition, I worked with Patrick Morgan and Greg Barry alongside Catholic University drama students to design an educational theater for the Catholic U campus. Because this is an educational theater, we sought to showcase some of the behind the scenes aspects of theatre production to all of the guests. This was achieved by creating theatre served spaces that look into theatre service spaces. Examples of this would be the cafe that looks over into the costume shop, or the main lobby that looks down into the scene shop and upward to the administration. Most importantly we wanted to create spaces that functioned appropriately, and this governed the main features of the building, which is illustrated through the relationship of the black box theater to the scene shop and to the main stage. Finally, we ensured that the drama students were provided with the necessary space requirements they requested for classrooms and workrooms.
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sketches from
seattle In the summer of 2011, I had the amazing opportunity to visit a place I’ve always wanted to see: Seattle, Washington. I grew up idolizing the Mariners’ legend Ken Griffey Jr. Little did I know Seattle had much more to offer than major league baseball. As a student of urban and sustainable design, a proponent of fresh market food, and a lover of craft brews, there was nothing not to love about Seattle. For 5 days, my mom, dad, and I explored all of Seattle, and as we did, I applied my Amsterdam sketching techniques to document all we saw. From the Seattle Public Library by Rem Koolhaas, down through Pike Place Market, over to the Olympic Sculpture Park by Weiss Manfredi, and all around Pugent Sound, I graphically narrated the trip in my pocket size moleskin. Needless to say, the architecture was brilliant, but what I value most about urban/sustainable design is the lifestyle it promotes, and never have I experienced an American city which embodies this lifestyle quite as well as Seattle.
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I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do. -Naomi Shihab Nye, Famous
MATTHEW VARGAS 973.743.9013
matthew.t.vargas@gmail.com