ROBERT GEORGE LITTLE III a design portfolio
portfolio contents robert george little iii 386 myrtle ave apartment 2 brooklyn, ny 11205 rglittle@RGL3.com www.rgl3.com
architecture rendering graphics
architecture
SIMULTANEOUS CITIES Philadelphia
Simultaneous Cities aims to reconnect two postindustrial neighborhoods, while simultaneously producing moments of cross-programming, functional overlap, and social interface. As a means of programmatic distribution, three autonomous parametric species were developed. By starting with a simple archetype and embodying it with variability, behaviors become apparent. The program, a Live / Work complex for young artists and designers, is systematically paired with each species, then is let loose on the city. The site: the expanding gap between Fishtown and Northern Liberties in Philadelphia was chosen to investigate the thesis.
1. Pink parcels are residential. Purple parcels are commercial.
2. Primary retail streets overlaid by Residential Parcels paired with Industrial Sites
3. Public Transportation Routes. Red dashed lines represent busses. The Blue line represents the MarketFrankfurt Subway Line (elevated).
4. Historical, no-longer in existence, industrial warehouses crossed with public green spaces and parks.
5. Vacant and Parking lots crossed with public greens spaces, parks, and vacant green lots.
6. Industrial and historically industrial parcels crossed with public parks.
7. Public parks overlaid by public parks.
8. Historical and current industrial sites.
9. Commercial Strips.
10. These neighborhoods are known for beer. Blue is where its produced. Red is where you can drink it.
11. Canal street’s historical trajectory through current parking lots and greens spaces.
12. Deformations of city blocks as a result of a historical canal.
Simultaneous City v54. Vacant Industrial Sites Studios. Canal/Housing. Neighboring Vacant Lots attempting to connect.
Artist Studios and Galleries are attached to Vacant Industrial Sites. The matte Courtyard species can be easily adapted as artist workshops, studios, fabrication spaces, and galleries. They can also offer public interface along street walls. Maps 1 and 6.
Multi-Story Apartments become situated along the Historical Canal and its species has a varying tolerance for attaching to existing warehouse buildings and a church. This species needs a host, much like a parasite. In this case, historical industrial buildings and a historical church are used as a host for the sake of experimenting. Maps 1, 4, and 12.
The Urban Wall becomes a connective system between Vacant Industrial Lots and neighboring Vacant Lots. The species has the ability to take on various urban pedestrian or human scale typologies such as arch-ways, paving paths, linear indoor or outdoor galleries, even wall that control traffic. Maps 5 and 6.
Multi-story Housing Species attached and extends from as existing vacant warehouses.
Courtyard Species attached to vacant lots, becomes a performing artist studio with a public program enclosed in its center. The center of this courtyard is a petting zoo.
This Courtyard Species has become an open market due to its entrances merging with each other; this resulted in only a roof to define the courtyard.
Courtyard Species attached to vacant lots, becomes an outdoor concert hall. The Urban Wall species intersects with the Courtyard, providing an entrance and a front/back negotiator.
Simultaneous City v21. Vacant Industrial Sites Studios. Canal/Housing. Neighboring Vacant Lots attempting to connect.
Indoo
Urban Wall Species as an intruding public circulation corridor.
Circular Buildings attached to The Urban Wall. In this case, due to its intersection with the courtyard art studios, a smelting facility.
Multi-story Housing Species attached and extends from a historic church.
or Gallery and Outdoor Art Walls
Urban Wall Species as a pocket wall, possibly pourous.
Circular Buildings attached to The Urban Wall. In this case, a restaurant.
Hudson Yards Concepts New York, New York
Concept residential towers designed as part of a vision plan for the Hudson Yards master plan. *Rendered (center), Designed and Rendered (right) while a Designer at FXFOWLE.
Baku Tower
Baku, Azerbaijan Located in the heart of Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, a well known construction company asked for a tall, iconic office tower to represent their firm. Neighboring the Heydar Aliyev Center by Zaha Hadid Architects, the tower strives to maintain its own identity while paying homage to the organic form and place making of its neighbor. The Baku Tower is understood as a primary south facing surface that facets to create an in-the-round building. It is intentionally designed to appear destabilized but balanced. The sculptural office tower stretches 50 stories in the air and terminates with a roof garden and viewing platform that directs visitors toward the old city center. At the base of the building, nestled under the primary surface, are office amenities and a theater - a glowing white box that frames the Heydar Aliyev Center. *Designed while a Designer at FXFOWLE
The Aurora
Nation Academy Museum and School, New York, New York As part of an exhibition at the National Academy Museum and School titled Revealing Architecture, the Aurora was designed as a abstraction of FXFOWLE’s recent work. As an object hanging in a circular space, the Aurora aims to decentralize the room, creating space for passage, mingling, and rest. The Aurora is conceptualized as a mobius strip which is defined by its continuous interweaving wood frame and the fins spanning between itself. The frame, when unrolled is over 80 feet long, was CNC milled by a custom handrail manufacturer allowing each bend and straight section to be unique. Spanning between the frame, wire cables support 127 paper fins. The fins, which are also each unique, were laser cut from 4-ply museum board and laminated together during the folding process to ensure strength. The sculpture, which is also structure, produces an overlap in artistic vision and engineering. Various simulations were produced to better understand how the sculpture would react to real forces including people. The exhibit is on display from Jan 29, 2015 - May 3, 2015. *Part of the Design/Build team while a Designer at FXFOWLE
Oyster Bay House Long Island, New York
A house for a man with a boat. The client and his wife asked for a house for themselves and the occasional guest. Owners of a boat and a slip in the rear of the property, one of the primary requirements forces the house to be lifted in order for a boat on a trailer to pass underneath. The house is organized with a simple parti splitting the plan into a living space and a service bar. The kitchen and public living spaces occupy the first floor while the bedrooms reside in a volume hanging from the ceiling. The ground floor is planned to be rock and the extruded house is to be constructed from timber. The project is currently in schematic design.
Convention Center Vision Plan Boston
As part of an RFP to rethink the unused spaces of the Convention Center, the design team adopted two scenarios that could result in a well-thought active architectural solution. The first, Agora, based on the greek archetype, is about bringing the outside in. Agora makes connections to surrounding urban forces and creates an internal intersection where program such as food, lounging, and relaxation can roam freely. This scenario is intended as a relief to the constant engagement and pace of conventions. The second, Flexpo, is about rethinking how convention space is used, allowing for multiple arrangements of public, meeting, and exhibition space. These spaces are divided by movable partitions allowing the convention center to be flexible and meet the needs of multiple clients simultaneously. *Designed while a Designer at FXFOWLE.
Scenario One - “Agora�
existing condition
proposed renovation collage
Scenario Two - “Flexpo�
Residential Tower
Hudson Yards, New York The primary slice at the base of the building, which is echoed at its top, is crafted to cantilever over Dyer Avenue allowing for larger floor plates above. The facade is a striping of glass and marble which remains planar with the exception of two ‘rips’ that stretch up its north and south facades. These become the balconies for each unit and gradually rotate up the building to suggest different views at different heights. These balconies were scripted in Grasshopper to allow the design team to quickly run through various iterations. *Designed while a Designer at FXFOWLE
Confidential Client Headquarters Complex Shanghai, China
A headquarters for a growing construction company, the Headquarters Complex consists of an iconic office tower, hotel bar, residential tower, and amenities to connect each program. The client was keen to build a tower that was inherently Chinese; as a result, much of the design strived to represent various symbols in Chinese or Buddhist culture. The chosen scheme took on the form of a lotus flower, which represents “new life.” One of the many constraints embodied in this project is the strict requirements of the Chinese zoning restrictions - one in particular requires that every existing residential window receives at least 3 hours of direct sunlight per day. While working on this project at FXFOWLE, a grasshopper script was produced that would constantly track our overall form and return results of every possible shadow the building would cast and highlight the windows that weren’t receiving enough light. *Assisted in design while a Designer at FXFOWLE.
The first major regulation that influenced the form of all four schemes was a setback envelope defined by the existing residential towers. The rule states that the height of any newly constructed tower must be at least 1.35x its height away from the base of any existing residential tower. This law is in place to allow for natural light and to avoid harsh wind between towers. In order to understand our buildable envelope, we reversed the process.
Once the envelope was determined, the team proceeded with four schemes, all of which were constantly tested for the second major rule. This rule states that any existing or newly constructed residential window must receive at least 3 hours of direct sunlight everyday. The images above are the output of a Grasshopper script that determines the amount of sunlight each window is receiving. Red represents no light and beige represents 4 or more hours of light.
Office Park
Istanbul, Turkey Building on work previously completed by FXFOWLE, the client asked us to redevelop the podium levels of the Office Park. The towers, which were set-in-stone, became the design influence for the filleted forms that make up the podium level. Trying to maintain a certain amount of animation, the podium forms are made of continuous bans that stack in such a way that they are constantly shifting - playing games with each other as they struggle to become the dominant form. The urban space that results becomes a public plaza surrounded by retail and features a ‘media-cube’ as its focal point. *Designed while a Designer at FXFOWLE.
Urban Rest Stop Syracuse, New York
The urban rest stop proposes a “kit of parts” to be a temporary oasis for citizens, visitors and passersby. Common objects and a simple palette of materials occupy the site to promote a range of activities and social exchange. In response to their needs, wants and desires, visitors can rearrange the pieces. “Urban rest” becomes new forms of urban recreation: camping, grilling, watching a flick, playing volleyball, grabbing a bite or just lying on the beach. Paint, fabric and tape divide the site into different and overlapping figures of activity. It is a place of fun and novelty, a place of difference – called an oasis – a fertile spot in the city. The elements proposed are ubiquitous - but enigmatic in their repetition, juxtaposition, and urban context. In any season, the beach with sand, umbrellas, flora and fauna provide the perfect setting for an urban pause. Sails of cotton fabric on the underbelly of the highway become the screen for urban video. The field of micro tents become light beacons after dark. Highway paint, Glo-paint and court tape construct the fields and figures across the full site. String lights provide a flicker while LED motion activated lights rapidly record occupation. Synthetic turf lets you sit on the (small patch of) lawn in any season – an oasis. The “kit of parts” can be stored off site and recomposed on this, or any other site in the city. In collaboration with: Theodore L. Brown Martin Haettasch
Industrial Arts Center Cincinnati, Ohio
The Live/Make Center is conceptualized as a contribution to the reconstruction of the neighborhood and as a civic interface between the “lower and upper cities” of Cincinnati, mediated through building form and landscape. At the scale of the city the project provides both an urban backdrop and lyrical passage through the site, connecting the brewery district with the landscape to the north and the University neighborhood. A backdrop of housing slabs asserts a defined edge of the city, while the horizontal plinth negotiates the exchange between ‘city’ and ‘landscape’ across this boundary. Productively revisiting the canonical tower/ plinth strategy, the design proposal weaves together social programs, fabrication studios and residential units. Building from the existing warehouse, the project presents a two story structure at street edge which is eroded through urban and landscape connections, and the inner workings of the live/make complex. Figuration is introduced to elaborate connections, provide light and articulate significant program. Formal exchange – figure and ground – is deployed at social and programmatic junctures throughout the project. The project includes a library/ media center and a fitness center – a classical bracketing of intellection and recreation – to amplify the creative potential of live/make, and serve as civic amenities for the district. In collaboration with: Theodore L. Brown Martin Haettasch Marco Ravini
SALT*
Near West Side, Syracuse, NY
As part of ongoing redevelopment of the Near West Side, led by Upstate, the design team was asked to solve a multiplicity of existing programs on a single block. Nojaim grocery store, the last grocery store in Syracuse that is primarily used by pedestrians, required renovation and sustainable updates including a green roof and grey water retention system. A medical clinic, separated by a parking lot, required a 350% expansion. By reorganizing the program, and inserting community based components such as a greenhouses and outdoor market spaces, the project situates itself as a critical location in the redeveloping city.
Competition: Winning Entry MUNLY BROWN STUDIO Theodore L. Brown Anne Munly Martin Haettasch George Little Marco Ravini
The Almost Wall Syracuse, NY
Inspired by the work of Erwin Hauer, our research of complex concrete form-making borrowed notions of continuous surface and production. While developing our system, we quickly realized that our use of digital fabrication and highdensity non-expansive cement (S66) would allow us to explore ideas of thinness and scale. The initial idea, borrowed from Hauer would attempt to replicate an original form digitally, then begin reducing and deforming it to fit criteria such as production equipment and material limitations. The artistic nature of Hauer’s smooth connections became impossible to produce with the fabrication equipment at our disposal, thus we began to implement on the design adding connection elements and giving the system the ability to stand on its own – becoming a kind of interior partition.
PROJECT H.O.M.E. Philadelphia
Project HOME aims to end homelessness in Philadelphia by providing a refuge for those individuals struggling to stay formally homeless. Due to the fierce cycle of homelessness, Project H.O.M.E. understands the necessity for a strong supportive community in which people can begin to rebuild their lives on their own will. The project aims to create an environment where this communal support system can flourish. The proposed building is conceptualized as a vertical street connecting various neighborhoods along its path. The tower consists of three different types of residential units, each based in a standardized unit. If the residential units are understood as poche, removing some units, creating voids, allows for the placement of various community programs. The pairing of vertical circulation and community space become critical to the success of the projects social agenda. The overall massing of the building is influenced by a few factors, most prominently views for residential units and light for the existing buildings. The resulting twist is structured with poured concrete, encasing all the units and supporting the circulation. Underneath this twisted structure, various public programs populate the ground floor. Retail space occupies the street front of the site. As one moves deeper into the site, a blending of supportive program for the homeless and public program becomes more apparent.
BEYOND VOID DISTORTED RING Image; Florence, Italy
The project is conceptualized as a series of programmatic elements that wrap and surround the primary entity; a large central courtyard. The program is arranged around two user groups; the viewer and the contributor. Various programmatic elements are connected through multiple circulation paths, which encourage social interaction and interchangeable promenades. The project consists of three major elements, the BEYOND MEDIA Courtyard, the programmatic Ring, and the interstitial Lobby. The Ring that surrounds the BEYOND MEDIA Courtyard and touches the Lobby, has been lifted on the street side to embrace the public realm. In an effort to eliminate disruption of the existing streetside piazza, a structural truss within its envelope cantilevers the building. The courtyard, the primary void in the project, is a transformable space. The three story Ring, which houses most of the program is strung together with the circulation paths that wrap around the courtyard. They connect galleries, auditoriums, discussion and reception spaces, areas for production and seminars, offices, and most importantly, the physical and digital archive. The building is designed to generate awareness of architectural film while suiting the needs of a productive company. These are not exclusive goals but rather integrated with each other to produce a continuous sequence.
ground floor; cafe, theater, and courtyard
first floor; lobby + ufizzi exit
second floor; installation gallery and reception
third floor plan
fourth floor plan
first floor plan
The courtyard is a transformable space. A large elevator provides access to the storage area below. A collapsible system gives the space a flexible program. The courtyard has the ability to accommodate film showings, lectures and discussions, gallery exhibits, and fashion shows.
third floor; gallery, auditorium, and discussion
fourth floor; production, archive, and admin
APPEL COMM(UNITY) Cornell University
After various studies of dormitory and housing projects analyzing the social, community, and academic reflections, we realized the marriage of community program and circulation was essential to the success of the project. With a larger agenda in mind, the dorm room was developed as a singular unit. By designing the unit in detail, the required structural and environmental systems became clear. The project’s form began as a standard doubleloaded corridor oriented in an east-west axis. Understanding the units as poché provided a solid bar. Removing units from the poché generated a void, thus establishing public space. The distribution of community spaces is vital to the architecture’s social agenda. Circulation is also understood as void, intentionally bleeding the two typological constructs together. Connecting each floor played a dominant role in the placement of community spaces and the allocation of public program to said spaces. Creating a dynamic understanding of promenade began to inform spaces of public access and occupancy. The building is threaded with a circulation path connecting and crossing community spaces leading from the ground floor upwards. The theater is displaced from the buildings formal rigor. This dramatic form, hovering over the café, becomes a campus-wide destination. This project was developed with partner Jamie Matz as part of a comprehensive design studio.
residential
community
all structural elements
While designing each room unit, an exterior space was introduced outside of each room. To allow for natural ventilation and light, a skin system was developed to cover the two long facades. The system was developed in Grasshopper. The script determined the facade’s orientation, then rotated each module for optimum solar penetration. There were 56 panels per unit.
D
B
D
B
C D
A
C
B
A
C
A
1
1
1
2
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2
3
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3
Darkroom
4
4
4
Fitness Center 5
Men's Bathroom
5
5
Men's Bathroom
Men's Bathroom 6 6
6
Women's Bathroom
Women's Bathroom
Women's Bathroom
7
Cafe Restroom
7
7
Lounge
8
Art Gallery / Exhibition Space
8
Fitness Center
Cafe
A-301
SEC
9
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SEC
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SEC
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A-301
A-301
10 10
Cyber Lounge
10
Large Sliding Door
Cyber Lounge (below)
11
Printing + Scanning
11
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Auditorium
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Auditorium Lobby 13 13
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Residential Lobby 15 15
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DET A-503
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Main Desk 17
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DET A-501
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Study Lounge 19
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Reading Room 20
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SEC
SEC
A-302
A-303
SEC
SEC
A-302
A-303
20
lobby floor plan
third floor plan
forth floor plan
floor plates, walls, and structural system
hvac distribution and service cores
fire stairs
SEC
SEC
A-302
A-303
PIER 40: CONVENTION + STADIUM
CLIENT
West Village
When designing a convention center, the form and layout become crucial to its economic situation. By analyzing other convention centers, it became apparent that the placement of circulation paths had a direct effect on the value and success of any given convention center booth. The booths closest to the entrance usually have a greater sales profit due to exposure, in order to maximize this, circulation to the convention floor had to be rethought. To balance the value of each unit, a circulation ring was placed below the convention floor allowing it to pop-up throughout the grid of booths. This provides a more equalized system of entrances, thus leveling each booth’s value. The site, Pier 40, already has two soccer fields surrounded by a multi-story parking structure. By transforming the soccer fields into a stadium and lifting the convention center above it, a dialectic relationship is generated. Sharing the convention center’s circulation ring, program can be distributed to favor both the stadium and the convention center. This floor begins to become programmatically flexible; for example, conference rooms can become box seats during soccer games. Four escalating tunnels provide access to the ring level and serve as the primary entrances to the convention center.
CONVENTION CENTER
CIVIC / URBAN AGENDA
CONVENTION CENTER NEEDS
CONVENTION CENTER
ARCHITECT
MAXIMIZING VALUE. While the convention center is still being accessed from “nutural” locations, the distances from the enterance to each point are equalized be determining the longest FLOORdistance SPACEand formally forcing that CLIENT dimension on each tunnels walking PROGRAM VARIETY AGENDA distance. FLEXABILITY The value of each unit becomes equal.
EXISTING CONDITIONS
large convention space circulation
venue
The relationship to the venue is devalued. The enterance does not provide the venue with any notion of circulation or promonade.
1: existing conditions; two soccer fields surrounded by multi-story parking.
2: lift convention center to retain soccer fields and create semi-outdoor stadium.
3: insert service tower and extend convention center to allow large objects to be lifted from barges.
4: four entrance tunnels are placed to accommodate various modes of circulation.
5: populate the circulation ring with shared program
6: develop ground plane as public park or amenity.
The combination of these two major programmatic elements becomes mutually beneficial.
meeting room
meeting room
meeting room
meeting room
meeting room
meeting room
meeting room
meeting room
lobby / reception meeting room
meeting room
meeting room
meeting room
small meeting room
small meeting room
stadium viewing
small meeting room
small meeting room
small meeting room
small meeting room
small meeting room
small meeting room
small meeting room
lobby / reception small meeting room
reception reception circulation gallery
resturant exhibiton / gallery
exhibiton / gallery
ring level floor plan
box theater
convention level floor plan
Circulation Level Plan
Convention Level Plan
1” = 32’
1” = 32’
Peir 40 Convention Center
Peir 40 Convention Center
longitudinal section through convention center and soccer stadium. originally printed at 1/8” scale.
APPROX 704K
Syracuse University, New York A present situation in which spatial communication and social connection between the university’s northern quad and Walnut Park, a long urban park bordered by student housing, has been abruptly disrupted by a massive, de-contextual concrete block: Bird Library. The primary problem rests in the positioning of the library within this urban-park condition. This placement is responsible for the breakdown of circulation and conceptual assertion of the university’s whole. By sliding the library to the eastern portion of the site, an open communal space is born. This transitional space between quad and park, supports a constant pedestrian traffic. The library facility is centered around a ‘core of knowledge,’ which houses the library’s media; as the principal programmatic element, it is responsible for supporting the rest of the building. As one moves through the library, they must ascend up and around the core tower, raising up and surrounding knowledge.
rendering
Freelance Rendering Confidential Client
Freelance Rendering Confidential Client
Freelance Rendering Confidential Client
graphics
Fibers Marketing Package Robin Little Realtor
In an attempt to separate herself from other realtors, Robin asked for a simple, elegant, and contemporary marketing scheme. Fibers offered a clean design approach that touches on contemporary design and reflects Robin’s history in the interior design field. The graphic scheme was designed to be flexible as it will be applied to a variety of formats and applications. Various booklets and brochures were assembled to document Robin’s unique buying and selling process, which like the graphics, sets her apart. The project was confined to a specific color palette and branding requirements laid out by Keller Williams. The business cards were influenced by Lucky Strike’s advertising campaign of the 1980’s, both sides of the card provide the same information; this way, regardless of how the card is dropped, whether it be on a table or floor, the information is still present.
DIGITAL Posters
Digital Workshops + Lectures Every spring American Institute of Architecture Students hosts a workshop and lecture series focused on teaching architectural computation already available to students. The series is student run, but faculty are often invited to participate. “Through our use of computerized techniques developed in neighboring disciplines, the architectural field has, and continues to rapidly expand. The sharing of digital assets allows for a wide range of production methods and techniques useful to architecture students. By learning these technologies as they develop, users can understand them on a fundamental level and implement them into their own work. The DIGITAL series is designed to deliver informative technological skills useful in design and representation studios.� These posters were designed to reflect this aspiration. The background was developed as a script using Processing. The goal was to create a non-traditional calender of the events using methods that, like the mission of the series, are borrowed from neighboring disciplines. Processing was developed for graphically analyzing data but has become more present in architectural graphics.
Because the posters were developed in processing, rapidly altering parameters allowed for a wide range of possible outputs. Six posters were developed, each with a unique color palette and event placement.
BEAUX-ARTS 2011 Syracuse Architecture
Like most architecture schools rooted in the BeauxArts tradition, what developed from a ball has now become an annual party with students, faculty, and administration. This large party is seen as a bridge between the social life of students and the rigorous discipline of architecture school. The scheme was created to captivate this atmosphere. The tickets feature a QR-barcode which can be scanned by smart phones to automatically add the event to one’s calendar.
Source images. I found these images while researching the beauxarts movement. These are from the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The facade of the same building is used as the primary image for the poster.
YOUR VOICE COUNTS Syracuse Architecture ASO
As part of normal practice within architecture schools. Various administrative committees are created to handle critical school-wide decisions. As part of the college’s pedagogy, students are required to be present during these discussions. Each year, select students are chosen to represent the student body and their opinions. The poster, which asked for volunteers to hold positions on these four committees, was designed to captivate the students and encourage them to get involved. To be successful, the design had to contain a balance between loud and informative. The slogan, “Your Voice Counts” became the major driving force. Production and budget also drove the posters design; the tall, skinny dimensions allow two posters to be printed on one 11” x 17” sheet.
FACULTY AUCTION Syracuse Architecture
The annual faculty auction helps to generate funds for the student body to be used later in the year for various events. Select faculty members contribute by providing art, books, drawings, or even themselves to be auctioned to students. The poster consists of the recent portraits of faculty members situated equally. Dominating the page, is a 4 x 6 grid which provides the structure for the images and text.
Originally only one poster was designed, however, Professor Petrie, who was not present for the faculty portraits, is the largest and most popular contributor to the auction. After he commented on his absence from the poster, a second one, exclusively for him, was made. It was six feet wide and ten feet tall, and was hung in the school’s central atrium.
robert george little iii 386 myrtle ave apartment 2 brooklyn, ny 11205 rglittle@RGL3.com www.rgl3.com