Omar Rodriguez 2024 Design Portfolio

omar rodriguez

2024 design portfolio

Hi my name is Omar, I am a 5th year BArch candidate at IIT specializing in Landscape Architecture.

My roots are in Michoacan Mexico, but I am born and raised in the Gage Park neighborhood located on Chicago’s south side.

As a student and educator, I teach and learn how to see using Architecture as a tool.

As a builder and community engagement leader through Human Scale, a design/build nonprofit, I share my skills and knowledge with people to build the neighborhoods we need, one block at a time.

MICHOACAN

“to read a building you must look where it touches the ground, meets the eye, and greets the heavens” bob greenstreet, fromer dean of university of wisconsin milwaukee school of architecture + urban planning

GAGE PARK ILLINOIS

EPITACIO HUERTA

PROJECTS

SUPER BLOCKS

RE-ENERGIZING BRONZEVILLE’S 35TH STREET CORRIDOR

THE WOODLAWN ARTS

CATHEDRAL

RE-CONNECTING WOODLAWN THROUGH THE ARTS

THE BLOCK

A LIBRARY FOR RE-DISCOVERY

THE “A” STOOL

DIGNITY + BEAUTY IN EVERYDAY MATERIALS + PROCESSES

SUPER BLOCKS

RE-ENERGIZING BRONZEVILLE’S 35TH STREET CORRIDOR

How do we promote the “stay”?

Bronzeville has gone through years of disinvestment that now cause residents to leave their neighborhood for everyday needs.

Zoning in the area doesn’t allow for commercial corridors to develop causing local business to only operate during school hours.

The only businesses that stay open after school hours are fast food restraunts like McDonalds, Popeyes, and KFC. This means that young people hangout here and often eat here.

Fast food chains usually occupy 5-10 lots meaning they can prpovide the space for people to sit and eat whether indoors or outdoors.

Sidewalks along the corridor are too narrow which don’t allow for people to shop and hangout outside. If people want to talk, they have to walk all the way to the mall east of MLK drive.

After an initial anaylsis of schools, we learned that on any given school day, there are over 1,900 students occupying the streets.

Fast food chains do not provide the healthiest food options, but they are staples in the community constantly surrounded by energy.

What if we could change the spaces fast food chains occupy to create stronger commercial corridors, diverse programming, and healthier food options?

COLLABORATOR PROFESSORS

ALEJANDRO NOE REYES

MARIA VILLALOBOS DIRK DENISON JUSTIN DEGROFF

Over the course of 24 years, development in Bronzeville changed dramatically. The section highlighted shows the change in density that ocurred around the time the school was demolished.

35TH STREET CORRIDOR IN 1999

35TH STREET CORRIDOR IN 2023

By defining super blocks, we can scale up strategies to develop commercial corridors in Bronzeville.

Holding the corners of each block that are undeveloped using vegetation will allow locals to activate and define what programming could be developed.

1 IDENTIFY THE BORDERS OF THE SUPER BLOCK PROTOTYPE

2 IDENTIFY INTERSECTIONS FOR LARGER SCALE INTERVENTIONS

3 IDENTIFY AREAS FOR STITCHING INTERVENTIONS

ADAPTIVE RE-USE

4 IDENTIFY AREAS OF FOCUS USING ADAPTIVE RE-USE STRATEGIES

5 INCREASE TREE CANOPY DENSITY

6 EXPAND INTERVENTIONS TO ADDITIONAL CORNERS OF THE SUPERBLOCKS

W 35TH STREET

GRAPHIC BY ALEJANDRO REYES

ADAPTIVE RE-USE

Streetscape strategies involve removing existing parking spaces along 35th street to improve walkability in areas that could benefit pedestrians more such as where restauraunts are located.

By reducing car lanes and expanding sidewalks, locals and visitors are invited to spend more time along the corridor.

PROPOSAL BY ALEJANDRO REYES

ADAPTIVE RE-USE

EXISTING CONDITIONS OF MCDONALDS

RENDER

ALEJANDRO REYES

The adaptive re-use strategies for the McDonald’s involves transforming the existing McDonald’s to become a community led place to eat where locally grown foods are cooked and served.

Additional program on this site includes affordable housing, an aquaponics lab, garden spaces, and planter beds.

BY

NUMBER OF LOTS OCCUPIED BY MCDONALDS

EXISTING

The adaptive re-use strategies for the Popeyes and KFC involves removing the existing fence between the buildings and transforming the buildings into an education hub where locals can learn about urban farming and aquaponics.

RENDER BY ALEJANDRO REYES

NUMBER OF LOTS OCCUPIED BY KFC + POPEYES

THE WOODLAWN ARTS CATHEDRAL

RE-CONNECTING WOODLAWN THROUGH THE ARTS

Introducing a new typography to the Woodlawn neighborhood that is not necessarily literal, rather conceptual.

Standing at 120’ tall, the Woodlawn Arts Cathedral aims to become a beacon for the Woodlawn neighborhood. Visible from the downtown, it will help re-connect Woodlawn to the city of Chicago.

With the future Obama Presidential library to the east, and the UChicago campus to the north, a place for art will serve as the magnet pulling visitors from nearby nodes into the site.

Serving as a place for art, showcasing the talents of Woodlawn and South Side Chicago residents.

COLLABORATORS PROFESSOR

ROBERTO ARROYO GERARDO “JERRY” LOPEZ VLADIMIR RADUTNY

RENDER BY GERARDO LOPEZ

After conducting a series of height studies, we learned that most buildings in Woodlawn are around 40’ tall.

For this structure to be seen, it simply needs to exceed that and it will begin to define a new neighborhood “skyline”.

Initial site analysis + site strategies.

Studies of topography, circulation, structure, and experience.

A series of sun studies were conducted to understand how to control light inside the building. They were explored in a series of physical models.

Three densities of frit patterns are used on the facade to control light throughout.

DIAGRAM BY ROBERTO ARROYO

THE BLOCK

A LIBRARY FOR RE-DISCOVERY

Located in the intersection of the Canaryville and Back of the Yards neighborhoods, the Stockyard Bank was once full of life as pigs and cattle ran through the streets in what was once the meatpacking center of the states.

Due to the structure of the building, we had to be cautious of how much we change physically.

As a library of re-discovery, this proposal aims to shine light on local buildings techniques by exposing the assembly of various interventions that happen throughout the building.

The “street” concept allows for programming to occur in ways not bound by solid walls where activities can spill out onto the hallways.

Visitors can come in and check-out both books and tools to learn how to build, grow a business, or fix that chair that’s been broken for a year.

COLLABORATOR PROFESSORS

INDIVIDUAL CATHERINE WETZEL

The larger “block party” idea stems from the notion that even though this building is in the center of an industrial zone, it can serve as the catalyst for community programming

THE “A” STOOL

DIGNITY + BEAUTY IN EVERYDAY MATERIALS AND BUILDING PROCESSES

The “A” stool utilizes materials that can be sourced from local home improvement stores.

With the goal of making design accessible to all, this stool can be replicated using one piece of 2x4, 2x6, and 2x8 lumber.

The idea was born from sitting on metal and chipboard stools in Crown Hall that were soon causing me lower back pain. I didn’t have the money to purchase a computer desk style chair so I decided I would make one.

I went to our wood shop and found a few scraps of 2x4. I took measurements of chairs with good heights for our desks and then I measured the seats to make sure they would feel comfortable.

After making a few of these chairs, I was able to get them done in 40 minutes with a cost of materials around $12 per chair.

My dad has 2x4s laying around the house, and it got e thinking that perhaps other households do the same.

Through a Human Scale project in Little Village, a friend and I were able to lead a class teaching young adults 18-24 how to design and build furniture.

Just like I did, each student was given a piece of 2x6 to make their own stool as they learned how to operate tools.

COLLABORATOR PROFESSORS

INDIVIDUAL SELF-LED PROJECT