Selected Work - Scott Simpson by Scott Simpson

Selected Work 2013-2021

Scott Simpson

Academic East Phillips Community Land Trust

Cross Bronx Skyway

Center for Immigration Services

Crown Street Karaoke

Plymouth St. Triple-Decker

Formal Analysis

Image-Object

Macramé Totem

Professional Collector’s Duplex

Gramercy Loft

Harlem Brownstone

Cliff Street Tower

with Samar Halloum and Jiaxing Yan NO NORMAL Adv. Design Studio | Fall 2020 Critic: Keller Easterling with Theodossis Issias

East Phillip ps Community y Land Trust

Rejecting the myth of solutions, this project considers past failures as a resource for design innovation. In an age of political gridlock, a series of four spatial and organizational interplays strives to achieve the goals of the Green New Deal by co-opting systems and structures still in place from the Old New Deal. Acknowledging the fundamental mutualism between urban and rural spaces, the East Phillips CLT unites them into a more symbiotic relationship through an innovative land trust that treats the assets of each locale as infrastructure - assets to be decommodified and re-calibrated between local needs and global markets. The land trust model offers an opportunity to engage police defund protocols, remix them with existing federal, state and local funding streams, and create spatial assets that embed compounding value in the built environment in and around Minneapolis. It is a vessel for reapportioning the monoculture budgets of farming, policing, and real estate development. Selected for publication in the forthcoming Retrospecta 44.

Minneapolis (above) and Cannon Falls, MN (below)

EXCELSIOR

ST. PAUL

MINNEAPOLIS

CANNON FALLS

GRYGLA

The Twin Cities metro region is a cultural, economic and ecological gateway. While interstate highways stretch from urban to rural, cityspace and proximate rural space are divorced from one another.

CAMBRIDGE

MONOCULTURAL PARADIGM

Agriculture

Development

Police Funding

Commodity Subsidies

Great Street Program

Conservation Grant

Farm

Police

Crop Insurance Subsidies Urban Agriculture Grant

City

Vacant Land Affordable Housing

Local Food System

SNAP

Clean Energy

Urban Agriculture Grant

POLYCULTURAL THINKING Development

Agriculture

Police

City

Farm

Community Land Trust

The EPCLT re-calibrates assets between local needs and global markets, and aims to abolish monocultures and multiply benefits for immediate constituents

The Land Trust prioritizes aggregation and visibility in space; it seeks to translate the idea of a land trust from a ledger of discontinuous properties to a concrete, contiguous urban territory.

INTERPLAY #1 LEARNING CENTER

(left) Underutilized edges of industrial farms become field laboratories for the CLT’s educational programs.

The CLT cosntructs a community learning center for agriculturallyfocused vocational training; the establishment of a community asset attracts further new housing acquisitions.

INTERPLAY #2 AGRI-COUPLES

The CLT facilitates the pairing of AgriCouples - a mentorship relation to be gradually nurtured over 10-15 year. In that time, the aging farmer mentors the emerging farmer while transitioning into retirement.

Ultimately, the Agri-Couple exchanges a spatial asset: the retiring farmer deeds their property to the CLT in exchange for a housing in the city located in an increasingly amenitized and supported community.

INTERPLAY #4 FOODHUB

The CLT acquires or developes commercial properties in the city to serve as the conduit between the farm and the now densified urban population who want access to healthy, farm fresh food.

The CLT purchases large farm properties. Rather than assigning the entirety to a single operation, the CLT sub-divides and leases out smaller portions of the land to individual or small agricultural operations.

INTERPLAY #4 BUSINESS INCUBATOR

The CLT capitalizes on grazing lands or other “undesirable” farm properties to further diversify the portfolio of the organization and attend to the diverse demands of the community.

Raising livestock for meat is complemented with more commercial spaces to sell these products. Further, the seasonal land use for grazing is complemented by investments into renewable energy.

Livestock farms are layered with additional energy infrastructure, which conveniently helps deal with the problem of maintaining the grass land beneath it.

The CLT forms an energy corporation, which could provide jobs in addition to selling clean energy back to the urban CLT or adjacent properties. The CLT itself becomes an incubator for small business.

with Angela Lufkin and Tyler Krebs Architectural Design 4 | Spring 2020 Critic: Aniket Shahane

Cross Bronx Sky yway y

This urbanism project responds to a conspiracy of geology and hydrology in the Bronx by proposing an Aerial Cable Transit System, which spans the Harlem River from Upper Manhattan to the Bronx. Through a perpendicular orientation to the existing expressway and railway infrastructure, in addition to uniquely designed and programed gondola cars, the Cross Bronx Skyway seeks to alleviate transportation problems and bolster existing urban systems in a way that is both impactful and delightful. From Amazon packages on last mile delivery routes to children traveling to and from school, the Cross Bronx Skyway will animate the skyline with an idiosyncratic flow of gondola cabins and rally the city around a new urban spectacle. The system combines public and private interests to benefit both the systemic function of the city and the wellbeing of its most vulnerable inhabitants. Through three pilot , we see opportunities to respond to local, contextual needs and demonstrate the adaptability of the system for future urban and social change. Published in Retrospecta 43.

Three pilot lines are oriented perpendicular to existing public transit, which is built along the existing North-South axis of the topography.

The Cross Bronx Skyway can host a variety of gondolas types, which offers new opportunities for community programing as well as public/ private partnerships to help fund the infrastructural endeavor.

Fordham Landing Station & Logistics Center

University Heights Bridge

MTA Commuter Rail Line

Bronx Community College

SITE 1 : FORDHAM LANDING Harlem River

Barge Receiving

Sorting

Package Labeling

Major Deegan Expressway

Fulfillment

Logistics Center and Transit Hub at Fordham Landing - the Skyway restores life to an underutalized coastline, as distribution companies to return to waterways as prime sites in congested urban markets.

Aerial Distribution

Proposed Fordham Rd Gondola Station Sited above street

#4 Train N/S Subway Line

Gondola Line Elevated Line travelling E/W

SITE 2 : FORDHAM ROAD Fordham Rd Station Access to #4 Train

Package Receiving

Access to Station Through Adjacent Building

Fordham Rd Below

Aquaduct Walk N/S Linear Park

Passenger Loading

New construction over Fordham Rd - between the elevated 4 Train and heavily trafficked bus routes, the Skyway can stitch across networks to define intermodal urban zones as thresholds for pick-up and drop-off.

Fordham Road Commercial Street

Devoe Park

Campus High School, College, & Primary School

Gondola Station

Kingsbridge Station

St. James Park

SITE 3 : KINGSBRIDGE ARMORY Jerome Park Reservoir Adjacent to Site

Pathway to Campus

Enclosed Path Connection to Campuses

Gondola Line

Aquaduct Walk

Distribution Storage

An adaptive re-use proposal at Kingsbridge Rd - an Armory offers an enormous volume of space for logistics and storage. Situated adjacent to education facilities, it offers the opportunity for a new urban campus.

Gondola Receiving

Architectural Design 3 | Fall 2019 Critic: Annie Barrett

Center for Immiggration Services

Sited at the northern edge of Stamford’s redeveloping Harbour Point neighborhood - a prominent site in view of Interstate 95 and the Metro North Railway corridor - the Center for Immigrantion Services conveys the importance of immigrants in contemporary American society. This project further attempts to critique the neo-classical tropes of American public architecture. In removing stylistic flourishes that in many cases may be othering to foreign-born consituents, the project explores spaces created by the interrelationships of circular forms at a variety of scales. Curved walls generate non-hierarchical space that enhance an idea of openness and flexibility, and program is atomized throughout the building to provide anonymity and social comfort when desired by the occupants. Selected for publication in the forthcoming Retrospecta 43.

[previous] Interior daylighting study, 3/8”=1’-0” scale model [above] Passing beneath I-95 and the Metro-North Railway, Canal Street connects Harbor Point with the financial heart of Stamford, CT.

Plan studies that explore the interface between rigid and loose plan elements, varying densities, and varying sizes of circular form

6 1 4 5 3

1. Entry 2. Shared Office

3. Daycare 4. Auditorium

Ground Floorplan; Entry foyer flanked by administrative space and childcare. A central public auditorium serves as a link to smaller classroom and meeting spaces

5. Group Study Room 6. Private Office

2 9 3

5 7

1. Office 2. Private Meeting Room 3. Gallery

4. Group Study Room 5. Private Meeting Room 6. Play Loft

Second Floorplan; Intersecting volumes create cellular spaces used for private meetings, utilitiy and service space. A central, double height gallery space anchors the public zone.

7. Group Study Room 8. Catering Kitchen 9. Lounge

1/16” massing and site model

[above] Interior schematic render of group meeting and gallery spaces. Columns act as formal devices that frame smaller, informal spaces across larger open floor areas

At night, the Center functions as a lantern for both the Harbor Point neighborhood and the larger city of Stamford

Architectural Design 1 | Fall 2018 Critic: Nikole Bouchard

Crown Street Karaoke Bar

This proposal theorizes methods of perceiving, inhabiting, and constructing strange forms. The project appropriates source imagery, specifically Arshile Gorky’s 1947 abstract expressionist painting ‘The Betrothal’, and spatializes it through a sequence of organizational and tectonic exercises. In the proposal, three karaoke suites hover over a terraced, open space - thus facilitating a performative privacy across public programs. The window-less suites emerge from a monolithic roof slab, providing a magnetic and mysterious impression to the street. The materiality throughout abstracts the image of local granite the suites are clad with printed substrate while terrazzo flooring interprets the natural source material through a more technological production process and further codes various program areas. Published in Retrospecta 42.

[previous] Conceptual rendering of site and massing strategy [above] Project source image - Arshile Gorky’s The Betrothal (1947) [below] Process sketch of program organization

1 6

1. Entry 2. Reception 3. Private Dining

4. Lounge 5. Cocktail Bar 6. Concert Hall

7. [above] Karaoke Room 8. [above] Karaoke Room 9. [above] Karaoke Room

The planar framing system of the karaoke suites serves a double function - it frames exterior form and while actings as a baffle that channels light to the open space below

[above] Diagrammatic section drawing [ below] Interior views describing light conditions of interior spaces

Worm’s-eye axonometric rendering of private karaoke suites suspended amid a monolithic roof slab; view of public roof garden above.

with the M.Arch I Class of 2021 The Building Project | Summer 2019 Directors: Adam Hopfner and Kyle Bradley Photography by Zelig Fok and Iain Gomez

Ply ymouth St. Trip ple Decker

A three-unit dwelling in New Haven’s Hill Neighborhood. Each floor is comprised of an L-shaped interior with exterior balcony completing a diagrammatic square. This organization rotates on each floor to provide acoustic privacy and varied exterior views. I participated in the 3-month summer construction program, and lead the design and fabrication of all interior millwork with a fellow classmate. Schematic Design: Malcolm G, Louis K, April L, Nouisa N, Leyi Z Foundation/Framing: Class of 2021 Interior Fit-Out and Ext. Finishes: 14-person field crew plus faculty Millwork Design/Detailing: Scott Simpson and Nicole Ratajczak

[previous] At night, the cedar porches capture light and serve as lanterns along the residential street [above] Bedroom interior with framed view to private porch

[left] Diagram of house composition [right] Private porch featuring a slatted privacy screen and integrated cable rails

North-South cross section

East-West cross section; entry from street and front porch to the right

[above] Schematic rendering and completed image of the kitchen and service core [below] Millwork section detail drawings

2'-83 8" (DOOR)

1'-2" (BOX)

2'-812" (BOX)

114" 1'-9" (CLEAR)

1 " 2

8'-83 8" (OVERALL - VIF)

8'-67 8"

1 " 2

2'-2" (BOX)

114" 2'-13 4" (DOOR)

2'-2" (BOX)

2'-13 4" (DOOR)

114" 3 " 4

1 " 2

1'-75 8" (BOX)

3 " 4

1'-45 8"

1'-67 8" (DOOR)

112"

1'-45 8"

1'-67 8" (DOOR)

1'-75 8" (BOX)

3 " 4

1 " 2

3 " 4

3 " (HOLD) 4

1 " 2

6'-103 4"

1'-9" (CLEAR)

112"

3 " (HOLD) 4

2'-212" (BOX)

2'-103 4"

1 " 2

1'-53 8"

3'-718" (BOX) 3 " 4 1 1'-11 2" (DOOR) 1'-67 8" (DOOR)

2'-112"

2'-83 8" (DOOR)

2'-812" (BOX)

2" 8'-83 8" (OVERALL - VIF)

8'-67 8"

2'-112" 1"

3" (HOLD)

4'-1112"

5'-012" (CLEAR)

8'-83 8" (OVERALL - VIF)

2'-212" (BOX)

2'-

114"

4'-814" 4'-912"

1014" 8'-83 8" (OVERALL - VIF)

8'-0" AFF (VIF)

7'-0" (CLEAR)

7'-0"

1 " 2

8'-83 8" (OVERALL - VIF)

3 " (UNDERCUT) 4

93 4"

1'-2" (BOX)

4'-57 8" (DOOR)

4'-6" (BOX)

" 8'-67 8"

2'-2"

2'-2" (CLEAR)

3 " 4

1 " 2

3 " 4

1'-67 8" (PANEL)

1'-75 8" (SUBSTR. FACE)

1'-67 8" (PANEL)

1'-75 8" (SUBSTR. FACE)

3 " 4

3 " (HOLD) 4

3" (HOLD)

6'-103 4"

412"

2'-103 4"

3 " 4 112"

-212" (BOX)

5 " 8 1'-65 8"

Formal Analy ysis Close Reading and Formal Analysis | Fall 2018 Professor Peter Eisenman with Anthony Gagliardi Weekly drawing exercises interrogate the development of humanism and anthropocentricity from the early Renaissance through 18th century Enlightenment. Formal Analysis prompts students to read architectural documents closely, and to draw what cannot be seen.

Analysis of Sebastiano Serlio’s “House for a Rich Man” (1611)

Comparative analysis of Nolli and Piranesi’s maps of Rome

Analysis of Giacomo Vignola’s Villa Giulia

[above] Paired analysis of Brunelleschi’s San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito [below] Analysis of Bernini and Rainaldi’s twin churches on the Piazza del Popolo

Imagge-Objject Architectural Design 1 | Fall 2018 Critic: Nikole Bouchard This project seeks to interrogate images and subvert their innate qualities of immateriality and flatness through translation from digital space into physical space. Inspired by an image of an El Anatsui metal tapestry, this Image-Object uses colored paper to index compositional structure and undulating surface conditions. The object’s subsequent re-presentation in 2D conveys the vastly different material realities of thinness and layering inherent to the paper medium.

[top left] Project source image: El Anatsui’s Lines That Link Humanity (Aluminum and Copper Wire) Early study models of self-supporting materials and color compositions

Sheared elevation; digital college of final Image-Object

Mixed media sectional drawing of final image-object

Macrame Totem Architectural Design 2 | Fall 2019 Critic: Miriam Peterson Knotting and handicraft techniques informed this design installation, completed for a brief and rigorous period of material research into the formal and performatic capacities of plastic. Single-use shopping bags were braided around cylindrical forms, then baked at 400º F. Exposure to high heat contracted and hardened the material to produce a series of rigid cages that connect to produce a vertical construction.

[above] installation image; the Totem’s lightweight but rigid structure questions whether it is self-supporting or suspended.

[left] rendered drawing of macrame knotting pattern and formal composition [right] detail photograph

Professional Collector’s Duplex

Gramercy Loft

Harlem Brownstone

Cliff Street Tower

Interior Architecture | 3400 SF | March 2016 - Aug 2018 Lead Designer, Project Manager with Jeffery Povero (Principal) Photography by Noe Dewitt

Collector’s Dup plex

Residents of a cast-iron Landmarked building purchased a second unit with a combination in mind. Trained in paleontology and geo-physics, the pair offered a world-class collection of global artifacts and antiques as the inspiration for a historically-sensitive renovation. Period trimwork is designed from site research and imply hierarchy from public to private and service spaces. A sculptural stair with asymmetrical balusters twists through a double height stair hall, connecting the two units.

[previous] A newell post unrolls as the interior baluster of a sculptural stair [above] View of lower floor living room and den with a floating partition that conceals A/V equipment

[above] Upper floorplan [below] Lower floorplan

1. Powder Room 2. Stair Hall 3. Den 4. Living Room 5. Dining Room 6. Kitchen 7. Stair Landing 8. Media Room 9. Bedroom 10. Master Bedroom 11. Master Bathroom

[above left] Living and Dining room; second floor landing [below] Unrolled sectional elevation; the ceiling planes define discrete program spaces across an open, loft-style floorplan

[above] Sequential construction photographs; partitions were carefully placed to mitigate the visual presence of structure and utilities. [below] Worm’s eye diagrammatic rendering

View of Master Bathroom; Site conditions inspired a double tray ceiling with tightly detailed door casings that heighten axial relationships and views

Interior Architecture and Decor | 2500 SF | Nov 2015 - May 2017 Lead Designer, Project Manager with Jeffery Povero and Elisa Russo Photography by Noe Dewitt

Gramercy y Loft

A loft, near Gramercy Park in Manhattan, provided the opportunity to explore an industrial aesthetic and visible structure - details often sought but rarely an existing condition. The repartitioning strategy, intended to maximize daylight, reveals the existing wood post-and-beam structural grid, implying discrete spatial zones across larger open spaces. A corridor at the North edge of the apartment sets an enfilade of rooms to improve circulation. A palette of luxurious stones - polished onyx, wirebrushed limestone, vein-cut marble, terrazzo and engineered Corian - layers richness over bleached oak floors beneath an existing red oak ceiling.

[above] Existing floorplan and sequential space planning diagrams highlighting post-and-beam structure [opposite] Renovated floorplan

View from dining area into the kitchen, along the enfilade axis

[above] Rendering of a stone fireplace surround, with views into a Den [below] Construction progress photograph; view from Living Room into the Den and Kitchen, highlighting completed fireplace

Architecture and Selected Decor | 6750 SF | July 2013 - May 2015 Junior Designer with Jeffery Povero and Hugh Wethered Decor in collaboration with Trace Lenhoff Design Photography by Noe Dewitt

Harlem Brownstone

Povero&Company was tasked to transform a former bed-andbreakfast into a modern live/work space for a young family relocating from Los Angeles. The programmatic needs range from a communal space - for entertainment industry events - and screening room, to a private study accessed through a wall-hung painting on concealed hinges. A veritable “cabinet of curiosities” filled with art, salvaged furniture and taxidermy, the detailing encouraged investigations into the design of late 19th century row housing and myriad material installations traditional rift-sawn oak chair rail, cold-rolled steel with infilled glass, lacquered millwork and hammered tin ceilings, among others. This project was featured as the cover story of Architectural Digest in February 2015.

[previous] New octagonal columns define scale and program in an updated parlor, concealing steel posts and further organizing circulation through the space.

[above] A sectional elevation describes the myriad indoor spaces that compose the classic brownstone

[above] Existing window casings are re-purposed for access to a blue stone terrace and catering kitchen; a salvaged fireplace surround joins reproduction wainscotting in a formal sitting room.

Residential Development Renovation | 142500 SF | Fall 2013 - Spring 2015 Junior Designer with Jeffery Povero (Principal) and Evelyn Lee Photography by Noe Dewitt

Cliff Street Tower

Given an existing 31-story tower of dated rental apartments in the Financial District of Manhattan, our team was hired to refashion the interior programing and finishes to a simple, sustainable palette. With aesthetic influence from Finnish Modernism, we introduced a language of natural-stained white oak throughout, with quartzite, warm terrazzo and geometric flooring. A large entry lobby, partially composed through a former renovation with an adjacent property, was re-partitioned to improve circulation and access to the 165 housing units, in addition to increasing ground floor retail spacd. A fitness center, tenant lounge and roof deck were updated to meet the demands of contemporary urban life. For the Cliff Street Tower, my Junior Designer responsibilities included material specification and detailing, construction documentation, and construction administration to both building public spaces and unit interior renovations.

[previous] Sinuous oak paneling integrates existing structural concrete elements and implies the circulation path towards residential elevators. [above] Existing and renovated ground floor plans

[below] Successive rounded corners and an offset floor grid suggest diagonal movement from the glass storefront entry through the lobby

[above] Typical residential corridor with new lighting scheme, floor covering, fixtures and finishes throughout [above] Residential fitness space

[above] Axonometric diagram of the typical corridor design; a light cove rationalizes the relationship between the centerlines of the corridor and an existing window.

[above] Typical renovated building floorplate with six residential units [above] Typical unit interior; Space and program zones are defined through strategic soffiting and millwork

[above] Typical residential unit floorplan

100