Construction

Joe Biden Dorm

The project entails 250 beds with primarily suites that comprise of 3 split doubles, kitchens, and private bathrooms. RA single suites are also included on every floor. These programmatic elements were driven by a survey that my partner and I sent out to over 100 students. The survey included questions about room type, size, how covid has effected their education experience, and what they wanted in a dorm.

The first main goal is to not block natural light to surrounding homes within the community. We felt this was important in order to promote a sense of community between the adjacent neighborhood and the dorm buildings. This goal was realized through dividing the structure into two blocks, then staggering one end of each of the U’s. From the daylight analysis this was a delicate balance between not blocking light, but also providing enough area within the building for the program.

The second main goal was to include an accessible outdoor space that was available to not only the residents of the dorm, but also to Syracuse students, and the surrounding community members. The stramp that runs through the middle of the project provides a unique green space that is able to be accessed on the main floor (which is open to the public) but also through the main entrance from the dorm towers.

The third main goal was to provide different levels of community. This was realized through having 5 levels of community which include: room mate in the split double, suite mates, floor community, then each individual tower, then the whole complex as a community. It was important for students to be able to have a smaller community that they could connect with, but also allow them opportunities to branch out.

Design Harlem Cultural Center

The project is a space created to bring Harlem together. Including both outdoor and indoor theater spaces, a local market, a covid testing center, and office spaces for various local organizations, this project is created for the people of Harlem.

Harlem is the historic beating heart of African American culture in the country. Harlem is the home of the Harlem Renaissance, to the Apollo theaters, to the African American rebellions of 1935, 1943, and 1964. The heart of Harlem, 125th street, has historically served as the backdrop for protests.

Variations

Our overall organization of our design consists of the first floor housing our Social Justice Theater that opens up to the existing plaza for outdoor audience but also a theater seating that runs up towards the second floor. In addition our first floor included an Art Studio, Art Gallery Space, Covid Testing Center, and Pop Up Art spaces and circulation cores leading up to our second floor where additional aid programs would be situated such as Employment Aid, Housing Aid, Child Care Centers and Class Rooms, Lastly our 3rd and 4th Floors consist of office spaces. Each floor circulates around our atrium that faces down to the theater providing additional viewing spaces of the theater and outside balconies facing the garage space and the 125th Street allocating more protest spaces.

Program

Circulation and Bathrooms

Covid Test Center

Emergency Food Bank

Direct Action Planning Spaces

Pop-up Shops

Social Justice Theater Lobby and Meeting Areas

The Social Justice Theater dominates the first three floors of the atrium space that sits at the center of the design. With 69 seats in the theater itself, and standing room on all 7 floors of the center, the theater is large enough to accommodate hundreds of protesters entirely indoors, but can transform to become a centerpiece for large-scale protests in the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. plaza when the sliding doors are opened.

The site we chose to work on is located next to the Adam Clayton Powell Junior Office Building situated on 125th Street with Adam Clayton Powel Jr Blvd. This site has been the site for a multitude of protests, dating back as long as there have been protests. This project will continue in the legacy of the site. Taking on a triangular shape, we cut through the existing H&M Building and Parking structure to create the protest center. This shape allows for free circulation through the project. The separation of the new building from the existing garage structure both helps with the circulation and creates a space for the BLM Cultural Fair. A secondary plaza is also formed in this space allowing for a secondary gathering area outside.

The temporary housing units are modular to allow for a variety of configurations, from a single room for lone protesters, to combining several units to create a multi-room space for large protest groups. The use of the existing garage space allows for protesters to park their cars immediately in front of their units creating a neighborhood feel to them. They units themselves are on wheel so they can be reconfigured however the protesters occupying them want. Each unit has a singular bed, a porch space, and a table built in to them.

The facade of the center consists of 1,131 5.5’x3’ metal memorial panels displaying the victims of police brutality. Each panel is a different victim, with their silhouette etched out on top of a perforated metal sheet.

Miscellaneous Graphic Design

Graphic design work from selected school projects.