A COLLECTION OF WORK | 2016
steven lees. stevemlees@gmail.com (262) 442-2335
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Master of Architecture | 2014 - Present UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: TWIN CITIES Bachelor of Science in Architecture | 2009 - 2013 | Introduction |
skill Rhino
Maya
Revit
MasterCAM
Photoshop
AutoCAD
Illustrator
SketchUp
InDesign
Office Suite
distinction ALPHA RHO CHI | Mnesicles Chapter Founding Father and elected Treasurer of the professional design fraternity on the UMN campus. EMERGING MAGAZINE | College of Design Featured in the Spring 2013 and Fall 2013 issues for Alpha Rho Chi and a short poem about studio life. DEAN’S LIST | Spring 2011 For earning a GPA of 3.7/4.0.
steven lees Seeking an entry-level architectural design position that will foster my professional development.
DEAN’S LIST | Spring 2009 For earning a GPA of 3.9/4.0.
contact 309 N. Division St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 stevemlees@gmail.com (262) 442-2335
scholarship experience UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Master of Architecture | 2014 - Present GPA: 3.8/4.0 Chose a range of courses with an emphasis on digital modeling, fabrication, and architectural theory. BEFORE HISTORY Study Abroad | 2015 Traveled for a month through Scotland, Ireland, and France with Andrew Holder seeking and documenting Neolithic stone structures.
GRADUATE STUDENT INSTRUCTOR University of Michigan | 2016 - Present Lead a discussion section for John McMorrough’s Architectural Theory + Criticism course. Facilitated discussion and explained theoretical subject matter. CNC ROUTER/WATERJET OPERATOR University of Michigan FABLab| 2014 - Present MasterCAM setup for 3-axis CNC Router and FlowPath/FlowCut setup for CNC Waterjet. Operation and maintenance of both machines.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: TWIN CITIES Bachelor of Science in Architecture | 2009 - 2013 GPA: 3.5/4.0 Focused study on modes of representation, especially physical-modeling and Photoshop-editing.
STUDIO INSTRUCTOR University of Michigan ArcStart | 2015 Lead a studio of ten high school students through three projects and taught multiple design techniques for conceptualizing, drawing, and modeling.
ARCHITECTURE IN FLORENCE Study Abroad | 2012 Spent a month documenting the city of Florence, Italy with John Comazzi. Our documentation sought to view the city through a new architectural lens.
WAM TEEN MENTOR Weisman Art Museum | 2013 Guided a group of high school students interested in architecture through a fun yet rigorous design challenge taking place at the Weisman Art Museum.
(lab)yrinth.
garden of propagation.
entry no.1.
lowline loop.
| Content |
Proximate Churches
Proximate Breweries
COMPREHENSIVE | WINTER 2015
(lab)yrinth.
Professor: Neal Robinson Partners: Reid Mauti + Momo Wei
With housing as the focus of the studio, my team chose to create a densely-packed, mixed-use skyscraper composed of seemingly unrelated programming. The (lab)yrinth houses a Trappist monastery, craft brewery, luxury hotel, student dormitories, and monk dwellings. Traditional monasteries typically extend horizontally across a pastoral landscape, but our project proposes a vertical shift that brings monastic life into contemporary times. Sited on E. Lake Street near N. State Street in the Chicago Loop, the tower occupies a site barely 30ft x 60ft. The surrounding downtown thrives with nearby churches, breweries, and hotels. Our project seeks to inhabit the culture of Chicago’s downtown through reinforcement of its values.
| 1.1 |
Proximate Hotels
Historically, the streets of Chicago are oriented in such a way that there is a bar on almost every corner. Beer serving and brewing has been a major driver for the rise of Chicago as a major American city. Our project takes the notion of a bar on the corner of every street and wraps it vertically around our high-riser. To the south, the street facing faรงade, the program consists of three micro-breweries spread vertically. These breweries become the central hubs for three communities of monks. Students interested in learning the process of crafting beer live for extended stays in the tower and work alongside the monks to produce three distinct craft brews. Often not utilized in this way, the brewing process lends itself to a vertical organization. With every step of the process, something is either added or subtracted from the product. Our breweries exploit gravity by stacking each step atop one another. Each brewery contains a separate floor for milling, mashing, separating, boiling, and fermenting. | 1.2 |
Although monasteries have traditionally spread horizontally across the landscape, ours stretches vertically above the ground. It consists of a central cloister, large and small chapels, chapter-house, and monk dwellings. The traditional spanning cloister is compressed and thrust upward in an open, central shaft in the tower. This chasm, flanked by two massive concrete shear walls contains a perimeter steel catwalk and dynamic chapels. These chapels are individual use elevator rooms that travel slowly through the chasm. The chapels themselves are completely enclosed in thin wood veneers that allow light from the chasm to softly illuminate the silent prayer. Outside the chapels, the cloister is somewhat stark in appearance and atmosphere. The thick, tactile concrete walls are cast roughly with wooden form-work. In contrast, the cloisterwalks are composed of austere iron and glass. Sound from monks circulating echoes and bounces off the walls and travels through the chasm as white noise. | 1.3 |
Connected to the chasm on the side of the tower opposite the noisy street is the living quarters for the monks. The monk passes from the noisy brewery, through the contemplative chasm, to the solitary dwelling. In contrasts with the industrial atmosphere of the chasm, the monk cell lightens up with natural wood materials. Using crosslaminated timber, the container becomes the furniture which becomes the dwelling. Branching out from the shear wall, timber beams create shelving, a desk, and a bed. The surrounding wooden structure becomes a warm, soft forest. Each unit is prefabricated off-site and shipped to the tower to be plugged into its place. This process allows for a variety of units that are tailored to the needs of each monk. At multiple levels, the (lab)yrinth tower strives to create connections between monastic, urban, and working life. From the entry-level taproom to the public chapel, the Chicago community is at the forefront of the design.
| 1.4 |
PROPOSITIONS | FALL 2015
garden of propagation. Professor: Kathy Velikov
A garden of propagation begins with an obsession. This obsession takes the form of a taxonomic study of site with seemingly little left of its historical copper-mining context. The little that remained, a grid of degrading structural piles and a scattering of struggling weeds, provided the basis for the work of the project. Looking to Rosalind Krauss and Yve Alain Bois, the work focuses on the notions of form and formless in relation to objects. This project, however, seeks to create an operative tension between form and formless that elevates the objects to a higher state of being through abstraction. The applied methods of abstraction exploit the potential gains and losses inherent in designing from digital to physical methods and vis versa. | 2.1 |
1912
1932
1946
1966
2014
The project takes place on an artificial land mass in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan. Throughout the site’s history, ownership and agency has shifted from nature to copper-mining and back again resulting a region of constant tension. Before 1912, the main agent on the site was nature which formed the site under water as part of a lake. In the early 20th century, the copper-mining industry became a new geologic entity operating near the shoreline. The nearby stamp mill, no longer existent, crushed basalt rock riddled with copper in an effort to extract and remove the precious metal from the site. The copper was then shipped from the area via a large ore-dock that exists now as degraded structural piles. The left over rock, or poor rock, was dumped off-site towards the shoreline which built up over the course of the mill’s operation. This buildup of toxic rock waste eventually became a barren, artificial peninsula. And after the economic collapse of the Isle Royale Mining Company, nature once again began asserting its agency on the site by forming the peninsula breaking down the historical traces of the mining industry. | 2.2 |
Digitalization of structural piles into simple, two-dimensional shapes. The shapes created for each pile have various adjacency relationships.
The piles as they exist on the site today have a new agency that is resultant from the affects of nature on the remnants of the ore-dock. Inundation and erosion have hollowed the cores of the piles which allows them to harbor micro-territories for plant matter that otherwise would not grow in the poor rock. Using the piles as a driver for the design, they were abstracted through transitions between digital and physical mediums. Major scalar shifts assert the agency of these resulting forms to inhabit the site in order to create new micro-ecologies. Then, the self-similar forms undergo another transfiguration through the process of scaling, overlap, and intersection. As seen in the diagrams, the forms move towards a new formless state as they propagate across the dynamic site of the shoreline. Cast in the very same poor rock in-situ, the Form(less) mark the site as a new topographical entity. Projecting above the unstable ground surface, the Form(less) contains and allows cross-contamination of plant matter and water in and around its body.
Physicalization of the shapes into forms that operate as containers and channels to various levels of efficiency.
| 2.3 |
As the water level rises, portions of the new territories fade through inundation. Plant species shift from terrestrial to mostly aqueous.
At current water levels, all of the above ground territories are visible and pockets of water collection begin to form. There is a mix of terrestrial and aqueous plant matter.
As lake water levels drop over time with global warming, the dirt erodes away revealing the underground form. Then grotto and cave-like interiors provide containers for new ecologies.
After some time, nature asserts its presence on the site by covering and infiltrating the architectural intervention. However, annual shifts in the water level of the lake hide and reveal portions of the project thus changing which types of plants can thrive. In a larger geologic time period, climate conditions change and the unstable ground of stamp sands erode and dissipate. As it shifts, the foundations of the mega-structure become exposed and create crevices and grottoes. The foundations occur as the intersections of the overlap of the original forms. They no longer just register the process of their creation, but now they offer surfaces for nocturnal plants and fungi. Such a large manifestation of architecture solidified in the sands of its site survives on a scale of time akin to mountains. The Form(less) adapts through the shifts of time, weather, and nature.
| 2.5 |
MOS PRACTICE SESSION | FALL2015
entry no. 1.
Professors: Hillary Sample, Michael Meredith Partners: Jaime Rivera, Drew Barkhouse, Lani Barry, Fauzia Evanindya
As designed by Ellie Abrons, Adam Fure, and Andrew Holder, PRACTICE SESSIONS are a set of fast-paced, interactive, thinktank-like design charrettes. The goal is to connect hard-working students with faculty outside the University of Michigan that run architectural firms whose focus is to bridge the gap between academia and practice. The first of the PRACTICE SESSIONS invited Hillary Sample and Michael Meredith of MOS Architects to the University of Michigan to propose a design intention to us. They aptly proposed the notion of indifference and its relationship to architecture. Hillary and Michael’s only project description for the weekendlong charrette asked the teams to frame the idea of indifference through the design of a house and an object. With that information, we began to define indifference by what it is not. | 3.1 |
Object to Door
Ceiling to Object to Column
Ceiling to Object to Floor
Object to Corner
Object to Opening
In architecture, the entry may be the least indifferent aspect of building; it marks a clear distinction between inside and outside. Our project seeks to de-differentiate, or make indifferent, the entries throughout a house with both architecture and object. First, the floor plan of the house takes shape from the abstract connection of lines from a sectional study of entry intersected with door swing arcs. The lines shape rooms of various sizes and create a central zone that is not quite inside or outside. Next, openings shift from the privileged center of walls to their corners and intersections. In essence, the openings themselves become indifferent to the layout of the home. The object takes a more active roll in creating indifference. It is designed as a soft material that can be moved and aggregated as need arises. This material first propagates across the house, both interiorly and exteriorly, in an effort to further break down the distinctions that entries create. Then it begins to augment and even swallow furniture creating a new sense of figure ground relationships. And finally, the object distinguishes itself from its surroundings while maintaining a parasitic union to the house. | 3.2 |
NETWORKS | FALL 2012
lowline loop. Professor: John Comazzi Partner: Brian Yang
The Midtown Greenway is a long, linear space carved twenty feet below city grade in Uptown, Minneapolis. Now decommissioned, the five mile rail line is currently occupied as a continuous pedestrian transit line. This project ties the local organization Tree Trust to the community through a development of the space as a catalyst for a pedestrian friendly Uptown. Working collaboratively on all aspects of the design process, my partner and I decided that creating a linear park would not only bring people into the Greenway, but also promote a healthy habitat link with the surrounding park system. Connections between the Lowline Loop and the city occur in three scales of architectural interventions ranging from lightfootprint Ribbons, to intermediate Twists, to dense Knots.
| 4.1 |
Purple Prairie Clover
Pearly Everlasting Black-Eyed Susan Opium Poppy New England Aster Wintergreen White Prairie Clover Large-Flowered Beard-Tongue
Spotted Touch-Me-Not
Hepatica
Wild Bergamot Hoary Puccoon Common Strawberry Sage Round-Lobed
Blue Giant Hyssop
Gumweed
Opium Poppy
Wild Rose
Purple Prairie Clover
Common Strawberry
Common Sunflower
MEDICINAL
Ground Plum
Wild Plum
White Prairie Clover Scarlet Indian Paintbrush
Common Evening Primrose
Violet Wood Axalis
Wild Bergamot Bluebead Lily
Wintergreen
MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV
EDIBLE
The long ribbon portions of the site tie all the architectural and landscape interventions together through a series of experiential boardwalks. A set of light footprint structures dotting the landscape house public restrooms, drinking fountains, information kiosks, and maintenance storage. This stretching park aims to revitalize the surrounding urban context with minimal interventions. First, a taxonomy of specific native Minnesota plant species propagate across the site. Where the ribbon lays perpendicular to existing parks in the area, it acts as tree nurseries for private and public transplanting. All tree species grown are native Minnesota species and have the potential to thrive in urban settings. The rest of the ribbon contain expanses of native prairies that are planted for their experiential qualities. Ground-cover prairie species include plants that have special qualities such as being edible, medicinal, beautiful, aromatic, or habitative. Similarly, canopy tree species have qualities such as being edible, experiential, or habitative. | 4.2 |
The Bath House is one of the various interventions across the Lowline Loop that fall into the twist category. The programs contained within this structure relate to connecting water, sun, and leisure. Furthermore, the Twist nodes create destinations for occupation along the Lowline Loop. The ground level consists of an exterior screened knee-pool, bike stalls, and interior dry and wet saunas. r
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Moving up to the middle level the user finds men’s and women’s locker rooms and an exterior hot bath. A skylight cut into the floor of the bath shines natural light through to the saunas below. The roof acts as the top-most occupiable level. Lightwells cut through the slab to pull sunlight down to the locker rooms. The concrete walls below push up through the roof to create benched seating areas.
| 4.3 |
The largest architectural intervention occurs within the Tree Trust Knot. In this area, the urban planting group runs an office space, auditorium, and demonstration nursery. Each of the Knots alone the Lowline Loop serve to connect and tangle multiple diverse programs in one dense urban hub. Across the Lowline Lop.op on the north side, public programming includes a large seating steps plaza that integrates with a cafe, library, and outdoor projection area. The library acts in a nontraditional way combining a seed bank and ecological and sustainable technologies primers. Also, the plan redesigns an existing car-wash suspending it five feet above street grade. Underneath it lies a constructed wetland with the purpose of cleaning the soapy wastewater produced.
| 4.4 |