Text & Plates
Reimagine the Astrodome The King of Texas
2015 Burnham Prize Competition The State of the Art ofArchitecture Dear Architecture, Imagination takes Power Dear Architecture, Citizens of Spaceship Earth Designing for Free Speech Challenge Whispers to Washington Hello Nature - Combo Competition Hello Nature - Hello Yggdrasil New York State Pavilion Love Child 2014 Chicago Prize 44 Vaults Negro Building Remembrance Stream of Glass Chicago Futures Span City Triangle Fire Memorial Bellwether City
Dear Architecture, Oh Architecture We have had enough of you, and we will never have enough of you. Is there a time when we will give you up? A time spent not building your structures or breaking them apart, but a time in which we let you be. If we, citizens of Spaceship Earth were to leave you alone, what would you do with yourself? More importantly, what would we do? We, at least many of us would settle for less, a less structured position to our darling Architecture. With a less formal relationship, we would be freed from your “right” angles and turn left into the unknown spaces of our imaginations once again. Imaginations, which we need to envelop as a frontier untapped, once alive with personal intuitions. Oh Architecture We struggle for your love, as your lofty position is secured in a fortress without doors. Will you liberate yourself from the location as high priestess and distribute your gifts to us commoners? You remain a mystery to us, as you only reveal the citadel’s exterior facades, and without any compromise we are obligated to leave behind our centuries old love affair with you. As we withdraw, we wish for a single passage into the depths of your sanctum, revealing the lacuna we desperately desire. The gap between our wishes and your lack of openness is seemingly unbridgeable. This span is ever increasing and will do so until you yield to our yearnings. We will now retire from your company, and bid farewell to our love of the ages. The journey homeward without you as our companion leaves us shelter less and full of uncertainty. If you reveal your secret to us, we will share it will all the inhabitants of the planet. The universe of your knowledge allocated to the planet would restore our lustful relationship to the moment of its inception. Oh Architecture We citizens will never depart your specter. The aura you create is one which allows us an unforeseen vision into our own reflections. Our interiors are overflowing with your single ever-present gift; the gift of a discipline based historically and consistently in the art of practice. The art we citizens will continue to practice is an individual act. The act to practice is drawing the language you taught us as the first procedure constructing our mind’s structures and spaces perceived as unbuildable. Drawing is the beginning of a seemingly impossible relationship with you Architecture, but its act repeatedly marks the process we long for in your absence. We said previously that we are leaving our love affair with you Architecture, but drawing as our discourse always returns us to your embraces. Always yours, Citizens of Spaceship Earth
Hello Nature - Combo Competition Hello Nature - Hello Yggdrasil An ash I know there stands, Yggdrasill is its name, a tall tree, showered with shining loam. From there come the dews that drop in the valleys. It stands forever green over Urðr's well. (Poetic Edda, stanza 19) Yggdrasil is the World Tree, whose mighty trunk is the spine of the cosmos, acting as the path between the Nine Worlds/Planets, with roots that dig deep into the underworlds of fire and ice. The branches of Yggdrasil soar high to the heavens and the great feasting Halls of the Shining Ones. Sacred Yggdrasil, grow within us on Omne Mountain. !! Concept: A special tradition that is shared by many Scandinavians is the planting or the knowing of a unique tree (Yggdrasil, The World Tree) in Swedish called a Vårdträd, and in Norwegian a Tuntre; a sacred tree planted in the center of the yard on a family farm that reflects an intimacy with nature. The caring for the Yggdrasil demonstrates respect for ancestor’s spirits that were/are believed to reside in the tree, and it is a moral reminder of caring for the natural world. In Swedish folklore the Vårdträd is associated with the family's happiness and success. To harm the tree or even break the leaves of it were considered to bring misfortune and illness. There are myths and legends of the Yggdrasil with its guardian spirits or goblins, living in the tree and whose presence was to protect the family’s farm. The tradition of sacred trees in Scandinavia goes back to the pre-Christian Viking Age. There are many Scandinavians who are no longer aware of this tradition and in future generations many of the beliefs and the trees themselves may disappear. This project, Hello Nature - Hello Yggdrasil, is built as a preserve to the World Tree and it’s traditions acting as a living universal symbol of nature’s mythologies for all who visit the site.
The Legend of the Wawsaw Mermaid A long time ago, a prince from the Mazowsze Region took his men and went hunting. In the forest, he saw a wild beast and was determined to kill it. He was close enough to shoot at it the arrow from his bow, but as he took his aim, the beast suddenly disappeared. Thoroughly surprised, the prince decided to stop at the nearby river for a drink of water. As he bent over to drink, he saw the mermaid. The mermaid told the Prince to follow the arrow she shot from her bow. The prince followed the arrow along the river's edge until he reached a clearing. In the clearing he saw a run-down fisherman’s cottage under a large oak tree. He went to the cottage to ask for food. Inside, the Prince saw a young woman sitting by the fireplace feeding her twin babies: a boy and a girl. The young woman shared her food with the Prince. After the meal, the Prince and the young woman sat in front of the cottage and looked out at the river. The prince insisted that the young woman name her baby son, Wars and her baby daughter, Sawa. He told her to clear the land around the cottage and plant crops. He gave this land to the young woman and her children. He knew that they would work hard to make the land valuable and a village would result. This village would become Warsaw. As the young woman listened to the Prince, she saw the mermaid rise from the river's waves. The mermaid said the village would grow into a beautiful city because of the hard work of the simple fisherman who chose to live there.
2014 Chicago Prize 44 Vaults The American dream can become an architectural dream, a dream that can be realized by an individual or by a building. This mythical achievement is accomplished everyday by ordinary people in America. Once the American dream is realized by individuals and through buildings alike, we have reached our frontier. This ever-changing model of the frontier continuously reshapes who we are as a country, and Barack Obama is the forty-fourth president to carry on this tradition of democracy. The Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum with its cantilevered vaults symbolizes the democracy of an architectural dream in the City of Chicago, and for the United States of America. The cantilevered vaults of the Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum support two interconnected entities. The vaults metaphorically support both the president and the people of the country simultaneously. Without one or the other the ideals of the country and the architecture it represents are fundamentally unstable. The vaulted structure of the facades also links the interior and exterior spaces into one unified and stable whole. The multiple shifting volumes demonstrate the delicate balance required in structuring a successful country that an architecture can also embody. The vaulted exterior structure transfer their loads to multiple interior walls in order to anchor a visually gravity defying structure. This architectural mirage is the American dream made physical in the Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum as a demonstration to the public of what can be achieved in this country.
Negro Building Remembrance Stream of Glass Paul Laurence Dunbar has been called the poet of his people. The themes of his poems use the words dream, sympathy and mask, evoking the great facades of the Afro-American experience, all of which were concealed. These facades were concealed because they disguised the true worlds of nineteenth century Afro-Americans and their factual lives. The Stream of Glass monument constructs a physical portal that symbolically spans the one hundred twenty years since the Cotton States and International Exposition, acting as an unmasking of the tactile portraits of Dunbar’s people. One hundred twenty years ago, and just thirty years after the Civil War, a building stood in Atlanta representing the Afro-American people for a mere lifespan of just three months. Our remembrance of the Negro Building will construct variations of its structure acting as a timebased monument on its historic ground from 1895. The accumulation of these variations will memorialize the moment in time from 1895 as a series of symbolic vaults for current and future global generations struggling for civil rights daily, in order to express free speech, just as Paul Laurence Dunbar did during his lifetime. The concept of tranquility is the antithesis of Afro-American endeavors embodied in the writings of Dunbar. The physical structure of the monument represents the three months of time that the Negro Building stood at the Cotton States and International Exposition. The monument encases reflecting pools in which islands of light are floating within Dunbar’s so-called Stream of Glass, as mentioned in his poem Sympathy. The sitting areas around the reflecting pools are open to each and every individual visiting and inhabiting the Stream of Glass. The Stream of Glass is one of tranquility and is timeless just as are the poems of Dunbar. Within the Stream of Glass the islands of light are inscribed with the words of Dunbar’s poem Sympathy. These words are mirrored into the reflecting pool creating an animate monument in remembrance of the Negro Building. Site : The site of the Stream of Glass monument surrounds the exact location of the Negro Building from 1895. The former building’s footprint is reconstructed as reflecting pools depicting the Stream of Glass. Directly above the Stream of Glass reflecting pools are a series of levitating vault systems representing the Negro Building’s roof structure. The literal location of these elements on the site preserves the Negro Building in a present day monument representing 1895. Materials : The following ephemeral materials will assemble into the Stream of Glass monument, all of which will resonate long after visitors have inhabited the monument. Light, both natural and artificial will illuminate the monument’s allegorical faces, displaying the dynamic and ever-changing nature of the Stream of Glass. Sound, of water and voices, fill the Stream of Glass with murmurs of 1895 and 2015 simultaneously within the monument’s reflecting pools. Vision, reflections from past, present and future generations condense into the Stream of Glass as constructed in the monument’s tubular structure.
Chicago Futures Span City BIG Idea : The air rights to the Chicago River bridges provide for new housing typologies to address the shortage of affordable units in the city. Project Description : The speculative project Span City addresses the air rights to all eighteen double leaf, trunnion bascule bridges in the 42nd ward. These bridges and their air rights provide the Chicago Department of Transportation an opportunity for new micro housing typologies to be constructed across the Chicago River. The Beaux Arts bridge houses on the Chicago River are obsolete and unused facilities in the city awaiting reuse. These bridge houses will be converted into lobby access to a series of new super tall, super thin housing towers. There will be a total of thirtysix towers each of which will be 420 meters (1373 ft.) in height, containing one hundred micro apartments. The 3600 units within the towers will bring millions of dollars annually to the Chicago Department of Transportation ensuring additional infrastructural developments throughout the city. The funds produced via the towers are the result of combining the housing with tourism programs. The tourism programs such as sky restaurants and entertainment will create hybrid typologies as a model for twenty-first century cities. Span City is a project with many historic precedents, but simultaneously uncovers dormant sites for other speculative projects within the city of Chicago.
Triangle Fire Memorial Bellwether City In the entire world, there are only two cities. There is the City of the Living & there is the City of the Dead. The Triangle Fire Memorial physically represents the union of these two cities in the form of a musical instrument. The vertical site of the Triangle Fire Memorial is built on the sound of one hundred forty-six bells. A bell is created for each individual who perished in the Triangle Fire on March 25, 1911. Each victim’s sacrifice still resonants as a bellwether, each of whom altered New York City. The facades of the former Asch building are alphabetized vertically and one hundred forty-six bells are dispersed based on both the eleven age groups of victims and gender. Eleven female and nine male age groups create a total of twenty different bell types. ( i.e. There are two bells each for fourteen, twenty-six and thirty-one year old age groups which equal a total of six bells, all of which are female. In the largest age group of victims, twenty-three bells represent the eighteen year olds, of which 22 are female bells and 1 is a male bell. Bellwether City is suspended, her sound dwells in the air, and in all who hear the Triangle Fire Memorial. HUMAN PERFORMANCE Annually on the morning of the Triangle Fire anniversary, the bells on the third to the tenth floors will be removed from both the Washington Place & Green Street facades. The bells will be placed inverted at street level parallel to their corresponding facade. At 4:45 p.m. each March 25th the one hundred forty-six bells of the Triangle Fire Memorial will be struck simultaneously. The bells will remain inverted at street level until the morning of March 26th.
2015 Burnham Prize Competition The State of the Art ofArchitecture Architecture is in a critical state. With digital software erasing its history, architecture needs a radical new city of preservation. With this being said, the state of architecture lies in building types that do not yet exist. Architects have selective memories about the history of architecture, and therefore cannot perceive beyond their own legacies. Thus architecture finds itself in an era of so-called digital expansion, but it is really in a state of constant repetition. The digital expansion of software and its ability to rapidly generate diversity is a direction that architects have blindly embraced. But rather than embracing the digital realm, architects should be including precedents of historically analogous structures into the process of design, producing a state of architecture in which traditions of building can evolve forward into possible types of cities for the future. Starting with building traditions and their physical, rather than digital, presence will ensure the continued development of lessons for today and future generations as new technologies are introduced and old ones become obsolete. In other words, digital invention is a falsehood that could be transformed and rebranded as radical preservation. Introducing histories past, present, or forgotten will unlock architecture’s digital controls and radicalize all structures for possible long-term preservation. Preserving the history of architecture in a digital condition can also continue physical lessons beyond the university and into working offices. Architecture firms would therefore not develop a singular style, but instead could adapt with an on-going state of architecture. To encapsulate architecture’s contemporary moment is a phenomenal opportunity, and one which requires broad perspective. The notion of radical preservation is timeless; it simultaneously includes the past and future states of architecture. The current state of architecture lies in desperate need of radical preservation to keep our building traditions from being lost through recurring digital nightmares.
Reimagine the Astrodome The King of Texas On Thursday night September 20, 1973, Billie Jean King rode into the Astrodome like Cleopatra on a crimson-draped litter before a crowd of 30,472, for a $100,000 winner take all tennis match against Bobby Riggs. She rode out the King of Texas. Sports are a microcosm of society. Three years earlier on September 23, 1970, women’s professional tennis was born in Houston when nine players, called the Original 9 and led by Billie Jean King, signed symbolic $1 contracts. Howard Cosell wore a tuxedo to announce the ABC broadcast of “Battle of the Sexes”, live from the Astrodome on September 20, 1973. One of Cosell’s favorite sayings was, “What is popular isn’t always right, and what is right isn’t always popular”. Billie Jean King epitomized Cosell’s aphorism by demonstrating women’s equality to a worldwide television audience of approximately 90 million people in 37 countries. ( a larger audience than both the 1973 & 1974 Super Bowls. ) During the time-span of this competition, a very unique anniversary for the Astrodome (09.20.2013) passed without being adequately celebrated. This project physically represents the 40th anniversary of September 20, 1973 as a pivotal moment in earning respect and awareness for gender equality as a universal freedom. In other words, the most historically noteworthy event that ever took place in the Astrodome was a battle, a “Battle of the Sexes”. Billie Jean King and the Original 9 used tennis as a platform for social change. The Original 9 set a path for others, which can be described as celestial, therefore, the Astrodome site will now symbolically represent their return to the city of Houston. During the same year as the “Battle of the Sexes” in the Astrodome, the U.S. Open become the first grand slam tennis event to offer equal prize money to both woman & men players. Two counter-intuitive elements are used to Reimagine the Astrodome. 1. Tennis = Billie Jean King’s role in the “Battle of the Sexes” 2. Gender Equality = the Original 9 who signed $1 contracts
Designing for Free Speech Challenge Whispers to Washington - ( conceptual ground ) the WHY. The 1st Amendment is a living thing, growing and changing everyday. The 5.2 million tress of New York City symbolize both the freedoms of the 1st amendment and its’ citizens. Before New York City was settled by the Dutch, five trees in the boroughs were mere saplings, waiting to grow along with the city and the country. These five trees, one in each borough, are the oldest and tallest living things in New York City. Three of the five trees have even been named the following by the city : The Dinosaur, The Clove Park Colossus and The Queens Giant. Our project will assemble five tree-like canopies, representing each of the oldest trees as a haven for the 1st amendment in Washington Square Park. The tree canopies of New York City shade roughly one-quarter of the city. Shade is the space of the 1st amendment, acting as a protective arbor, a roof formed by trees, allowing all citizens of America a place to gather and express their 1st amendment rights. The five newly constructed canopies will each be built to the exact heights of the five oldest living trees in New York City. The shade the new canopies produces will acoustically whisper to millions. The shade under any living tree in America will come to be known as the space of the 1st amendment. Everyday citizens will relax in the shade and their voices will whisper the timeless volumes of freedom. !! the HOW. George Washington found comfort in the shade of the tree known as “The Dinosaur” during the Revolutionary War. The Dinosaur is estimated to be at least 300 years old and is a 110 foot tall English Elm at the corner of 163rd Street & Saint Nicholas Avenue. In the New York City park named after him, citizens will express the freedoms of the 1st Amendment in the shade of five new canopies. The new canopies will encircle the area around the Washington Square fountain forming an arbor about which free speech will revolve. Washington Square Park’s history was transformed in the late 1950s and early 1960s by an act of free speech. A group of Greenwich Village residents lead by Jane Jacobs protested Robert Moses’s extension of 5th Avenue through the park. “Save the Square” campaign lead to the preservation of the park and the removal of all vehicular traffic from its boundaries. The free speech of “Save the Square” is a touchstone event for the citizens of New York City and created the opportunity to gather freely under the protection of the 1st Amendment. The 1st Amendment allowed citizens to present their own proposal for Washington Square Park and therefore reclaiming former streets as new public space for the city. This reclaimed ground is where the 1st Amendment will be symbolically planted to establish a space of shade where voices at the level of a whisper will be heard by all. !! the WHAT. The five new canopies that represent the oldest living trees in the five boroughs will come to rest in Washington Square Park. The five canopies will be actors in the play of free speech encircling the park’s fountain. The role of the lead actor is played by The Queens Giant, a 134 foot tall Tulip Popular with a circumference of 19 feet. Standing just 20 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty, she will be a living beacon for the 1st Amendment. The Queens Giant, along with The Dinosaur, The Clove Park Colossus and a pair of Oak trees will be recreated in sculpted canopy forms. The sculpted canopy forms will be at five different heights according to the particular trees. The shaded space under the canopies is the sum of individual voices sharing a collective experience. The universal themes of the 1st Amendment will be defined on this sheltered ground in Washington Square Park. The ever changing conditions of shade created here will be a physical reminder echoing the sounds of past, present and future acts of free speech. Each day and night The Queens Giant will whisper her anthem, spreading the 1st Amendment into the aura of New York City’s atmosphere. The Queens Giant, along with her four other actors, are guardians of the 1st Amendment, never sleeping, yet always embracing the new whispers of free speech in the park saved by one of its’ freedoms.
Dear Architecture, This letter is a reminder, a reminder of what has been gained in Architecture. By gained, it doesn’t mean in terms of material, but in the acquisition of territory. A short story would probably explain this best. In a city, on a street, stood two groups of people. On the one side of the street stood the group representing Power. On the other side of the street stood the group representing Imagination. Each group took their positions, and held them strongly. In the literal street, the so-called center of the street stood no one. After some time the groups discussed among them if anything could be done to shift the position of the opposing side of the street. In the words, a compromise was needed by both parties to ensure an end to the stalemate. The leaders of the two groups, one form the Power group, and one from the Imagination group met in the center of the street. They discussed what the compromise between the two groups could possibly be, to resolve the situation. A situation in which no one agreed with the other side. After some time a suggestion came, but not from the group leaders. The suggestion came from a citizen passing by and heard of the situation between Power and Imagination. The suggestion was straightforward, but one in which both sides would still need to compromise. The suggestion from the passerby was that were there anyone in each group, which believed in both Power and Imagination? After a few minutes the question circulated among the groups, but no one answered the question. The passerby made another, yet similar suggestion. This suggestion was one, which didn’t require a verbal answer. The suggestion of the passerby this time was that if anyone believed in both Power and Imagination, would they please just move into the center of the street. Again, a few minutes passed, but something very different occurred. Soon a few people from each side moved to the center of the street. They moved to the center of the street, not just to join the leaders of each of their initial group, but also to begin a discussion among them about why they believed in both Power And Imagination. So, now a third group had been freely assembled that was a physical representation of both Power and Imagination. Suddenly the leaders of the two former opposing groups also wanted to join the newly formed third group. With all this said, and recorded, many people still stood on their opposing sides of the street in protest, just as before. The third group in the middle of the street began to freely discuss if they had compromised with each other for their new group to have been formed. The consensus was that something different from a compromise had occurred. The reason this feeling among the group came from the attitude that nothing had been lost by either party, which is traditional in a situation of compromise. If no one had lost anything by forming the third group, then something must have been gained. The gain was in terms of territory, because the center of the street, and the center of any street was now a place for something new to occur for all citizens. The center of the street was the place where instead of Power taking Imagination, as if to control, the exact opposite took place. The center of the street of any city became the place where Imagination takes Power. This statement, and its territory is the greatest gain Architecture can give to the citizens of their city. Remember, your Imagination takes Power when you give and share it freely with others. This story is now yours to share. Sincerely, Imagination takes Power
New York State Pavilion Love Child Andy Warhol and Philip Johnson had a love child that was born in 1966, two years after the World’s Fair in New York City. The love child lives in the New York State Pavilion (NYSP), which was built as a union between Warhol’s art and Johnson’s architecture. Johnson’s structure produced the ideal womb for Warhol to give birth to their love child named Silver Clouds. Silver Clouds is constructed of mylar pillows that float within and above the NYSP as representations of their love for each other’s work. Their love child’s spirit is alive and well as inhabitants frolic on and within the mylar pillows. The NYSP and Silver Clouds combine to provide a space to cavort and therefore enable people to freely love one another. The offspring of the frolicking will become cyclical and future generations will return to the NYSP to produce their own love children. Warhol and Johnson seems an unlikely pair to romp in public, but their love child from 1966 is suddenly fifty years old. Half a century has passed, yet Warhol and Johnson’s physical offspring is youthful and playful as it is open to all as an environment for episodes of hijinks. Warhol and Johnson’s careers were based in and around decades of antics to disrupt the norm in art and architecture and their love child continues to set that precedent. This type of precedent is always needed to reveal that the avant-garde of one moment in time eventually becomes the standard of another generation. What once was a pavilion for a World’s Fair has now become a house for a love child. Silver Clouds is looking forward to a rebirth with all the attitude and soul that her parents Warhol and Johnson embodied. Acting as host, Silver Clouds represents part of the past and future, but she’ll always be a house in the mood for love.