Susan kolber
select work 2009-2018
info
references project list
academic body & movement 2009 coda parc 2017 living library 2018 archive bosque 2017 wedge edge 2016 model studies 2016-2017 color studies 2017-2018 pla incubator pavilion 2017 polyvalent facade 2011
professional maidstone renovation 2013-2014 15th St. apartment 2015 shuddle headquarters 2015 above | below | beyond 2012
Susan kolber
kolber @upenn.edu | 773.308.6777 | susankolber.com
education
work experience
PennDesign University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA M.Arch & MLA 2020
OLIN Studio intern Philadelphia, PA Summer 2018 Joined a variety of teams and supported construction documentation for plazas in Los Angeles and Chicago. Researched demographic and spatial information for LA River Master Plan.
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Class of 2012 Major: Architecture Minors: Chinese, Urban Studies CET Chinese Language Program Hangzhou | Beijing, China 2010 Intensive six-month Chinese immersion
advocacy PennDesign Women in Architecture co-finance chair, raising funds for our 2017-2018 programming Spark! Mentorship Spring 2018 mentorship weekly collaboration with Henry C. Lea School 7th Grade Students. Equity x Design (EQxD) Blog Editor & Contributor San Francisco, CA 2014-2016 EQxD is an AIA SF committee. Their work and blog is leading advocacy, research, and providing solutions to the current culture & inequity within the field of Architecture. eqxdesign.com
McGriff Architects Designer, Project Manager San Francisco, CA 2014-2016 Project management for residential renovations and commercial offices spaces. Design and manage drawing production, client, consultant, and contractor communication. Developed new marketing strategy for company, managed office administration, trained new employees. Susan Kolber Design Project Manager & Lead Designer Wellington, FL | San Francisco, CA 2013-2015 Designed and led the complete renovation of Florida residence. Designed, created permit drawings, construction drawings, details, landscape plan, on site daily construction administration. Project Manager for San Francisco residential renovation including schematic design, permit drawings with historic consideration, material selection, construction administration.
Above | Below | Beyond Co-Creater Philadelphia, PA 2012 Formed partnership with Temple University Landscape Architecture Students, Diana Fernandez and Amy Syverson. Designed and produced exhibition to showcase designs re-imagining and re-purposing the former Philadelphia’s Reading Railroad site. Established the goals and objectives for the exhibition; raised funds using kickstarter. com, designed an exhibition space and created exhibition installation at Next City to showcase student designs. Project was featured in ArchDaily and Inhabitat. Microsoft Research Intern Microsoft HQ, Redmond, WA Summer & Fall 2011 Extensive research and analysis of opportunities for growth in China. Wharton Management Teacher & Research Assistant Philadelphia, PA 2011-2012 Supported Professor Marshall Meyer’s Chinese Corporate Governance class (MBA and undergraduate). LA+ Journal Deasign Team Philadelphia, PA 2018 Layout, editing, and design work for PennDesign’s Landscape Architecture Journal LA+.
Pritzker Law Group Consultant Philadelphia, PA 2017-2018 drawings and design work for zoning and real estate legal work.
skills
honors
publications
software RHINO, AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite: Premier, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, ArcGIS, Grasshopper, Maya, Revit, Sketchup, VRay language Intermediate Mandarin Chinese
2018 PennDesign Schenk-Woodman $3000 award for team competition
“Embracing Minilmalism in a tiny bedroom,” Apartment Therapy, June 2017
2013 American Society of Landscape Architects Student Award of Excellence in Communication Above| Below | Beyond
“The Culture Behind Multi-Cultural Modernism,” AIA Young Architects Forum August 2015
2012 Alumni Commencement speaker at Walter Payton College Prep, Chicago, IL
“Architecture And... Debunking ‘Traditional Architecture Practice’, EQxD eqxdesign. com October 2015 “deconstruct & donate before demo,” susankolber.com October 2014
Body & Movement photography and drawing studies of body form and movement
University of Pennsylvania Fall 2009 Critic: Suzanne Brandt Software: Photoshop Media: Watercolor Paper & Graphite
Coda Parc Philadelphia, PA
Coda Parc is a landscape, public realm, performance space, and playground that is inspired by the acoustic environment of the site, neighborhood, city, vegetation, and Delaware River. Using form and vegetation this park brings the visitors to the water through acoustic extremes of amplification and dampening. In our visual culture, our acoustic environment is secondary. Experiencing quiet is rare. For this existing site the sound of water is masked by the sounds of traffic. I experienced that the noise separates the city from the water, and that coupled with the polluted river isolates the community and city from engaging with the waterfront. This park challenges that division bringing water into the site, contrasting the urban sounds with the landscape. Visitors are agents of new sound through path materials, voice, vegetation, instruments, and performance space. PennDesign LARP Spring 2017 Critic: Misako Murata Software: Rhino, GIS, Grasshopper, Photoshop, Illustrator
Studies of the proposed site auditory conditions 1. Site Amplification/ Dampening Plan 2. Amplify 3. Dampen 4. Sound 5. Reflection 6. Refraction 7. Diffusion 8. 9. 10. 11. Form Acoustics 12. Disperse 13. Concentrate Vegetation Sounds 14. Rustling Leave 15. Crunching Leaves 16. Wisping Grass
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Site Sections 1. Pier Edge 2. Whispering Wall and Quiet Steps 3. Amphitheater 4. Parc Entrance with Varied Sounds 5. Sidewalk along Christopher Columbus BLvd. Evergreen Buffer 6. Sidewalk along Christopher Columbus Traffic Noise Exposure
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1. Site Plan 2. Existing Vegetation 3. Rain Garden 4. American Beech Grove 5. Loose Forest 6. Lawn 7. Wetland 8. Upland Meadow 9. Evergreen Buffer
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1. Trestle Path 2. Quiet Stairs 3. American Beech Grove
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above: study section of a kinetic structure, combining library and grow space
Living Library Philadelphia, PA The library of today, the library of Philadelphia, the library of East Parkside- what is a library in the context of our head downs, finger swiping stance to the world? What is a library in the context of this Neighborhood—whose nearest Library is a mile and half away. East Parkside is a neighborhood uniquely placed adjacent to Philadelphia’s largest park, Farimount Park. It has a strong community with historical mansions that once faced the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 and now looks onto expansive lawns that hide a highway and the Schuylkill River. The core of East Parkside has pockets of long time residents and patches of vacant lots, several religious institutions, three schools, and two community gardens all within a few blocks. How should a library respond to the needs of East Parkside, the neighborhoods beyond and a quickly shifting technological world, how can it become a fixture in the community? This is study of catalyst and a study of relationships. As an element of urban design, the “Living Library” explores how this space can transform the relationship of the community to not only the site but also broadly the experience of technology and landscape especially within the context of Fairmount Park. The living library, emerges as a gradient of landscape. Plants, books, machines coexisting blending the experience of learning and creating. Libraries and conservatories have roots as grand public places. Spaces of escape, work, collections, seeking, wandering, learning, gathering and pleasure. As books become intangible, and information unlimited, we still need these tactile experiences and sensations. A new library for East Park Side unfolds, blurs, glows and grows. It counters the vastness of Fairmount Park, it contains. This library is sensory. Texture, scent, weight is taken away in a digital landscape, so we bring the garden and the contemporary library together.
PennDesign LARP Spring 2018 Critic: Danielle Willems Software: Rhino, V-Ray Photoshop, Illustrator
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previous: first level plan of new library, existing school and site 1. modular tetrahedron shape used for massing study 2. tetrahedron volume joins on faces creating a variety of masses, colors indicate different programs 3. models reveal cracks formed when faces meet 4. modified tetrahedron model at different scales inspire volume of building 5. plaster landform studies 6. volume and ground studies 7. kinetic structure studies inspired facade
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10 1. kinetic facade 2. glass paneling 3. hinge mechanism 4. structural frame 5. kinetic facade open 6. kinetic facade closed 7. structural frame 8. kinetic facade on massing 9. section of building 10. garden reading room
11. computer lab 12. theater 13. outdoor theater 14. garden laboratory 15. entrance pavilion 16. offices 17. laboratory 18. reading room 19. garden 20. robot workshop
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section perspective through landscape and building
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Archive Bosque Penn Museum, Philadelphia, PA This archive pavilion is an elevated aggregation of memories creating new shapes and ideas about who you are and are not. This space acts as a web through the existing courtyard, revealing trapped objects weaving into and through the existing museum. Enter into a cascade of twisted glass, soft light, with floating objects that rise around you, an infinite hole with the tops of floating feathered moss covered branches flank you. Archives like human memory are these selective fragments of life, rearranged, manipulated, only containing meaning that we have assigned. The Penn Museum selects objects that have been taken from their earth, culture, and global origins and hides them in a basement. The archive of this new space snakes and surrounds you, splitting open for volumes of gathering, learning and observing. The elevated archive spine becomes a filter and guide. PennDesign Fall 2017 Critic: Gisela Baurmann Software: Rhino, GIS, Photoshop, Illustrator, VRAY
Above: Conceptual model of interior Right: View of adiition from courtyard
This Page: Section perspective of archive and sunken garden
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1. Ground Level Plan Program diagram 2. Level 3 3. Level 2 4. Ground Level 5. Basement 1 6. Basement 2 7. Garden 8. Archive Circulation diagram 9. Level 3 10. Level 2 11. Ground Level 12. Basement 1 13. Basement 2 14. Exhibition space 15. Education space
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Section of archive, garden, and education space
wedge edge Brewerytown, Philadelphia, PA This studio explored connecting Brewerytown Neighborhood to the Schuylkill River through a dynamic path. that not only connects but takes the users through variety of ‘cuts’ in the landscape. Some cuts are the removal of all top soil above the Wissahickon Bedrock Wedge Edge proposes creating a variety of cuts in the landscape. Wedge Edge proposes creating a variety of cuts in the landscape and using the soil from those cuts to create landforms on vacant land to broaden Fairmount Park’s reach into communities.
PennDesign LARP FALL 2016 Critic: Rebecca Popowsky
above: Plan of triangulation used to measure entire site overlaid with ink wash that represented water seeping through existing retaing walls. opposite: ink wash tests
Mixed Media conceptual plan of site and cuts in the landscape original scale 1�=30’ plan Schuylkill River on left
1. Site Plan of proposed path from Brewerytown to the Schuylkill River. The cuts in the landscape provide gradiants of opening in space. Some cuts are simply the vegetation trimmed other cuts have the soil removed revealing the bedrock below. 2. Cut with soil removed exposing the bedroom below 3. View of river overlook and staircase to the river 4. Plan call out
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1.-7. Site Sections explore the topography, light, density of vegetation of the path and the forest cuts.
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Proposed section of site Next Page: Section of large cut exposing bedrock
Structured fields & Form Studies of geometric organizations in models and drawings.
PennDesign LARP FALL 2016, SPRING 2017 Software, Hardware: Rhino, CNC, Laser Cutter Medium: Concrete, Paper, Concrete, Foam, Wire, Straws, Plaster
Color Studies Visual Studies test color, representation and drawing methods.
PennDesign LARP FALL 2017, SPRING 2018 Software: Rhino, Grasshopper, Photoshop, Illustrator
PLA Incubator Pavilion team project: Amanda Gruen, Yinying Chen, John Dai & Susan Kolber PLA Incubatorinvestigates a culture generated by specific transformations of craft. A single crochet stitch as a fragment and an aggregation of stitches that form the hyperbolic shape, the infrastructure becomes an incubator—a womb—for artifacts. The pavilion, pregnant with artificial, easily replicable relics, carries distinctive, historic objects into space and crash lands onto an unsettled planet where the structure itself colonizes and reproduces. A conversation about the role of a museum in the digital age requires an exploration of issues of authenticity and cultural heritage.
PennDesign Fall 2017 Critic: Gisela Baurmann Software: Rhino, Photoshop, Illustrator, Autocad Media: Cast Foam, Concrete, Copper Wire, Flex Tubing
landscape studies New Jersey & Pennsylvania
The following two drawings were group projects representing different aspects of the water in the plan and section across large landscapes.
PennDesign LARP FALL 2016 Critic: Sarah Willig, Rebecca Popowsky Mixed Media & Software: Photography, Rhino, Photoshop, Illustrator Hand drawing, Watercolor
DISTURBED Momo Ce, Xan Lillehei, Susan Kolber In 2012 Hurricane Sandy decimated the New Jersey coast, inundating the barrier islands and coastline throughout Outer Coastal Plain. Island Beach State Park, a wetlands, abuts on a disturbed, built environment. The contrast between these two areas of wetlands and drained development was the genesis of our project, as we investigated the wetlanddrained/built contrast and whether these areas were flooded by Sandy along the Outer Coast Plain. Of interest, there is a clear area of Island Beach State Park that did not flood, most likely a result of the sand dunes common to barrier islands. That the undisturbed land proved more flood proof suggests the barrier islands are not an appropriate site for development. 1. built environment 2. wetlands 3. Hurricane Sandy high water line
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WELL DUG Jensen Chen, Susan Kolber, Xan Lillehei, Aihong (Ava) Zhong The porosity of differing geological layers across the Atlantic Coast Fall Line led us on an investigation of the water table level across the Atlantic Coastal Plain and Piedmont physiographic provinces. Using data from USGS, we looked at observation wells that fell near our section cut and mapped both well depth and water table height at each point to look at how the water table and strata interact, to see if there was a relationship between water table height, well depth, geological layers, and physiographic provinces. 1. water 2. Trenton gravel 3. Potomac formation 4. Kirkwood Formation 5. Manasquan Formation 6. Englishtown Formation 7. Clay 8. Wissahickon Formation 9. Magothy Formation 10. Transect across Atlantic Fall Line
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polyvalent facade The High Line, New York City Little W 12TH & Washington polyvalent: adjective, having many different functions or forms a building and facade inspired by the cultural and ecological character of the High Line that provides public space and environmental performance
University Of Pennsylvania 2011 FALL 2011 Critic: Richard Wesley & Yun Kyu Yi Software: Rhino, Photoshop, Illustrator
Above: Front elevation of building that gives the public access to the High Line via a landscaped bridge that brings people into the building and out onto the High Line
Maidstone Renovation Wellington, FL Gut renovation to modernize floor plan, finishes, landscape, & add an outdoor living pavilion
2013-2014 lead designer & project manager: Susan Kolber interior designer: Eva Quateman Interiors general contractor: Eco-Pure Construction structural engineer: Universal Engineering, Icon Design Group
Above: New Kitchen with below b/w image of kitchen before renovation
a unique mix of native and tropical green, muted blue and silver plants organized to create a private yet expansive garden lead landscape designer: Susan Kolber landscape contractor: Hadden Landscape Inc
McGriff Architects San Francisco, CA
Samples of projects from McGriff Architects including an apartment renovation and a tech office design
Fall 2014-2016 Software: Autocad, Sketchup, Photoshop
15th St. Apartment McGriff Architects San Francisco, CA Interior Design: Luft Design photo credit Colin Price gut renovation, drawings through design development
SHUDDLE HQ McGriff Architects 2015 San Francisco, CA photo credit Colin Price Tenant Improvement schematic design and pricing for start-up office space
above | below | beyond Philadelphia, PA recipient of the 2013 American Society of Landscape Architects student award of excellence in communication Diana Fernandez and Amy Syverson from Temple University’s landscape architecture program and Susan Kolber from University of Pennsylvania’s architecture program collaborated to create Above Below Beyond, an exhibition of student design work inspired by Philadelphia’s Reading Railroad. Above Below Beyond was meant as a springboard and a catalyst, a conversation starter that could help spread the word about this historic infrastructure. The Above Below Beyond project culminated in a sixweek open exhibit that was documented through our website and in a run of 300 newspaper-style “Exhibit Catalogs.” We raised $6165 for Above Below Beyond through the online crowd-sourcing platform, Kickstarter.com--over 104 backers donated between $5 and $500 each to support our cause. Local, national and international media covered the Above Below Beyond exhibit. We were featured in ArchDaily, Inhabitat, Next City, The 34th Street Magazine, The Temple News, the Design Philadelphia Shaker and Curbed Philly.
University of Pennsylvania Temple University 2012 Advisors: Stuart Appel, Lolly Tai, Julie Beckman, Ariel Genadt
1. exhibition attendees documented their ideas for the railroad 2. exhibition conceptual model: which included hundreds of suspended terrariums containing plants and found objects from the railroad. LEDs illuminated the piece at night. 3. exhibition closing panel discussion 4. Next City- A birds-eye view of Next City’s office and the “Storefront for Urban Innovation” which hosted the Above Below Beyond exhibition 5. Event Space- The exhibit celebrated it’s opening night as an official event for Design Philadelphia, an annual city-wide design festival. The show had a great turn-out, with a lively standing room only crowd from 6 to 10pm. 6. Open Exhibit- We kept the exhibit open to visitors 7 days a week for 6 weeks. On weekends, the coordinators of Above Below Beyond were available to answer questions or just to chat. 7. Storefront- During business hours, we stashed the boards away and Next City used their office as usual. At night, the installation lit up the storefront with hundreds of blue and white LEDs, causing many people passing by to stop and do a double take. 8. The exhibit ended in a panel discussion that explored how student involvement can encourage development of sites like the Reading Railroad. The panel included Paul vanMeter of VIADUCTgreene; Ashby Leavell, Longwood Gardens graduate fellow; John Struble of the Reading Viaduct Project; Ariel Genadt, PennDesign Lecturer; and Mark B. Thompson, architect for Fairmount Water Works.
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