Taylor Tofal
Undergraduate Portfolio
Out In Within The New York City University City New York City
Sanctuary
Pages 1-4
Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery
Pages 5-8
City Gallery Gainesville
Pages 9-11 Charleston Institute for the Performing Arts Charleston
Pages 12-15 Materiality Studies: Plywood Pages 16-17 Anthropologic Container Guadalajara
Pages 18-19
The New York City Psychological Institute for the Morally Repressed 55 Wall Street
Transitory Spaces
Pages 20-23
Desert
Pages 24-26 Church + Meeting Hall
San Martin de las Canas
Pages 27-30
Of the many elements in the consideration of a design, what is more important than site? The consideration of site is one that is vital to each project presented here, and they are thus divided into the following categories: out, in, within. Out is comprised of the projects in which the consideration of site is free of a specific location, or in which the location is placed far from the urban environment. In is the projects which are held in an existing fabric, which influenced their concepts and creation. Within presents a study that was completed on a smaller scale, focusing inward on elements of design.
An analytical plan of the superblocks, with the buildings marked by cores spinning outward to connect with and through one another
Grade-level plan for the north and south superblocks
The New York City University City
NYU Superblocks, New York, New York Design 07 Partner: Esteban Giraldo Critic: M. McGlothlin
The NYU Superblocks, as of present, are a spectacularly uninviting-and frankly intimidating- set of buildings. This is of particular interest as, on paper, they offer everything that could be asked of a college campus in the area, from a gymnasium to a nearby library, a community garden and a dog park, faculty and student housing along with a small amount of retail and grocery offerings. The issue, after analysis, was deemed that all of these elements were provided in isolation; they were fragmented pieces that were never worked into a whole, and thus, instead of a comforting, full environment they offered a confused, messy one in which the divides between public and private, inviting and unwelcoming, resident and tourist, were blurred, creating anxiety for all involved.
The remedy for this was developed as a way of consolidating function and space, making way for
vast green areas that spread between multifunction buildings. Thresholds were given particular
importance, and established on significant corners and street expanses to make clear where the public was invited in to partake in the campus city. The existing residential housing units were left standing, although in instances they were broken through or pushed into to allow for connections to be formed between buildings and blocks. The gymnasium was pushed underground, as well as some newly formed academic construction, in order to create wide parks for students and public to utilize alike. A classroom, study space, and performing arts center was formed to provide a bridge from one block to the next, both in program and through the literal creation of a pedestrian bridge puncturing the once-massive and restrictive housing unit between them. Students were thus allowed to move freely around the campus, choosing when and where they wished to interact with the city as a whole. This was a project done in conjunction with a partner; however, all of the work presented was created solely by the author.
Sanctuary
Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, Gainesville, Florida Design 05 Critic: T. Smith
Sanctuary is a project in which the goal was, in essence, simplicity. The task was to create a non-denominational worship and gathering space for the Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, a natural cemetery in Gainesville, Florida. The cemetery is located in the center of an untouched wooded area, and forgoes coffins and headstones for natural burial mounds and trees. The desire, then, was to develop a design that was as unobtrusive as the cemetery itself; one that respected the landscape, embraced the region, and celebrated the light. A simple, wide gathering space was formed, with a glass wall on one side that looked out onto the woods. A smaller chapel space and an area for bathrooms and preparation flank the main space on either side, allowing for a straight line of movement from entry to the main chapel, which is emphasized by a cut in the flat roof that filters light throughout.
Light is an extremely important component in the design of the building, and is drawn in at any opportunity, through wide swaths of wall replaced
by glass panels that open onto the landscape, the central split of the roof that quite literally highlights a path from entry to the main glass wall of the chapel, and the connections with the exterior environment that are integrated into each space. The entirety of the building is raised up, in
order to impact the site in as limited a way as possible in its footprint, and is nestled
between several large trees. A memorial wall with the names of the buried extends out from the entrance and into the landscape at an angle, drawing occupants inward from the site and pressing them through to the gathering space.
Light and spaces with roof planes removed
Elevation sketches
City Gallery
Gainesville, Florida
Design 06 Critic: S. Belton
Analysis of downtown Gainesville
The City Gallery was placed in the heart of downtown Gainesville, Florida, which provided an excellent location and, with it, a site fraught with challenges, the most interesting of which was a 3,000 square foot site that was three times as long as it was wide. Thus, a design that embraced this linear quality was required, and a proposal presented that created a circulation core through the middle of the building, with the floors at each level rotating around this centralized space. The plans differed at each level, providing for multi-height spaces throughout the gallery that extended their verticality in complement to the horizontally-oriented site.
Sectional perspective view
The gallery is made up of triangular panels that work in unison to wrap the rotating floors, at times pulling back to allow for glass panels to expose the city surrounding it, at times folding across to create private spaces and coverage for the gallery’s works. Around the building and within the exposed spaces, a system of mullions and sun-shading devices span the glass, framing the views outward and inward at a human scale.
Charleston Institute for the Performing Arts Charleston, South Carolina
Design 06 Critic: S. Belton
Charleston anaylsis
The Charleston Institute of the Performing Arts is meant to provide a large assortment of spaces that function as both educational facilities and accommodations for a wide variety of performing arts displays. Lecture halls, classroom and studio spaces, offices for the institution, and a large, publicly-minded black-box theater are all placed around an enclosed central atrium, interacting with the well-populated area around the corner of two main cross-streets of downtown Charleston, while at the same time providing private areas for the users of the institution.
Sectional perspective view through main atrium
Playing with this idea of public versus private spaces, glass walls were placed to strategically open or close areas for public consumption based on their use, with some spaces, such as a ground floor cafe, being opened directly out onto the sidewalk space. A linear wood skin provides another level of varying enclosure, connecting the spaces around the central atrium and wrapping them in different ways based on their programatic intentions.
Elevated pathways connect the different functional buildings of the construct, tying them together and creating areas of that look into the atrium space and the theater. These encourage circulation between the spaces and manufacture elevated areas for viewing and being viewed from the many vantage points across the site.
Materiality Studies: Plywood Restaurant Design Independent Study Critic: L. Huang
In order to gain a greater depth of knowledge into the materiality of plywood, an independent study was performed with the focus being on how plywood might be used in a multitude of ways in the field of restaurant design, including as fixtures for filtering or providing light, as tables, chairs, or bar areas, as wall installations, and as wine racks. Throughout the study, plywood was manipulated through molding, laser cutting, and bending to gain a number of different effects, and to pursue a better understanding of the versatility and potential of a common and low-cost material.
Wine Rack Studies, molded from bottles and angled for the appropriate storage of wine
Wall installation and preliminary studies in capturing light
Free-molded wine rack studies
Lighting Studies from front and back- front veneer appears unaltered until light is applied
Studies ranged from the conceptual use of plywood in a restaurant setting to the extensive building and molding of plywood and wood veneer in order to personally analyze the material and its potential uses. Hot and cold water molding, weighted molding, and free-form molding were utilized to achieve a number of desired (and undesired) effects for a variety of potential uses, as well as laser cutting the top and bottom of layered veneers, etching layers away from already-formed plywood, and cutting a myriad of shapes to result in more conducive bending and lighting designs.
Anthropologic Container Guadalajara, Mexico
Design 08 Critic: A. Perez
As a preliminary study before traveling to Guadalajara, Mexico, a pavilion or “anthropologic container� was designed that could function without a specific site anywhere in the region. Due to the limited constraints on site, the focus of the design was centered around the manipulation of light within the pavilion, the only function of which was to provide the space and structure for the hanging of two hammocks. The most important considerations for hammock use are, of course, the environmental factors that impact them; thus, the plan of the container is designed based on its orientation for light. It is kinked down the middle, with one segment oriented southeast and the other southwest, providing for two spaces separately created to provide the perfect conditions for morning or afternoon hammock enjoyment, with structure available to hang and orient the hammocks for each. The first space, which is designed around morning lighting, is more private and enclosed; the afternoon space is larger and more accessible. The kinked plan also provides the design for the steel structure of the container, allowing for an outward bow that creates interstitial space between the outside world and the interior hammock areas. The structure of the container is wrapped around vertical supports, and is arranged horizontally in varying distances according to where more or less sight lines and light would be desired. These beams filter in strips of light while protecting the occupants from the elements and from unwanted viewing by the population outside.
Location of morning hammock 01
Location of afternoon hammock 01
Planned location of structure for hammock hooks- morning (right) and afternoon (left)
Plan of the pavilion and a horizontal structural element
Detail of horizontal and vertical beams from corner
The New York City Psychological Institute for the Morally Repressed 55 Wall Street, New York, New York Design 07 Critic: M. McGlothlin
Images from a conceptual study model of the design
The New York City Psychological Institute for the Morally Repressed is a conceptual study into the uncomfortable and the mundane. The design, placed in the center of Wall Street in Manhattan, begins with more public and transitional spaces for the occupant that has not yet committed to full residency. A massive core area, devoid of most built conditions save for a single upward stair, is then raised from these spaces. If the occupant follows this intimidating stair upward, they are rewarded with spaces that are increasingly more desirable- they are open, well-lit, and provide interesting views both inward and outward. However, these are also the more permanent spaces in the construct; they are not meant to be left once reached.
This design is meant to analyze program as much as it is the conceptual idea of a design in which the occupant chooses material value over moral standards; it is only by giving one up that the other can be received. The project began by choosing a provocative name meant to incite some feeling or response, which while not necessarily adversarial could be seen as addressing some uncomfortable truths within the city of New York.
Transitory Spaces Desert
Design 04 Critic: C. Hailey
Study of the transitory camp, which takes advantage of existing conditions in the desert
Year One
Year Five
Year Two
Year Ten
Year Three
Year Twenty
Year Fifteen
The idea of the desert study was to construct areas for two occupants. The first was one who enters the desert for a purpose and builds up, over time, a permanent residence for which living in the desert is the goal. The other is of a more transitory, camp-oriented nature; this occupant barely touches the ground where the other builds up from it, but both seek comfort in the inhospitable environment. The obsession for this project became not necessarily about what, but about how, and, as a following component, when. Time studies were drawn that analyzed how exactly these two structures might go up over a course of years, determining what, in the desert, is most important, and what might be later developed out of desire or want.
Church + Meeting Hall San Martín de las Cañas Design 08 Critic: A. Perez
The goal of the project in San Martín de las Cañas was to provide the population with a building that offered usable, useful spaces and built up a public space that would enhance the activities and experiences of the occupants, rather than direct or limit them. The building encompasses a chapel in its center, along with spaces for meeting, an informal library, and a baptismal font that spans the multiple levels of the construct and begins to animate the building itself with water pulled through from the public space outside.
1. Meeting Hall 2. Meeting Room 01 3. Meeting Room 02 4. Restroom 5. Baptismal Font 6. Church Office 7. Confessional 8. Chapel 9. Entrance 6 3 2
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5 1
Specific emphasis was placed on designing a building appropriate for the site, a small, rural town in the Tequila Valley of Mexico. The design is made up of multiple layers, each of which provides a different level of enclosure for the interior; the most protected spaces are enclosed by thick, solid walls, with a linear frame and a composite system of glass panels wrapping around them to create more open, lighted areas. Parts of the chapel are raised higher above grade to capture the stunning natural view of the mountains present in the landscape to the rear of the construct.
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Images of Place
Interior view of the main chapel