Thesis booklet 2016

tulane school of architecture

Exhibition of Thesis Projects 2015-2016

a catalog of thesis projects created by the tulane school of architecture master of architecture candidates for 2016

tulane school of architecture

page 02

thesis class of 2015—2016

An Architectural Thesis Each of the Thesis Projects presented in this exhibition was developed in two consecutive courses over the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016. In a three credit fall course, students researched an architectural topic and developed a thesis able to be explored through design. Students then entered the spring semester design studio course with a provisional thesis which was explored and elaborated through design for a specific program and site. In both semesters, each student was guided by one of the following faculty members: Scott Bernhard, AIA, NCARB, Thesis Coordinator

Jean and Saul A. Mintz Associate Professor

Adjunct Professor of Architecture

Marianne Desmarais, RA, NCARB Ammar Eloueini, AIA

Professor of Architecture

Marty McElveen, RA, NCARB

Adjunct Professor of Architecture

Cordula Roser-Gray, AIA

Professor of Practice

In this Booklet pages 04-05 An alphabetical list of the 2016 Thesis Students with each exhibit location, and a project description page number. pages 06-07 A plan of the Thesis Exhibition in Richardson Memorial Hall indicating the location of each Thesis Project. pages 08-54 An Illustrated, one-page description of each thesis and thesis project. page 03

tulane school of architecture

Thesis Project Summaries Each of the thesis students below has created a one-page illustrated summary of their Thesis project presented on the indicated pages of this booklet: student

page

location

thesis professor

Ardeneaux, Christian

page 08

panel cr-03

Roser-Gray

Battipaglia, Michael

page 09

panel mm-08

McElveen

Begbie, Blair

page 10

panel mm-06

McElveen

Buschman, Christina

page 11

panel sb-02

Bernhard

Collins, Christopher

page 12

panel ae-09

Eloueini

Col贸n, Joseph

page 13

panel sb-07

Bernhard

Esser, Nicole

page 14

panel cr-07

Roser-Gray

Federman, Amy

page 15

panel cr-10

Roser-Gray

Frankel, Lolade

page 16

panel md-08

Desmarais

Girardeau, Lindsay

page 17

panel md-07

Desmarais

Graham, Kyle

page 18

panel ae-07

Eloueini

Grosshandler, Zoe

page 19

panel md-06

Desmarais

Haack, Christopher

page 20

panel ae-06

Eloueini

Hayden, Emily

page 21

panel mm-03

McElveen

Herskowitz, Alec

page 22

panel ae-08

Eloueini

Jin, Buwei

page 23

panel cr-08

Roser-Gray

Katz, Max

page 24

panel md-05

Desmarais

page 25

panel mm-02

McElveen

Key, Jenny Renn

page 26

panel sb-04

Bernhard

Latch, Shira

page 27

panel cr-05

Roser-Gray

Leggett, Logan

page 28

panel mm-05

McElveen

Loria, Gwen

page 29

panel sb-11

Bernhard

page 30

panel mm-01

McElveen

McDonald, Daniel

page 31

panel mm-04

McElveen

Mehaffey, Nicole

page 32

panel md-02

Desmarais

Mills, Shelby

page 33

panel mm-07

McElveen

Keith, Colin

Lynn, Eric

page 04

thesis class of 2015—2016

Thesis Panel Locations Each student has presented their exhibition of design work on a 6‘ tall by 8’ wide panel located as indicated below (“ae” indicates a Lobby exhibit): student

page

location

thesis professor

Mire, Elizabeth

page 34

panel cr-09

Roser-Gray

Morasso, Sarah

page 35

panel cr-02

Roser-Gray

Naylor, Samuel

page 36

panel ae-03

Eloueini

Ngo, Matthew

page 37

panel ae-11

Eloueini

Nguyen, Katie

page 38

panel sb-08

Bernhard

Nunnink, Michael

page 39

panel sb-09

Bernhard

Park, Jamie

page 40

panel cr-06

Roser-Gray

Phillips, Rosemary

page 41

panel sb-03

Bernhard

Rosencwaig, Eytan

page 42

panel sb-06

Bernhard

Rodas, Gustavo

page 43

panel md-11

Desmarais

Rogut, Alyssa

page 44

panel md-09

Desmarais

Russo, Parker

page 45

panel sb-10

Bernhard

Sassoon, Maya

page 46

panel ae-05

Eloueini

Sharp, Jonathan

page 47

panel md-03

Desmarais

Shields, Adam

page 48

panel mm-09

McElveen

Sixt, Alexandre

page 49

panel md-10

Desmarais

Scott, J.D.

page 50

panel md-04

Desmarais

Stokley, Laura

page 51

panel ae-10

Eloueini

Taube, Jonathan

page 52

panel ae-04

Eloueini

Telford, Melinda

page 53

panel md-01

Desmarais

Van Arsdalen, Megan

page 54

panel cr-01

Roser-Gray

West, Gavin

page 55

panel sb-01

Bernhard

Westmoreland, Rachel

page 56

panel cr-04

Roser-Gray

Wurzelbacher, Francke

page 57

panel sb-05

Bernhard

Zamorano, Paul

page 58

panel ae-01

Eloueini

Zolan, Jeffrey

page 59

panel ae-02

Eloueini

page 05

tulane school of architecture

Thesis Exhibit Plan

sb-11 sb-04

sb-10 sb-03

sb-07 sb-02

sb-06 sb-01

md-09 md-04

md-05

md-11

sb-05 md-10

sb-09 sb-08

second floor of richardson memorial hall each student project is keyed to a location on this plan

md-08 md-03

md-07 md-02

md-06 md-01

cr-01 cr-06

information

room 201—thomson hall mm-02 mm-07

mm-01 mm-06

cr-03 cr-08

cr-02 cr-07

cr-05 cr-04

mm-03 mm-08

mm-05 cr-09

mm-04 mm-09

cr-10

monday, may 2nd thesis reviews tuesday, may 3rd thesis reviews group number of panels location morning sessions 8:30am to 12:30pm morning sessions 8:30am to 12:30pm Desmaraisgroup [MD] 11 student 201,group Southeast Mariannedesmarais groupeloueini Cordula Roser-Gray mcelveen group groupdesmarais group [CR] 10 student 201, Southwest

mcelveen group Marty McElveen [MM] 09 student group 1:30pm 201, to Northwest afternoon 1:30pm to 5:30pm afternoon 5:30pm Scott Bernhard desmarais groupeloueini [SB] group 11 student 201,group Northeast

mcelveen group

roser-gray group Ammar Eloueini [AE] 11 student group 206 + Lobby

bernhard group

page 06

ae-11

thesis class of 2015—2016

room 206

ae-06

ae-05

welcome ae-01

ae-07

ae-02

ae-10

room 204

ae-08

-04

ae

-09

ae

ae-03

favrot lobby

terrace

wednesday, may 4th thesis reviews morning sessions 8:30am to 12:30pm

bernhard group

roser-gray group afternoon 1:30pm to 5:30pm

bernhard group page 07

tulane school of architecture

Connective Public Infrastructure: A Merging of Path and Place

Christian Ardeneaux

location CR-03 CR-00

The role of circulation in American cities has shifted from the multi-functional pedestrian oriented path to the monofuctional vehicular oriented path.

Pedestrian paths once served not only as circulation but also as meeting place, market place, and recreation space. Vehicular road networks act as a direct barrier for pedestrian accessibility to the immediate areas surrounding them. This condition is realized in the adjacent areas around the Pontchatrain Expressway section of Highway 90 in New Orleans, Louisiana where pedestrian accesibility is hindered by the Highway.

By creating an elevated pedestrian oriented infrastructural network around the highway pedestrian accessibility can be strengthened and allow the highway cease to be a pedestrian barrier. Furthermore, integrating this network with a pedestrian orieted public program on a site can create a better urban connection where public pedestrian access to publicly centric areas of a city can exist.

PLACE

PLACE

page 08

thesis thesis class class of of 2015—2016 2015—2016

Liquid Awareness through a Civic Infrastructure

location MM-08

Michael Battipaglia

Awareness through a Multifunctional Infrastructure: Aquifers provide 35% of all human fresh water needs. Twenty-one of the thirtyseven major Earth aquifers are being depleted at an unstainable rate. Demand from these aquifers are even greater in times of drought such as California which historically has experienced a drought every decade. The Central Valley Aquifer is California’s main water source, yet has depleted to nearly half its size in the past five years the state has been in a severe drought. What if architecture could play a role in bringing awareness to this dire issue through a civic infrastructure that recycles and refills the groundwater?

Recycling Water for Drought Stricken Los Angeles: Los Angeles uses over 500 million gallons of water each day and is discarded into the Pacific Ocean. This thesis imagines the water being diverted to smaller water infrastructures placed throughout the city that would recycle and refill the groundwater under Los Angeles. Carved away water towers would use the natural treatment system of plants in order to sustainably treat black and grey water. These neighborhood “civic gardens” would also double as greenspace for a city that is lacking parks and bring awareness to an issue that we have become disconnected with in terms of where water comes from.

page page 09 09

tulane school of architecture

Manipulating To Mend Restructuring memory by synthesizing order & physical manifestation

Blair Begbie

location MM-00 MM-06

The Brain and the Built Societal detachment, irrational reality, disoriented identity: side effects of Alzheimer’s disease. In normative circumstances, the mind and body intimately consociate to form the selfdom of a human being. Uncontrollably, Alzheimer’s disease fractures this harmonious connection. Understanding the inner workings of the brain, the connection between spatial navigation and memory, is crucial to reforming space for those with disconnected neural networks. It is through the layers of order and connected stimulants that memory sparks.

Visual perception and stimulating arts spaces bond community members, students and memory loss patients. This systemization relinks memory from a biological basis, reminding each lost identity of innate spatial movements, societal relations, and a sense of self.

Reconnect: Memory, the Arts, and the Community A biologically inspired civic facility within Houston, Texas that relies on exploitation of the existing spatial memories of community with additional stimuli to mend the estranged body and mind. The built reforms the brain.

Manipulated visual pattern rebuilds diminished neural connections fragmented

by Alzheimer’s disease, restoring both memory and identity.

page 10

thesis class of 2015—2016

Moving Toward More Cooperative Living Investigating Cohousing as an Armature for Increasing Density in American Suburbs

Christina Buschman

location SB-00 SB-02

Architectural and Human Relationships within Modern American Suburbs Suburban spatial relationships prompt filtered connections between neighbors, but with increasing density and housing square footage these closer adjacencies become problematic. Additionally, the modern American family is becoming increasingly complex, as more pressures and figures are being added into the lives of children and their parents. Families can lessen these strains by expanding their support networks and bringing them in closer proximity. This kind of density, commonly found in many new housing developments, lend itself to cohousing, however American are hesitant about this way of living.

NORTH toward historic downtown Decatur

Decatur Police Department

St. Thomas More Catholic Church and School

Adair Park and thee Mary Gay House

Cohousing as an Armature to Increase Density and Connections Located in a suburb of Atlanta, the proposed cohousing development exists within a subdivision on a site that had previously held a church. By working with the surrounding rhythms and regional housing typologies, the modern program begins to blend in with the existing fabric. The project is designed with consideration to families with special needs and includes different therapies and additional means of support. The surrounding community is able to utilize some common amenities, while careful circulation planning maintains a desired level of suburban privacy and outdoor space.

Ebster Park

Lilly Hill Baptist Church

Excellence Church Decatur Housing Authority

WEST toward Decatur High School

Julepp Clothing C thingg

page 11 Kaleidoscope Studio

tulane school of architecture

Digital Liminality Identifying the Threshold Between Man, Site, and Machine

Christopher Collins

location AE-09

Abstract Thresholds within Concrete Spaces: Liminality is being within a transitional state of progress in which one operates within both sides of a sensory threshold. This space operates as the doorway to more than just the room occupied, but rather ties worlds or emotions together.

A church bridges the gap between heaven and earth, whereas a vessel would connect the world of land to that of the sea. Most recently, the Internet is seen as a connection point across the whole globe; many people see it as an ethereal cloud, yet it requires large expanses of space to house data storage and processing units.

Bringing The Cloud Down to Earth: A visual representation of a large amount of data within an urban setting allows the general public to connect directly to the tangible Internet. Synthesizing a colocation center with a mediatheque as a means for user interaction, the attraction allows visitors a visual connection to the inner workings of the data cloud. To prevent overheating, the building is located on the San Antonio River, which it uses as a means of cooling. Servers line the walls of an atrium while water and air flow around them creating movement within a traditionally stationary work of machinery.

page 12

thesis class of 2015—2016

Fostering Heterogeneity Addressing Socioeconomic SegregaƟon by Engaging Communal Spaces in Reorganized Mixed-Income Housing

location �������� SB-07 SB-00

Joseph A. Colón

Rethinking MulƟ-Family Housing in a SegregaƟonist Context of StraƟed Wealth Income inequality is a global phenomenon that sees wealth concentrated in upper income brackets. Consequentially, people of different incomes are living further apart - enabled by automobile-driven suburbanization. In the United States of America, this wealth stratication is embodied in an abhorrent racialized history. Even with seemingly progressive interventions in underprivileged communities such as “public housing,” wealth inequality and residential segregation have persisted. Perhaps by refocusing mixed-income housing on the engagement of communal spaces into reorganized residential living situations, we can de-emphasize the nature of homogeneity present in low-density living and spur further remediation of socioeconomic segregation.

Swinging for the Fences in The City of Brotherly Love Since segrega�on can be found from the North and the South to out West, establishing site criteria narrowed down Phildelphia as a diverse, yet segregated city. Located in the central city neighborhood of Callowhill, the project is situated at intersec�ons of race, wealth and densi�es of adjacent neighborhoods; the project thus highlights prominently the efficacy of communal spaces, integrates culturally-relevant spaces and organizes a diverse pale�e of unit wealths in a hyperlocalized manner.







page Ö ¦ 13

tulane school of architecture

Gateway Bridge Park : forging a productive link between shores

Nicole Esser

location CR-07 CR-00

Declining Bridge Infrastructure and the Rise of Alternative Transit: Bridge infrastructure in the United States is reaching a critical point. The average bridge age is 42 years, while most bridges are designed for a 50 year life span. The money is not available to keep all of these bridges functioning, much less to replace them, and demolition is also costly. This means we will soon reach a point where many bridges sit closed and unused. At the same time, bike commuting is becoming increasingly popular and car ownership is declining. Could these bridges instead be proactively altered to address the schism created by water in many cities?

Connectivity for St. Louis and East St. Louis - a Bridge Park: St. Louis is a city split across two shores that is troubled by disparities between East St. Louis and the urban core on the western shore. The bridge selected for decommissioning and reuse is the MLK Bridge, located north of tourism and business destinations. The unique opportunities of the truss structure are surgically altered to recreate the bridge as a space of leisure, education, transit, and growth. The project is anchored with a farmers market and community garden on the eastern shore, which begins to address East St. Louis’ food desert and provides a place of destination.

CLASSROOM PLAY POD

PLAY POD

REST POD

CONSTRUCTED WETLAND - SUBSURFACE

BIKE RAMP

FARMER’S MARKET PODS

BIKE RAMP

CONSTRUCTED WETLAND PODS

PRODUCE

SELL

GROW

FILTER

PLAY

LEARN

RELAX

VISIT

CLASSROOM

COMMUNITY PLOTS

RIVER OVERLOOK

METRO

page 14

thesis class class of of 2015—2016 2015—2016 thesis

Edge Ecology A Proposal to Revitalize & Reconnect Boston’s Water Infrastructure

location location CR-00 CR-10

Amy Federman

Water Transportation & Sustainability: By activating and expanding Boston’s water transportation network, a multi-disciplinary ferry terminal typology can sustainably support transportation needs within the context of a changing climate, particularly in tangent with the issues associated with sea level rise. Through architectural analysis, transit stops foster success through re-modeling their network, amenities, branding, and program, as well as elaborating on an ecologicallydriven soft edge condition to make the terminal ‘hub’ an iconically balanced seaside gateway to the city.

Softening the Urban Edge: Reintroducing once native cordgrass to the Boston’s waters, this purifying, sponge-like condition tessellates and sprawls throughout the infamously ‘dirty water,’ drawing infrastructural, ecological, and educational ties along the Charles River and perimeter of the Harbor. The symbiotic relationship between technology and ecology becomes a crucial concept for the survival of this seaside city. The projects seeks to [RE-define] a machine as a common goal around which interdependent operations can rally.

page 15 15 page

tulane tulane school school of of architecture architecture

Transpositional Ideologies Finding a Home in the Urban Core

Lolade Frankel

location MD-08 MD-00

The American Dream and the Shifted Needs of a New Generation: The realization of the American Dream has been cemented in the suburban home typology. The 2008 economic downturn has greatly affected the viability of this dwindling dream, as have shifting demographics, lifestyle choices, and family culture. A new sharing economy has arisen, refocusing the new generation on an economy of means and communal living. The tenets of the American home can be understood as architectural and spatial conditions that can be rethought and replicated in new environments. A revisioning of the ideas of home and community is necessary to adjust to current needs and reverse the anonymity and waste of American sprawl.

A Home in the Urban: The proposed housing prototype seeks to blend the desire for an autonomous home with the increasing necessity of dense urban living. Through the utilization of a sharing ideology, the project offers typical suburban home amenities in refigured ways that emphasize connection at three scales: between neighbors, the neighborhood, and the city at large. The transposition of these tenets offers the respite of a private home in a dense and dynamic environment; merging the dream home with the necessities of modern living.

SEATTLE-TACOMA METRO AREA RECEIVED

75 % OF THIS GROWTH 57,000 RESIDENTS

1

2-5

6 - 10

11- 20

21- 50

51 100

100+

Urban Centers 43% of new housing units

page page 16 16

thesis class of 2015—2016

Generating Place from Space Disruptions Along a Divisive Urban Corridor

location MD-07 MD-00

Lindsay Girardeau

Troost Avenue: A Divisive Urban Corridor Kansas City still remains a starkly segregated city in the 21st century. One street serves to divide the city racially, Troost Avenue. This fissure divides the city not only by race, but by economic status, school districts, crime, and many other demographic characteristics. Troost Avenue is an avenue of blight that acts as a wall, cornering the racially concentrated areas of poverty into East Kansas City.

By strategically disrupting Troost Avenue and developing nodes at intersections of cross streets, connections and communities will be drawn across the divide.

Troost School of Music: Generating Place from Space Schools take a huge place in the discussion of racial division within Kansas City.

Following the desegregation of schools, measures were put in place in Kansas City to keep the school system segregated and Troost was at the heart of the issue, the street which definied the boundaries of school districts. The design of this School of Music occupies an existing vacant building on Troost and extends the intervention from Troost to the neighbrhood behind. This design creates a community anchor that simultaneously breaks boundaries and celebrates the culture of Jazz music in Kansas City, while bringing back life to Troost Avenue.

page 17

tulane school of architecture

Crowdfunding Modular Construction Design Strategies for Improving the Success Rates of Crowdfunded Buildings

Kyle Graham

location AE-00 AE-07

We can design crowdfunded buildings better To the average American citizen, the thought of constructing a public building is completely unachievable. However, the contemporary landscape of financing buildings has provided an alternative: crowdfunding. Crowdfunding, injects a democratic system into the traditional construction process, allowing individuals to vote on projects they support by either choosing to fund or not to fund the project. At this time, only 30% of crowdfunded buildings succeed in being constructed. By changing the way we design crowdfunded buildings, projects can be created that are more conducive to the crowdfunding model and have a higher chance of success.

Creating a new mode of designing crowdfunded buildings Crowdfunded projects are formed through the accumulation of resources over a length of time whereas traditional projects are given all of their resources at once. In order to take advantage of this rate of accumulation, crowdfunded projects should be defined by the aggregation of individual parts which can be funded independently. As parts are funded, they are added to a growing whole.

While the final form will be unknown to the advocates of the project and the project designer, they will be responsible for designing the elements that will amount to the building and composing the strategy for how the elements will be organized.

page 18

ã« Ý®Ý class ½ ÝÝ of Ê¥ 2015—2016 thesis

A New Rural Typology Permanent and Transient ConnecƟons to an Agrarian Landscape

½Ê ã®ÊÄ location MD-00 MD-06

Zoe Grosshandler

Trending Local: Finding Place through Food Mid-scale farms are disappearing across America in favor of small lifestyle farms and industrial agriculture. Urban sprawl, while pressuring these farms to sell for development, has also contributed to a societal disconnect from the land.

This loss of a sense of place can be seen in shiŌing consumer aƫtudes towards food and a rising demand for local, sustainable, and organic products. Tapping into that trend is the farming method (opƟmized for mid-scale farms) championed by Polyface, Inc; a rotaƟon of various livestock across pastures maintains the farm as an ecosystem, balancing the needs of both land and animals.

An Agricultural Community: ReecƟng Place and Product Greenmont Farm lies in the Shenandoah Valley: a landscape of rolling hills criss-crossed with fencelines and overshadowed by the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Currently farmed by Polyface, Greenmont’s future is unclear and it is struggling to break even. Phasing in limited residenƟal development alongside an intensicaƟon of the working farm forms a modern agricultural community, allowing Greenmont to stay intact. Thickening the boundary between protected regions of unchecked growth and the open pastures creates a narrow site for each phase. The housing units react to their placement in between the pastoral and the rugged, while common spaces reect the inherent seasonality of a farm.

Ö ¦ 19 page

tulane school of architecture

Title Subtitle

Christopher Haack

location AE-06

1.5 inch by 1.5 inch gray-scale photograph showing your face.

Please remove the gray box before submitting and make sure your image fills the square space completely.

Heading One - usually a description of the thesis issues you explored: (90-100 words). Vel magnis ipsae nume voluptaturem est a esti beaquatur sum, vel mod quassitium, qui num vendit am dolore quod ellatisint optur, ulparumquis sit harcias molor magnam facepudite peleste caborrovid eius.Num rem rerume vel magnis ipsae nume voluptaturem est a esti beaquatur sum, vel mod quassitium, qui num vendit am dolore quod ellatisint optur, ulparumquis sit harcias molor magnam facepudite peleste caborrovid eius. Num rem rerume vel magnis ipsae nume voluptaturem est a esti beaquatur sum, vel mod quassitium, qui num vendit am dolore quod ellatisint optur. (90-100 words).

Heading Two: usually a description of the thesis project and site: (90-100 words). Vel magnis ipsae nume voluptaturem est a esti beaquatur sum, vel mod quassitium, qui num vendit am dolore quod ellatisint optur, ulparumquis sit harcias molor magnam facepudite peleste caborrovid eius.Num rem rerume vel magnis ipsae nume voluptaturem est a esti beaquatur sum, vel mod quassitium, qui num vendit am dolore quod ellatisint optur, ulparumquis sit harcias molor magnam facepudite peleste caborrovid eius. Num rem rerume vel magnis ipsae nume voluptaturem est a esti beaquatur sum, vel mod quassitium, qui num vendit am dolore quod ellatisint optur. (90-100 words).

One, two or three images may be located in the space of this gray box (please remove the gray box before submitting your page). Choose image(s) that help to illustrate your thesis ideas and/or thesis project. In total, they must occupy this 4.5” x 2.5” space with .125” white spaces between images if more than one is used. The online version of this booklet will be in color, but be aware that the printed version of this booklet may be gray-scale. If you wish, you may submit a gray-scale version and a color version of your page. If you only submit a color page, it may be automatically converted to gray-scale during printing. A 300dpi image, at this size, is more than enough resolution for the purpose of this booklet.

page 20

thesis class of 2015—2016

Strange Gods Liberated Artifacts of the Endless Present

location MM-03 MM-00

Emily Hayden

From the time of cave painting to the age of androids, mankind has been preoccupied with copying, increasingly with near-perfect accuracy. The project aims to create a space for the construction of new futures for endangered and disputed artifacts in the face of rapid technological progress. It serves a global population and rejects the position of absolute preservation, rather embracing the notion of a fluid narrative augmented by the production of replicas. As society inevitably shifts to an emphasis on the digital and immaterial, the replica becomes a paradigm in and of itself. This phenomenon, enabled by contemporary technologies, liberates the object from its physical confines, and enriches the relationship between object and narrative. It also brings into question notions of context, materiality, and scale - three properties with cultural baggage of their own. The project serves as an enabler of these new exchanges and confrontations, operating out of a relatively neutral location and programmed as a repository for information and a facility for reproduction. These productive frictions allow us to reconsider complex object histories. The architectural environment must acknowledge the fact that artifacts are never frozen in time, and instead are evolving representations of larger cultural narratives.

The project presents a series of mutable parafictions and strange familiarities that extend from the architecture to the objects housed within it. If it is conceivable that the perfect copy can be made, or that the physical artifacts of the most polemic conflicts on the planet could suddenly proliferate, what would become of this destabilization? If the replication of objects enables some degree of autonomy, it would perhaps undermine the constructed narratives taken to be truth as presented by museums, critics, and elite establishments, and allow for a broader and more nuanced interpretation of what material culture looks and will look like in centuries to come.

page 21

tulane school of architecture

Spatial Justice for East Austin Densifying social exchange with parametric infrastructure

Alec Herskowitz

location AE-08 AE-00

Barriers of the Modern City Urban activist Jane Jacobs understood the city as intrinsically social. However, in the past century our cities have become growingly dehumanized through segregation and suburban sprawl. Today, as land closer to job centers skyrockets in value, previously undervalued land becomes vulnerable to gentrification, where rising costs displace existing populations. The question is therefore posed as to how architecture can more actively respond to gentrification.

A New Model for Intervening in Gentrification On the banks of Lady Bird Lake, directly east of Interstate 35 from downtown Austin, Texas, the dangerous Holly Street Power Plant long stood as a symbol of toxicity for the predominantly Hispanic surrounding neighborhood. For 30 years grassroots organizations petitioned to remove the plant, and in 1995, the City Council voted to dismantle it. The proposed program for the Holly Street site will deliver a combination of cooperative housing, public spaces for community development, informal markets, and transportation hubs. Stitching together the programs means enabling inhabitants to tear down its physical barriers. By proposing a new model synthesizing parameterized cohousing units with public space, the architecture seeks to catalyze interaction.

page 22

thesis class thesis classofof2015—2016 2015—2016

location location CR-00 CR-08

Buwei Jin

Current Declined Communities:

During the last decades, with the rapid urbanization process, millions of immigrations moved from the rural to the cities for jobs and better life. To accommodate such a huge amount of immigrations, the government and employers built a specific form of housing: the residential districts. However, with the decades of use and lack of design experience, such districts are no longer attractive and are experiencing many problems. The thesis explores the potential architectural intervention to fix and improve the communities and remain the social ties among the current residents.

Proposed Architectural Reconfiguration: Since the project should be a prototype that can fit into any similar residential districts, the site is selected from a city in China with moderate climate and residential districts well remained: Nanjing. The major method of the intervention is providing public amenities and commercial business space by encouraging the residents living on the ground floor to move upwards and merging the vacant residential units to create public space in larger scale. Such public amenities are connected by additional circulation and bridges to encourage encounters and interactions.

page 23

tulane ������ school ������ of �� architecture ������������

Liminal Edge SƟtching the Periphery in NOLA East

Max Katz

location �������� MD-05 MD-00

Industry, Ecology, Community: The blurry, undened edge of a city seldom affects the city’s core, leaving peripheral communi�es isolated, autonomous, and untapped. This urban condi�on, typically anked by suffering ecologies and unproduc�ve industrial spaces, is in need of new deni�on and inclusion. Looking specically at a community called Versailles at the eastern periphery of New Orleans, this thesis s�tches ar�cial and natural produc�on processes—commingling construc�on and landscape—and explores a new urban condi�on that blends with the natural environment.

The SƟtch: Crea�ng a seam between city and nature, the project can be understood as a li�ed landscape that contains a gradient of programs ranging in scale from industrial to community. Reac�ng to the specics of the natural environment, the project cuts back and forth into the landscape to engage both the marshland and the bayou, crea�ng an inters��al space for pubic boardwalks. The site gesture simultaneously shields and shows—compos�ng and farming are removed from the main public circula�on whereas the market, community spaces, and recrea�on shop engage the main path.

page Ö ¦ 24 24

thesis class of 2015—2016

Temporal Traces A Legacy for the Coal River Valley, West Virginia

location MM-02 MM-00

Colin Keith

Sites of Memory | A Legacy of Impermanence The changing of place evolves naturally over time on a slow moving cyclical path. However, recent industrial and technological advancements have transformed our perception of time from a slow moving cyclical path into a fast paced linear acceleration. This project explores this shift by examining the current relationship between natural and manufactured landscapes by proposing a series of interconnected interventions intended to petrify time and mark the ever-changing character of the place. Located in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia, the design investigates how this industrialized terrain’s temporal legacy exists as a trace within the rapidly changing place - during and after the mining process ceases to exist.

Remnants of a By-Gone Era Three primary interventions exist within different locations of the valley, addressessing specific stages of mountaintop mining and the damage it has on the place and people in the surrounding area. The project in its final completion will become an extension of the Appalachian Trail. A 100 mile path will be added to the existing 2,900 mile trail, connecting the interventions while offering a visitable landscape of mining remnants once concealed.

COAL RIVER VALLEY, WEST VIRGINIA Location of 3 Sites in the Valley

+ To Whitesville, WV

2 mi

1 mi

6 mi

4 mi

7 mi

8 mi

9 mi

10 mi

11 mi

+ Marfork, WV

1 mi

+ Twilight, WV 2 mi

+ Montcoal, WV

X

Marfork Processing Pond

Montcoal Prep Plant

X

+ Lindytown, WV

3 mi

X

Lindytown Mining Operation + Stickney, WV

Appalachian Trail

4 mi

+ Naoma, WV

C

O

A

L

R

I

V

E

R

M N T.

5 mi

X

Brushy Fork Prep Plant

+ Bald Knob, WV 6 mi

+ Dry Creek, WV

X

Brushy Fork Mine

7 mi

+ Rock Creek, WV

8 mi

page 25

+ To Glen Daniel, WV

X Entering Coal River Valley

tulane school of architecture

Beyond Placelessness Broadcasting the Story of a Toledo Neighborhood

Jenny Renn Key

location SB-04 SB-00

How can we call our homogenized neighborhoods home when the next city over offers the seemingly identical built environment? When we disregard all narratives embedded into a site’s cultural or climatic history, we fail that place’s accumulated identity, potentially hiding vibrancy under ubiquitous confinements. Architects have the responsibility to reveal a site’s aggregate, to cultivate those qualities, into physical realities. This mindfulness can help alleviate the genericism of our neighborhoods by using architecture to inform, thus taking the user, beyond placelessness.

A radio station in Toledo, Ohio: This thesis explores the invisible and visible forces at a quiet site, to help form an architect’s sensibility that mindfully seeks the extraordinary, within the mundane. For this Rust Belt neighborhood, the site selection sets up the challenge to overcome stigmas attached to many Midwest and industrial-heavy cities. The design brings attention to a dilapidated and economically challenged urban environment. Formally, the design seeks to contextualize its shell while intriguing the user with innovated connections of the landscape to its interior architecture. Programmatically, the building incorporates the past (archives) with the present (live room / radio station) and future (business incubator).

page 26

thesis thesis class class of of 2015—2016 2015—2016

INterDEPENDENCE addressing the intergenerational continua of care

location CR-05 CR-00

Shira Latch

Reconnecting the Generations: The United States’ increasingly age-stratified society marginalizes the oldest and youngest generations, people who require the most care and specialized resources. An environment where preschool children and the elderly can be validated by their autonomy while connecting with people from other generations will help bring us to a mutually beneficial intergenerational society.

While intergenerational programs are becoming more prevalent, the spaces they occupy are often not deliberately designed to emphasize the necessary balance of independence and connection for young children and the elderly.

Autonomy + Community: An Intergenerational Care Center Located in the upper ninth ward, a neighborhood that lacks out-of-home care resources for both children and older people, the center seeks to encourage independence and connection through the intersection of various user paths and opportunities for informal gathering. The architectural design reinforces the programmatic goals of fostering a community that pairs together the most vulnerable and most self-sufficient members of these user groups for interconnectivity.

no function

limited function:

function:

function:

function:

limits:

limits:

home / day care

nursery (24/7 care)

significant limited

daycare facility

preschool

school

living at home

assistance

death

more limited

more care

birth

limited

+

no function

+

+

+

+

more limited

significant limited

function:

function:

assisted living facility nursing home (24/7 care)

-

-

+

(dependence)

+

unite

subdivide

incorporate

invert

less care

retirement

(independence)

-

school

-

-

-

-

-

+

-

+

page page 27 27

������ tulane ������ school �� of ������������ architecture

SynestheƟc AestheƟc MediaƟng Between the Cartesian and the Phenomenal

Logan LeggeƩ

�������� location MM-00 MM-05

A paradigmaƟc shiŌ has occurred in our concepƟon of space and Ɵme.

Primi�ve man perceived the world according to the sum total of all of his senses, inhabi�ng a truly acous�c space. Advancing technology and shi�ing cultural values have distanced man from this spa�al construct. Star�ng with the advent of the phone�c alphabet and con�nuing today through our internet of things, our existen�al priori�es are based not on biological reality, but rather on a mathema�cal sense of Cartesian space in Newtonian �me. The manifold adverse ramica�ons of this range from psychological to physiological to spiritual.

The Cartesian Ideal manifest writ large in the life of Houston’s CBD: Downtown Houston presents a unique and truly bizarre architectural circumstance wherein through the vehicle of economic and environmental preference, the human subject has systema�cally been experien�ally dissociated both spa�ally and temporally from all terrestrial quali�es. The ad hoc network of underground pedestrian tunnels links parking garages to office buildings, encouraging individuals to pass the en�re work week without once stepping outside of an evenly uorescent lit, seventy two degree controlled environment, throughout which process one is unable to foment a rela�onship to geophysical place. This project creates a network of links between the formal and the spa�al, the visual and the experien�al, the Cartesian and the Heideggerian.

Ö ¦ page 28

thesis 2015—2016 thesisclass class of of 2015—2016

CITY : FARM : DWELLING The language of Agricultural Landscape Urbanism

location location SB-11 SB-00

Gwen Loria

Today, 54 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66 per cent by 2050. These urban centers are dependant on a hyper mono-agrarian industry. In urban centers, 98 percent are consumers of agriculture, 2 percent are farmers. Could there be a synthesis to connect us back to our food source? There is also a phenomenon of the abandoned urban infrastructure, which could allow for the redevelopment of a new paradigm of urbanity to manifest. In the essay, “Dwelling fades into the distance”, Hilde Heynen concludes that, Dwelling is in the first instance associated with tradition, security, and harmony, with a philosophy that guarantees connectedness and meaningfulness. Where with the modernization of the provision of food has become meaningless.

The project is located in a blighted area of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana where there were twenty-four dwellings on 12 city blocks and determined the carrying capacity of the proposed land for the existing density. Then synthesized a scalable system of farming, pioneered by Joel Salatin, with a light footprint adaptable to an urban environment. To demonstrate how the dwelling could mimic the choreography found in the agricultural landscape. The connectivity to the symbiotic system provides a visceral bond and experience of authentic dwelling.

page page 29

tulane school of architecture

Outer Earth Closed-loop Living

Eric Lynn

location MM-00 MM-01

What is the future of now?

Our exploitation of the natural world has disrupted the symbiotic exchange between living creatures and their surroundings. With the goal of reexamining the scope of human habitation, a closed-loop ecological system located in low earth orbit can be a catalyst for testing the extreme conditions of how people thrive and survive. On Earth, a dwelling primarily protects its inhabitant but in outer space, a dwelling both supports and sustains its inhabitants. Using the human body and its metabolic needs as a design metric, spatial parameters can be defined and quantified to create a closed system.

Why do we live the way we live?

The juxtaposition between habitation and support spaces creates a dynamic relationship between the dependence of micro and macro aspects of life. The habitation spaces are withdrawn, while the support spaces are communal. Both of these spatial conditions form a closed system with the reciprocal exchange of energy and material.

liquid holding vacuole overhead display

sleeping

liquid exchange viewport

storage cleansing bladder

hand grip

flexable entry flap

water transfer pod

urine collection

waste distribution fecal collection

page 30

������ class ����� of �� 2015—2016 ��������� thesis

�ransi�onal Spaces Modular housing prototype for emergency crises

�������� location MM-00 MM-04

Daniel McDonald

Refugee camps, a broken system: �esigned as a tempory safe harbor, camps o�en long outlast their expected lifespan. In effect these places also face difficul�es of places serving needs beyond what they were designed for. Refugee camps are typically geographically isolated, provide li�le opportunity for work, and where fencing and limited mobility form a sense of imprisonment rather than refuge. Structures are temporary and nature and not suited to the clima�c condi�ons that users must face as well.

A new prototype for mass housing: �his pro�ect proposes a new system of onsite prefabrica�on for mass housing. �he onsite produc�on provides value and employment for those seeking refuge. A series modular units are combined to create varied series of public and private spa�al experiences. Upper level terraces provide relief from the groundplain and build repla�onships and sense of community with the public spaces below.

���� 31 �� page

tulane school of architecture

Resiliency Revised Remediation and Recreation in New Orleans Water Systems

Nicole Mehaffey

location MD-00 MD-02

Evaluating and Redefining Resiliency in New Orleans Currently, a fragile relationship exists between water, land, and people in New Orleans. Although the rigidity of our flood protection system gives an illusion of control, we are anticipating rising waters at our periphery, the land we live and build on is sinking, and the magnitude and frequency of rainfall we experience annually is intensifying. Water in this city is hidden behind walls and underground. Instead of subverting natural processes, which leads us to disregard water’s potential threat, how can we convert the existing defensive approach to water management to a more integrated, flexible and reciprocal stategy of urban planning?

Merging Public Amenity with Public Awareness This project proposes a series of neighborhood-scale interventions that bring previously concealed water processes to light by exhibiting them in a sustainable community-centered resource. Rather than altering existing infrastructure, this strategy would utilize current neutral ground conditions in order to take pressure off the City’s drainage network. By accepting and accommodating water within the urban fabric, New Orleans can address the deficiencies in defensive water infrastructure while encouraging public interaction and enhancing neighborhood connectedness.

page 32

thesis class of 2015—2016

Endemic Sensuality Corporeal Phenomena for Urban Catharsis

location MM-00 MM-07

Shelby Mills

The Urban Condition is the Human Condition: Sensory stimuli can shape human perception to distinct experiences that evoke visceral reaction and modified consciousness and behavior. Particularly harmful are intensely saturated surroundings where tangible stressors rapidly present themselves to the subject without reprieve, increasing susceptibility to anxiety disorders. This mind-body connection between the environment and the self provides a moment for the examination of how an urban condition affects the anxiety of its inhabitants.

Addressing Anxiety through Sensory Immersion: Manhattan provides a strong platform for indicative stressors of urban life.

These stressors are often most recognizable in the citizens’ daily routine of commuting via the subway system; its necessity to the lives of New Yorkers contrasted with the unpleasant aspects of the daily commute provide a unique condition. Through a reconditioning of spaces on and within the Union Square 14th Street Station, an immersive sensory intervention seeks to provide respite and relief from urban conditions in a way that is widely accessible and routine.

page 33

tulane school of architecture

Public Access Reimagining Data Space

Elizabeth Mire

location CR-09 CR-00

The Digital Divide threatens New Orleans’ Cultural Economy: New industries take advantage of New Orleans’ creative past + future opportunity. However, market forces that drive Internet infrastructure create gaps in a world where online access is increasingly essential for education, civic engagement, and economic opportunity. The Digital Divide threatens the city’s cultural economy by creating division between locals and newcomers in the public sphere and in terms of access. Closing the gap is necessary to ensure an economic future in New Orleans that bears the identity of both groups and has benefits for all. This can be accomplished by providing collaborative urban spaces in a hybrid typology that combines infrastructure with information access.

Public Space / Public Access: The project seeks to address the digital divide in New Orleans by integrating access points and communication tools within a reimagined public typology. The Post Office is a dying communication typology and can be replaced with one that is increasingly requiring of physical space: the data storage center. In the Bywater on the Industrial Canal, this hybrid typology is situated in an economic corridor in transition and addresses a community plagued by division and lack of access. Public Access combines access and infrastructure with aims to contribute to a sustainable future for New Orleans.

page 34

thesis class of 2015—2016

The Urban Frontier A New Typology for Satellite Cities

location CR-00 CR-02

Sarah Morasso

Re-examining Existing Satellite City Infrastructure: Almost every large city in the United States has accumulated smaller satellite cities on the periphery of the metropolitan area. These satellite cities house resources that exist because of their proximity to a larger urban core allowing them to harbor communities of people looking for inexpensive yet accessible housing close to a strong job market. As both the desire to live in major city centers and the cost of living in these city centers grows, satellite cities are becoming a destination where people within the city can escape huge expenses and suburban families can achieve urban living at an affordable cost.

A Transit Hub In New Jersey: Harrison, New Jersey is a commuter city that has become a bridge between the suburbs of New Jersey and Manhattan’s central business district. The transit accommodations that exist allow Harrison to be a lucrative city that can provide housing communities to people looking for inexpensive housing close to New York City. The introduction of a transit oriented development plan surrounding public transportation hubs located in the core of the city will establishing a connection between existing parking structures, housing, and public amenities that in turn create a satellite city typology that can adapt to the drastically changing habitation throughout a typical work day.

page 35

������ tulane ������ school �� of ������������ architecture

Wild Urbanism �����a� ��������� �n �an�a�an

Samuel Naylor

�������� location AE-00 AE-03

A Psyc�olo�ical and Sociolo�ical Connec�on to Nature The natural environment we as a species evolved in has imprinted a desire for its wild embrace deep within us. �ur na�onal interests of decentraliza�on are driven by the lure of the organics, and yet has suppressed nature and impacted our health. If the city is our future we must look back to the three ambi�ous garden city schemes of Wright, Howard, and Corbusier. Their contribu�ons, and the research of environmental and eco-psychologists are evidence in the argument for ecological proximity.

A �er�cal Park for New York City In the density of �anha�an, development is increasing at a rate and size that limits the possibili�es for future ecologies (parks). And as the country urbanizes New York becomes more of an eventuality than an anomaly. Thus, �anha�an as the stage for our urban future re�uires immediate ac�on on how we priori�ze nature. The proposal takes cues from the ambi�on of skyscrapers and the lucra�ve power of high end real estate to interlace program and topologies -- it seeks to find a poten�al for the park in the density of our future.

450’

FOREST

500’ continuos forest path 5 different tree species Deep within a thicket of green and brown there exist only glimpes through the foliage of an everpresent metrololis.

Slowly ascending your perspective changes and you are able to conquor the giants of the forest.

Sunlight beams from above but the air is brisk, New York’s largest balcony is also its most wild.

���� page �� 36

thesis ã« Ý®Ý class ½ ÝÝ of Ê¥ 2015—2016

Communal Development : Design Towards a Healthier, CollaboraƟve Community Through the ImplementaƟon of Shared Public and Private Spaces.

location ½Ê ã®ÊÄ AE-11 AE-00

MaƩhew Ngo

The Inux of New Residents and the Rising Costs of Rent: Many neighborhoods occupied by low-income residents are seeing a rise in the cost of housing. Long Ɵme residents who rent rather than own their own homes, can become burdened by housing cost and must nd alternaƟve dwelling opƟons; typically, this means moving to a new neighborhood and leaving behind an established community and culture. In many cases, the long-Ɵme residents are replaced by young people in search of the “authenƟc” culture established by the long-Ɵmers. However, new residents can oŌen threaten the cultural economy of the area as they replace it with their own.

A Residence in New Orleans’ Bywater to increase the Housing Stock : The Bywater neighborhood in New Orleans, for many years, was occupied by lower-income renters but has seen an inux of new, young residents who are aƩracted to the neighborhood’s lively arts scene and low housing costs; costs are now rising and long-Ɵme residents must consider relocaƟon. The New Orleans Center for CreaƟve Arts (NOCCA) plans to increase enrollment of students from outside of the city. This project is developed to increase the housing and cultural stock in the neighborhood through collaboraƟve and communal spaces for both residents and the surrounding neighborhood.

Ö ¦ 37 page

tulane school of architecture

Fiction, Paradigm, Dwelling, and Need Shaping a new way of life through the architecture of an origin myth.

Katie Nguyen

location SB-00 SB-08

Dwelling as Catalylst The goal of this thesis is to redefine the dwelling, and in doing so, suggest a new mode of dwelling that better suits our immediate need for community, our growing need for affordable housing, and the long term need for sustainability.

Using dwelling as a catalyst, the thesis seeks to begin shaping a future paradigm that addresses above problems in a fundamental way. The project is presented in the form of a story that follows the archetype of an origin myth. Through narrative, the formation of the built intervention is placed within the larger context of a community in transition.

Dwelling as Communal The thesis reintroduces a model of dwelling in which smaller private components surround a larger communal center. Located in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans one block off of the St. Claude corridor, the design proposes a communal bathroom and courtyard that inserts itself within a city block that is riddled with vacancy and blight. As the need for a bathroom and social space shifts to the communal realm, the private realm is relieved of this pressure. The surrounding vacant lots can therefore be occupied by complimentary private dwellings that explore alternative typologies.

1 | a blazing a trail and trampling a clearing

2 | mounding an earthen plinth

3 | erecting walls and developing water system

page 38

thesis class class of of 2015—2016 2015—2016 thesis

Urban Timber Developing infrastructure that enables the sustainable potential for mass timber construction in urban contexts.

location SB-00 SB-09

Michael Nunnink

Fire stairs as public infrastructure: Mass timber presents us with the opportunity to use carbon sequestering structural systems, but there are challenges that are different than those that an architect faces when designing a steel or concrete building. Moisture, lateral loading, and especially current fire code are prohibitive to the attainment of environmental benefits offered by the use of mass timber in urban mid-rise construction. Positioning networks of concrete fire stair cores on city blocks can address these issues simultaneously. Allowing these fire stair cores to exist as public infrastructure will accord the city and fire marshal with greater jurisdiction and in turn increase the feasibility of allowing mass timber structural systems in an updated fire code.

Manhattan mixed-use mid-rise: New York City offers a dense, growing urban context situated relatively near to forests with high regeneration rates. Manhattan exhibits high rates of residential construction and stringent fire code making it an excellent laboratory to truly test the feasibility of mass timber construction in an urban context.

page 39 39 page

������ tulane ������ school �� of ������������ architecture

Urban Euphoria Integrative Elements of Recreation and Renewal

Jamie Park

�������� location CR-00 CR-06

Humans are Designed to Play Successful play spaces inspire participants to create a temporary, extraordinary world through physical, social, and spiritual manifestations of play. In fast-paced urban lifestyles filled with constant stimulations, cities lack inclusive play spaces where citizens can step away from their daily routines and recuperate, physically and mentally. Conventional play spaces in cities today consist of generic playground equipments targeted towards specific activities or user groups, neglecting the needs of the wider population. As urban areas continue to grow, cities should accommodate for free play, encouraging citizens to interact with their surroundings and challenge their spatial boundaries.

Transforming the Urban Workspace Play is most deprived in work environments where success is measured by the end product, while play is measured by the process of simply having fun. By exploring the dichotomy of work and play, urban areas can can satisfy the intrinsic need for all humans to recuperate by integrating elements of play beyond the surface of daily activities. Typical components of monotonous office towers can be transformed to prioritize physical movement and creative explorations throughout the building.

VISITOR

RECONNECT SUNKEN PLAZA

VISITOR + EMPLOYEE OCCUPANCY

VISITOR

���� page 40 40

+

ENGAGE RESIDUAL ELEVATOR LOBBY

ENGAGE RESIDUAL ELEVATOR LOBBY

+

+

12pm

CREATE MICROCOMMUNITIES

4pm

+

8pm

ENCOURAGE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

VISITOR + EMPLOYEE OCCUPANCY 8am

12pm

4pm

8pm

+

CREATE MICRO COMMUNITIES

EMPLOYEE 8am

RECONNECT SUNKEN PLAZA

E

8am

12pm

4pm

8pm

8am

12p

thesis class of 2015—2016

Main Street As Social Infrastructure Exploring Community and Individualism Through Connections Between the Small Town Corridor and its Residual Spaces location SB-00 SB-03

Rosemary Phillips

Bringing Back Main Street The typical Main Street is made up of several blocks comprised of a variety of commercial businesses, densely packed, and walkable from one to the next.

Above these streets, housing often lines the second stories of stores. Today, most lay empty. The proclivity of designers and city officials to think of Main Street as stagnant rather than constantly evolving has led them into decline.

Understanding these components as a cohesive organizational device ,current small-town main-streets can form an armature able to support contemporary institutional programs seeking a relationship between collective expression and individual identity while also reviving Main Street.

Creating a Community on Main Leesville is a small town in north Louisiana that reflects the materiality and traditional commercial block design of many Main Streets throughout the state.

This thesis approached the design process by first programatically “completing” and connecting multiple blocks on Main Street. With housing above each set of stores along the street front, there is also a shared resident component in the back of the block. In the residual space on the first level, each block has a programmed public space that can be used by citizens of Leesville but is primarily a space to form community for residents in their own “backyard.”

page 41

tulane school of architecture

Anticipating Patterns of Growth Exploring Boundaries and Transit - Oriented Development as a Cognitive Mechanism to Contain Low - Density Urban Sprawl

Eytan Rosencwaig

location SB-00 SB-06

Aiding the Fast-Paced Development of the San Jose - Puntarenas Corridor: This thesis anticipates development in areas not yet affected, but in danger of conurbation. It proposes an organized way to manage contemporary growth by engaging bounding methods that can contain urban growth and support eco-zones between developing areas. Costa Rica is growing in a disorganized fashion. The recent construction of Ruta 27, highway connecting the capital city with Puntarenas, important port city in the Pacific coast has steered development along this road at a rapid and unplanned pace. With this idea, and the reintegration of an abandoned train network travelling this same path, the project combines boundaries and transit-oriented development solutions to organize development along the corridor and act as a driver for the growth of helthier and more vibrant communities along the corridor.

A High-Performance Community in the town of Escobal, in Costa Rica: The town of Escobal is the mid-point along Ruta 27, taking about a half hour to get there from each side. The train station is located in the middle of the town, creating density that moves outward to be contained by bounding areas. The west boundary houses a community park, providing amenities for the community. The eastern boundary proposes an agricultural university that would allow to re populate surrounding eco-gaps with agriculture that was forced out of the area years ago.

Puntarenas

Alajuela Heredia San JosĂŠ

MAIN STREET / COMERCIAL CORRIDOR

Cartago

CHURCH

SCHOOL TRAIN STATION

GAS / SERVICE STATION

page 42

AGRICULTURAL TERRACES

thesis class of 2015—2016

Ad@pting Informality Precluding Informal Sprawl in Risk Prone Areas of Lima’s Periphery

location MD-00 MD-11

Gustavo Rodas

Settling at the Fringes: Despite Lima’s approach of incrementally consolidating informal settlements into the formal fabric of the city, available land, even in the distant nooks and crannies of the city’s three cones of expansion, has started to run out. This causes newcomers to settle around older more consolidated informal neighborhoods in harsher topographical inclines that are much more prone to landslides and damage from earthquakes. This precarious location greatly complicates sustainable connections with the formal urban infrastructure.

A New Hybrid Housing Model: The combination of a planned formal framework with informal, self-built adaptation can help guide a favorable urban environment that avoids the overcrowding and unhealthy conditions of most informal settlements while facilitating a more rapid and cost-effective self-construction process. These interventions are located within the public clearings created by the ubiquitous concrete soccer fields spread throughout Lima’s informal neighborhoods, while preserving them at the ground level as an asset for community interaction and participation. These networks of infrastructure aggregate at the city-scale, creating a peripheral edge that forestalls sprawl into lima’s mountaineous hinterland, while promoting the densification of the existing urban fabric.

page 43

tulane school of architecture

A Local Mobility Stitching Together the Post-Apartheid City

Alyssa Rogut

location MD-00 MD-09

A Social Condition Achieved Spatially: The divisive city planning and urban fabric of apartheid in Cape Town, South Africa has prevented social and economic growth for much of the population and little has been accomplished thus far in regards to breaking the patterns of segregation in the built environment. Worldwide, cities dictated by walls have been met with issues of mobility and social integration, raising the question of how design may aid in the transcendence of borders. By focusing on connecting disparate communities across boundaries, new development can construct a mobilized future.

Establishing the Program of a Town within a Township: In order to integrate community and environment, siting at the seam between the mobile and the immobile is required for future growth. In Cape Town the highway is a conduit of freedom and access but exists simultaneously as a physical boundary between poor areas lacking the very access the highway provides. This pertains closely to what needs to be addressed for the growth and development of the city- issues of location, containment and condition.

By implementing a new bus station and marketplace along this impassable seam, convenience, mobility and opportunity will be brought to an abject local community, stimulating necessary progress and an increased quality of life.

page 44

thesis class of 2015—2016

A Lot of Wasted Spce Future - Proofing Urban Infrastructure

location SB-10 SB-00

Parker Russo

Understanding the future of our cities: As the population grows, a mass exodus back into the urban environment has taken place. Our countries greatest cities are being forced to accomodate a major influx of new citzens in already dense, valuable, and finite urban space. This means that downtown real estate is more valuable economically and socially than ever before, and so it is paramount to fully maximize its potential. Our civilization is also being greatly impacted by major strides in technology and science, altering how we live, and as a result our cities must adapt. The most near, imminent and impactful of these changes on our cities will be the evolution of the personal automobile into a network of autonomous ride sharing vehicles.

Future-Proofing a defunct typology: The Parking Garage as we know it today serves only one function, and although that function’s value is very important now, it will likely not be necessary at all in the future. This thesis envisions a new flexible typology to replace the defunct parking structure. By designing a structure with “Good Bones” the form is truly flexible and can become nearly anything. This new typology both fullfills our needs of parking infrastructure today, but also can flex, adjust, and expand in order to fullfill our needs of tomorrow.

Whatever they may be...

page 45

tulane school of architecture

A Modulation of Senses Defining Space for Autistic Individuals

Maya Sassoon

location AE-00 AE-05

A Sensory Disorder For many years, physicians and the greater population saw Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavioral syndrome. But what physicians have proved in recent decades is that autism is a wide spectrum disorder foremost affecting the senses. Autistic individuals have difficulty distinguishing relevant from irrelevant stimuli due to the fact that their brain is unable to organize sensation into meaning and concept. Autistic Individuals are often hyper or hypo sensitive to their everyday environment. It is difficult for them to carry out everyday tasks because they are so often uncomfortable in the spaces they inhabit. Current residential living communities for autistic individuals follow basic guidelines for catering to the disorder, but they have not gone so far as to morph multi-sensory spaces into the majority of these buildings.

PROPRIOCEPTIVE / VESTIBULAR

TACTILE

VISUAL / AUDITORY

TACTILE

visual / AUDITORY

PROPRIOCEPTIVE / VESTIBULAR

Residential Living Community: Permanent Sensory Space This thesis will attempt to design a series of sensory spaces to be adapted into a residential living community for the increase in quality of life and independence for adults and adolescents living with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The community sits in Tribeca, a neighborhood in the south-western tip of Manhattan, NY. The city’s extreme sensory overload is in need of a retreat for autistic individuals.

west

st.

ca

tribe

rs

st.

mbe

cha

gree

nwic

h st

.

page 46

thesis class class of of 2015—2016 2015—2016 thesis

UNIFIED NINE texturing an urban seam

location MD-00 MD-03

Jonathan Sharp

Transforming Monofunctional Infrastructure: “Infrastructures work to move goods, people, energy and information around, establishing pathways and nodes that make connectivity possible” - Stan Allen The potential for architects to discover the overlaps between the human, mechanical, and natural conditions of the city may allow the redevelopment of deficient infrastructure to simultaneously address other critical urban issues.

What if the typical monofunctional infrastructure could be transformed into an urban experience that creates a new public landscape and enhances physical exchange?

Unify the Ninth Ward of New Orleans: In 1918, dredging of the New Orleans Industrial Canal led to the destruction of the central corridor through the historic Ninth Ward. Today, the cultural and economic inequality of the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward exists as a product of deficient bridges, blighted industry, and impending levees. The 96 year-old St.Claude Bridge is the only physical connection across the canal that supports pedestrian and bicycle access. This thesis imagines the future replacement of the St.Claude bridge as a new textured infrastructure that restores connectivity of the Ninth Ward by weaving its separated community, environment and industry.

page 47 47 page

tulane school of architecture

Progression of Expression Defining the Gallery for Large-Scale and Countercultural Arts

Adam Shields

location MM-09 MM-00

A new and unusual opportunity for spatially significant art: As attitudes continue to change regarding personal public visual expression via murals and street art, artists of many different disciplines will continue to push against larger and more monumental spatial boundaries as a means of advancing their physical visual significance on society. Oftentimes satirical, poetic, acerbic, or aesthetic in content and form, muralists’ works are quickly turning our urban fabric into a massive canvas for immersive artworks whilst simultaneously freeing the profession from its restrictive institutional circles.

Through the rapid changes happening in this field, these artists can be found exploring the limitless freedom associated with this monumental shift in scale.

Incubating an artistic movement through intentional Infrastructure: In tandem to the social issues at hand with this popular trend, the necessary elements for manufacturing and implementing these works are underrepresented by contemporary art venues. Tethered to a residency program for a live/work/display relationship between artists and their craft, the project of this thesis aims to define a reimagined gallery condition that elevates the visual culture of large scale art while preserving the informality of street art’s urban experience.

page 48

������ class ����� of �� 2015—2016 thesis

Forging from Scars ReconstrucƟng a Maker-Based IdenƟty in Lewiston, Maine

�������� location MD-00 MD-10

Alexandre Sixt

Recovery, Relapse, Repeat: For many vic�ms of heroin addic�on, the story remains the same. Vic�ms lack a focus on self-actualiza�on and social reintegra�on and therefore lose their will to recover. The architecture of ins�tu�onalized recovery typically separates vic�ms from their community, and even from themselves, focusing on what they’ve done rather than who they are or who they want to be. This thesis focuses on the ways in which the physical environment affects mental wellbeing and links to community. For vic�ms of addic�on, reintegra�on into civic life can be facilitated through an ins�tu�onal typology open to user interface.

Sober Housing and Trade School Combined: The se�ng of this project is common in the Northeast United States: a historic town which is ba�ling the raging heroin epidemic and has lost its maker-based iden�ty due to closure of its factories. One of these towns is Lewiston, Maine, a tex�le mill town on the brink of recovery. This thesis posits a new typology for an ins�tu�onal architecture that maintains a degree of rigidity in structure for safe housing, but allows for exibility in enclosure and func�on to plug itself into Lewiston’s art movement by providing workshops where occupants can perfect a new skill to reach back out into their community.

Ö ¦ 49 page

tulane school of architecture

Engaging the Disconnect: A Dignified Transit Hub Along the Basin Street Neutral Ground

J.D. Scott

location MD-04 MD-00

The Disconnect Civic spaces are designed in the absence of the people they most greatly impact. Conventional engagement efforts consist of formalities such as public hearings that deny participants the agency of hand-making and are built upon relationships of obligation. This runs contrary to a body of research that positions hand-making and solidarity as elemental to human nature, resulting in undignified spaces that fail to accommodate fundamental human needs. To challenge this disconnect, this thesis offers a mode of praxis consisting of an engagement toolkit implemented in a real community and an architectural proposal developed alongside a partner organization.

A Dignified Transit Hub In New Orleans, this disconnect is manifested in public transit. The RTA (Regional Transit Authority) bus system converges at a few critical intersections in the city’s Central Business District. Each day, thousands of riders must transfer at these stops, despite a lack of adequate seating, shade, and other amenities.

Currently, the RTA is conducting a feasibility study for a downtown transit hub.

In partnership with Ride New Orleans, a local advocacy group, this thesis will deploy a community engagement toolkit that will enable transit riders to shape the design a dignified transit hub located in the Basin Street neutral ground.

01. A PLACE TO LINGER DAPPLED SHADE TO ENCOURAGE LINGERING

OVERHANG TO MARK ENTRY & EVENT

PERMEABLE FACADE

CORE TO HOUSE KITCHEN & SERVICE ELEMENTS

STREET FURNITURE TO BE CONFIGURED BY TRANSIT RIDERS

12’6” MIN.

PAVERS TO MARK ENTRY

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION DATE & TIME: 1/22/16 - 8:35 AM LOCATION: CORNER OF S. RAMPART & CANAL PARTICIPANT DESCRIPTION: ELDERLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALE BUS ROUTE & DESTINATION: #91 JACKSON-ESPLANADE - WALMART

page 50

I ASK THE MAN WHAT HE DOES WITH HIS RETIREMENT AND HE SAYS “I RIDE THE BUS.”

thesis class class of of 2015—2016 2015—2016 thesis

Post Production Reprogramming Industrial Landmarks

location AE-10 AE-00

Laura Stokley

Addressing Abandoned Power Plants: Outdated industrial typologies such as coal-fired power plants can be found in nearly every major city around the world. Due to many factors including large size, complexity, and age these buildings are inherently difficult and expensive to renovate. However, the same characteristics that make them hard to revive also make it important to do so. In some cities preservation activists and local developers have managed to successfully reuse abandoned power plants while others remain dormant. Developing a more accessible way to address abandoned power plants could help to preserve industrial landmarks everywhere.

Repurposing the Market Street Power Plant: The Market Street Power Plant was built in 1905 and provided power to the city of New Orleans until it was decommissioned in 1973. Since then the massive riverfront building has sat vacant apart from occasional use as a filming location. The new Market Street Cinema is a 16 screen movie theater occupying one third of the power plant with a museum of film and dining options. A portion of the building will continue to be used as a production space for filming.

This cinema and studio will showcase the local film industry and reengage the building with the New Orleans community.

page page 51 51

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Marginalia Mega-CiƟes of the New Diaspora

Jonathan Taube

½Ê ã®ÊÄ location AE-00 AE-04

InhabiƟng a space in between Too oŌen we imagine borders as lines. InternaƟonal borders are in fact widening spaces of control, dened by federal setbacks, ports of entry, militarized zones and the passengers of the space between, the global migrant.

Rather than a proposiƟon of a new architecture, Marginalia presents a counter rhetoric to reveal the problems of architectural containment, socio-spaƟal condiƟons with consequences that have led to a imaginary linear mega ciƟes along forƟed borders. CondiƟons of the barriers are constructed and rhetorical, both physical and psychological. Marginalia is a dystopia in response to very real poliƟcal rhetoric with spaƟal and architectural consequences that dene the habitaƟon of migrant bodies caught in between.

Heading Two: usually a descripƟon of the thesis project and site: Marginalia’s linear mega ciƟes occur on the threshold of the economic development and security. Today and in the future human migraƟon will conƟnue to move from insecurity to security and will be met with hardened borders and exclusionary rhetoric. These Migrants who at rst lled the margins of the border with their bodies and tents later found, through desperaƟon and voluntary exploitaƟon, a permanent space to inhabit.

Ö ¦ page 52

thesis ������ class ����� of �� 2015—2016 2015—2016

Reciprocal Futures Relinking the Reslience of Ecology and Community

location �������� MD-01 MD-00

Melinda Telford

Congruent Catastrophes: A History of New Orleans The chasm between the modern city and its geographic framework has consistently proved to be detrimental to its progress. This phenomenon has lead to a lack of connec�on between the Lower Ninth Ward and its ecological neighbor, Bayou Bienvenue. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, both have suffered from similar limita�ons yet few efforts have been made to build upon their parallel rela�onship during revitaliza�on. By providing a nuanced architectural framework that physically and conceptually relinks the needs of the neighborhood with those of the estuary, an innova�ve solu�on for the region develops.

A Plaƞorm Emerges: ReculƟvaƟng the Landscape For this system to func�on successfully, the necessity arises for an architectural vehicle to facilitate the process of mutual restora�on. This can also provide a more intrinsic approach to relaying knowledge about the func�ons of the wetland triangle, the eleva�onal datums that appear throughout the city, and the cycle of growth of the Bald Cypress Tree, a tree that historically populated Bayou Bienvenue and can be used to once again replenish the estuary. With a more streamlined pla�orm for awareness and its poten�al to give back, the community will begin to have a more potent, involved effect on remedia�on.

30 MI

20 MI

10 MI

0 MI

10 MI

20 MI

30 MI

40 MI

70 MI

60 MI

PROJECTED LAND LOSS 50 MI

40 MI

30 MI

LOUISIANA COASTAL WETLANDS

20 MI

10 MI

0 MI

LOWER NINTH WARD

MISSISSIPPI RIVER

page Ö ¦ 53 53

tulane school of architecture

Invasive Architecture Post-Preservationist Design for Shifting Ecologies and Fragile Landscapes

Megan Van Arsdalen

location CR-00 CR-01

A Human-Altered Landscape The southern Louisiana landscape is evolving due to shifting ecologies, climate change, industry and globalization, and invasive species. Awareness and acknowledgement of the present degraded circumstances as well as disastrous future predictions of this area are necessary. For an environment on the brink of collapse, architecture can be used to create a mutually beneficial productive landscape that addresses current preservation needs now and using invasive species to prepare for the future.

Plant Invasion, Human Insertion, Alien Structures Placed at the first non-indigenous settlement along the MS River, an opportunistic architecture reliant on a structural armature allows for a new type of exchange between variant landscapes. The three program types, sediment infrastructure, plant research, and a constructed landscape are connected for the movement of people and materials between these concrete markers in the landscape. For purposes of education, documentation, storage, and a soft defensive system, the proposed design allows for extending the timeline for what is valued and creating artifacts to remain in the soon to be disappeared landscape.

c

d

i

o

Asia

Figure A Pueraria lobata, Kudzu Year of Introduction: 1876 Origin: Southeast Asia

Figure b Eichhornia crassipes, Water Hyacinth Year of Introduction: 1884 Origin: South America

p

Eu

rop

e

g j

Figure i Ligustrum sinense, Chinese Privet Year of Introduction: 1852 Origin: Asia

Figure j Hydrilla verticillata, Hydrilla Year of Introduction: 1950’s Origin: Asia, Europe, Africa

Figure k Salvinia molesta, Giant Salvinia Year of Introduction: 1990’s Origin: Brazil

Figure l Salvinia minima, Common Salvinia Year of Introduction: 1920’s Origin: South America

Figure m Alternanthera philoxeroides, Alligator Weed Year of Introduction: 1897 Origin: South America

Figure n Imperata cylindrica, Cogon Grass Year of Introduction: 1912 Origin: East Africa + Southeastern Asia

Figure o Lygodium japonicum, Japanese Climbing Fern Year of Introduction: 1930’s Origin: Asia

Figure p Melia azedarach, Chinaberry Year of Introduction: 1830 Origin: Asia

n

Figure C Triadica sebifera, Chinese Tallow Year of Introduction: 1776 Origin: Eastern Asia

Sout

heas t As

ia

a

Figure d Lythrum salicaria, Purple Loosestrife Year of Introduction: 1800’s Origin: Europe + Asia

Australia

h

Figure f Macfadyena unguis-cati, Catclaw Vine Year of Introduction: 1940’s Origin: Central America

Louisiana

f So u

Figure e Egeria densa, Brazilian Waterweed Year of Introduction: 1893 Origin: South America

th eri ca

Am

b m Figure g Festuca arundinacea, Tall Fescue Year of Introduction: late 1800’s Origin: Europe

page 54

Figure h Melia azedarach, Chinaberry Year of Introduction: 1830 Origin: Australia

l

k

e

thesis class of 2015—2016

Street As Stage The Formal Dynamics of Urban Public Space

location SB-00 SB-01

Gavin West

The Role and Form of Public Space in a Changing Context:

es.

ons es. The appropriate form of public space for es, needs to respond to the fragmented nature of ng smaller sclaes of gathering. me retain the possibility of larger civic scales of al to unite these disperate publics. By maintaining ng form of public life

A New Form of Gathering Space:

on building and event space for Shaw University in Raleigh NC. The selected program is inte ract al users. As the 4th fastest growing city in the country, Raleigh made for the perfect environment to explore the issues of this thesis. tuencies that comprise Raleigh’s developed downtown. The project hopes to become a unifying force and a place of finding common ground in the context of a quickly growing and changing city.

page 55

tulane school of architecture

Fragmented Stadium: Adapting the Olympic Legacy Supporting Community Unity Through Activating Underused Space

Rachel Westmoreland

location CR-04 CR-00

The Olympic Legacy and the Stadium Typology: Host cities of the Olympic Games have undergone many success and failures while planning for the post-use legacy of venues for an event of this scale. One anomaly that many of these cities face and often overlook at the community scale is redundant and under-utilized space surrounding sporting venues. This space often comes at a price; those who reside there are often removed during the large scale development and preparation for the Olympic Games. Herein lies an opportunity to maximize the leftover space for the community to regain surrounding the stadium typology as a post Olympic legacy.

After the Summer Olympics 2016: Rio de Janeiro Complex political strife, issues of pollution, resources, and relocation of communities enhance the challenges Rio de Janeiro faces as the Olympic Games approach. This project explores reclaiming the elements of community and repurposing the stadium typology while mitigating these issues. Adaptability of Rio de Janeiro’s main stadium is developed through the ease of spectator access; mixed use elements through the ground condition continuing into the stadium itself creates new dynamic areas of occupation. Community unity is reclaimed by bringing flexible space to a location that inspires passion for sports while eliminating under-utilized space. pedestrian bridge

ground pattern

performance

recreation

gather

interaction

learn meet exchange

page 56

������ class ����� of �� 2015—2016 thesis

The ImperaƟves of Topography Design ResponsibiliƟes at the Edge of the Watershed

�������� location SB-00 SB-05

Francke Wurzelbacher

What do topographic imperaƟves mean to Designers?

Harnessing the poten�al of both greywater and rainwater in an area where water scarcity is prevalent is becoming a necessity. Beyond the demonstra�on and reuse of water, a new paradigm of urban planning is to explore the responsibility designers have to water rela�ve to topography in an urban context. This happens at mul�ple scales: a city, a neighborhood, and a site. Watershed boundaries are dened by site specic topography and regulate the ow of water across such topography to a drainage zone. Therefore, designers have a topographical responsibility to one’s site rela�ve to water treatment & conserva�on.

The Site Specic Project: The project is an Aqua�c Center located at the base of the Yosemite Creek Watershed in Hunter’s Point, San Francisco. The role of the site and building is to be an ac�ve par�cipant in the water cycle. The project is a lter in an of itself and explores the issues of topography, water management, and reuse. Currently, this watershed is in lack of an intermediary between the city combined sewer system that carries all the contaminants of not only an urban area, but an industrial zone & the San Francisco Bay which is in dire need of cleaning. The project integrates the public realm by offering a water park in which to view & par�cipate in the ltra�on of stormwater.

Wastewater Treatment Facility

Sunnydale drainage system

Ö ¦ 57 page

tulane school of architecture

URBAN CATALYST: The New Urban Typology of South Central Los Angeles

Paul Zamorano

location AE-01

THE JUSTIFICATION: Gang culture is part of life growing up in South Central Los Angeles. Gangs create artificial barriers that are reinforced through violence, graffiti, and phyical presence. The introduction of an architecture language that promotes innovation and technology can prevent children from joining gangs. Addressing problems of race, gangs, and social environment. Learning from history and how innovative disruption can affect the status quo of a community.

THE STRATEGY: Located in one of Los Angeles most violent streets, Vermont Ave is activated at various times of the day, week, and year. The site is sectioned into zones activated symbiotically by cultural unifiers, which include food, music, sports, and religion. The largest zone is an innovation center/ start-up space, with open floor plans that allows for ideas to exchange freely and allows for the culture of interdependence between the community and the program users.

page 62

thesis class class of of 2015—2016 2015—2016 thesis

HealthyCollab Critical Design for Critical Care

location AE-02

Jeffrey Zolan

Preventing Infections Through Architecture - A Healthy Collaboration: Hospital acquired infections pose a large threat to the health of American citizens. Through integration of processes and design, a new paradigm for hospital construction can be established that mitigates rampant nosocomial infections within a hospital environment. The architect plays a key role in the prevention of these infections but it is not without an integrated approach with the medical practitioners that success can be achieved. The LEAN methodology proposes the elimination of waste and the maximization of value both in the medical and construction industries. Through a hybridization of these ideas a new hospital architecture can begin to cut down on hospital acquired infections.

An Infection Preventing Intensive Care Unit at University Medical Center: HealthyCollab proposes a formal design for a new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the University Medical Center in downtown New Orleans. The ICU exemplifies the foundation of evidence-based design and a well executed, efficient program and circulation distribution. Through utilization of LEAN strategies I have minimized waste and maximized value within the ICU unit. The mobius strip’s formal gesture has these inherent LEAN qualities.

page 63 63 page

tulane school of architecture