Tyler L. Smithson Education
Experience
Accreditations Accolades
Organizations
Software
smithsontyler@gmail.com 404-539-5217
Master of Community Planning Auburn University
May 2012
Master of Landscape Architecture Auburn University
May 2011
Graduate Research Assistant - Auburn University Conducted GIS analysis for Prichard, Al. and Troup County, Ga. Prepared a wildflower management plan for Troup Co. Ga. Urban water qual. assessment and stream restoration plan for 8 Mile Creek. Landscape urbanism design proposal for Reading Park, Prichard, Al. Mobile, Al. “Green Streets” stormwater infrastructure design proposal. Assisted in organizing community design charettes.
August 2008May 2012
Philmont Scout Ranch - Boy Scouts of America Environmental Educator for the Roving Outdoor Conservation School. Place-based education strategies focusing on hands-on training. GIS Coordinator. Supervised three GIS technicians. Rock climbing counsellor at Dean Cow climbing camp. Conservation practices: check dams, trail construction, meadow encroachment, stormwater control structures, fire restoration.
Summer 2007, 2009, 2011
Landscape Architecture Foundation, Graphic Design Intern Graphic designer for the “Top Story” benefit dinner at the Newseum, D.C. Assisted development for new lafoundation.org web site. Designed advertisements in Land. Arch. Mag. (Sep 2010) and LASN Mag. Client database mgmt. and sustainable destination sweepstakes promotion. LAF EXPO booth volunteer 2010, 2011.
May - Aug 2010
Georgia Ave Community Development Intern, Washington DC Supervised five task force interns during the community planning process. Established georgiaave.org web site to advocate the voice of the community. Conducted a detailed community assessment report. Promoted local businesses, initiatives and community organizations.
May - Aug 2010
Reece, Hoopes, Fincher - Landscape Architects, Intern Digitized project library. Assisted with site analysis and conceptual plans. CAD technician.
Winter 2007
LEED Green Associate - December 2010 Alabama APA Student Planning Competition 2012 - 1st Place Gorrie Center Green Roof Charette - October 2011 Tiger Storm - Al. Association of General Contractors Charette - 1st Place Moss Rock Design Competition - “S. Green” - Award of Distinction 2009 2011 University Olmsted Scholar - Landscape Architecture Foundation Auburn University ASLA Treasurer 2010-2011 Auburn Green Builders - Member 2010-2011 Sigma Lambda Alpha - Inducted 2010 Wesley Foundation - 2005-2010 Deans List – College of Architecture, Design and Construction 2009-2010 CADC Book Awards- 2009, 2010, 2011 Boy Scouts of America - Eagle Scout 2004 Adobe Creative Suites, Arc GIS, Auto CAD, BASINS, Microsoft Office, Powerpoint, SketchUp
~Design Portfolio Available Upon Request~
Sprawl Repair of Websters Crossing Auburn, Alabama (4th Year - COmmunity Planning)
Vulcan Aggregate Facility Chattanooga, Tennessee (3rd Year - Landscape Architecture)
Joseph Market Mobile, Alabama (2nd Year - Landscape Architecture)
Biophilia EcoResort Turneffe Atoll, Belize (1st Year - Landscape Architecture)
Sprawl r
The option of
Websters
Urbanism What is
?
What is
Sprawl
Apartment Complexes
Sprawling nature of apartments (red) reduces walkability and density.
Zone: CDD
Comprehensive Development District analysis reveals plans for more sprawl.
Topographical Analysis Digital Elevation Model
Repair?
Sprawl repair seeks to remediate suburbs in order to foster a higher quality of life through creating a more livable, resilient and sustainable communities. Influenced by the “Sprawl Repair Manual” by Galina Tachieva, this project serves as a comprehensive guidance for transforming the fragmented, isolated and car-dependent Websters Crossing into a complete community. Strategies used here are drawn from creative approaches to reverse sprawl’s wasteful, inefficient and unsustainable footprint upon our cities.
Urbanism is an design movement that promotes walkalbe, compact, and dynamic mixed-use way of life. It enables a strong sense of community that embraces unique possibilities and character. Elements of good urbanism include complete streets, pedestrian walkability, providing housing diversity, and establishing public spaces that enable energized crowding to occur.
Auburn Zoning Map
Trailer Parks
Auburn : Opelika
Subdivisions
Euclidian zoning enables the separation of land uses.
Sister cities exist with little cooperation towards consolidated planning.
Single family subdivisions are by far the most common form of land development.
Manufactured homes provide affordable housing mainly for students.
: IMPROVE Street Connectivity Existing Roads
Proposed Roads
Composite
Structures
: INCREASE BUILDING DENSITY Existing Structures
Proposed Structures
Composite
Roads
: Make connections to context Transit Routes
Orthographic
Bike Network
Sidewalk Infrastructure
repair of
s Crossing What is
Crossing?
Analysis
Sprawl What is
Located at the intersection of Webster Road and Wire Road lays the community of Websters Crossing in Auburn, Alabama. Home to the largest concentration of manufactured homes in Alabama, these trailer parks provide a vital need of affordable housing for the student population and residents alike. Currently, only two gas stations and a single mixed-use development occupy the community center. The sprawl repair of this community hopes to serve as an example of how future growth should occur as Auburn evolves.
Developed Land
The option of
Trailer Parks
?
Sprawl is the default growth pattern across the country since the second half of the 20th century. Characterized by single-use zoning, low-density development, and automobile dependant, sprawl is driven by single-family residential subdivisions and extensive road networks. This growth pattern initially is more cost efďŹ cient; however, is very costly long-term through maintenance and providing municipal service.
Rural Preserve
: Model Proposed Future Conditions
Composite
: Implement Form-Based Code A. Mixed use Development
B. Neighborhood Structure
C. Pedestrian oriented
Form-based codes use physical form, rather than separation of land uses, as their organizing principle.
They foster predictable results in the built environment and a high quality public realm.
Form-Based Codes create a predictable public realm primarily by controlling physical form, with a lesser focus on land use, through city or county regulations.
: Phasing
Year 1
Buildout Scenarios
Year 5
Year 10
Year 15
Year 20 Tyler Smithson - Auburn University - Masters of Community Planning
BROWNFIELD TOPO GRAPHIES Regenerating Brownfields through topographical and ecological disturbance
Brownfield topography is my term for the regeneration of urban brownfield sites through the disturbance of topography by means of physical operations. This approach physically moves earth to generate unique arrangements of topography. Once an initial disturbance is established, natural forces are allowed to resume in the colonization of the site. The predominant elements of change that further redefine the spatial form of the site are predominately hydrological and ecological. Human use of the site is also permitted to occur in an unplanned way, so that consequent dynamic flows and habitation will be unique. From this, an adaptive terrain emerges.
The methodology described above is a new approach towards the conventional methods of Brownfield regeneration. To test the theoretical ideas that have been put forward, I have chosen a Brownfield site along the Tennessee River in Chattanooga that was once home to Vulcan Materials Company. Critical components of the site are the resurgence of plants and the existing sculptural fragments of infrastructure left behind after its abandonment by Vulcan. Changes in topography are intended not to erase the ruderal ecologies that have developed, but to enhance ecological conditions. Once the site has undergone the initial phases of regeneration, further elements of plantings, structures, and landscape features will be introduced to enrich the experience of the site.
Perspective of Obserbation Area
Perspective of Stormwater Retention
Existing Conditions - Emergence of Ruderal Ecologies
Topographical Study Maquettes
Heliodon Light Study
Vulcan Section Photographs
Chattanooga Topographical Analysis Signal Mountain Cumberland Plateau
Ridge and Valley
Lookout Mountain
Tennessee River
East Ridge
North
Aerials of Vulcan Aggregate Facility
INDUSTRIAL FIELD WITHIN CHATTANOOGA Infrastructural Analysis INDUSTRIAL NETWORK
BROWNFIELD SITES
POLLUTION, SOURCES, EMISSION RANKING
RAILROAD SYSTEM
INDUSTRIAL-COMMERCIAL ZONING
BUSINESS-RESIDENTIAL ZONING
Brownfield Sites Along Proposed Trail System
Brownfield Distribution in Chattanooga
Vulcan Facility Section Fifty Years After Initial Disturbance - Ecological Colonization of Facility River Access
Riverfront Trail
Areas of Opportunity
Latitudinal Section
Observation Deck
Ecological Colonization
Marsh
Meadow
Biofiltration Pond Section Fifty Years After Initial Disturbance Pathway
Native Buffer
Ecological Microclimates
Longitudinal Section
Dock
Pond
Native Buffer
North West- Winter
Emergence of Ruderal Ecologies In Time
Ecological Seeding Strategy
West - Summer
Year 1South West - Fall, Spring
(Topographical Change + Ecological Seeding)
Year 20
(Development of Meadows, and Hardwood Forest)
Emergence of Pathways
Year 50
(Mature Forest)
Birds Eye View of Vulcan River Park
Side Development Diagrams 1. Removal of Contaminated Soil 1. Excavation of Aggregate and Contaminated Soil
2. Topographical Disturbance
Modeling of Site Infrastructure Riverwalk Tower
2. Topographical Distrubance
Stairs
Viewing Platform
Dock
3. Ridges and Valleys
4. Excavation Diagram
3. Ridges and Valleys
Vulcan Facility
Gabbion Wall Viewing Deck Green Institute
5.Ecological Seeding 5. Microecologies Develop
6. New Hydrology 4. Change of Hydrology
Vulcan ‘Deconstruction’ Concept
Mobile Green Streets Studio
Joseph Market
Joseph Market derived from the city Mobile, Alabama’s Envisioning Costal Sustainability and Green Streets Initiative. The market would be located along St. Joseph Street in downtown Mobile, adjacent to Bienville Square and Dauphin Street. The main objective of the market would to aid in Mobile’s downtown revitalization efforts through providing for cultural capital and food access for residents. The market would tie closely into Bienville Square and allow for multiple uses throughout the year.
Stormwater Recycling is a keystone in the design of Joseph Market. In attempts to lessen the rainwater input into Mobile’s current stormwater infrastructure, the market will self-sustain all of its water needs. The stormwater system is designed to capture the rain with two catchment basins. The water collected will enter a cistern accessed by two trench drains. The water then will be filtered and recycled into Bienville fountain, rest room facilities, and other watering needs.
Perspective of Joseph Market Entrance
Infrastructural Analysis
Road Infrastructure
Building Footprints
Parking Footprints
Green Space
Regional Context
Market Concept
Mobile Alabama
Green Corridor Through Mobile
Bienville Square Panorama
Plan + Section Composite of Market Concept
Stormwater Recycling Diagram
Pavement Contours
Gazebo
Joseph Market
Stormwater Cistern Trench Drain Bienville Fountain
Arc de Bienville
Greywater Conveyance
Site Hydrology Diagram
Stormwater Cistern Diagram
City Analysis
JOSEPH MARKET PERSPECTIVE
Master Plan
Perspective
Axionometric
Section
Site Features
Model of Joseph Market
BIOPHILIA ECORESORT Turneffe Atoll, Belize
The goal of Biophilia Ecoresort is to create a carbon neutral development that integrates renewable and clean energy lifecycle with the aim to create sustainable inhabitation solutions in environmentally sensitive areas that can be replicated throughout Turneffe Atoll. Biophilia is a multifaceted design idea that advances the integration and deployment of renewable energy solutions and clean technologies. All these activities, and a range of other initiatives, are aimed at laying the groundwork for vital and resilient communities.
The long-term goal is to create a ecotourism destination that will generate a steady flow of new ideas and technologies and advances. Firmly network into the global tourism, these ideas will transform Belize as a top ecotourism destination. When that is accomplished, Biophilia will then have completed its transition from a 20th Century, carbon-based economy into a sustainable 21st Century high-technology economy. It will also be setting the pace as a global leader in testing of innovative energy technology.
Caribbean nalysis CaribbeanANatural Dynamics Columbia Atlanta Montgomery
Jackson Baton Rouge
30 N
Austin
Tallahassee
Miami
Gulf of Mexico
Nassau
Atlantic Ocean
Wind
Havana
Mexico City
Santo Domingo Belize CIty
Kingston
Port-au -Prince
San Juan Basseterre
St John’s
Belmopan Guatemala San Salvador
Tegucigalpa
Castries Kingstown Bridgetown Grenada
Managua
Capital San Jose Panama City Caribbean Plate Ocean Current Trade Winds Pacafic Ocean Equator
Self Sustaining Infrastructure
Perspective From Harbor
Caracas
Port of Spain
Bogota
Tyler Smithson
Community Analysis
Roads + Parcels
Aerial Photography
Infrastructure Diagram
Plan + Green Space
Self-sustaining features of biophillia community. The resort is designed to be carbon neutral and provides for its own water, electricity, sewage disposal and produce.
Site Aerial
Lagoon
Zone Hierarchy
Watershed Analysis
Aerial Perspective
Perspective of Coastal Restoration
Section Showing Landform and Green Infrastructure