WENLU GUO
ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO
THE AVENUES RIYADH TOWERS
Designer at SOM
SD - 30% CD Phase /2023
The first construction phase of The Avenues – Riyadh entails building a full-fledged mall, with parking lots, gardens, and internal roads. The project is anticipated to become a new retail icon in Saudi Arabia. The project will cover an area of 1.9 million sqm, and will feature a shopping mall with an area of 400,000 sqm and more than 1,300 stores, in addition to five towers with com -
mercial and residential facilities and four hotels: the Walford Astoria Hotel and Resort with 350 rooms, the Conrad Hotel and Resort with 400 rooms, the Hilton Garden Inn with 500 rooms, and the Hilton Canopy Bay with 150 rooms, which will also be the first hotel by the Canopy Bay brand in the Middle East.
CHARLOTTE GATEWAY
North Carolina, USA
Designer at SOM
Planning Design Phase / April - June 2023
The critical goal for the site design is to seamlessly connect this transit infrastructure with the city grid. On Blocks A and B, this transition occurs in a signature public space: a skylit, 60 - foot wide public concourse that connects the transit hubs to the main entrance on Graham Street. This transition defines the “Gateway” to the city. Blocks A and B are each anchored by a clearly defined transit hub. On Bloack A, a bus
station accommodates local and regional buses; on Block B, a train station lays the groundwork for a dramatic increase in regional and national rail travel. Alongside the rail tracks, an elevated trail provides an exciting new public space for the city of Charlotte. The trail expands on Charlotte’s strategic mobility plan, unifying the efforts of the city and county to expand the bike and green network connectivity across the area.
PHILADELPHIA 30TH ST STATION
Pennsylvania, USA
Designer at SOM
CD Phase / Sep 2023- Jan2024
In 2021, Amtrak, Plenary Infrastructure Philadelphia, and SOM embarked on the first major action under the District Plan—the transformation and reimagining of the station building. Scheduled to begin construction in 2022 and to finish in 2025, the project will bring the historic structure to life, making the station a destination for all Philadelphians and a model for 21st-century transport hubs. The project scope in -
cludes restoring the historic interiors, adding new customer amenities, reinvigorating the station’s retail and food and beverage offerings, improving and expanding office space on the upper levels, and enhancing transit and pedestrian traffic flows.
• Minor repair and replacement of damaged stone possible.
• Retaining existing truss minimizes extent of impacts to adjacent construction.
• Some demolition of stone wall required to remove and reinstall truss.
• Minor demolition and repair of historic stone may be needed around pit. New escalator customized to fit existing dimensions to minimize impacts
• significant demolition of stone wall required.
• Modification of historic stone and reconstruction for truss.
• Significant demolition and impact to structure and historic floor to extend pit.
200 E BROADWAY
Salt Lake City, USA
Designer at SCB
SD-DD Phase / 2021
Salt Lakes City has one of the worlds largest copper mines. Copper is used as an inspiration for the exterior expression in color and texture informed and by microscopic patterns found in the material. The design’s massing developed from the site constraints and a merging of two residential tower typologies:: the “L” shaped corner block condition and the efficient slab tower. The interlocking of the two typolgies created a natural
space for a residential community fostering social interaction. It uses both indoor and outdoor programed amenity spaces. The client expects a thoughtful and advanced level of detailed documentation at SD. The exterior wall was informed by the copper color texture and microscopic patterns.
Panelize
1
Panelize
2
DANCING ON THE EDGE
ARC701 - Individual Work/ Prof. Marcelo Spina, Georgina Huljich / FalL2019
The concept of the project is to challenge our notion of unit, whole, figure, and ground. By finding the potentials between the single part and the aggregated assemblage, the design experiment emphasized the way of aggregating and the relations between the part and the whole.
Located in Downtown Barcelona, Spain. The original site is next to the railway, close to Barcelona Zoo and two blocks away from the beach. The current site serves a twofold purpose. On the one hand, it is used as a gathering space independent of interaction with the context. Meanwhile, it functions as a public hotspot to reflect on the existing energetic urban environment. The main program is a mixeduse performing arts center, which will be the place to highlight
art, music, education as one of the major components of the city.
The overall form was inspired by the idea of overhang. It represents the silhouette of a dancer casting the shadow on the ground. The perforated metal skin creates a light-weight feeling to act as a threshold bridging between complex urban context and natural environment.
The idea of grounding architecture is what I explored. The elevated entrance, sunken plaza, and rooftop green space are the few moves that demonstrate what experience visitors can have when navigating through these key moments.
Aggregation Study
Lobby / Thearter
Residentail
Thearter
Plaza
Education
Dinning Exhibition
Favorite Pastime ( 8-year-old)
Year: 1999
Pen
Self Portrait
Year:2014
Pencil
Professor
Year: 2014
Pen
Old Town, Prague, Czech Republic
Year: 2015
Pen
DRAGON ARMOUR
ARC742 Function of Fashion in Architecture / Teammates: Yangxunxun Zhou, Hang Zhang / Prof. Danielle Willems / Spring 2019
