ALEXANDER GRIFFIN
SELECTED WORK
The most beautiful things in the world are often the most useless.
- John Ruskin
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4 Resume Submerge Scatalogical Matter Tensile Link Displace
ALEXANDER GRIFFIN
G RI F F I N A @ W I T.ED U 401.477.0065
professional experience 2012
Union Studio: Architecture & Community Design Providence, RI
2014
design intern - involved in private, non-profit, and housing/community projects through the lens of new urbanism. Assisted architects in the preperation of CD’s and presentations for town/city submittals, on-site measurement and documentation; experience from code research to presentation rendering; responsible for the organization and completion of the firm’s entire marketing portfolio.
2012
Hacin + Associates, Inc Boston, MA
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design intern - involved in landmark institutional and commercial projects in the Greater Boston area. Assisted a team from the schematic to design development phases of a multi-use housing development in Mission Hill. Work through Revit, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator.
2011 +
2015
Lim Design Studio, Inc Boston, MA design intern - involved with historic residential projects in the Back Bay area. Interior architectural detailing, product selection, code research, and 3D modeling. Design and fabrication of a custom ceiling installation. Involved in daily on-site meetings with clients, developers, and construction managers.
additional experience 2014
WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), USA
2012
ACE Mentor Program Providence, RI
2011
Architecture for Humanity Boston, MA
volunteer experience with with over 5 Organic Farms across the United States. Education and experience living and practicing a healthy and sustainable lifestyle off the grid. Involved with community supported agriculture and permaculture projects.
volunteer as a student mentor. The mission of ACE is to engage, excite, and enlighten high school students with interest in pursuing the fields of architecture, construction, and engineering through after school activities - to support their continued advancement.
volunteer designer involved in the start of a design/build project for the non-profit organisation - Lucy Parsons Center Collective. Work done alongside local volunteers to design an affordable, flexible and functioning space for daily work, meetings and local events.
education 2015
M.Arch, Wentworth Institute of Technology Boston, MA & Shanghai, China. expected graduation: May 2015. current gpa: 3.8
2009 - 2013
B.S. Arch, Wentworth Institute of Technology Boston, MA & Montpellier, France. graduated: May 2013. gpa: 3.7 concentration: Built Environment. study abroad semester in southern France: community housing project.
2003 - 2008
C.E., Rhode Island School of Design Providence, RI young artist continuing education: painting, photography, sculpture, woodworking
skills AutoCAD, Revit, Adobe software, Rhinoceros, Google SketchUp, Ecotect, Microsoft and OSX, hand drafting, rendering, diagramming, watercolor, sculpture, woodworking.
organizations
ELP, Emerging Leaders Program development of communication, critical thinking and leadership skills for the educational and professional environments.
WAr, Wentworth Architecture Review student run organization and publication: we plan, collaborate and document ideas, workshops, events and lectures on campus for architecture students
SUBMERGE Back Bay Gallery and Structural Laboratory
comprehensive design studio, 2013 Professor: Troy Peters This interactive machine completes an intersection of the museum district along Boston’s Back Bay Fens. It is built to allow users to experience, interact with, and celebrate the wooden structures and processes of 19th century landmaking, preservation, and construction in Boston. Through careful site context and program organization, the builing manifests itself as a series of 3 volumes: a projection, a service core, and a rear gallery. Visitors find themselves submerged and lifted in this machine-like atmosphere.
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Gardner Museum Gardner Museum
MFA
MFA
Wooden Objects Museum ofMuseum Woodenof Objects Gardner Museum
Olmstead’s 1878 green space improvement plan for Boston’s Back Bay Fens. (Site Highlighted)
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FIBER CEMENT BOARD (.25 IN.)
THERMAL INSULATION (4.75 IN.)
PLASTER BOARD (.5 IN.)
VERTICAL STEEL MEMBERS (3.5 IN.)
DETACHABLE PANEL (.71 IN.) W/ 3 IN. THERMAL INSULATION
MOTOR ASSEMBLY
STATIC HINGE POINT
HINGE POINT AND PULL BAND
WALL DETAIL
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S C ATA L O G I C A L
M AT T E R Reimagining QingCun: A Historic Watertown Shanghai studio, Fall 2014
Professor: Jennifer Lee
One hour south from the rapidly urbanizing mega-city of Shanghai, lives QingCun - a historic watertown village on the brink of forgotten destruction, or possible revitalization through innovation. A careful exploration in spatial qualities of porosity and layering, incorporated with issues of waste removal and its possibilities as a physical process reveals the transparency of solutions on an urban scale. Sampling and introducing familiar elements of porosity within the urban fabric reconnects the town to the canal - integrating waste collection zones and compost; constructed wetlands filter waste and bring awareness and new found uses to the canal.
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TESTING SITE POROSITY
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ON SITE WASTE ISSUE HUMAN WASTE RUNOFF TRANSPARENCY
SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION STEEL YARD
PROVIDENCE , RI
ALUMNAE VALLEY WELLSELEY COLLEGE
BLACKSTONE POWERPLANT
SCALE
HARVARD
QingCun Lot
25,500 square meters
Back Bay Block
10,710 square meters
Steel Yard
20,500 square meters
Wentworth Quad
21,376 square meters
24,130 square meters
Harvard Blackstone Powerplant
1,940 square meters
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MASS 1.5:2
CIRCULATION
COLLECTION POINTS
RUNOFF CONTROL ZONES
AGRICULTURAL ZONES
CANAL
Collection Sampling
Collection
Collection
Collection
Circulation
DIRECTION OF WASTE
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ACCESS
PUMP
SOLID WASTE LIQUID WASTE
BLACKWATER TREATMENT
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SEPTIC TANK
WASTE INLET WASTE OUTLET
STONE FILTER
SAND FILTER
LIVING FILTER
CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS
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TENSILE Daniela Corte Installation, 211 Newbury St.
Lim Design Studio: internship, Fall 2012
The design, team organization, and construction of a thirty-foot long hanging installation. Inspiration was drawn from the handmade quality in the work of the designer. The form manifests itself using a transparent mesh netting, and clothes pins hung and skewed through tension and gravity. Transient, it may be transformed as often as the designers clothing line evolves from season to season with treatment of paint and/or material.
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LINK 1478-1484 Tremont Street
Hacin + Associates Internship, Fall 2013 This 75,000 sf multi-family housing development in Mission Hill utilizes the sloping site and street condition to build upon the residential character of the neighborhood, while strengthening the commercial nature of Tremont Street. 66-units are designed within two main volumes that define a central courtyard to provide outdoor space for residents. During my Co-op semester, I had the opportunity to assist a senior associate directly with this project from schematic design - design development over a 4-month period. Analysis of the project site, its cultural identity, and street conditions, as well as 3 phases of massing/unit dwelling/parking studies were a major contribution of mine during my time in David Hacin’s office.
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Study of the “street wall� condition along Tremont Street and notable architectural characteristics in the Mission Hill neighborhood.
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D ISP LA CE A Thesis Proposal
Submitted: Fall 2014
The following are selected excerpts from a thesis prospectus, or proposal: expressing the concern and focus of architectural discourse for the upcoming thesis semester, Spring 2015.
In 2005, hurricane Katrina stripped The Lower Ninth Ward of its identity and displaced thousands, rendering the conditions in its environment unsafe, unstable, and its identity - indefinable. With the imminent threat of future catastrophic events, development must be addressed with a critical design strategy of resilience, accompanied by the cultivation of the idea _
_ we can live with nature, not against it.
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A resilient design strategy can engage a displaced community to respond while respecting the steady, yet unexpected rhythm of nature’s cycle.
Architecture needs to play a strategic role today in helping to define The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana as a resilient community – adapting with the realities of climate change; displacement and reverse colonization.
In the architectural practice today, there is an anxiety that exists surrounding the fact that climate change is real and imminent. As designers we are born optimists but are currently living in a world of pessimisms in the architectural practice. The rational, intuitive and realistic architect today is an individual faced with a paradox of emotions involving the future of the practice and the body of work it depends upon – the need and want to dwell as a civilization.
My thesis explores the possibility of redefining a place in the Lower Ninth Ward, and simultaneously, displacing associations of catastrophe - by way of a resilience. Circumstance and societal perception is the driver of this thesis, examining the conflicting global, cultural, memorial and environmental forces that shape the place that exists today as the Lower Ninth Ward. Linking these forces through visual narrative - the place of the nostalgic, the place of the resistant and the place of the resilient – illustrating the present conditions from these three distinct viewpoints. Drawing connections and conclusions on the role and response of the architect in this unstable landscape - this thesis questions culture’s perception of ‘disaster relief’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘resiliency’ in this post-disaster community, offering a strategy of redefinition. It questions the conventional perception and approach taken by cities regarding catastrophe – to ignore, retreat, defend and to resist the inevitable forces of nature. A resilient design strategy can engage this displaced community to respond while respecting the rhythm of nature’s cycle.
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