GRADUATE WORK | Miami University
MY DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
My studies within the field of architecture continue to explore new territories, constantly changing and adapting to unique challenges. My design process has evolved from a functional, technical perspective into a more theoretical, conceptual perspective after moving from undergraduate to graduate studies.
Every design project I encounter deserves extensive critical thinking, rigorous attention to detail, and dedication to creative execution. My goal in each project is to fully contribute my skills and talents towards addressing the needs and problems at hand. My enthusiasm and desire to provide good solutions in the field of architecture has become the catalyst to my success. I believe that it is the sole duty, purpose, and responsibility of architects to constantly improve the world we live in through creative thought and contemplative reasoning with an undying passion.
Hybrid Amusement Parks
The beginning of my 18 month Master's Thesis research grew out of my passion for amusement parks and roller coaster design. The images below are selections from my final thesis defense at Miami University in April 2014.
"How can the synthesis of a HYBRID AMUSEMENT PARK
and an URBAN COMMUNITY produce a more fulfilling, realistic leisure experience
while creating a culturally embedded solution to entertainment?"
In my written research, I challenged the amusement park typology as straying away from its roots. Coney Island in New York began as a public retreat-like resort, perfectly situated into the fabric of New York. When Disneyland opened in 1955, the typology was forever changed into a gated-style community. Landschaftspark, a contemporary German leisure park, became the template of my design, allowing the blending of the urban environment and the park to once again become boundary-less.
Following intensive written research, I transitioned into concept development and site selection.
The desired goal was compiled into a Manifesto for the project to rely upon throughout design.
Thesis Manifesto
Site Analysis
While shifting my focus to site analysis, I chose an urban site in Dayton, Ohio, located on the delta of the Great Miami River and the Mad River. This 50-acre site aimed to connect the existing Riverscape Metropark and Historic Canal Walk with Kettering Fields, Island Metropark, and Triangle Metropark. This chain of public green space would help to enliven the inconsistently active downtown corridor. A roller coaster serves as a form of public transportation for the site while a freefall tower is integrated with an observation deck. The form of the master plan was conceived from a series of charcoal drawings that challenge the format of a traditional amusement park "Midway," hence the name of the park. Mounds of earth bury service tunnels and parking to allow for a free pedestrian walking experience for people of all ages.
Following site analysis, I began diagramming and collaging program into the site. The overarching idea pulled from the Manifesto is to re-imagine elements of an amusement park being utilized in an urban setting. A roller coaster now serves as a form of public transportation for the site while a freefall tower is integrated with an high-rise observation deck.
The form of the master plan was conceived from a series of charcoal drawings that challenge the format of a traditional amusement park "Midway," hence the name of the park. Mounds of earth bury service tunnels and parking to allow for a free pedestrian walking experience for people of all ages.
Park Design
Click to Ride the Coaster
Urban Row House
This program entails the creation of an urban apartment and an urban townhouse properly fused in a row house block in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. The primary design goal was to introduce a fresh palate of facade materials into the historical urban fabric of the community utilizing standard, affordable residential construction techniques. By having a brick veneer, wood paneling, and wood framed openings on the exterior walls, the design pulls inspiration from the materiality of the historic district. The apartment's open plan is divided up by placing the public spaces on the lower facade of the house and the private spaces above the garage on the rear. The town house's open plan similarly follows, locating the public spaces on the facade of the second floor and the private spaces on the third floor. The roof level is accessed through a double volume solarium on the third floor, opening up to a roof lawn and terrace.
Throughout the home's interior, the design incorporates glass block walls and windows to allow filtered exterior light to penetrate into different spaces. Some examples include a second floor kitchen skylight, restroom's glass block walls, and a lantern/bench element in the bedroom suite. The four structural glass block windows support a concrete coping that serves as a bench and planter system on the occupied roof. The frosted glass permits privacy and diffused natural light into the room while eliminating the need for privacy blinds. The lantern creates an enjoyable sectional change in the flat roof while providing comfortable seating for the terrace.
Cleveland Bridge Competition
The Detroit-Superior Bridge in downtown Cleveland, Ohio currently does not possess the qualities of an urban street. Instead, it is a lifeless interstitial zone stuck between different parts of the city. What would best serve Cleveland is a spatial creation that could coexist with the functional needs of the car, while also appealing to the more phenomenological character of the pedestrian street and building facades. This proposal to redevelop the lower bridge deck would introduce retail, recreation, and diverse cultural aspects into an area that is currently abandoned. Also, it would serve to connect three areas: Ohio City, Downtown, and the Cuyahoga River Basin.
In creating a space that has the qualities of a street edge, the lower deck of the bridge can be reclaimed for socially and economically viable functions, while also serving as a pedestrian bicyclist connector. In the former underground stations at the end catacombs of the bridge, cultural history and artistic expression will best inhabit the space, while also allowing a diverse range of expression, ranging from nostalgic, to avant-garde, and to the bleeding edge. This group project won second place in the Vertical Studio Competition organized at Miami University for the Cleveland Design Competition.
Watertower Square
The West End District of Dallas, Texas has an incredibly rich cultural history of railroad stations and warehouses. The beautifully preserved structures, local retail vendors, and residents of the district created the heartbeat of downtown Dallas. Unfortunately, the rate of this heartbeat has slowed with businesses moving out, residents moving uptown, and office functions filling the voids. The once thriving district has become dispersed because of a lack of center. Watertower Square, a 1.6 million square foot development project focuses the demographic of its end user towards the young professional. You can live, work, dine, shop, and play at either the International Market, Beer Garden, Bookstore, Cafes, Salons, Spas, and many other unique retail spaces.
The project takes a specific focus at tackling the intense heat gains to the buildings facades during the summer months by incorporating a passive structural system. The louvered and cantilevered surfaces diffuse the direct sunlight striking the east, south, and west facades during the hottest times of day in summer. The main louver system rising 100 feet above the grassy common plaza is attached to a 200 foot tall glue-lam water tower structure. The tower contains a cistern of gray rainwater collected from roof surfaces on the main lot that releases a waterfall landing in a catch pool. This interactive water element, designed in unique ways on the other two lots, provides an atmospheric oasis to cool pedestrians while becoming the focal structure, thus naming the development: Watertower Square. By bringing in new retailers catering to young professionals, incorporating different residential floor plan options (studios, lofts, and up to three bedroom units), and providing large outdoor spaces, Watertower Square will become the new Urban Center for the historic West End. This project was completed as part of the Alumni Traveling Studio at Miami University in conjunction with Corgan Associates' professionals headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
One East High Street
In the city of Oxford, Ohio, High Street is the primary artery that fuels the collegiate population. The intersection of High and Main Street is currently under-utilizing it's full developmental potential. This project's program calls for the implementation of ground level retail spaces and three upper floors of shared office space. Co-working is a means of incorporating the notions of collaboration, openness, community, accessibility, flexibility, and sustainability in the workplace. Shared workplace amenities, such as meeting spaces, administrative areas, and office equipment, as well as core components such as access/egress, restrooms, custodial, and mechanical should contribute to less consumption of space, energy, and materials.
This 35,000 square-foot development project incorporates three levels of shared office space and ground level dining and retail spaces. The shared workplace integrates amenities such as meeting spaces, office equipment, breakout spaces, restrooms, and access/egress for a variety of building occupants. The exterior material palette not only demarcates a busy intersection but it also provides a refreshing architectural change in the uptown aesthetic. The adjustable functionality of the office functions will attract a wide variety of clients to work in a harmonious environment.
Ft. Washington Park
The city of Cincinnati was severed from the Ohio riverfront by explosive growth of the Interstate system in the previous century. In the 1990's, Ft. Washington Way was reworked and sunk 25 feet beneath street level. This competition is an effort to re-stitch the upper, central business district together with the riverfront development.
Alongside two of my colleagues, Nick Wolfe and Khaliunaa Ganbold, we designed "Urban Tissue." Urban Tissue was conceived as an organic thoroughfare that fuses the Banks development with the Central Business District of downtown Cincinnati. The sinuous lines of pedestrian paths and voids were created from regulating lines of adjacent landmarks. The structure consists of three major layers: the first being a segmented louver system accessible to pedestrians while casting unique shadows to the freeway below, the second being a grassy plaza covering most of the site with the occasional voids below, and the third being the constructed architectural program. These three layers intersect and different places to change the level of the pedestrian while dispersing the monotony of the city grid.
The program of the four blocks includes: a visitors center, a streetcar station, the Cincinnati Transit History Museum, a small amphitheatre, and public restrooms. The parks also have interactive fountains, changing light fixtures, a bridge of locks, benches, grassy berms, and two gateway elements. The program of the site aims to improve the pedestrian experience above grade while also reinvigorating the highway below for commuters and visitors to the city of Cincinnati.
Murcutt House Addition
The purpose of this project was to successfully integrate a residential addition to Glenn Murcutt's Ball-Eastaway House in Glenorie, Australia. The home was originally designed for two painters to both live and work in the rural woodlands of southern Australia. Nestled deep within a high canopy forest, this home stands as a monumental ship peacefully resting on an ancient riverbed in the landscape.
Two additions were proposed: one similar addition and one complimentary addition to the original design.
The similar design was defined as having likeness or proportional correspondence with the original structure while transforming the original concept. The design incorporates a new gallery and studio that opens freely to nature while controlling natural lighting.
The complimentary design was defined as conveying the original concept while resembling and flattering the original structure. The design incorporates a new meditation space strongly existing within the forest while respectfully contrasting the home.
Cincinnati Puzzle Club
This unique program called for the development of a club for puzzle solvers in Cincinnati, Ohio. Drawing precedent from the Cornell Club, the program required hotel, library, meeting, lounge, bar, and restaurant spaces to cohesively connect on a small wedge of land in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. The concept fueling this design focused on creating a noteworthy gateway design for pedestrians and automobiles alike entering downtown on Fifth Street. The design parti was derived from the Roebling Bridge's form spanning Kentucky and Ohio over the river.
The club's first three levels consist of a large multi-purpose space that overlooks Union Terminal as well as small, medium, and large meeting rooms. The fourth through twelfth levels become more intimate for the boutique hotel guests containing a formal lounge, library, health center, hotel rooms, and an informal observation lounge. All drawings were completed by hand drafting ink on vellum.
Oxford Sculpture Pavilion
The intent of this project was to explore the proper, respectful ways to provide an addition on an existing, successful structure. The Miami University Art Museum, designed by Walter Netsch of SOM: Chicago in 1978, contains a large collection of outdoor sculpture pieces. Most of the sculpture is exposed to weathering, deterioration, and time-lapsed decay and is in need of a permanent pavilion on the grounds.
The museum site is lively with undulating hillsides and mounds that allow for the building to overlook an on-campus pond. The proposed design rests nestled into one of the hillsides, positioned on a center axis of the museum. Museum guests approach the pavilion at the green-roof level continuing down to the main sculpture level. Punctures through the roof and floor allow for natural light to flood over pieces from above and eliminate the need for artificial lighting. Restroom facilities are provided in the lowest level for the cross country track that runs adjacent to the museum site. The rational orthogonality of the design is intended to harmoniously connect the landscape with the original structure. The physical model is constructed out of chipboard and acrylic. The drawings are all hand drafted with ink on vellum.
