A new shopping mall providing community with an open piazza, cinema complex, restaurants, parking, a gym, and public landscaping.
I was an assistant project manager on this team and helped manage various trades - ranging from BIM modeling MEP systems, interiors, finishes, expansion joints, elevators and cab interiors, parking striping and accessories, and site furniture and various purchase orders.
Some of the challenges this project faced were tight design guidelines, and a difficult schedule to meet opening deadlines.
Clients: Sunset Development Company
Design Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Architect of Record: BAR Architects
Contractors: Plant Construction Company
Location: San Ramon, California
Duration: 2017 - 2018
The New Victory theater sliced and refurbished into collectible antique apartments in New York City.
This was my thesis project, which focused on the two extremes of historical preservation and demolition.
The thesis asked questions such as, ‘How can we find a balance between demolition, and erasure of culture and memory, and historical preservation, which selectively chooses what a city remembers or deems valuable?’ and, ‘If large areas of a city are demolished, and with those spaces, a culture and memory are lost, how can we build and create by retelling the historical story?’ The claims for the thesis were that neither historical preservation, in an extreme sense nor demolition were ideal, and that in order for citizens to remember the past, but allow for new growth and redevelopment, there should be a type of strategic demolition. An organized and demolition which, rather than bulldozing a building, slices and dices it so newly cut, individual segments could be appreciated as antiques in a space.
By looking at The New Victory Theater, a project which was dropped from the historical preservation list in New York City, as a case study, the building was sliced along a 10’ cubic grid. The remaining parts (10’ cubes of antique theater building materials) were then separated, and in between, new apartments and dwellings were sandwiched between the antique remains.
The result is that each apartment becomes unique, in a way its own collectible. Cherubs were sliced in half, balcony ornamentation popped through the living room floor, and segments of the dome made its way into a bedroom. These fragments, or antique building components provided the telling of a new kind of story. The story which allows a residence to view the ornament in a new way, understand its materiality through its destruction.
The ‘Intimate’ series of drawings show plan and section closeups of how an inhabitant would use the space, books placed on sliced theater stage floors, toilets sat next to a partially demolished brick wall, and bedding and lights placed underneath ceiling ornamentation are some examples of how the architecture would be influential on the space.
Thesis Work: Spring 2017
Software: Rhino, ArchiCAD, Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator
Advisers: Brian Price & Thom Faulders
College: California College of the Arts
Submerged Gradients address the water to land relationship, in program and materiality. This project uses architecture as a lens to study marine life. The architecture is designed and intended to attract marine life through natural growth over time. Consequently, the marine life is interacting with the submerged structures, and making a home on the structure as well.
Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) plastic plates make up the structural columns, underside and base of the buildings, and offshore floating tide pools. This material, when bent and folded, promotes a micro-habitat which collects algae and microscopic organisms to attach and multiply. This growth is known as marine fouling, and in this case, is encouraged.
The floating tide pools would attract larger marine life, as the fouling continued to grow. By attracting marine life to the building, scientists and students could study and learn from this hybrid environment.
The rugosity, and perforated forms of the columns are a key factor in contributing to the stability of the building as well as the fouling process. Below the building, in the water, these ridges give the FRP added strength, as well as creating micro habitats for marine life. While inside the building, these columns provide green walls, and seating ‘nooks’ for people to read and study. At the roof deck level, the columns are thinner, and open up to windows, which allows light to enter the spaces below.
On the northern side of the building, floating docks provide a kayaking recreational facility, where students and educators could take boats out to study the marshland.
The ramps and circulation of the building was designed to guide visitors through each of the spaces, weaving through each of the ‘pod-like’ buildings. As the footpath moves further out into the marsh, the programs become more private, with an aquarium at the very end. The pathway is intended to be used as a journey, to appreciate the views and floating tide pools, as well as observing the wildlife below.
Software: Rhino, ArchiCAD, Photoshop, Illustrator
Partner: Georine Pierre
Program: Marine Research Lab & Educational Facilities
Location: Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, Oakland, California
This exploration was a precedent to my thesis work, and looks at how demolishing, or destroying something reduces it to small parts. And then looking at how those broken down parts tell a story of what used to be. This concept is applied to how, if an old building is demolished, are remaining parts still applicable to the overall story.
The exercise on the left shows how a burned piece of acrylic was laser cut into smaller parts, and reassembled. Questions asked in this study include, ‘how does the intended demolition inform the next phase of construction?’ And, ‘following the demolition process, what story remains?’ , ‘Is there a new lens by which we focus on a detail of the demolished part, rather than forgetting, and removing the whole demolished building, or item?’
I discovered, that by controlling the demolition method, the following process for rebuilding would be highly informed. And that, new parts of the story were discovered through and by cutting. Once cut, the insides, or ‘guts’ of the wall, or such material were revealed, and a new story could be told. What was the old version hiding, that was now revealed in the demolition? How would people interact with these newly demolished and broken down parts?
One of the case studies I looked at, were images taken from the Book: Things Come Apart, by Todd McLellan. Here, objects are carefully disassembled, and each item laid out to reveal its purpose. With these experiments, we understand that these parts do not do much on their own, but together they make something larger, more important; the parts need each other to function.
More experiments include cutting wood, and preserving cut elements. Cutting wood was about taking four long blocks, and cutting them in half until 2,000 tiny pieces were seen. Half way through the process, all of the exposed edges were painted pink. By the end of the process, a portion of the edges were the original varnished, tinted brown wood, a portion were stained pink, and a portion were freshly cut, white wood. So that when you understand the history of the elements, and their process of demolition, a new story is told in the narrative of the pieces. This narrative carries into the new space.
Another experiment looked at how these sliced and diced pieces could be preserved, or remembered. This exploration follows the idea that when something is demolished, it is forgotten. And when something (or a building) is preserved, it is remembered, and written into history. So, if we break down parts, and choose to remember only certain elements, how can these parts be displayed or retold. With this example, I sliced an old tennis ball, and poured resin in a cube. The intention here was to explore how a demolished part could be turned into a building block, which told a story.
Software: ArchiCAD, Photoshop
Models: Burned Acrylic, lasercut parts, wood
This research was in collaboration with the Architectural Ecologies Lab at California College of the Arts. This studio focused on how marine life can be grown on various materials, with visits to The Moss Landing Marine Lab in Monterey, California and to fiberglass manufacturers, Kreysler & Associates, located near Napa, California.
Explorations consisted of modeling various forms to create ridges, which promoted marine growth at a cellular level. Working with deep ridges enabled small currents to circulate around forms (similar to the concept of enhancing barnicle growth on the hull of a boat). Studies explored plastic forms, water currents, resisting and enabling water flow, fostering marine growth over time, and the relationship between design and the coastal environment.
As the proposed project was an interactive marine lab, ultimately, the goal of the project was to encourage visitors to interact with the coastal environment, observing marine growth and exposing the public to an interactive scientific experience through the built environment.
Urban Forest is a senior shared residence and community. A variety of shared housing typologies make up the first and second floors of the complex, while the ground floor is made up of shared community spaces.
Urban Forest was an exercise in exploring how we live in a shared environment; by using seniors as a focal demographic, their needs and considerations were taken into account into the design of the architecture.
Due to a more relaxed living style, and need for human interaction, the communal ground floors, are made up of artist studios, a community garden and greenhouse, a cinema, a swimming pool and yoga studios, as well as childcare and animal care facilities. These community facilities are intended to provide the option of bridging the gap between generations, encouraging seniors to interact with children, animals or the creative and recreational facilities, if desired.
The second and third levels are made up of different housing typologies, various sizes, with shared bathrooms, communal living spaces and family rental units.
The concept behind the thin columns is about creating a secure barrier, while maintaining visual porosity to the neighbors. The density of the columns determines the circulation around the courtyard. Along the edges of the street, the columns are closely packed, providing a barrier and a structure to the residential units above. Vegetation is planted among and around the white columns, creating additional spaces for inhabitants to walk around.
Software: ArchiCAD, Photoshop
Program: Senior Housing
Location: Mission District, San Francisco, California
Swinging Pods is a theoretical project which addresses environmental disasters, and structural responses to these disasters.
How would a coastal landslide influence the architecture in such a location? Does the architecture respond to or resist such catastrophic forces in a disaster? What is the structural response or adaptability in protecting people or moving them out of the way?
Swinging Pods uses coastal landslides in La Conchita, California as an example. The structure of the project takes from tree roots, as being the central theme in holding mobile pods above the ground. Traditionally, the town is built on the base of the cliff, and has been crushed by landslides after heavy rains. This project proposes to move housing pods higher up on the cliff, connected by a walk way. The pods are sat on the edge of the cliff, and held up by ropes. The ropes connect down into the harbor. The idea is that in the event of a landslide, the pods would be released, and swing down to sea level. The bottom of each of the pods are designed like the hull of a boat and would float on the sea as well. The exterior of the pods are made of woven rope, similar to a hanging birds nest.
The general concept behind this project is that the architecture is responsive, and not restrictive. In the event of a disaster, the architecture is malleable, and moves with the forces, rather than against them. In this sense, pressure is released and not applied to the architecture. The structural component holding the pods on the cliff would be destroyed in the event of a disaster, and would need to be rebuilt. But the pod would ideally be protected in its response to move (and swing down the cliff), rather than stay in one place.
Work samples include apartment typologies, residential remodels, bathroom design.
In these diagrams, the ground floor is compared to the above floors, and how the lobby translates into an additional room in the apartments. These drawings were made in ArchiCAD, combining BIM work on various levels in the software, with line work and various groups of furniture.
The hand sketches show the thought process, from circulation to ‘private’ and ‘public’ zones within each apartment, as well as shared plumbing between amenities.
In Switzerland, drawings are made with a color code: black signifies existing building, yellow implies ‘to be demolished’ and red indicates the remodel, or new addition and work to be done. These color codes are helpful when simply glancing at a drawing set; it is easy to get the general idea of the scope of work, where demo occurs, and where overlap occurs (for example, where an existing structure needs to support a new renovation).
Location: Geneva, Switzerland (office & various projects)
Software: ArchiCAD, Photoshop
Duration of Employment: January - December 2012
Hidden Fissure brings together a boutique hotel, spa and restaurant - bar. These elements are brought together, architecturally, by a sculptural - structural concrete wall which serves as the central focal point in the building.
The challenge to this project, was the short width (7.5 m, 24.5 ft), and fitting in all the program. The folded central wall provides the structural center point, but guides the angles of the spaces out towards the windows and creates pleated allies and nooks in and around the wall. By doing this, there is no visual cut off length-wise of the space.
All programs follow the floor plan created by the wall. The reception to the hotel, on the southern end, is formed around the angle of the wall; the spa and change rooms are given privacy behind the angles of the wall, and the hotel rooms are given an element of character and individuality behind the folds of the wall. In this sense, this concrete wall creates a type of cave, or cavern in the building. There is a skylight at the top of the wall, bringing in light to the hotel rooms, and a sense of a ‘discovery’ or a reveal of a hidden opening, crack or fissure in the wall. This is to create a sense of mystery and curiosity in the spaces. Intending to make small spaces feel larger, as there is always something to discover.
Ground Floor (Drawing on the Left)
1 Entrance to Restaurant and Bar
2 Coat room
3 Boutique Hotel Reception
4 Kitchen
Software: ArchiCAD, Photoshop
Program: Hybrid Boutique Hotel, Spa & Restaurant - Bar
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Landing Cliffs is a multi-complex proposal in Alameda. The vertical structure, or rather, vertical city, is intended to bring people out of the city, and live in a futuristic building-city. Complete with drones, and landings on balconies, ramps and walkways, Landing Cliffs encompasses and questions what technology, and robotics will bring to our future.
Each building ‘block’ was designed to be its own building ‘unit’. Pragmatically, each of these blocks could include office spaces, apartments, entertainment centers, gyms, etc. However, each of these blocks were stacked by Kuka, the robot. Not only did this project analyze how technology would be influencing our lives, it also looked out how technology would influence the future of construction, such as through large scale robotics.
The blocks were fabricated in a multi-faceted mold, with interchangeable sides. The acrylic mold allowed for flexibility between each of the blocks, ensuring that no two blocks were alike. This process also allowed for a quick turnout as each of the sides could be reused, flipped, and reordered. So the same profile was repeated, but in a different position. To make up one block, there were six profiles, three on each side of the block. Curves, lips and edges undulated the facades of each of the blocks, indicating what program would be best suited for that individual block. (For example, large undulations combined with sharp edges might make for an apartment block, while curved steps and large platforms might be better suited for offices with drone landing pads.)
The blocks were oriented in a position which created a large canyon down the center of the project. Circulation through the project allowed for various options: along the curved steps on the interior of the canyon, over the spanning walkways to observe views, or in a drone, flying down through the canyon.
Software: Rhino with Grasshopper, Illustrator
Partner: Taylor Metcalf
Award: Jury Prize, Spring 2016 (California College of the Arts)
Program: Vertical Housing, Entertainment, Office Space
Location: Alameda, California
This was an urban design project which addressed a nearby children’s school. The redesign for the landscape project proposal aimed to increase pedestrian activity, making it safer for families and children around the school. The project analyzed diverting vehicles through a series of mapping studies of transportation and vegetation.
Additionally, the school did not incorporate or bring attention to the creek which filtered down into the Rhône river. The project was designed to bring people to the creek and to further enhance this natural environment which could be explored by pedestrians.
Team members: Nadège Varone, Adrien Erny
2nd place prize: https://www.spg-rytz.ch/5eme-edition-concours-spghepia/
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Landscape - Urban studio with HEPIA - Geneva
Homebody was a production which revolved around the concept of the body, pregnancy, flesh, organs, and relationships between these parts.
The set design needed to be light, movable, and easily transportable. In order to make flesh and body parts come together on a budget, fabrics, wires, and paper mache were the principle materials in creating the set design.
Hoola hoops were cut and used as the spine of the bone. Wire was modeled around the hoola hoop base to create a bone profile. And paper mache was used to cover the bones, giving a rough, textured, yet light weight feel. Various fabrics were dyed and treated to create shadow. Holes were burned in the fabric in varying patterns to bring out a ripped fleshy - feeling.
Set Design & Fabrication: fabrics, paper mache, wire
Location: San Francisco, California
Choreographer: The Anata Project
Build Change is an NGO which focuses on disaster relief housing in high risk locations. They help disaster relief primarily by aiding in seismic reinforcements, and guiding construction methods to meet certain criteria (to match India’s Building Codes). In order to apply the same standard of construction methods across multiple counties, the team met with local officials in Jakarta, as well as visitors from Bhutan, to discuss practice.
I was volunteering with Building Change for four months in Indonesia. My time was split between Bandung (on the island of Java), and Padang (on the island of Sumatra). We visited construction sites, discussed local construction practice between varying counties, and organized methods and guidelines for people to abide by. Education was a large part of this role; educating laborers on new technology and methods, educating students on new techniques, and learning ourselves about local practice and optimizing cheap materials.
Duration: March - June 2013
Location: Bandung, Indonesia & Padang, Indonesia
NGO: Build Change
