5th Year

Tulane Masters Thesis 2019

Manhattan, New York

Deep Down seeks to be a human and intentionally flawed critique of the increasing prevalence of Super-Tall skyscrapers in the world and specifically New York City. While not inherently a blighting project, many super talls lack an appropriate response to context whilst also showing a lack of interest in the sociopolitical implications they inhibit. Their construction, now catalyzed by an alarming increase density demands a response.

To formulate an effective message, the strategy was to react in a viscerally human counter fashion. Rather than build up, what are the implications of building the same height, downwards into the bedrock of Manhattan utilizing a similar footprint? Obviously the programmatic applications could not stand one to one, so instead these constructed wells sought to highlight the formal and experiential conditions that a systematic excavation could have in addition to already freeing up airspace from the claustrophobic densities of midtown Manhattan.

Particular attention should be made towards the nadir of these excavations, because while they are not comfortable spaces, they allude to the implication of the street-level conditions if the super-talls continue to be allowed to dominate the individual block density.

Options Studio

Fall Semester (2018)

Aquatic Center and Resort

New Orleans, Louisiana

Partner: Easion Chen

The constraints for the aquatic center were largely open, the main facets required were a hotel with 40 units, parking garage with 200 spaces, a restaurant (and similar commercial spaces) and a large aquatic center(AC) with a variety of pools.

For the approach, the program was broken into three masses, one mass comprised the AC, another the hotel, and finally the parking garage. Each mass was organized in a striated fashion in order to orient everything along the interior of the public park design and facilitate more public interaction away from the street face. The entire project is then shaded by a roof super structure.

Each mass interacts with the site differently, the AC is anchored in the ground, the hotel appears to be hanging from the roof, and the parking garage hovers in between. In addition to creating a formal language, this organization allows for the park to be free flowing from one side to the next.

4th Year Options Studio

Summer Semester as Temple University

1418 South Street, Philadelphia

The study of two popular festival-like activities unique to Philadelphia, resulted in a synthesis of some of their best qualities in completely new proposal.

By studying the use of the summer beer pop-up gardens and the utilization of the uniquely centralized Stadium District in South Philadelphia, this new intervention sought to capitalize on the community engagement that beer gardens enable whilst integrating the year-round use aspect of the Stadium District that the pop up gardens lack.

What resulted was a year-round park, gallery, and retail space that seeks to utilize different parts of its program in different capacities depending on the season. Certain aspects maintain consistent use throughout the year such as the South Street front retail, while other locations like the elevated greenhouse/winter garden and courtyard see their applications re-appropriated depending on the climate.

The large formal move accompanying the courtyard is the raised glass garden space that is supported by 3 vertical volumes. These three volumes are in reference to the typical South Street context. In reference to the organic nature of a garden, these three masses then interact in a formal dialogue with the garden volume,. One mass grows all the way through the garden volume, another mass is pressed down by the garden, and a third mass simply supports the garden, creating a varied hierarchy.

Comprehensive Studio

Spring Semester (2018)

Sustainable CLT Construction

Houston, Texas

For comprehensive, the object was to design a mid-rise office building with gallery spaces and residential apartments in a theoretical expansion of the Menil Campus in Houston.

For my approach I felt it important to keep the residents as close to the ground floor as possible since the rest of the neighborhood consisted primarily of bungalows. To fulfill the unit requirement in the lot space provided, I chose a “Mat-Housing” format to efficiently plan out the units. Each unit has its own private yard and is easily constructed with CLT planks. The units slightly raise in height as they array back which not only acts as reference to facing the Menil, but also to subtly allow space for more units underneath them as it approaches the other side of the lot and the other bounding street.

The office tower helps provide shade to the units from the hot Southward Texas Sun. Finally the gallery spaces exist in-between the units and offices to create a buffer space so as the units aren’t directly against the office building.

4th Year Studio

Fall Semester (2017)

Affordable Housing and Mixed Use

New Orleans, Louisiana

For this project the main task was to design a mixed use, multi-family project in accordance with the zoning restrictions. The intervention, designed with retail and affordable housing in mind took design inspiration (particularly in regards to circulation and shading) from 46 Rue de L’ourcq in Paris.

The primary massing consists of two volumes, one facing the street and the other facing the interior courtyard. The two masses are then connected via circulation ring. The interior mass is entirely circumscribed in the ring while the street side mass simply abuts it. The ring helps delineate the private interior courtyard. Retail storefront is located along the ground floor along the sidewalk.

3rd Year

Spring Semester (2017)

The semester in the Restoration Studies Studio focused primarily on facades and facade renewal, as New Orleans is known for its visually distinct sense of place and the various organizations in charge of regulating this image wish to preserve as much authentic character as possible. The studies started in the historic district of the French Quarter and slowly moved deeper into the more modernized areas of the adjacent Central Business District.

2nd Year Studio

Spring Semester (2016)

Mardi Gras Indian Institute

New Orleans, Louisiana

The Spring Semester of second year revolved around designing an institute for the Mardi Gras Indians. The project started with us analyzing and deconstructing the suits to find elements to incorporate into the design.

The part of the suit I was tasked with analyzing was the boot. For the elevation I unfolded the sides on either end of the front and created a 2d Image from there. The axon was broken into three layers- the flamingo head, the pendant piece, and the feathery base. The primary aspect of the boot gleaned from the study, was the tripartite use of visually different layers to create a whole.

The final design incorporated classrooms, communal living, performances spaces and museum around the courtyard in the back. The critical move on this design was organizing the public program on the second floor creating better views while delegating the dormitories to have street access.

2nd Year Studio

Falls Semester (2015)

7th Ward, New Orleans

The final project for the fall semester of 2nd year was to construct a small community museum that both reflected the neighborhood and the spirit of New Orleans. Located in the 7th ward, a neighborhood defined by the crashing of angled grid patterns, the project sought to capture the organizational spirit of its site location, emphasizing slated angles on top of a typical orthogonal grid. The character of New Orleans itself is emphasized through three “walls” within the project- a wall of light, a wall of books and the wall of the city. The wall of the city was this project’s “big move” in which it is located along the street front facade, existing as a stereotomic mass and heavy threshold into the rest of the museum. This massing seeks to reference the original walls and ramparts that protected the original boundaries of the city in the 18th century.