Chicago, IL
The Logan Square neighborhood is a diverse neighborhood characterized by historic, park-like boulevards. By creating individual structures bound by pedestrian streets, this market acts as a micro-city that mimics the surrounding neighborhoods of the Logan Square District.
The structures act as pavilions that hold market stalls similar in geometry to the structure. The stalls allow for the vendors to remain inside the pavilions while customers traverse through the streets and around the structures.
The project is sited along Milwaukee Avenue and right across the street from Logan Square Park. The structures have a green roof and vertical green wall system that allow for a continuation of the surrounding green spaces and parks that are distinctive of Logan Square. Two pavilions were removed, one from each end of the project, to create an open plaza that allows for entry and gathering no matter what direction you approach the market from. The largest structure at the South East end of the project is thermally enclosed and contains public bathrooms and a cafe that can be open at times when the market is not open.
The two pavillions at the North end of the project do not contain market stalls. Instead they act as a multipurpose area for concerts or other public events. The heights of the pavillions vary in relation to the surrounding buildings that make up the Logan Square neighborhood and give the market a more human sensitive scale.
Brooklyn, NY
This project involved designing a public bathhouse with a hidden cocktail lounge in Brooklyn. The site for this project is a triangular courtyard that is used by the public and the St. Anne’s Warehouse theater next door. The site continues 50 feet beyond the west wall of the courtyard with 30 feet of the 50 being used for vehicular access.
My formal design strategy was to carve from an overall solid mass in a way that resulted in the building being lifted and supported by four corner towers. This meant that the courtyard continued throughout the ground floor of the project and out beyond the existing walls, acting as an extension of the developing park to the west of the site. Two of the corner towers contain the core circulation while the other two corners act as outdoor rooms on the ground floor. By allowing continuous circulation from every direction of approach, the project maintains the courtyard’s integrity as a public pedestrian thoroughfare and a space used by St. Anne’s for receptions and events. The building extends up over the existing wall of the courtyard so that the two westward towers touch down outside of the courtyard and maintain the 30 feet of vehicular access. This formal move also meant that the building met the sky by four towers that surround an occupiable roofscape. I was able to create outdoor pools and terraces for the occupants of the bathhouse that are protected by the towers to provide a sense of privacy from the public below.
The organizational strategy for the project mimicked the formal strategy in that the program was carved from the remaining mass along a skewed nine square grid. The organization of the pools of the bathhouse with the formal design strategy of the project allowed for a simple and effective structural strategy while solving certain programmatic requirements and problems. The pools were supported by transferring their loads through beams to the load bearing shear walls of the cores at the corners. Organizing the pools along the perimeter and between the corner towers meant that the middle of the building was open, so the cocktail lounge could be hidden and surrounded by the pools and other spaces that served the bathhouse.
When addressing what it meant to occupy a bathhouse in New York City I decided that it should be a place for people to relax in the middle of a busy city. I designed the bathhouse so that the pools and rest areas obscure the guest from the city and instead are focused inwardly. These specific spaces as well as the two outdoor rooms on the ground floor have large apertures that are placed high above the head of the people using the spaces so that the view of the city outside is concealed. Instead these apertures serve to bring in light so that as one moves throughout the building and into the pool spaces their view is terminated by indirect lighting. The cocktail lounge has a lightwell that washes the bar in natural light from above making it a focal point in the lounge. The lightwell cuts through the center of the bathhouse which is the only way that the occupants of the bathhouse get any hint that there is different program in the building. Each of the stairs have a moment of repose in front of a large aperture so that occupants can sit and look out over the city while the stairwell is washed with natural light.
Tulsa, OK
The two most critical issues that I address in the design of this branch library are what it means to be a modern library, and how the library responds to site and region.
The site for this Tulsa Branch Library project is located on the corner of E 6th St. and S Yorktown Ave. To the West of the site is the industrial district and to the East of the site is the residential district. The project mimics the idea of the site being a convergence point between the industrial commercial center and the pastoral residential center. The project has two cores located on the East and West end of the library that are reminiscent of the residential and industrial districts on either side of the site. The remaining program shifts between those two anchoring cores.
The rest of the site is landscaped with native prairie grasses to extend the pastoral of the residential and contrast that with the more industrial cores. It also allows for the library to host educational programs about local ecology in an outdoor classroom setting.
When addressing the program of a modern library I decided that this library should cater to the traditional idea of reading, as well as modern uses of libraries for collaboration and hands on learning. I consolidated the traditional stacks, reading, and study spaces to the second floor while the upper floors consist of collaborative learning and working environments like maker studios, meeting rooms, and an auditorium. The third floor holds a children’s area, a teen area, and computer stations, and the first floor contains a café, a seating area, and information desks and kiosks. The most public program is consolidated on the ground floor and the most private program like staff offices are on the upper most floors. Half of the top floor is made up of a roof terrace for hosting events and receptions.
The idea of the program being encased in glass allows the library to be transparent to the casual observer. While not traditional, this move allows for people on the street to see activity in the library and encourages them to enter and explore every floor of the building. The upper floors have moveable partitions to create a wall to provide privacy when needed. The rest of the floors have an openness so that the furniture is what is defining the spaces within the library.
