Portfolio: Practice(Immaculate Conception Church)

As Assistant Project Manager for this Catholic church in Calais, Maine, I was tasked with translating schematic level design drawings into a 3-d computer model as well as generating all architectural construction documents. While my involvement in the concept design was negligible, I was responsible for most of the detailing throughout the building, as well as all submittal review and a large part of the construction administration. Project is expected to be completed in early 2008.

Portfolio: Practice(Brewer Public Safety Bldg)

As Assistant Project Manager for this $6.5 million Police & Fire Station in Brewer, Maine, I was tasked with heading up the work effort to produce all Architectural drawings. My original design concept(images on right), which was chosen by the client, attempted to resemble a formal northeastern municipal building melded with traditional New England farm house to create a play between formal and informal, past and present. It was my intention to place the administrative wing of the building on the high point of this sloped site to accentuate its hierarchical importance. The design has gone through some iterations, and the final massing model can be seen on the left. Foundations are presently in, and steel will be placed soon.

Portfolio: Personal Work

Landscape design for my personal residence in Glenburn, Maine(above)

Lessard Residence (above)

the client wanted something reminiscent of traditional Maine colonial style architecture for this coastal community. I worked with window proportions/placement, roof pitch, and shed dormers to help give the client both a functional/affordable design, and an aesthetically pleasing one.

Halpern Residence(above)

Because of the difficult site, it was important to the builder to accentuate the horizontality of the home so as not to make the rear appear too tall. I played with hip roofs, horizontal banding, and deep overhangs to achieve this.

Portfolio: Plan

As this design problem had such a strong Sustainability component to it, from the beginning I began to focus on a few specific green strategies to help me achieve this. First and foremost, I wanted to use as many prefabricated components as possible. Not only did I want to use prefabricated components, but recycled prefabricated components. It was my intention to articulate my design thru the use of retrofitted shipping containers which could be “plugged into” the main core building which is constructed on site. This could serve a two fold purpose. First, cut down on the energy associated with harvesting, manufacturing, transporting, and assembling raw materials, and second, reuse something that presently exists in abundance in storage yards all over the world. The containers could be used as dorm rooms, class rooms, break rooms, etc. They are versatile and built to be transported. The core building, which also serves to articulate my “buffer” concept, is the framework which these containers can dock into. Furthermore, by staggering the containers in a sawtooth fashion, I am maximizing southern light and views to each of these spaces. Educating future designers in a place where sustainable approaches such as adaptive reuse and passive daylighting are so strongly apparent, is a perfect way to ensure that they take these values, as well as lessons learned, with them into the future.

Concerning the arrangement of spaces, I attempted to transition public into private, and vice versa, through verticality. Simply put, the level on the street is readily accessible to the public who are encouraged to use the plazas and visit the gallery space to learn about the program and the BAC. On the second level, slightly detach from the public and the street, strategically positioned to observe the users below, are the academic spaces. And finally, the top two floors contain the dorms and provide for maximum privacy. At the lowest level of the building, a small parking garage, mechanical, and storage spaces exist. I feel that the plan is an effective blend of my parti and my program.

Portfolio: Concept Statement

Portfolio: Program

Portfolio: Elevations

The treatment of the rear elevation is an attempt to maintain the buffer concept between the site and the turnpike while meeting the necessary functional requirements. As strips of transom windows provide some indirect northern light to the interior of the core building, the Ivy screen serves as a filter cleansing the air, and the light, and the noise prior to its entrance into the building. It also serves to inform those commuters as to some of the things this building stands for, namely its green principles. The evolution from the large screen on the west end to the narrower screens closer to the main vertical stair and elevator tower provides for a more gradual transition from complete opacity to the transparency of the beacon at the intersection.

Portfolio: Site and Roof Plan

Plaza design sketches 1

I am trying to spend the remainder of my time addressing outstanding design issues.. namely, the treatment of the main plaza and rear plaza, and transitioning the building into the site.... one scheme that I have been working on that I like is raised planters which both soften the transition between building and site, and help further define the plazas... also, I like the idea of creating a passageway on the backside of the main "green screen" connecting the two plazas...

I see the potential for the rear plaza to serve as an outdoor extension of the exhibit space and perhaps become a formal sculpture garden.. as far as the main plaza is concerned, I want it to remain an exciting gathering place...... more to follow

Portfolio: Code Analysis

Portfolio: Structure

In terms of a structural system, I intend to have a steel frame on piles for the core building, exhibit space, and classroom space. Floors will be concrete on metal decking. Roof will be membrane on rigid insulation on metal decking for the core building and green roof at classroom. Walls will be precast concrete panels attached to the steel frame for the core building, insulated metal panel for the classroom, and translucent insulated glazing panels for the exhibit space.As you can see above, the trickiest part of the structural system will be tying the prefab container units into the core building's frame. Is the core building one complete system that the container merely plugs into, or are there two separate systems, one for the core and one for the containers, that are attached together in the field?

Site and Roof Plan Progress Print

Hi Werner...you are correct in that I have not revised my site plan much... I wanted to get something up for Kevin's comment(in particular, site drainage and runoff management). I did shrink the fountain and try to make for more plaza space with seating around the water feature, but the site plan doesn't reflect those changes yet...it definitely will....I think that I will have much of my supporting posts, i.e. structural, mechanical, code, completed to an acceptable level of detail very soon and I will be able to spend the remainder of my time fully focusing on outstanding plan/site plan issues to fully address the critics, as well as your own, comments.

Portfolio: Section

Some of the things that become strongly evident from the sections are the importance of the main plaza, as well as the vertical orientation of the different space "groups." Even before I reconciled the program with the site, I knew that it was important to have a south facing plaza for students, staff, and the general public to take advantage of. The building site located at the highly visible junction of Mass Ave. and Boylston St. and it is subject to extensive pedestrian traffic. What better way to take advantage of this than to provide a comfortable place to sit down and people watch or eat lunch next to the reflecting pool? With the tall ivy screen separating the plaza from the street, strongly during the warm growing months, less so as the ivy grows dormant in the winter, there is a sense of enclosure and transparency all at the same time. Furthermore, as the users on the ground level are separated from the plaza and the public merely by sheets of glass, as one ascends higher into the building they grow more detached from the hustle and bustle below and are afforded the opportunity to retreat into their private dormrooms.

Portfolio: Model & Perspectives

Portfolio: Research and Exploration

Portfolio: Building Services

Electrical - While the building will use predominately public electricity, there are some features which will significantly lower its usage.

1. There are presently over 1,000 square feet of Photovoltaic panels on the roof which could potentially generate 10 kilowatts of electricity per year. At the current energy costs, this could translate into around $3,000 of savings per year for electricity.


2. Because of the significant amount of southern exposure due to the "sawtooth" plan layout, and the fact that the building is so strongly oriented on the east-west axis, the design lends itself well to maximizing natural daylight. Couple this with the use of CO2 and Lighting sensors, and the building has the potential to be extremely efficient in terms of lighting needs.


3. The use of sun visors/light shelves in so many of the spaces will maximize the use of natural daylighting.

Cooling/Ventilation

1. The south facing air space that is created between the roof of one container, and the floor of the next, is an excellent opportunity to funnel natural ventilation into the building. There is a chimney space located at the core building between each of the containers which can provide an excellent way for the incoming breezes to escape.


2. The hydronic heating system could also double as a cooling system.

Heating

1. The heating system will be hydronic, located within the concrete slab of each floor.


2. A natural gas fired condensing boiler, vented thru the north wall, will be located in a mechanical space below Level One (at the parking level) and serve to heat the building.

Systems at the Containers

1. Each container will be completely finished with the necessary utility hookups and will be "docked" to the core building when installed. These are intended to become integral with the core building services once in place.
   

Portfolio: Detailing

Building Service Progress Print

My thought is that I can bring natural ventilation in between where my container modules meet.. Perhaps some type of an adjustable louver can serve to allow ventilation in when desired and keep it out the rest of the time... My thought is that air can come in under the container and be forced to the back of the core building with the use of some type of baffle located within the ceiling plenum space... it can then work its way over the baffle and into the chimney stack to make it out thru the roof..... I think this could make for some great passive cooling of each of the floor slabs and container floors..

See post below for more detailed systems narrative..

Structure Progress Print

In terms of a structural system, I intend to have a steel frame on piles for the core building, exhibit space, and classroom space. Floors will be concrete on metal decking. Roof will be membrane on rigid insulation on metal decking for the core building and green roof at classroom. Walls will be precast concrete panels attached to the steel frame for the core building, insulated metal panel for the classroom, and translucent insulated glazing panels for the exhibit space.As you can see above, the trickiest part of the structural system will be tying the prefab container units into the core building's frame. Is the core building one complete system that the container merely plugs into, or are there two separate systems, one for the core and one for the containers, that are attached together in the field?

Container attachment

For the container attachment to the core building, I would like to be able hang it off of the frame as seen in the images below.... I really need Kurt's opinion on this, but my idea is that there is a frame within each of the containers that can be attached to the core frame at 6 points per container..... I could be way off in terms of the type of attachment, but I think that it can work in theory.... I just have to get the connection down..

Building service sketches

Below are some sketches that try to illustrate my intended building services.. I think that the heating and daylighting are pretty self explanatory... The natural ventilation piece is a little more complicated though... I have a concept sketch for that below...

My thought is that I can bring natural ventilation in between where my container modules meet.. Perhaps some type of an adjustable louver can serve to allow ventilation in when desired and keep it out the rest of the time... My thought is that air can come in under the container and be forced to the back of the core building with the use of some type of baffle located within the ceiling plenum space... it can then work its way over the baffle and into the chimney stack to make it out thru the roof..... I think this could make for some great passive cooling of each of the floor slabs and container floors..

Revised Framing Sketch

Building Services progress narrative

Electrical - While the building will use predominately public electricity, there are some features which will significantly lower its usage.

1. There are presently over 1,000 square feet of Photovoltaic panels on the roof which could potentially generate 10 kilowatts of electricity per year. At the current energy costs, this could translate into around $3,000 of savings per year for electricity.
2. Because of the significant amount of southern exposure due to the "sawtooth" plan layout, and the fact that the building is so strongly oriented on the east-west axis, the design lends itself well to maximizing natural daylight. Couple this with the use of CO2 and Lighting sensors, and the building has the potential to be extremely efficient in terms of lighting needs.
3. The use of sun visors/light shelves in so many of the spaces will maximize the use of natural daylighting.

Cooling/Ventilation

1. The south facing air space that is created between the roof of one container, and the floor of the next, is an excellent opportunity to funnel natural ventilation into the building. There is a chimney space located at the core building between each of the containers which can provide an exellent way for the incoming breezes to escape.
2. The hydronic heating system could also double as a cooling system.

Heating

1. The heating system will be hydronic, located within the concrete slab of each floor.
2. A natural gas fired condensing boiler, vented thru the north wall, will be located in a mechanical space below Level One (at the parking level) and serve to heat the building.

Systems at the Containers

1. Each container will be completely finished with the necessary utility hookups and will be "docked" to the core building when installed. These are intended to become integral with the core building services once in place.

Structural System progress print

Below is my first pass at a framing plan for the upper levels(see brief narrative below the sketch). The odd shaped pieces are rigid box frames within the containers which can be attached to the core building frame. As you can tell, I am definitely NOT a structural engineer, so I will take any advice I can get....

In terms of a structural system, I intend to have a steel frame on piles for the core building, exhibit space, and classroom space. Floors will be concrete on metal decking. Roof will be membrane on rigid insulation on metal decking for the core building and green roof at classroom. Walls will be precast concrete panels attached to the steel frame for the core building, insulated metal panel for the classroom, and translucent insulated glazing panels for the exhibit space.

As you can see above, the trickiest part of the structural system will be tying the prefab container units into the core building's frame. Is the core building one complete system that the container merely plugs into, or are there two separate systems, one for the core and one for the containers, that are attached together in the field? Sketches to follow

Studio Final: Progress Prints