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.