Studio: Abstraction and Empathy (Fall 2006)
Critic: Lynnette Widder          

In this project, the transformation of the slaughterhouse into a performing arts center and exhibition space began with an attitude toward how culture is proliferated; it cannot be collected or defended as a series of precious objects but exists abstractly through the collective habits and practices of a community of people. Therefore the new center must not purely be a destination where art is displayed and consumed, but a place of production as well, serving both to continually refresh the art on display and to supply the city with public works.

The urban consequences of the additional function manifest themselves as building additions that establish a presence on the street and celebrate the complex as a cultural monument. Establishing the façade of the central building as an icon, its importance as a historical artifact is established by the removal of the gatehouse currently in between it and the street creating a public plaza. Two additions flank the newly created open space contextualizing the old building by juxtaposing it with the new. The programmatic functions of the complex are self-reliant individual pieces; however, they gain enhanced meaning through their adjacencies and relationships to each other as well as their activation of the exterior spaces.

I built myself this bookcase.  

The walls of my apartment at the time were far from flat and plumb, so I decided to install adjustable shelf brackets off of steel rods that provided a reliable reference surface.   The 3/4" pine shelves each have a rib along the back that prevents miscellaneous things from falling off and makes them stiff enough to carry the books without sagging.

My wife and I won a box of sparklers at a pub trivia.  It was nostalgic and fun.  We thought we would try to draw squiggly white lines on film, so we took photographs with long exposures while the sparklers were twirling.  

Studio: Base Necisities (Spring 2006)
Critic: John Hartman

5th Avenue, Brooklyn: a 5-1/2 mile strip that runs through the neighborhoods of Park Slope, South Slope, Sunset Park, and Bay Ridge. Our studio began with an investigation of this site. We were asked to analyze and familiarize ourselves with the diverse avenue in order to understand the conditions that produce the commercial phenomena of “spaces that are tuned for-profit and optimum performance but are not typically designed.”

I tracked the location of national chains in an environment traditionally occupied by local entrepreneurs. Typically, larger chains are able to afford higher rent and therefore often move in as property values become too high for local business owners. The clusters of chains not only revealed locations of growth and high property value but also revealed the way in which this community’s identity is evolving into a new global culture. Through the vehicle of a local workforce, generalized mass consumerism is given a place in a unique local setting, shaping the memories and experiences of the residents in this part of Brooklyn.

This Chinese take-out is intended to be locally owned and is ideally located towards the north end of 5th avenue in Park Slope. It attempts to gain architectural meaning through the expression of program, use of furniture, and process of assembly. To make the production and consumption of food more efficient, spaces and circulation are divided between specific users and separated into clear zones. The customer and employee have designated entry and exit such that the traffic of one doesn't impede the other. Employee zones are subdivided between food preparation and food distribution areas. Customer zones are subdivided into “sit-in” and “take-away” areas. The kitchen interacts with the customer through the mechanism of the countertop. The countertop is conceived as a continuous form that reaches out to customers; unifying the way in which the sit-in and take-away groups receive food and framing the interaction between clerk and consumer as the event that forms a communal identity. The assembly of the furniture attempts to have an analogous interaction between the materials of wood and steel, capitalizing on the structural strength of steel and the ease of connection in wood.

While I was working for Jay Litman, he was hired by a client who purchased a historical house on Benefit St in Providence to do a feasibility study of adding a garage and an elevator to the very compact site. I assembled an SD set (this was drawn in a sketchy style) and assembled an HDC application for the addition. Although the client decided not to proceed with the project, we did receive a certificate of appropriateness from the HDC.

My friends and I have an annual winter party that usually involves fire and water. I designed a temporary sauna for the event that could be built off-site in panels, then quickly delivered and erected. This is a small architectural folly that only needs to last one night.