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Description

The final project for Architecture 420 was to design a community learning center for the village of Shorewood, a suburb of Milwaukee. The center combined 3 studio spaces, a lecture hall, a gallery, yoga and meditation space and an amphitheater. The restaurant currently at Hubbard Park was to be removed. I placed the amphitheater facing east so that the evening sun setting in the west would light the actors, but not blind the audience from seeing the performance. I organized the spaces based on a series of small massing models we produced where in the final one I placed the circulation spaces vertically and the usable spaces horizontally. The spaces are arranged around a central point or 'pin' where the bathrooms, stairs and elevator are located. Connected to the pin is a spine that serves as the circulation from the front to back of the site, though the people could also do it outside weather permitting. The structural systems that I used included a space-frame over the lecture hall, steel and glass envelope for the stairways, poured concrete walls for the studio spaces and a suspended truss system for the gallery.

Some things that I learned from this project were the construction of a variety of cladding systems and window openings, such as punched opening, infill and bypassing skin. I used several different kinds of structural systems in the building and it was a challenge to get them to work together. Also, one of the goals of the project was to engage both the hillside and the river which I feel I did effectively.

The Site

The site is along the Milwaukee River, same as the pervious two projects but this time it was located farther upstream. The site contains a park with some benches and paths and has a very steep slope up to the railroad bed. There is a tunnel connecting the two sides of the hill for the roadway, and a smaller tunnel to connect a parking lot on the other side to the park. Below is an image of the site with my building on it with the topography lines (2 ft increments) clearly showing the steepness to the site. Below that are two panoramas of the site.

Site Images

Studies

To prepare for the use of a variety of materials (we were not limited as with the other projects) we were required to amass a variety of masonry, concrete, glass and metals used in precedents.

Renderings

The renderings I created are the standard top/isometric/elevation as well as a few perspectives from people as they move through the site and buildings.

Floor Plans

The floor plans do not really give a good impression of how the building is built because it is not designed with a standard grid or structural system. The different horizontal sections are arranged at different heights, but the vertical circulation spaces pass through most/all levels.

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Presentation Board

For the final critique of the project we were required to produce presentation boards. My boards are shown below, combined two 36x42 color plots.

• View presentation board in full-size JPG - 7.2 mb (or click the image below)
• View presentation board in full-size PDF - 30.8 mb (or click the PDF logo)

Model Photographs

For the final critique we were required to build a 1/32" scale site model and a 1/8" building model. The photos of them are below.