Tom Ames Urban Design Portfolio of Creative Works Southern California Institute of Architecture 2010-2011
Southern California Institute of Architecture [SCI-Arc] Future Initiatives [SCIFI] Masters of Design Research in Urban Design, Planning and Policy; Emerging Systems and Technologies Fall 2010 - Fall 2011 Program Co-ordinated by Peter Zellner and David Bergman <http://sciarc.edu/portal/programs/graduate/sciďŹ /index.html>
CONTENTS:
1. Housing SCI-Arc
2. Grand Avenue Augmentation
3. Re-Imagining the LA CleanTech Corridor
4. California High Speed Rail Urbanism
5. Curriculum Vitae
Housing SCI-Arc SCI-Arc Studio Course. Masters of Design Reserach, Urban Design, Planning + Policy. PROGRAM_ Campus Planning + Financial Modeling. INSTRUCTORS_ Peter Zellner, David Bergman, with Jamie Bennet. TEAM_Tom Ames, Wanda DallaCosta, Julieta Gil, Anne Gregersen, Hassan Ismail, Yong-Ha Kim. SOFTWARE_ Rhino. Adobe Creative Suite. DESIGN PERIOD_ September- November 2010.
Until recently SCI-Arc was a transient school, an institution that never owned property but had instead rented needed spaces for its entire history. This was fitting given the experimental and rootless nature of an institution with such a radical, rebellious history. However with SCI-Arc’s recent acquisition of the quarter-mile long historical railroad freight terminal which had been the school’s home for the past decade, SCI-Arc has a golden opportunity to reimagine its future as an institution, its role as part of its inner-city Los Angeles neighborhood, and its potential role as property owner and developer. The Future Initiatives program was tasked with the generation of a concept strong enough to drive the future development of SCI-Arc. Inspired by our surroundings, our team proposed establishing a neighborhood presence by redeveloping several buildings in the area, instead of creating a consolidated campus. This would not only be more cost effective than buying a single high-priced piece of land, but spur outside development around each site, as well as truly rooting SCI-Arc in the neighborhood. This strategy allowed us to investigate new housing typologies for LA’s core, analyze the financial feasibility of purchasing multiple properties, and explore the unique character of the LA arts district.
SCI-Arc and the LA Arts District
Research - Community Outreach Would more residents be a good thing? Would Would more more residents residents be be
Survey Sample: All Participants. Survey Survey Sample: Sample: All All Participants. Participants.
a good a good thing? thing?
Women Men Women Women MenMen
Other
No No
Yes Yes
Couple Couple Single Single
Do you know an artist who livesDo inDo theyou Arts District? you know know an an artist artist
who who lives lives in the in the Arts Arts District? District?
ArtistArtist Student Student Other Masters 4 Year Degree Other Other 2 Year Degree Masters Masters High School 4 Year Degree 4 Year Degree 2 Year Degree 2 Year Degree School HighHigh School
Visited Visited SCI-Arc? SCI-Arc?
No
No No
Undergraduate Undergraduate Undergraduate Graduate
Nonresident Resident Nonresident Nonresident Resident Resident
Food Food Open Space
RISD RISD RISD
Open Open Space Space Cost of Housing
SCI-ARC [Proposed]
Yes Yes
Is SCI-Arc good for the L.A. District? Is Arts SCI-Arc Is SCI-Arc good good forfor thethe L.A.L.A. Arts Arts District? District? No
SCI-ARC SCI-ARC [Proposed] 2000 [Proposed] 3000
1000 0
0
10001000
5000 40004000
50005000
Off Campus
Cooper Cooper Union Union
Rental Housing
Off Campus Off Campus On Campus
Pratt
Rental Rental Housing Housing Student Housing
On Campus On Campus
Pratt Pratt
Student Housing Housing RetailStudent
RISD RISD RISD
City Park Park OfficeCity Complex
Artist Collective Collective LightArtist Manufacturing
4000
30003000
Percentage Percentage of Students: of Students: Cooper Union
plot plot of land of land adjacent adjacent to SCI-Arc? to SCI-Arc?
Office Complex Complex ArtistOffice Collective
20002000
Percentage of Students:
Retail Retail City Park
Yes
On Campus On Campus
Pratt Pratt
0
Visited SCI-Arc?
Off Campus Off Campus On Campus
Pratt
Shopping Shopping Food
What would you like to see built on the large vacant plot of land adjacent to SCI-Arc? What What would would youyou like like to see to see built built onon thethe large large vacant vacant
Off Campus
Cooper Cooper Union Union
Yes Yes
Current Housing: Within Arts District vs. Elsewhere. Current Current Housing: Housing: Within Within Arts Arts District District vs. vs. Elsewhere. Elsewhere.
Number Number of Students: of Students: Cooper Union
Creative Creative Environment Environment Shopping
Yes
No No
Nonresident Nonresident Resident Resident
Other Faculty Worker Other Other Artist Faculty Faculty Student Worker Worker
Housed Housed OnOn andand OffOff Campus. Campus. Number of Students:
Cost Cost of Housing of Housing
No Nonresident Resident
Institutional Comparison of Students Housed On and Off Campus. Institutional Institutional Comparison Comparison of Students of Students
Other Other Creative Environment
Yes
No Children No Children Has Children Has Children
What What dodo youyou likelike about about thethe L.A.L.A. Arts Arts District? District?
No
Married Couple Single Married Married
No Children Has Children
What do you like about the L.A. Arts District?
SCI-ARC [Proposed] 0
20 0
0
SCI-ARC SCI-ARC [Proposed] [Proposed] 40 60 20 20
40 40
60 60
80
100 80 80
100 100
Light Light Manufacturing Manufacturing
No No
Graduate Graduate
Yes Yes Yes
In order to better understand who lives in the Arts District, who visits the Arts District and what attracts them, we created and distributed a brief questionnaire. This survey allowed us to discover that the population of this area is young, with a median age of 25 years old, single, and childless. Most are well-connected to the LA arts scene, either as artists, students, or supporting creative production. They are attracted by low rents and creative environment. SCI-Arc is well thought-of, with the majority of respondents indicating that they have visited the school, and approve of its position as an anchor in the community. Most would like to see the neighborhood grow, and indicated the greatest desire for more art production space, retail outlets, and community open space respectively.
Urban Research & Strategies
LOS ANGELES ARTS DISTRICT QUESTIONNAIRE: Age:_______ Sex: M F Relationship Status: Single. Couple. Married. Children: Yes. No. Residency: Resident. Guest. Where do you live? __________________________________ What brings you to our neighborhood today? __________________ Occupation: Student. Education Achieved:
Artist. Worker . Faculty. Other: ______________ High School. 2yr Degree. 4yr Degree. Masters. Other.
What do you like about the L.A. Arts District? PLEASE RANK EACH CATEGORY, WITH 1 BEING THE HIGHEST VALUE. Cost of Housing: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Creative Environment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shopping: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Food: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Open Space: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Other: 1 2 3 4 5 6 What would you like to improve? _____________________________________________ What is the Arts District missing? _____________________________________________ Would more residents in the Arts District be a positive thing?
Yes. No.
If you are not an artist, do you know an artist who lives in the L.A. Arts District? Yes. No. Have you heard of SCI-Arc (the Southern California Institute of Architecture)?
Yes. No.
Have you ever visited the school for a public event, lecture, or gallery show? Yes. No. _______________________________________________________________________________ Do you think that SCI-Arc is a positive addition to the L.A. Arts District?
Yes. No.
What would you like to see built on the large vacant plot of land adjacent to SCI-Arc? PLEASE RANK ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 7, WITH 1 BEING THE HIGHEST VALUE. Rental Housing: ________ Student Housing: ________ Retail or Grocery: ________ City Park: ________ Office Complex: ________ Artist Collective: ________ Light Manufacturing: ________ Other: ___________________________________________________________________
Urban Campus Strategy
4 PROPERTIES
LOTS A + D
NETWORK
Conceptual Cross-section - Neighborhood Reuse
n
Building Sites ALAMEDA
TR
AC T
VIGNES
IO
N
ALAMEDA
VIGNES
58,900 sq.ft
OUR CRITERIA 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
COLY TO N
SEATON
OUR CRITERIA 1. 2. 3.
COLYTON
4. 5.
TIES
4. 5.
DISTRIBUTION BY USE
5 minute walking-distance from SCI-Arc Prominent urban location / Visibility Full building purchase. Min. 2 stories Min. 20,000 sq.ft. Suitable morphology for conversion Economically feasible
DISTRIBUTION BY USE
58,900 sq.ft
ALAMEDA
Vignes
Alameda
Colyton
58,900 sq.ft
STUDENT BEDS
TR
AC T.T.Toys TI ON
TOTAL
AC T
IO
N
58,900 sq.ft
4T
HS
23,000 sq.ft
T.
80,700 sq.ft
Vignes
Alameda
T.T.TOYS
Colyton
T.T.Toys
ALAMEDA STUDENT BEDS TOTAL TR
Colyton
Alameda
80,700 sq.ft
Vignes
162,600 sq.ft
OCCUPANCY SCHEDULE
2011 - Vignes
AC T
IO
T.T.Toys
23,000 sq.ft
MEDA
1. 2. 3.
4 PROPERTIES
OUR CRITERIA
5 minute walking-distance from SCI-Arc Prominent urban location / Visibility Full building purchase. Min. 2 stories Min. 20,000 sq.ft. Suitable morphology for conversion Economically feasible
TR
ICK
4TH ST.
DISTRIBUTION BY USE
RR
STRATEGY _ 4 PROPERTIES
162,600 sq.ft
ME
80,700 sq.ft
2ND ST.
5 minute walking-distance from SCI-Arc Prominent urban location / Visibility Full building purchase. Min. 2 stories Min. 20,000 sq.ft. Suitable morphology for conversion Economically feasible
ALAMEDA
23,000 sq.ft
N
TOTAL
162,600 sq.ft
Coylton Avenue Site - Before
After
Vignes Avenue Site - Before
After
New Urban Campus Organization
Reconstructed Parking Lot, Entry Plaza, and Graduation Pavilion
Grand Avenue Augmentation SCI-Arc Studio Course. Masters of Design Reserach, Urban Design, Planning + Policy. PROGRAM_ Speculative Urban Design. INSTRUCTOR_ Peter Zellner. TEAM_Tom Ames, Carrie Foster. SOFTWARE_ Rhino. AutoCAD. Adobe Creative Suite. DESIGN PERIOD_ November- December 2010.
Bunker Hill, Los Angeles’s corporate and financial core, is the largest and oldest urban renewal project in city history. It was developed from the 1950s onward as a typically late 20th century dedicated office district. Standing aloof at the top of Bunker Hill, these giant buildings are completely cut off from the renewed vibrancy of the surrounding Downtown LA neighborhood. Faced with the monumental task and historical failures surrounding building on Bunker Hill, our studio was asked to develop a toolkit of highly innovative architectonic archetypes that may be grafted onto the existing urban condition in order to create a working, vibrant urban neighborhood, and reconnect the area to the rest of the city. Our individual archetypical ‘chess pieces’ were then combined in like groups in order to illustrate different tactics of occupying the site. A final gallery exhibition presented an overwhelming totality of the individual permutations contained in our strategic toolkit, combined with the group investigations into aggregate monumental form making.
Residential Strands ďŹ lling in gaps between G Grand Avenue skyscrapers
Individual Pieces - Possible Permutations
Individual Pieces - Possible Articulation
Combined Pieces - Models
Combined Pieces - Presentation Drawings
Figure Ground
Site Plan
North East Axonometric
South West Axonometric
Re-imagining the LA CleanTech Corridor SCI-Arc Studio Course. Masters of Design Reserach, Urban Design, Planning + Policy. PROGRAM_ Speculative Urban Design. INSTRUCTOR_ Andrew Zago. TEAM_Tom Ames, Hassan Ismail, Kentaro Nagasawa, Monica McKay,Timothy Turner, Tiantian Sun, Sandy Phoxay. SOFTWARE_ Rhino. AutoCAD. Adobe Creative Suite. DESIGN PERIOD_ January- May 2011. Project Exhibited at the 2011 Little Tokyo Design Week - Future City.
Over the past few years, the city of Los Angeles and the LA Community Redevelopment Agency has been developing an initiative to transform Downtown LAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s central manufacturing district into an incubator for green startups and environmentally friendly manufacturing dubbed the CleanTech Corridor. Using the recent CleanTech Corridor architectural competition <http://www.sciarc.edu/portal/about/cleantech/index.html> as a point of departure, our studio investigated the future of Los Angeles development, reimagining the form of the city on a grand scale. Our teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investigations lead to a plan that, over the next fifty years, would: 1. Remove a section of the I-10 freeway, replacing it with a naturalized LA River corridor. 2. Reorganize the existing street grid to make it more easily navigable, encourage neighborhood connections, and increase pedestrian traffic. 3. Create an entirely new building fabric organized by the same underlying grid, allowing residential, manufacturing, commercial, educational, and other uses to directly coexist in ways that were previously impossible. This radically new urban fabric would encourage residents to live in the same vibrant community as their place of business, and be constructed as a network of inherently sustainable, zero emissions buildings.
Intertwined Systems form a New Sustainable Neighborhood
Neighborhood Context
Development of New Neighborhood Grid
Precedent - Albrecht Durer Typeface
New Neighborhood Grid
Urban Fabric - Preliminary Study Models
Urban Fabric - Figure Ground
RESIDENTIAL
COMMERCIAL
CLEAN INDUSTRIAL
RESIDENTIAL
COMMERCIAL
Zoning Parti Diagram
3D Massing and Zoning Studies
INDUSTRIAL
Existing Condition Diagrams
Preliminary Neighborhood Plan
Final
3D Visualizations
Scale Model - Massing
Scale Model - City Presentation
Scale Model - City Presentation
California High Speed Rail Urbanism SCI-Arc Studio Course. Masters of Design Reserach, Urban Design, Planning + Policy. PROGRAM_ Urban and Transportation System Design + Train Station. INSTRUCTORS_ Jesse Reiser. Nanako Umemoto. SOFTWARE_ Rhino. Grasshopper Plugin. Maya. AutoCAD. Adobe Creative Suite. DESIGN PERIOD_ June- August 2011. Project Published on the SCIFI blog.
Changing patterns of human development have created not a crisis, but an opportunity for us to reconsider the mechanics of city life and recolonize our cities for the next hundred years. The California High Speed Rail project has the incredible opportunity to not only affect modes of travel in the state, but to change the entire pattern of urban development in California. Compressing travel along a single infrastructural thread allows multiple systems to be aggregated along the rail line. Not only sustainable power generation or water conservation infrastructure, but a new urban aggregation will turn the network into a new type of linear city, blurring the lines between urban and rural, travel and stasis. Hybrid systems are the true potential of high-speed rail, and are reflected in the station- the representational unit of highspeed rail urbanism. Both the hybridized organizational layout and structural system blur boundaries between city and building, indoor and outdoor. As the structural grid of the station increases to the scale of the city, it begins to behave as a vast field condition, variable yet unified; an instant city in the middle of the desert.
Project Logo
Precedent Study - Formal Operations
Physical Model - System Module
System Morphology - Grasshopper Plugin
Field Condition Transformations
Preliminary Concept Sketch
Final Drawing
Statewide Context - California High Speed Rail Alignment
Regional Context
Citywide Context
ROOF. DATUM. GROUND.
Conceptual Organization - Sketches and Diagrams
3D Model - Exploded Oblique
0 - Column Grid Condition
1- Ground Level
2 - Second Level
3 - Rail Platform Level
Column / Field Condition Model 1:100
Conceptual Rendering - Train Platforms
Conceptual Rendering - Entrance
CURRICULUM VITAE Experience
Judith Lance Inc. – Technical Designer (May 2012 – September 2012) Conducted site surveys, created conceptual, working, and shop drawings, communicated with manufacturers and contractors, and detailed built-ins and custom furniture pieces for high-end interior design firm. PAR | Platform for Architecture + Research – Competition Intern (February 2012 – May 2012) Developed research and analysis, assisted conceptual design, and created drawings, diagrams, and graphics for high-profile international architectural competitions including the Helsinki Central Library. Tulsa Band Instruments Inc. – Accounts Manager (September 2009 – July 2010) Maintained rental accounts for rent-to-own program, filed taxes, and kept financial books. Oklahoma State University School of Architecture – Teaching Assistant (August 2007 – May 2009) Collaborated with professors and supported coursework preparation. Graded projects, exams & papers. Cannon Design, Washington D.C. Office – Architecture Technical Intern (May – August 2008) Expedited the preparation of research, transposed red-lines, corresponded with product representatives, and detailed architectural working and construction drawings.
Education
National Council of Architectural Registration Boards - Intern Development Program (May 2008 – Present) SCI-Arc | Southern California Institute of Architecture (September 2011) Master of Design Research in Urban Design, Planning, and Policy, Emerging Systems and Technologies (Future Initiatives) Oklahoma State University School of Architecture (May 2009) Professional Bachelor of Architecture (NAAB Accredited) Cum Laude. Minor: History and Theory of Architecture
Honors and Awards
Locke Scholarship for Academic Excellence (2008) Eason Leonard European Study Fellowship (2007) Nye Scholarship for Academic Excellence (2007) Second Place - Acme Brick Prize Design Competition (2006) Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education - Institutional Nominee Scholarship (2004) Boy Scouts of America - Eagle Scout (2001)
Expertise and Proficiencies
Communication Skills: Visual Communication. Problem-solving. Design. Theory. Creative Writing. Public Speaking. Creative Skills: Digital photography and cinema. Hand drafting and rendering (Technical Pen Ink, Graphite, Colored Pencil, Pastel, Watercolor, Inkwash). Hand-sketching (Graphite, Colored Pencil, Fountain Pen Ink, Watercolor, Marker). Shop Skills: Laser cutter. CNC Milling. ABS and Powder 3D Printing. General woodworking and fabrication skills. 3D Software: Rhino. Grasshopper. Google SketchUp. Graphics Software: Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Illustrator. Adobe InDesign. Adobe Premier Pro. Drafting and BIM Software: Autodesk AutoCAD. Autodesk REVIT. Graphisoft ArchiCAD. Financial Software: Quicken. QuickBooks.
Service Organizations and Professional Societies
SCI-Arc Student Union: Studio Representative (2010 – 2011) Sustainable Tulsa: Member and Active Volunteer (June 2009 – August 2010) AIAS | American Institute of Architecture Students – OSU Chapter: Lecture Series Coordinator (August 2008 – May 2009) Secretary (August 2007 – May 2008) ASTEK | Architecture Students Teaching Elementary Kids – OSU AIAS: Group Leader (2007 – 2009) Volunteer (2005 – 2009)
References furnished upon request
Tom Ames 4162 Sea View Drive, Los Angeles CA 90065
+1 918 808 8218
thedesignlife@gmail.com