Syracuse University Undergraduate Architecture Portfolio | 2016-2021

AARON CASS Architecture Portfolio Syracuse University 2016-2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS Reclaiming Terrorism Slippery Floor Toxic Landscapes Link Beneath the Surface

PROFILE After spending 4 years in the U.S. Army, I began my journey to becoming an Architect. 7 years later, I have received my A.A.S in Architectural Technologies and Building Sciences from Finger Lakes Community College, and my B. Arch from Syracuse University. I am now graduated, leaving the world of academia and entering the world of practice. My time in the Army taught me that suffering is universal, community college taught me how to think critically and sparked my passion for design, and Syracuse University helped develop and hone my research, analysis, and design skills to be a better designer. These combined experiences over the past 11 years have informed my development as an architect and designer, shaping me into the person I am now; a designer and story teller interested in the intersections of space, form and activism.

585-905-5096 www.cassdesigns.me cassdesigns90@gmail.com

RECLAIMING TERRORISM B. Arch Thesis Syracuse University Year 5 Thesis Prize Honorable Mention 2020-2021

RECLAIMING TERRORISM Memorial as Protest Located on the National Mall, this memorial is a response to the Gun Epidemic the US has fostered. This memorial stands apart by sharing the experiences of the forgotten survivors of mass shootings, while simultaneously demanding action from the policy makers who have thus far ignored them.

Constructed out of Hesco Barriers, the memorial takes shape as a sacred core that displays the stories of the comparatively fortunate survivors.

Protecting the core is a perimeter that expand outward, increasing the thickness of this core’s walls with each successive mass shooting in the US, threatening to consume the city. Nested in this ever expanding shell are voids, serving as spaces for the public to gather, discuss, pontificate, mourn, remember, honor, and celebrate.

RECLAIMING TERRORISM

RECLAIMING TERRORISM

SLIPPERY FLOOR Professional Elective Syracuse University Year 4 Semester 2 2020

TEAMMATES Shawn Tang

SLIPPERY FLOOR Exhibition of Extremes Overseen by Harry der Boghosian Fellowship recipient Benjamin Vanmuysen, this exhibition was a professor led, student assisted professional elective. Interested in the extremes of Over and Underdesign, the exhibition explored these opposites in a spatial clash.

The students were divided into teams to focus on separate pieces of the whole. Myself and my partner worked on the ductwork for the exhibition.

SLIPPERY FLOOR

TOXIC LANDSCAPES Professional Elective Syracuse University Year 4 Semester 1 2019

TEAMMATES Erin Doherty Kyle Neumann

TOXIC LANDSCAPES Warning on Wheels This project was our final for our Desert Geopolitics class. The Professional Elective focused on exploring the hidden politics behind desert usage, development, geology, and delineation.

The project itself was a museum designed around a selected topic, in this case Toxic Landscapes. Although given an existing form, our group argued to design a museum detached from a given form or site so as to facilitate a traveling pop-up museum educating and warning users of the dangers of nuclear waste and testing.

Life Span of Nuclear Waste

Interactive display table allows guests to see the locations of nuclear test sites, facilities, and waste sites along with their impacts around the world.

=

One Generation

=

One Barrel of Waste

Surface are pressure sensitve an or hand print as guests move an surfaces.

nd leave a foot nd touch the

REMNAT

DESTROYER OF WORLDS

All actions have lasting effects on the surrounding environment. As you move through this pod, you actively are changing the environment and leaving a trace of your presence that cannot be erased. Similarly, as we build, test, and produce energy from nuclear sources, we also create waste that we can only hide.

Greater Than Class-C waste is a classification of nuclear waste that we have no ways of even hiding.

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of Worlds". J. Roger Oppenheimer was among the 11 military and scientific personel that were present at the worlds first atomic detonation. After which we noted that this quote from the Hindu holy book, Bhagavad Gita.

This

1:1 scale replica of "The Gaget", the first atomic bomb built for Trinity

TOXIC LANDSCAPES The now decommisioned Semipalatinsk Testing Site in Kazakhstan was the largest nuclear testing site for Russio during the Cold War. This site not only allows access to the museum to guests outside the US, but also helps to reveal the nuclear sites abroad.

Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan

White Sands National Park is a small pocket of protected land encompassed by the White Sands Missle Range, wherin lies the site of the Trinity test. The juxtaposition of two binary land designations makes this site a special place where guests can be exposed to the horrors that take place just across the border of the park.

White Sands, NM, USA

LINK Landscape Studio Syracuse University Year 2 Semester 2 2018

LINK Science Observed The last studio of our second year focuses on landscape. For the final project, students were asked to design a building in Old Erie Canal Park in Poolsbrook, NY. The prescribed program was a water testing center associated with Syracuse University.

Noticing the park only had one poorly maintained bridge to cross from the park proper to the historic Erie Canal Bike Trail, I chose to design lab that doubles as a public walkway.

LINK

BENEATH THE SURFACE Comp Studio Syracuse University Year 4 Semester 2 2020

TEAMMATES Joe Weng

BENEATH THE SURFACE Serving the Unserved For our Comp-Studio project, we were given a site in downtown Syracuse to design a mass timber, mixed-use, high rise building with a gross floor area of ~80,000 sf.

In researching the city we found that the largest demographic, kids and teens, were underrepresented in the urban fabric. To rectify this, we centered our design around play.

Urban Program Residential Banking Education Religious Parking Government Office Commercial Mixed-use

North

Age Demographics 0-17

Less Dense

MoreDense

Population by Age Range 0-17 25%

AREAS OF PLAY

OUTDOOR PLAY LEWIS PARK - Playground - Athletic Fields - 3.2 Acres

LEAVENWORTH PARK - Playground - 3.5 Acres

ROSAMOND GIFFORD ZOO - 43 Acres

ONONDAGA PARK

INDOOR PLAY DESTINY USA MALL - Dave & Buster’s - 5 Wits - Mirror Maze - Bowling - Movie Theatre - Escape Rooms - Rope Course - Wonder Works - Billy Beez - Mini-Golf - VR Center - Laser Tag - Museum of Intrigue - Go-Karts - Obstacle Course

CHUCK E. CHEESE - Arcade - Rides - Activities

CENTRAL ROCK GYM - Rock Climbing

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - Interactive Science Exhibits

- Playground - Athletic Fields - Pool - Lake - Gazebo - 67 Acres

KIRK PARK

- Playground - Athletic Fields - Pool - Community Center - 33 Acres

BARRY PARK - Playground - Athletic Fields - 15 Acres

COMFORT TYLER PARK - Playground - Athletic Fields - 15 Acres

WILSON PARK - Playground - Athletic Fields - Pool - Community Center - 2 Acres

THORNDEN PARK - Playground - Athletic Fields - Pool - rose Garden - Ampitheatre - 76 Acres

LOGUEN PARK - Playground - 1.5 Acres

HIGHLAND PARK - Playground - Pavement - 8 Acres

SCHILLER PARK Outdoor Play

Indoor Play

- Playground - Community Center - Pool - Athletic Fields - 37.4 Acres

MCCHESNEY PARK - Playground - Community Center - Athletic Fields - 4.3 Acres

BENEATH THE SURFACE

BENEATH THE SURFACE

11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 1 2 3 12 13 14

4 5 8

15

10

9

11 3 2

12 16 13

1

1. Floor Structure 2. Exterior CLT Finish 3. Wind Insulation 4. Box Floor Joist 5. Insulation 6.CLT Panel 7. Sound Absorbing Insulation 8. Floor Finishing

9. Interior Wall Finish 10. Vapor Barrier 11. Heat Insulation 12. Water Pipes 13. Electrical 14. Air Duct 15. Box Structure Frame 16. Vertical Service Core

585-905-5096 www.cassdesigns.me cassdesigns90@gmail.com