Abigail Nelson | 2019 Architecture Portfolio

ABIGAIL NELSON PORTFOLIO

E D U C AT I O N

M a st er of A rc h i t e ct u re ( 20 20 ) BS i n Desi g n (2018 )

EXPERIENCE

Tea c h i n g A s si st an t f o r Desi g n Th i n ki n g

LEADERSHIP

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

August - December 2018

I n t er n a t OP N Arch i t e ct s i n Ced a r Ra p i d s , IA

May - August 2018

Resea rc h A s si st an t f o r Br i a n Kel l y

August - May 2017

I n t er n a t H ol l a n d B as h am A rch i t e ct s i n Om a h a , NE

May - August 2017

I n t er n a t Reed D e s i gn A rch i e ct s i n Li n c ol n , N E

May - August 2016

A l p h a R ho Ch i Vi c e P res i d en t + Tre as u re r

2016 - 2018

Ta u Si g m a Del t a Sec ret a r y

2017 - 2018

SKILLS

A ut oCA D, Sket c h U p, Rh i n o , Re v i t , E n s cape , Pho t o s ho p, I l l us t ra t or, I n De s i gn , Pre mi e re , M i cro s o f t O f f i ce , l as e rcu t t i n g, 3D p r i n t i n g , CN C mi l l i n g, ph ys i cal mo de l i n g

HONORS

Ron & Jud y H es s Trav e l i n g S cho l ars h i p / 2018 Ch r i st i a n Li edi n g S cho l ars h i p / 2018 DAO A rc h i t ec t ure S cho l ars h i p / 2018 Fa c ul t y A c h i ev e me n t Aw ard / 2018 Con t rov er Ci t y pu bl i s he d i n Tran s i e n t S pace s / 2017 Sc hem m er A s so ci at e s S cho l ars h i p / 2017 Wa yn e Dr um m o n d Fe l l o ws h i p / 2017 M a r y E . Roel f s S cho l ars h i p / 2016 A rc h i t ec t ura l Fo u n dat i o n o f N e bras k a E du cat i o n Sc hol a rsh i p / 2016 UN L Dea n’s Li st / 2014 - 2016 UN L H i g h Sc hol ar / 2014 - 2017

INFO

Web si t e - a b b y arch . o rg E m a i l - a b b yn el s o 14 @ gmai l . co m P hon e - 402- 96 0 - 2415

CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM OF OMAHA Academic Work | Fall 2018 | Professor John Craig Babe

The initial goal for the design of the Contemporary Art Museum of Omaha (CAMO) was to embody the art held within it. After looking further into the definition of contemporary art, art produced to globally influence, culturally diversify, and technologically advance, I knew this motive would be challenging yet possible.

My professor prompted us to approach this project from the inside out to produce compelling and provoking interiors. Designing this museum began by creating the spaces and promenade through the building prior to resolving its massing and position on the site. This process was less context-driven and conceptual, but it forced me to design more formalistically, an approach I had never taken before. This yielded a high regard for natural light, sequence, and the user experience.

Though positioning on the site, fenestration orientation, and connection to the context came later on, it posed a unique challenge and made me approach architecture in a new way.

space. Within this core lies programs that aid the building’s function. CAMO’s central experience lies in the promenade from public to private space, navigating from one side of the dividing core to the other. Hierarchically, the design prioritizes public engagement while respecting the private experience of viewing art. Carving out areas for the gallery amidst the private zone’s poche allows for a quieter gallery experience to contrast the public zone.

This design process essentially stemmed from the inside out. As seen in my earlier iterations, the form became quite complex.

I was challenged to create complex interiors through a refined massing. That led me to focus on the larger picture of public and private space, a dividing, functional core, and the design of the promenade. The same intentions for natural light were exhibited, generous in the public space and less direct in the private. Light was also used as a way to lead the inhabitant through the space with the atrium curved stair. The exterior massing strategy largely focused on inviting the site’s corner intersections and regulating the light. The perforated screen peels up at 12th and Jones and curves inward toward the secondary west entrance. This capitalizes on the activity at these intersections while remaining along Jones Street’s public zone.

The design for the CAMO responds directly to its context within Omaha’s existing art scene. The composition allocates the public zone along Jones Street and utilizes its form to welcome the activity seen here. The museum’s parti exists primarily in plan, using a rectangular core to divide public from private

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OMAHA NEBRASKA

1212 J O N E S S T R E E T

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Interior Perspectives before Building Design

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cafe

lobby / street gallery / multipurpose room

gallery shop

vestibule

up

reception kitchen

coats

gallery

auditorium

gallery

mechanical

gallery up

loading at

loading ramp

Ground Floor

additive core subtractive promenade

First Floor Plan / Concept Diagram / Facade

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driveway

lobby / street gallery / multipurpose room

cafe

members lounge

library archive

auditorium

art lab storage stor.

mech

classroom

administration lunch area

art lab / school group assembly administration open ofďŹ ce up storage

classroom

storage storage

2nd Floor

Second Floor Plan / Lobby

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vesibule

Library Archive / Lobby Stairs / Upper Level Gallery

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Evening View from 13th & Jones Street

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Section Perspective

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A WA K E N Academic Work with John Round | Spring 2018 | Professor Mark Bacon

The initial task for this project prompted 4th year students to design a sacred space and mausoleum within the Lincoln-based Wyuka Cemetery. My partner, John Round, and I designed a non-denominational sacred space due to peoples’ increasing opposition toward subscribing to one religion. Our design, Awaken, is a sacred space for mourners to reflect upon those who passed and contemplate their own mortality. Awaken approaches death and the grieving process associated with it through mindfulness as a reaction to the flood of distractions and over-stimulation society faces today. This sacred architecture uses mindfulness as a tool to calibrate inhabitants toward the current moment with focus solely on what is happening within the occupied space. Axial orientation, material intentions, and the employment of water awaken the senses and reminds the occupant to be present while enduring a loss.

Due to its location within a cemetery, choosing a site that would respect existing graves was important. John and I found that the northeast corner of Wyuka Cemetery had a quiet, reflective atmosphere, fitting for a sacred space. Early site observation and documentation helped us choose this site, looking into the area’s views, acoustic qualities, access points, and natural light.

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The thirteen-week design process promted significant research on sacred architecture and mindfulness. John and I found that slight formal obscurities and awakened senses makes visitors more mindful and aware of the architecture they occupy. We considered this while refining our building.

Awaken’s massing essentially consists of two axes. The utility axis housed functional programs like the lobby, reception space, kitchen, custodial areas, and mechanical room. The mindfulness axis sheared toward the cemetery and had more experiential spaces like the ceremonial gathering space, sunken garden, crypts, and reflection room.

The form was initially inspired by the linear adjacencies it stood by, Vine Street to the north and a creek toward the west. The street to the north inspired the orientation of Awaken’s utility axis. This symbolized the continuation of everyday life. The mindfulness axis sheared parallel to the creek to contrast the utility axis and align with the renewal qualities of water. The north end of the minfulness axis was lifted to celebrate life in the ceremonial space. The southern end of this axis was sunken to represent the burial of life. Amidst this axis lie water elements to awaken the senses and evoke mindfulness.

LINCOLN NEBRASKA 3600 O ST R E E T

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vi ne st . axis orientation

axis orientation

Massing Diagram

Linear adjacency to Vine Street, sheared axis responding to the creek, ceremonial lifting at the north end, sunken burial at the south end

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shifting masses

Lobby Interior / Sunken Garden

Collage representation was experimented with during this project

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Lower Floor Plan

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Ground Floor Plan

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ceremonial gathering

reception utility

deceased

Section / Program Isometric

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supply return vav unit

Section / HVAC Isometric

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Exterior Vignette

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CONTROVERCIT Y Academic Work with Kungang Ding, Ian Jones & Yitao Li | Fall 2017 Professors Ellen Donnelly & Matt Knutson

This semester project studied the typologies of camps, including nomad, refugee, pilgrimage, festival, capitalist, and protest camps. After being placed into a group with two other architecture students and a landscape architecture student, we were assigned a camp typology to research. The typology we were assigned was protest camps.

units. These units served as rentable tents that protesters could transport anywhere in the city utilizing the flexible cable. These rentable protest pods could populate the city via transportable and retractable pylons.

The pods could aggregate and form protest neighborhoods to organize their protest efforts and build a sense of community throughout the camp. This system allows the We spent four weeks researching protest camp protest to populate in any location for any precedents and observing the trends of the cause. We felt a dynamic kind of design was protest camp typology. Then, my team and I necessary for the dynamic nature of protests. designed a protest camp in our very own city, Lincoln, Nebraska. Due to the breadth of the The units themselves are constructed of typology, we designed a specific cause for our aluminum, a lightweight, structurally sound protest camp to respond to. We anticipated material that also provides users the ability that the Ogallala Aquifer was polluted to customize and decorate with paint, due to construction on an extension of the stickers, and signage about causes they want TransCanada Pipeline. This would pollute to protest. We have designed this portable what serves as a primary water source for a infrastructure to become much more difficult third of the United States, thus likely causing to destroy or tear down if authorities try to millions to flood Nebraska’s capitol. step in. Protest as a presence calls for a stable footing and has to be able to stand its ground Framing this scenario prompted us to design in the face of adversity.

ControverCity—a protest camp site located at 23rd and Antelope Valley Parkway. This site ControverCity encourages teamwork, acted as a hub for protesters to harbor their collaboration, and the freedom of speech, actions, rally disagreements, recuperate after a which are all necessary for successful long day protesting, and grow and manufacture protesting. ControverCity serves as a blank resources. The site was navigated via a one canvas for anyone to display their beliefs, directional cable that transported protest wherever necessary.

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LINCOLN NEBRASKA 2000 Y ST R E E T

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Site Plan by Yitao Li

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Section by Kungang Ding

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Aggregation Axonometric

ControverCity could spread as far as necessary with pods that could array infinitely. This allows the protest to grow easily yet controllably.

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Newspaper Board Layout

This project was formed around a fictional event, making its narrative a central part of our presentation.

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Deployable Protest Pod Section and Plan by Yitao Li

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CLASH Academic Work | Spring 2017 | Professor Anthony Morey

Traditionally, architects are challenged to fit, contrast, or work in harmony with a project’s site. Oftentimes, there are contraints to design within, forcing nearly every arbitrary design decision to be deemed purposeful. This project rebutted these traditional approaches, arguing that designing arbitrarily is a choice in and of itself. This mindset led me to design a context of my own called Conica. Creating characters and narratives to reside within my own world helped contextualize the design and see it through the eyes of an inhabitant. The project explored graphic illustrating techniques and concluded with a 4’ by 6’ physical model.

It was this imagined site that became the context for my project’s next phase.

The next phase of the project required me to employ the gestures, shapes, and rulesets from my context model into a building design.

The resulting building, Clash, consists of 15 different programs including: a skate park, trapeze gym, drag queen catwalk, hydroponic weed plant, bird aviary, anatomical oddities museum, cadaver lab, lazy river, neon sign factory, indoor skydiving, ropes course, my character’s house from my narrative, subway, art museum, and a heliport. Unique circulation

techniques, skin applications, and program placements were explored throughout the course of this project.

This project has granted me the most creative freedom and allowed me to explore new graphic representation techniques. It was an opportunity for me to design nearly every aspect of a project—the user groups, context, building programs, color schemes and drawing styles.

I ended the second phase of this project with a series of vignettes collaged over plans that depicted the contrasting programs concurring in my building. There were skydivers flying through the bird aviary, a lazy river near the skate park, and an art museum adjacent to the hydroponic marijuana lab, but somehow it worked. Though these programs would not typically make sense, Clash had a way of celebrating juxtaposition. This project has by far been my favorite throughout academia because of the freedom Anthony granted us and the fun I had creating my own world.

He taught me a different way to approach architecture—trading code compliancy for curiosity.

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CONICA FICTIONAL CONTEXT

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Axonometric of Conica

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Axonometric of Clash

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Upper Section

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Lower Section

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4th Floor Plan

Trapeze Gym, Ropes Course

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8th Floor Plan

Neon Sign Factory, Aviary, Sky Diving Simulator

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[ R ] E V O LV E Academic Work | Spring 2016 | Professor Michael Harpster

[R]evolve was a project in which I designed an area occupying 2,000 sq. ft. on the western side of UNL’s Architecture Hall. The space was to act as an area for students to take breaks. My design focuses on flexibility and customization to create either private or public spaces. The design consists of rotating modules to create such spaces. Various rotation mechanisms were studied in order to make this design possible. By making the design changeable, students can relax the way they want, not letting architecture limit their spatial wants.

This project was completed my second year of architecture school and though it is rudimentary and beginner level, it portrays a motive many designs I make today still harbor.

I try to design with the user’s needs at the forefront and anticipate the different types of inhabitants a space may have. Though simple in nature, this design does just that and offers the flexibility to accommodate different users’ needs.

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LINCOLN NEBRASKA

4 02 STA D I U M D R I V E

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Plan

Public zones are depicted as blue and private zones are white. The changeability of this design allows for various types of arrangements.

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Exploded Axonometric

The design consists of a repeated module that mechanically rotates into three different positions.

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Gathering Setting / Conversing Setting

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Relaxing Setting / Combined Modules

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Interior Perspective

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M A S S - C U S TO M I Z E D LO N G BOA R D S Research | 2017 | Adviser Brian Kelly

Alongside Brian Kelly, Associate Professor of Architecture at University of NebraskaLincoln, I researched an open source system to create custom longboards. The goal behind this research was to better understand userauthored content and how it might one day lend itself to architecture. Iterations were generated utilizing a Grasshopper script and are then CNC milled from vertical laminated recycled hardwood. This research proposes user engagement while offering shared authorship between the designer and the user.

Viewing the longboard as the microcosm of architecture due to its specified performance and composition, this research is moving into the design of mass-customized architectural proposals offering shared ownership opportunities within the design process.

better questions and become comfortable with learning by doing. Brian was especially patient with me as this was a learning process for him as well. He helped get me in contact with professionals equipped with parametric modeling knowledge. Making those connections and learning from them allowed me to not only make one-of-a-kind longboards, but learn how to generate user-authored algorithms and simplify complex processes so anybody could partake.

Perhaps the best part about this research position was the freedom Brian granted me. He let me take a creative approach to both generating the longboards and the graphics that accompanied them. I made unique graphics to help tell the story of the longboard fabrication process.

This job allowed me to apply what I learned in architecture school in a unique This research was presented at the 106th way. I jumped into unfamiliar programs like ACSA Annual Meeting in Denver, Grasshopper and RhinoCAM skeptical, Colorado, March 15-17, 2018. at first, but doing so taught me how to ask

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LENGT

STANDING PL

HAND BUSHINGS

HANGER WIDTH

1

WHEEL SPACING

L

2

KINGPIN

L AXEL EDGE

WHEEL BASE TAIL

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R

LATFORM

1

TH

DLE

2

R

NOSE

Planometric Components of a Longboard

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DECK WIDTH

BASE PLATE WIDTH

TILT

BASEPLATE WIDTH

BUSHING

W-CON

PROGR

ASYMM KINGPIN AXEL

HANGER WIDTH

CAM

DROP

ROC WHEEL SIZE

BUSHING KINGPIT HANGER WIDTH

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NCAVE

RADIAL

RESSIVE

FLAT-CAVE/ TUB

METRIC

CONVEX

MBER

FLEX

CKER

Sectional Components of a Longboard

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Grasshopper Script

Manipulates sine curves to create customized aesthetics and structure on the longboard’s underside

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Longboard Topography

Areas with darker pink have more structural capacity

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Tool Paths for CNC Milling

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Material is proc

User wants a longboard

User engages in online interface

File sent

fe e

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db

ac

kl

oo

p

Mass Customized Longboards Journey Map

sourced and cessed

Material milled from custom ďŹ le

Longboard ďŹ nished

to factory

Wait

Longboard delivered + used

Journey Map

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Thank You