Undegraduate Portfolio Vol. 005

portfolio.

(810) 228-6939

EDUCATION

University of Detroit Mercy

Pursuing BS.Arch (2023) + M.Arch (2024)

Mott Community College

AA, AS, AGS (2019)

Mott Middle College

Diploma - Dual Enrolled (2019)

ACTIVITIES

• President of NOMAS UDM

• AIAS UDM

• Resident Advisor

• Emerging Leaders Program

• Honors College

• TRiO

• Black Student Union

• Student Alumni Leadership Council

RECOGNITIONS

• Integrated Design: Bronze Design Excellence (2022)

• Gilman Scholar (2022)

• Michaela Elizabeth Murphy Scholarship (2022)

• Dean’s List (2019-Current)

• AIA Donald E. Lee Scholar (2019-2021)

• Wilsterman Scholar (2020)

• Senior Leadership Award (2019)

AXP EXPERIENCE

Emerging Designer

Detroit Collaborative Design Center

January 2023 - Present + January 2022 – April 2022

Learned how to engage with urban communities through verbal and design communication. Prepared architectural drawings to help clients understand their design. Performed tasks that enhance the architectural experience and provide preparation for the field.

Architectural Associate

Sedgewick + Ferweda Architects

June 2021 – December 2021 + August 2022 - December 2022

Learned how to complete different tasks in a small firm involving proposal writing, customer interactions, construction documents, scanning, and more day to day responsibilities of an architect.

SKILLS

• Knowledge in BIM Applications: Revit, SketchUp, and Rhino

• Adobe Applications

• AutoCAD

• Lumion

• Leadership

• Negotiation

• Adaptable to Change

...you design for the present with an awareness of the past for a future which is essentially unknown.

-Norman Foster

001

GLETA HQ: Terra

ARCH 4100: Integrated Design Studio

Professor Kris Nelson + James Leach

Fall 2022

Partner: Larissa McCoy

*Former Partner: Iryna Olkhovestka

Design Excellence: Student’s Choice Bronze

Terra is a design proposal aiming to maintain a coexistence with the surrounding context, building practices, and population, encourage viewpoints towards site amenities, and actively harness and redistribute excess energy into the building. The project is composed of an engineered timber structure that is flexible to allow tenants to tailor their designated spaces according to their needs. The exterior material, terra cotta, was inspired by the context. It is an industrial district made up of mostly brick buildings and the terra cotta plays with that idea. This project also puts an emphasis on collaboration and many design decisions were made to support this idea. It is an inviting urban zone that reciprocates the energy given by the existing riverfront and Dequindre Cut Greenway. This was a partnered project and all graphics not created by myself will be noted.

*Graphic Completed by Larissa McCoy

01 Maximization

Filling entire plot to start from a basic mass.

02 Separation

Separating massing subtly to identify program.

03 Adjustment

Lowering right roof to create a space for GLETA and to maximize views.

04 Addition

Adding atrium for stack ventilation and to encourage interaction through a central space.

05 Contraction

Adjusting height of corners for attention to access, views, and external spaces.

06 Revelation

Revealing lobby floor and stairwells for a indirect relationship for users between the surrounding neighborhood and interior details and activity.

This is the heart of the building and it was made with the idea of interaction. It is a reconstructed idea of an auditorium by using a multipurpose stair instead.

These are spaces designed for collaboration and personal interactions. The left spread is dedicated to the activity happening on the Dequindre cut. This is a co-hub space designed to provide an alternate workspace while enjoying the area. The right spread is showing the second floor which is dedicated to only collaborative and group spaces. It is an open floor concept to allow for flexibility.

*Elevation, Plan and Co-Hub Render completed by Larissa McCoy

Wall Section: Typical Office Floor

GRID 59 002

ARCH 2100: Hip-Hop Architecture

Professor Woodrow Hoffer II + Michael Ford

Fall 2021

The Allegory by Royce Da 5’9 is an album that focuses on the power of knowledge in life. Diving into the song, Black Savage, Royce uses traditional African voices and his own lyrics to express the hardships and obstacles faced by Black Americans in the current social context. Using bright colors to represent the rhyme scheme of Royce’s lyrics, simple patterns are incorporated to pay homage to the theme of Africa mentioned throughout the song. As a whole, the album, like the song, is about empowerment and taking control of the information surrounding us and using it to live smarter. As a result, the program is focuses on education, health, wellness, and entrepreneurship. Being a mixed-use space, the design is composed of a fluctuating facade that plays with the traditional architectural grid. Taking a concept that is already accepted by the public and turning it on its head.

This is a multi-step lyrical analysis. This song is Black Savage which is a song written by Royce da 5-9 featuring various artists. The verses that are being broken down is Royce’s and Cy-Hi the Prince. The process included listening to the songs repeatedly to understand the rhyme scheme, lyrics, and common patterns between the words. The first image is a color coordinated process that identifies which words rhyme with each other and the rhyme pattern is easily visible (top). The next image uses simple geometrical pattern to identify the common themes between each line, phrase, or just simply one word (bottom). The final image on the right page is a combined graphic that fully displays each pattern and theme within the two verses of the song. These colors and patterns were integrated into the final design and layout of the design.

Classrooms

Media Center

“If

Stage Information

“Truth comes to the light behind it all

Knowledge

“Thinkin’ your degree will have everything protected. A ghetto soundin’ name got your resume rejected”

Resources PostCollege

“Watch you make mistakes in the court of public sin”

Knowledge of Rights and Laws

Generational Wealth

“As sign on the dotted line with the passion of a blind tattooist”

Gathering Space

“You’re born here, you are, you’re what color you are, you’re what nationality you are and then it’s what you do with it, right to make a difference”

Music Studio

“Nothing has brought more races and more people from all different walks of life together than hip-hop.”

“I bet you don’t even know the origin of it, do you? Do you, Mr. Ice Cream Man?

History

“The same way they told you AIDs started in Africa” ‘Cause they know the value of black people going back home (Ahh) Can you just imagine if African Americans in America decided, “You know what man, Fuck America, we going back home”

Cultural Space

Martin and Malcolm died for your blackness, pursue your masters”

Pathway to Higher Education

“I’m just an artist, and anytime write, put the art first”

“And increasin’ college tuition, closin’ down neighborhood schools They strip away tools, we’re still gon’ go teachin’ them shit they can use When it’s all said and done”

Lectures, Free Resources

Art Room/Gallery

Program thought process completed through another lyrical analysis.

The diagram is displaying the solid to void ratio between the buildings. Solid in this case is everything except the windows and void represents the windows. The museum’s ratio falls in between.

RETAIN 004

ARCH 3300: Study Abroad Studio

Professor Kirk Welsh + Noah Resnick

Summer 2022

Retain is a two phase project that explores infrastructure and urban design within a rural context. The project is based in Volterra, Italy in a medieval town on a hill in the Tuscany region. The main purpose for the project is to create a proposal that connects the Roman Theatre and newly discovered Amphitheatre. Currently, the Amphitheatre is near a cemetery and residential district. The easiest way to approach it is through this neighborhood. Due to its notable presence, it will draw in a large crowd. The goal is to find a pathway that avoids the quiet areas and not disturb its users. Hence, the proposal. The path chosen flows through the valley and along the edges of the topography. It starts at the proposed bridge and continues through multiple iterations designed to help navigate the path. Retain is meant to maintain the essence of the city. It uses techniques that remain true to the natural terrain and provide pathway that belongs.

Retain begins with a bridge located in front of the amphitheatre. The bridge takes the existing road and alters it to allow for safer pedestrian traffic. It consists of a dual stairway to get to the public space below. The structure of the bridge is a steel base with cross bracing covered with a gabion wall. The weight of the structure enables it to resist the pressure exerted on it. The gabion wall was used as a motif throughout the entire proposal to honor Volterra’s Etruscan history.

The second half of the proposal included following a set of themes up to our own interpretation. These diagrams were created in the process of gauging what the experience was like on the way to the Amphitheatre. This image below depicts a loosely drawn out map to explain where to start and what to expect along the way to the final destination. The use of symbols simply show what could be proposed there as a solution to the current condition of the harsh topography. The images on the right page are vignettes of those interventions.

Conceptual Walk-through with Symbols

Intervention Waste Solution

Intervention Water

FIELD RESIDENCE

This was a new build residential project located in Swartz Creek, MI. I was working as an architectural intern with Sedgewick + Ferweda Architects in Flint, MI. This project was a one-story home with a basement. It had three bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, and a two car garage. The ceilings were vaulted and the home implemented an open space floor plan where common spaces blended into each other. The drawings were based on plans purchased by the client. Details were updated based on the location the home would be in. I drew all of the construction documents, structural plans, and details.

30 YEAR SEAL DOWN ASPHALT SHINGLE

ROOFING (NOT SHOWN) OVER 15 LBS FELT

PAPER OVER 1/2" OSB DECKING WITH 'H' CLIPS

MID-SPAN BTW. TRUSSES OVER WD TRUSSES AND 24" O.C.

60 MIL ICE AND WATER SHIELD

CONTINUOUS DRIP EDGE

PREFINISHED ALUM WRAP

1 x 6 FACIA BOARD

CONTINUOUS ALUMINUM GUTTER

2 x 6 CUT TO FIT SUB-FACIA

JOIST

WIND ANCHOR

TOP PLATE

EXPANDING CLOSED CELL FOAM

WALL INSULATION R-20 MIN.

BLOWN CELLULOSE INSULATION R-38 MIN.

5/8" GYPSUM BOARD CEILING

2 x 10 WINDOW HEADER. TYP.

SANDWICHED WITH FOAM INSULATION

MANUFACTURED STONE LEDGE

7/16 OSB SHEATHING

2 LAYERS WRB

LATH

MORTAR SCRATCH COAT

ADHERED MANUFACTURED STONE VENEER MORTAR JOINT

2 x 10 JOIST

8 1/2" EXPANDING CLOSED CELL FOAM INSULATION

2 x 10 RIM BOARD

Plate Ht. 8'-0"

SLOPE GRADE AWAY FROM WALL 2%

1/2" x 10" ANCHOR

BOLT AT 32" O.C.

2 x 6 TREATED SILL PLATE

EPS RIGID FOAM INSULATION

TAPED AND SEALED R-10 C.I. MIN.

10" 3000 PSI CONCRETE FOUNDATION WALL ON 20" x 10"

CONTINUOUS SPREAD FOOTING WITH 3 #5 BARS CONTINUOUS

2" EPS RIGID FOAM INSULATION TAPED AND SEALED UNDER ENTIRE SLAB

2 x 4 CONTINUOUS KEYWAY

4" PERFORATED PIPE

4" CONCRETE

Finish Floor 0"

T.O. Foundation -11 1/2"

Finish Grade -2'-0"

BASEMENT -8'-10 3/4"

B.O. Footing -9'-10 3/4"

Liberated Farms is an informal grassroots community program with the mission of “Building Awareness through Urban Agriculture”. The program works with youth to build a vision for themselves as community leaders and entrepreneurs, and everything Liberated Farms does is built on the belief that representation is vital for encouragement and building interest within the youth. Liberated Farms is improving 3 lots at the corner of Danbury Street and W. Remington Avenue east of the former State Fair Grounds site in Detroit, and the program is interested in eventually purchasing the vacant lots north of those lots and across Danbury Street. The vision for the corner lots is to create a produce garden along the Remington edge and community gathering and entertainment space on the north side of the 3 lots. Liberated Farms has talked with youth about ideas for the community garden and outdoor space, and they would like to have an overall conceptual design and a rendering developed for the 3 lots to show the vision and to continue building support and funding.

SITE PLAN DIAGRAM