ANNA GRACE CALHOON
PORTF OLIO
GRACE CALHOON
PORTFOLIO
ANNA
ABOUT AG
My heart is inclined towards reaching people through active hands-on architecture. I am passionate about utilizing architecture and space creation as an opportunity to equip and intentionally care for others well through listening and responding thoughtfully.
Welding, model making, and water coloring are just a few creative outlets that I personally enjoy.
CLIFF HANGER
KNOX YARDS
ACSA 2024 Timber in the City 5: Urban Habitats Competition: Third Place
INTERSTITIAL ACTIVATION
EMBARK
FLUID CREVICES
Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship Finalist (2022)
MOMENTUM
WANDER ROLL
SELAH
MAKERSTREAM
ASID Silver Student Product Design (2023)
SUMMER STUDIO - HIMALAYAS
Cliff Hanger has three main elements: the Overhang, Chimney, and Latch. The Latch anchors the construct into the cliff of the quarry while offering climbers resting points during their rock climb up the rockface. The Chimney is an armature for hoisting up and relocating kayaks between the quarry water and the top of the hillside.
The constructed model is only a chunk of the Cliff Hanger pavilion. Majorly inspired by the Chimney and Overhang elements, the physical model was intuitiv e ly constructed through a process of bending st ee l rods and w e lding . The steel rod ends were bent and connected side-by-side as a connection detail. Translucent curtains were cut, sewn, and grommeted for cord to weave the panels onto the construct.
The Overhang is an extendable structural element that allows for viewers to climb and watch a basketball game from a higher perspective while players beneath are shaded. The translucent panels cast shadows that illuminate the activity occurring below.
The physical model represents a cut section of the building where the layers of threshold space are represented from the sidewalk bridges and corridors to the private back porches.
ARTIFICIAL FLOW / RAILROADS / POLLUTION
CONTEXT MAP
FLOW / CURRENTS / WINDS
Diagrammatic energy research focused on the active artificial pollutant flow and natural wind flow around Knoxville. Context Map depicts existing and potential activation flow around the neighborhood. Site diagram displays potential activation of the site and was produced during the conceptual phase.
EM BARK
is a public art space located along the High Line in New York City . The High Line is a public park that offers a nature walkway above the street scape.
This project invites the community to embark on a journey through the layers of public space. Within these layers the project seeks to engage the local community with communal attractions on site with learning spaces for local artists to display their creative workflow with the public. Through the layered transparency of exhibition to the public, a person is invited to wander and explore.
Inspiration object found during New York City site visit: wood chip
CIRCULATION
As lighting interacts with the layers, it allows a person to journey through a dream-like experience. Fragmented pathways are created from the skeleton of the atrium that guides one’s experience. These curved pathways through vertical layers allow a person to make choices of how they experience the various focal points of the building, its exhibits and teaching exploration spaces.
The buildings carved away atrium allows viewpoints into the other levels of activity in the building. While the layers inside visually blur a person’s view intriguing them to explore.
LEVEL 03
LEVEL 03 - RECORD LIBRARY
FLUID CREVICES
Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship Finalist (2022)
creates a dynamic workplace located along the riverfront of Chicago, Illinois , meeting the needs of various working styles while incorporating architectural acoustic elements to enhance people’s experiences in the spaces.
The connection between the street, building, and the river is integral to the project as it invites the community at multiple locations to wander through the building. People can walk in from the street (LEVEL 03) to enter into the record library, or they can walk from the river side and be welcomed with lively music being performed in the auditorium.
Three swatch patterns, based on plaster cast model studies, of varying levels of grooves and densities were conceptualized to directly correspond to the acoustic levels desired in each space. These grooves that absorb and dissipate sound in the space help to provide an acoustical solution to the quiet, collaborative, and public spaces. The fluidity of these acoustical elements in the office and recording studio space is central to this project.
The double height recording studio allows for a reverberant space to play instruments, while the window in the upper part of this room allows for people on Level 3 in the communal lounge area to have a visual connection of their activities.
LEVEL 02 - LOUNGE MAKERSPACE
LEVEL 03 - ENTRY ATRIUM VIEW
MOMENT UM
is a proposed project located on the abandoned Hobet Coal Mine in West Virginia. The projects plantings were chosen to aid in detoxing and restoring the soil . This project seeks to repurpose this toxic land by creating an experiential attraction that calls attention to one of the many abandoned mines in the Appalachian Mountains. The experience of this monument is understood through a series of sequential spaces and moments that incorporate symbols of water and light for guiding. These elements take on various forms as they lead a person through the seven spaces that represent phases of a person’s life.
A person would start the journey by entering moment 1 ’s ( Beginning ) narrow entryway into the mountain. Life in a distracting world would set in during moment 2 ( Tension ), leading them to a reflection pool in moment 3 ( Reflection ). Faced with a choice, they may either choose to leave and circulate back to moment 2 or continue to moment 4 ( Interaction ) where they are able to finally engage and interact with water projections. These light and water elements guide the person to moment 5 ( Revelation ) where they are faced with areas of brokenness in the world by viewing the coal mines toxic retention ponds.
What vital role may they play in transforming the world?
6 Purpose
6 Purpose
The person would journey upwards through moment 6 ( Purpose ) where they are walking with these symbols of light. They transcend from a darker interior experience to a lighter interior/exterior experience of moment 6 . These wooden slats distort their vision out into the landscape until they have finally reached the top of the monument at moment 7 ( Fulfillment ).
Their view has opened up into a field of flowers and plants where they see the fulfillment of this journey restoration process.
WANDER ROLL
is a pavilion construct inspired by the question… “What if architecture could move…be rotated?”
The Wander Roll is thought of as a dice that can be thrown into the landscape and whichever orientation the Roller lands, people can uniquely utilize the pavilion.
The second provoking question posed was… “What if architecture was fuzzy?”
The Rollers fuzziness on the structure invites bike riders and climbers to engage with the multifaced construct. A series of climbing holds and pegs scatter the faces of the Wander Roll offering levels of challenging climbs. The pegs act as bike storage for riders to store their equipment and gear.
ROTATING CONSTRUCT
At the various orientations , the Roller activates numerous ways to engage with the construct. Climbers are always welcome to explore around and through the structure . Some orientations allow for rappellers to descend below to bustling activity occurring on the ground, while other orientations engage skaters on a surface to ride and jump.
SELAH
means to pause , reflect and admire. Selah is a dynamic moment, like a water droplet on the edge of a leaf , a certain pause before change occurs. This essential pausing moment comes before a fruitful difference is made. In life we can learn from others if we are slow to speak, choosing to be actively present and just listen. Choosing a time of silence is in a sense submitting to the process of growth.
Pausing is not necessarily a passive act but arguably an active demonstration of reverence. Reverence to learn and open one’s mind to grander perspectives. We may be present and truly appreciate each other for how we were all uniquely made. Choosing to pause activates change.
Considering this moment of pause, the design intent was to find a way to have the seat top appear as if it is floating.
The design fabrication process of constructing this stool was all about the sequencing of elements. It was vital that the wood top and legs were cut and finalized to verify metal welding placement. Because of the gap between the stool top and the legs, all of the stool elements (including the metal) were sequentially placed step by step to ensure the structural sturdiness of the piece.
The wood stool legs were designed to have metal pegs inside them, so areas of the legs were drilled out to offer a place for the metal pegs to rest and be connected to the tall metal exterior braces; these pegs and inlay of the metal rods offer stability to the chair legs keeping the legs from rotating.
Planing Wood
Woodworking
CNC Routing Stool Top
CNC Lathe Routing Stool Leg
Rough lengths of the metal pieces were all cut, and an acetylene torch assisted in bending the rods. Fabricated jigs helped to keep in place the metal notch pieces when MIG welding.
To construct the 3-peg stretcher and three interior metal curved bracings, each piece of metal first went through a process of using the metal lathe to tap a hole in the pieces, and then manually threading these pieces. This process allowed the stool legs to be fastened to the metal elements through a socket head screw connection detail inside the leg.
The final assemblage of the stool required a sequenced process of fitting and screwing in the metal stretcher to the three legs, fitting the three tall rods into the legs while maneuvering a sandwich fit of the stool top into the tall rods, and finally welding the three curved metal pieces connected from the legs to the bottom of the stools circular stretcher.
Welding
Metal Work
Metal Lathe for Tap Hole
Fastening Screw into Stretcher Rod
Studio Collaborators:
Carley Almaraz, Anna Barnett, Molly Brown, Katie Gilstorf, Cara Guiffre, Delaney O’Brien, Lydia Phillips, Abigail Pilcher, Kaleigh Powers, Makena Roe, Faith Stevenson, Barrett Taylor, Catherine Taylor, Lily Tignor, Paige Turner
Lead by Professor David Matthews
Photograph credits to the people listed above. Drawings included were personally drafted.
MAKER STREAM
Awarded ASID Silver Student Product Design (2023)
design build studio got the privilege of renovating a 1962 Flying Cloud Airstream RV for the purpose of teaching local Knoxville elementary and middle school students about design thinking
In this project I led the welding team, assisted with flooring and interior piece fit up installation, designing and fabricating the new Airstream bumper, painting and insulating, while seeking opportunities to assist my studio mates with the numerous other tasks required to thoughtfully accomplish the project.
The concept for the interior renovation of the Airstream was inspired by nature and the curved organic pathways that rushing water makes through canyons.
Renovation Scope:
Interior demolition, trailer frame welding, interior and exterior lighting wiring, interconnected waffle system design, flooring installation, designing and constructing tables, window and fan installations, bumper fabrication, exterior polishing, rivet-ing.
Unique surprises were discovered after the original floor was removed. We found that in the back bathroom portion of the Airstream there were rotting 2x4’s supporting the floor, acting as replacements to the original steel trailer.
The Metal Team (Abigail Pilcher, Faith Stevenson, and I) cut, fit, and welded in place new steel structural pieces along with repair welding weaker areas of the trailer to add support and integrity back into the trailer frame.
The original Airstream bumper was disintegrating with holes in it, giving the exciting opportunity to design a new steel bumper for the trailer! I took on the role of designing, fabricating and painting the new Airstream bumper. Through this process I learned how to bend steel tubing and metal plates.
The finished plywood waffle wall structure creates uniquely individualized shelve sizes in which custom sized storage bins perfectly fit into. This allows students to each have a box where they can store their found nature objects and crafts.
The design thinking curriculum developed for the students is centered around our fondness of nature and how we have learned experientially through creating and imagining with items found in nature. The mural shown below was inspired sketches collected from the students. This was an extremely fulfilling project as the children we designed it for were able to visit the Airstream and engage in the curriculum the studio developed.
This project was so impactful for me as I realize the Airstream outlives my senior classes time as students at UTK and will continue to impact young students in the community utilizing our renovated space for years to come. It was an absolute joy to serve and be a part of this team.
For seven weeks during June and July of 2023, I joined 100 Fold Studio in their Summer Studio program to serve in the Himalayas. I experienced firsthand the joy of serving by using my profession internationally to care for and love others well.
One of the wonderful purposes for going on this trip was to hands-on architecturally serve with a local Himalayan ministry base. My team assisted in designing a new worship hall for this base; their current facility is an old refurbished chicken coop shed that they have outgrown. This base’s immediate needs included shoveling/leveling out their field so that soccer and volleyball could resume for the students, finish constructing a cement block wall fence, painting a mural for their on-site pre-school,
SUMMER STUDIO himalayas
all while ongoing design work of the worship hall could continue while receiving the ministry base leaders’ immediate feedback.
We divided into teams; I had the pleasure of working with the wall builders ! A few leaders from the local base served alongside us and lead with their experience. After the first day, I excitedly and tiredly, asked how we had done, how the wall looked… the leader timidly demonstrated in hand motions that the wall turned out more like the Himalayan mountain range with peaks and valleys, rather than a level, straight, ruler. However, they still valued working alongside us and the next day they gave us the mortar laying task to help complete the wall. (Photographs taken by 100 Fold Studio and me)
SKETCH of WALL JIG
During the concrete topping of the block wall building, we encountered an issue as we were using the freeform makeshift mold to hold the concrete in place. We realized we needed clamps to hold the boards in place so that the concrete would not expand/spill out of the mold. Minutes later one of the bases leaders came back with a short piece of wood with two nails in each end which he used to clamp and hold in place the two boards on either side of this wall. It was such a simple, ingenious strategy to fix the issue . That day I experienced the ingenuity of working on the spot with few resources and saw someone solve the issue so practically and simply. Through this collaboration , we exchanged knowledge and skills were developed for each team member. I am inspired how during these moments of hands-on creation, people are faced with issues and it is a spectacular thing to see improvisation to problem solve and learn as a result.
GRACE CALHOON
PORTFOLIO
ANNA
ANNA GRACE CALHOON
Pursuing Masters in Architecture at University of Tennessee, Knoxville
AGCALHOON@GMAIL.COM