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THE BEACON

Chicago River walk, UIUC / Fall 2021 / High Rise and Habitat Studio

The project is designed to explore a high-rise building’s relationship to a complex physical context while engaging issues of detail and construction in expressing architectural ideas and concepts. This project is to design a high-rise hotel tower for a site that is a prime location for additional hotel and housing units given its proximity to the Loop,Navy Pier, and the Magnificent Mile along North Michigan Avenue. The site is located in Chicago’s Streeterville District, on the north bank of the Chicago River immediately to the south of the NBC Tower, and is bordered by North City front Plaza Drive on its western edge,North Water Street on its northern edge, and North Columbus Drive on its eastern edge. Towering at over 1200 ft tall, The Beacon is a landmark for the residents of the city as well for the visitors. It will be a structural and architectural marvel bringing in the missing open green pockets that the vertical city needs along with the luxurious amenities and facilities this tower offers.

An aerial view taken above plaza level

The magnanimity of the building is seen along with the modest scale of the podium and the plaza levels which connect human to the spaces. The Louvers enhance the inherent verticality of the building.

The fluidity in the landscape that is translating to the building form makes the structure infinite. It connects spaces at various different levels. This building provides a setback from the hustling city of Chicago and gives a much needed visual break in the densely populated neighborhood of Streeterville and Downtown Chicago.

The River walk Level connects the majority of the buildings in the vicinity and creates a vehicular free pathway for the pedestrians This walkway gives an opportunity for various urban activities like cafeterias, street music , seating spaces, restaurants. It creates a pause in the fast city of Chicago and gives spaces for the pedestrians to roam along the River Chicago. The view from both the sides of the river proves to be an important vanity point to the The Beacon. The curvilinear shape of the river walk creates fluidity and connectivity between the building and the pedestrians.

This high rise residential and hotel building stand tall looks over the mighty city of Chicago. It offers exhilarating views of the city from all sides and dominates the architectural character on the Columbus Drive. The curve shape of the building maximize the views on all sides with flowing spaces giving a view of the horizon on all sides.

Rigid site boundaries with orthogonal edges and axes connecting the River walk and the Coloumbus drive.

Fluid edges at the River walk Level and connects the building to the river.

Bringing in the vehicular traffic from the north side for the drop- off for the residential as well as for the hotel users.

PROGRAM AND FLOOR PLATES

CENTRAL CORE

CENTRAL CORE AND COLUMNS

02 URBAN MOUNTAIN

Shibuya City,Japan/ UIUC / Fall 2021 / Tokyo Studio

Shibuya is a dense, bustling district in Tokyo similar to New York City’s Times Square, complete with hundreds of neon signs and video billboards. To counter the somewhat oppressive density of the area, this proposal aims to breathe new life into Shibuya by offering a totally public vertical park at the site of Shibuya 109, a popular shopping center. The vertical park utilizes stacked volumes which step up and away from the Scramble Square to the east. This allows for more open air areas throughout the project and creates an “urban mountain.” Additionally, the separated volumes are linked by fully-accessible ramps which further incorporate green areas, providing all visitors with a green, hike-like experience.

1 50mm Japanese Cypress Louver System

2 Green roof assembly: Composite steel floor system (130mm concrete decking on W10 beams), 50mm rigid insulation, drainage membrane, 500mm soil, grass

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC

Double-pane curtain wall system with low-e coating

Wall assembly: 20mm gypsum wall board, 140mm metal studs with batt insulation, 20mm sheath-

PLATFORM

PROJECTIONS

RAMPS

VIEW FROM GLASS CORE

DAMASCUS OCULUS

Damascus/ UIUC / Fall 2022 / ACSA Competition Studio

This project located in Damascus targets residents affected by the war. When refugees returned to their demolished apartments, they suffered from a lack of social, ecological and commercial space. Ard Al Diar essentially the traditional courtyard is used here as a perfect model for a social - environmental place with heating and cooling techniques. Public green spaces,vegetable garden, green roof and the water canal zone ( directs the water from river Barada )are oriented around this courtyard could also possibly resolve the shortage of food and water in Damascus. The introduction of a new smart ecological system along with the incorporation of Kerto LVL slabs and columns which is a fully integrated system, this design proposes to reconstruct only the damaged elements while maintaining the other elements which are good status.

Below : The render gives the view of a post-war damaged building which is in fairly good shape and the demolished portion is reconstructed with Kerto LVL slabs and columns. The structure forms the unique part in this design.

The Syrian refugees after being displaced is thriving to get back to life. The social environment space includes activities such as farming. This farming in turn has an impact on the community by sharing surplus resources for the residents of the building. Damascus Oculus is reversed for its farming economy. About 50% of the post war damaged building is covered with vegetation improving air quality and the local ecosystem.

OCULUS

DESIGN FOR

DISCOVERY

Kerto LVL slabs which is an excellent material for load- bearing applications is placed on the massive lvl slabs to form a vertical courtyard system. The column performs as self - efficient system which includes water pipes for rain harvesting, water filtration and grey water recycling. The overall structure is of great ecological value as one of the main property of Kerto Lvl SLabs is reducing the carbon dioxide emissions. This unique system along with the green terraces becomes the lungs for the post-war damaged building.

Right : The image shows the per-formative nature of the building. The column is cut through to show the filtration technique.

GARDEN IN A CITY

at the intersection of Ida especially the community this population of Chicago and women and particularly where the city of Chicago

CHICAGO/ UIUC/ SPRING 2023 / HDR STUDIO

the main healing spaces live

maximally.

When we look at the city of Chicago, we see a city that is gridded with patches of parks. Chicago was intended to be a city in a garden. At our site, at the intersection of Ida B. Wells and Dearborn St., there are layers of components to consider. MCC Chicago, the elevated train station, the alley west of the sity, and especially the community that we want to serve. Mass incarceration is a serious issue in Chicago, let alone the US. Many times, jail time can be prevented and a space for this population of Chicago is needed. Among people who are incarcerated, and those who have been multiple times, we see a lot of trauma. Trauma among both men and women and particularly in teens to mid30’s. To design a space that addresses trauma requires spaces to heal, spaces that provide a sense of peace and rest. This is where the city of Chicago inspired us to implement a grid and gardens to this project.

at the intersection of Ida especially the community this population of Chicago and women and particularly where the city of Chicago the main healing spaces live maximally.

PROFESSIONAL WORK

WBRC / PORTLAND / MAINE / 2023-2025

The proposal include renovations for the existing building located at 375 College Avenue, Orono. We had to evaluate the existing structure and determine new framing and reinforcement requirements for wood header, jambs and new steel framing and foundations. We also had to propose new roof framing with the addition of new roof deck. I was involved in building the existing drawings and developed renderings to present to the client.

SIGEP - VOA

The project is located in Belfast Maine and is a single story building which consists of a public lobby/ teller area with additional administrative offices, bith enclosed and open. The scope of this project is to provide renovations tot he existing building, both exterior and interior. Interior improvements consists of room

configurations,teller line redesign and an overall upgrade to the existing finishes. I was involved in all the stages of the project including schematic design to the final construction document package. The final picture of the renovated Camden National Bank is shown below.

CAMDEN NATIONAL BANK

This project is a full architectural design service located in Waldoboro, Maine. This project has started construction about a month ago and I was able to assist the team with architectural drawing packages which includes the design document and construction document packages.

I was able to the contribute to the exterior materials for this project, development of sectional details such as wall details and elevations which are included in this portfolio.