PORTFOLIO_BEN LIN 2023

WELCOME

PROFESSIONAL WORK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Metro Plaza: Garden Office Concept

01 - 08

Buena Vista: Living By the LA Historic Park

Valley Crossing: San Jose Valley Transit Authority RFP Winner

Rag & Bone: Store & Furniture Design

Chanel Beauty: Crafting Design Standards

Towards A New Ramp: Graduate Thesis

Green Spaces: Urban Park Building

Maker Market: Maker Space as Market

Merging Paths: Folly

Facade Play: Surface Tectonics

The Slab: Furniture Design

09 - 16 17 - 24 25 - 28 29 - 30 33 - 42 43 - 50 51 - 58 59 - 60 61 - 66 67 - 68

METRO PLAZA:

GARDEN OFFICE CONCEPT

Los Angeles, CA

Metro Plaza is roughly 450,000 square feet sitting directly across from the historic Technicolor Building that was home to one of the most important revolutions in film history. The project includes below grade parking and two 6-story office buildings that anchor the ends of the site. The ground level podium contains retail/F&B as well as a shared community theatre. There is an intentional ground level pass-through between the project and the historic Television Center Hollywood building, giving it well-deserved acknowledgment and importance. The massing of the buildings also step back to respect the scale and presence of the adjacent historic building while paying homage to the scale of surrounding neighborhood

Team: RIOS Mixed-Use Studio

Client:

BLT Cole & Berdan Cole

Role: Project Designer

AS CONNECTIVE CORRIDOR

Traditional Office Block Garden Office Block

Cahuenga Blvd. Santa Monica Blvd. Cole Ave.

Romaine St. Willoughby Ave New Office Building Television Center (Historic Technicolor Building)

The project creates a shared internal courtyard experience that is enhanced by both architecture and landscape. Each building volume is articulated to provide ample terraces that integrate outdoors into indoors, taking maximum advantage of the Southern California climate and capacity for indoor-outdoor work.

As opposed to traditional office blocks where landscape is inserted this project turned the paradigm inside-out. The shared open space formed between the two buildings, as well as thoughtfully planned outdoor terraces,

The verticality of the office buildings pay homage to the adjacent Art Deco Television Center Hollywood building while still modern and respecting the scale of the urban fabric. Perched atop a color-neutral brick podium, the office facades are encased in vertical sun shades that are punctuated with larger windows intermittently.

BUENA VISTA

Living By The LA Historic Park

Los Angeles, CA

Buena Vista consists more than 900 residential units,18,000 sf of retail/ F&B, and 1,800 below grade level parking spaces on a 8.1 acre continous thin parcel of land separated into two parcels: South Parcel, located close to Chinatown Gold line station and North Parcel close to Elysian Park on the other end. A public boardwalk bordering the LA Historic Park, connects the development and its residential units. The six buildings throughout the site would range from 4 to 26 stories which include a resident amenity center. The boardwalk park not only links the two ends of the site but also, ties in a network of public plazas and pocket parks to activate site amenities and create connections to the surrounding areas. In addition to the strong historic and neighborhood presence adjacent to site, the sinuous shape of the site alone, inherently brings much challenge from a zoning as well as economic standpoint. The Buena Vista development, though debatably controversial strives to achieve a happy medium between historical significance, economic feasibility, neighborhood sensitivity, and design excellence

Team: RIOS Mixed-Use Studio

Client: Steve Riboli

Role: Project Designer Rendering: Nephew LA

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

It is no doubt that the site of Buena Vista is in the midst of historical signifcance. From the original industrial site dating back to the early 1800s; being called a “cornfield” from the fallen corn in rail cars to the site where the mother of all ditches traversed, the surrounding site is now a vast green lawn shared daily among all Angelenos. We took into account of these historical sites and landmarks as well as adajcent community viewsheds before carefully planning out the bulk massing of the development.

OLVERA ST (PUEBLO CENTRAL PLAZA)

MOVIE/ CONCERT AT THE PARK

MAP OF ZANJA MADRE

CAPITOL MILLING COMPANY

ST. PETER’S ITALIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

ZANJA MADRE HISTORICAL SITE

NORTH PARCEL TOTAL

330 RENTAL UNITS

RESIDENTIAL AREA: 380,971 SF

LANDSCAPE TRELLIS: 65,129 SF

RESTAURANT/RETAIL AREA: 10,000 SF

EXTERIOR RESTAURANT AREA: 3,000 SF

TOTAL NORTH PARCEL AREA: 459,100 SF

5

SOLANOAVE CASANOVAST

LA STATE HISTORIC PARK

VALLEY CROSSING

Santa Clara Valley Transporation Authority RFP

Santa Clara, CA

Valley Crossing is a proposal for a new district made up of a diversity of program types including creative offices, a boutique hotel, advanced manufacturing facilities, conferencing and community teaching centers, a transit center, and its necessary parking. These elements would be connected by continuous Lawn and linear park which provides circulation for pedestrian and bikes creating a sustainable and people-centric development that is like an urban village and pulling away from traditional office facilities. The project plans to produce over 10 acres of accessible open space, programmed to activate and create a social magnet for neighboring residents and on site workers

Team: RIOS Mixed-Use Studio

Partner/ Client: LPC West

Role: Project Designer

THE LAWN PRIVATE DECKS

Rag & Bone Store Design

DIALOUGE WITH STRUCTURE

In recognizing beauty in its existing conditions, the team faced many compromising, yet opportunistic scenarios throughout the store design process. The oddly sloped roof, the intermittent array of structural columns and beams, and the randomized existing sprinkler pipes from its previous occupancy was harnessed to create happy accidents throughout the shopper experience

Team: Rag and Bone Store Design

Role: Design Project Manager

Rag & Bone Americana Manhasset -Long Island, NY

Rag & Bone Bal Harbor Shops - Bal Harbour, FL

VERSATILE STRUCTURE

A simple play with plumbing pipes and glass on an unavoidable structural column brings about a space-efficient and seasonaccommodating clothing display rack

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DESIGN AS TRIBUTE

A historic neighborhood gem in Cobble Hill’s bar scene is rich in memory of joy and laughter till it underwent a change in occupancy use due to the inescapable commercialization. With condolences to the community, the concept was based upon paying homage to the original drinking establishment. From utilizing remnants of the former bar ledge to preserving the zonal footprint of the previous bar elements, the palimpsest of the original bar can still be felt even in its new occupancy use

Team: Rag and Bone Store Design Role: Design Project Manager

FlexIble sculptuRe

CHANEL

COSMETIC STORE DESIGN

Inspired by the Piet Mondrian’s iconic grid motif, Chanel cosmetic shops play a geometric game of B&W visual balance, achieving a consistent and visually striking brand icon in each department store. Iterative study models, renderings, and plans were heavily curated in each project with the in-house design team to optimize fixture aesthetics, logistics, accessibility, and fixture constructibility. Site visits were frequently conducted to strategize shop configuration to gain competitive edge over neighboring cosmetic brands

Team: O’Neil Langan Architects

Role: Project Manager + Visualization

Client: Chanel USA

CRAFTING STANDARDS

With over 20 shop openings per year, the 113 page design standard book illustrates construction and design guideline of over 21 typical store details as well as 50+ display fixtures for design reference and fabrication. The challenge is to be holistic in planning for future merchandise growth, fixture modification, and to meticulously capture that language in the book from a design as well as a construction standpoint

GRADUATE THESIS & SELECTED WORKS

TOWARDS A NEW RAMP

GRADUATE THESIS

Cambridge, Massachusetts

The ramp penetrating the building center showcases uniqueness among other buildings designed by Le Corbusier. Enhanced by urbanistic metaphors, the ramp defines strong conceptual and gestural moments in the overall composition. However, the building presents much missed opportunities. Disjointed and unintegrative, the ramp’s original intentions for site circulation, connection to the luscious harvard yard, as well as relationships to internal program were left unrealized. The thesis centers on the idea that the ramp, a muti-dimensional promenade can expand beyond its traditional role and form. This re-conceptualization towards a the role of the ramp aims to revive the aspirations of the original architect

LEARNING FROM PURISM

The Purist Art Movement led by Amédée Ozenfant and Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier), was an artistic opposition or variation to the over-ornamentation of Cubist art, which took place between 1918 and 1925. Purism ideologies and beliefs had a revolutionary impact to French painting as well as architecture.

The thesis saw potential in studying the Purist strategies to inform the recomposition of the Carpenter Center, thus, creating the new ramp

IDENTIFYING COMPONENTS

I studied the key programmatic components from the original building to understand its kit of parts, in which I began to investigate their interrelationships. Le Corbusier striked a balance between the rectilinear & curvinlinear forms while infusing the composition with urban planning metaphors

S Ramp

Parkways in the midst of sprawling greeneries connecting major cities

Purist Strategy

Tangent profiles of key components forms the original S Ramp, similar to how the guitar is represented in a Purist panting

The Centralized Cube

Organized centralized city as opposed to suburban sprawl.

Like cities, The central cube is the main hub for all shared/ admin building functions

Purist Strategy

Multiple overlappings without losing rendering of specific components in the still life composition

EXPLORATORY SKETCHES

Inspired by the architect’s artistic discipline, I rapidly visualized the experience of the space; both indoor and outdoor, ramp or building, facade or roof, as well as soft or hardscape. The iterative sketches often open up new questions and possibilities; happy accidents, and references to Purism. Thus, the act of sketching drove much of the thesis design process

RAMP SIGHT LINES

NEW RAMP

PROCESS AND EXHIBITION MODELS

GREEN SPACES

URBAN PARK INFILL BUILDING

Downtown Los Angeles, CA

The new USC satellite business school is to be located in an excessively urbanized and hardscaped area in the theater district of DTLA. This led to conducting research on the dominating hardscape versus the little softscape in the downtown area. The project attempts to craft a biophilic learning as well as public engaging environment for the USC business school as a way to rejuvenate this urban crisis

REGIONAL CENTER - COMMERCIAL GENERAL COMMERCIAL HEAVY INDUSTRIAL LIGHT INDUSTRIAL PUBLIC FACILITIES

VERY HIGH RESI. HIGH MEDIUM RESI. LOW MEDIUM RESI.

OUTDOOR PARKING SOFTSCAPE

LA RIVER DISTRICT METRO LINE

DTLA Parks

Through cataloging and analyzing the existing contextual green spaces, we understand how different typologies of softscape each spatially relate and play a role in the urban fabric. Programmatic spaces of the institution are then explored and spliced with studied “green space” typologies based upon its use, public versus private relationship, as well as typological geometry, and thus, generating its spatial logic

Perforated bronze panel

Ceiling framing & waterproofing

Rigid insulation

Sheathing

Theater seating steel structure

Rooftop panel framing

Single ply waterproofing membrane

Sloped rigid insulation

Concrete slab and metal deck

Structural beam & mullion

Insulated window wall & bulkhead

Outrigger w/ grate stairs

HSS connection w/ neoprene

Perforated louver panels

Fresh Air Duct

Indoor Air

Handler Cassette

Water-source VRF Unit

Refrigerant Distribution Box

Water Pumps

Exhaust Fan

Exhaust Duct

Outdoor Air Unit

Program

Lecture. Hall Maker Space Classroom Office

Ship & Recieve

Library Utility Space Theater Typological Park Spaces Open Workspace

Beams - W12 Columns - W12 Girders - W18

Stair Stringer - W8 Girder (Long Span) - W24

Main Lobby Starcase Lecture Hall

Structural Footing

MAKER MARKET

MAKER SPACE AS MARKET

Downtown Los Angeles, CA

With a cultural affinity to Little Tokyo’s street markets, Maker Market is envisioned with a speculation on the idea that street markets act as social magnets of the city. The aggregation of street vendors and organically formed pedestrian spaces create intimate hang out corridors and/or pockets that integrate itself with local businesses and pedestrian activity

MARKET PLACE TYPOLOGY STUDY

I aspire to establish a connection between the maker space and its surrounding context (Little Tokyo Village) by envisioning a building where the study of market space typologies may be potentially utilized to shape the maker space, thus generating a maker space-market hybrid

2nd Level Floor Plan

Ground Level Floor Plan

FOLLY

Los Angeles, CA

Located midway between downtown LA and the heart of Korea town is a remnant triangular patch from the rapid housing development since the 60s. The patch currently, not walkway, nor park, became the project site for a folly meant to provide a fun detour for daily commutes. The folly serves as a lookout tower, a net hammock, as well as a community park for the neighborhood. The whirling structure is a sculptural piece itself while it ties in the once neglected leftover land and paths, merging them at a single node

Circulation

BLENDING PATHS

Pedestrian / Runner Bike Path Picnic

DIOR OMOTESANDO

SANAA - CASE STUDY TOKYO, JAPAN

SANAA casted fabric-like translucent sheets with acrylic and placed them behind the exterior glass. The opacity of the each acrylic sheet is different at each level. The lighting quality of this “skin” varies throughout the day and night. It is illuminated with both down & uplighting through the acrylic sheets. The resulting effect looks as if the building is wearing a thin, lightweight clothing. The play of translucency gives the external facade gentle hints of what is inside but simultaneously reveals nothing to shoppers from the street, enticing them to enter the store.

WEB & ABSORPTION

In developing a new building “skin” for a college courtyard, web and absorption demonstrates a functional duality and challenges the look and feel of typical building envelopes. The 2 module system; one heat absorbing, the other light absorbing, together with the underlying structural diagrid forms the major tectonic of the web.

PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL WITH CONVEX LENS

SUN

5/8” Steel Bar

Diagrid Ball Joint Holder Cap Brace Piece Mount Pad PV Cell Disk Glass Sunlight Funnel Convex Sun Lens

Ball Bearing Photosensor Hinge

THE SLAB

The personalized concrete coffee table celebrates the interdependencies between steel and concrete as well as the memorialization of our daily-use belongings. Built with the stub-out method, The Slab table plays off of the construction of conventional concrete building foundations. The surface geometric depressions represent the placement of everyday personal items of the user, i.e., a pen, wallet, candle, vase, mug or a bowl. The table, itself stands as a fashion concept, yet also, helps to stabilize patients who suffering from alzheimers or obsessive compulsive disorders.

THANK YOU