Berkeley Portfolio

Dear Admissions, I am honored to present my portfolio to enroll in the College of Environmental Design and the College of Civil and Environmental Engineering for the concurrent master’s degree program in Architecture and Structural Engineering at the University of California Berkeley.

I am a civil engineer by training with a distinct interest in leveraging the design professionals’ agency to promote spatial justice through interdisciplinary practice.

The following content is not consistently organized by project, and work has primarily been selected thematically to illustrate pathways towards a better built environment.

If you would prefer to view content by project , I invite you to visit my online portfolio at: connorachziger.com/squarespace.com Please know that while most of the projects are a result of collaboration, all illustrations presented are created by me.

Thank you

1 integrated project delivery

Hollenbeck Village is a multifamily housing proposal completed for The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, an international design competition hosted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.

The project was completed with interdisciplinary support from engineering and architecture students across several departments at the University of California Los Angeles. The proposal follows guidelines presented in California Assembly Bill 2295 — legislation drafted through a partnership between the cityLAB research group at UCLA AUD and UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities+Schools. The proposal is responsive to both local climate and community need.

The design is a high-performance, net-zero, multifamily education workforce housing solution that addresses issues related to climate change, affordability, and environmental justice.

– South Elevation of Hollenbeck Village, an exploration of housing at public schools

An integrated design approach was essential for the project’s success and expedited the typical delivery schedule.

Hollenbeck Village

Multimedia Video Pitch

– Schematic overview of modular coordination at Hollenbeck Village hy Project Credits: Connor Achziger, Laura Grombone, Luka Love, Kenny Yip, Jared Brown, Jennifer Tija, Sterling Butler, Xiaoru Chen, Stetson Schott

2 exhaustive prototyping Iterative, operative, and conditional design is essential to my creative process. During early programming, I use the same wooden blocks I played with as a child. This helps me develop physical models and can also be used to understand contextual relationships with topograhpy or nearby structures.

– Tomales Studio | Comprehensive Massing Studies

– Tomales Studio | Physical model | Museum board on cork topography | Individual project

3 contextual responses

The ground floor of Hollenbeck Village is made to connect with the surrounding community. Social modules provide essential services to residents and neighbors.

-Floorplan | Ground Floor | Hollenbeck Village| Credits: Luara Grombone, Connor Achziger

Rendering of Hollenbeck Village

The University Cooperative Housing Association Project Credits: Connor Achziger, Luka Love, Sarah Hoffman, Melissa Hua

I am currently leading this year’s Solar Decathlon project which is in early design development. The project is a proposal for building improvements at the The University Cooperative Housing Association (UCHA) in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

– The University Cooperative Housing Association in Context

Hardman Hansen Hall

UCHA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing transformative and affordable housing for students, researchers, and teachers in one of LA’s most expensive neighborhoods. For nearly 100 years, the co-op has played an important role in the neighborhood’s history as the first racially desegregated housing in Westwood. It is also a hub for international students and the LGBTQ+ community.

Essene Hall

UCHA owns three buildings, shown above.

Robison Hall, designed by renowned modernist architect Richard Neutra, was dedicated as a historical landmark in 1987.

Each site is in significant need of nonstructural improvements to envelope, MEP, drainage, paving, and landscaping.

Robison Hall

Learn more about the co-op here.

Oakland School of Art and Architecture

Individual Project

The Oakland School of Art and Architecture is a design project assigned during my second year studio at Diablo Valley College. The design is an extension of an existing park. Adjacent green space was the most important context influencing this project.

traffic flow

rotation

subtraction

– Operative design of the Oakland School of Art and Architecture

pedestrian circulation

green space

connection

garden

Oakland School of Art and Architecture

4

environmental impacts

– Interior Render | Castle Rock School of Integrative Health Project Credits: Connor Achziger, Lola Cinco

Green infrastructure is a particularly important research interest for me, and I spent last spring in UCLA’s Subsurface Engineering and Analysis Laboratory studying biofilters.

Recently, I’ve also enjoyed exploring the performance of mass timber as a construction material through the American Society of Civil Engineer’s seismic design team at UCLA.

– Section view: Mass Timber Highrise proposal for the 2024 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition Credits: Connor Achziger, Jachin Chyn

Aquaponics at UCLA

Credits: Ramal Samarasinghe, Anna Novoselov, Connor Achziger

Illustration of Media Bed Assembly

In May 2018, Bruin Home Solutions (BHS) won a Sustainability Innovation and Design competition, hosted by The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF). The team was awarded a $50,000 grant to build an aquaponics system to provide free produce for a community kitchen at UCLA. I am proud to contribute to the structural design and participate in the active construction of this project.

Illustration of Deep Water Culture Bed

5 passive designs Environment is a critical context for design. For Hollenbeck Village We wanted to optimize our energy and water cycles on site to make the most of our natural resources.

The building’s orientation allows us to take advantage of the elements, particularly through passive ventilation as wind travels from the windward to the leeward side of the building.

Wind Speed

-Climate at Hollenbeck Village

-Sustainability at Hollenbeck Village

6

sensory spaces

Castle Rock School of Integrative Health Project Credits: Connor Achziger, Lola Cinco

Castle Rock is a partner project completed as a capstone assignment required to receive an AS degree in architectural design from Diablo Valley College. The proposal is an integrative health facility that includes programmatic spaces dedicated to the practice of naturopathic medicine, conference rooms, teaching kitchens as well as onsite lodging cabins.

-Section: Therapy Pod at Castle Rock School of Integrative Health

The section here depicts an acoustical study of windchimes inside a “therapy pod” at the Castle Rock spa. Each pod is designed to engage with senses other than sight, providing spaces for massage, music, and aroma therapies.

– Utility pathways at Hollenbeck Village

7 critical details

1/4” CONNECTION PL 3/4” BOLT TYP

The following details were designed and illustrated as part of a course project in Structural Steel design. The drawings are part of a broader set of calculations and construction documents for a nanoelectronics laboratory in Westwood, CA. The laboratory equipment is considerably sensitive to vibration, and member sizes were determined based on deflection criteria far exceeding servicibility requirments outlined by the American Society of Civil Engineers’ code 7-16(ASCE 7-16). Typical Load and Resistance Factor Design(LRFD) procedures were expedited using the fifteenth edition of the American Institute of Steel Construction(AISC) manual.

1 1/2” typ

3” typ

2”

2” W16x31

7/8” DIAMETER A-325-N BOLT

TYP

3/16”

1/4” CONNECTION PL

3” typ

W18x35

1 1/2” typ

-Detail | Beam to Girder Shear Tab Connection | Nanoelectronics Laboratory

W18x35

TYP

structural calculations report

3/16”

-Detail | Girder to Column Shear Tab Connection | Nanoelectronics Laboratory Project Credits: Connor Achziger, Jake Mumford, Kevin Ho, Colby Brown

8

radical reuse

Los Cerritos Complex Individual Project

This is a fledgling project representiative of potential research interests I might have at CED. The site shown here is in Long Beach, California, currently used for mining natural gas and oil. Adjacent sites host aging power stations and other abandoned heavy industiral activity. The wetlands and surrounding neigherborhoods are at risk of flooding from heavy rainfall and sea level rise. Pollutant infiltration into these communities and into the groundwater is another concerning issue.

This project seeks to imagine how the complex might be transformed to adress these and other contemproary challenges. Preliminary design ideas are based on Kristina Hill’s proposals for Urban Adaptations to Sea Level Rise, an ongoing conversation hosted at UC Berkeley.

The goals of this project include:

Preliminary sketch of the Los Cerritos Wetlands and adjacent industrial sites

1. Reducing flooding risks from sea level rise and groundwater infiltration.

2. Structural Analysis and Adaptive reuse of abandoned infrastucture 3. Restoration of adjacent wetlands using green infrastructure.

4. Providing affordable housing and services in response to community need and feedback.

The Wilshire Survey Individual Project

With many office spaces sitting empty following the COVID-19 Pandemic, The Wilshire Survey is an exploration into the possibility of adaptive reuse of highrise buildings in Westwood into residential units.

As a representative sample of the types of office space available in Westwood, a collection of six structures were surveyed along the western end of Wilshire Blvd. These buildings ultimately represent ideal candidates for conversion to residential use. Factors including context, building form, floor plate characteristics, envelope and servicing are all significant considerations when evaluating the suitability of a building for conversion.

Thank You Thank you for considering my application, and I appreciate your time today. I look forward to hearing back from you soon. Please feel free to contact me at Connorachziger@gmail.com or by phone at (925) 705-5337.