Portfolio by Christy Hernandez

work samples

Christy Hernandez professional academic

Christy Hernandez

Chu-Gooding

Chongqing Real Estate Office

Type: Workplace

Location: Chongqing, China

MDI Architects

Role: Project Designer

In an up incoming neighborhood along the Yangtze River, this new office building hosts the offices for a large real estate company in Chongqing. As part of an overall master plan to revitalize this area just outside of the city center, this design is a continuity of the iconic, illuminating cityscape; casting it’s reflections on the water below, and it’s mark within the famous city’s silhouette.

The facade design figuratively and literally mirrors the water in the river, in the way sunlight is captured in the ripples of the water during the day and how the skyline casts its lights down at night. The carefully selected materials aid in enhancing the luminosity of the night’s sky and freezing the most perfect moment above the Yangtze River.

Christy Hernandez

Yummy Cake - Bakery & Cafe

Type: Retail, Food & Beverage

Location: China, multiple locations

MDI Architects

Role: Project Designer

The Yummy Cake brand is an innovative and healthy alternative to the traditional cafe, exclusively selling healthy bakery items and wellness drinks that combine traditional Chinese recipes with modern-day taste. MDI Architects were contracted to design several new locations throughout China, from kiosks to stand-alone flagship stores. Our goal was to create a dynamic concept for each location to allow for the stores to become the marketing icon of the brand and product. Brand identity the graphic ensure

Christy Hernandez

Los Angeles Convention Center Expansion & Renovation

Type: Cultural

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Chu-Gooding Architects

Role: Junior Associate

Chu-Gooding was awarded the $500 million expansion and renovation of the Los Angeles Convention Center, acting as the lead Interior Architects on the project. This design aims to showcase the blend of cultures, communities, and heritage of Los Angeles.

Playing upon the idea of Old Hollywood Noir, the design proposal emphasizes the duality of LA as both sunlight and sultry. The light wells inject the environmental aspects, bringing in the Southern California climate as sunspot projections into the enclosed space. I examined light patterns from the openings above which would provide a foundation for the overall design. The pattern would be translated into every aspect of the design from the landscape, vertical and horizontal planes, wayfinding, and furniture. I also studied the colors and textures for the color palette which is inspired by the flora and fauna that is prevalent to Southern California. During design development, I utilized my skillsets in Grasshopper3D to create a script that analyzes walking distance and time from specific locations. This script helped in developing the programmatic layout of the overall buiding

Christy Hernandez

STEP 1:

Filter target locations by direct proximity.

Step 2:

Search the shortest distance based on green miles. Step Convert

Convert the shortest distance to walktime for heatmapping

Min Step 3:

Step 4:

Repeat step 1-3 to apply heatmap over the rest of the building.

Christy Hernandez

Jade Rabbit Restaurant

Type: Hospitality / Food & Beverage

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Chu-Gooding Architects

Role: Junior Associate

In an old, weathered brick building in need of an exterior face lift and gutting of the interior, this Santa Monica Restaurant features a state-ofthe-art kitchen and picture worthy dining experience. The team explored our collective travels and dining experiences in Asia, and took inspiration from elements of whimsy and nature to pair with the Asian Fusion menu. Through creating the CD set, I became familiar with restaurant and kitchen specific building codes and working with food service consultants. I studied the specifications of the commercial kitchen equipment to ensure the drawings were up to code and spacially laid out to best optimize the flow of the prep and cook lines. Throughout the DD phase, I created conceptual renderings to assist the clients in visualizing the design concept.

Christy Hernandez

1 PRODUCTION COOKLINE

2 WARE WASHING

3 SCULLERY

Bright Golden Haze, Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center

Type: Exhibition

Location: Oklahoma City, OK

Chu-Gooding Architects

Role: Junior Associate

2020 Interior Design Magazine

Best of Year Award, Project Finalist,

This project revolves heavily on light, both physical and conceptual, with each artwork emphasizing light to create place and identity that demanded individual and careful treatment of their experiential moment. Thus, creating a cohesive journey through and from one to the next was crucial to the overall viewing experience. The bare gallery space of the Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center is shaped by fifteen faceted walls, which created a specific set of spacial parameters that created unique design challenges.

With 3D modeling and visual lighting technique in conceptual rendering, I studied various architectural elements as the medium to guide the visual sequences that spatially curates a “framed view” for each artwork, which creates an immersive experience that enhances the connection between the viewers and the artist’s message.

Christy Hernandez

Overview of the entire gallery from above.

Christy Hernandez

Black Glass Eclipse, Olafur Eliasson. Entry into the exhibiton.

Star Ceiling, Leo Villareal.

Valley of the Sun, Doty Glasco

Lucky You, Robert Irwin (left). I Belong Here, Tavares Strachan (right).

Christy Hernandez

Gallery Photos

Conceptual Renderings

Christy Hernandez

Festlig House

Type: High-end Residential

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Chu-Gooding Architects

Role: Junior Associate

The Festlig House is the third structure on the Owner’s estate, expanding the recreation and entertainment program of the collective properties. The incentive for the project stemmed from the client’s desire to accommodate large gatherings and to provide a setting for tennis matches, basketball games, and conjunctive social activities. The project size and split-massing was studied to minimize impact to the environment, to calibrate an appropriate scale, and to expeditiously fulﬁll programmatic needs. A portion of the estate was donated to maintain a wildlife corridor. Green building and site considerations were integrated with high-performance energy conserving building assemblies and water management design. Striving for an authentic sense of place, the design acknowledges the lay of the land and employs existing vegetation, landscape precedence, color, and material palette to integrate the project with the existing estate and the larger canyon environment beyond.

SITE EXCAVATIONVEGETATION INTEGRATION

Veneklasen House

Type: Historic Preservation / Residential

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Chu-Gooding Architects

Role: Junior Associate

2022 AIALA Residential Architecture Honor Award in Adaptive Re-Use, Renovation, and Historic Preservation

As an early works of Pierre Koenig, originally designed by Kenneth Lind, Chu-Gooding Architects were sought out to renovate and expand the existing one-story house, along with integrating the sprawling, mature landscape. We played upon the accordion-fold glass wall to allow for the picturesque courtyard experience; using the material palette as an ode to the stunning landscape, pairing the dark walnut and grey-green quartzite with the large eucalyptus tree just beyond the glass wall. Instead of challenging the previous work of a recognized architect, it was more compelling to focus on how transitional space can be used to spark a meaningful dialogue between the existing and new. With my realistic renderings, color and material selections, as well as detailed CD drawings, we created a series of transitional elements that bring a unique harmonization between the act of renovation and historic preservation.

Christy Hernandez

Palisades House

Type: High-end Residential

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Chu-Gooding Architects

Role: Junior Associate

As one of my early projects at Chu-Gooding, I joined the interior design team on the Palisades House while it was in the CA phase of the renovation. My role comprised of producing in-house renderings for internal design meetings and client meetings, sourcing and curating furniture and material boards, designing and producing millwork drawings, and maintaining the FF&E schedule. I worked directly with vendors and consultants to ensure the project schedule was met and tracked the long lead procurement items.

The decor and furniture was a blend of new and existing items from the client's personal collection. We carefully selected key elements to center the design from, like a sentimental piece of art or the hand-dyed silk wallpaper, and curated the color palette and furniture to tell the rest of the client's story.

Christy Hernandez

Autry Resource Center

Type: Cultural / Adaptive Re-use

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Chu-Gooding Architects

Role: Junior Associate

LEED Gold Certified

2020 AIA Los Angeles Merit Award

The Autry Resource Center is home to the second largest collection of Native American artifacts in the United States, owned by the Autry Museum of the American West. Four existing, uninhabitable buildings were adapted to accommodate collections storage and research institution to preserve Native American history.

The existing building components were salvaged, reused, and reprogrammed to integrate with the design of the Resource Center. I created a series of diagrams to assist in the spacial planning of the program and translate the ideas from hand sketches.

Christy Hernandez

A Day in LA

Type: Greenway

Location: Los Angeles, CA

2019 HKS Design Fellowship Team: Andrew Smith (HKS), Jiawei Ji, Christina Shin

Los Angeles will be hosting the Olympics in 2028; and in preparation for the games, there is a lot of planning that must take place to be ready for the impact this event will have on the city and residents. The biggest, most complex issue that LA faces now is its underdeveloped transportation network and urban sprawl.

Through the examination of the existing and future Metro subway lines, we’ve discovered the possibility of looping through LA and experiencing the city at different speeds. This greenway runs through complex cityscapes diverse neighborhoods, creating different experiences for the users of the line. With the ability to hop on and off the Metro, or choose to bike, walk, hike, or scooter, users can experience each part of the loop differently each time.

Weaved into the loop is program that celebrates the unique neighborhoods and communities it runs through, allowing the locals to participate and contribute to the Olympics’ events. This greenway creates a sustainable way for the Olympic visitors to experience Los Angeles, and for the residents to enjoy once the games have passed.

Christy Hernandez

New Venice Library for Art & Technology

Type: Library

Location: Venice, CA

Partner: Ben Garcia

Student Work: Studio 4A - Fall 2018

Venice, CA is an emerging technology hub for the city of Los Angeles, newly known as ‘Silicon Beach’. However, the art and artists of Venice still play a strong and vital role in the cultural makeup and charm of this area of the city. These two communities will now coexist in a single neighborhood and represent a new Venice.

The New Venice Library for Art & Technology becomes a space for both communities to express their interests, practice their skills, and research their professions while influencing each other’s work. Curated around art and technology, this library is a space for locals and visitors alike. The library contains stacks, workshops space, computer rooms, galleries, and an auditorium amongst other program. The form of the building uses the grid system of the neighboring existing library; filleting the corners to soften the complexities of the major street intersections. The double and triple height spaces and light wells encourage the visitors to observe and inspire the work of the visiting artists and tech enthusiasts from the different levels.

Christy Hernandez

Revitalize Sepulveda

Type: Water Purification

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Student Work: Studio 4B - Spring 2018

The Ballona Creek Watershed covers nearly 130 square miles of the Los Angeles Basin, capturing water that is sent through the stormwater system, drained into the creek, and eventually channeled into the Santa Monica Bay untreated. This creates health concerns for the local neighborhoods along the Ballona Creek, pollutes the Pacific Ocean, and harms the native ecologies in and around the channel. My proposal is a water-purification strategy implemented in the mile-long open portion of the Sepulveda sub-basin channel, the largest area covered through a single inlet within the Ballona Creek Watershed. Public facilities are integrated into this pathway of wetlands to bring in community consciousness of the natural environment and promote sustainability. This proposal increases biodiversity, creates community awareness of their environment, and reinvents a vital piece of urban infrastructure. Connecting these spaces is 11 stages of water purification that are divided into three phases: aeration/transition zones, phytoremediation, and constructed wetlands.

Christy Hernandez