Cole O'Brien // 2023 Portfolio

COLE O’BRIEN

SELECTED WORKS

‘22

CV + PORTFOLIO FALL 2022

INTRODUCTION Cole O’Brien is a young professional in the architecture & planning industry.

A dedicated individual, he is currently pursuing licensure with the goal of completing AXP hours and ARE exams by February 2023. Cole has a demonstrated history of work within K-12 education and athletics projects across Washington and Arizona. His comprehensive project experience has included illustrating and presenting masterplanning concepts to client and public, leading consultant coordination through all phases of design, to facilitating programming meetings with user groups. He also has played a vital role in construction administration through answering RFIs, processing submittals, attending OAC meetings, reviewing pay app’s, filing field reports and more.

Cole’s educational background includes completion of his M.Ach at Arizona State University in 2019, while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. His time at ASU culminated with an independent applied project ‘Arizona Trail Perception Devices,’ which

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explored the intertwined relationships between the architectural language of westward expansion, historical portrayals of romantic landscapes, and the perception of romantic landscapes.

The project explored how each of these combine to affect the public perception of edge conditions within wild spaces.

This time at ASU also included a design excellence award, a graduate teaching position, and connections that led to being asked back to teach in Fall 2022.

Outside of architecture, Cole’s passions are multi-faceted. He has spent time this last year backpacking across the Icelandic wilderness, volunteering his graphic design skills to nonprofit organizations, learning the ukulele and trail running through multiple national parks.

TABLE OF CONTENTS CURRICULUM VITAE // 05 SOCIAL HOUSING // 07 PERFORMING ARTS CENTER // 17 MILLENNIAL HOUSING // 27 LIGHT FOR HOPE // 37 IMMERSIVE THEATER // 41 FIRE STATION EIGHT // 49 AZ TRAIL PERCEPTION DEVICES // 60

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COLE O’BRIEN // E-mail: cole.obrien.23@gmail.com // Tel: +1 913.660.3133

EXPERIENCE

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PHOENIX, AZ 05.20 - PRESENT

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER ORCUTT | WINSLOW //Mesa High Bldgs 100, 300, 400 Renovation ~ 60,000 sf All responsibilities of “project architect” including leading user group meetings, assigning production roles for SD’s-CD’s, consultant coordination lead, entirety of CA responsibilities //Mesa High School Student Services Building ~ 16,000 sf Sole production of CD’s including consultant coordination lead, detailing, permitting review ; Heavy involvement in SD’sDD’s //ChristGreenfield Charter Gym Addition ~ 9,000 sf Production lead for DD’s-CD’s ; Comprehensive code review ; Permitting assistance //Mesa High School Science & Tech Building ~ 70,000 sf Production team member for SD’s-CD’s ; Joint CA responsibilities //Mesa High School 30 Year Master Plan Led or assisted in community visioning meetings ; Produced final master planning look book and modeling ; Verified asbuilts and programming requirements

TEMPE, AZ 08.22 - PRESENT

FACULTY ASSOCIATE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY // ARC 301 Architectural Studio IV

TEMPE, AZ 01.20 - 12.20

GRAD. TEACHING ASSISTANT ARIZONA STATE UNIV. // Intro to Computer Modeling , 3D Rhino Fundamentals and Grasshopper Fundamentals

SPOKANE, WA 05.19 - 08.19

ARCHITECTURAL INTERN ALSC ARCHITECTS // Whitworth Uni. Athletic Leadership Center ~ 28,000 sf Comprehensive involvement in all areas of Const. Admin. // Spokane Pub. Schools Abi Stadium ~ 150,000 sf Schematic design input and modeling ; interview materials // Southridge High School Expansion ~ 30,000sf Production team member for DD’s - CD’s

EDUCATION

RECOGNITION

MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE ARIZONA STATE UNIV.

// OW “Grow Up Grow Out” 2021 Winner

// 2021 - Current ; Phoenix, Arizona // AIAS, AZ Outdoors Club, Herberger Institute Grad Student Association

// Arizona State University Grad. College Fellowship

BA - ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN MONTANA STATE UNIV. // 2014 - 2019 ; Bozeman, Montana // AIAS, International Buddy Program, Residence Hall Association SEMESTER ABROAD UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD // Fall 2018 ; Sheffield, England // Sheffield University Architecture Society, International Society

// Arizona State University Design Excellence Award // Montana State University Second Best Senior Capstone Project // Montana State SoA Achievement Scholarship // Light for Hope Third Place Lamp Design // Arizona State SoA Fall ‘20 Cover Project

SKILLS REVIT ARCHICAD 3D RHINO + GRASSHOPPER SKETCHUP RENDERING: LUMION + VRAY ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE

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SOCIALMEXICO HOUSING CITY, MEXICO

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SOCIALMEXICO HOUSING CITY, MEXICO INFORMATION Design Excellence Award Recipient // By Peer Vote Featured on TDS Fall Catalog Cover Fall 2020 Arizona State University // The Design School Professor Ian Dickenson PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Mexico City social housing proposal reimagines the city’s underutilized spaces and informal economy.

The ideas build upon Mexico’s historical connection between low class housing and informal street markets. Despite decades of attempts at formalization and expulsion, the city’s street market culture has remained a vital part of the local lifeblood. These markets provide income to over half of the city’s residents and aid underserved sectors of the city.

This proposal recognizes this crucial ecosystem and the roles of self-expansion, co-ownership, and social organization in economic upward mobility for these merchants and their families. Utilizing the city’s existing streetscapes, a physical framework is provided between, above and beside Mexico City’s marginalized housing districts for this very ecosystem.

Here, merchants and their families may begin their life in a new type of home / work environment that allows them to self-expand, pool resources, and grow as they may better serve and bring increased economic activity to their local communities.

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SOCIAL HOUSING

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SOCIAL HOUSING

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PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

BOZEMAN, MONTANA

PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

BOZEMAN, MONTANA

INFORMATION 2nd Best Capstone Project // By Faculty Vote Spring 2019 Montana State University // School of Architecture Professor Jack Smith PROJECT DESCRIPTION Completed in tandem with classmate Colton Riebe, the proposal for the MSU Performing Arts Center and Music School was driven by the desire to create a crown jewel for the regional arts scene. The superellipse form pays homage to iconic performance venue designs such as the IBM World Fair pavilion and “Ando’s Egg.” This performance hall cradle also acts as a beacon to the outer campus, lighting up differently based on performances within the four adjacent performance spaces.

The proposal was embraced as an opportunity to push our technical skillsets. We drew inspiration from convention center proposals by Mies van der Rohe and other space frame structures to create large uninterrupted space. To implement and warp this structure, we learned Grasshopper to create a parametric structure and facade design that encompassed both the inner super-ellipse and outer glass curtain. This glass opens the performance spaces up to the surrounding landscape, while also celebrating the entry procession of the performances inside.

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PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

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PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

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PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

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PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

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MILLENNIAL HOUSING BOZEMAN, MONTANA

MILLENNIAL HOUSING BOZEMAN, MONTANA INFORMATION Spring 2018 Montana State University // School of Architecture Professor Steve Juroszek PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Millennial Housing proposal is an effort to combat Bozeman’s failure to retain less than 7% of its local university graduates after school. The proposal acknowledges the necessity for densification within the city and a formal entrance to the Main Street corridor. Most importantly, it is an effort to propose programmatic elements that best support what new housing schemes should look like for a Millennial generation moving into home ownership.

The site rests at the center of multiple influences, addressing the tourist-heavy Main St., the local event space of the city library’s ‘front yard’, and the recreational activities of the surrounding public park.

The form is an effort to simultaneously address each of these unique boundary conditions while simultaneously creating the community of the ‘culde-sac’ within the complex.

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MILLENNIAL HOUSING

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MILLENNIAL HOUSING

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MILLENNIAL HOUSING

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LIGHT FOR HOPE TEMPE, ARIZONA

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LIGHT FOR HOPE TEMPE, ARIZONA INFORMATION 3rd Place Light Design // By Local Design Professionals Fall 2019 Arizona State University // The Design School Light for Hope Fundraiser PROJECT DESCRIPTION Built for a local charity fundraiser to support Arizona youth art programs, my lamp was an exercise in utilizing computation and parametrics to optimize product design. Built without any adhesive, the product aims to effectively diffuse light throughout the space, while simultaneously acknowledging its weight as its structures drapes towards the ground below.

The design script is entirely parametric, allowing for complete customization of dimensions, thus increasing efficiency of design time by allowing for the form design to be nearly completely automated to fit the desires of individual clients in a field where universal dimensions are virtually nonexistent.

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IMMERSIVE THEATER LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND

IMMERSIVE THEATER LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND

INFORMATION Fall 2018 University of Sheffield // School of Architecture Professor Yussur Al-Chokhdar PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Ropewalks district in Liverpool has played host to the first super-club, world famous performance venues, and the immersive-entertainment club, the Kazimier. However, the area now experiences vast gentrification through the redevelopment of Wolstenholme Square, resulting in the death of these venues and their contribution to nightlife entertainment: immersion.

To combat this, the immersive theater proposal seeks to permanently house the cultural innovative spirit of Ropewalks, while also re-imaging it on a stage that can coexist with the higher-income redevelopment of the area. The space houses a vertical immersion experience, featuring different types of performances as one moves up through the space. This is reinforced by an illuminated grid that acts as both a performance and wayfinding tool. The experience is shrouded under a curtain created through rotating CMU bricks salvaged from the sites of the night clubs that came before it.

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IMMERSIVE THEATER

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Wolstenholme Immediately adjacent to the site, nowhere better can witness the gentrification that enters every facet of the neighborhood. Gone are the super clubs of old, the warehouses that built the orignal ropes, instead replaced by a contemporary death

Culture Capital The fame of ropewalks as a culture can largely be attributed to the fame of having the Beatles, the first world super club, and immersive entertainment clubs. Now, new apartment schemes have laid waste to these clubs such as the Cavern, Kazimer, and Cream as their history leaves with them

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IMMERSIVE THEATER

Bold St. Heritage The district’s claim to fame, has become the face of a fake culture. You can witness that flocks that have moved in to take advantage of an area that is nothing of what was originally intended

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IMMERSIVE THEATER

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FIRE STATION EIGHT TEMPE, ARIZONA

FIRE STATION EIGHT TEMPE, ARIZONA INFORMATION Spring 2020 Arizona State University // The Design School Professor Phil Horton PROJECT DESCRIPTION The design proposal for Fire Station 8, located in Phase IV of the NOVUS Innovation Corridor, seeks to re-evaluate the existing master plan for Phase IV as well as role that fire stations play in our growing cities. The redesign of master plan seeks to realign implementation with the values for the site: promoting mass transit, supporting athletics facilities, and creating useful, diverse outdoor space.

In this process of redesign, the fire station has been relocated to within an office building in a bid to explore how public infrastructure might be reimagined in a more urbanized fabric. The massing of this multi-use structure seeks to celebrate the arrival sequence of the fire engine through a careful “carving” away of the office building itself.

This subtraction creates intentional moments of interaction in an overall design that carefully addresses both integration and separation.

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FIRE STATION EIGHT

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FIRE STATION EIGHT

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PERCEPTION DEVICES ARIZONA TRAIL INFORMATION M.Arch Culminating Independent Project Spring 2021 Arizona State University // The Design School PROJECT DESCRIPTION The independent project ‘Arizona Trail Perception Devices’ occupies nine locations along the 800-milelong Arizona Trail. Inspired by the ruins of adjacent abandoned mines, the research examines the effects that art and structure have on spatial experience and relationships with natural landscapes. Historically, movement such as Romanticism and ‘Parkitecture’ have suggested a landscape that is immposibly invulnerable to human destruction.

The reality of Arizona’s landscapes, however, is a vast patchwork of scars caused by ranching, resource extraction and human0cased climate change. Instead of acknloweding this desturction, the existing Arizona Trail conciously masks or outright avoids it. Despite this blindness, the trail today is on the verge of critical water, energy and shade crisises as the trail lacks necessary infrastructure to support future life on the trail. The independent project explores how, using the visual language of westward expansion architecture, this inevitable infrastrcture might act as a form of storytelling to reveal the edge conditinons and narratives of human impact on Arizona’s landscapes.

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COLE O’BRIEN // E-mail: cole.obrien.23@gmail.com // Tel: +1 913.660.3133

THANK YOU

Cole O’Brien