Undergraduate Portfolio: David Becker

David Becker

Education

Iowa State University / B. Arch Class of 2020

Experience

Independent Design Build Practice

Van Buren County, IA

Summer 2021 - Spring 2023

Designed and constructed a modern service building for a historic rural Iowa farmstead.

see online portfolio:

https://issuu.com/dbecker.arch/docs/ design-build_portfolio_2023

Supervisor / Designer

Iowa State University Design Build

Spring 2017

Took a quality assurance and leadership role in the design, fabrication, and installation phases of both primary assembly and lighting component.

Fire Protection Internship

DC Design, Dallas Center, IA

Summer 2016

Performed clean up work on construction docs and preliminary fire protection design work.

816.805.4325

dbecker.arch@gmail.com

Recognition

Nominated

Substance Forum Competition

Fall 2019

First Prize

Well’s Concrete Competition

Fall 2018

Second Prize

NCMA Unit Design Competition

Fall 2018

Finalist

BWBR Design Competition

Spring 2018

Dean’s List

Fall 2015 - Spring 2020

National Merit Scholarship

Fall 2015 - Spring 2020

Skills

Rhinoceros 3D

Physical Modeling

Javascript

Client Management

Project Management

AutoCAD

Photoshop

Illustrator

InDesign

Building practice through all stages of design and construction:

Institute of Women’s Health

Davenport, Iowa

Fall 2019 | Partner : Tarun Bhatia

Nominated, Substance Forum Competition

This institute supports women’s representation in health research, practice, and education, at a time when women’s representation in medical leadership is a quarter of the representation across the industry, and when women are largely underrepresented in clinical trials and studies. At the same time, this institute is designed to engage with the city of Davenport to help establish a dialogue surrounding women’s health and its critical importance to the health of a community.

This dual program, that of both the research and public engagement, was an opportunity in terms of formal representation - as the intersection of two defined volumes. For the institute itself: a tower, standing monumental alongside and at times among the flow of the Mississippi River (as Davenport experiences more common flooding such as it experienced in the past year). Then, a public plane extended as if an outstretched hand in greeting to the city, bright and welcoming.

An exterior courtyard acts as a threshold from the flexible public event space to the cafe and lecture hall while also providing a visual connection to the landscape above.

The lecture hall is one element of outreach and education at the intersection of the volumes, and is a space for visiting speakers or public lectures among other events. The other is the library, which lies on the terrace level and is dedicated to sharing knowledge on women’s health within the community.

Above the library is a health clinic serving the surrounding area. Above that, a lab, allocated for professional research and education. Lastly, the tower is capped by a mechanical floor and living quarters for residing professionals.

Much of the success of the Institute was dependent on its interior space. We identified specific qualities that we felt should be represented in the finished space, including

- professional

- warm

- welcoming

- open

- safe

- accessible

- light

- clean

These were achieved through uncluttered plans, a well-lit facade and vertical circulation, and a wood finish within the public and living spaces.

Library Interior

Design Annex

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Fall 2018

Partners : Seth Andrews, Tarun Bhatia, Tyler Vincent First Prize, Wells Concrete Competition

The Design Annex heralds the future of architectural expression—where structural innovation and design intent become one.

The core of the Annex, beneath the iconic suspen-dome canopy, is imagined to be a hub of intersecting ideas. These can be shared over a cup of coffee at the cafe entrance, amidst the ever-changing student gallery, or within the atrium itself: a multi-use space shared by all.

Overall, this concept is an investigation into the possibilities of precast forms to construct — and, more importantly, to inform — an expressive architecture that is ideally suited to a design learning environment.

The Annex is defined by its radial order. This form unifies the design environment in an age of unprecedented interdisciplinary collaboration, and is perhaps best expressed through the module of the curved double tee. The scale and order of this precast member informed the design and layout of HVAC and lighting systems. Shading strategies were developed to maximize natural daylighting while minimizing glare and radiation from hot afternoon exposure.

The program learns from both the successes and failures of its predecessors — the Iowa State College of Design building and the King Pavilion — by establishing an open studio plan while also providing ample flexible space for collaborative work.

Perspective View from West

Systems Section

A1 Foundation Detail

A2 Railing Detail

A3 Wall Floor Detail

A4 Window Detail

A5 Roof Detail

A6 Green Roof Detail

Museum of Human Nature

Centro Citibanamex, Mexico City

Fall 2018 | Partner : Tarun Bhatia

The mission of this concept-driven studio was to challenge the traditional, apolitical museum template of the ‘white cube.’ Rather than a museum that presents truths to be passively consumed, this new typology is to frame questions, that new ideas or perspectives might emerge concerning nature and how it has been historically presented.

Convention centers, under the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, follow an order based on a 10 ft by 10 ft, or 3 m by 3 m, module.

The grid is the perfection of spatial profit, and spatial profit is rent. The grid is an effortless, apathetic tool to divide space for the purpose of profit, and whether at the scale of a region, city, or individual convention booth, reflects a larger political issue - the blindness of capitalistic profiteering that has become a defining characteristic of the relationship between our species and the world.

Concept Diagram

The conceptual centerpiece is that of the “negative solid,” a spatial inverse of capitalistic convention. This concept applied across the convention center forms the framework of the Museum of Human Nature.

In this museum, the existing program is the object on display; what is designed is a lens through which the object is perceived.

Throughout the convention, access to the museum is achieved through white cubes. These moments mark the threshold where the visitor ceases to be the exhibit and instead becomes the observer.

White Cube

The Museum of Human Nature is an introspective museum, that aims to not display objects but relationships, between humans and their environment as well as between each other.

The convention-goer might leave agitated, scared, excited, angry- but ultimately, disoriented, from a museum that offers not answers, but questions, that acts not as void but context, that displays not objects but oneself, a museum that exists as counter narrative to the conventional nature of the white cube, the Cartesian grid, the profit of space.

Traverse - a space of meandering and disorientation

Inhabit - a space to exist withinthe solid

Model Section

Model Interior

Model White Cube

Lincoln Isle

Manhattan, New York

Spring 2018 | Partner : Obhishek Mandal

Finalist, BWBR Design Competition

Set in New York City, Lincoln Isle is a response to the Cartesian grid of Manhattan - a grid dominated by the automobile within a city separated from the scale of the pedestrian. As a residual space between roads dispersing from the Lincoln Tunnel, the site is an opportunity to inverse the relationship between the human and the grid.

The form of Lincoln Isle is a familiar structural order that molds itself toward ground level to create public park space. In this way, power is given to the pedestrian - rather than the automobile - to define circulation and form.

Other significant characteristics of the design are the accentuation of the horizontal and the use of alternating thick and thin floor plates (for span, landscaping, and services between floors). Mass timber was chosen as a sustainable alternative to steel and concrete construction commonplace within the urban environment, and which also aesthetically provides a sense of intimacy and warmth.

A not insignificant consideration was noise, with the site on the doorstep of one of the most traffic-congested entrances to Manhattan, the Lincoln Tunnel. In response, Lincoln Isle is oriented southeast away from the tunnel, with circulation regulated to the northwest facade.

As an isolated site immediately adjacent to a popular landmark, we recognized a potential destination point. To this end, program is biased publicly, with a community park, restaurant, and art showcase at ground level, and a Chelsea Markets-styled marketplace below, hunkered within the concrete island.

Translated vertically, 38th street creates garden and lounge spaces for communal use, with views toward central Manhattan and out to the Hudson River.

Programmatic and Circulation Diagrams

Situated at the gateway to New York, Lincoln Isle is a model for development with public bias, the reclamation of residual space as pedestrian landscape, within a city of ever-increasing scale stifled by the grid which defines its form.

Exterior Landscape

Apartment Interior

Model Perspective

Save the Bay!

Brock Environmental Center

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Spring 2019 | Partner : Tarun Bhatia

In Spring 2019, Iowa State University had the opportunity to collaborate with both the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Virginia Beach Public Schools in the ideation phase of design for a classroom addition to the existing Brock Environmental Center, near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. This project marks one concept which emerged from discussions with current and prospective clients and users in the Virginia Beach community.

Derived from the spiral form of the nautilus, a marine mollusc, the concept is dual-oriented: (1) a point of convergence, where students establish and develop a relationship with the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and (2) a living building with the potential for growth - both in program and form.

This classroom addition is itself a learning tool, with its accessible green roof and its expressive structure and materiality. It also acts as a conduit for accessibility, engaging students with hands-on experimental learning in the Chesapeake Bay.

Site Plan

Rear Perspective View

Model Perspective

Model Roof Detail

Model Bird’s Eye Perspective

Frank House by Bruce Goff

Sapulpa, Oklahoma

Fall 2018

The Frank House, located in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, was designed by Bruce Goff for John and Grace Lee Frank, founders of Frankoma Pottery. Completed in 1956, the home is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house was truly a collaborative effort between architect and client, as Frankoma Pottery manufactured the 2,500 tiles used in its construction.

The Frank House is perhaps most easily noted for its radial plan, which encircles the courtyard, as well as its exterior pool protruding above the terraced slope to the north. Other dominant features include the tower planters that flank the entrance and the tiled facade - with tiles often used in conjunction with glass to create a pattern of diffused light.

This model documents the unique composition of the Frank House and, through the use of limited material, displays its primary form and alignment.

After construction, c.a. 1955

Carport and Entrance

Entrance Towers

Rear Patio