Emily Franco Architecture Portfolio 2024

Emily Franco

Hello! I am an undergraduate architecture student currently studying at Carnegie Mellon University. The following is a collection of selected works in which I have eagerly explored various skills and knowledge in pursuit of my passion and curiosity in architectural design.

Emily Franco

Upham’s Corner Library

Boston, MA | Spring 2023

In a growing, high-density neighborhood that lacks gathering and play spaces, this design proposes a space for community growth and engagement through a public library. The design focuses on flexibility of use and exploration of play, information, and community. The library takes on an irregular shape in plan to inspire curiosity while visually remaining in cohesion with its neighborhood aesthetics through materiality and orientation. While primarily surrounded by residential buildings, the site is situated within the neighborhood’s busiest area, between a high-traffic road supporting a few commercial buildings and a quiet historic cemetery. Due to a lack of public infrastructure, the sidewalks are simply modes of travel and do not support community interaction. Moreover, the cemetery is gated and off-limits unless special permission is acquired. This library proposal aims to strengthen community ties by introducing welcoming spaces that address the lack of public amenities and the uninviting environments that populate the neighborhood’s center.

In order to become a vital community space for the neighborhood, this library addresses one of the area’s most pressing issues: a lack of publically accessible greenspace. Within the property, the library has a large multi-functional plaza, which shares an edge with the main street, a smaller seating area near the side entry, which blends into the sidewalk, and a third more secluded garden space, which can only be accessed through the library.

Top: Short Section Through Bookself Area, Primary Reading Section, Front Desk and Children’s Section

Bottom: Northwest Elevation Showing Public Plaza, Primary Entrance, and Secondary Entrance

The interior continues the idea of accessibility and openness with a design that emphasizes long sight lines throughout the library space; from the front desk (placed in the center of the double-height space), one can see upstairs, the children’s section, the garden through the windows, and the general shelving area.

This design also proposes a space for community growth and engagement with gathering and play spaces in and outside the library. Apart from the main entry, the library has a secondary entrance that can be sealed off from the rest of the library, thus providing a community room that can be used for events or that can operate at different hours than the library. The main facade is composed of a transparent ground floor to engage the library’s main interior space with the outside sidewalk and a solid upper-story facade, allowing a more secluded and quiet interior experience. The windows on the upper floor protrude at varied angles from the facade to create colorful reading niches.

Render looking at Public Plaza and Main Entrance

Model looking at Secondary Entrance

Rendered View of Atrium with Front Desk and Primary Reading Space

Model of Library

Front Facade and Public Plaza

Chunk Model Showing Interior Reading Spaces and Facade

This library uses primarily mass timber constructions. Most of the walls are supported by CLT panels, and heavy timber beams support both the sawtooth roof and lower roof. Since the primary space has a considerable roof span, steel girders, which can span longer distances while maintaining a smaller depth, are used to hold up smaller wooden beams that hold up the sawtoothed roof. CLT panels are used in areas where the experience and views of the library are focused inward, such as the children’s section, the staff rooms, bathrooms, and storage. Columns and beams are used for areas that emphasize openness, transparency, and community, such as in the atrium, community rooms, maker space, and primary reading spaces.

Sunlight access through skylights in sawtooth roof.

Sunlight access through sawtooth windows in children’s section.

02

Planting Our Way to the Future

Pittsburgh, PA | Fall 2023

West Homewood is a low-income neighborhood in Pittsburgh that has minimal access to essential living resources, such as food access, green spaces, and educational spaces. This proposal is a STEAM Learning public school for grades K-5. The school aims to foster confidence and curiosity for the students through hands-on learning, but it also aims to become an asset for the community. Children have access to several gardens and outdoor play areas, some private and others public, such as the park, which serves as a welcoming transition point between neighborhood and school. This project was done in collaboration with Tzushan Chu, Eesha Nagpal, and Akanksha Tayal.

Diagrams

Most of Homewood is made up of low-density residential areas that do not support commercial activity. Within Homewood, there are few options to access resources (supermarkets, delis, food gardens) for food, home goods, parks, and public amenities. Due to the lack of food access, this school aims to provide the neighborhood and its students’ access to healthy foods through community gardens located throughout the school grounds, for public and school use.

Primary Facade of Public STEAM School

As an asset to the community, it is essential that the community feel welcomed and included; this is both a programmatic and architectural concern.

To connect the community, a yellow pathway that marks the learning journey leads from the residential neighborhood, through a public park, to the school and ends at the YWCA, which is an established community center. The school also aims to integrate community involvement through programs such as a food stall, run by the students who would sell produce they grow, a community garden, and a lending library, where community members can borrow gardening tools and books and buy seeds.

Elevation Along Gerritt Street Showing Scrim as Shading Device for Atrium and Fence for Terrace

Diagonal Bracing of Gym Spanning Girder with I-beam and Concrete Pier

Moment Joint Connection for Areas with Large Glazing

Column and Beam Connection to Gym Spanning System

General Connection with Crossbracing for Lateral Forces

The proposed building is built using a grid of steel I-beams that have expectations for the gym, which has a long span of 60 feet, and the verticle service core, which holds the bathrooms and MEP rooms. The gym has the most unique design in this building, as two floating columns that land within the gym’s span support two floors above the gym. The two columns rest on 4-foot deep girders that span the gym; concrete piers support the girders.

Top: Framing Plan and Sizing of Structural Members

Left: Building Structure Composition and Connection Details

Short Section Showing Atrium, Hallways, Gym, and Classrooms

This project also looked at integrating mechanical and educational spaces while focusing on sustainability, occupant comfort, and education. Several multipurpose conditions were designed, such as green roods that served as play, learning, and growing spaces while also lowering the energy loads of the school and a thickened wall that allowed for mechanical space and opportunities for reading nooks and built-in shelves.

Interacting With Forgotten Landscapes

Pittsburgh, PA | Fall 2022

This project proposes three building programs on different sites inspired by various Pittsburgh demographics and connected by the common themes of greenery and movement. Each of the chosen sites has been neglected in different ways; on Brunot Island, there is an overground power plant; on the Monongahela Incline, the slope remains undeveloped; and on the Northshore, there is a lack of community due to mega-structures. The form of each site is inspired by hybrids made from precedents we studied early in the project. This project was done in collaboration with Tzushan (Violet) Chu.

Monongahel a

Monongahela Incl i n e

Site 2: Public Library Integrated with a

Site 1: Artist’s Residences and Studio Integrated with a Park, Monongahela Incline

and Campsite, Brunot Island

Site 3: Social Housing Apartments Integrated with a Park, Northshore District

These four hybrid architectures were made from six different precedent studies and represent different architectural morphologies: a market, stilt houses, step-wells, social housing, a recycling center, and green roofs. Each one of the projects proposed for each site integrates different combinations of this list of morphologies and embraces the concept of multi-use buildings and spaces to integrate social, environmental, and financial hubs.

Stepwalls x Galata Bridge Stepwells x Stilt Housing

Brooklyn Grange x Crest Apartments

Refuse Center x Brooklyn Grange

Located on the Monongahela Incline, this is a proposal for an arts center focused on reusing materials and revaluing forgotten items, such as litter. A meandering path serves as a park along the steep terrain and leads to private artists’ residences, studios, and areas for community engagement. The path begins at the bottom of the mountain, near a shopping and recreational hub.

The proposal for Brunot Island is a public library that extends onto the island into a system of modular cabins for housing and reading spaces with pathways leading down onto the island itself. The island is mostly abandoned. Thus, the aim of this proposal is economic and environmental revival. The library is built onto a decommissioned railroad bridge, and the modular spaces are built on stilts to stress minimal intervention of the architecture.

On the Northshore District, an apartment building intersecting the Three River’s Heritage Trail is proposed for low-income families. The trail becomes part of a park that is encapsulated by the soft story of the apartment building but continues vertically as private terrace gardens. There are terraces are isolated for residential use and can host small gardens and farms that can offer a source of healthy food and a small side income if the produce is sold.

04

Journey Through The Patchwork

Pittsburgh, PA | Spring 2022

This project uses concepts and methods used in the fabric arts to articulate a proposal for a Fabric Arts Institute. The basis of the design is the division of the massing into two main sections, each utilizing the same design patterns but in contrasting ways to stress casual interaction. The two sections of the massing are stitched together with central corridors, which support various modes of activities and encourage moments of conversation, observation, and curiosity between students from different fabric arts studies. The use of simple and direct circulation also allows for easy wayfinding and flexible use of the hallways, which support study spaces, galleries, and lounges. Vertical organization is defined by these two types of programmed spaces sections, which can further be defined as educational spaces versus service and private spaces.

The proposed building is located in the neighborhood of Garfield. It sits within a commercial area that supports several shops, cafes, restaurants, and other small businesses, such as dental offices and daycares. Since many people would walk past the front facade, the first floor has large windows that look into a gallery where students can present and showcase their work. A large community space and gift shop are also on the first floor. The second and third floors are dedicated studios, standard rooms, and offices, which are more secluded from the street level.

Site Plan of Fabric Institute

Model Showing Approach towards Main Entrance from Penn Ave. and Millvale Ave. Intersection

Study of a Typical Sewing Studio Layout

KITCHEN

TERRACE

GROUND FLOOR

2ND FLOOR

3RD FLOOR

Front Elevation Along Penn Ave.

Side Elevation Along S. Millvale Ave.

Back Elevation Along Comrie Way

Interior View of 3rd Floor Hallway

The top set of diagrams explains how hallways on each floor encourage interaction between peers while allowing for easy wayfinding with direct, straight routes to each room. Yellow-marked areas are designed for interaction; on the second floor, this area is a seating area; on the third floor, this area is a gallery and crit zone. Green notes primary circulation space, and blue notes transition to service areas. The diagrams below denote interior spaces divided into educational areas encouraging interaction (yellow) and service and private, focus spaces (blue).

Activity Across Hallways: travel (green), transition (blue), interactive (yellow)