FORM GENERATION PROCESS

A dèrive is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, on which the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography subconsciously direct the travelers, with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic experience

Wanting to truly highlight the self-inflicted destruction Leadville has caused, it’s best to not solely locate one site within the city, instead locate a select group of sites within and around Leadville, each having a history of destruction.

Selection of each individual site followed the guideline of:

HIGHLIGHT SITES OF DESTRUCTION PAST AND PRESENT

Through this we located five total sites within and around Leadville.

Two in the surrounding area. Three inside city limits.

Aspen Forrest

A douglas spruce nursery as none of the aspen groves are native to the area. Surrounded by a valley of dense spruce forest, stick frame construction rose as the preferred construction material with thirty sawmills feeding the boom in building A need for charcoal to fuel the 18 smelters in town raised the demand for timber. As a result, the sawmills stripped the spruce forests of there resources. A century later aspen trees are reforesting the stripped landscape.

Tabor Opera House

An ATM for endless money withdrawls backed by Tabor’s fortune from the endless silver his mines were producing at an astonishing rate seemed incapable of vanishing no matter the purchase. Until 1893 with the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and an oversupply of silver driving down the price of the product. Overnight Tabor’s fortune seemed to vanish.

Random Residential

A 12 person hostel that is closed during the busiest weekends of Leadville - 100 Mile Series weekends. A city that has stayed relativly the same population for the past 5 years suddenly finds itself in a housing crisis. Due to more then half house sales being to second home owners that turn them into short term vacation rentals. An empty town with a housing crisis.

Ice Palace

A highway rest stop, of sorts, with restrooms and tourist information and pamphlets. A last ditch tourism effort to bring people to Leadville, the Ice Palace was a financial disaster for the city causing more ruin to the economy. Plans were thereby abandoned to build one each winter. The current Ice Palace Park is not where the original Ice Palace was located.

Superfund Site Ou 1

A bath house right next to the leach pond of the first ever Environmental Protection Agencies Superfund Site. During the area’s mining boom, dozens of mines were opened, exposing tons of metal-bearing rock to open air. This exposure began the natural process of acid mine drainage, where oxygen reacts with sulfides in mineral-bearing rocks to produce sulfuric acid dissolving iron, copper, and lead that then flows into local water sources.

Colorado Building Workshop Class of ’22 comprising of twentytwo Master of Architecture students, two faculty members from the University of Colorado Denver Colorado Building Workshop, a seasoned Antarctic contractor, and a team of consultants worked together to design, prefabricate, disassemble, ship, and reassemble on site phase one of a field station for NOAA scientists at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica. The station is replacing four 20-year-old buildings where the scientists stay during Antarctica’s austral summer conducting scientific research on the population, behavior, diet, and survival of Antarctic seabirds (skuas, gulls, penguins) and pinnipeds (fur seals and seal).

The Cape Shirreff Field Station celebrates the uniqueness of its context and communicates an ethos of sustainability. Roof forms respond to the environment, harnessing solar energy, collecting, and directing rainwater, and minimizing wind loads. A functional courtyard anchors the campus, providing a sheltered space for work. Living spaces gesture to the east, connecting researchers with a landscape teeming with wildlife. Focused apertures frame scenic views, while the campus fits into the larger sweep of the topography from the low-lying beaches in the east to the looming hills in the west.

To achieve such a project on the timeline we had, we worked in one large group as well as small groups allowing ourselves to head specific tasks related to the design and construction of the build. I worked on the Cladding/Decking Team with Leo Borasio, Robert “Rob” Cleary, Jasmine Jones and Carson McKee. As well as the Sustainability Team with Adam Dergosits, Kathryn Landers, Paola Larios and Adam Sangiolo.

Snow Island

Chile and Argentina

Drake Passage

South Shetland Islands

Antartic Peninsula

Geographic South Pole

Livingston Island

William’s

Greenwich Island Robert Island

Deception Island