GRAHAM MURTHA
Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture
Selected Works - 2025
PART I
UPHAM’S CORNER LIBRARY
S23 | Jeremy Ficca, Gerard Damiani
7, VRAY
The Uphams corner branch library on Columbia Ave is a project that strives to welcome the community with a transparent, western street facing facade, while creating a more intimate, enclosed experience for the user on the eastern side. This dichotomy creates the idea of a gradient throughout the entire project- as we move from west to east, the building moves from light and open to heavy and enclosed. The library interior supports the transparency of its western elevation by having an open, long public program with visual access from end to end. Additionally, the second floor, offset from the western edge of the building, features a long mezzanine that overlooks the public reading sections, and connects directly to the primary entrance lobby for easy access.
The overhang of the eastern elevation functions as a transitional porch space between the outdoors and indoors. The facade of this overhang features staggered wooden paneling, a material that synthesizes with the trees of the courtyard.
THE SWAN: THEATRE ON THE THAMES
S24 | Hal Hayes, Juney Lee
The Thames Theatre, nicknamed the Swan, is a concrete structure floating above the Thames river at Southbank Centre in London. The Swan has two main venues- an adjustable, enclosed house space with 500 seats maximum, and an outdoor amphitheatre which offers its audience a wide view of the river. The form is defined by its location along the riverbend, as its two framed structures, the restaurant and the enclosed theatre, are aligned with the tangents of either entrance to Southbank as one walks along the esplanade. The building sits at the midpoint of Southbank’s two border-like bridges. As one’s view is oriented towards the river and the corresponding bridge at all times, the experience within the building is one of constant dialogue with the bridges and the space created between them.
The bridge that crosses over the esplanade from the elevated walkway is lined with greenery, as well as the entrance foyer, to allow for the intersection of two similar experiences, overlaid and rotated on top of each other. This intersection that replaces the former “festival pier” is a crucial aspect of the project, as it is the functional centre of most pedestrian circulation throughout the site. The Swan embraces this convergence by using it as the root of its growth out upon the river.
