Graham Parks Woodworking & Architecture Portfolio
GRAHAM PARKS
Phone: (276)233-0308
E D U C AT I O N VIRGINIA TECH - 2016-2021
e-mail: gparks230@gmail.com
D I G I TA L T O O L S
ACCOLADES AND MISC.
Currently pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture
ARROWMONT SCHOOL OF ARTS AND CRAFTS - 2019 Received woodworking instruction from artists Adam Hawk,Samuel Avelino, and Peggy Schmid
PENLAND SCHOOL OF CRAFT - 2019 Received instruction in table making from Jason Schneider
SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL - 2014-2016 Dual enrollment program in Pulaski, Virginia
Revit Enscape Rhinoceros Sketchup Photoshop InDesign Lightroom AutoCAD Microsoft Suite
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY - 2019 1st PLACE INTEGRATIVE STUDIO COMPETITION - 2019 EAGLE SCOUT - 2016
GALAX HIGH SCHOOL - 2011-2016
WORK OWPR: ARCHITECTS & ENGINEERS: INTERN - 2020 I edited project drawings in Revit. I produced renders, graphics, diagrams, and other visual aids using Sketchup and Photoshop for client meetings in the schematic phase of a future project. I also toured projects under construction to take note of potential ligature risks and sat in on contractor meetings. I also reviewed site evaluation documents.
ARROWMONT SCHOOL OF ARTS AND CRAFT: STUDIO ASSISTANT - 2019 I assisted students in the design and fabrication of their projects in the shop, I provided materials and infor mation for instructors during their workshops, as well as organized presentations of their work. I also presented discussions of my own work and constructed special requests for the other studios on campus.
noroof Architects: INTERN - 2019 I created renders and graphics for the fir m’s new website, edited drawings in CAD, presented drawings to clients and developers, participated in GC meetings, and made site visits in Brooklyn, NY. During some of my work hours I per for med finish carpentry on the exterior facade of a project as well as some refurbishing on the inside.
APPALACHAIN CENTER FOR CRAFT: STUDIO ASSISTANT - 2018 I helped to organize 8 students for a table-making workshop. I discussed design with each of them, going over the operation of each tool in the shop and how this would affect the outcome of their projects.
Hotel
in
Downtown Blacksburg
Summer Studio 2020 Blacksburg, Virginia Professors: Heinrich Schnoedt Kevin Jones Program: Hotel - 16 Rooms and Office Area Cafe Rooftop Bar and Pool Total Square Footage: 30,000 sq. ft.
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 7
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 8
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 9
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
The project took over two pre-existing lots, creating a public concourse to the municipal parking lot and providing a oneway traffic loop with which to drop off guests closer to the reception area. The first floor program includes a cafe area that is visually open at street level, as well as direct access to the hotel stairwell so that guests may access their room without going through the cafe.
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 10
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
ELEVATION BLACKSBURG
HOTEL - 11
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
Studies of the interior to see how their organization and construction will influence the exterior composition.
EXPERIENTIAL
< View of the illuminated facade from the rear parking lot at night.
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 12
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
Drive-Through Elevation
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SUMMER STUDIO 2020
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 14
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
Alley Elevation
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 15
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
Parking Lot Elevation
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 16
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
Main Street Elevation
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 17 The first floor is primarily a retail space with the cafe, restrooms for customers, reception desk for guests, and an office area for hotel employees. The guestrooms are all located above the first floor with a centrally located elevator and lounge on each floor. On the top floor there is an open air pool and bar.
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 18
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 19
The concept for the lobby was to provide a visually clean but substantial interior to greet guests, create a warm envirionment for cafe customers to enjoy coffee and pastries, and provide a neutral backdrop for local artists to display there work. The interior consists of exposed laminated wood structural members and white- painted brick infill walls.
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 20
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 21
Guest rooms were imagined with homey and indivdual experiences for each guest. The rooms were to be furnished with tables and bookshelves full of found objects from local antique stores and minimal partition walls so that guests could float between the barn-like structure into different living spaces.
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 22
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
BLACKSBURG HOTEL - 23
The rooftop bar was imagined as a fair weather space, with a covered bar to protect hotel employees and guests from overexposure, and with views overlooking all of Blacksburg. The pool took inspiration from local creeks as a pool at the base of a waterfall where guests could lounge with water trickling down the wall behind them.
SUMMER STUDIO 2020
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 24
FALL STUDIO 2019
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 25
FALL STUDIO 2019
George Washington Carver Community Center 1st Place ntegrative Studio Competition
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 26
FALL STUDIO 2019
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FALL STUDIO 2019
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FALL STUDIO 2019
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 29
FALL STUDIO 2019
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 30
FALL STUDIO 2019
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 31
FALL STUDIO 2019
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 32
FALL STUDIO 2019
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 33
FALL STUDIO 2019
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 34
FALL STUDIO 2019
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 35
FALL STUDIO 2019
The George Washington Carver Education Center aims to stand as a community symbol for the neighborhood of Gainsboro while provding a space for residents to gather, learn, and have open discussion on community affairs. To service these activities, the space consists of a Tenant Shop and Gallery, a Kitchen Workshop, Classrooms, and a Meeting Hall. The design starts with a study of the site’s history, local landmarks, and how architecture can assimilate the ideas of Wall, History, and Community into a multi-use space that can provide for the community well-being. The result are three massive walls of brick. These walls house the boxes of program and the intersection of these entities create interesting and unexpected spaces for rest or meeting at their intersection.
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 36
FALL STUDIO 2019
SOUTHWEST ELEVATION
5TH STREET
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 37
ELEVATION
FALL STUDIO 2019
LOUDON AVENUE ELEVATION
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FALL STUDIO 2019
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FALL STUDIO 2019
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FALL STUDIO 2019
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FALL STUDIO 2019
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FALL STUDIO 2019
GWC COMMUNITY CENTER - 43
FALL STUDIO 2019
Thesis 2021
This thesis is an exploration into making architecture as a piece of furniture or object. ~ My work consists of reflections on how craft is approached and examinations of the dialogue an object has with its environment through iterations of sketching, photography, and making.The exploratory phase of my work began with the creation of objects, and studying what dialogues they implied. ~
~ To do this I began asking questions of them that I would continue to ask of the furniture and architecture. ~
~When is it used?
~Where did the material come from?
~How was it made?
~How does this material respond to that tool?
~What kind of light does it live in?
~What kind of image reveals its character?
~ In order to further my conversation I began exploring the Grayson Highlands State Park and Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area. Trekking through its deep forested gullies, to its high mountain meadows, I discovered moments of potential for a space to enter into dialogue with an object. I took these moments back with me and began to explore how the confluence of an object, site, and architecure can outline a story of place.
These expeditions into the park have provided the frameowrk for my thesis project, in the form of shelters of varying degree of residency along the trails of the park. ~
~ The first shelter began on the Cabin Creek trail. This loops ascends alongside a cascading stream in a gully below Wilburn Ridge.
I had come looking for the waterfall at the end but was suprised to learn that this creek was stocked with brook trout. There was a small fishing shack away from the bank, but I began to wonder if there was a more meaningful way to conect to the creek. What would make a good place to fix your line? and if someone were just there to rest, could it still heighten the sense of place on the edge of this stream? ~
~ I started with the bench, I had carved a surface that rippled like the water and changed with the light and shadow that passed over it, and by floating the top away from the edges of the legs, established the relationship between the deck of the shack with its structure. ~
~ To bring the fishing shack into the site I kept going back to the detail; each time trying to create a more intimate connection with the material I was building on, and being more sensitive toward the material I was building with .
A roof of tin became woven vines, steel footers became scorched timbers that would swell into stones, and the steps that would choke the path down to the creek were removed so the shack would shelter stones delivering a person to the water. ~
~ The second shelter is situated 4 miles west among the trees of the Elk Garden section of the Appalachain Trail. Here I was struck by how light filtered through the canopy and across the trunks of trees, but by the end of the hike, my feet were tired.
This thought inspired a stool for taking off your boots at the end of a day of hiking while also making it easier to put them on the morning after when you wake up stiff. ~
~ The spindle joinery of the stool comes from traditional methods used in making windsor style chairs found throughout appalachia, and the seat was formed using a drawknife and coopering plane I made from an old plane iron. ~
~ The existence of a stool implied the presence of shelter. ~
~ So I began to think of an overnight shelter on this part of the AT that would host through hikers and bridge the forest floor to the treeline. The relationship of the stool’s undercarriage to the seat would go on to inform the construction of the shelter under a canvas sail dyed with oak tannins hoisted among the tree tops ~
~ Again, I began to re-engage what I had constructed with the site, trying to tell the story of this place through scenes of where the object creates a moment of place. ~
FURNITURE - 70
Bench 2018. 60” x 21” x 20” Cherry & Red Maple
FURNITURE - 71
Lounge Chair 2019. 19” x 20” x 36” Cherry & Red Maple
FURNITURE - 72
Writing Desk 2020. 44” x 22” x 29” Walnut & Red Maple
FURNITURE - 73
Living Room Console 2020. 36” x 18” x 30” Walnut & Soft Maple
FURNITURE - 74
Lingerie Chest 2019. 23” x 14” x 50” Cherry & Soft Maple
FURNITURE - 75
Side Table
Coffee Table
2018. 20” x 18” x 24” Walnut, Maple, Cherry, Oak
2019. 50” x 20” x 19” Cherry & Soft Maple
FURNITURE - 76
Stool
Plant Stand
Footrest
2018. 16” x 14” x 18” Oak & Hard Maple
2018. 24” x 14” x 30” Cherry & Maple
2020. 18” x 16” x 16” Red Oak, Acrylic Paint, & Dyed Cotton Tape
TURNING - 77
Plate
Plate
2019. 8” x 2” Red Gum Burl, Fabric Dye, & Metallic Paints
2019. 12” x 2” Red Gum Burl, Fabric Dye, & Metallic Paints
Plate
Plate
2019. 12” x 3” x 2” Cherry, Fabric Dye, & Metallic Paints
2019. 12” x 2” Sycamore, Fabric Dye, & Metallic Paints
TURNING - 78
Urn 2019. 16” x 6” Walnut, Ash, & Honduran Mahogany
Cup Stem Vessels
2019. 5” x 4” Honduran Mahogany
2020. 36”, 27”, & 24” x 2.5” Cherry, Walnut, Oak, Ash, & Graphite
Bowl
Bowl
2019. 18” x 6” Cherry, Fabric Dye, & Metallic Paints
2019. 7” x 10” Spalted Cherry
CURRENT WORK - 79
Carved Vessels 6” x 8” White Oak
Bowl
Vessel
Vessel
12” x 6” White Oak
4” x 6” White Oak
4” x 5” White Oak