Architecture Portfolio of Jamar Moore

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SMALL, MOBILE + OPERABLE Richmond, Virginia

The ability to showcase items that a person makes is key to the success of a business. Being small, mobile, and operable allows for shop to be set up in a quick, efficient, and timely manner. This mobile trailer is for an architectural photographer to be able to shoot, produce, and display prints in any city and situation all on site. The bi-fold doors allow for interaction with customers on the street. At night when the trailer is closed, it can act as a light box or a camera obscura, promoting the photographer’s photos displayed in the windows. Inside of the trailer is a dark room that can be opened to become a personal office when not in use. The interior can also be arranged in multiple configurations depending on the use.

The point of the mobile studio was not to bring customers to the photographer, but to bring the photographer to potential customers. The key to success is the ability to connect with the customer. The ability to open the bi-fold doors breaks down the barriers that would bar communication from those passing by.

Center for the Study of the American South Savannah,

Georgia

Since the mid 1800s, the South has been one of the poorest regions in the nation. Over the past few decades the Southern economy has grown, but the resulting prosperity is unevenly distributed. Small rural towns as well as inner cities still suffer from the blights of poverty, discrimination, lack of education, and inadequate resources. Some areas in the South that have improved the standard of living in many ways have done so at the risk of diluting the region’s rich cultural heritage as well as its natural beauty and environmental resources. Maintaining a vital connection to its storied history is critical if the South is to retain its identity – an identity shaped not just by social injustice and poverty but also by the brilliant work of a myriad of statesmen, artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers.

This project aimed to create a center that acknowledged the South’s troubling history and celebrated its contributions to American culture. It houses digital and physical collections, a recording space for the collection of oral histories, workspace for visiting scholars, and a café.

In designing this center, inspiration was taking from a symbol of Savannah: the live oak tree. The live oak is known for its ability to withstand strong storms due to its deep roots and its ability to remain green through the winter while most oak trees become leafless. The roots of the building are the columns that ground the building to the ground and are from which the building grows from. However, unlike Symbolizing the trunk of the tree is a central monumental stair that ascends the building. Off of the stairs are a series of rooms that act as branches that become increasingly private as one ascends higher into the building similar. The punched screens along the facade act as leaves, filtering the direct sunlight into diffused lighting. The Ground floor of the building contains a lobby, cafe and bookstore that can open up to the street and neighboring park. The right side of the building contains gallery spaces with the user wrapping around the “trunk” of the building. The right side contains more private functions such as the archives and working spaces of the building.

Overture: Opera in Charlotte

Charlotte, North Carolina

The project scope for this studio is a Thermal Theatre, introducing the first opera hall to the growing city of Charlotte. The site is located in the Second Ward neighborhood of Uptown Charlotte, at the corner of S. Tryon and E. Stonewall. Uptown Charlotte is largely business-oriented with a mix of educational, cultural and residential areas. To the north the site is located near several art museums, a cultural center and a theater, effectively extending an existing cultural corridor. To the south it is bordered by I-277 with views to South End. The chosen location has the ability to play a very strong role in creating a prominent gateway to Uptown and the Levine Center for the Arts and has the potential to make a very strong connection between South End and Uptown. Its design must consider the existing cultural centers and welcome the business activities that currently dominate Uptown.

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procession to the opera hall. In order to combat this view, the design goals aim to promote the interaction between the general public and the patrons of the opera. Through the elongation of the theater procession with the placement of the café and box o ce on the opposite edge of the site, the space in between becomes a dynamic public space for interaction. The current site lacks vegetation that could aid in passive cooling strategies. The proposal addresses this by considering building orientation in order to condition the exterior space and create unique thermal experiences. The opera house has the ability to facilitate additional cultural performances and includes exterior venue space that utilizes existing topographical features to generate a variety of thermal qualities. All of these strategies are meant to better anchor itself as a prominent activity center within the city. Through these tactics, the proposal becomes the stage and audience of cultural activity within the heart of Charlotte.

Traditionally, the opera has been a stage for the rich and political elites, an exclusive place to see and be seen through the procession to the opera hall. In order to combat this view, the design goals aim to promote the interaction between the general public and the patrons of the opera. Through the elongation of the theater procession with the placement of the café and box office on the opposite edge of the site, the space in between becomes a dynamic public space for interaction. The current site lacks vegetation that could aid in passive cooling strategies. The proposal addresses this by considering building orientation in order to condition the exterior space and create unique thermal experiences. The opera house has the ability to facilitate additional cultural performances and includes exterior venue space that utilizes existing topographical features to generate a variety of thermal qualities. All of these strategies are meant to better anchor itself as a prominent activity center within the city. Through these tactics, the proposal becomes the stage and audience of cultural activity within the heart of Charlotte.

Taking into consideration the history of the procession in classical opera designs, our design follows the approach of contemporary opera house designs by allowing transparency and blurring the lines of what is public and private. This was done by bisecting the site so that half of the lot was given back to the city of Charlotte as a public plaza and the other was set aside for the design of the Opera Hall.

A wide, monumental ramp begins the procession to the main entrance of the opera hall which gives people a place to congregate outside as there is little space to congregate with in the opera hall itself. It is here that storefront windows have the ability to pivot, opening the building to the public, blurring what is inside and what is outside. The ramp continues up to the third level allowing access to the seating there as well as a sloped lawn, created by the sloped roof of the restaurant, that looks back towards the plaza and the city which is a performance in itself. The procession turns around the backside of the building and steps down past the offices and rehearsal hall towards College Street and the Westin Hotel. An internal procession activates the facade through the movement of people, reinforcing the idea that the opera hall not only contains performances within; it can become a performance itself.

The Railyard

Charlotte, North Carolina

The Charlotte Railyard will be a new neighborhood that mends a gap in the urban fabric of the City of Charlotte. Located just 4 blocks northeast of Uptown, the 210 acre site, with its two light rail stations, will be a model for transit-oriented development while providing a vibrant, safe, and healthy place to live, work, and play.

The development will feature a mix of residential, retail, office, educational, and hotel space, as well as over 26 acres of park space, and a redesign of Tryon Street. Creating a connection between Uptown Charlotte, Lockwood, and the thriving neighborhood of NoDa, the Rail Yard development will include: A Maker’s Market, providing work space, an education center, and housing for Charlotte’s creative class; A Main Street district housing independent boutiques, restaurants, cafés and a grocery store; An expanded cultural and recreational district with a large gateway plaza; Two large parks surrounded by high density residences near light rail stations; Lockwood South and Optimum Park, extensions of existing residential neighborhoods that reconnect the site to its surrounding context.

With the opportunity to move the storage functions of the existing railyard to the freight yard at the airport, and the Amtrak Terminal to the proposed multi-modal station in uptown, we propose that the significantly decreased train traffic be moved into a tunnel under the site, to open up its neighborhood potential. The architecture of this new development will reflect the area’s industrial history, while reusing many of the existing buildings and materials on the site.

I was tasked with designing six blocks with the Maker’s Village neighborhood. Maker’s Village in the northern section of the development that features existing industrial buildings and a piped stream. Many of the existing buildings along the western boundary of the site were brick structures that could be adapted and reused for the Makerspaces. A small stream was daylight as a swale. The existing trees surrounding the area of the swale were maintained and protected by the creation of a linear park. Bordering the linear park are new six-story apartments that frame the park along with a row of townhouses and a complex of mews that provide a diverse portfolio of housing for those working in the Maker’s Village. Despite being new construction, they would take cues from the existing buildings in terms of materiality and character, adding to the industrial make up of the neighborhood.

Toronto’s Playground

Toronto, Ontario

The mission of Toronto’s Playground is to provide the city’s increasingly diverse population with an equally diverse recreation and community space, focusing on the multidimensionality of play and its effects on the mind, body, and soul; This results in a public space where residents can relax or challenge themselves while interacting with people who they ordinarily would not have the chance to, building community and social capital.

Toronto’s Playground focused on play based on the ‘live, work, play’ philosophy and the future needs of the area. To the west, the West Don Valley plan will provide the area with a diverse mix of housing; to the south, the East Harbor plan will provide the area with high-rise office complexes. Our site seeks to provide the missing ‘play’ aspect in the ‘live, work, play’ philosophy while seamlessly blending the edges of the three different proposals together. The sites connectivity is improved with the reconnection of Eastern Avenue across the river and the slimming of the Don Valley Parkway, allowing safe and enjoyable pedestrian access to the waterfront.

The ‘body’ park serves as the major axis of the site - bound by high-rise mixed-use residential buildings, a high rise office building, and a multi-modal transit station. The transit station increases Toronto’s Playground’s connection to the city center that is 2 miles to the East. Parking for the site is located in a deck under the park and can be accessed through the transit station. The deck not only provides parking for those living, working, and playing at Toronto’s Playground but it also offers a place for people who live further from public transit to ‘park and ride’ one of the many routes that service the station.

A community center is located in the lower floors of the mixed-use residential building closest to Broadview Avenue. The community center will provide indoor recreation space, education and employment services, and affordable coworking space. The community center will also serve as the manager of Toronto’s playground’s outdoor recreation space, comprised of the ‘body’ park, ‘mind’ park, ‘soul’ park, and riverwalk. The ‘body’ park boasts a high ropes course, rock climbing boulders, fitness equipment, and a playground; creating a space that makes physical fitness less mundane while offering opportunities for corporate and community team building exercises.

The ‘mind’ park asks users to engage their imagination at the ‘build your own playground’ station, comprised of temporary structures made with builders boards. The ‘mind’ park also includes a sensory garden and a demonstration space for the community center to host educational workshops. The ‘soul’ park offers a forest theater, surrounded by existing trees, where a variety of cultural performances will take place. The ‘soul’ park also provides unprogrammed green space.

While I contributed to all aspects of the design, I focused on the riverwalk portion of the project. The goal was to reconnect Torontonians to the water by providing space that could be utilized during every season of the year. Spaces were created so that there could be active participation (actively engaging the river) or passive participation (places to watch and observe).

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Camp North End

Charlotte, North Carolina

Camp North End is in the heart of the North End Smart District. The site is 76 acres and includes buildings that date back to 1924, when Ford built a factory there to produce Model T’s and Model A’s. It later became a manufacturing site for missiles. In its modern stage, CNE is a creativity hub, allowing space for young entrepreneurs the opportunity to flourish in affordable spaces. Building off the creativity the area currently holds, Camp North End is an ideal location for art and inclusivity, which became large focuses throughout its redesign.

Being the anchor for the North End Smart District, the central design idea of Camp North End was to provide a space for urban and digital art, the cultivation of food, and depiction of Charlotte’s history. The site will serve as a cultural node that is inclusive to all and will allow for social engagement between neighborhoods and other surrounding areas. An initial analysis of the site showcased the lack of green space as well as a lack of larger scale living near social landscapes became apparent. These became parts of the design that were deemed necessary.

Navigation throughout the site was an important factor in CNE’s design. Due to large scale of the site, creating a road and pedestrian network was vital. Most of the important programmatic pieces are branched off of Main Street, the most central street within the site. Some of these programmatic pieces are: Working/Productive Landscapes, Social Landscapes, Ecological Landscapes, Community Open Spaces.

The vision for the site was to create a mixed-use community based on the creative arts and innovation that could adapt to changing times. Similar to how Camp North End has adapted to use changes from its humble beginnings as a Ford Factory, to an artillery and ammunition factory during World War II to a drug store factory at the later years of its usage, the goal was to program flexible spaces that could serve various functions and promote walkability and interactive streets. Historic buildings would be repurposed to serve the needs of tomorrow. Social engagement is something that Charlotte lacks was something that needed to be addressed at the site so this was pushed by having green spaces off of the Main Street to connected to the Plaza at the heart of Camp North End and the Commuter Rail Station. Both the Plaza and the commuter rail station would be hubs of activity and social engagement.

SeaVive

Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark

In 2030, Copenhagen is a city built on borrowed time. The water surrounding Copenhagen is steadily rising as many refused to accept global warming as an issue. The rising water, which causes consistent localized flooding, has threatened the welfare of all communities located along the harbor of Copenhagen. The Freetown of Christiania, an experimental commune along the harbor, struggles to deal with the water bordering the northeastern and western edges of the community. The commune, which was protected by a series of berms and ramparts that were created while the site was a fortified military barracks, now witnesses these man-made defenses failing against the forces of nature as water breaches over them at the slightest amount of rain. The people of Christiania have tried resisting the issues of flooding by creating other man-made infrastructure such as riparian buffers and floodable parks to supplement the failing defensive borders, however, the water continues to rise. The commune makes the decision to retreat to higher ground, heeding the warnings and efforts of the Danish government to assimilate with the citizens of Copenhagen.

The year is 2100. What was once a dream of the original inhabitants of Freetown Christiania is now a reality as it is physically disconnected from Copenhagen. The only visible aspect of the old world in Christiania are the pitched roofs of single-story structures that have yet to collapse dotting the seascape and a few feet of the defensive berms that circled the commune poking above the water. A few multistory structures remain with the upper floors occupied by Christianianites until deemed unsafe as the lower story slowly disintegrates from being submerged underwater. Between the remaining buildings are floating platforms, that act as the new public space for Christiania. These platforms contain new buildings, civic space, and green space, allowing for a new civilization to come to fruition. As the remaining existing buildings are deemed unsafe, they are demolished and the space is filled in with a platform with new buildings and open space; what used to be streets are now canals, where old buildings used to stand are now platforms where new buildings sit. The commune is revived. New floating districts are established outside of downtown Christiania to house the citizens and provide local markets, parks, and infrastructure. As one moves further from the downtown core, the districts become less dense, more sub-urban. This is Christiania.

Enabling the commune to float is the modular seasteading platform that is can be expanded to fit the needs of the community. The caissons are kept in place by piles allowing the platforms to rise and fall with the water levels. The platforms are based on a 100 ft by 100 ft module that create 400’ x 400’ micro communities within the commune. These communities relate back to the existing neighborhoods that existed before the commune became inundated by water with an urban neighborhood, a medium density suburban neighborhood, and a low density suburban neighborhood. These platforms also form pathways around existing buildings that have not succumbed to the floodwaters.

Within the caissons lives all of the electrical and water systems. Christiania is largely self sufficient with rainwater collections systems and solar panels integrated into each building, however, the commune is still connected to the grid as the power station located near the commune has not been affected by the rising waters. Modular houses and buildings plug into each platform. Vegetation such as shrubbery, grasses and small trees can be planted on the platforms for shading, farming, and leisure.