2021 Portfolio

JEFFREY ALEX

Jeffrey Alex

jeffreyalex.com

jeffreyalex@gmail.com

Architecture is the embodiment of different forms of communication. It fuels curiosity, exploration, and discovery — a form of communication only encountered through spatial experiences. This portfolio demonstrates my journey to understand and organize these sensory experiences.

1

Professional Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, 2017 - 2021

2

Academic Northeastern University, 2011 - 2016

3 Independent Drawings, Paintings, & Mixed Media

Tusen Takk Guest House & Art Studio

Leland, MI with Peter Bohlin, Jeff Jones, and Todd Howard Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, 2019

Years after the completion of their house in 2014, an artistic couple returned to Peter Bohlin with the desire to add a separate guest house, workshop studio, and prayer building to their property.

While the existing house peeks over the shore of Michigan’s Leelanau Penninsula, the workshop and forest building are immersed into a dense sea of trees. The form of the new building responds to environmental restrictions and angulates along the valley created by the rolling terrain of coastal sand dunes.

The artist’s workshop and studio bend against the dwelling space to create a courtyard, and the building form begins to narrow as it progresses into the woods, which then dramatically expands to frame the forest outside.

Project completion photographs by Tusen Takk Foundation.

Original Sketch by Peter Bohlin

Nature of Circumstance

The unique form of this project is driven by BCJ’s efforts to respond to the nature of the site, rather impose our will on a place. Studies through models and drawings helped us to create an immersive experience in the existing forest by framing the landscape rather than interrupting it.

Colors are present throughout the house to inspire creativity for artists-in-residence. They are able to use the wood workshop, painting studio, and printing space during their stay at the Tusen Takk Foundation.

Art Studio

Guest House

Colors run through to the dwelling space of the house, which shapes a courtyard for outdoor work and presentation, two bedrooms, a stepped porch with a conncection to the forest, and a loom room.

Meditation Building

Leland, MI

with Peter Bohlin, Jeff Jones, and Todd Howard Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, 2019

Construction of a small meditation building, perched atop a steep 40’ bluff overlooking Lake Michigan is underway. There is no plumbing, electrical, or mechanical connection to the building, and aside from a wood stove, it is designed to be empty — reserved serenity.

The building size, 11’-3” x 11’-3” x 17’-6”, is dictated by both a strict adherence to the golden section and the largest sheet of glass that can be sourced in North America. Natural ventilation is achieved through a slotted trap door in the floor just inside the glass, and through three operable panels. The foundation system consists solely of eight helical piers advanced 15-feet through soill that is pure sand.

To preserve the condition of the site, the helical installation and the delivery of the 10’-10” x 10’-10” laminated glass will be the only times that any heavy equipment will be permitted on site. Everything else will be hand-carried 50 yards from the road to the building.

The material palette is comprised of only three elements:

-Redwood (locally reclaimed from Maraschino cherry brine tanks)

-Copper (plate and sheet metal flashings)

-Glass

A clearing in the forest helps us frame a view of Lake Michigan with the aperture of the Prayer Building.

View

Construction

The Prayer Building sits on 8 heilical piers, with only 3” diameter posts exposed above ground. The rest of the structure consists of both steel tubes and PSL members. Most of the construction will involve walking materials onto the site to avoid damaging any trees. The large laminated glass window gets put into place through the building instead of around it, because of the steep cliff.

Woods Hole Residence

Woods Hole, MA with Todd Howard and Frank Grauman Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, 2020

A Philadelphia-based couple came to Bohlin Cywinski Jackson to design a retirement home on a wooded site, a block from Fay Beach. They hope to take advantage of their elevated lot and the possibility for a view of the water.

The building massing is comprised of two masses: an upper level main living space over guest bedrooms and a family room, and the main bedroom over additional guest bedrooms. A transparant link connects the front of the house to the courtyard, and the two masses of the building to each other. The main stair runs up to the roof deck, and acts as a soft lantern from the ground.

A concrete paver walkway with a vegetated roof slices through the link, leading the occupant to the courtyard.

Woods Hole Residence | April 9, 2021

Main Living Space

The kitchen, dining, and living room are placed on the upper level to maximize views of the water through trees on the lot. The north wall glazing is interrupted by thickened walls that contain storage, art, and a fireplace, while providing relief from a fully glazed space.

Bohlin

Landfilter

Research + Development Facility, Quincy, MA with Trevor Gotfredson & Sean Kline Michelle Laboy & Scott Bishop, Spring 2016

By the end of the century, 84% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. However, urbanization has suppressed certain ecological systems. As cities grow, the increased use of building materials will continue, and its adverse effects on the natural environment is inevitable.

An integration of ecological systems with an urban fabric will mitigate the externalities of harmful materials in growing urban areas. Landscape must be designed as an inherent relationship to structure. The resulting symbiotic relationship is a rebalancing of the urban equilibrium.

Ailanthus altissima, a tree species proven to thrive in urban environments, has the potential to play a vital role in the social, ecologic, and economic conditions of a city. Although its invasive habit creates a stigma, its distinctive properties allow for it to benefit from a relationship with precast concrete. Uniting these two traditionally disparate elements creates an environment better than one that either element could create independently.

Site Potential Building Landfill

Native Wetland Watershed Surface Drainage

GRANITE LINKS GOLF CLUB

Repurposing Landfill Byproducts

A study of the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy, MA allowed us to locate edges of landfill and watersheds to determine an ideal location for building intervention. The building acts as a filter to repurpose toxic landfill byproducts from its surface (runoff) and under the ground (leachate). Runoff will be used as gray water for the interior program, while filtered leachate provides irrigation for a willow plantation.

A precast structural module allows for various systems to occupy the interstital space created between the structure and the raised floor system. Permanent systems are placed in the insterstitial space and temporary systems occupy the underside of the arches for scenario planning.

Extruded ‘Y’

Forebay

Retention Tank 3 Gray Water 4 Heat & Hot Water 5 Ailanthus Altissima

Dilution & Airation

Retention Tank

Dilution Tank

Hyperaccumulation Willow

Release

Section model

A Building Between 2 Landscapes

Atrium

Water Supply

Supply for future use

Ailanthus for shade

Fresh air supply

Radiant hot water supply from heat exchanger

Pedestal Radiant heating & cooling system

System & Facade

Planter boxes and gray water filtration system

Double skin facade for heating through greenhouse effect

Glass envelope curtain wall for thermal enclosure

Chinatown Circulations

Public Library, Chinatown, Boston Michelle Laboy, Fall 2012

The Boston Public Library has locations all throughout Boston, but is missing a branch in the center of the city. Positioning a new branch location between South Station and Chinatown allows for an central library in the heart of Boston.

The new branch is easily accessible for visitors coming from South Station, and locals from Chinatown. Thus, the library will be situated at the threshold of two communities.

The design of the library incorporates primary vertical circulation along the eastern edge of the site, juxtaposed with the circulation of traffic on the street. In contrast, the relatively static program of the library is placed on the west of the site.

The main interior circulation revolves around a “spine” of the library. The circulation of Surface Road softens and extends upwards through the library. The dichotomy of these two methods of circulation suggests the deceleration of movement though the library. In addition, light travels through each level of the building towards a sunken auditorium, connecting the spaces of each floor.

“THE SPINE” Vertical Circulation

Vertical vs. Lateral Circulation

A new means of vertical circulation in the library will communicate with the existing movement of vehicles and pedestrians below. A contrast between speeds will provide relief from the busy streets of Downtown and Chinatown for the visitors of the library. People will be able to leisurely walk upwards around the central spine while enjoying different reading spaces and library amenities.

12” shading element

Access grating & steel tee shading element support

Unitized glass vision panel

Spine with recessed shelving

Unitized metal strong back panel

Spine model

Reverse Reclamation

Urban Redevelopment, East Boston

Ryan Kurbaum, Fall 2014

Urban parks have the opportunity to play a vital role in the economic conditions of a city. A successful urban district is centered around a large performative landscape that triple functions for recreation, storm-water management, and as a real-estate magnet. For example, Boston’s Back Bay Fens serves as a performative landscape with civic value, built to solve sewage and drainage concerns. The park was integrated well with the new urban fabric to assist the social, economic, and physical development of the city. However, East Boston is a nearby district that lacks a similar integrated landscape—its largest parks do not act as an economic driver and were built only after the city had already been settled.

As proved by the Back Bay Fens, using water as a catalyst for economic opportunities can relieve urban districts of sewage, drainage, and storm surge concerns. East Boston can be used as the testing grounds for this hypothesis, as the geographical pinch between Chelsea Creek and Constitution Beach provides the ideal location to link two waters for filtration efforts. Coupled with civic programs, this new urban landscape will revitalize the economic condition of East Boston. By drawing inspiration from a past example that still proves relevant today, performative landscapes will advance the contemporary urban park.

1630 shoreline of East Boston, showing the water connection between what is now Constitution Beach and Chelsea River.

+ CHELSEA RIVER

+ CONSTITUTION BEACH

+ CHELSEA RIVER

Lateral Connection

The two sides of the site are connected to leave the urban fabric uninterrupted by the water connection.

Civic Masses

Buildings of various programs and scales bring life to the site.

Water Connection

The natural landscape is reclaimed with a connection between Chelsea River and Constitution Beach.

Performative Site

The urban development is completed with the addition of forestry, tying performative aspects together.

Exploded Axonometric

A. Office/Residential & Water Collection

B. Civic/Institutional & Aeration

1:400 scale model

Water Collection Aeration Pond

Coconuts

Kerala, India

Independent Exploration, Fall 2016

Malayalam is a language spoken by about 36 million people, primarily in the state of Kerala, located on the southern tip of India. My interest in this language stems from my family’s origins and a linguistic analysis I conducted in the fall of 2012. The name Kerala is derived from morphemes kera (coconut tree), and alam (land). Thus, Kerala is often regarded as the land of coconuts.

The etymology of the word is appropriate based on the abundance of coconuts seen in Kerala. This study aims to explore how aggregates of coconuts can inform spaces.

Occupiable Skin

Carving coconuts from a prism will reveal the interior space as a solid, facing outward in different directions and in different scales. This study shows how the exterior of the coconuts create unique occupiable spaces.

Occupiable Void

Inversely, the interior as void creates cavernous spaces, in which heights and widths undulate. This study shows how the interior of the coconuts also create unique occupiable spaces.

4 hemiellipsoids

4 hemispheres

6 pack, radiated

3 hemispheres, triangulated

1 hemisphere

2 hemispheres, back to back

Scale Study

1 True size

2 Pavilion

3 Personal 4 Assembly

+ EXTERIOR -formed by interior of coconuts -public -occupiable skin

INTERIOR - formed by exterior of coconuts -private - occupiable void

Drawings, Paintings, & Mixed Media

India, Fall 2017

I spent weeks studying and documenting both the architecture and people of India, trying to capture moments and underlying details that only sketching and painting would reveal. With water color, I was able to study values from light and shadows. Sketching is an integral communication tool to convey ideas. It is beautiful how raw and gestural sketching is — taking ideas directly from the mind to paper.

2012 - 2021 selected works

Jeffrey Alex jeffreyalex.com jeffreyalex@gmail.com