John Raulston Graham Architecture Portfolio 2022
Introduction I am a prospective architecture concentrator and sophomore at Princeton University. Although I have only begun to pursue architecture in the classroom, I have been pursuing a passion for architecture since the beginning of high school.
Work Experience Metro Planning Department Nashville, TN | Summer 2021 I helped to write new Mid-Gulch Plan Amendment and planned and executed public engagement events for East Bank Study and 2nd Avenue Community Planning Study Manica Architecture Kansas City, KS | Summers 2018, 2019, 2020 I worked on multiple stadia projects, helped with a proposal for a new stadium in Milan, and contributed to layouts for the new Las Vegas Raiders practice facility. Machete Group Houston, TX | Summer 2019 I synthesized meeting notes and drawings into single document recording up-to-date information for the FC Cincinnati MLS Stadium. EOA Architects Nashville, TN | 3 days per week during the 2018-2019 school year I produced working documents for projects including a community healthcare facility and a small business office.
Resume Educational Experience
Art Wilson Grants Trips | Summers of 2018 and 2019
Architecture Courses | Princeton University. ARC 203, ARC 204, and 3 additional History of Architecture Courses
I received grants to take two trips through the US to see various works of significant architecture. The first was guided by my art history teacher and established a strong foundation for my understanding of art and architecture. The second trip was self-guided. I was able to form my own itinerary for this trip. I explored more than 15 cities, and experienced firsthand the diversity of American architecture.
As a prospective architecture concentrator at Princeton, I have begun to take classes in the architecture department. I have completed ARC 203: Introduction to Architectural thinking and ARC 204, the first design studio offered. Other courses include three architectural history classes covering topics ranging from the Renaissance to representations of democracy. ACE Mentor Program (Architecture, Construction and Engineering) | During the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years As the sole representative of my high school, I met bi-weekly with a team of local students interested in the professions of architecture, engineering, and construction to collaborate and design spaces promoting the yearlong themes. I met with mentors after scheduled hours and worked to create plans and renders for our end of year presentation. AP Studio Art Portfolio | 2019-2020 school year During my senior year of high school, I crafted an AP Art portfolio investigating how humans interact with architecture and how architectural elements direct movement. I received the highest possible score. Independent Study | 2019-2020 school year Also during my senior year, I completed a research project on the relationship between Nashville’s recent growth and the architecture it has produced. The final product of this study was given the highest possible score of Honors+ by my project advisor.
Louis Khan Exhibit, Philadelphia AIA, June 2019
Performance Pool Project Introduction
Watching Olympic swimming competitions this summer, I began to imagine the architectural symbols associated with practice pools. My project is a public, full sized practice pool. The locker rooms and entry bookend the pool which is enclosed in a glass box. These two bookends take a form resembling entry fragments of ancient baths. The contrast of these forms to the simplicity of the interior is reminiscent of 19th century public buildings, but this recollection is undermined by the extensive use of glass and contemporary finishes particularly in the decoration of the front.
Longitudinal Rendered Section
Performance Pool Lockers
Pool
Entry
Front Elevation
Plan
Low Rear Perspective View
Elevation historical with blank windows and details
Interior Perspective View
glass curtain wall and roof
fully decorative, historical
Graham Lakehouse Project Introduction This project also emerged from a conversation with my family about building a remote lake house closer to where we attend to church. In order to create continuity between nearby houses and our home, the front of the house uses vernacular materials and familiar forms. However, the central elements are slightly larger to emphasize the entrance. In contrast to the materials on the front, the rear is decorated with predominantly glass and steel. The roof ends and gives way to the glass box, allowing expansive views out to the lake. The contrast between the enclosed, vernacular front part of the building and the tall, glass rear emerged from a parti diagram that contains interlocking T and U shapes as in the diagram below. This plan dramatizes the progression from the familiar rooms to the expansive views of the lake.
Decoration Legend American Vernacular Modernist
Transverse Section - Decoration
Graham Lakehouse Legend Able to See Lake Example Sight-
Formal Dining
Study
Master Bedroom
Bedroom
Movie Room
Kitchen
Master Bath
Front Elevation Living
First Floor Plan
Southeast Perspective View
Lake Perspective View
Second Floor Plan
School Renovation Project Introduction
Near my home in rural Tennessee, an old school building sits on the road on which I live. Although since its closing it has been used as a pig slaughter house and farm equipment storage space, I imagine it as a design studio, perhaps for me.
Property Site - July 2019
In this project, I considered the symbols of architecture and how to best show a building’s change over time. Most of the major features of the school including its heavy brick wall, windows, and roof remained largely untouched. I did attempt to show change in the building in three ways. First, I used large blue glass panels to represent a common identifier of architectural practice, the blueprint. Secondly, I inserted large glass windows where the exterior wall was punctured by garage doors to show the changes in the building over time. Lastly, I added explicit signage as a marker that the function of the building had changed.
Front Elevation (with decorative Panels)
School Renovation
Front Elevation Original Brick Wall
WC
Office
Meeting
Office
Break
Flex WC
Office
Entry
Meeting
Library
Office
Front Perspective View Detail
Plan
Rear Perspective View
Entry Gate Project Introduction
After multiple conversations with my father, I conceived this design for a gateway both to mark the entry to my family’s driveway and to prevent cars from lingering for long periods of time. The large, monolithic element on the left marks the corner of our property, and its top is inflected inward at its top to emphasize the corner. The right element is made of stacked-stone and fades away highlighting the continuation of the property along the road frontage.
Highway Legend Direct Path Drive Path Border Element Inside Element
Longitudinal Section
Entry Gate
View Approaching from West
Front Perspective View Plan
Front Elevation
View Approaching from East
Public Streetscape Transverse Sections
Legend
Project Introduction
Completed as the final project for my first studio at Princeton, the assignment gave students a base model of a streetscape and asked us to imagine expanding usable space into the street, as a result of innovations during the pandemic.
Public Space Private Housing Space Private Commercial Space Pedestrian Space Bicycle Space
In my solution, I was interested in expanding both the private and public space available into the street and marking the division. My elevated set of platforms expands public space without significantly compromising views from housing units or light to the street below. I divided the plan into roughly three sections: one aligned with the mixed-use buildings on one side of the street, one over the street, and the last associated with the housing on the opposite side.
Automobile Space
Insert Elevation
Although my project’s section remains complex, I attempted to dramatize the relationship between public and private space by decorating platforms associated with the buildings as extensions and decorating public platforms as streets in between.
Library
Store Restaurant Store
Housing
Insert Plan
Birds-Eye Plan
Library
Store Restaurant Store
Housing
Street Level Plan
Public Streetscape
Exploded Axonometric
Color Perspectives
Hallie’s Bookstore Project Introduction
Turning my attention to a commercial building, I challenged myself to design an effective bookshop set in a streetscape. I tried to balance the challenge of making the building distinct but readable to potential customers. I began with a heavy concrete frame around the building which brackets the building off from the others in a row, and I subdivided the front window to frame views of the interior. Through careful calibration of the furniture inside. I attempted to create a navigable and pleasurable shopping experience and allow clear views to the interior to act as framed advertisements from the street. A simple sign was applied to the ground level window to avoid confusion about the shop.
Longitudinal Section
Hallie’s Bookstore
Front Elevation
Front Elevation Detail
Level 0
Front of Second Floor Perspective View
Level 1
Level 2
Portland City Hall
Project Introduction After a discussion arose in my town about a new city hall building, I began to design a civic building to house the operations of and to symbolize my small town. After looking at precedents including the current city hall building built in the mid-1950s, older Romanesque municipal buildings, and contemporary embassies, I settled on this form, which kept some of the heaviness and the tower from Romanesque schemes but attempted to allow the building to seem more permeable and approachable than the present configuration. The city center was designed to promote interaction between public officials and the citizens they serve. The public plaza and meeting space as well as the large windows on the front of the building serve this goal.
Office
Public
Chamber
Public
Private Private
Public Schematic Plan
Public Schematic Section
Portland City Hall
Front Elevation View
Key
Restrooms Public Vertical Circulation Northeast Corner Perspective View
Bell Tower Perspective View
Office/Meeting
Womack Art Museum Project Introduction
After my high school announced that it would be building a large new athletic center, I responded with this prospective museum building in honor of my art history teacher, who had just retired. Because it is an educational museum, the upper level includes a library and a studio room, and the entry level has flexible classroom and performance spaces. The large almost block like forms are meant to frame different areas and facilitate the discovery of various spaces of the museum. The differences in each space’s character represents a different way of learning about or experiencing art.
Key
Study Rooms Reading Room Galleries Breakout Pods
Womack Art Museum Roof Level
Northeast Corner View
Library Level
Entry Walkway View
Gallery Level
Breakout Pod and Gallery Space View
Enclosure Project Introduction As part of a studio project, I experimented with what makes space attract and repel humans and asked the question, “What spacial characteristics create the subliminal feelings that drive one from a space?” In this project, I chose a closed, dark hall as my test case and attempted to dramatize the elements that repel potential visitors. Additionally, I overlaid the plan of the space to emphasize the relationship between the condition in plan that creates the displeasing space in perspective.
Plan
Openness Project Introduction In a continuation of my last project, I began to contemplate elements that make a space inviting or more pleasurable to inhabit. I chose an open, sitting area as a test case. In plan, these two areas have the same dimensions. However, one plan emphasizes access to the outdoors, natural lighting, and openness, while the other is very dark and closed. Here, I also exaggerated elements of the scene, including virtually eliminating the glass wall separating interior and exterior.
Plan
The L Museum
Project Introduction This project arose from a preponderance of the ideal form for a museum gallery space. Removing the museum from constraints such as a particular context or the necessary support space, I considered an architectural form, which combined the monumentality of past museums with a logical path of travel. My solution consists of three pavilions connected by enclosed walks. This solution allows for the building of anticipation without sacrificing curatorial tools. The building is also monumental and attracts interest from the outside with its size and views to the inside but does not attempt to compete with the art on display within.
Study of Optimal Path of Travel
The L Museum 7
3
3
2
Northeast Corner Perspective View
First Floor Path of Travel Diagram
6 South Elevation
Passageway Example View
4
Second Floor Path of Travel Diagram
1
5
Anhouse Project Introduction I began with the idea of separate forms as independent function zones that when combined create a comfortable space. The form of the building developed as I put together all of the “blocks of space” which were derived from their purpose. I attempted not only to arrange the “blocks” in a way that made sense in plan, but also in a way that created balance in elevation.
Anhouse
Pool Overhang View
Back Perspective View
Front Perspective View
River Building
Project Introduction In an exploration of the interactions between nature and the built environment, I attempted to design a classroom building that responded to the hill behind it. I embedded the building into the hill and attempted to have the shape and position of the building mimic the form of the hill. The nature of the building in plan recalls the repeating forms of a topographic map. In perspective and section it is evident that the building embraces its location, but in its materials and color palette directly contrasts with it.
Transverse Section
Aggregated Plan
River Building Level One
View from Stream
Level Two
Corner Perspective View
Level Three
Level Four
View along Entry Walk
Architectural Portfolio Spring 2022
John Raulston Graham jrgraham@princeton.edu