Karen Hickey Architectural Portfolio by karenjhickey

KAREN HICKEY

ARCHITECTURAL PORTFOLIO

Corinthian Capitol – Graphite on Mylar – Fall ‘21

THE UNION HOTEL |

WASHINGTON, D.C.

4th Year Studio – Fall 2024

AutoCAD and Watercolor

Designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, the proposed Union Hotel is designed as a boutique hotel to bring new life to North Capitol St. in Washington, D.C. The hotel includes a bar, restaurant, and café space that will add needed commercial activity to the area while welcoming children, families, and professionals to the charming castle-like hotel. In addition, the hotel showcases a large lobby with immense natural light and a garden courtyard to connect all visitors to nature during their stay in the city.

Analytique – Garden Perspective

Ground Floor Plan

East-West Section

Front Elevation

North-South Section

SCHOOL OF CULINARY

ARTS | ROME, ITALY

3rd Year Studio – Spring 2024

Hand Drafting and Watercolor

Inspired by the Roman Villas of antiquity, the School of Culinary Arts is designed as a getaway from the busy life in the Roman center. Sitting atop the main hill of Parco Caffarella, the Culinary School looks out across the beautiful rural landscape to tie together the beauty of architecture with the power of nature. The villa complex features a fragrant and secret botanical garden, traditional Italian café, and event hall. The project aims to take advantage of the natural landscape and water features to create an inviting experience as you stroll through the park.

Masterplan and Site Progression

Event Hall Plate

Café Plate

Botanical Plan – Secret Garden

Axonometric and Site Section

Front and Rear Elevations – Ground Floor and Basement Plans

Longitudinal Section – First Floor and Roof Plan

A SIDE-BY-SIDE DUPLEX | HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

4th Year Studio – Spring 2025

Hand Drafting and Watercolor

Designed in conjunction with St. Joseph County’ s branch of Habitat for Humanity, this proposal serves as the start of a discussion for Habitat’s evolution into creating multi-family units. The project focuses on an affordable plan with varied accessibility options and a classic exterior that surpasses the stereotypes facing Habitat homes and duplexes.

Ground and Second Floor Plans

Longitudinal Section and Side Elevation

A COMMUNITY CHURCH | IOWA

BCDM Internship – Summer 2024

Revit, Photoshop, and Alcohol Markers

Contributors: Rosalyn Becicka

During my time as a summer intern with BCDM Architects out of Omaha, NE, I had the incredible opportunity to lead and manage a project for a new community church in a small Iowa town. Along with meeting with clients, Rosalyn and I developed a proposal for a renovation and additional to a local Baptist Church. The new plan includes an exterior refresh, inviting floor plan to allow for expansion, classrooms to accommodate children of all ages, and a flexible worship space for both the congregation and community engagement events. The project is expected to be completed by summer 2027.

Main Entrance Perspective

Patio Perspective

Exterior Perspective

APARTMENT BUILDING |

PHILADELPHIA, PA

4th Year Studio – Fall 2024

AutoCAD, Photoshop, and Oil Pastels

The proposed apartment building for the city center of Philadelphia takes on a simple, yet prominent character for Market Street. Marking the center of a proposed new district, the apartment building includes ground floor shops with through passage to a lively courtyard and market hall. The top four stories include12two-bedroomapartments of varying sizes to allow for flexibility and full inclusion of many income sectors. The building and its mixed-use surroundings aim to reinvigorate Market St. into a safe and engaging place to live, shop, eat, and enjoy the company of others. In addition, this project acted as a study for the city to explore possible code alterations. This residential building poses an opportunity to increase density while maintaining character and safety of the public.

Front Elevation and Typical Residential Floor Plan

Courtyard Elevation

Ground Floor Plan

Title Plate

North-South Section

Front Elevation – Photoshop Study

BATH TOWNHOUSE |

BATH, UK

Sophomore Studio – Spring 2023

Hand Drafting and Watercolor

This multi-story townhouse was designed to be placed within a new block on an undeveloped part of Bath, UK. The project began with a masterplan for the area that would reinvigorate a run-down sports area beside the River Avon into a new neighborhood that would follow the typology and character of historical Bath. The final townhouse design includes a five-story plan, adjoining garden and a garage with multiple terrace spaces throughout the home.

Rear Elevation

Front Elevation

Bath Townhouse Plans

Block Axonometric

A CENTER FOR S.T.E.M. LEARNING | RIONE

PONTE, ROME, ITALY

Junior Year Studio – Fall 2023

AutoCAD and Graphite Rendering

During my studies at the Notre Dame RomeGlobalGateway,I designed anew building in the historical center of Rome. I followed the traditional Italian Palazzo typology and created a center for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (S.T.E.M.) learning and exploration. The building was designed to be placed in the Rione Ponte District of Rome where there is a lack of access to educational facilities that encourage the study of S.T.E.M. education. The final result includes a palazzo with commercial use on the ground floor, a S.T.E.M. center on the Piano Nobile, and apartments on the upper stories with roof-top terraces that would allow views to Castel Sant’Angelo and the Tiber River.

Front Elevation

Piano Nobile Plan

Transverse Section

Longitudinal Section

Piano Secondo Plan

Piano Terzo Plan

A LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE

|

PARIS, FRANCE

Sophomore Studio – Spring 2023

Hand Drafting and Watercolor

For this architectural project, the primary goal of the design was to develop a library and archive for Paris that would follow the Paris hotel typology and fit well into the historic city. Throughout the design, I was challenged with having an irregularly shaped plot and learned to utilize hinges and axes into my library and sequential courtyards and gardens. The library project taught me about the use of hierarchy in spaces, levels of privacy in a public space, and how to design with respect to existing structures.

Front Elevation & Nolli Plan

Courtyard

First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

A NEW CENTER FOR THE ARTS | SOUTH BEND, IN

Sophomore Studio – Fall 2022

Hand Drafting and Watercolor

Responding to the classical civic structures in downtown South Bend, IN, the New Center for the Arts holds a powerful façade that would draw in visitors from the nearby park and create visual axes with the natural setting. The highlights of the structure include two long gallery spaces as well as a monumental event hall. The event hall is focused around the feeling of the viewer in the space and plays with the use of bright walls with a spanning sail vault that depicts the night sky and allows natural light entry from the dome’s drum. The event hall takes inspiration from the historic Hagia Sophia and flows onto a back terrace and garden space, which creates an engaging experience to view art or host celebrations.

Rear Elevation

Exterior Perspective

Bay Study & Wall Section

Interior Perspective – Event Hall

HEXAPODS: REDESIGN FOR PORTABLE CLASSROOMS

ACE National Competition – 3rd Place - 2021

Revit Design and Rendering

Contributors: Anas Ahamed and Ben Rolls

As a senior at Omaha North High School, my Senior Capstone Engineering Project was to “pick a problem in the world and solve it.” My team and I noticed the hardships students faced with different learning styles, especially during the time of COVID learning. As I was fully online myself, it was important to design a solution that would allow students to learn in a safe environment while also catering to all learning styles (visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic). Our solution was Hexapods, a modular portable classroom design that would allow schools to have clusters of outdoor classrooms with safe class sizes, isolated subjects, and many opportunities for students to move throughout the day.

WATERCOLOR

RENDERINGS | DESIGNS BY: MCNICHOLAS ARCHITECTS

Summer Internship with McNicholas Architects in Chicago - 2023

Hand Drafting and Watercolor

McNicholas Architects designed the summer folly and lime-washed residence. As a summer intern, I contributed by creating watercolor renderings of the designs, production of construction documents, and client visual aids using AutoCAD and Photoshop.