Urban Planning Portfolio

Kyle Wilson Urban Planning Portfolio

Kyle Wilson

Urban Planner wilso3ks@mail.uc.edu 513-502-8265 3223 Vine Street, Cincinnati, Oh 45220

Experience

Education

University of Cincinnati Sustainability Advocate (August 2016-Present) Student staff member of the University Office of Sustainability. Focused on spreading awareness among UC students of issues related to sustainability through operation of our Bike Kitchen, University garden, office blog, a film and lecture series, citywide field trips and more.

Masters of Community Planning (4.0 GPA) Bachelor of Urban Planning (3.81 GPA) University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Ohio Graduate Assistant for SOP Admissions (August 2020-April 2021) University Honors Program (March 2015- April 2020) Cincinnatus Scholar (March 2015-April 2020) Ladislas and Velma Segoe Planning Scholar (March 2016)

WATG Planning Intern - Irvine, CA (January 2019 - May 2019) Assist the planning team in resort and master planning efforts. Refine plans and prepare deliverables making use of the Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office Suites, ArcMap, AutoCAD, SketchUp and various other programs/software.

DESMAN - Parking Specialists Planning Intern - Boston, MA (April 2018-August 2018) Consulting on a wide range of parking dilemmas presented by clients, I prepared site inventory reports, occupancy counts, garage designs, and final memos.

University of Cincinnati Renovations Co-Op (January 2017-December 2017) Assisted the Renovations team in overseeing all on-campus projects under $2 million. Worked extensively in Revit and Autocad, performed site visits for ocnstruction management and project follow-up.

Aide to the Director of Community Development (May 2017-December 2017) Identifying areas of interest for the University of Cincinnati’s Director of Community Development to focus his efforts within the foreseeable future.

Vector Marketing (June 2015-September 2017) Inducted into President’s Club twice as a Senior Field Sales Leader with over $30,000 in sales. opened and ran my own office as a Branch Manager in Owensboro, Kentucky in charge of recruiting, hiring, training, paying, and firing my own team of sales representatives and receptionists for 5 months, at one point coordinating a team of 25 employees.

Skills Software

Interpersonal

Sketch-Up

Writing/Editing

Microsoft Suite

Public Speaking

Adobe Creative Suite

teamwork

AutoCad

Leadership

Arcmap/ArcGIS

Hand Drafting

Lumion Revit Rhino

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Saint Xavier High School - Cincinnati, Ohio (June 2015) College Preparatory Diploma (4.0 GPA) National Honor Societ (October 2013 - May 2015) National Merit Commended Scholar (November 2014)

Volunteering Founder of Clean Up Cincy Senior Advisor (April 2020 - April 2021) Executive Director (January 2016-April 2020) Founded the organization to perform clean up events for over 1,000 students each semester in neighborhoods across Cincinnati.

Act as chief executive for all operations making final decisions on organization goals and procedures.

Handled organizational interaction with outside media as well as the city commissioner's office, secured new partnerships and expanded reach.

Director of APA Communications for Planning Student Organization (May 2017- Present) Oversaw the university's chapter affiliation with the national APA board and planned student trip to the National Planning Conference in New Orleans.

Social Media Chair: School of Planning Recruitment Team (September 2015-Present) Worked with the Dean of the School of Planning to educate area students on Urban Planning.

Assisted in facilitating charettes with high school students and ran organization Facebook page.

Lector and Altar Server at Church (December 2009-Present) Volunteered as both Altar Server and Lector at multiple churches and throughout Catholic School.

Who Am I? I aspire to make an impact. I consistently strive to leave positive impressions on the people around me, helping others in any way possible. I am passionate about being a good friend, family member, and peer. My choice to pursue a major in Urban Planning is a direct result of this ambition to always make a difference. I am graduating with a focus on sustainability which I believe will allow me to spread this positive change around the world. Wanderlust has plagued me from a young age and this yearning to experience the world has brought me on many adventures across over a dozen countries, exposing me to so many varying ways of life. I am an avid reader and my interest in science fiction has always inspired me to plan for the future. There is an overwhelming sense of pessimism in the literary community surrounding the impact our race is having on this planet, and recent studies continue to back this sentiment. I am motivated to change this viewpoint. I strongly believe that we can better coexist with the world we inhabit and I look forward to being on the forefront of this shift towards greener living.

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Ludlow Gaslight District The first studio my freshman year focused on an area not far from the University of Cincinnati called the Ludlow Gaslight District. We walked the neighborhood and used hand renderings to analyze different aspects of the community, Ultimately we sought to gain a valuable understanding of how these traits work together and make the neighborhood the vibrant residential space that it is. Below are several of my studies including some sketches of prominent buildings in the neighborhood and several figure grounds of the streetscape itself which started to investigate the urban morphology of the district and its layout.

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Ludlow Gaslight District Our final project for the analysis of the Ludlow Gaslight District was the below collage of several different aspects which really hit at the essence of the neighborhood. I chose to include a lot of the ornamentation that is unique to the district as well as a couple of the most prominent buildings in the neighborhood. The sections really focus on how the buildings interact with the street through large sidewalks and the figure ground really looks at footprint of the area.

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Contour Mapping/ Modeling

In Fall 2016, our studio was tasked with interpreting an abstract piece of art as a physical landscape. I was given the piece below which is Morton Livingston Schamberg's "Geometric Patterns". My process disecting this painting is shown to the right.

In this study I analyzed the Initial Shapes of the painting and found those that stood out to me.

I also was intrigued by how "imaginary lines" seemed to effect the way I saw shapes.

I chose Zone 2 because I especialy like the shape on the left that I have originally depicted as curving up like a spiral staircase. I also could really begin to see a lake and wilderness scene in this section, which appealed to me.

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My shade study really focused on how shade influenced my perception of the painting and really helped me see where the "imaginary lines" from the last step greatly affected the shading of the shapes.

This exercise focused on my isolation zone and started to eliminate shapes that I found irrelevant as well as adjusting the frame of the view so that the focus was more on my preferred elements.

In my efforts to find a focused zone for my painting I broke it up into 4 different isolation zones.

Zones 3 and 4 were both too small for me to really work with on a larger scale and zone 1 didn't include enough of the significant shapes for that area of the painting.

In this exercise I attempt to convey how I am imagining this landscape in order to establish precedence for my contour model.

This final study looked at the shapes as a connected landscape in an attempt to determine how this landscape evolved over time. This study helped me to discern the lake's origins in glaciation.

Contour Mapping/ Modeling

This is my final 24x24 isolation zone of the painting.

Using this zone I was able to generate the contour map shown below.

Once that map was complete, the model depicted in the images to the right was created using foam core cut by an e-xacto Knife.

After being cut out the pieces were held together by glue and paint was applied over-top for the finishing touches.

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Ripley, Ohio My studio in the Spring of 2018 focused on regional planning, specifically the river corridor of rural communities to the East of Cincinnati from New Richmond to Ripley, Ohio. My group focused specifically on Ripley, and the first project was an inventory of the village. This site inventory looked at history, demographics, market overview, community resources, Land Use, and Transportation and mobility of Ripley residents.

One of my greatest strengths as a planner lies in my ability to present information, especially as a story. I took the lead in researching Ripley's history, which culminated in the timeline to the left. Showing the population over time in coordination with the timeline further illustrated the significance of certain events throughout ripley's 220 years.

The rest of the material on this page and the next communicate information regarding the demographics and market overview for Ripley. The graphics below show how many people commute in and out of Ripley for work and where those who leave drive to for jobs. The information was found using OntheMap.

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Ripley, Ohio To put the demographic information into perspective we compared the data to 3 villages of similar size that also resided along the Ohio river within 50 miles of a major city. This allowed us to draw many parallels, but also to notice where Ripley stood out, such as with age, where Ripley has a much higher median age. We also looked at the prominent industries of the work force. Much of this data came from the 2010 Census using American Factfinder and Social Explorer.

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Renovations

My first and second Co-Op experiences were with the Planning + Design + Construction Department at the University of Cincinnati. I worked specifically with the Office of Renovations to aid in on campus construction projects of less than $2 million. This involved a great deal of autocad modeling for programs of room renovations, Revit modeling of existing campus buildings, and assisting architects in the bidding process. The autocad samples on this page are an unused library with a loft being redesigned into a classroom (Top) and an outdated office space being renovated for new use (Bottom).

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Renovations

This page presents samples of Revit work done throughout my CoOp. The project on the left is an expansion project for the Veterinarian Technician building on UC's Blue Ash campus.I first drew the expansion in autocad, then modeled the existing Vet Tech building before adding on the expansion. The renderings below were for a lab renovation proposal for the University College of Health.

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Sustainability Shed

While Co-Oping with Planning + Design + Construction, I often did work outside the purview of my renovation tasks.

In this case, I designed a shed landscape for the Office of Sustainability. The project started with a relatively open 900 square foot site that was home to a large, mature White Pine tree. The vision was that the site would include a 10'x 12' shed to house the Office's recycling push carts, as well as a paverstone patio area for entry and egress of these carts.

The landscaping played an important role in ensuring that the space contributed positively to the campus' built environment, rather than detracting from it with a faceless shed. All of the species chosen were from a plant inventory I put together of native, perennial plants, with an emphasis on edible plants. The plants also attempted to complement the existing white pine.

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Clermont College One Stop

The Student Service Center at UC's Clermont College branch was going through a major renovation and I assisted the interior designer in creating sketchup models of these plans working with the precedent of Cincinnati's main campus library, Langsam, which had recently undergone renovations. Below were the possible floor design patterns for the space and the final one ended up being selected for the final program of the project.

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Community Development

In the summer of 2017 I took on the task of writing a Strategic Plan for the University of Cincinnati's new Director of Community Development. The following spreads display samples of my research and writing of the plan. In completing this project, I researched the history of UC's Community Development involvement and catalogued the department's achievements. I then looked at the most recent community plans for those neighborhoods surrounding the University and took input from stakeholders of these communities, as well as students. Finally, I performed case studies of other Institutions similar to the University of Cincinnati in order to introduce new ideas in community development. This research culminated in a chart of recommendations for how the Director of Community Development should allocate his time for the following 5+ years.

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Community Development

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Community Development

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Community Development

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Fulton Place For the final studio with my undergraduate cohort, we worked in conjunction with the owners of 37 acres of riverfront property in Cincinnati's East End. Throughout the first series of projects our class was broken into teams related to different planning consultant roles. I was part of the storytelling team and utilized the opportunity to do in depth research into the history of the site and the Early American boom-town of Fulton which once occupied it. By the end of the course, our class was consolidated into two competing teams creating master plans for the site. My team never lost sight of the historic significance of Fulton and its many industries and embraced this story moving into the final phase. I was one of the lead urban designers focused on layout of our site and later transitioned this role to take lead of the digital modeling. My massing model was useful for conceptualization of the site in 3d as well as phasing, as seen to the right. Our final concept and site plan with greenspace is shown on the facing page of this spread. The Section in the bottom corner is an example of section cuts we had throughout the site, this one showed the west end of our site with our preservation of the rail tracks, condo units, prairie zone sculpture park and Riparian buffer for the river. The original cut comes from the sketchup model and is populated in photoshop.

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Ohio River

Riparian Buffer

Nature Trail

Prairie

Birm

Sidewalk

Condos

Parking/Pavement

Greenspace Railroad Greenspace

Fulton Place

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The Future of Parking Our master's site planning studio was broken into 3-phases focused on the future of parking. The studio was funded

by Uber as well as local development corporation 3CDC. The studio itself was organized as a competition, with the winning team at the end of phase 3 being rewarded with a free trip to Pittsburgh where they would visit Uber executives and discuss the conclusions of our class further in depth. My team fell in a close 2nd. For phase 1 we were the historians of the class, looking at the history of parking in Cincinnati as a microcosm of historic trends over the past 100 years. The maps included below are a powerful illustration of the shift in city land area dedicated to parking from 1% in 1922 to 26% in 2018. Our Phase 1 report, linked to the right, tells the story of this shift over time and explains what it really meant for Cincinnati. Also linked to the right are the final reports for phase 2 and 3 which offer a more detailed explanation of those processes shown in the following 3 pages. This studio really allowed me to showcase my ability as a researcher and writer as I took a lead role in these regards. I also took the lead in block design/layouts for our site plans as well as any 3d modeling and renderings.

Phase 1 Report: https://issuu.com/home/published/030919_urban_team2.0_final Phase 2 & 3 Report: https://issuu.com/kylewilson8/docs/team_pop_final_report

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The Future of Parking

Phase 2 commissioned us to look at all of the parking availability in the city, On-Street and Off, and plan for both 25% and 50% reduction in this availability moving into the future. Our concept built upon our historic understanding of downtown Cincinnati as the once densest city in America. We emphasized the importance of the historic transformation of the canal into Central parkway, a car-centric focus, and sought to use this path as the vine reconnecting the disconnected islands of downtown's growing districts. In the concept map above you can see how we identified 4 distinct districts and planned our development in the site plans based on those. The transportation plan below also emphasizes connection between these districts, and our massing model shows how the plan culminates in a more cohesive urban core.

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Queen's Landing Phase 3 of the studio involved a detailed site development plan for a block of parking lots. Our site looked at solving the 21st century problem of loneliness, a dilemma we believe has been exacerbated by the fascination with private automobiles. We planned a site around the ideal of sharing, as shown in the graphic to the right. The concept and site maps to the left shows how our site balances a mix of residential, commercial, office and public spaces to exemplify this ideal. Our site lies at the base of the Purple People bridge, Cincinnati's main connection to Northern Kentucky. Taking into account this, and its close proximity to the riverfront, we dubbed the site Queen's Landing. The public plaza draws pedestrians from the bridge and riders from the proposed BRT/light rail station into the heart of our development. Retail space, including a small grocer beneath the co-living units and a transitionary shipping container market beside the stage, lies in all spaces directly abutting this plaza.

Queen's Landing is activated with a seasonal rotating cast of artists operating out of shipping containers in the underpass park, as well as live-entertainment off of the existing bridge structure converted into a stage/ water feature. The Lumion rendered scenes below and on the following page showcase different assets of the completed site.

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Queen's Landing

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Kyle Wilson Email: wilso3ks@maiil.uc.edu

Thank You! 513-502-8265

UC Honors Portfolio: wilso3ks.weebly.com