LaRae Tomera Portfolio

LARAE TOMERA LaRaeArch@gmail.com Moscow, ID

CV The 76 | Building C Downtown Mixed-Use Complex Moscow, Idaho The SHE Center School for Girls Notsé, Togo, Africa

Moscow Hotel Residences Design-Build Moscow, Idaho One World Sidewalk Café Design-Build Moscow, Idaho McDonald Outdoor Classroom Design-Build Moscow, Idaho

Branding Typography Stickers

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CONTENTS

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EDUCATION University of Idaho | Moscow, Idaho Master of Architecture Candidate

2022

University of Idaho | Moscow, Idaho Bachelor of Science in Architecture

2020

Xi’an University of Arch and Technology | Xi’an, China Study Abroad Program Digital Archive: https://bit.ly/3AhAMCt

2019

EXPERIENCE Graduate Assistant | University of Idaho Coordinated student engagement projects within the architecture department

2021 - Present

Idaho Design Build Teaching Assistant | University of Idaho Coordinated student projects, led critiques, and assisted in logistics on multiple design build projects

2021 - Present

Construction Staff | The Garden Lounge, Moscow, Idaho Commercial tenant improvement

4 | CV

2020

ACTIVITIES American Institute of Architecture Students | University of Idaho Social Media Director (2020 - Present) Vandal Marching Band | University of Idaho

2018 - Present

2016 - 2020

RECOGNITION Design-Build Award: A. B. McDonald Elementary Outdoor Classroom 2022 Architectural Education Awards

2022

Honorable Mention: One World Sidewalk Cafe Design Build AIA Northwest and Pacific Region Student Design Awards

2021

Honors Program Award of Completion University of Idaho

2020

Arthur L. Troutner Scholarship University of Idaho

2019 - Present

Graham Erskine Memorial Scholarship

2019 - Present

AIA Northern Nevada Valedictorian Battle Mountain High School

2016

CV | 5

The 76 Building C MOSCOW, ID

(with David Huson and Will Huynh)

Located on the border of Moscow’s central business district, this urbaninfill project aimed to create a series of rented living spaces that prioritized affordability, connectivity, and identity.

These living spaces were separated into three mixed-use structures that shared a centralized courtyard. Each one emphasized a different style of rented living and was designed by a different student. Building A offered more spacious, long-term options, Building B allowed for individual, hostel-like situations, while Building C, my area of focus, supplied a more typical twobedroom apartment arrangement.

The three buildings were stylistically united by a rainscreen cladding system, but took on unique and identifiable forms to combat the monotany found in other apartment complexes.

6 | The 76

RESEARCH One block away from Main Street, the site has an opportunity to connect with downtown life. By offering mixed-use developments with rentable commercial spaces on the first floor, we extend the foot traffic of downtown and connect the two locations.

59.4% of adults in Moscow, ID are living in rentals, with an average of 2.2 people per household. 32.9% of them are moving every year. This shows a demand for a variety of rented living spaces for small families or single adults.

Because the site exists beside a busy three-lane highway, most cars that pass by don't take notice of it. This inspird measures taken to ensure that the site is visible and easily found, but also protected by this traffic.

BUILDING C

The form of Building C was greatly inspired by the relationship between these residential and commercial programmatic elements, as well as the relationships between the users of these spaces.

Visitors to the site were made to feel welcome by the threshold on the west end of Building C, while residents could feel protected and private in their homes to the east.

Both parties have access to converge in the outdoor courtyard.

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8 | The 76

The 76 | 9

INTERACTIVE THRESHOLD An interactive mural has been added to the shading device on the west end of Building C. With two separate images applied on each side, the perceived picture will change based on perspective.

The shading device on the west end of Building C is not just for ornamentation, however. It also serves as a threshold into the site for the public by enveloping a cafe. This cafe is topped by a rooftop dining space, which is accessed via outdoor stairs and shaded by the brise soleil-like threshold.

LANDSCAPE Due to topographical alterations, Building C became partially subterranean on its southern edge. This provided an issue, as regular windows could not be used to bring light into the main living space of four of the units.

To combat this, high windows and skylights were paired with a delicate and open stair. This allowed the small amount of light to penetrate through the open kitchen and living areas.

10 | The 76

FROM NORTH

SIDE

FROM SOUTH

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12 | The 76

The 76 | 13

The SHE Center NOTSE, TOGO, AFRICA

(with David Huson)

The SHE Center is the result of a partnership between the University of Idaho Architecture Program and Style Her Empowered (SHE), a nonprofit organization that creates sustainable education and employment opportunities for girls and women.

The goal of the partnership was to create conceptual design ideas for a multi-use campus in Togo, a small West African country near the Ivory Coast.

The SHE Center would offer a safe,

welcoming and self-sustaining environment for girls and women to live, learn, and work in. It would consist of three major components: The Garment Factory, Education Center, and Living Accomodations.

14 | The SHE Center

RESEARCH The design of the SHE Center was informed by an extended research trip to Notse, Togo and the surrounding region. During this time, myself and 9 other students conducted interviews with potential users and surveyed the proposed site.

Our research revealed that there was a need for safety, sustainability, constructability, and access to materials.

DESIGN The hierarchical courtyard systems found within the SHE Center campus design were inspired by our time spent in villages such as Rodokpe.

We found that because of the climate and community stucture, the spaces between the verncaular Togolese architecture were just as valuable as the

buildings themselves. These external environments needed to range in scale to accommodate the different needs and uses of the individual person.

By defining our users, privacy needs, and climate, we were able to create a centralized and layered community system to organize the many needs of the campus and supply the best benefits and comforts to those that would occupy it.

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16 | The SHE Center

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PROCESS

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Initial layering of privacy

Formation of center courtyard

Smaller nodes added in dorms to create another layer of privacy.

Cafeteria space separated from dorms.

Phase 3

Phase 2

Phase 1

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Site Section

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20

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PHASE 1

PHASE 2

PHASE 3

The Garment Factory

Living Accommodations

Education Center

The Garment Factory not only provides living wage jobs for women, but provides valuable resources for others, as well.

School uniforms and reusable menstrual pads made of recycled fabric would be generated and distributed from this center, eliminating a barrier that keeps many Togolese girls out of school.

The Living Accommodations provide lodging for 160 students and 8 resident assistants beside a cafeteria and kitchen. By residing on campus, students will be able to focus on their studies. Young women in Togo receive an average of 3 years of education, many citing that they stopped attending school due to other responsibilities.

The final phase is the Education Center. The Education Center takes on an L-shape, with eight classrooms in one wing and a science lab and administrative space in the other. The two connect in the middle at the library.

SHE takes pride in the employees and students that they support. In order to foster connections between factory employees and others, the Garment Factory utilizes an open floor plan with administrative offices along a mezzanine. This allows every aspect of the building to have an internal focus on work floor, reminding users of the intricacies of garment creation, the skilled women that produce them, and the young girls that will receive them.

Physical systems include clerestory windows for passive daylighting and stack ventilation on the factory floor. The roof hosts an integrated PV system that generates power for the rest of the site.

20 | The SHE Center

Within the living area are two smaller courtyards for more intimate communal activities like washing clothes. The circulation patterns of the dormitories differ by floor. The first floor uses internal circulation facing the courtyards, while the second-floor walkway wraps the exterior, allowing views of the surrounding farmland.

The cafeteria acts as the social node for the entire site. Togolese cooking is a very social affair. To support this, we added an outdoor cooking area adjacent to the outdoor eating area.

The second floor of the cafeteria houses an outdoor lounge and is protected by a second integrated PV roof system.

The Education Center employs cross ventilation in both first and second floors via perforations in the compressed earth block (CEB) walls.

For added ventilation, cooling towers use stack ventilation strategies to move warm air up and out of both floors. This is aided by prevailing winds from the south west. The building also utilizes a double roof system in order to shade the building and assist with on-site water collection.

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STABILIZED COMPRESSED EARTH BLOCKS (CEB) This wall section depicts the typical 20 cm thick stabilized compressed earth block construction that is used throughout the site.

Similar to rammed earth, the CEB are comprised of cement and local soil.

Once the elements are combined, the individual units are formed and cured on site using the sun. Once construction begins, the CEB are reinforced by rebar.

The brick pattern used at the SHE Center is altered in areas to allow for 10x10 cm apertures. These clusters of openings allow for air ventilation.

Other parts of the wall, such as the floor, lintels, and engaged columns are cast-inplace concrete construction.

22 | The SHE Center

RAMMED EARTH Walls that don't utilize the perforated CEB instead consist of 40 cm thick rammed earth construction.

Rammed earth is created using a mixture of cement and soil that has been displaced by construction. The walls are cast in place and reinforced with rebar to serve as structure for the buildings.

The center of the wall contains 10 cm thick rigid insulation to create a thermal lag against the harsh eastern and western sun.

Around the building perimeters are French drains filled with river rock to collect rainwater from roof runoff.

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Moscow Hotel Residences MOSCOW, ID

(with Idaho Design Build)

In 2020, the University of Idaho Design Build Studio partnered with local business owners on the Moscow Hotel Residences, a design-build project that explored new uses for a long-vacant space within a historic building.

Undertaken entirely in-situ by our studio, the resulting adaptive reuse project sought to increase housing options in the downtown core by transforming a former dining room into studio apartments. These units would retain original features while optimizing the minimal available natural light and footage in the space.

THE MOSCOW HOTEL The Hotel has lived through many uses and designations but has always been an example of concentrated dwelling and the fostering of a community.

24 | Moscow Hotel

The 1892 construction, housing a cigar store, candy shop, barbershop, and bar, inspired growth in the nascent downtown. The upper hotel floors were eventually converted into apartments in 1974; however, the commercial spaces were retained on lower floors.

Situated along Main Street and in the heart of Moscow’s Downtown Historic District, patrons have witnessed countless parades, markets, protests, and community celebrations. It has housed locals and students alike, each adding to its rich history.

IMMERSIVE RESEARCH At the start of design, our studio moved our work and classes onto the site.

A space formerly rented for music lessons became the studio, while an adjacent abandoned salon was used to store tools. Across the hallway, the

original hotel dining room made up the remainder of the project footprint.

This unique studio arrangement encouraged a more complete understanding of the rhythms of life at the hotel. It facilitated immediate and in-depth investigations into existing and proposed conditions throughout the design process. This also led to a close working relationship with the owners, who would visit us daily to discuss ideas and answer questions.

As we ate together in potential dining spaces, watched tv in mocked up living rooms, and shopped at the grocery down the street, we learned what connects the building and city, the intricate phenomena of living in the space, and how the residents use the adjacent public areas.

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INVESTIGATION The 128-year history of the building presented a unique challenge to our group, as it contained a maze of abandoned and reconfigured electrical, HVAC, and plumbing. Very few existing drawings were available, and they proved either inaccurate or out-of-date.

Overcoming this dearth of information required an extraordinary level of engagement with the historic structure.

We learned to pick apart the necessary from the excessive, the original from the additive, and the useable from the obsolete and illegal. We uncovered history to be saved and made sense of how the building’s limitations and changing cultural values had shaped previous uses.

A shared notion emerged about the possibilities of the space given its tight constraints. Structural changes were off-limits, and any additive HVAC would need to be hidden. However, past renovations and limited documentation of the original interior led to less regulation. Daylighting studies revealed concerns about natural light penetration into the units, and challenging fire code requirements limited the unit types.

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DESIGN RESPONSE The designs needed to resolve several other primary issues, such as balancing a connectedness to downtown with a need for privacy from the busy plaza outside, and tuning each unit to its place within the building without the spaces feeling crowded or compromised.

They needed to be flexible enough to provide more than a temporary home for a student or young professional, but also take advantage of shared construction methodologies and materials to meet the allowed budget.

These constraints molded the apartments into open-plan spaces defined by ceiling heights and floating partition elements which maximized daylight within the units while still maintaining privacy. Each unit would do this in its own way by either containing a sleeping space or creating a buffer between it and the living spaces.

Built-ins would frame the windows and offer long-term storage and additional sleeping areas, a feature integral to the success of these studio units.

Idaho Design Build completed full stage-set mockups of two apartments,

30 | Moscow Hotel

built multiple details for each unit, and completed in-depth construction specifications, budgets, and drawings for the residences.

The mockups were integrated into a continual cycle of full-scale testing at every phase of design. This was not just a tool to aid the client’s understanding, but a primary method of investigation, internal communication, collaboration, and discovery utilizing the actual conditions of the site.

APPLICATIONS Unfortunately, the pandemic put an indefinite hold on the project before it was abandoned for financial reasons in the fall of 2020.

Although the project came to an unexpected end, I still found it to be highly beneficial. This level of engagement with a historic structure is exceedingly rare in an educational setting. It was only by truly immersive education that we were able to leverage the realities of this historic context, undertake extensive documentation, and continually refine the design through in-place experimentation.

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me

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One World Sidewalk Cafe MOSCOW, ID

(Graduate Teaching Assistant)

The exterior improvements to this local café were both a response to restaurant dining constraints created by Covid-19 and an effort to improve the fabric of a downtown district.

Amid the Covid-19 shut-down, the owners of One World Café expanded their business into a neighboring space.

As the now sole tenants, they wanted to renovate the building’s exterior in an intentional way. The design needed to mitigate short-term crisis concerns by offering distanced outdoor dining and creating a more inviting exterior presence.

As a graduate teaching assistant, I helped navigate students participating in Idaho Design Build as they partnered with the owners and the city of Moscow to pilot a sidewalk cafe. The outdoor remodel would combine an exterior

34 | Sidewalk Café

recladding with a series of varied yet cohesive outdoor seating areas.

dining during operation, while providing overnight and offseason storage.

It was important to the owners that spaces be both safe and socially supportive. Reflecting this, the design broke up the narrow exterior of the building facade into four primary zones of use which were tied to adjacent social functions within the building.

Idaho Design Build was uniquely equipped to take on this impactful project for our community during Covid-19. Using nontraditional methods of construction and design, One World Café became a space that could instill a sense of normalcy in the shortterm, while serving as a prototype for adaptable outdoor dining that adds to the quality and character of its place.

These included: a lounge area with built-in benches and bar seating, an arrangement of loose tables and chairs for higher traffic areas, an ADA height bar, and fold away booths. The bars and benches would allow for comfortable day to night casual dining, as well as lounging and studying workspaces.

The booths would accommodate an increased need for separated group

RECOGNITION 2021 Honorable Mention AIA Northwest and Pacific Region Student Design Awards

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CHALLENGE The building that housed One World Café lacked many things: • Sun and wind protection • A buffer from the street • Privacy and distancing between tables • A warm and welcoming exterior The long, empty, sun baked facade of the One World building was both the primary challenge and the catalyst for the design. We conducted many inperson analyses of the cafe, streetscape and traffic patterns before developing our response.

RESPONSE An adaptable and protective system was designed that allows for flexible use as needs change daily and seasonally.

With cedar rainscreen cladding, One World Café is now an attractive and welcoming space even when not in use.

36 | Sidewalk Café

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INSTALLATION The project was designed for continuous operation of the cafe during construction. A modular, phased fabrication and installation process allowed exterior seating in some areas while work was underway in others.

Wall preparation occured on site while doors and cladding panels were prefabricated, allowing for quick installation of these major components.

ASSEMBLY To meet requirements for the city’s pilot sidewalk cafe program, the design needed to allow for disassembly and removal of all parts in one day by two to three people.

We designed solutions that appeared permanent, yet facilitated easy installation and removal without heavy equipment or complex tools.

38 | Sidewalk Café

me, stepping out from behind the camera to nail in the final piece

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McDonald Elementary Outdoor Classroom MOSCOW, ID

(Graduate Teaching Assistant)

After witnessing the challenges and pressures brought on by Covid-19, Idaho Design Build students were determined to proactively respond to the needs of their local community. As one of their two teaching assistants, I helped them to identify several focus areas and undertake an extensive outreach effort, leading to a partnership with the local school district.

The A. B. McDonald Elementary Outdoor Classroom is a unique collaboration between the two schools, providing invaluable experience and knowledge to the students who created it, and safety and resources to the students that will use it for years to come.

A. B. McDonald Elementary has long advocated for outdoor learning and allows students to use the greenery surrounding the school for varied

44 | Outdoor Classroom

educational activities. An earlier outdoor seating area was located on the site in the past, but was removed in 2018 for safety reasons.

With the onset of Covid-19, the school recognized the need to rebuild. They required a permanent and centralized focus area to organize the outdoor space. This would allow students to socially distance and safely enjoy the benefits of the outdoors while giving the teachers the structure to guide a class.

Our team worked with the principal, school district officials and engineers to ensure that the classroom would withstand the test of time. For now, it will help young students from kindergarten to 5th grade transition back into normalcy. In the future it will serve as a safe and durable gathering space for the children of the community.

RECOGNITION Design-Build Award 2022 Architectural Education Awards

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CONTEXT The outdoor classroom sits between the gardens and a pine grove at the edge of the school’s property, nestled between an open area and a full, dense cover of trees. The structure was designed to serve as a nexus between these two commonly used spaces.

The trees provide protection and privacy from the neighboring residential area on one side, while permitting visibility and easy accessibility from the school itself.

The overhead structure provides needed shade to extend use into the hotter months of the school year, while allowing views of the tree canopy above.

DESIGN & RESEARCH Students were tested by budgetting, scheduling, and structural constraints.

They responded with a modular design that could be prefabricated and installed without heavy machinery, minimizing the time and impact on the site.

These constraints helped to inform the structure. The open-air classroom consists of undulating arches, a repeated truss system, and brise-soleil cladding atop v-shaped columns.

46 | Outdoor Classroom

Greenhouse School Gardens

Gymnasium

Extended Learning Annex

Learning Forest

Classroom Wing

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SEATING The first phase of construction included the fabrication of seats, which anticipated changing modes of instruction in the future.

The seats were the result of a partnership with a local salvage company to recycle excess waste used in utility pole production. Usually turned into wood chips, the wood was repurposed into individual hexagonal seats that can be interlocked in different configurations.

Any wood that remained after this process was used to create the catenary arches and cladding within the roof of the structure.

PREFABRICATION Prefabrication was essential to minimize time spent doing on-site construction.

Cedar was chosen as the primary building material early in the design process because of its durability in outdoor conditions, local availability, and ease of construction. Prefabricated cedar columns, trusses, and arches were combined with custom designed and welded steel connectors.

48 | Outdoor Classroom

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Branding In this theoretical exercise, I created a wordmark representative of a makerspace. This business would provide collaborative work spaces and tools to those that would otherwise not have these resources.

The word "ARCH" was originally chosen to signify a connection between users and end results, but changed to suggest movement, power, and achieving goals.

Simple linework allows application at different scales without losing clarity.

123 Main St. Moscow, Idaho

www.archmakerspace.com

54 | Branding

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Typography [FOXES] This composition juxtaposes a highly objective text with a highly subjective one. The former is The Foxfire Book, a survival guide based in Southern Appalachian heritage, while the latter is a quote from Wes Anderson's rendition of Fantastic Mr. Fox. When paired in this way, I believe that they bring out each other's strengths in the most unexpected ways.

READ HERE: https://issuu.com/laraetomera/docs/_ foxes_

56 | Typography

HOW TO PASS [TIME IN] ARCHITECTURE STUDIO This handy how-to guide was inspired by the many questions that I experienced in my undergraduate education.

May the incoming students be braver and wiser than I was.

READ HERE: https://issuu.com/laraetomera/docs/ how_to_pass_time_in_architecture

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Stickers Starting as a prank on our studio professor in the spring semester of 2018, I began to practice graphic design in the form of stickers.

Today, I sell my unique stickers as a fundraiser for the University of Idaho’s chapter of AIAS, where I also serve as the Social Media Director.

BREAK THE SILENCE

You can follow my sticker making journey on Instagram @badsticks

i went to architecture school and all i got was this sticker #NOTADOME

cool parti, man

58 | Stickers

DESIGN like you give a DAMN

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