PORTFOLIO
Luke Guthrie
Architecture Student
Selected Works 2024 - 2025
Savannah College of Art and Design
Minor: Electronic Design
Pursuing M.Arch — Expected 2029
Phone: (704) 930-3032 Dean’s List 2023 - 2026
Location: Charlotte, NC / Savannah, GA GPA: 3.9
Longa Club 2024 - 2026 B.F.A. in Architecture — Expected 2027
Email: lukeguthrie14@gmail.com TerraViva Competition — Rising From Ashes (Participant)
RAIL LINE GALLERIES
A mixed-use live-work-exhibit building at the Georgia State Railroad Museum. The design utilizes light, circulation, and materiality to shape two galleries, a studio space, and private living quarters for artists.
Led design development on two projects from concept to client-ready presentations
Collaborated with project architects to develop drawings, iterate design solutions, and meet client and code requirements. Architecture Student
Worked on an interior upfit, designing storefront and wall configurations that met code requirements
Produced renderings, site plans, and presentations
A contemporary church combining Brutalist massing with light wood interiors and stained glass. The design creates distinct emotional experiences as you move through the building, using light, material, and spatial shifts to make each area feel unique and sacred.
HOUSE
A coastal hillside house in La Jolla that blends into the natural slope with elevated platforms, light framing, and large openings. It focuses on immersion in nature while balancing privacy, openness, and a calm retreat.
A concrete landscape observatory embedded into the slope at Pyramid Lake, designed to frame long panoramic viewsheds for climate researchers. It supports fieldwork with exterior circulation, large glazing, and a helipad.
This gallery and studio space, located within the Georgia State Railroad Museum, is conceived as both a container for art and an artwork in itself. The design uses bold, simple gestures to frame light, movement, and experience. Early hand sketches and study models explored rhythm, compression, and flow, forming the foundation for the building’s sectional clarity.
Materiality defines the character of the project. Cast-in-place limestone grounds the architecture in the industrial history of the site, while vertical Corten steel louvers add warmth, texture, and a weathered contrast. These elements are expressed honestly, highlighting process, permanence, and time.
Light is treated as a primary building material. Clerestories and narrow gaps introduce soft, indirect daylight that protects artwork while animating surfaces throughout the day. The result is a quiet, restrained, and atmospheric architecture that complements the museum context while establishing its own distinct identity.
Complete Structure
Georgia State Railroad Museum
Clerestory Roof with Exposed Beams
Flat Roof Assembly N
Pasadena, CA
This church embodies a journey from heaviness to light, both in structure and spirit. From the exterior, the architecture feels grounded and weighty, with concrete and steel expressing honesty, permanence, and the burdens of the world. This solid, almost somber massing sets the stage for the transition inside.
As you enter, light begins to guide the path forward. The rough exterior gives way to warm timber framing, stained glass, and a space that lifts both the eye and the spirit. Material shifts from concrete to wood, and the architecture becomes more open, welcoming, and expressive.
This progression from dark to light mirrors the path of faith, a reminder that no matter one’s past, renewal is always ahead. Through material and form, shadow gives way to illumination, enclosure becomes openness, and heaviness becomes hope. The church becomes more than a building; it becomes an experience of becoming, a place where architecture tells the story of forgiveness and light.
SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS
East Elevation
North Elevation
South
Section AA
Upward View — Lobby Interior
Section BB
Standing Seam Metal Roof
Vertical Standing Seams
Light Channels
A - Frame Structure
Timber Purlins
Load Bearing Walls
Ridge Cap Flashing
Steel Gusset Plate
Standing Seam Metal Roof
A - Frame Structure
Timber Purlins
Standing Seam Metal Roof
Steel Gusset Plate
Bolt Connections
Timber Purlins
A - Frame Structure
San Diego, CA
TUFA WATCH OBSERVATORY
Built into the slope beneath Tohakum Peak, the observatory uses the land’s natural grade for stability, thermal efficiency, and minimal site disturbance. Its embedded form allows the structure to merge with the mountainside rather than sit on top of it.
A southwest orientation frames Pyramid Lake and captures dramatic sunset color across the basin while supporting passive solar control. The building immerses researchers in daily light shifts and remains connected to the terrain through access to Hell’s Kitchen Canyon, a natural path to the lake, and a small ATV charging station for field mobility.
By relying on natural contours and grounded material use, the observatory aligns itself with the desert environment. It becomes not just a building but an experience shaped by land, climate, and light.
Ground Floor
Observatory View
First Floor Second Floor
