Third Year Academic Portfolio

SELECTED WORKS Meredith Horst

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MEREDITH HORST

(314) 939-8269 meredith_horst@icloud.com linkedin.com/in/meredith-horst

EDUCATION August 2022 - May 2027 August 2018 - May 2022

The University of Kansas | Lawrence, KS | 3.81 GPA Master of Architecture Degree Fox C-6 Senior High School | Arnold, MO | 4.31 GPA

PROFESSIONAL May 2022 - Present August 2023 - Present

Qdoba Mexican Eats | Arnold, MO | Shift Worker The Univeristy of Kansas Housing & Residence Life | Lawrence, KS | Resident Assistant

HONORS August 2022 - Present August 2022 - Present August 2022 - Present

The University of Kansas School of Architecture Dean’s List | GPA of 3.75+ The University of Kansas Excellence Scholarship | Recipient The University of Kansas University Honors Program | Member

SKILLS 3D Modeling 2D Drafting Rendering Graphics

Physical Modeling, Sketchup, Rhino, Revit Hand Drafting, AutoCAD Enscape, Lumion Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

REFERENCES Kent Spreckelmeyer, Ph.D Jae Chang, Ph.D Jora Lam

Professor of Architecture The University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design | kents@ku.edu Associate Dean of Research, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship| Professor of Architecture The University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design | jdchang@ku.edu Corbin Hall Complex Coordinator The University of Kansas Housing & Residence Life | jora.r.lam@ku.edu

INTERESTS Crochet & Knit LEGO Sports & Athletics Arts

Various scales & materials Builder & explorer Kansas Jayhawks, St. Louis Blues, Kansas City Chiefs Drawing, Painting, Nail Art, Mosaics, Calligraphy, Photography 3

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CONTENTS 01 | 06

Main Street Food Hall Kansas City, MO

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Contemplation Chapel Lawrence, KS

03 | 26

Early Childhood Care Center Lawrence, KS

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01 | Main Street Food Hall ARCH 209, Spring 2024 Professor Jae Chang Kansas City, Missouri 74,500 ft² Sketchup, Illustrator, Photoshop

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The goal of this project was to create a food hall placed in downtown Kansas City, and design it to be in use twenty years in the future. This project was to be focused around sustainability and utilizing modern building techniques in a way that would inform the enitre food hall’s design. This project is the largest one that I have worked on to date, and it needed to hold at least seven restaurants, be a minimum of two levels, and respond to the site in a thoughtful way. Downtown Kansas City is continually growing, so this project would have a huge impact on this entire area.

This project truly challenged me in many different ways. I learned new software, explored various materials, and ventured into a completely new post-production style. I found innovative ways to express my ideas more creatively, effectively showcasing the driving concepts of my design. Overall, I believe the project is very cohesive in terms of both concept and presentation.

I learned so much about myself as a designer during this project, and I am proud that result is cohesive and well-presented.

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Main Street Food Hall

Site & Form Development As with every architectural project, the site played a massive role in the entire development of this food hall. It is to be located on the corner of Truman Road and Main Street in Downtown Kansas City. This area already has so many entertainment options, including the Kauffman Center, T-Mobile Center, the Power and Light District, and possibly even the new home to a proposed Royals Stadium. There is also the future project of capping I-670 with South Loop Park, bringing much needed greenery to the urban environment.

Besides entertainment, there are plenty of existing housing, lodging, restaurants, businesses, and parking options, so designing a food hall to compete with and compliment the surrounding businesses would take a lot of attention to detail. ​ The current site holds an auto-shop, faces north towards the future South Loop Park, and has a total downward slope of eight feet across its front. The KC Streetcar passes through the area on the west side of the site, which will bring so many visitors throughout the day.

Legend Site Lodging Business Restaurant Entertainment Housing Green Spacce Parking Sun Path 5-Minute Walk Radius KC Streetcar Route

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Fine Din ing Relaxe d Dinin g Casual Dining

01. Initial Mass: I began with a very basic form that took up as much space as possible on the site. With so many interesting places and experiences surrounding the site, it was very important to engage with all of these things and make my building an extension of the park itself.

02. Programming: The building is split into three main sections.

The first floor holds many casual dining options for visitors stopping by for a quick bite on the way to another KC activity. The second floor’s purpose is to be utilized as a work and study space with serene views. The third floor is composed of fine dining and bar options. By separating these spaces, each floor has its own unique feel.

03. Maximize Greenery: With this design, I was able to replace 157% of the base footprint of the food hall. Since this building was designed to be an extension of the park, it was vital that every area of it would be in close proximity to a green space, whether that was one of the open green houses or a vertical garden. Each floor has access to the green houses that open up to the sky. By adding a sedum roof, the air quality naturally becomes more pure.

04. Water Collection: Since so many buildings these days are taking a toll on the environment, it was extremely important that I was able to recycle natural resources such as water. The curved parametric roof funnels any excess water into the open green houses to then water the plants inside. The excess water from the green houses is then drained into a large cistern below the main floor to be reused throughout the food hall.

05. Timber Structure: The use of Douglas Fir as the main mass timber structure proved very effective in terms of both strength and afforability. The entire building follows a simple grid support system. The main structure for the parametric roof is also composed of Douglas Fir but as glulam arches, and a mass plywood panel. They are manufactured one by one and then assembled into the roof on site.

06. Optimize Views: With the food hall being in such close proximity to iconic Kansas City landmarks (as well as the new Royals Stadium), it was vital to emphasize the views surrounding it. The north, west, and east facades are composed of mainly glass that control for the right amount of sunlight brightening up the space, as well as showing off the beautiful spaces surrounding it.

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Main Street Food Hall

Floor Plans & Programming Down

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1. Kitchens 2. Delivery Corridor 3. Interior Garden 4. Storage 5. Employee Break Room 6. Retail 7. Service Elevator

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Level 03 1. Kitchen 2. Bar 3. Interior Garden 4. Storage 5. Employee Break Room

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Main Street Food Hall

Section

With this section, I thought it would be very important to emphasize three of the main driving concepts behind my food hall: mass timber, maximized greenery, and water collection. ​

Finally, the water collection system can be seen very clearly. The rainwater drains off the roof into the vertical gardens, and is then brought into the water storage cisterns below grade. ​

The mass timber structure is very obvious and straightforward when looking at the section. It follows a simple grid system for the main structure, and has glulam beams supporting the parametric roof.​

Besides the technical aspects of the building, this section really helps illustrate circulation throughout the spaces. It demonstrates how people can interact with the staircases on the outside of the vertical gardens, with balconies that allow for people to sit suspended above the greenery below them. The section also helps illustrate the available seating options.​

The green used in this section is very powerful for a few different reasons. First of all, it emphasizes how much greenery was placed throughout the entire food hall. But is also shows how the plants outside the building seem to continue all the way inside.

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With choosing to do a perspective section, I was able to truly show how the experience inside the food hall feels, and how people interact with all of its details.

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Main Street Food Hall

Interior Experience

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The top render shows a view of the interior gardens that runs the north side of the food hall on the second and third floors. Even though it doesn’t receive direct sunlight, there is still plenty of natural light that is able to come in from the west and east sides of the building.

There are many different types of plants located on the inside, and you can even see the large tree from one of the main vertical gardens. This render shows how people interact with the garden, and how those on the stairs can have a nice view of both the north-facing and vertical green spaces while traveling between floors of the food hall. This creates the great effect of the continuation of South Loop Park into the food hall.

The bottom render shows what the experience in the dining area of the food hall would be like. People line up at each vendor to order and pick up their food to still allow for circulation around these spaces.

There are also plenty of options for seating around the whole floor, but this particular render shows the view of the large gardens that people can look at when eating their food.

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Main Street Food Hall

Exterior Engagement

The west side of the building was designed to safely engage with the flow of traffic outside, especially with the KC Streetcar running along this side. The second ntrance on this side of the building allows for people to directly enter onto the second floor if they wish. There are also other popular areas and attractions located on the western side of the building (like the Kauffan Center for the Performing Arts and the Power & Light District) that will attract people to the food hall.

With plenty of walkable paths for pedestrians as well as the newly proposed South Loop Park, having multiple entrances at multiple levels will draw in as many people as possible.

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I am very pleased with how this food hall turned out. This studio seemed very daunting as it is my first large-scale building that I have designed. I had to consider so many different elements of a building that I have never worked with before, but upon reflection I have realized that each of these small details have truly helped inform how my building functions from the technical side to the aesthetics side. With knowledge about site analyses from ARCH 605, I was better able to understand how so many different natural and man-made elements affected my design, especially with a challenging north-facing site on a slope.

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02 | Pioneer Chapel ARCH 208, Fall 2023 Professor Kent Spreckelmeer Lawrence, Kansas 1,000 ft² Physical Modeling, Sketchup, Photoshop

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This project’s purpose was to design a small non-denominational chapel to sit on the west campus of KU, to hold about fifty people comfortably. The structure was to utilize timber as its main material, and my goal was to find an interesting way to manipulate the wood to create a beautiful shape. By taking a deep dive into timber construction, I was able to create a place that is peaceful and thought-provoking.

When designing a non-denominational chapel to be utilized on the campus of a major state university, it is extremely important to consider the needs of all different people during the design process. This structure had to be appropriate for all religions and cultures while still being a place of reflection for any visitor.

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Pioneer Chapel

Site & Form Development The Pioneer Cemetery, located on the University of Kansas West Campus, holds a rich history of honoring those we have lost. Originally named Oread Cemetery, about seventy boys and men were killed by Confederate William Clarke Quantrill and his raiders, and were laid to rest at Oread. Today, individuals who have worked for KU have the option for their cremated remains to be buried at this cemetery. The site holds a rich history full of honor and fighting back against racism, creating a place where everyone can truly feel safe, and have a place for contemplation.

I had the option to place the chapel in any way on the site, but I ultimately chose for the entrance to be south-facing. This allows for plenty of direct sunlight to help brighten the entry and make the building feel more inviting, but this orientation also played an important role in the roof: with the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, this chapel will always be well-lit on the inside during the day.

Engle Road

Lied Center

Self & Oswald Halls

Stewart Drive Irving Hill Road

Crestline Drive

Pioneer Cemetery

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KU Endowment

Constant Avenue

West 19th Street

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The aspect of the chapel that I found absolutely necessary was a space that was narrow upon entry of the main worship space, but then opened up to a large stage for preaching.

The hyperbolic paraboloid roof perfectly captured the form I was searching for for the interior experience as well as the exterior grandeur.

As this was my first functional building design, one of my greatest challenges was seamlessly incorporating support spaces into my design without interrupting the beauty of the main hall.

By tucking these restrooms and storage closets into the walls that slant out from the roofline, the chapel’s worship space gets an unimpeded view of the roof.

After researching hyperbolic paraboloid structures, I established a simple system for the roof. Each beam would be spaced evenly at seven points along the roof frame, with two layers from each side being layered over each other.

The force of the framework simply holds all the weight from the roof inside itself, making the structure extremely stable.

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Pioneer Chapel

Timber Precedents & Structure Development I gained so much inspiration from doing research on parametric wood structures, and my eyes were truly opened to the seemingly-endless possibilities that came along with working with timber.

I began to distort the standard hyperbolid paraboloid to find a way to enhance the experience inside the chapel in a beautiful manner, while also keeping an intimate feel inside. Once I settled on an iteration that fit these goals, I had to really dive into the structural design of the chapel.

Aside ftom the roof structure, I really had to consider how natural elements would react against my building, and how the overall load would affect the slightly angled walls. To ermain structurally sound, I have angled columns that connect to each of the beams in the roof to help bring forces to the ground. In order to stabilize any extra forces, I also chose to use bracing going in the opposite angled direction of these columns. By simplifying the overall form of the building to adhere to this structural system, it truly does make the entire chapel a cohesive unit.

The intricate latticework of the hyperbolic roof looks very complicated, but it actually follows a quite simple framing system: each beam of the roof would stretch from one side to its opposite, and as they extend along the frame, they seem to twist in on each other. This style of roof has been used in many differrent buildings, and has held up against the test of time in structural terms.

The Architect’s Journal

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Ramsay Maunder Associates

Mock-Up Model 1

Mock-Up Model 2

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Pioneer Chapel

Final Design The final composition of my design did everything that I had intended for it to. It created a beautiful space that allowed for deep contemplation in a peaceful setting. The support spaces were integrated flawlessly to create a main devotional area with unimpeded views of the roof structure. The space inside this main room funnels people into the room, and opens up to a gorgeous preaching sanctuary, with a delicately stunning back panel wall. The weaving of the roof creates intriguing shadows being cast around the walls ad floors; the same can be said about the outer crossing structural walls as well.

This building is welcoming and promoted deep contemplation among visitors. It is simple, elegant, and based around a mathematical form that has been used for many different purposes in the scale of architecture. By letting this form shape the rest of the structure, it truly is a piece that fits within the serene context of Pioneer Cemetery.

Interior View

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Exterior View

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03 | Early Childhood Care Center ARCH 208, Fall 2023 Professor Kent Spreckelmeyer Lawrence, Kansas 4,500 ft² Sketchup, Lumion, Enscape, Photoshop

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The purpose of this project was to design an early childhood care center for the downtown Lawrence community. This building was to be accessible to the general public as well, but also while maintaining the safety of the children attending the school. This purpose entailed many different challenges, but it ultimately came together in a way that encouraged creativity and the want to learn from a very young age.

The most interesting part of this project was finding a way to keep the learning spaces separate from the areas open to the rest of the Lawrence community. Many safety factors were taken into consideration, allowing me to develop a place for young children to express themselves and get a head-start on the world

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Early Childhood Care Center

Site & Form Development This site is located just west of Massachusetts Street, the most vibrant strip of downtown Lawrence. Directly south of the site is South Park, home to many picnics and farmer’s markets throughout the year. Currently, the site is just being used as a parking lot, but it holds so much more potential than this. There are multiple childcare centers located throughout Lawrence, but none so close to the city’s hub.

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With this new development, children from a very young age are able to see the interconnected community of this town. With being in close proximity to Mass. Street, many families have the chance to take their children to a development center as well as explore some great areas around the school.

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Early Childhood Care Center

Floor Plans & Programming Classrooms are places that have the ability to promote creativity in young minds. By using interesting shapes that are anything but ordinary and open up to an outdoor exploration & play space, these children will have the opportunity to let their imaginations roam free.

Classroom Floor Plan

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Building Floor Plan 1. Classrooms 2. Administration 3. Reception 4. Nurse’s Office 5. Restrooms 6. Storage 7. Maintenance 8. Indoor Play Space

9. Outdoor Play Space 10. Skylights 11. Kitchen 12. Community/Dining Center 13. Library 14. Rooftop Garden 15. Public Roof Entry

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Early Childhood Care Center

Interior Experience The classroom spaces are brightly-lit from both the windows opening up to the outdoor play space, as well as the curving clerestory system on the opposite side of the room. This ensures that the classes will always have at least some type of natural light flowing into them.

The indoor play area that can be seen in the sectional perspective is spacious, and includes many different sensory play items as well as a non-steep hill for the children to improve motor skills.

The entryway is welcoming yet with bright artwork and happy colors, yet also very secure with a double-door security system.

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Early Childhood Care Center

Exterior Experience As masonry was the main material I was investigating during the design of this early development center, I really wanted to play around with the different types of ways that brick could be utilized to create interesting shapes.

I found a type pf curving brick wall during my research that provides a structurally-sound building with an intriguing overall form.

The use of “crinkle-crankle” wall allows for spacious, interesting classrooms that are environmentally friendly as they require less building materials that traditional brick walls.

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Early Childhood Care Center

Library & Rooftop Garden The second floor of the development center is unique as it is open to the public when the students are not using it. There is a completely private entry to access the second story, making sure that the students’ safety is of utmost importance.

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The library space has plenty of books, a community reading center, and a research area for the different needs of both the students and the whole Lawrence community.

The outdoor rooftop garden is also open to the public in the same way, allowing for children to learn about how things all around them grow with the supervision of both teachers and family members.

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Thank You.

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