Michael Heller Portfolio Summer 2022

PORTFOLIO MICHAEL HELLER

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Formal Study 8”x8” Ink

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Dissemination 10”x10” Collage

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MICHAEL HELLER HELLERMICHAEL5@GMAIL.COM | 415-815-9890

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SELECTED WORKS 6.

ON GEODERMIC AFFAIRS: SMUDGY KARMA MACHINES Undergraduate Architectural Thesis

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THE V.A.C.H.E

Meat Production Plant + Museum 14.

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FORM + FORMLESS Terracotta Production Facility

COSMIC SPLICING ON HARMONY’S SURFACE: LXIV

Drawing Workshop: Perry Kulper

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PIONEERING FOLLIES Public Space Intervention

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SAME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Public Space Intervention 32.

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BIOTIC WONDERS

Fashion Show Set Design

ASHES TO ASHES SOURCE Research Grant

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01 ON GEODERMIC AFFAIRS. Architectural Thesis | Syracuse, New York, USA

Advisors: Jean Francois Bedard, Britt Eversole, Julie Larsen, Roger Hubeli

On Geodermic affairs is a thesis about processes: processes of imaging, of surface treatments, of industrial extraction. It is of course political, concerned with the environment humans have fostered in order to serve our own selfish needs and desires. This is a project about experimenting with representation; balancing an understanding of aesthetics and beauty while looking at our eventual demise.

I want to know how and if we can use architectural and compositional techniques to produce, interpret, and memorialize extractionist processes to transform our understanding of them. The site: an indistinct basin in the mojave desert, an extraction and production facility for Borax. The mechanized landscape creates markings in the soil; carving, pumping, rolling, piling. Without rest, the ground shifts, changing state again and again. Image making was the goal, but in that came definitions, rules to abide by. Making marks, layers, indexes, and records; needing to be effaced, scarred, smudged, disassembled and assembled. This is not a call to action, it’s an elegy, a reflection. The landscape is wearing out under the stress of its subjection. Dust and materials taken from the ground act as a historical memory, not of humans, but of the earth itself, of the landscape.

Instead of a project that demonstrates how much we are destroying the planet, it is a remembrance of a moment when we extracted, anticipating a time when we no longer do. A time when we no longer extract to feed our own desires, but to take knowledge from the marks that are left from those processes. This isn’t willful ignorance, it is an understanding of how we can view extraction differently, not just seeing it as problematic scars, effacing the organic histories that once were, but viewing it as a moment of remembrance. This is a cautionary tale of our place now and into the future.

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2022

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ADM_1

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02 THE V.A.C.H.E

MEAT PROCESSING PLANT + MUSEUM | Syracuse, NY, USA In collaboration with Wesley Feero Instructor: Daekwon Park | Course: ARC 409_Comprehensive Studio

The V.A.C.H.E is a cattle housing and meat production facility. The building provides public interaction in an often privatized industry.

Cattle farming and meat production is one of the largest agricultural industries in the country. Processes that traditionally operate in a linear alignment are hierarchical on a vertical plane. In addition to re-spatializing the farm typology, this hierarchy provides a public component which transforms these processes into a spectacle for the urbanite, a demographic which has traditionally been far removed from the origins of their food. Expecting that the potential visitor may be apprehensive to such an idea, they are lured in with the prospect of a meal at the end of their tour. Whether or not they choose to eat the beef is a personal choice. This is in no way providing a solution to the problems of meat production, industrialized processes or food scarcity.

Instead, The vache acts as a space for education and provocation while also balancing being an attraction for the general public and a fully functional meat processing factory. This is a mediator between the public realm and the privatized processes of industrialized farming. In that duality we argue that there is a need for more attention on this issue and see our project as a possible catalyst for discourse.

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.2021 SPRING

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FLOOR 3 PLAN

STABLE VIEWING

CATTLE EXHIBIT ENTRANCE/EXIT

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CHECK-IN COUNTER 4 3 BRIEFING ROOM

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LEGEND

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FLOOR 5 PLAN

STORAGE

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EMPLOYEE BATHROOM

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EMPLOYEE WALKWAY

CATTLE “CHUTE”

CATTLE STABLES

FORCING PEN

LEGEND

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KILLING FLOOR

INFORMATIONAL AUDITORIUM TICKETING BOOTH

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FLOOR 7 PLAN

MEAT PROCESS

CARCASS BLEEDING CARCASS ELEVATOR

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BUTCHER’S PLATFORM 1 OBSERVATION AREA

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HOLDING PENS

LEGEND 1

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FORCING PEN TURN METHANE INTAKE + STABLES

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FLOOR 9 PLAN

RESTAURANT

LEGEND

SORTING

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EMPLOYEE BREAK ROOM

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CARCASS ELEVATOR

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WASTE DISPOSAL

FREEZER

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MEAT PACKING 2

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EXECUTION POINT HANGING MEAT ELEVATOR

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DIRTY REALITY OF MEAT PROCESSING NORTH - SOUTH SECTION

EXECUTION POINT

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IMAGINED BUCOLIC SEQUENCE EAST - WEST SECTION

KITCHEN

DIRTY REALITY OF MEAT PROCESSING NORTH - SOUTH SECTION

IMAGINED BUCOLIC SEQUENCE EAST - WEST SECTION

EXECUTION POINT

KITCHEN

COW CARCASS ELEVATOR

STABLES VIEWING AREA

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RESPATIALIZING THE MATTE 2D PROGRAM MASSING AXON

Restaurant

Pasture

6,670 sqft

29,102 sqft

Meat Processing 6,670 sqft Killing Floor 6,955 sqft Stables 7,927 sqft

Loading Bay 2,349 sqft

Lobby 6,670 sqft

Roof Park 10,000 sqft

Power Plant 6,670 sqft

Basement

Farm

17,242 sqft

13,500 sqft

TOTAL AREA 100,255 sqft

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WATER CISTERN

HVAC COOLING TOWER

ALL SYSTEMS

CATTLE VENTILATION DIFFUSER

HVAC INTAKE/ EXHAUST

17’-11”

17’-6”er

17’-6”er

17’-6”er

17’-6”er

18’-0”er

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03 FORM + FORMLESS Terra Cotta Facility/R&D | Syracuse, New York, USA Instructor: Molly Hunker | Course: ARC 208_Architectural Studio

Form + Formless is a developing architectural language formulated by the actions of addition and subtraction of constructed forms.

The language derives from natural landscapes and how they are products of geological addition (tectonic shifts, volcanic eruptions) and subtractions (erosion, carving, cracking). The building is a representation of these constant natural shifts in the earth’s crust, but also takes into account the anthropogenic interference that takes place in industrial manufacturing processes. The building typology, a terracotta manufacturing plant and R+D lab for the Boston Valley Terra Cotta Company (Buffalo, New York) utilizes the surrounding environment in order to manufacture terra cotta. The building is situated on a decommissioned quarry in South Syracuse, NY. Built atop a large runoff pond, contaminated water is sucked through an external tubing system for use in the terracotta manufacturing process. Industrialism is not a closed system, it must take into account the resources it exploits, the product it creates, and its imposition on the world.

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.2019 SPRING

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SECTION 2

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Sec�ons Scale: 1/8” = 1’ 0”

ARC208: Project 02_Michael Heller E

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SECTION 2

SECTION 1

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Sec�ons Scale: 1/8” = 1’ 0”

SECTION 3

ARC208: Project 02_Michael Heller

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Roof Terrace

Clay Extraction

Parking

Clay Extraction

PLAN OBLIQUE

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BATCHING + RECYCLING

B CLAY EXTRACTION

FIRING ROOM

HIGH BAY SHED

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TOOL STORAGE PARKING SIZING ROOM

FINISHING ROOM

D BATHROOMS

CLAY ECTRACTION OFFICES

GALLERY MAIN ENTERANCE CAFE

BAR

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PLAN

31 Plan, Plan Oblique Scale: 1/32” = 1’ 0”

ARC208: Project 01_Michael Heller

MOISTNESS

DRYNESS

MOISTNESS

DRYNESS

PIPES

CRACKS Perspec�ves

Form + Formless ARC208: Project 02_Michael Heller

PIPES

CRACKS Perspec�ves

Form + Formless ARC208: Project 02_Michael Heller

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04 COSMIC SPLICING FABULOUS FICTIONS | CONCEPTUAL DIPTYCH In Collaboration With: Sean Marcille Instructor: Perry Kulper | Course: Drawing Workshop

This diptych explores the vast world of Greco-Roman allegories and myths, synthesizing these episodic stories into a single interwoven histrionic production. The setting of this world takes place in, on, and above the labyrinth; an ever thickening and thinning complex plane of tight corners, shifting walls, and dead-ends. The characters act out individual roles: The Minotaurs cause isolated magnitude eight earthquakes, The Pegasus flies high above casting a dark shadow onto the ground below, and the Sisyphean Earth Carver perpetually shifts the maze’s path with its “Uniroller”. Velvet towers, brass crowns, chrome zeppelins, and red X’s act as markers/waypoints across the surface. The expansive landscape is captured from eye level and from above, revealing an ever-shifting ground plane, all while a diverse cast and crew continually construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct the labyrinth helping and hindering the maze runner to their final goal.

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.2021 FALL

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05 PIONEERING FOLLIES System of Public Interventions | Syracuse, New York, USA

In Collaboration With: Andrea Herrada and Morgan Noone Professors: Ifeoma Ebo and Nathan Williams | Course: ARC 408_Visiting Critic Studio

Pioneer Homes is one of the earliest government public housing projects in the United States. The area, Ward 15, was once a thriving black enclave with businesses and single family homes. However, during the mid-1900’s red lining, block busting, and white flight made the community seem dangerous. Today, the area is one of concentrated minority poverty and stands in stark contrast to the flourishing black community that once was. The goal of this project was to create a system of spaces that bridges the past, present and future of the black enclave in Syracuse by providing safe and joyous community-oriented environments for the members of Pioneer Homes to thrive within. This was achieved by using 1920’s era Sanborn Insurance maps and isolating footprints of homes and businesses that once stood on, what is now, the grounds of Pioneer Homes. The historical footprints are used as the bases for nine interventions that provide a variety of programmatic functions for recreational, educational, and health activities, but also act as functional memorials to the members of the community that once lived in these homes as well as the history of redlining which these maps were used to further segregate black and white communities. The system of interventions attempts to reach as many parts of Pioneer Homes in order to provide spaces of joy, play, growth, and memory for the community.

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.2020 Fall

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Sanborn 1928

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Google Maps 2020

Pioneer Homes 1938

Foot Prints

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06 SAME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD .

Public Space Intervention | Syracuse, NY, USA Instructor: Greg Corso | Course: ARC 500_ Interventions

The Westminster park steps have been underutilized and under appreciated for too long. This intervention abstracts linear movement up and down the steps while also creating interstitial spaces for rest. The large beams cross and jog along the steps dictating the movement of the user. The beams also hold up triangular mesh canopies that catch fallen leaves during the fall. This creates a covered roof over the rest moments while also embodying the entropic conditions of the seasons. As leaves begin to amalgamate on the surface of the mesh they will continue to deteriorate creat-ing a detritus laden roof that to some may seem disgusting but is really just the way things are in the world. Cleanliness and hermetic spaces is not how the real world looks yet we desire them. Why? Allowing the interactor to perceive the world as a continuing cycle of life and death allows them to appreciate the world around them more. This project represents the duality of human interaction with nature: one part a constant cutting and shear-ing of the natural world, one part appreciation of its beauty even in death.

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2021 SPRING

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07 BIOTIC WONDERS

Fashion Show Set For SU VPA Fashion Design Major (Constructed) Lead: Alaina Marra

Biotic Wonders is the fall semester fashion show for the Syracuse School of Visual and Performing Arts. As a part of the FADS program (Fashion and Deign Society) at SU I helped design and fabricate the set for the show. With the concept of Posthumanism at the forefront of our design thinking, our design group proposed a simple screen that shrouded the models as they walked in a set of projected floral silhouettes. The projections created shadows that also revealed the structure of the set providing a context for how the sets construction might also be a part of the atmosphere. This along with the meandering path around the guests created a ominous yet intriguing space for the fashion to be showcased.

With the assistance of colleagues in Syracuse University FADS Program: Jessica Szymanowski, Adam Harris, Andrea Herrada, Danny Horan, Tyler Jessey, and Hannah Landon Photography by Roy Anshul

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.2021 FALL

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08 ASHES TO ASHES SOURCE Research Grant

.2021 SUMMER

Advisor: Yutaka Sho

The Coal Breaker was the church, the place of worship to the only thing that was holy: King Coal. Blackened and dusty monuments to a dirty and grimy industry, The coal processing plants acted as the hearth to a home or a steeple to the church, connoting a place of security, opportunity, and community for the people of North Eastern Pennsylvania. These mining towns attracted laborers, and immigrants alike who were in pursuit of the American Dream. However, as oppor-tunistic as these pilgrimage sites may have seemed to immigrants and laborers, these massive machines made of wood, iron, and stone were costly to personal health and did not allow much in the way of upward mobility. The fall of these buildings into disuse and decay symbolized the departure from a meta-spiritualistic reliance on the coal industry. The Coal Breaker acted as monument, shrine, and ritual site for these communities, and with them gone, so was that hope for a better life. The project investigates two main questions: Can industrial buildings influence the culture, health, and routines of a community in the same way that a religious, civic, educational or institutional building might? Secondly, does the building symbolically act as a monument to the industry, and, with the typology now extinct, does this reflect a growing trend towards other forms of energy extraction/usage?

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Syracuse University School of Architecture. circa 2022