MICHELLE DANIELA VILLARREAL
Bachelor of Fine Arts 2012, The School of the Art Insitute of Chicago Master of Landscape Architecture+ Urbanism candidate, 2017, University of Southern California Certifications: Horticulture, Harold Washington College, 2013 Archeworks, Sustainable Urban Design, 2015 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: ~ARCHEWORKS, Chicago, IL Work/Study, various projects September 2014-July 2015 ~GRAHAM RESOURCE CENTER LIBRARY, IIT, Chicago, IL Teacher’s assistant September 2013-May 2014 ~HUMBOLDT PARK SOCIAL SERVICES, Chicago, IL Interim Housing- Residential Aide February 2011- October 2012 ~GAPERS BLOCK, www.gapersblock.com Staff writer February 2011- April 2012 ~MEDIA BURN ARCHIVE, Chicago, IL Video intern September 2010-May 2011 ~UROLOGY SPECIALISTS, S.C., Chicago, IL Assistant to Dr. Laurence Levine June 2008- May 2009 ~ARCHITRAVE, LTD, Chicago, IL Assistant for Architectural firm May 2007- September 2007 ~ENVIRONMENT ILLINOIS, Chicago, IL Grassroots organizer, intern May 2006-September 2006
SKILLS: Proficient in Microsoft Office, Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Isometric renderings, AutoCAD, drawing, painting, Rhino 3D Platforms: Mac OS 9/10/X, Windows XP/NT/Vista/Me/2000, Linux, fluent in Spanish, written and spoken
CERTIFICATE PROGRAM ARCHEWORKS, RENDERINGS
This rendering shows a proposed soccer field with swale gardens surrounding for imporoved water draingage
FIRST YEAR MLA- IIT
FIRST YEAR MLA-IIT
This project reworked an exsisting school site, and we incorporated a design that was extrapolated from geometric shapes. The graphic to the left is a textural rendering of the tree plantings and building existing conditions.
This diagram shows the different infrastructure, the soil types, the waterline and freezing line, etc. It was useful for the campus design project.
FIRST YEAR MLA- IIT
Slip Park is a proposed design strategically incorporating human and migratory bird use simultaneously in a previously unstructured park. The highly curated planting strategy will allow for the landscape to be broken up from east to west encompassing three major planting types-- riparian prairie habitat, which is an island created from cutting into the existing landscape, a low-lying shrub savanna to the south west and woodland to the north west. Because the planting strategy incorporates plants relevant for specific bird species, it is part of the primary components of the shaping and organization of space. Birds occupy many trophic webs and are outstanding plant pollinators, and to highlight their importance in creating this environment is a priority. The main movement and threshold of this park are the slip that runs through the entire landform, which also becomes a safety device for the seasonal kayakers to move from the kayak launch areas to the Ogden slip and back to the river.
FIRST YEAR MLA- IIT This rendering show the slip created in my proposal for the park. Making a framework where human and bird habitation is possible in creating a distance between the bird habitats and human habitation through proposed slips and screening devices, thus transforming an area that has been fraught with chemical contamination and underutilization. The reflective human program consisting of the slip and areas of observation and exploration is essential strategy for the designed landscape to create a dynamic spatial experience. The human use will consist of encompassing a built second nature and respite from the urban city to the enthralls of a planted landscape, as a way to slip out of, or become disengaged, from a fastening or grasp of the urban context into a place that is set aside for quietude.
FIRST YEAR MLA- IIT
The diagram to the left explains the planting strategy as well as height differentiation and density. An idea of a softer edge at the eastern part of the park was essential in this design, as a soft edge within the larger context of the Chicago River hardly exists, and where it does exist, it is done with little intent. The phenomenological sense of immersion is activated through the sound of water moving within the system of gabions, the birds who are inhabiting the park at that given time, and the activity through a landscape that has a deliberate sense of place.
Seasonal Trend of Migration for Identified Key Species of Concern Utilizing Mississippi Flyway J
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Great Blue Heron
Ardea herodias
Olive-sided Flycatcher Contopus cooperi
Red-headed Woodpecker Melanerpes erythrocephalus
Winged Warbler
Vermivora chrysopterav
Ruddy turnstone
Arenaria interpres
Tufted Titmouse Baeolophus bicolor
Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus
Sandhill Crane Grus canadensis
Sanderling Calidris alba
Wood duck Aix sponsa
Lonicera japonica
Amelanchier lavis
Juniperus virginiana
Asclepias purpurascens
Juncus pacificus
Carix stricta Potamogenton pectinatus
Northern Pintail Anas acuta
Bell’s Viro Vireo bellii
Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Illex spp.
Vitis vinifera
Campsis radicans
Baeolophus bicolor
Hamamelis spp.
Secale cereale spighe
Comarum palustre
Scripus spp.
Lupinus perennis Lycaeides melissa samuelis Sporobolus heterolepis
Liatris spicata
Cypripedium candidum
Arenaria interpres
Asclepias meadii
Aix sponsa
Vireo bellii
Grus canadensis
Calidris alba
Ardea herodias
Vermivora chrysoptera
Boltonia decurrens
Agastache nepetoides
Anas acuta
Cornus florida
Populus tremuloides Solidago canadensis
Lanius ludovicianus
Pinus strobus
Quercus alba/bicolor
Melanerpes erythrocephalus
Contopus cooperi
Rhus typhina
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, April 2014, http://www.allaboutbirds.org/ Oak Savannahs, April 2014, http://oaksavannas.org/ Checklist of Endangered and Threatened Animals and Plants of Illinois, April 2014, http://www.dnr.illinois.gov/espb/documents/etchecklist2011.pdf Mississippi Flyway Priority Birds, April 2014, http://conservation.audubon.org/mississippi-flyway-priority-birds Migration Pathways, April 2014, http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/studying/migration/pathways
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, April 2014, http://www.allaboutbirds.org/ http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/studying/migration/pathways Mississippi Flyway Priority Birds, April 2014, http://conservation.audubon.org/mississippi-flyway-priority-birds
This diagram above shows the key species I identified conducting research on the Mississippi flyway. It shows the density of migration, which months are the most prolific, and when choosing the plant species for the project, the bird species were considered.