FINAL
PORTFOLIO Minh Le ARCH 103 Spring 103
Overview 1. Introduction and Site Analysis of Mission Bay 2. Project Proposals
3. Landform and Massing Studies 4. Final Proposal – Uchronian Garden 5. Afterthoughts
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Intro to Mission Bay
Source: Google Map
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Back-Ground: Created in 1998 by the Board of Supervisors as a redevelopment project. Much of the land once was the rail yard of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Also rich with maritime history, the Old Ship Yard Repair located at the South-East corner of the neighborhood. Now, the neighborhood has rapidly evolved into a wealthy neighborhood of luxury condominiums, high-end restaurants and retail, and center hub of the biotechnology research and development The San Francisco’s new Mission Bay development project to transform the neighborhood into “a mixed-use, transit-oriented development,” including housing complex (range from affordable to high –end luxury), biotech research labs and hospitals, restaurants and public open spaces along the waterfront and Mission Creek. Source: wikipedia.org , sfredevelopment.org
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Significant Values and Attractions Visible and Connectable
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Sun Exposure / Wind Capacity The neighborhood is exposed to full sunlight almost all day long, giving the site area the sense of warm and open. Major wind comes from the Bay, since the majority of West wind reduces down while passing through all the structure of High Way as well as UCSF campus, making the area become a comfortable space/ place to linger and/ or hangout. ďƒ¨ Good to promote public space. 6
SF Urban Grown Rate Mission Bay vs. Entire City
With all the housing project being planned and proceeded, the neighborhood will welcome more residency, so creating a gathering center to bring community together can help enhance the vitality of the place.
7 Source: data.sfgov.org, jparsons.net, Esri
Security
Source: data.sfgov.org
The neighborhood is in low crime rate, with high cover of police and law enforcement nearby. This is a typical friendly and safe environment, … good to host community fairs, events that bring people not only surrounding the area, but also people from nearby neighborhood, such as Mission, SOMA, …
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Project Proposals Promoting the sense of community, prefer the idea of Slow-Life , which focus on Nodes, pedestrians and bike traffic. Open , public space. Access from Terry A Francois Blvd / Bicycle Route 5 Focus on the function of the Exploratorium museum complex : learning and interacting. Discovery.
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Diagram of Program Relationship and Responses
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Landform and Massing Studies
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Landform
I started off with the idea of creating the extending roof garden joining the ground level open grass area. Mimicking the shape of mountain and terrain.
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From that, I started to incorporate the spatial aspect into the landform structure, with the ideas of leveling, overhead roof top, and access between levels.
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Massing To keep the consistency of tectonic language between the two structure (Museum and Market), I experimented with the same similar form throughout the design. The overall shape and mass is mainly focused, instead of details. I want to see how spaces are form when I out all the “building blocks� together
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South side view
The Museum complex is set to be higher than the market , so visitors can visually response back to the UCSF campus and its biotechnology focus. 16
Museum is located at the East-end of the site, taking main access from the Terry A Francois Blvd and Bridgeview Way. Also, its location near the waterfront is the direct response to the Exploratorium at the waterfront of Pier 15, as well as provide views to the Bay and other attractions, such as AT&T Park, or Bay Bridge ‌
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Issues and Next-Step Approaches While developing the form of the Market Place, I decides to create 3 separate levels of shops/stalls (underground, ground, and upper ground level) with roof Garden on top. However, this design came with the problem of underground level retail shop doesn’t seem to promote vitality. Also, the roof top Garden is not easily accessible from shop owners. So at the next step in my process, I decide to only create one level of shop, that easily and equally access from ground level. The Organic Garden will be placed at the center of the Market structure, accessible by all owners, as well as distinguished from the open public space.
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After working more and more on the big idea, I found this arrangement didn’t seem to response well to my vision, which will be introduced in the upcoming slide. The Exploratorium is located at the farthest point of the site to the UCSF campus, whose works are displayed at the museum. Locating the museum at the end near the waterfront doesn’t seem to trigger the vitality for the Bay, instead, it might only become the beautiful view overlooked from the top of the museum. Public Garden tends to serve as the resting, playground for the community and the neighborhood, but is located at the middle of busy 19 services : Market and Museum.
Uchronian Garden
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Vision “My project is about creating the center place of Sharing and Discovery” In the last few weeks up to final, I focused mainly on the design of the Exploratorium, since it requires a largest activity area and programmatic space. I recalled the first time I got to experience the magic of the Exploratorium, the excitement of learning how things work and physically making them work. In the design, I want to aim for that notion of interacting and discovery that Exploratorium brings to the visitors. It’s not just about merely hearing or reading about those new things, but actually figuring out the how and why they are like that. I also wanted to tap in the idea of bringing people together to share common interests, building up the sense of community, “sharing the neighborhood.” 21
Final-Changed Program Arrangement
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Market Place: Located at the West-side, along the 3rd Street and Muni rail-road. Feeding the neighborhood residents as well as the population from the UCSF campus across the street
Exploratorium: Located at the center of the site. Showcasing the work of the UCSF biotech campus, serve as the metaphorically symbol of the neighborhood : biotechnology. It is the focal point/ main focus of Mission Bay. Public Garden: Located at the East-side, adjacent to Terry A Francois Blvd, targeting the public access of pedestrians and bikers. Provide space for community to hold events or collaborative projects. Potentially become the extension of the Bay Front Park near the waterfront, serving the bigger community need. 23
Program Responses
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Site Plan
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Neighborhood, Market at Your Service
The Market Place is located along the main transit road: 3rd Street, to provide service to the residents of the neighborhood as well as the population from UCSF campus. All shops and stalls are at the same level, provide the equal access along 3rd street and South street. Multiple entrance run along to create smooth and easy access into and out of the Market.
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Organic Garden
Organic Gardens are surrounded by the Market, accessible from the shops and stalls by owners. The Gardens sit within the Market structure ďƒ¨ distinguished from the Public Open Garden nearby.
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Leading to Journey of Discovery
The two structures of Market Places form a walkway that lead the pedestrians and wanderers to the Exploratorium, located at the center of the site. From that, the visitors can start their journey of discovering science, design and biotechnology and sharing/ interacting with each other.
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Inspiration
Since the Mission Bay had a rich Maritime History, and since the Market is to serve the neighborhood, I want to the structure that mimicking the shape of an anchor. 29
Exploring the Exploratorium Inspiration: The overall form of the museum complex is inspired by the form of the mechanical gear wheel. It is the combinational between engineer/ science and design, link back to the program which aims to “enrich all lives through science and design.� Set of gear wheel always interlock and interact on each other making the whole mechanism/ organism operates. Its interacting nature inspires me as well. The idea of connecting one gear to another and creating the continuous flow of motion is quite lovely. 30
Inspiration: The ads, on the right, came up to me one day when I was waiting for Muni. It is catchy and spot-on to me because the idea is quite simple. It focuses on the letter O in “explore” as well as urges people’s interest and curiosity into visiting and experiencing the museum exhibits. Interesting things sometimes are things that we don’t know much about. It is a part of the discovering process; learning , then sharing with others. Since this ads really interests me, I decide to base all of my main activity spaces of the museum , such as Main Gallery, Exhibits and Outdoor Garden Gallery, in shape of the circle; because those places are “where things get interesting.”
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Early sketches of Space Arrangement.
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First Floor Plans
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Second Floor Plan
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Third Floor Plan
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Entrances
The main entrance to the museum is along Bridgeview Way. Accessible from the garage on South Street as well as the Housing Complex at the north end of the Mission Bay.
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The second entrance is locate at the center of the site, follow along the diagonal-line path way formed by the Market Place exterior Wall. This entrance is for people from the Market, or follow the Gene Friend Way and Campus Lane from UCSF.
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Main Gallery Space Main Gallery exhibit located on the first floor level, accessible directly from the front desk and guest service area. Has access up to second-level and third-level exhibit rooms, and out to the Outdoor Garden Gallery area.
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A Little Journey, A Delight Discovery You are in the Main Gallery and you notice a walkway up to upper level. You move toward and get to the base of the ramp. You can feel the weight of ceiling of the upper level. But the window glass along the ramp give you sneak peak of the outside world, and it excite you to explore. You decide to follow the ramp, with every step up, the walkway is brighter and brighter , and when you get to the middle of the glass window, a new world opens up in front of you, the Garden below, the building complex of UCSF campus. You have discovered a new world, stay as you may and reflect, or you can finish your walk to get to next exhibit space, where new attractions await to be discovered. 39
Outdoor Garden Gallery Outdoor Garden Gallery is located on the west side of the Main Gallery and can be accessible from there. It is a hidden public space within the museum, overlooked by all gallery exhibit. It is purposely to be a more relaxed space, where people can hangout, rest or reflect their journey of discovery throughout the museum. I want this Outdoor Gallery to be cover with grass, as in to create a garden where can hold exhibition, special event. It is the garden within a garden (the whole site).
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Inspiration I got inspired by the idea of creating this open area at ground level while structure growing at the background. It gives me the sense of resting and relaxing opposing to the complexity of the design and science. Every discovery journey needs some sort of stopping point in the middle to reflex and rest, that is the reason why , I want to incorporate this open area into my design.
Perot Museum of Nature and Science Morphosis Source: archdaily.net
An while the project is about the Uchronian Garden, I decide to transform it into a garden as well.
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SF Bay Ecology Exhibit The SF Bay Ecology and Natural History Exhibit is located at the South side of the site. It is accessible via the ramp front the Main Gallery. The shape of the exhibit room is inspired by the Ecology Symbol. The two half circle in the middle is conversed into small gardens, following the idea from the Outdoor Garden Gallery.
Ecology Symbol
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SFMOMA Exhibit The SFMOMA (Architecture, Design and Art) Exhibit Room has the donut-like shape surrounding a small outdoor garden, as to symbolize the fact that Art, Design and Architecture always hugging, protecting and reflecting the community, society and culture. The garden in this sense is the society and its culture, while the exhibition room display the work of Art and Design. The Exhibit is located at the North side of the side, somewhat respond to the importance of North Arrow in Architecture. The use of trusses and beams and structure are also emphasized to praise Design and Architecture. 44
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Rooftop Outdoor Gallery Located on the highest level, Outdoor Gallery opens up the surrounding and create the vista point from the museum to other landmarks, attractions, such as AT&T Park, Bay Bridge, the waterfront, UCSF campus, Downtown at the far distance‌ as well as overlooking the Garden below. Accessible only through Art and Design Exhibit, it is intent to be the final destination of the journey through Main Gallery to the exhibit(s). There is no direct access from the ground level, because I want the visitors to pass by all the gallery exhibits , and explore new discoveries along the way before getting to the final knot. 46
Amphitheater Amphitheater is intent to serve both the Exploratorium as well as the public. It is placed and accessible from ground level and from the roof-top outdoor gallery of the museum.
The stage area is pointing toward the old Ship Yard Repair , as to add the little history of the neighborhood into each performance. Seating area overlooking the waterfront.
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Inspiration
I like the idea of setting the amphitheater seating area like this. People can sit and lie down. This much space in between provide comfort.
Also, cover the seating area with grass will blend in with the landform of the grass open public space at the East side of the site.
The Brown – Forman Amphitheater Louisville Waterfront Park Source: louisvillewaterfront.com
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Public Gardens / Open Spaces Several Grass-Public Gardens are distributed throughout the site to provide resting area and meeting place. The garden at the East side of the site, adjacent to Terry A Francois Blvd, can be ideally connected to the Bay Front Park near the waterfront. Potentially hold community events, like Street Fair or Farmer Markets, ‌ Activate the waterfront by bringing in the community.
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Potential Projects
Playground, active area
Farmer Market or Street Fair
Source: 365thingsaustin.com
Columbus Circle Fountain Source: pbase.com
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Perspective Vignettes
View from roof top Outdoor Gallery overlooking UCSF campus
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View from the balcony at the Outdoor Garden Gallery looking at Exhibit Gallery 53
View from East-side Public Garden looking at the Museum Complex 54
View from the corner of 3rd Street and South Street
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View from Amphitheater seating looking over the Bay
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Post-Final Potential Development The final presentation had got me some very useful feedback to develop my project. The Amphitheater can be extending and take part/ merge into the museum. Complete the full circle and open up the space as well as visual toward the stage. The path way formed by Market Place to the Museum can be rearranged to start off at the Campus Way side and run up to meet near the corner of Bridgeview Way and South Street. It helps eliminate the necessary of two-entrance museum. The Outdoor Garden Gallery on the ground level is a little isolated. Further development can transformed it into the meeting place, speaker podium provided for talks and “meet-up.�
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Afterthoughts First of all, I would like to say that this semester has been challenging and rewarding at the same time. I’ve never done a project this big of the scale, and along the way, I get to learn about the new design approaches: land form buildings and massing study. This semester, I experience some issues at home, and it’s kept me out of my focus. But with all of the frustration it gets, I’m glad I still find time to do design. This project somewhat kept me sane, so overwhelming and challenging as it gets, I’m glad I’ve been working on it. Now at the end of the semester, I would have wished what I have more time. There are a lot of things I would like to develop further; and I would definitely take Professor Lum’s advice of developing the final project more, not just for my interest sake, but in the long run, may benefit the learning process as well transfer planning. I will also look more into Landform Building and Massing Studies of Urban Planning. They help me experience architecture in a different way. And then also Kevin Lynch’s 5 city element. I believe all the lessons I have learned and been introduced can help me greatly in the future in my learning and creative process. In short, not as much as I expect it to be, this semester has been productive and inspiring.
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