Undergraduate Portfolio 01-06-2023

Undergraduate Work

Nicolas Beck nsbeck@g.clemson.edu

This portfolio is intended to showcase selected projects in an order that shows how I have progressed in my studies thus far. The first two projects are dedicated to craft and model making, while the others move into a more digital format where I attempt to bring my work to life through progressively more realistic renderings. Throughout this portfolio, you will find that my work explores and pushes the threshold of what an interior or exterior space can be and how the two can be blended to create a more natural experience for the user.

I hope you enjoy!

Chapel Analysis

Woodland Chapel Stockholm, Sweden

This semester, each studio was assigned a famous chapel and was tasked with taking it apart in order to identify what makes it special. The image to the left represents what made this chapel in particular stand out. The architect used the trees that surrounded the site to influnce the placement of columns in the building. The work in this project is dedicated to showing craft and how light plays an important role in any design.

Freshman Studio 2nd Semester

Void models of main building and adjoining exterior column entryway

Void model of main building

Void model of main building capturing dome detail

Void model of main building angle two

Design Workshop

Clemson, South Carolina

In preparation for the main project of this semester, the design workshop was intended to introduce new methods of thinking about design, utilizing folding, bending, lofting, and hanging techniques. This section is designated to those models in an effort to showcase craft.

Sophomore Studio 1st Semester

Lofting Physical Model

Bending Model Folding Model

Blend of lofting and hanging models

Blend of lofting and hanging models

Clemson Design Challenge

Sophomore Studio 2nd Semester

Clemson, South Carolina

03

Influenced by the current pandemic, this project was designed with Covid-19 guidelines in mind. Our site was situated on Clemson’s campus, situated on the green space in between Cooper Library, Academic Success Center, and Watt Innovation Center. Taking the CDC guidelines literally, I programmed my spaces to be places for outdoor classes to be held, as well as spaces for students to gather and socialize at a distance. The larger “pods” on the site are able to accommodate small class es, with sliding panels allowing the spaces to be enclosed for more privacy and to also be more open for public activities. Interspersed throughout the site are also singular pods designed for students wishing to study outside.

First floor plan

Render taken from in front of Cooper Library looking down the site towards the Academic Success Center

Render showing a lecture going on in the interior of a pod

Render looking from the center of the site towards Cooper Library

Cayce, South Carolina 04 Sophomore Studio 2nd Semester

Cayce Center for the Arts

Designed as a center to address Cayce, SC’s burgeoning arts scene, this project provides a much needed space for creative minds to gather and create. This proposed 50,000 sqft design includes studio spaces, meeting areas, shops, flex theater spaces, an art gallery, as well as administrative space. To anchor this large project, the building molds around a central core to create a multi-storied space meant for gathering and story telling. The highlight of this design includes a two-level fireplace, providing access to the flex theater space as well as the bottom meeting area, truly making this space a place of gathering for the entire town.

Basement floor plan

First floor plan

Second Floor Plan

Section view of hearth and gathering space

Exterior rendering of final exterior facade coming from the parking lot

Alternate version of final exterior facade

Interior rendering of art gallery sitting area

Interior rendering of entrance lobby

Urban design Project: Oasis

Junior Studio 1st Semester

Chelsea, New York

05

Situated in the up and coming district of West Chelsea, Oasis serves as an urban escape for innovative minds to come together and create. At 115,000 sqft, this mixed-use office building offers a public realm on the first three floors, creating a plinth from which a new, green tower escapes. Wrapping around the plinth is a public corridor that creates a tiered public experience, featuring a fresh farmers’ market, retail opportunities, a high line-esque elevated walkway, and a public plaza that ends at the Market - a storefront that showcases our resident artists’ work. The whole building is clad in copper louvers that will age and oxidize as the building ages, and to a further extent as the neighborhood ages. The columns work in a likewise function, also clad in copper. Drawing inspiration from the high line, Oasis draws nature vertically, offering terraces on almost every floor and creating a vertical extension of the High Line.

Partner: Reece Brown

Scan for an animated walkthrough of the plaza

Render Looking from 520 West Public Space Diagram of First Three Levels by Partner Reece Brown

Render of High Line Level Lobby Entrance

Render of Proposed Layout of Office Space

Render of Walkway Running Parallel to 10th Avenue

25 Urban Design Project: Oasis

Render of Building from 10th Avenue

Greenville, SC 06 Junior Studio 2nd Semester

Union Park Extension : UNION

By channeling the spirit of Unity Park, UNION represents the blending of natural and built environments. By extending the Swamp Rabbit Trail into this over 25,000 sqft design, we have created a seamless, public, open air, UNION of spaces. The main level features public retail, entertainment, a fresh market, as well as small island restaurant spaces that create a visual appeal to draw in passerby on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The cantilevered second level, featuring restaurant and coworking space, creates shaded spaces underneath for users to enjoy while also providing stunning views of Unity Park. This blending of community uses allows for UNION to be a feature at all times of the day, welcoming visitors to the innovative and new Unity Park.

Partner: Haley Rogers

Facade elevation looking from parking lot to Swamp Rabbit Trail

Facade elevation looking from Swamp Rabbit Trail towards parking lot

Site Plan

The Commons UNION

Render illustrating the relationship between cantilevers and Swamp Rabbit Trail

Parallel Puncture Push

Recognizing the PARALLEL relationship between the SRT and the site

PUNCTURING the core of the mass that runs parallel to the SRT

Strategically PUSHING spaces into the newly created core to allow access to SRT

Side entrance to building, featuring a new fresh market for the neighborhood

Pull Connection

PULLING cantilevers out to meet the SRT, providing shaded seating areas for passerby as well as providing views of Unity Park

By seperating Union from the existing Commons, a new CONNECTION between the SRT and the greater neighborhood is established