Issuu

PORTFOLIO.

| Cornell Univeristy

Omar Leon | B. Architecture

OMAR LEON

Miami, FL | +1 305-244-8432 | ool7@cornell.edu | linkedin.com/in/omarleonm/ | omarleon.com

Interdisciplinary designer focused on using architecture as a medium for healing and uplifting communities. The work explores the interwoven relationship of culture, space, and identity. Experienced in advanced model making, drawing, and painting as space making tools.

LEADERSHIP

NOMAS

Design Team

Lead

CUSD

Lead Team

Architect

AAP IT IT Specialist

SKILLS

SOFTWARE

Revit

Rhinoceros

SketchUp

AutoCAD

BlueBeam

Photoshop

Illustrator

InDesign

Grasshopper

Climate Studio

V-ray

Lumion

Enscape

Blender

TECHNICAL

Painting

Sculpting

Wood Shop

Metal Shop

Drawing

LANGUAGES

English

Spanish

French

EDUCATION

CORNELL UNIVERSITY | ITHACA

Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch 2025)

Minor: Design and Environmental Analysis

Concentration: Visual Representation

Cumulative GPA: 3.8 | Dean’s List

Relevant Coursework: Environmental Systems II, Building Technology II, Structural Systems, CAD and BIM, Research in Human Environment Relations

DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE SENIOR HIGH | MIAMI

Concentration: Architecture and Art

EXPERIENCE

SAFDIE ARCHITECTS | BOSTON AUGUST 2024 - PRESENT

Architectural Intern

- Created marketing drawings for various built projects.

- Made digital and physical models for stakeholder presentations.

- Tested stair iterations for new tower in new Marina Bay Sands Skyloop.

GENSLER | NEW YORK SUMMER 2024

Architectural Intern

- Developed office-to-residential Revit catalog to facilitate test fitting.

- Led schematic design for confidential workforce housing project.

- Designed competition award submittal for Cure. Innovation center.

STUDIO MAUBERT | MIAMI / ITHACA 2023 - 2024

Fabricator

- Fabrication of 7 large scale models for the Artist in Residency in the Everglades exhibit featured in ART News and Hyperallergic.

- Research on aesthetics of Miami’s historical architectural vernacular.

ZYSCOVICH ARCHITECTS | MIAMI SUMMER 2022

Architectural Intern

- Designed front entrance furniture for Bal Harbor Community Center.

- Revised construction documents and RFI submittals for on-site OAC meetings.

AWARDS

1st Place BGL NOMAS Competition

Addison G. Crowley B.Arch Prize

AIA Diversity Advancement Scholar

Cornell Commitment Meinig Scholar

AIA A’23 Emerging Professionals Grant

Young Designers Scholarship

Miami Beach Parklet Design Winner Villager’s Architectural Scholar

1 UNDULATING COLLECTIONS

Location: Auburn, New York

Instructor: Katharina Kral

Through the implementation of brick and curvature, this library located in Auburn, New York mirrors the materials of its downtown surroundings and keeps a low profile of only two floors. By respecting the current park’s essence of trees and history, the library molds itself onto the site. The long curved brick walls spiral in on themselves and create a maze-like circulation by moving the user around through the elongated curves. Through the slippages created by the conversation with the curves, hidden openings are created and create curiosity for movement. The walls begin to peel off based on light exposure and form outdoor courtyards and shaded park areas.

Second Floor Brick Curvature Plan

Longitudinal Section of Stacks, Atrium, and Auditorium

Ground Floor Brick Curvature Plan

Exterior Elevation of Neighborhood, Existing Statue, and Trees

Load Bearing Detail Wall Section

Longitudinal Section of Lobby, Meeting Spaces, and Primary Atrium

Katharina Kral

2 RECLAIMING ALBINA'S LEGACY

Location: Portland, Oregon

NOMAS 1st Place Design Team

Contribution: Leader of Design, Visual Representation

Advisor: Imani Day

In order to heal Albina’s fractured history, the mixed used block weaves a new tapestry into the landscape. Five healing pillars serve as the foundation of the design: medical health emerges in community spaces and building facades, healthy lifestyles are promoted through green roofs, resilient environmental systems can be seen through angled roofs for rainwater collection, and vibrant residences engage with businesses.

Albina’s History: Typology of the Block

Healing Pilars within the Block

Block Center Transformation: Healing

Block Center Transformation: Nightlife

Block Center Transformation: Shelter

Vertical Housing Typology: Live and Work

Mixed Use Distribution as Intertwined

Block Section: Activites and Culture of Albina

3 THE TOTE

Location: Mumbai, India

Architect: Serie Architects

Materials: Balsa Wood, Concrete

IInstructor: Mark Cruvelier

Inspired by the irregularity of the continuously differentiated spaces between trees, the structural model study consists of an elaborate steel-truss structural system that adopts the shapes and elements of the tree branches. These I-shaped branching steel columns are repeated longitudinally along the structure in three rows, serving to spatially organize the program of dining spaces within the interior of the building. The structure’s intricate use of branches elegantly disperses the loads on the structure while simultaneously serving as an open and spatial program.

4 WATERSCAPES

Location: New York, New York

Instructor: Gary Bates

This office to residential conversion at the heart of New York’s Financial District aims to use water as an element of change and rethink how we should inhabit skyscrapers. The ground floor embraces the flood as a resiliency tactic by creating a public space for water collection and a park when the flood is not present. Community activities are dispersed in the terraces and invite the public to explore the city vertically. The public housing units are subsidized through an aquaculture system that utilizes the building’s plumbing and waste to generate fish. The redesign respects the iconography of the existing building and uses voids to suggest a possible future for skyscrapers.

Ground Floor Plan: Privately Owned Public Space and Connection to Ferries

Public Housing Plan Proposal: Optimized Views and Living

Ground Floor Plan: Privately Owned Public Space and Connection to Ferries

Floor Plan: Privately Owned Public Space and Connection to Ferries

Ground Floor Plan: Privately Owned Public Space and Connection to Ferries

Ground

Aquaculture System Axonometric

Aquaculture Process Diagram: Fish Farming

Section: Water

5 INVERSIONS

Location: Rome, Italy

Instructor: Martin Miller

Inspired by the layered history of Rome,this restaurant propsal inverts the culinary experience by taking the user through a room-by-course dining experince of traitional Roman cusine. Each room holds qualities from their respective plate and enhances the social experience by encouranging interaction with strangers through a variation in seating arrangements. The processional and transitory qualities of the restaurant are further developed in the arch typology that encompasses the restaurant and hints at each space’s use.

Basement Floor Plan: Appetizer

Ground Floor Plan: First Course and Dessert

Second Floor Plan: Cleanser and Main Course

Main Course: Dinning all Together

First Course: Food Process

Appetizer: Dinning in Pairs

Transitory Module Rationale

Main Dish Module Rationale

Typological Inversion: Transitory Space

Typological Inversion: Dining Spaces

LIBERTY CITY RE-IMAGINED

Location: Miami, Florida

Collaborator: Alejandra Sigeunza

Instructor: Sydney Maubert

Contribution: Design, Visual Representation

This public housing proposal focuses on the duality of domestic life in Liberty City, Miami by emphasizing the existing rituals of black and bohemian culture within the neighborhood and those activities held in the porch.Through the re-imagining and reconfiguration of existing housing units and the iron work that accompanies them, the design aims to re appropriate what is overlooked such as iron work and utilize it as a bridge between the body and the activities embedded in the community. The iron work and the units both adhere to the needs of its users and becomes the threshold between private and public spaces by stitching these existing activities and quilting them together into one community.