Savannah Eppley
University of Virginia School of Architecture Portfolio 2024
Portfolio Savannah Eppley
Savannah Eppley
Contents
Design Ecologies
Restoring and Inhabiting the Salt Marsh
Norfolk, Virginia
The Flamenco Greenway
Center for the Research on Flamenco Music
Cadiz, Spain
Oak Tree Middle School
Environmental Middle School
Charlottesville, Virginia
Drafting in the Veneto
Vicenza, Italy
Campbell Hall
Model Making
University of Virginia
Art Projects
Restoring and Inhabiting the Salt Marsh
UVA SoA ARCH 4020 Spring 2024
Studio: Design Ecologies in Norfolk, Virginia
This studio was thesis research embodied in a thematic language of Design Ecologies: Architecture in the Age of the Evolving “Normal.” This thesis research was composed by asking: How do we rethink our relationship to each other and other species in the changing context represented by these words? How do we reimagine our sites as the ground for new infrastructural, cultural, and built ecologies at the interface between humans and the wild? These emergent realities require reimagining the architecture project understood at its most significant and inclusive scale.
My fascination with the coexistence of humans and animals in the urban landscape led me to the urban wetland city of Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk, Virginia, a city with a population of approximately 235,000 people, is situated in a wetland environment that is grappling with current and future challenges such as sea level rise, flooding, and climate change. In this demanding context, my aim was not just to restore parts of the coastline, but to kindle a beacon of hope. The selected sites, underutilized waterfront property, hold the potential to be the catalyst for the environment and the future of Norfolk, transforming it back into a salt marsh. The discovery of these underused abandoned waterfront lots is not just a prototype language, but a potential solution for further use in Norfolk and other coastal cities grappling with climate change. This design implements a coexistence perspective. The animal species would be the prioritized characters in this restoration landscape, administering humans’ activity through observing the urban wilderness. This intentional concept inspires humans to engage in education and conservation. I identified six endangered and threatened salt marsh bird species that could inhabit the restored salt marsh environment.
The walkway system is intricately designed around specific wetland plant species, creating a curvilinear pathway that allows humans to immerse themselves in the wildlife experience throughout all the different segments of the salt marsh. The walkway is not just a path, but a platform for awareness. It is designed with interactive elements to create awareness of the endangered bird species, such as a bird screen system in the shallow marsh area, an observation tower to witness the scope of Norfolk from a bird’s perspective, and walkways connected to the floating wetlands. The design also includes spaces designated for human interaction with nature, such as areas for shelter, education, and eating. Moreover, the site is seamlessly connected to the existing learning barge through a waterfront dock that links to the shelter and parking lot with bus access.
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Human Interaction on the Wetland with Bird Species
Studio Projects Design Ecologies 2 Site Plan 0’ 1300’
4 miles LEGEND $9.76k - 32.9k $33k - 48.6k $48.6 - 63.4k $63.4k - 89.9k $90k + Socio-Economic Map of Norfolk, VA Portfolio Savannah Eppley 3
Studio Projects Design Ecologies
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Sea Level Rise Model of Norfolk, VA
Elizabeth River Projects
Pre-existing Elizabeth River Restoration Projects
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1. Ryan Resilience Lab
2. Lafayette River Restoration
3. Eastern Branch Restoration
4. Learning Barge
5. Paradise Creek Restoration
6. Money Point Restoration
Elizabeth River Trail: 10.5 miles
Existing Learning Barge Route with Site Addition
Studio Projects Design Ecologies 6
Learning Barge: Credit Crisman + Pertrus Architects
Site
Credit: Crisman + Pertus Architects
Portfolio Savannah Eppley 7 Site Analysis Diagrams
Site A
Site B
Studio Projects Design Ecologies 8
Panorama View of Site A
Grass Lot on Site A
Parking Lot on Site A
Abandoned Docks on Site B
Pollution Dumb on Site B
Panorama View of Site B
1. Nutrient Uptake
Wetland plants use nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus to grow
3. Sedimentation
Wetland plants increase hydraulic resistance; solids drop out together with attached pollutants such as metals and nonsoluble phosphorus
Why a Constructed Wetland?
2. UV Irradiation
Exposure to UV light helps to remove pathogens and breakdown organic pollutants
4. Microbial Action
The wetland plant root structure creates a large oxygen rich surface area for microbial biofilms. These microbes break down organic pollutants.
Intertidal Recharge
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Wetland Construction Research
Approaches to Remove Contaminated Sediments
Saltmarsh Development
Urban Fringes
In heavily constrained areas a more engineered approach to restore where there are mudflats that meet hard defences (seawall) is to construct terraces of suitable elevation to enable saltmarsh colonization.
Studio Projects Design Ecologies 10
Arcadian Nelson Sparrow AmmospizaNelsoniSubvirgatus Essential Plant Species Migration Map Food Consumption The distinctive “Atlantic” or “Acadian” form of Nelson’s Sparrow is a subspecies of the Nelson Sparrow and has a tiny population, perhaps only 25,000 birds, and almost all of these nest in tidal marshes, which are gravely threatened by sea level rise. Historically, the destruction of both coastal marshland and of inland wetlands resulted in massive loss of habitat for this habitat specialist across its range. Smooth Cordgrass SpartinaAlterniflora Lamsquarter ChenopodiumAlbum Sea Oxeye Borrichia Frutescens Winter Northern Wild Rice ZizaniaAquatica Switch Grass Smartweed PanicumVirgatum PolygonumPunctatum Breeding Year round Filder Crab Ant Earwigs Grasshopper Leafhopper Blue Crab Wasp Moth Fly Beetle Wolf Spider Pickleweed Chairmakers Bulrush Salt Meadow Hay Pontederia Cordata SchoenoplectusAmericanus SpartinaPatens Black Rail LaterallusJamaicensis Essential Plant Species Migration Map Food Consumption Black Rails are rare and declining estimation of a global breeding population of 52,000 and rates the species a 17 out of 20 in the Continental Concern Score, placing it on the Red Watch List, the group’s highest level of concern. Black Rails require such shallow water, they are highly susceptible to changes in water levels, whether from climate change, water diversion for agriculture, or the draining of wetlands for mosquito control. Smooth Cordgrass SpartinaAlterniflora Black Needle Rush Juncus Roemerianus Salt Grass DistichlisSpicata Breeding Year round Ant Grasshopper Diving Beetle Woodlice Earwig Spider Snail Weevil Pickleweed Salt Meadow Hay Pontederia Cordata SpartinaPatens Clapper Rail RallusCrepitans Essential Plant Species Migration Map Food Consumption Clapper Rails can be common in saltmarshes, and have a secretive nature. Clapper Rails are threatened by habitat development and degradation, and high tides associated with storms. Sand deposition from storms may destroy marsh grasses, and this can affect Clapper Rail populations. This species is considered as a Tier B class, threatned due to habitat lost and sea level rise. Smooth Cordgrass SpartinaAlterniflora Narrow Leaved Cattail TyphaAngustifolia Blunt Spikerush Eleocharis Obtusa Big Cordgrass SpartinaCynosuroides Breeding Year round Filder Crab Fish Eggs Woodlice Minnows Cricket Blue Crab Black Crappie Tussock Edge Woolgrass Switch Grass Smartweed Swamp Dock Vervain Carex Stricta ScirpusCyperinus PanicumVirgatum PolygonumPunctatum Rumex Verticillatus Verbena Hastata Coastal Swamp Sparrow MelospizaGeorgianaNigrescens Essential Plant Species Migration Map Food Consumption The Coastal Plain Swamp Sparrow is morphologically distinct and subspecies of the Swamp Sparrow that is restricted to a narrowly defined habitat type, tidal marshes and geographically isolated within the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain. This particular subspecies is facing extreme habitat loss due to sea level rise of the tidal marsh. Therefore the population is in rapid decline and considered a Tier A Priority salt marsh bird species. Ampid Cricket Grasshopper Beetle Bee Ants Blueberry Damselflies Caterpillars Dragonfly Winter Breeding King Rail RallusElegans Essential Plant Species Migration Map Food Consumption King Rail populations have declined in all areas surveyed in North America, overall by an estimated 4.5% per year since 1966, indicating a cumulative decline of 90% over that period with the global population at 70,000 birds, therefore on the Watch List for declining populations. The IUCN classifies King Rail as a “Near Threatened” species. Long-term declines in populations are mostly related to the massive loss of wetlands across North America. Salt Marsh Bulrush ScirpusRobustus Bulltongue Arrowhead SagittariaLancifolia Giant Cutgrass ZizaniopsisMiliacea Maidencane Panicum Hemitomon Narrow Leaved Cattail TyphaAngustifolia Black Needle Rush Juncus Roemerianus Breeding Year round Filder Crab Cricket Clams Grasshopper Katydids Frog Dragonfly Beetle Northern Wild Rice Big Cordgrass Salt Grass Salt-Marsh Bulrush Black Needle Rush Smooth Cordgrass ZizaniaAquatica SpartinaCynosuroides DistichlisSpicata ScirpusRobustus Juncus Roemerianus SpartinaAlterniflora Saltmarsh Sparrow AmmospizaCaudacuta Essential Plant Species Migration Map Food Consumption Saltmarsh Sparrow populations are declining rapidly, estimated a decline of about 9% per year between 1998 and 2012, indicating an overall loss of 75% of the global population, and in danger of extinction within the next few decades. Among the species’ problems, sea level rise is the most difficult to address: the birds nest in vegetation that stands only inches above the water, and coastal development will make it difficult for saltmarsh habitat to move inland as sea levels rise. Winter Breeding Year round Ampid Cricket Grasshopper Beetle Click Beetle Leafhopper Moth Ladybug Fly Weevil Butterfly Tiger Beetle Rove Beetle Portfolio Savannah Eppley American Black Duck Red Knot (M) Piping Plover (S) Red-Throat Loon (W) Short-eared Owl (W) Red- Headed Woodpecker Black Scoter Purple Sandpiper (W) Northern Gannet (W) Snowy Egret Bald Eagle Little Blue Heron (R) Osprey (R) Red Tail Hawk Horned Grebe (W) Blue-winged Warbler (M) Least Tern (N) Buff-breasted Sandpiper (T) Glossy Ibis Tricolored Heron (YR) Northern Pintail (W) Ruddy Turnstone (W) Brown Thrasher (R) Northern Bobwhite (R) Seaside Sparrow (YR) Eastern Kingbird American Woodcock (W) Prairie Warbler Bufflehead Brown Pelican Willow Flycatcher (N) Greater Yellowlegs Anasrubripes Calidriscanutus Charadriusmelodus GaviaStellata Egrettathula Haiaeetusleucocephalus Egrettacaerulea Pandionhaliaetus Buteojamaicensis Pelecanusoccidentalis Asioflammeus Melanerpeserythrocephalus MelanittaAmericana Calidrismaritima Morusbassanus Podicepsauritus Vermivoracyanoptera Sternulaantillarum Calidrissubruficollis Plegadisfalcinellus Empidonaxtraillii Egrettatricolor Anasacuta Arenariainterpres Toxostomarufum Colinusvirginianus Ammospizamaritima Tyrannustyrannus Scolopaxminor Setephagadiscolor Bucephalaalbeola Tringamelanoleuca American Oystercatcher (YR) Haematopuspalliates 11 Salt Marsh Endangered Bird Species Additional Norfolk Bird Species Winters Year round Breeds in area but does not winter Migrational Stop Summers Year Round & Breeds Irregular Occurance
Studio Projects Design Ecologies Yellow Water Lily Smooth Cordgrass Black Needle Rush Giant Cutgrass Big Cordgrass Salt Marsh Bulrush Maidencane Bulltongue Arrowhead Pickleweed Chairmakers Bulrush Smartweed Northern Wild Rice Tussock Edge Blunt Spikerush Vervain Woolgrass Salt Grass Narrow Leaved Cattail Salt Meadow Hay Groundsel Tree Switch Grass Swamp Dock Sea Oxeye Lamsquarter Sweet Pepperbush Spicebush Red Maple Green Ash Black Ash Black Gum Salt Marsh Aster Marsh Orach Swamp White Oak Bald Cypress White Pine Eastern Hemlock Gray Birch Gray Dogwood Sweet Fern Shadblow Serviceberry Open Water (Aquatic Bed) Deep Marsh (Emergent) Shallow Marsh (Emergent) Wet Meadow Shrub Wetland White Water Lily Wild Celery Pond Weeds Forested Wetland Upland Buffer Saltmarsh mallow Arrow Arum Seaside Goldenrod Marsh Elder Wax Myrtle Water Depth 3’ - 7’ Water Depth 18” - 3’ Water Depth 6” - 18” Water Depth 0” - 6” Hydric Soil Hydric Soil Non- Hydric Soil Glasswort Saltwort Bladderwrack 12 Wetland
Plant Species
Cross Section with
Portfolio Savannah Eppley 13 Site Elevation
Shelter Section
Site Plan Shelter Plan 0’ 60’
Wetland
A
1. Learning Barge Dock
Key:
2. Shelter
3. Eating Area
4. Observation Tower
5. Floating Wetlands
Studio Projects Design Ecologies 14 0’ 600’ 1 2 3 4 5
Tower Plan
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0’ 50’
Studio Projects Design Ecologies 16 Observation Tower Section
Eating Area Section
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Studio Projects Design Ecologies 18
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0’ 60’
Stepped
Nature Walkway Plan
Stepped Nature Walkway Section
Key:
Studio Projects Design Ecologies 20 1 2 3 4 5 Wetland B
Plan 0’ 600’
Site
1. Bird Screening
2. Stepped Seating
3. Floating Wetlands
4. Stepped Nature Walkway
5. Existing Wetland Park
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Human Interaction on a Floating Wetland
Floating Dock Perspective
Walkway Perspective
Studio Projects Design Ecologies 22
The Flamenco Greenway
UVA SoA ARCH 4010 Fall 2023
Studio: Center for the Research on Flamenco Music in Cadiz, Spain
The studio is based on La Vina neighborhood, and the program is the Center for the Research on Flamenco Music. The site is located in the back of the old eighteen century Hospice of the city recently purchased by the University of Cadiz to extend their urban campus. The Center for the Research on Flamenco Music is associated to the University and includes a small-scale auditorium, recording studios, research offices, library, and exhibition and events rooms. Cadiz is a coastal city of asphalt and concrete streets with bright red roofs lacking outdoor and connective green space. Therefore, I implemented the design of an urban intervention that creates an uninterrupted landscape from the Park Genoves, located in northwest Cadiz on the coast, to the designated eighteen-century Hospice site.
This design reestablishes Cadiz’s road map of extensive concrete and parking into a roadway embellished with a tree canopy and sea views. Pushing parking below ground level connects to the existing underground parking to Park Genoves. This allows the landscape to be reconnected to the sea and flourish in an open market space encompassed with the language of trees and vegetation.The linear greenway continues from the open market area to the Hospice site, with a pedestrian Bridgeway over the primary road allowing the greenway to circulate. The linear intervention interplays a meander that brings the experience on the roof line that continues the green space encompassed with an artificial topography that transmits the space free of movement and exploration. The meander on the roof line allows direct access into the existing building and frames to the sea.
The arrangement of the artificial topography designates the formation and programmatic spaces to the ground floor below. The ground floor is negotiated into organic forms programmed with spaces that allow for movement, education, and performance for the culture of flamenco dance.The overall idea of this project is to grow green space into the urban fabric of Cadiz, allowing open spaces for the public and flamenco culture to flourish and grow.
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Roof Top Collage Floorplan
Studio Projects The Flamenco Greenway 24 GROUND FLOOR 1/164” = 1’ 0’ 50’
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Model Photos
Studio Projects The Flamenco Greenway Site Plan establishing Coastal Greenway 26 0’ 40’
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Transversal Urban Section
Studio Projects The Flamenco Greenway 28
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Roof Top Collage
Studio Projects The Flamenco Greenway 30
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Horizontal Urban Section
Studio Projects The Flamenco Greenway 32
Oak Tree Middle School
UVA SoA ARCH 3020 Spring 2023
Studio: Middle School Program in Albemarle County, Virginia
This design embraces a fundamental component of a grided tree system throughout the entire site, implementing trees as apart of the architecture, playscape, and education of the students. These biophilic tree design acts as key components to the structural composition and sensational experience of the school buildings. The biophilic trees design informs a composition in wrapping glass boxes to be concealed into the gridded forest, to create the language of fluidity in the student experience of inside and outside. These biophilic trees allow the student to be inside yet still under the tree canopy. This biophilic tree canopy reposes in a weaving system to encompass the obscurity of light from the organic sky lights, representing the movement of water systems.
This school takes fundamental core on the library and cafeteria with immense biophilic trees than to smaller calibration of biophilic trees in the classrooms. The cafeteria acts as a kitchen learning centers adjacent to the co-existing community gardens. As students will engage withw the already existing community gardens that extend beyond the site boundaries, allowing students to rehabilitate the gardens to function not only better for the community but ultimately to provide supplement to a culinary living environment.
The overall digression of this building will allow students to be diffused in nature, increasing educational time spent outside.This campus extends to exisiting community gardens and playscape allowing the campus to create an education embraced by a river ecology. As the this design breaks the traditional enclosed hallway space to be covered passageways along side the river.
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Program Diagram
Experiential View of Biophilic Tree Elements
Studio Project Oak Middle School 34
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Site Plan with Gridded Tree Nursery
Studio Project Oak Middle School 36
0’
32’
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Ground Floor
Library Floorplans
2nd Floor
Floor Studio Project Oak Middle School 38
3rd Floor 0’
32’
Portfolio Savannah Eppley 39 Library
Section
Studio Project Oak Middle School 40
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Ground Floor
Cafe Floorplans
2nd Floor
Floor Studio Project Oak Middle School 42
32’
3rd Floor
0’
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Cafe Section
Studio Project Oak Middle School 44
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Collage of Covered Passageways connecting Buildings
Studio Project Oak Middle School 46
Collage of Covered Passageway with Tree Hollows
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Site Model using Natural Resources from Site
Studio Project Oak Middle School 48
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Fondazione Querini Stampalia
Villa Grazzotti Grimani Venice, Italy
Vicenza, Italy
Villa Piovene Porto Museum Civici Eremitani Vicenza, Italy
Padua, Italy
Studio Projects Drafting in the Veneto 50
Porto Arco Delle Scalette
Eremitani
Vicenza, Italy
Univerisity of Padua Botanical Gardens Padua, Italy
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Front View of Campbell Hall Model
Projects
52
Studio
Campbell Hall Model
Coffer Ceiling View of Campbell Hall Model
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The Facade of Fall Book
Ceramic Candle Holder
Studio Projects Art Projects 54
Plant Ceramic Plates
Outdoor Study Blanket Art Installation