MULTICULTURAL MUNICIPAL CENTER

Orlando, Florida, is a city known for its vibrant and diverse community, rich cultural heritage, and ever-evolving identity. This diversity and complexity are beautifully reflected in the city’s buildings, which serve as architectural representations of Orlando’s multifaceted character. From historic landmarks to modern structures, Orlando’s buildings tell a story of cultural fusion, innovation, and the interplay of various influences. In recent years, Orlando has witnessed a wave of urban revitalization, transforming neighborhoods and giving rise to innovative architectural projects. Buildings like the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and the Creative Village downtown are examples of this revitalization, repurposing and transforming existing structures into vibrant cultural and community spaces.

Lake Eola Park, located in the heart of downtown Orlando, Florida, is a bustling urban oasis known for its natural beauty and vibrant community atmosphere. As a reflection of the city’s multicultural identity, Lake Eola Park is home to a unique multicultural building. This building stands as a testament to Orlando’s rich diversity, serving as a hub for cultural exchange, community engagement, and celebration of various traditions.

Situated on a street corner, the intervention becomes public space is a captivating plinth meticulously designed to seamlessly extend the city street, serving as a dynamic hub of social interaction and cultural activities.

Ultimately, this architectural public space serves as a vital extension of the city street, pulling back from the edge, elevating the urban experience and offering a haven of creativity, cultural exchange, and communal gathering.

By dedicating the ground level to public space, the building fosters a sense of community and belonging. It becomes a focal point for various events, markets, and cultural activities that bring people together, promoting social cohesion and enhancing the overall quality of life in the area. Residents, visitors, and local businesses benefit from the increased foot traffic, creating a vibrant and economically thriving district.

The conceptualized model articulates through massing the organization and separation between private and public function. The library becomes an interweaving of the two, creating multiple levels for a public library that provides direct access to the city. Transparency into the tower stack is crucial for natural light to enter during the day for readers while providing views, unobtrusive to other high rises.

Symbiotic Structures

Typologies in the Pacific Northwest topographies. An adaptation of the lookout tower.

For over a century, throughout the United States, state and federal governments have fought tirelessly to extinguish wildfires, primarily and extensively along the western region. Though many ecosystems in this region rely on fire as a facilitator for self-maintenance, we have historically considered fire suppression to be synonymous with virtuous preservation. Along the mountainous ridges, peaks and forests of the Pacific Northwest lie the relics of a past means of observation and surveillance of landscape, transitioning these structures to historical markers time-stamping a method of constructing for place.

Professors

John Maze

Michael Montoya

This thesis explores the role of the lookout tower in its modern context and initiates an adaptation of these constructs in their ever-changing conditions. Reflecting on the streamlined, industrial production of these structures, leading to a standardized identity in a sui generis landscape, the analysis strives to result in an idiosyncratic approach; entwining a programmatic symbolism as a solely observational and preventative typology, but how these constructs begin to operate, reflect, and engage in their environments as foreign inhabitants.

Mirrored Landscapes

Conserving a ruin, an intervention houses the relic/ artifact of the towers remaining structure, while posing as a new functioning tower to commemorate the history of Diamond Peak. Connection between peaks throughout the region will merge the context of the original site, becoming way-finders in a landscape. As the hiker sets out on their journey through the dense forest, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of trepidation. They had heard rumors of an abandoned lookout tower deep in the woods, and they were determined to find it. But the forest was vast and uncharted, and they knew it would be easy to get lost. As they walked, they noticed some unusual structures that seemed to have been intentionally placed throughout the forest, despite their unique constructions.

The structures were made of wood, and some were shaped like arrows, while others were tall and pointed, resembling obelisks. They were spaced out at regular intervals, and as the hiker walked, they realized that they were working as way-finders to guide them to their destination. The structures were spaced out perfectly, and each time the hiker saw a new one, they felt a sense of relief, knowing that they were still on the right path. The way-finders were placed at key junctions, leading the hiker down the clearest and easiest paths through the dense forest. As they followed the way-finders, the hiker moved through the forest with ease, knowing that they were on the right path. The forest was thick, and the underbrush was dense, but the structures led them through the clearest paths, showing the way forward.

The lookout tower manifests from the old, encapsulating the original structure that registers with the mirrored lens that reflects out to the forest, symbolic of the purpose it once served. The morphosis of its structure adapts with its place, becoming a structure comprised of steel members at its foundation, but housing a traditionally wooden cab at its summit. Like its current state, in the result of a forest fire, the lookout follows a cycle of degradation, scorching the wooden structure that remains, leaving behind new remnants of an old standing structure, waiting to re-inhabited.

Miners Ridge was so named thanks to an abundance of early 1900s mining activity in the area. The first lookout constructed on the summit was a 10’ x 10’ shake cabin in 1926, followed by a 20’ timber L-4 cab in 1938. In 1953, the L-4 cab was replaced by another 20’ treated timber L-4 cab, which is the structure that exists today.

Parts of the existing Suiattle River trail were a road until 1984 when the Glacier Peak wilderness was expanded. In 2015, the Suiattle River road reopened after a decade long closure due to severe flood damage.

As one of the few remaining posts actively in use during certain seasons, this graft seeks to assist in occupying during extreme conditions, shifting to all year habitation. Being a historic preservation, the machine becomes a delicate extension, and the Swiss knife of the lookout typology.

The lookout tower on Miners Ridge has been transformed into a state-of-the-art machine for living. The tower now boasts programmatic pods that can be easily swapped out based on the season, allowing for a comfortable living experience no matter the weather. Each pod is fully equipped with a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchenette, and designed to be modular for easy upgrading and swapping.

The pods are connected by a central staircase that winds its way up to the top of the tower. The tower’s new design is a testament to human creativity and innovation, showcasing how even abandoned places can be transformed into remarkable living spaces. The tower has become a beacon of hope and inspiration, attracting visitors from all over the world who come to marvel at its unique design and functional features.