Urban Design Portfolio 2023

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Portfolio

Urban Designer | Architect

Master in City Design’23

University of Illinois at Chicago

Punya Vats

Punya Vats

Atlanta, GA 30318 | 312.838.6355 | vats.punya@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/punya-vats-4a3387110/

Portfolio

https://issuu.com/vats.punya/docs/punya_vats_portfolio_v3

SUMMARY

As a creative architect and designer, my expertise in conceptual design thinking spans across urbanism, planning, and sustainability. I have a proven experience of developing innovative solutions for various fundamental architecture and design projects. As a graduate of the Master’s in City Design program at UIC, my aim is to expand and diversify my knowledge, enabling me to create sustainable designs that foster the betterment of urban communities.

WORK EXPERIENCE

City of Atlanta, Department of City Planning

October 2023 - Present

Assisted in the process of Atlanta’s Rezoning ‘Zoning 2.0’ design and regulation of public spaces to ensure proper exisitng and future land use and urban development within the new and improved zoning guidelines.

Contributed to the development and implementation of ‘Plan_A’, the City’s Comprehensive Development Plan, by conducting community engagement, and ensuring alignment with long-term zoning, land use, and urban development goals.

Collaborated with internal and external collaborators to provide exceptional customer service, ensuring the efficient processing of project applications, reviews, enforcement actions, and open record requests.

Conducted administrative, analytical, and technical tasks related to Atlanta’s Quality-of-Life Districts and helped in it’s implementation, and monitoring of the City’s land use and zoning programs and policies.

Ensured timely and accurate responses to inquiries and maintained consistent adherence to the City’s zoning regulations to streamline the permitting process particularly for the Special Administrative Permits for the Office of Zoning and Development.

Supported the successful implementation of land development and permitting procedures in compliance with established zoning districts, including height, size, and density regulations, and parking facility requirements.

Bezel Design and Communications Pvt. Ltd.

Urban Planner II Architect

June 2018 - December 2021 Atlanta, Georgia Gurgaon, India

Managed and contributed to 15+ architectural projects across various sectors, including residential, commercial, and industrial, with the ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously.

Demonstrated effective leadership skills by overseeing large, multi-disciplinary teams of 15 to 50 members, depending on project scale.

Actively engaged in materials research, project specification coordination, on-site supervision, and thorough examination of construction documents for project execution.

Proficiently created and presented captivating 3-D visual presentations to clients, featuring digital renderings and models to enhance project communication and client engagement.

Collaborated with design teams and principals to coordinate all project phases, both independently and collaboratively, to ensure the successful completion of various project tasks.

Played a significant role in the design development of residential and commercial architecture and interior design projects from concept to the final stages.

Developed expertise in 3D modeling software, furniture design, project management, and strong communication and collaboration skills, while also contributing to the coordination of materials and products in multi-disciplinary design teams.

EDUCATION

Masters in City Design

College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs

University of Illinois at Chicago.

Bachelors in Architecture

Amity School of Architecture and Planning

Amity University, Gurgaon, India

TECHNICAL SKILLS

2014-2019 2022-2023

1. Project Override

Rights of Nature and Designigng for Climate Adaptation for Chicago

2. Madison Street, Oak Park

A Design Framework for Madison Street in Oak Park

3. 35th Street, Mckinley Park

Corridor Plan for 35th street with focus on community engagement and feedback.

4.Network Analysis Of Hospitals In Cook County

Network analysis project for the study of geographic access to healthcare using GIS 5. Pipe House

Living in a Pipe - Redefined

PROJECT OVERRIDE

Rights of Nature and Designigng for Climate Adaptation for Chicago

Location: Chicago, IL

Instructor: Dr. Sevin Yildiz & Prof. Phillip Enquist Spring 2023

Concept

Project Brief

For the most part of history, urban planning and design professions took passive positions where nature has been a backdrop or a receiving canvas for ideas. This studio departs from an understanding that, designers and planners should form reflexivity in their thinking and practice when it comes to natural systems that make up our cities and regions. At the cusp of larger climatic shifts, we need to question conventional land use systems and typologies that we employ. This Project Override encapsulates these ideas for the ‘Island’ created by the Chicago and Little Calumet River at the south side of Chicago to prioritize nature and natural systems in this region.

Ecological Abundance - early 1800s

Urban Sprawl - 2018

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1759.html

The legacy of the Great Lakes Region is one of the ecological abundance which has been challenged and the Chicago region to its legacy of ecological abundance through design, planning, and governance. This to support the grassroots advocacy already occurring throughout the region to create positive thriving communities can coexist and support one another on a path to resilience.

and disrupted by industrial primariness. The fragmented natural systems need to be restitched to restore This area has been disproportionately affected by industrial pollution and deserves top down stewardship thriving environments for not only human communities, but natural communities as well. In this way, these

Placetype Zones

Grid Disruptors

Natural and built systems that disrupts the city grid.

Eco-Remnants

Natural areas that are cut off from their ecological point of origin but retain similar characteristics.

Dynamo-scapes

Built and natural systems in proximity to each other which influence one another and trigger a ripple effect.

Engineered Landscapes

Where natural systems have been engineered for changed functionality.

Natural Spine

Protected ecological hotspots that should be retained to connect to other natural areas and integrate into the built environment.

Shifting Greys

Utility and industrial corridors shaping nearby land uses.

The tools that we came up with consisted of creating a connected and compact community in this region by re-naturalising waterways, remediating brownfields, re-wilding of spaces known to be frequented by wildlife and trying to create a change in land use as well.

PedestrianBridgeRailway IncreasedAccess toWaterways

ActivatedUtility Corridors
Greeningthe Grid
WildlifeCrossing Bridge
LivingTrails
WildlifeCrossingTunnel
PedestrianBridgeRiver
VacantLot RepurposingRiver
ClimateZoning -UrbanHeatIslandEffect RailroadRewilding MagicTrain

Rewilding Nature

Improving Waterways

Restoring Wetlands

1.28 million people living in the ‘C’ impacted by Chicago’s New Nature of new green space across the Green Roof Network 14,000+ acres

New Nature

Building Green Industries

Connecting Trails

Increasing Community Access

of remediated and rewilded land 12,500+ acres of newly connected ecological corridors 2,000 miles

MADISON ST - OAK PARK

A Design Framework for Madison Street in Oak Park

Location: Chicago, IL

Instructor: Prof. Sanjeev Vidyarthi & Prof. Vinayak Bharne Fall 2022

Oak Park is a community that prides itself on a legacy of rich architectural heritage, progressive housing policy, and active community engagement. Madison, however, was originally developed as an auto-dealership service and repairs corridor in the early 1900s, and was known as “Motor Row” with auto dealerships, repairs and service facilities, and gas stations. Though Oak Park overall is known for its historic architecture and the fact it was home to Frank Llyod Wright, Madison in Oak Park sepcifically lacks this historic character, and the only historical landmark on Madison today is the Village Town Hall itself.

Design Process

Demographic

Road Section & Intersection Design Building Typologies

Visuals & Isometrics

35TH STREET, MCKINLEY PARK

Corridor Plan for 35th street in Mckinley Park with focus on community engagement and feedback.

Location: Chicago, IL

Instructor: Prof. April Jackson Summer 2023

35th Street is a crucial thoroughfare in McKinley Park, connecting the neighborhood with surrounding communities in southwest Chicago and cutting across Bubbly Creek on the eastern boundary. Over the years, it has seen significant changes, yet remains an integral part of the community’s identity and resilience. To create a vibrant and community-focused vision for 35th Street, a design concept was co-conceived, aiming to make it the “Neighborhood Main Street.” The plan emphasizes pedestrian and cyclist accessibility, expands dining and shopping options, and provides comfortable outdoor spaces for community gatherings. The corridor plan outlines the planning process, community engagement, design concepts, and implementation recommendations, celebrating cultural diversity and fostering inclusivity while leveraging existing assets.

Background

Community

We received 240 our engagement helped us understand experiences in McKinley Street improvement purposefully designed be straightforward, and fun, with the engaging people languages, and possessing a general understanding work.

Engagement

240 responses across engagement activities, which understand residents’ lived McKinley Park and 35th improvement priorities. We designed our activities to straightforward, quick, interesting, the overarching goal of people of all ages, abilities, possessing no more than understanding of planning

Final Concept

The design concept conceptualizes 35th Street as McKinley Park’s bustling street with concentrations of integrates elements of art-activated alleyways, a linear park, extended sidewalks, community spaces, pedestrian porary play areas, space for night markets and performance areas that weave the community together. community well-being on 35th Street and within the whole of Mckinley Park.

35th and Archer Intersection
35th and Wolcott Intersection

activity at certain intersections from Archer to Ashland. Based on the community feedback, the concept pedestrian crossings, and food trucks. Some other notable additions include enhanced tree cover, temtogether. These strategic planning and design measures shall help advance small business development and

35th and Wood Intersection

NETWORK ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALS IN COOK COUNTY

Network analysis project for the study of geographic access to healthcare using

Location: Chicago, IL

Instructor: Prof. Anton Rozhkov

Spring 2023

COUNTY

The aim of this report is to utilize network analysis for determining the optimal path for traveling from one destination to another by considering factors such as road length, speed, and time travel. Traditionally, network analysis in Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to estimate travel costs and assess the accessibility of healthcare services. The primary objective of routing analysis is to discover networks, map them, perform real-time monitoring, and diagnose routing issues.

Route Analysis

The network-based analysis was done using ArcGIS Network Analyst tool. Each line segment was given a travel time value determined by the line segment’s length that was converted into Miles and expected travel speed before the vector roadways database was converted to a network data format. The network data format conversion provided travel time as the cost value.

The Route Analysis feature helped in comparing time data for each line segment from different hospitals to one particular location (in this case - UIC) which was then compared to Google Maps time data to analyse our existing and proposed speeds.

Northwest Community Time Network

Google Maps

Existing Speeds

Proposed Speeds

Saint James Hospital Time Network

Google Maps

Existing Speeds

Proposed Speeds

Palos Primary Time Network

Google Maps

Existing Speeds Proposed Speeds

Rush Medical Time Network

Google Maps

Existing Speeds

Proposed Speeds

Evanston Hospital Time Network

Google Maps

Existing Speeds

Proposed Speeds Difference

Northwest Community Hospital to UIC
Saint James Hospital to UIC
Rush Medical Loyola to UIC
Evanston Hospital to UIC

Service Area Analysis

A thorough and accurate description of both road location (length) and travel speed is crucial for network-based for the study included different classes of roads in the Cook County region. The cost of movement can surface characteristics help determine realistic travel speeds, speed restrictions specify the top permitted area’s land use, or the rate of travel. Two different speed limits were then added, one the ‘Existing’ speeds referring to the 5 network datasets in the provided report.

After the network was developed, we used the “Service Area” option to create polygons with 3-, 5- and 7-minute the state allowed for the identification of underserved areas, which is effectively finding the opposite of

Exisitng Speeds

3 Minutes

5 Minutes 7 Minutes Hospital Locations

network-based techniques of estimating travel time between places (impedance). The road data considered can be thought of as travel time, which is characterized as a function of both distance and speed. While permitted speed. The actual speed limits on Cook County roads are determined by the type of route, the local speeds set according to the Illinois Speed Limit Law and the ‘Proposed’ speed limit which were considered by 7-minute travel times for each hospital location. Clipping the service area polygons from a base map of the state’s 3, 5, 7-minute journey zones.

Proposed Speeds

3 Minutes

5 Minutes

7 Minutes Hospital Locations

Healthcare Access

The maps below show the area and the number of people that lack access to hospitals in Cook County which shows a concentration of hospitals in the Chicagoland region whereas the neighborhoods further north and south show a dearth of connectivity to these hospitals. Although, there is a denser population living in the Chicagoland region, these maps show that more infrastructure is needed to either construct more hospitals or provide better connectivity to the existing ones for the population that lives in the northern and southern neighborhoods of Cook County.

Service Area

Tracts with Access

Tracts without Access

Limitations

The initial decision to clip roads that fall outside the Cook County border caused two of the hospitals to not create a proper service area polygon which are located at the edge of Cook County and people ‘technically’ have to leave the county to access them.

PIPE HOUSE

Living in a Pipe - Redefined

Location: Gurgaon, India

Developer: Bezel Design

Year: 2021

The tiny Pipe House is a cosy, and a comfortable living space providing a unique living experience in your home away from home, or even in your own garden. This funky and portable pipe house is constructed using a non-corrosive, insulated GI sheet framed structure and is 16 feet by 10 feet in diameter. With quick installation at site and plug & play feature of connecting the water and electric supplies, the pipe house is the perfect little getaway for a few days for friends and family alike.

vats.punya@gmail.com pvats2@uic.edu +1

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