Wei Xiao _ Architecture and Urban Design Portfolio

ARCHITECTURE URBAN

Wei Xiao Columbia University GSAPP | M.Arch + M.S.UP Rhode Island School of Design | B.Arch + B.F.A.

PORTFOLIO

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN, URBAN DESIGN AND PLANNING, URBAN ANALYTICS, TRANSPORTATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE, PLUS MORE.

P. 01

Charleston 2.0: Rethinking Waterfront and Transit Oriented Urban Development

P. 09

Milk Hub +: Fostering Sustainable Industry Transaction and Community Development

P. 19

Alternate Chinatown: A Parametric Design Approach to Reimagine the Potential of Chinatown’s Urban Landscape

P. 27

Urban Transportation in Response to COVID-19: Case of Chicago and New York City

P. 31

Schools Within School: A New Learning Environment

P. 37

[Other Work] New Bern Avenue Station Area Planning: Designing Sustainable and Equitable Transit in Raleigh

Charleston 2.0: Rethinking Waterfront and Transit Oriented Urban Development

Architecture Design, Urban Design & Planning, Sustainability & Resilience, Transportation.

Columbia GSAPP: Winter 2022, Idependent Project.

Team project with: Zijia Liu (M.S. UP 23’), Kevin To (M.S. RED 23’), Konsta Pikkujämsä (M.S. RED 23’), Elias Pikkujämsä (M.S. RED 23’).

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PROJECT STATEMENT Charleston 2.0 – a water-bound mixed-use development – is designed through preserving the importance of the area’s local maritime history, addressing the demand for activating the waterfront within the modern landscape, and pioneering the future of industrial development through partnership with an innovative aerospace campus.

Birds-eye view

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PARK CIRCLE

CITY NEIGHBORHOODS

RIVER FRONT PARK

SITE BOUNDARY

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REMOUNT ROAD BUS SERVICE

104

MONTAGUE AVE BUS SERVICE JAMESTOWN DEVELOPMENT

ACTIVE RAILWAY SERVICE BIKABLE MULTI-USE PATH

0.125 MILES N

0.125 MILES N

Existing site transportation

Existing site transportation

Arterial street

Regular traffic street

Pedestrain Street

CONNECTIVITY By re-orienting the street-grid for multimodal transit across all sides of the

Noisette Creek and create of a walkable & bike-accessible connection to

project, the project reconnects the physically separated waterfront parcel

the site. Through the realignment of the site’s street-grid, this project

to the 2.5M SF of new development near Navy Yard and Park Circle

promotes healthier mobility by allowing for multi-modal transit from the

neighborhood. To improve horizontal penetration to the site, this project

west side to the waterfront and connecting all three portions of the site to

will partner with the city to extend the abandonedrail tracks across 3

the surrounding neighborhoods.

RESILIENCE Proactive resiliency solutions include creation of a canal to alleviate storm and rainwater overflow, preservation of the wetland permiter’s soft edges, raising the foundation of Phase 1 by 6’0” to meet the topographic water table, and creation of 1M SF of public green space which will collectively act as a “sponge park” for the site.

Preventative resiliency strategies include geothermal heating and cooling systems to create sustainable utility efficiency for the mixed-income community, as well as installating green roofs and solar panels for renewable energy production.

Proposed resiliency strategies

Existing flooding analysis

SITE BOUNDARY PUBLIC-OWNED LAND

ELEVATION OF LAND AND STREET

PRIVATE-OWNED LAND

WETLAND RESTORATION / CANAL

Coastal flood with velocity hazard (wave action)

BIOSWALE ALONG STREET

HIGH-RISK WITH 1% ANNUAL CHANCE OF FLOODING 0.125 MILES N

GREEN ROOF / SOLAR PANEL

0.125 MILES N

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11

10

9 8 6 7

16

17

20 21

18

14

15

19 13

5

4 2

3

1

B

N

5

200ft

400ft

PHASE I 1

MARITIME CENTER

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APARTMENT I (RENTAL)

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APARTMENT II (RENTAL)

4

APARTMENT III (RENTAL)

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APARTMENT IV (CONDO)

PHASE II 6

APARTMENT V (RENTAL & STUDENT HOUSIING)

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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

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HIGH SCHOOL

9 10 INNOVATION HUB III (OFFICE) 11

INNOVATION HUB I (INDUSTRIAL & OFFICE)

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INNOVATION HUB II (INDUSTRIAL & OFFICE)

PHASE III (CONCEPTUAL) 13

HOSPITALITY

14 15 16 17 APARTMENT 18

PARKING STRUCTURE

19 20 21 LIFE SCIENCE CENTER

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Community event location

Community event timeline

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Innovation Hub

Community activation event

Maritime center

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP The project will partner with local organizations to provide year-round

connection to maritime culture, addressing affordable housing demands

events for the community and the broader city residents by acknowledging

and placemaking activation, and establishing long-term plans to bring in

the past, addressing the present, and planning for the future. Different

innovative forces.

organizations play distinctive roles in revitalizing and reinforcing the

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Milk Hub +: Fostering Sustainable Industry Transaction and Community Development

Architecture Design, Adaptive Reuse, Sustainability & Resilience.

Columbia GSAPP: Spring 2022, ADV IV Studio.

Team project with: Ruonan Du (M. Arch 23’).

Advisor: Pedro Rivera Monteiro, Ubaldo Escalante.

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INTRODUCTION As the dairy industry in the Hudson Valley region is declining, we are now

industry, fostering the production transaction for a sustainable economy

confronted with an economic crisis, labor unemployment and related social

and an inclusive community. This project envisions an industry

issues, as well as abandoned buildings and infrastructures. As a response,

transformation from conventional dairy to plant-based farming. This

our proposal takes the abandoned Borden Dairy factory as the stranded

transition not only helps elevate the competitiveness of milk farming in

asset, aiming to provide an alternative prototype to the current dairy milk

Hudson Valley but also reduces a significant amount of carbon emissions.

Exterior perspective rendering

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DESIGN FOR INDUSTRY & COMMUNITY Dairy farming holds great economic importance to the Upstate New York region. However, there has been a steady decline in the dairy industry since the 1950s. This project envisions an industry transformation from conventional dairy to plant-based farming to elevate the competitiveness of milk farming in Hudson Valley while reduce the industy’s carbon footprint.

In addition, as an essential group within the broadly defined socially disadvantaged workers in the agriculture industry, immigrant farmworkers face various challenges. The project have identified five main issues and proposed corresponding strategies.

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Program Diagram

Layout Diagram

DESIGN FOR NETWORK The existing resources around the site provide opportunities to form a regional network of programs that can support the industry transition and serve the immigrant farm worker population/communities. The program consists of two intertwined threads for both the industry and the community.

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Section persectives A-A 15

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Alleyway rendering

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Detail model

Site model

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Alternate Chinatown A Parametric Design Approach to Reimagine the Potential of Chinatown’s Urban Landscape

Urban Analytics, Urban Design & Planning.

Columbia GSAPP: Spring 2023, X Info Modeling.

Team project with: Kelly He (M.Arch 24’).

Advisor: Snoweria Zhang.

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AREA OF INVESTIGATION

OBSERVATION

HYPOTHESIS

The abundance of tenement housing and the unequal distribution of light

Through streetscape reconfiguration concerning street width/setback/

and view access for buildings in Chinatown core areas have highlighted the

amenity network, density variation concerning land use, and building

potential for rethinking the urban landscape while maintaining the unique

typology variation,a more optimal Chinatown development can be achieved

street/cultural life of Chinatown.

increasing both living qualities and street/cultural life for residents.

For the purpose of this study, zoning regulations for the area has been

QUESTION

modified to: 1) Commercial (C6-1) with FAR: 1.0-6.0, upper residential

With the considerations of streetscape design, amenity network design,

portion allowed; 2) Residential (C7-2) with FAR: 0.87-3.44, recalculate OPS

and building typology design in compliance with zoning regulation, how can

requirement at site level.

we reimagine future Chinatown’s urban landscape?

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VARIABLES & ITERATIONS 7 key variables are established in the parametric design model, resulting in 80 design iterations. The project considered not only the street types and scapes but also the distribution of density, commercial use lots, building typologies, etc.

Inputs

# of options

Description of the options

*Street Type Option

3*

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary

Streetscape Configuration

4

4 options was generated with 3 street type options

Density Attraction

4

Towards center, Towards periphery, Linear, Dispersed

Percentage of parcels with commercial use

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30%, 50%, 60%, 80%, 90% of parcel ground floor

*Building Typology

4

Regular residential, Residential courtyard, Podium type 1, Podium type 2

* FAR

x

0.87-3.44 residential, 1.0-6.0 commercial (mixed-use)

* Parcel Width

x

60 - 125 ft

Design Space Size

80

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Iteration 33 is the cloestest to existing Chinatown streetscape with overall great performances and urban design in relation to neighborhood context.

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Average daylight hours for open space increases 0.1 hours Average % of days with daylight for open space increases 1%

Average daylight hours for buildings increases 50% by 2.9 hours Average % of days with daylight for buildings increases 20%

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% of open view above threshold increases 22.7 %

Average number of parks within 3 mins walking for commercial stores increases 175% by 1.47 % of commercial stores with 3 or more parks connection increases 23.9%

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RECONFIGURED TERTIARY STREETSCAPE

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RECONFIGURED SECONDARY STREETSCAPE

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Urban Transportation in Response to COVID-19: Case of Chicago and New York City

Urban Analytics, Transportation.

Columbia GSAPP: Fall 2021, Urban Informatics.

Spring 2022, Explore Urban Data with Machine Learning.

Advisor: Boyeong Hong.

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RIDESHARE SERVICE SYSTEM IN CHICAGO, BEFORE & AFTER By aggregating rideshare service requests in Chicago during April 2019 and April 2020, it is apparent that there is not only a drastic decrease in service requests amount but also a shift in their distribution patterns. In April 2019, most rideshare service requests gathered within and around the downtown areas where public transportation is well established. While in April 2020, the distribution pattern was much more disturbed across Chicago neighborhoods.

Chicago rideshare service requests distribution in April, 2019

Chicago rideshare service requests distribution in April, 2020

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A further step was taken by analyzing where the rideshare service started and ended in the city. By aggregating rideshare service request amounts based on the pick-up and drop-off locations, the project identifies patterns of usage relating to geographical areas. The result indicates a transition of service pattern in Chicago: from the pre-COVID stage oriented towards tourism rideshare service requests to the during-COVID stage oriented more towards local communities.

Network visualization of rideshare service requests on April 1st, 2019

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Network visualization of rideshare service requests on April 1st, 2020

ILLEGAL PARKING COMPLAINTS IN NYC The outbreak of COVID-19 in New York City, especially the following pause program, has significantly reduced illegal parking complaints across the city.

One reasonable interpretation could be that fewer vehicles were on the street because the pause program confined non-essential workers to stay at home, thus fewer complaints were filed.

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Schools Within School: A New Learning Environment

Architecture Design, Sustainability & Resilience.

Columbia GSAPP: Spring 2022, AT III&IV. Team project with: Yuchun Liu (M. Arch 24’), Joyce Wang (M. Arch 24’), Han Qin (M.Arch 24’), Yingxi Dong (M.Arch 24’).

Advisor: Berardo Matalucci, Gabrielle Brainard.

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INTRODUCTION Driven by the concept of solid vs. void, the project considers the division of

building enclosure framework is developed, connected by circulation

educational programs as a sequential rythm that can be adapted to the

corridors and stairs interwining at central atriums. In addition, the design

spatial arrangement of public vs. enclosed spaces which require levels of

takes sustainable strategies to utlize avaiable renewable resources in

privacy. As a result, a configuration of individual buildings under a larger

forming builing intergral systems.

Exterior perspective rendering

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DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY Guided by the overall design concept of solid vs. void, the school project takes sustainable responses into consideration while laying out the integral buidiling system from three aspects: engergy, ventilation, and light. Together, the deisgn aims to create learning environments that are well-controlled for student to stay in and study.

Energy diagram

Ventilation diagram

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Lighting Diagram

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FACADE DESIGN DETAILS The double-skin facade works together with another curtain wall system to form a holistic reading of the building skins facing driveways and to control the amount of daylight entering the interioe space. The system was developed based on the concept of hanging, driven by practical considerations of dead load and wind load transition from building envelope to interior structure as an integral system. (Note: all facade construction details are developed and drafted soley by Wei Xiao).

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[Other Work] New Bern Avenue Station Area Planning: Designing Sustainable and Equitable Transit in Raleigh

Urban Design & Planning, Urban Infrastructure, Transportation.

Stantec: Summer 2022.

Internship project with: Stantec’s Urban Places Team.

All rights reserved to Stantec.

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INTRODUCTION The Urban Places team at Stantec played an important role in assisting the

communities along New Bern for new development and redevelopment

city of Raleigh with the improvement plan for the first of its six transit

opportunities. My role in this project was to help produce visualizations of

corridors, New Bern Avenue. This plan involves a comprehensive

different types of transit-oriented development schemes. Level of

assessment to identify the ideal locations for implementing a new transit-

participation: 100%.

oriented development overlay district zoning classification, poising the

https://www.stantec.com/en/projects/united-states-projects/n/new-bern-avenue-station-area-planning

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https://www.stantec.com/en/projects/united-states-projects/n/new-bern-avenue-station-area-planning

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https://www.stantec.com/en/projects/united-states-projects/n/new-bern-avenue-station-area-planning

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Wei Xiao, All Rights Reserved wxiao0331@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/wei-xiao-assoc-aia-leed-ap-52bba1163/