Contributed to the design of ongoing projects through multiple phases in the Mixed Use /Multifamily Residential design studio. Participated in consultant and client meetings and assisted in the submission of design packages.
ASSISTANT LEARNING SPECIALIST
2021 - 2023
SUBJECT / EXAM PREP TEACHER
C.A.T.S Academics
Advised and supported University of Arizona student athletes in their academic endeavors. This role involved collaboration and teaching.
Huntington
Learning Center
Led tutoring sessions and remedial learning programs for students of various ages. This role involved teaching and strong communication.
An Amazon distribution center located on Chicago’s South Branch Riverfront that has remained vacant since its construction during the pandemic.
Within an ecologically damaged industrial river corridor that has long been dominated by outside commercial interests and industry.
An artifact of corporate imposition that acts as a barrier between the riverfront and the local community who have publicly opposed the construction since its outset.
Dramatically transform the vacant and unused Amazon fulfillment center into a celebrated community asset.
Embrace a critical adaptive reuse approach with reimagined flexible spaces such as market and recreation halls.
Counter the big-box logic of the current form through a process of formal disintegration, recomposition and regrowth allowing the site’s latent social and natural forces to reassert themselves.
Serve as a green riparian gateway that returns the riverfront to the community and local ecosystems.
Critique placeless, anonymous development within historic communities and suggest possibilities for future reform
Riverfront/North facade with pedestrian path
The large concrete and steel frame structure was thoroughly documented and digitally recreated based on construction drawings and site visits.
The structure was manipulated with an added mezzanine level, open air corridor with a planted water drainage channel, and selective fractured openings along the concrete tilt-up shell. These manipulations create flexible and transparent interior spaces with greater public connection to the riverfront and surrounding environment.
Previously dominated by asphalt hardscape the new site plan includes recreation fields, wetland ponds with water retention strategies, outdoor market and terraces, and a reclaimed, deconstructed parking lot serving as a dynamic community garden named “The Lot.”
OUTDOOR MIXED USE MARKET OPEN AIR CORRIDOR WITH WATER CHANNEL
FLEXIBLE MARKET HALL
This project comprises of the efforts of a collaborative partnership. This design was one key facet to a larger cohort led masterplan of the Pilsen area along Chicago’s South Branch River.
In the final design I personally focused on the site/landscape design, all visualizations or renderings, selected concept diagrams, and selected drawings such as the overall site plans and section-perspective.
INDOOR MARKET
OUTDOOR MARKET
LOADING/MECH
FOOD HALL
REGROWTH MOUND
PASEO
PASEO
POND
Flexible market hall interior, AI Mockup
Former loading dock turned retention pond
Rainwater is channeled to retention ponds that overflow to the river
An collection of underused or vacant lots and corridors connected by the historic railway in downtown Tucson
A car dominated urban environment with fragmented pedestrian accessibility and no place for natural ecology.
Concept
A pedestrian green corridor that demonstrates a more environmentally conscious approach to designing public spaces in the urbanized Sonoran Desert.
Pavilions featuring dynamic branching structures that implement water management strategies adopted from traditional Sonoran landscape ecology.
A demonstration of architectural agency as a means of symbiotic integration within complex ecological systems.
symbiotic, interconnected system of nature and architecture systems of overstory and understory
theollaasaself-meteringsystemfor water storage and dispersal
Formerly vacant, railway sites with reintroduced native landscaping that is supported by ecological pavilions
Expansive pedestrian corridor that connects major urban centers with anticipation of future expansion
Pavilions implement strategies such as nursing, understory, water storage and diffusion drawn from keystone species in the Sonoran Desert.
Structures adapted from natural form generation methods and L-system branching algorithms.
Franklin Street Pavilion
Experiments
Taking inspiration from the native landscape including the Mesquite and Palo Verde trees, a major component of this project was the integration of experiments in form finding and branching patterns. After developing a number of parametric recursion algorithms, forms were generated and evaluated for implementation in larger pavilion structures.
startingline(stem)
newbranchfromendpoint scaledbyvariablefactor
Treewith6Iterations
Angle: 30°
LFactor:0.60
Treewith8Iterations
Angle: 60°
LFactor:0.85
copiedandrotatedby variableangle
completeiteration
Tree algorithms were further developed and integrated into structural pavilions
Experiments
As another means of exploring natural growth and organization, a series of scripts were developed to simulate hydrostatic forces acting on a network of cords as can be seen in spiderwebs or as famously demonstrated by Frei Otto in a series of “wool studies.”
This method forms optimized paths by minimizing detours along a larger network
Using parametric tools, these natural organization simulations were implemented into unique structural pavilions
experimental pavilion iteration with combined form findingmethods
organicnetworkas catenarydomestructure
organicnetworkimplementedinto structural pavilion
terracotta
This project was developed individually following a research based study of the Sonoran Landscape as a product of complex change across over hundreds of millions of years. This research, suggested in the timeline visual below, set the conceptual framework for the design.
Parametric experiments with organic forms in Rhino and Grasshopper inspired multiple Pavilion designs as case studies along a larger pedestrian masterplan.Pavilions integrate into a proposed natural landscape with water and nutrient management systems.
The project demonstrates that architecture need not be separate from nature, but rather can strive for a symbiotic relationship within it.
The Developing Mercado district of Menlo Park, Tucson’ s “birthplace” along the struggling Santa Cruz River.
An area with starkly new development, under-utilized park space, and limited culinary variety.
Concept
Moments of personal and communal reflection through the preservation and enrichment of Tucson’ s culinary heritage.
Reflect on what we have and what can be shared with a community minded approach to food.
Defy standard assumptions of a park, connecting the planes of urban development and the life giving Santa Cruz River.
A park sunken below ground and retained by angular walls of mass volcanic rock.
Tunnels that house community kitchens and incubator food stalls offer a place to practice, share, and develop culinary craft.
Development
Communal gathering spaces with introspective underground shrines for person reflection.
Flexible native gardens for recreation and market vending.
Laminated timber and corten steel canopy of geometric patterning spans the sunken park and raised terraces with geometric apertures influence the experience of spaces below and direct rainwater
Timber structure
Timber structure steel sheeting
Cast Scoria Wall
Structural Module
LaminatedTimber
12” x24” Beams
16”x16” Columns
This project was developed individually following a series of geographic mappings of Tucson with an emphasis on street food culture. This led to a focus on the Menlo Park area due to its unique history, rapid development, and limited culinary availability
With the conceptual underpinnings in place, the design was developed over numerous iterations through sketches, mock up renderings, and concept models. Diagrammatic sections were done for some of the unique elements such as the cast lava rock walls. A driving focus when creating drawings and renderings was overall visual cohesion and the experience of the spaces designed in the project.
The project demonstrates how architecture can empower local economies while providing a unique environment for community enrichment and preservation.
Within the heart of the University of Arizona campus, a land grant institution built on the lands of Native American and Indigenous peoples.
Following the announcement of tuition waivers for Native American students from federally recognized tribes in Arizona.
A campus with limited resources and cultural spaces for Native American and indigenous students. The idea of cultivation with respect to different key aspects of campus experience.
Cultivation of autonomy and resiliency for Native & Indigenous students.
Concept & Development
> Social engagement with numerous integrated social spaces
> Options for personalization, alteration, and expansion.
> Community centered student housing inspired by regional Native American community planning.
Cultivation of the public’ s awareness, consideration, and recognition of Arizona’s Tribal communities
> Spaces of craft-making, music, and achievements brought to the public level.
> Ephemeral experiences demonstrate traditional Native & Indigenous recognition of natural systems
> Languages, symbols, and Native American building forms referenced throughout the design.
> Achievements of Native & Indigenous faculty, their research, and programs represented and celebrated.
This project was developed individually following a series of surveys given to Native American students and faculty at the University. In these surveys, hundreds of respondents shared their insights and preferences for a new campus resource center that can serve their communities.
An extensive period of research and community outreach preceded all design phases. Throughout the development of the project local Native and Indigenous community members were invited and prioritized at reviews to offer feedback and ensure representation.
Light Screening
Inspired by regional building strategies, a colorful terracotta screen covers the exterior
student dorm rooms
openlobby atrium
Light & Language
Greetings in Native American languages are made through light and shadow
lightfiltering stickinfill
heatexhausted from light shafts
Diffusion of light Into lower floors
laminatedtimber structure
Studies & Explorations
Parametric Form and Structure Modeling
Production: Rhino, Grasshopper, CNC Tools
base geometry for nested hooped dome
3D model with proper thicknesses
In this series of exploratory models, I study a few unique approaches to dome and vault structures using parametric tools and physical modeling with CNC tools. These models include angular folded plate structures and a nested hoop dome.
Alternative proposal various sized hoops
CNC Router Form Finding
In this project, I study the qualities and limitations of a three axis CNC router as a means of generating form. Access of a router head presents unique challenges for geometry along curved surfaces. I use this condition as a generator of form.
In this series of images, I showcase some experiments with AI workflows that are already to beginning to revolutionize architectural visualization. In each example I have given an approximate date of creation to suggest how both these tools and my experience with them continue to develop.
A few possibilities I demonstrate here include:
Design variations based on existing images/renderings
Rapid concept renderings of a given study model.
Sketches turned into images and scenes
Fine tuning of textures and elements in existing renderings
Exploratory concept images
In my view, AI workflows such as these are no substitute for the role of a designer but rather a tool one can use to explore and communicate possibilities quickly. In this way, I have found them to be of best use during the exploratory conceptual stages of a design. AI models are trained on existing data pools and as such exhibit obvious imperfections and biases
However, with a greater understanding of these tools we will certainly be better informed to determine their role in the architectural designs of the near future
Concept render of “Halsted Hub” landscaping, March 2024
Concept render of parametric bridge, April 2024
Design variations based on “Yesterday Park” renderings, June 2024
