TRIANGLES? JAMES MACMILLAN
CONTENTS SCAD: GRADUATE THESIS DETROIT, MICHIGAN
SCAD: GRADUATE URBAN DESIGN STUDIO HUNTER ARMY AIRFIELD, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
SCAD: WOOD AND METAL FABRICATION PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE TOLEDO, OHIO
SCAD: PRINTMAKING AND RENDERING
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Right: Digital Rendering of the Active Ruin. See Next Page.
All design work is done exclusively by Jim MacMillan, except when otherwise noted in the description text as a group project. All photography, artwork and sketching created by Jim MacMillan, except when otherwise noted in captions.
ACTIVE RUIN: ADAPTIVE CONTINUOUS USE IN DETROIT SCAD Graduate Thesis Studio, 2011-2012
Structures and spaces are built for and by communities. A community is the force that gives built environments purpose and life. Communities change over time. The inherent balance of IDENTITY and FLEXIBILITY within an architectural body facilitates or impedes its life within a community. This thesis explores the idea of Adaptive Continuous Use as a way to design structures which stand the test of time by providing an inherent balance of identity and flexibility. This balance makes structures long lasting and valuable to the community they exist in. The site of Detroit provides a test ground for Adaptive Continuous Use by facilitating a building design which can exist as a community URBAN RUIN, inviting and habitable with or without planned occupation
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Above, Right: Sequence of renderings showing different uses for several adaptable spaces over time. Far Right: Exterior view of the Active Ruin at night.
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HUNTER ARMY AIRFIELD REDEVELOPMENT SCAD Graduate Urban Design Studio, Fall 2011 Group Project with Roberto Aybar-Imbert
This urban design project addresses the hypothetical de-commissioning of Hunter Army Airfield, opening its grounds to redevelopment and integration with the surrounding urban environment of Savannah. The proposed plan is founded on a PATTERN INFRASTRUCTURE. Savannah is a hybrid city; a merger of modern and traditional urban conditions, clearly divided. Contrasts between the modern and historic have created a jarring urban condition at their meeting points. The former Hunter Army Airfield site creates an opportunity for a third urban condition to heal and enhance modern and historic Savannah. Developing a pattern of informed growth allows the open site to be developed in a way that integrates the modern and historic by enriching both. The pattern of growth is derived by merging two unique masterplan concepts. The pattern is self-repeating, and occurs at multiple scales.
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Above, Right: Sequence of renderings showing different uses for several adaptable spaces over time. Far Right: Exterior view of the Active Ruin at night.
NOT
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DESIGN
BUILDINGS
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WOOD AND METAL FABRICATION SCAD Electives in Furniture Design and Sculpture, 2012
The design and fabrication of a furniture piece is an architectural endeavor. The feel of the wood to the touch, the solidity of the structure, KINETICS of user interaction and the angle at which the body lays all inform refinement of the design. Aesthetics and ergonomics must work in synchronicity. This any-direction ROCKING CHAIR is supported on ribs interlocking with primary and secondary spines. Ribs rock right and left, while spines rock from front to back. The base is fabricated from large plywood sheets on a CNC router. Plywood cutouts are laminated and interlocked with notched CONNECTIONS to create base strength. Sitting surface created with an array of thin poplar members, connected to rib pieces with a threaded rod hinged connection. The chair is a venture into the possiblity of mass fabrication and self-assembly.
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Far Right, Top Corner: A Tabletop Lantern which holds a candle, made from welded steel and walnut. All other Photos: The Any-Direction Rocking Chair.
SKIN
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STRUCTURE
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Macpherson Architects/2MA, 2010
FURNITURE is an essential element of any school. Maumee Valley Country Day School is a private school located in Toledo, Ohio. The school houses 500 preschool through 12th grade students across a campus of buildings dating back to the 1880s. The New Upper School is the centerpiece of a campus-wide replacement and renovation of all of Maumee Valley’s facilities. MacPherson Architects/2MA designed the building, which housed it’s first class of students in 2010. I as an intern at this firm, I managed and coordinated the selection of new school furniture with input from a committee of school faculty. I also created FFE construction documents, wrote the furniture specifications and prepared the bid package for this project.
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All Photos: Interiors of the New Upper School.
Building designed by MacPherson Architects/2MA, 2007-2011 All Photography by Ryan Southen.
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PEOPLE
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PRINTMAKING AND RENDERING SCAD Graduate Printmaking Processes, Summer 2012 SCAD Graduate Drawing, Winter 2011 SCAD Rendering for the Interior, Fall 2010
RENDERING captures a sensual experience beyond that of space and form. Rendering communicates texture, color, lustre and materiality. A soft glow of an interior light absorbed by the familiar pattern of finished wood paneling can evoke smells, sounds and textures buried deep within the brain. A rendering can be an informative drawing and the manifestation of pure emotion. A therapeutic release or a communication tool. A rendering depicts more than space and form, it gives space and form a context, an extra-sensory level of information. A rendering is an UNDERSTANDING. The following page shows a collection of Solar Plate and Serigraphy prints, along with an interior rendering and a charcoal self-portrait.
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Right: My friends are the subjects of these two 9� by 12� solar plate prints; Steve and Alex (from left to right).
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