Faure Halvorsen Architects

from Willie Leidolf, Design Portfolio

Dowel Laminated Timber Fabrication Design

Internship Revit

At Faure Halvorsen Architects as an Intern, I experienced both commercial and residential projects, both collaboritavely and independently. Looking back, the most enjoyable and educational of these projects would have to be a small fishing shack on the Jefferson River. Designed to be a guest house, the highly iterative and personal project was the first in which I was granted complete responsibility of schematic one-on-one design with the client. Under strict budgeting and square footage constraints, we worked alongside a client hired general contractor. While frustrating at times, the fast pace and intimacy of the project, in addition to the opportunity for relative independence, proved to be a great and exciting learning experience. Featured are several of the iterations of the shack, each resulting from changing concepts and budgeting - the largest of these iterations being the design that ultimately was chosen.

MSU Bike Shelters

Design + Build Revit, Plasma Cutter

The Bike Shelters were a design/build project conducted by Montana State University M.Arch candidates taking place over two semesters by team of students in the M.Arch program at Montana State University. The process entailed everything from physical hand welded details to permit submittal with the City of Bozeman. Every drawing shown has was to be reviewed by engineers, faculty, and the city and is currently under construction by the students outside of Cobleigh Hall on MSU’s Campus.

The project provides much needed bicycle storage on campus, as well as protection from snow without jeopardizing the safety and security of the student population. Throughout the project we managed to remain below the budget of 25,000 USD for materials, with each shelter costing an estimated 4,000 USD. If the shelters prove successful, the CD set will have continued use as a template for future structures across campus.

Orphaned Oil Wells

Master’s Thesis Rhino + Grasshopper, Adobe Illustrator

‘Orphaned oil wells’ are wells owned by oil and gas companies that have since gone bankrupt. These wells have been left largely uncapped, meaning methane is constantly released from the ground into the atmosphere via well pipe. This project works locally with the Well Done Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to capping these wells, to explore ways to move beyond the status quo to turn a negative into a positive. After several months researching, mapping and photographing the wells, an architectural solution was born.

Emphasizing place making and program, it was decided based on historical heating practices that a small portion of the well emission in Toole County, Montana could be transported and utilized as a power source. These emissions would then be stored in now abandoned grain elevators before powering carbon capture fans through co-generation. After being removed from the atmosphere, the C02 would be used to facilitate hemp growth before allowing the plants to redistribute the gas into the ground. The hurd of the hemp would then be used in hempcrete to sustainability cap the remaining orphaned oil wells. Finally, the byproducts of the hemp would be sold to provide economic incentive and transported via rail throughout Montana.

There are 2.15 million unplugged abandoned wells in the U.S. in 31

Combined, they emit 7.11 MMT co2e each year

That’s the equivelant of:

1.29 million home’s electricity use for one year

798 million gallons of gasoline consumed

1.54 million passenger vehicles drive for one year

7.85 billion lbs of coal burned

Highest Density of Orphaned Wells in Montana: Toole County

Hempcrete, a sustainable biocomposite, is used in favor of concrete to cap the wells. Utilizing hemp hurd as the binding agent, the mixture is more absorbant and crack resistant than concrete.