Museum Exhibit: Director Park

I published my first museum exhibit.  The Museum of the City is a web-based museum curated by the public to celebrate and understand the City as a human endeavor.  My exhibit was prepared for a class studying the city of Portland and I focused on our city's newest park.

http://www.museumofthecity.org/exhibit/director-park-american-piazza/vision-realized

Light & Shadow Class

I'm taking a light and shadow class.  The instructor has really been encouraging us to be exploratory and experimental.  That hasn't been too easy for me...I've spent a long time as a task-focused, gettin'r done kind a guy.  This free journey is a bit different.  But they say, "If you always know where you're going, you'll never go anywhere you've never been."  You can check out the latest at this link.  The last image is an animated file which browsers don't seem to like...suggest you click on it, then click refresh on the browser and it should cycle through.

http://aaablogs.uoregon.edu/espirito/2012/05/14/more-model-work/

Port of Portland

I was able to tour this beautiful building last week.  It was finished in 2010 and received a LEED Platinum certification from the US Green Building Council (http://www.usgbc.org/).  

After 18 months of occupied use, the building has achieved an energy savings target of over 50%.  The climate controls are achieving a stable temperature of +/- 0.5 degrees F.  Yes, a half degree variation, even within a three story atrium.  The building uses radiant panels overhead supplemented with forced air.  The building is also saving greater than 50% water consumption and completely averting the use of the public sewer with the first large scale real-world installation of the Living Machine (http://livingmachines.com/).  It's a multi-stage, water treatment process through vegetated planters (both indoor and outdoor)--they're in the main entryway.  Black water and grey water treatment at the front door!

The interior makes a high caliber, beautiful space for 450 people.  It's big at 225,000 SF, not including the parking structure.  Yes, that is about 500 SF per person...quite generous...with room to grow.  And at approximately $85 million, it comes to $377/SF for the occupied space...not cheap.

They made a concerted effort to make it a very pleasant space, to include some very nice permanent art installations, such as these hand carved conference room doors above.  I have to say it is a beautiful building and appears to be built to last...two values I wholeheartedly support.

Community Music Institute

This was my studio design project for the Fall quarter.  The client was a Suzuki-method strings program for kids (http://suzukiassociation.org/).  They teach very young children to play stringed instruments (violin, viola, cello).  The community aspect of the program was very important to the client, so I put a community gathering space at the center of the facility under a large pitched roof that feels independent of the surrounding rooms--I envision it feeling a like a large outdoor pavilion, yet enclosed.  The site is on the corner of two streets: one primarily residential, the other with a likely mixed-used commercial future.  Two large group classrooms are oriented toward the commercial street and would have tall glass curtain walls facing the street.  The residential street front receives smaller volumes (similar to the adjacent townhouses), an outdoor green space and a more informal entry.  The green space uses some existing mature trees and provides a space for the kids to run and play on their break between sessions.  The small rooms toward the back are studios for individual lessons.

I wanted the architecture to communicate both precision and expressiveness, two of the key qualities of classical chamber music.  I also wanted it to be an enjoyable icon that permanently improved the neighborhood--something that neighbors would adjust their walking route to pass.

The drawing photo above represent a view from the more commercial street front.

The drawing above and photo below represent the view from the more residential street front.  The section above cuts through the performance hall (left), then the community gathering space, and finally out the entryway toward the more commercial street front--I intended for it to be a high space that gives an elevated sense, a special experience.

Spatial Composition Exercise

Neuroplasticity...the phrase is used a lot to describe the difficult process of learning completely new skills as an adult.  I do find the process difficult, painful many times.  But I find the results very enjoyable.  They say the more you do it, the faster you get.  I believe.  And it's fun to create!  Here is an example of a mind-bending exercise.  It's actually a space-composing exercise, that happens to be difficult for the amateur.  The first image is provided as a 2D source and the exercise is to extrapolate it into a 3D composition of habitable space, at any scale (room, building, city, etc.).  You have to decide whether to extrapolate in a vertical, horizontal, or other plane.  Then you have to decide which lines to emphasize and which to deemphasize; how to express each line; whether to pull a surface forward or push it back; to bend or not and in which direction.  And it is preferred that you have a "language" for how you chose to do it...what was it about each line in the drawing that made you express it a certain way (was it the weight of the line, the shape, value of shading, etc.).  After some analysis, I decided that I would extrapolate the image vertically into a floating mansion accessible by floating bridge.  I envisioned it as the evil billionaire's mansion in a 007 movie, complete with yacht parking, heliport, classic car collection garage, great lawn (the semi-circle shape), great room overlooking the great lawn, etc.  The 12 spires rise from below the ocean floor as pilings and extend up through the mansion.  It was interesting and took about 14 hours to conceptualize and create the model.  All to get a grade and then likely be recycled, in addition to the benefit and purpose of making new connections between neurons in my brain.

Load Bearing Platform

The task was to design and construct a 9x17" platform from very thin chip board/card stock that could hold a minimum of one 20oz coffee cup of sand and be as light as possible.  This little beauty held 10 cups and weighed about half the average...my load per square of weight ratio was nearly twice the next nearest platform.  And the failure was catastrophic and wonderful!

To Those Who Think Differently

A nicely composed reminder that change agents are threatening [to the status quo].

http://youtu.be/dX9GTUMh490