Galena, Illinois
Schematic Design
Designed for a couple with grown children and their families, High Ridge House is a collection of five volumes in the rolling wooded landscape of western Illinois. The project explores unique combinations of a pure geometry - the gable volume - and takes full advantage of the configurations and intersections these combinations afford. The volumes are arranged to provide separation and privacy, while simultaneously allowing for openness and views. Each volume houses a particular activity such as sleeping, dining, and living which can be engaged in a variety of ways depending on guests. Separated by the main gathering spaces, the master suite is located in the westernmost volume while the guest spaces are to the east.
The site sensitive materials are not only meant to fit appropriately within the natural site, but also reinforce the pure geometries of the gable volumes. Grey cedar shingles wrap the exterior walls and roofs, and notch around stone foundation walls providing openings for expansive views of the landscape. The gable roofs serve as an iconic and pure form, as well as mitigate the large amounts of snowfall each winter. Glazing is used minimally and strategically (less than 8% of the total enclosure) to provide both views and light, but also to more efficiently control interior temperature.
Competition Entry
Shortlisted for Construction, Honorable Mention: London Architecture Festival, Triumph Pavilion 2019
Structural Engineer: Tom Reiner - Talweg Studio
Our proposal for the Triumph Pavilion 2019: “Light” looks at the opportunity for the structural system to create dramatic and interesting lighting conditions. Walking through the pavilion, light and shadow dance dramatically, playing off the natural materials and the lush surroundings. When sunlight hits the pavilion’s serpentine, double-layered structure, it creates a variety of unique and dynamic patterns in both light and shadow. The structure provides a respite from direct exposure and depending on the time of day and the season, the areas of shade and sun differ.
The pavilion is constructed completely of laminated timber products. The floor and ceiling are composed of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, and the vertical and diagonal structural system is a series of glulam timber members. These materials are recently making a strong comeback within the architectural and fabrication industries. Laminated timber products are a sustainable and renewable resource. The density of wood is a fifth that of concrete, allowing for milled openings and connections to be prefabricated off-site. In addition, these CLT and glulam members can be exposed visually without the need for cladding. The CLT floor and ceiling panels for this pavilion take advantage of common CNC milling to produce an innovative structural system that employs prefabricated notches, and will arrive on site fully ready to accept the glulam members. This allows for a quick and easy assembly, and disassembly process. We’ve fully tested and engineered the structural system using structural analysis software (see diagrams below) and confirmed that the system is stable, with the vast majority of the members acting in compression and overall system deflections of less than 1mm.
The form of the 96 sqm pavilion strategically responds to the Museum Gardens and the surrounding buildings. The pavilion creates an interesting route through the landscape, working its way back and forth providing a variety of lighting conditions with patterned patches of light changing hour by hour, each day. The pavilion’s entry and exit faces the park entrance to the northeast, and the Church of St. John to the southwest. Along this circulation route, visitors can either circulate through the pavilion or take advantage of the various seating areas to relax and contemplate in solitude, or gather in small groups to share discussions with friends and other visitors.
Bozeman, Montana
Completed - 2018
Located in Bozeman, Montana, House 2905 is a small addition for a growing family. Tasked with maximizing additional area, while also minimizing cost and construction time, we decided that a simple volume located above the existing garage was the best direction. This would eliminate the need for expensive excavation and foundation work and also allow for an elevated exterior deck space with spectacular views of the nearby Bridger and Beartooth mountain ranges. With this direction in place, the project removes the roof of the existing garage and adds a simple gable volume housing a bonus room, bedroom, and bathroom for the children that is separate from the main living spaces of the house.
Photos: Cody Brown
Tenafly, New Jersey
The Tenafly Residence is a 4,500 sqft renovation of an existing home in New Jersey. The client requested an upgrade to the building skin, main living spaces, as well as new bedrooms, bathrooms and a guest suite for aging parents. Through material upgrades, and the strategic placement of feature walls, we were able to negotiate between bright open spaces, and the desire for privacy.
Design Collaboration with ATTN ATTN
Photos: Michael Grimm
Competition Entry
Honorable Mention, 7th Advanced Architecture Contest: Responsive Cities, 2018
Published in Abstract 08/09
The current condition of the world’s cities is one of growing urban populations, resulting in diminishing open space and an unprecedented need for alternative fuels. The city of Mumbai, the best example of a city with an extreme deficiency in open space, has a population of nearly 14 million and offers less than two square meters of open space per capita. Tokyo and New York are not far behind. This project confronts the growing lack of open space, and need for alternative forms of energy production by providing a single space for both public recreation, and urban kelp farming.
To do this, the project looks to the waterways surrounding cities (using New York City as a prototype). The project proposes space which is developed not as a static passive recreational park, but one that can actively assist and benefit from energy production. Alongside activities such as bird watching, fishing, and general recreation, kelp is grown and harvested to produce bio-fuel. Employing a special growing apparatus, the early growth stages take advantage of the calm waters ideal for public park space before the kelp is shipped to high quantity ocean farms. Inversely, the recreation spaces takes advantage of the unique landscapes and experiences provided by the kelp farms, as well as the wildlife (birds, fish, etc.) that these farms attract
Jersey City, New Jersey
Project Manager/Lead Designer (HWKN)
Completed Fall 2017 (Phase 1)
Press: Dezeen, Designboom, New York Times
Journal Squared is a 3 phased 2 million square foot residential development located in Jersey City, New Jersey directly atop the Journal Square PATH station. The design of the building attempts to create an iconic landmark for the area, while simultaneously breaking down its scale to fit within the existing urban fabric. To achieve this the towers begin to split as they approach the ground allowing for a scale reduction, and a building which navigates the complex pedestrian patterns associated with the PATH bus and rail system.
The project will house active programs such as retail, restaurants and parking in its base and approximately 1800 apartment units in its three towers. Construction of the first phase was complete in 2017, just as construction on the second phase began. It will begin a profound revitalization for the Journal Square area of Jersey City.
Collaborators: Handel Architects
Structural Engineer: WSP
Interior Designer: Chris Stevens
Identity: Bruce Mau Design
Photos: Michael Moran
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Project Manager / Lead Designer (HWKN)
Completed Summer 2017
Press: "Study mates: Bard College's Center for Curatorial Studies gets a remodel," Wallpaper Magazine
The project stemmed from a desire by the College of Curatorial Studies and Hessel Art Museum at Bard College to improve and expand their library, administration offices, teaching spaces and archives. The design is driven by a conscience navigation of the role architecture plays within spaces for exhibiting art. Employing an understated design, the project is meant to evoke interest through light, transparency and finish articulation.
The 19,000 square foot renovation houses 6 new offices, 4 new classrooms and collaborative teaching spaces, a re-configured main library, and a new living archive for the museum. The project also required the integration and display of two new large scale art pieces by the British conceptual artist Liam Gillick, and a wall drawing by Sol Lewitt.
Photographs: Michael Moran
Collaborating Artists: Sol Lewitt Foundation, Liam Gillick
Newtown, Connecticut
Competition Entry
On Friday December 14, 2012 the community of Sandy Hook changed forever. Sandy Hook Memorial Park honors the twenty children and six educators who lost their lives that day, with a permanent five-acre preserve that’s uniquely designed to offer moments of quiet contemplation alongside the triumph of life. The Memorial Park is not meant to be a place of mourning, but of celebration and remembrance. It is designed to allow visitors the flexibility to reflect on the tragic events of that day through a variety of experiences, while also celebrating the power of nature, the playful energy of children, and the commitment of educators.
The conjoined children’s and teachers’ plazas, act as the centerpiece of the park. The children’s plaza is a space of joy and play, activated by young visitors who may splash in its shallow reflecting pools and hop between the twenty stone platforms that make up its foundation. Six waterfalls spill over the stone dividing wall from the teachers’ plaza above, symbolizing the nature of this sacred relationship and the ongoing connection between a teacher and pupil. The teachers’ plaza features six stone pools and a low wall for sitting and viewing the park expanse below—a more simplified program inviting quiet contemplation and reflection. Surrounding the Memorial Plaza to the south and west, the lawn is a place for visitors to picnic, rest, and socialize. The memorial trail loop leads visitors to the plaza and beyond, with loose gravel pathways that pass through the wooded areas of the park. Lining the trail are the twenty-six previously donated granite benches, dedicated to each of the individual victims.
Sandy Hook Memorial Park draws on the restorative power of nature—through the elegant use of water, light, and landscape—and celebrates life through its ongoing activation and use by the community. The park is not one note, nor a singular experience by design, but instead a welcoming, safe environment for first responders, family, friends, and the public alike.
Competition Entry - Winner
Competition Lead (KPF)
Phased construction begins in 2018
The inspiration for the design of Spring City 66 comes from both the natural beauty of the province’s unique landscape and Kunming’s historical significance as a prosperous mercantile center located at the intersection of national trade routes. At the heart of the project is a landscaped promenade, reminiscent of the region’s lush valleys, defined by an undulating podium and crag like towers, similar to the nearby Stone Forest.
The three program types - retail, office, and serviced apartments – are woven together on multiple levels of terraces around the promenade. These connective terraces are lined with shops and restaurants, creating a vibrant destination whose sum is greater than the individual pieces.
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Published in Abstract 08/09
Winner of the Lucille Smeyzer Memorial Prize
This project, for Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, stems from questioning the ideas of integration and constancy within contemporary architecture. By creating a constant conditioned space and acting as an enclosure between the harsh turbulent exterior environment and a secure conditioned space, architecture creates the concept of what is inside and what is outside. Conditioning within these spaces is typically artificially regulated and unchanging, and meant to go unnoticed. This project attempts to flip these relationships by separating elements of a building and embracing turbulence.
With the realization that, within the climate of Abu Dhabi, passive cooling is not sufficient to cool an entire building, the project attempts to identify the spaces within a building which possess a lower energy load. With this lower load, these spaces can be pulled from the conditioned space and passively cooled. The way in which this passive cooling is conceived is through, not a continuous conditioned experience, but by allowing the turbulent elements normally thought of as undesirable and therefore kept exterior, to penetrate the building and supplement vertical courtyard space. Specifically, the technology employed is an evaporative cooling system which uses a redirection of wind currents in conjunction with the collection of condensation, or “sweat”, produced as a result of the high humidity and high temperature of the area.
Bozeman, Montana
Completed - 2018
Located in Bozeman, Montana, House 2905 is a small addition for a growing family. Tasked with maximizing additional area, while also minimizing cost and construction time, we decided that a simple volume located above the existing garage was the best direction. This would eliminate the need for expensive excavation and foundation work and also allow for an elevated exterior deck space with spectacular views of the nearby Bridger and Beartooth mountain ranges. With this direction in place, the project removes the roof of the existing garage and adds a simple gable volume housing a bonus room, bedroom, and bathroom for the children that is separate from the main living spaces of the house.
Photos: Cody Brown
Competition Entry
Shortlisted for Construction, Honorable Mention: London Architecture Festival, Triumph Pavilion 2019
Structural Engineer: Tom Reiner - Talweg Studio
Our proposal for the Triumph Pavilion 2019: “Light” looks at the opportunity for the structural system to create dramatic and interesting lighting conditions. Walking through the pavilion, light and shadow dance dramatically, playing off the natural materials and the lush surroundings. When sunlight hits the pavilion’s serpentine, double-layered structure, it creates a variety of unique and dynamic patterns in both light and shadow. The structure provides a respite from direct exposure and depending on the time of day and the season, the areas of shade and sun differ.
The pavilion is constructed completely of laminated timber products. The floor and ceiling are composed of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, and the vertical and diagonal structural system is a series of glulam timber members. These materials are recently making a strong comeback within the architectural and fabrication industries. Laminated timber products are a sustainable and renewable resource. The density of wood is a fifth that of concrete, allowing for milled openings and connections to be prefabricated off-site. In addition, these CLT and glulam members can be exposed visually without the need for cladding. The CLT floor and ceiling panels for this pavilion take advantage of common CNC milling to produce an innovative structural system that employs prefabricated notches, and will arrive on site fully ready to accept the glulam members. This allows for a quick and easy assembly, and disassembly process. We’ve fully tested and engineered the structural system using structural analysis software (see diagrams below) and confirmed that the system is stable, with the vast majority of the members acting in compression and overall system deflections of less than 1mm.
The form of the 96 sqm pavilion strategically responds to the Museum Gardens and the surrounding buildings. The pavilion creates an interesting route through the landscape, working its way back and forth providing a variety of lighting conditions with patterned patches of light changing hour by hour, each day. The pavilion’s entry and exit faces the park entrance to the northeast, and the Church of St. John to the southwest. Along this circulation route, visitors can either circulate through the pavilion or take advantage of the various seating areas to relax and contemplate in solitude, or gather in small groups to share discussions with friends and other visitors.
Wapiti Valley, Wyoming
While at Studio.bna
Press: Dwell
The project is located within Wyoming’s beautiful Wapiti Valley directly adjacent to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The project is a house for a family which splits its time between Wyoming and their main residence in Los Angeles. The form of the house is directly influenced by the many dramatic rock and land formations of the site. Oriented east-west, the main feature of the house, the massive rammed earth wall, acts as both shade and a thermal mass. The main living spaces are enclosed by large glass walls looking north, and are meant to blur the boundary between interior and exterior space.
Galena, Illinois
Schematic Design
Designed for a couple with grown children and their families, High Ridge House is a collection of five volumes in the rolling wooded landscape of western Illinois. The project explores unique combinations of a pure geometry - the gable volume - and takes full advantage of the configurations and intersections these combinations afford. The volumes are arranged to provide separation and privacy, while simultaneously allowing for openness and views. Each volume houses a particular activity such as sleeping, dining, and living which can be engaged in a variety of ways depending on guests. Separated by the main gathering spaces, the master suite is located in the westernmost volume while the guest spaces are to the east.
The site sensitive materials are not only meant to fit appropriately within the natural site, but also reinforce the pure geometries of the gable volumes. Grey cedar shingles wrap the exterior walls and roofs, and notch around stone foundation walls providing openings for expansive views of the landscape. The gable roofs serve as an iconic and pure form, as well as mitigate the large amounts of snowfall each winter. Glazing is used minimally and strategically (less than 8% of the total enclosure) to provide both views and light, but also to more efficiently control interior temperature.
Tenafly, New Jersey
The Tenafly Residence is a 4,500 sqft renovation of an existing home in New Jersey. The client requested an upgrade to the building skin, main living spaces, as well as new bedrooms, bathrooms and a guest suite for aging parents. Through material upgrades, and the strategic placement of feature walls, we were able to negotiate between bright open spaces, and the desire for privacy.
Design Collaboration with ATTN ATTN
Photos: Michael Grimm
How can Architecture influence the political landscape? Can architecture position itself within political debate, or reveal insight about political candidates? Through parametric modeling, what are the possibilities generated through simultaneous influence from opposing forces? Can architectural form arise out of debate or confrontation?
This project attempts to address these questions within the context of the 2008 presidential election between Senator Barrack Obama and Senator John McCain. The project acts as a temporary speech/debate platform which follows the candidates to the three debate locations; Mississippi State University, Washington University, and Hofstra University. Debate and Interaction drive the platforms by exploring the idea that direct confrontation of opposing parties causes a transparency through this interference and honesty in the dissemination information.
Explorations were made into various sections exploring an architecture which causes interference interaction between candidate and candidate, candidate and voter, and voter and voter. Using these sections, a parametric model was constructed which takes in criteria governing these various sections, or speech scenarios, such as: size of crowds, candidate adjacencies, and levels of intimacy with voters. This model acts as a gameboard which is embedded with a simple set of controls depending on the desired effect. This gameboard is then given to the candidates and an exchange of turns or moves is carried out which ultimately determine the form of the next debate platform. The flexibility and positioning of the model allows insight into the attitudes of the candidates. After the candidates have played and debated upon their generated platform, a third player is added to the mix, the voter. The voter opinion of the previous debate change the criteria settings and extents embedded in the parametric model, thereby forming a new gameboard. The game sequence is then replayed by the candidates on the new gameboard and the process is repeated.
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Project Manager / Lead Designer (HWKN)
Completed Summer 2017
Press: "Study mates: Bard College's Center for Curatorial Studies gets a remodel," Wallpaper Magazine
The project stemmed from a desire by the College of Curatorial Studies and Hessel Art Museum at Bard College to improve and expand their library, administration offices, teaching spaces and archives. The design is driven by a conscience navigation of the role architecture plays within spaces for exhibiting art. Employing an understated design, the project is meant to evoke interest through light, transparency and finish articulation.
The 19,000 square foot renovation houses 6 new offices, 4 new classrooms and collaborative teaching spaces, a re-configured main library, and a new living archive for the museum. The project also required the integration and display of two new large scale art pieces by the British conceptual artist Liam Gillick, and a wall drawing by Sol Lewitt.
Photographs: Michael Moran
Collaborating Artists: Sol Lewitt Foundation, Liam Gillick
