Bellingham Bay Community Boating Center

The Bellingham Bay Community Boating Center is a non-profit organization located on the historic Fairhaven Harbor of Bellingham, Washington. The center offers boat storage, launching, and classes on boating. The objective of this studio was to develop a plan for the future of the site, aiming to dramatically expand the facilities and propose additional activities to take place alongside the new boating center. My plan consisted of a combination Boating-Nature Center meant to promote a closer connection to the water and its role in life going into the 21st century.

Census Tract Centroids using AutoLISP

AutoLISP is a powerful tool for expediting repetitive tasks in AutoCAD. Seeking to find real world data to use in architecture, I hit upon the idea of using census data to create forms. While I did not end up pursuing this as a design tool I did develop several programs to graphically interpret census data. One of the first programs I devised was a simple geolocation program to create circles at coordinates.

Ferry

Ferry Terminal

This was a 50,000 square foot project for a multi-use building located southwest of Navy Pier in Chicago. The primary function of the facility would be to act as a ferry terminal for lake ferries from Michigan and other states. River boats would serve this terminal as well allowing for water-to-water transit connections. As part of the FAT philosophy, every space in the building would have multiple uses so the facility could be occupied as long as possible every 24 hours.

Naoshima Ferry Terminal Case Study

This was a case study undertaken as part of the FAT Building studio and involve research concerning a facility similar to the one that the studio would design. The Naoshima Ferry Terminal serves the island of Naoshima which lies in the Seto Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku.

Cost: 406,590,000 Yen (3,741,683 USD)

Construction Period: October 2005-September 2006

Opening date: October 4th, 2006

Architects: SANAA (kazuyo sejima + ryue nishizawa)

Construction Company: Kajima Corporation

Address: Kagawa prefecture, Kagawa Gun, Naoshima

Cho 2249-40, Japan

Greater Grand Crossing Charter School

A 80,000 sq. ft, 600 student charter school for Chicago International Charter Schools in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood of Chicago. The goal was to use precast concrete to create a sophisticated school of the future. The facade allows the concrete frame to permeate to the exterior, translating into a sense of structural openness and transparency that reverses the idea of a school as a warehouse for children but rather a place to set them free.