THESIS STATEMENT 2.0

Problem:

The American Dream needs revising.  At the exponential rate we grow each year, we are unable to support the lifestyles previous generations worked so hard to obtain.  Aspirations of raising 1.5 kids in a suburban two-story cookie cutter dwelling, with two yards (a front and a back) are no longer a realistic dream. This vision fails to take into account the increased number of singles, the working poor, the elderly, and pressed middle-class families.  To strive for lives like this promotes urban sprawl to no end, destroys remaining habitat, distances us from one another, and further increases our dependence on the automobile.

An Outlet:

As we have begun to move into this century, there has been a lot of attention and focus on making sustainable architecture, propagated by LEED, Living Building Challenge, and the 2030 Challenge.  We are at a point where achieving sustainability at the building scale is almost effortless and our design intentions should be directed toward realizing sustainable living for future town centers, urban areas, and eco-districts.  Metro, a local elected government for the Portland metropolitan area, has devised the 2040 growth plan and identifies said Regional Centers.  Similar to a concept found in landscape ecology the 2040 Growth plan begins to organize future growth based on Patches and Corridors; Patches being existing and potential urban areas, and corridors being Light Rail Transit.

Vision/Thesis:

In an attempt to realize and increase the vitality of future Regional Centers and Eco-districts, implementation of district scale transit in conjunction with regional transportation in the form of streetcar would increase mobility, become a catalyst for focusing future growth and work to promote a healthier lifestyle free from the automobile.

Execution of Model: A Solution for Gateway.

Gateway’s adjacency to regional transit and derogated fabric deems it both a Regional Center and an Urban Renewal Area, making it the ideal candidate for realizing this urban model designed around alternative transit.  This Regional Center possesses the opportunity for strategizing phased future density in an area that is currently lacking a critical mass and lends itself the ability to rethink the ‘urban core’, concentrating its development in response to the existing urban ecologies.

A performing arts center will act as an anchor; signifying arrival into Gateway, become a backdrop to plaza activity, and work to facilitate extended use and activity for this lifeless area.  Community performances, debates and lectures could all be held in this edifice.  To Compliment this program and add furthure economic boost a mid rise hotel is part of this node development. This project will further more reinforce the harmonies between: Interior and Exterior, Site and Building, Fabric and Object.   

Exit Interview Thoughts

KEN YEANG (chongqing tower)

I know it has been a difficult term for myself as well as my professors.  This term I had a really hard time nailing an architectural scheme that both addressed my program and my urban vision.  I think the root of this problem is that my thesis is interested in realizing Regional centers based on a pedestrian/ transportation approach.  Having a set program and site has been working against me this past term as I have tried to justify poor design moves.

After my exit interview I can honestly say that the direction for my thesis couldn't be clearer.  I am going to use spring break to develop what a new suburban town center might look like taking into consideration the existing fabric.  Current downtowns lack a connection to nature anymore.  Gateway is an opportunity to plan for future density but also plan for nature.  I can not believe how blind I have been to this.

With my new urban plan ready to go by the first day of SPring term I will use the rest of the term getting into a specific building, flushing out the details based on the certain ecological approaches my urban plan has set up.

Time to go check out some books.....

SoundByte

This is a soundbyte recorded from my mock pinup on march 2nd, 2011.  This is acting as a place holder until I am able to refine my statement and have the ability to record it once again.

I really suggest that no one listens to this.

Wrap up Final Thoughts for the Winter Term....

How does the work address your original thesis inquiry?  how has your work this term helped you grow as a designer?


The work I presented at Mid review addresses my original thesis in that it shows a strong intent to implement public transit in a means that is cognizant of structuring future development of the Gateway regional center, sensitive to Urban ecologies (eco-distrct), and lastly creates a framework for my thesis building (a community structure) to be inserted/developed into. 


Although during this term I spent the majority of my time figuring out things at an urban level I feel very confident about being able to transcend these ideas into a building scale. 


In attending the University of Oregon I have grown fond of the urban design component to architectural design and strongly believe that the clearer your intentions are at the Urban level the clearer you building design/response can be. I guess what I am trying to say is that the stronger your urban plan/concept the stronger your building will be.  I have felt in the past that my projects have lacked a strong urban concept and have kept my building from singing or performing to the best of their abilities.  Anyone can design a building, but taking the time to think about the context your building is becoming a part of or will be creating is where the real design dilemmas occur.  This quarter has given me the opportunity to approach this context without any biases and given me the chance to develop a regional center that is capable of functioning to the best of my abilities.   I am now able to enter the next quarter knowing full well that the site-ing of my building has be decided based on several trial and errors and will lend itself to fulfilling my vision of the new gateway transit/regional center.  




What were the most meaningful review comments and how will they shape how you will move forward?


My reviewers recognized the solution of a street connecting the different mode of transit being a worthy solution and were able to clearly follow my rationale through all of the different levels of investigation.  


In my first review comments suggested that my project begin to take into account the area between the existing LRT alignment and the freeway.  Some kind of gesture needs to happen there. 


Other comments included that my project is really about designing the street that is the link between the modes and selecting a building that fronts it for my further architectural exploration.


Ben Vaughn wanted to see the buses begin to cue up along the green street and sees it becoming similar to a transit mall.  


My second review went a little different.  Susan started off by commenting that these types of solutions have been failures in the past and suggested I look at precedent to find out where they have failed as a way to suggest how mine will have a better chance of being successful.  (people have a hard time looking past my mdf massing as a diagram)


Bill suggested that my pavilion could be something repeated throughout gateway and should explore different scales of application.  He was also skeptical of the TEDx program and thinks this would just be an expensive and wasteful project.




In the End I have discovered that my project is very much about this linear connection between the different modes of transit.  I dont think I need the urban plaza anymore.  My building should just affront the street and further promote a clear axis from one mode to the other. Second I think my project shouldn't be a venue for tedx anymore.  It needs to be something that is in the spirit of spreading ideas but not necessarily the actual ted program.  

Winter term Final Review (thesis Mid Review)

My name is nick and the scope of my project is in a part of Portland known as Gateway.  What makes Gateway unique, as well as my specific site, is that it is connected to the greater portland area via Light Rail Transit and Buses, yet fails to benefit from having tens of thousands of people pass through its front door each day. Another unique quality of gateway is that is has been defined as a Urban renewal area(URA) and has been closely examined for developing into an ECO-district.   

Why Gateway?  Well if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture we know that as we continue to grow in population we will need to create more structures to support more lives.  Our current planning and building practices have promoted urban sprawl, which has lead to a heavy dependency on the automobile for travel, as well as is responsible for inefficient use of land.  Lastly it has cause us to further encroach on precocious natural habitat.  

So what can we do? We can continue to build in our urban cores, but we will eventually run out of space and not everyone is thrilled with the idea of living in a downtown.  So where do we build.  Over the next 100 years our efforts should be used to developing neighborhoods around existing and future transit corridors.  Metro's 2040 growth plan has identified several Regional Centers and Gateway happens to be one of those.  Suburban shopping centers which consist of single use structures surrounds by a sea of asphalt are the key areas we need to start looking to for future growth.  

While  regional transit works well to move people a bigger scales what do we do for the local level.  Several terms of research has made me believe that a Streetcar would work as a catalyst for gateway in its ability to increase mobility for its current/ future residents, promote future growth in the right areas, and potentially function to deal with storm-water management and habitat. (board 1)

This winter term I have looked at the best configurations for a future streetcar alignment that is capable of doing the what I said above and have discovered that it is difficult to for the streetcar to service my site.  I have decided to take advantage of this opportunity as a way to use the transferring of people between modes of transit as a means for engaging and activating a potential main street.  (board 2)

Having my site adjacent to the transit center and inline with the streetcar stop affords me the potential of providing a building that is iconic.  In the Spirit of TED "Ideas worth Spreading"  i've selected a program concept of TEDx, a center that will function as a community venue for lectures and work exhibition, a backdrop to an urban plaza, orienting people to the multimodes of transportation, and lastly creating presence in an area where one is currently lacking. (boards 3/4)

Board 1

Board 2

Board 3

board 4

MODEL PICS (1:50)

Regional center/transit connected to district transit via green street.

view from neighborhood. (building as visual anchor)

Site plan (making place)

view from LRT Platform and I-205 (building directing people to street)

View from 99th ave.  (Building as backdrop to Urban plaza)

Ideas are a coming

I think I have final found the missing link to my project, and at 7:30 in the morning coming out of an all nighter.

Im sorry for posting this, but I feel like if I don't type through my thoughts they will vanish, much like trying to recall a dream.

I've always been interested in this ecological metaphor of a building being able to grow to its environment.
My project is about transit (urban level) and is about knowledge/idea sharing (building level) both share the same concept of making connections.  well I thought I realized this weeks ago and the things that I am producing don't seem to embody connectivity, maybe some do at the transient level, but not as an architectural aesthetic.  Being in the bio -synergy studio looking toward nature for inspiration I started to think of what natural systems/ or things lend themselves to salving the problem of making connections.  First though were roots and the second is neurons or nerves, which also posses a root like structure.  Could my building begin to aesthetically take on some of these characteristics?  could it begin to express this the most at where it touches the ground/ or as it creates the space in which the ted talks are held.  I am very excited to have finally put two and two together.  I honestly think I have been running my self down trying to grasp what my thesis was getting at and look for any excuse to change site/or program.  

I hope the next couple of days will allow me to explore the formal possibilities of testing the nerve like structure.  If not I have all of spring break to test to my hearts content.

Currently I am satisfied with what my urban plan has left me to respond to and I feel like I have a good grasp of my building's volume/scale and the necessary adjacencies/ frontages of my program.

I think the hardest part of my project is that I am designing for a brand new context and it doesn't allow for a way to check if what I am doing is actually appropriate, the way preexisting context would.

-my apologies to john in advance if my building ends up having similar ties to mycelium.