University of Texas at Austin

2010 - 2015 Bachelors of Architecture

Licensure Track

Having completed the requisite number of NCARB internship hours to qualify for US license candidacy.

Culinary Culture

A multi-use building comprising a restaurant and culinary school, this project is the outcome of a comprehensive, collaborative Technical Communications Class. As part of a team of two student designers I reached out to Austin food truck owners interested in being a model client for a hypothetical brick and mortar restaurant. This project involved collaborative design and documentation in Revit Architecture as well as the generation of “sketch” technical specifications.

Culinary School

The program for the culinary school included (4) teaching kitchens, a demonstration kitchen, a student run bakery, and a test kitchen at ground level to allow for students to run a restaurant-for-a-day, serving real customers. Faculty and staff offices, lecture halls, seminar rooms, class rooms, and a small library were also included.

Shared Space

The project is laid out so that generous openings in the mass of the building let pedestrian traffic wander off of the street and into a semi-enclosed courtyard which offers shared outdoor seating for the restaurant, student run bakery, and restaurant-for-a-day events. The height of the building and plantings along the west side of the courtyard protect visitors from harsh afternoon sun.

Documentation

The goal of the Technical Communications class was to, in so far as possible, simulate in a semester the entire design process from programming through construction documents. Final documentation included wall sections, details, preliminary structural plans and “sketch” technical specifications.

Natural History on Town Lake

A proposed natural history museum cantilevered off of a peninsula in Austin’s Town Lake. This project was conceptualized as promenade through time, starting with the Big Bang at the top floor and working down, catching up with modern times just in time to leave the building and reenter the city.

The Cube

The mass of the project is an implied cube, filled alternately with solid enclosed spaces intended to protect artifacts from UV damage, and light open spaces. This punctuates the sequence of experiences to highlight the distinct time periods being represented. The cultural prominence of the program calls for an “object building” and this sculptural object announces itself to the city while keeping the hustle and bustle at arms length.

Top Down

An exterior stair through a dramatic structural frame takes visitors up from water level, starting with views primarily of the riparian edge of the lake and increasingly showing more and more of down town Austin before entering a small, dark, gallery walking them through the first moments of the universe.

Variety of spaces

The procession of spaces starts with the low, dark, astronomy gallery, which is followed by a greenhouse. This artificial jungle houses modern plants that have changed very little since ancient times as well as representations of their primordial cousins. A small stair takes visitors into the largest volume in the project, the dinosaur hall. Large remains are suspended in the center of the double height space while a ramping walkway spirals its way around the outside edges with smaller displays along the walls. A rooftop deck and picnic area marks the halfway point of the museum and then leads to a smaller gallery with glazing focused on Barton Creek to the west (arguably the lifeblood of the city). This gallery is focused on the geological and hydrological history of Texas, and of Austin in particular. Finally, a small gallery briefly shows the history of humanity in the area before depositing visitors back at ground level.

Urban Housing Case Study

A entire studio of 3rd year students collaborated on master planning an underdeveloped urban site. Each student was then assigned a plot and developed a multi-use housing project.

Pedestrian Design

The overall masterplan was developed with a park-once mentality. Residents and visitors would abandon the “American” motor vehicle first grid on entry and walk a more “European” sequence of alleys and plazas. This plot is conceptually split into two portions with slot-canyon like public space between. The northwest tower faces a plaza to the north and contains retail at the ground level and various bars and restaurants higher up. The other half of the site has retail at ground level on the northeast and west sides with residential units cascading up the east face away from the suburban subdivision to the east.