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Urban_Velo, Winter Park, FL

This studio project was a park of of our semester working on ideas for the Sunrail system of Florida.  The Sunrail is a proposed light commuter rail that centers around the Orlando area and uses the existing amtrak rails and stops.

The stop and location for this project was the central park of Winter Park, FL.

The simple idea was to place a Velodrome, bicycle racing tract, in the park.  This came from an observation that there was many bicycle features not being used and the success of the local to me “Rails to Trails” paths.

The major feature was the elevation of the track.  Most Velodromes become a hinderance to movement.  With the steeply banked sides and possibility of fast moving bicycles no one would be walking across the track.  So I decided to elevate the track.

Folding Facade, Gulfport-Biloxi Airport

This semester was an exploration of hurricane resistance and digital tools as a new way to design. I choose to design a facade for the Gulfport-Biloxi Airport control tower that was damaged from Hurricane Katrina. It was damaged in a predictable way, where lifted edges an an otherwise flat facade are and at higher heights where winds are stronger.

I was influenced by ideas from Peter Jackson’s “Folding for Designers” that presented origami like folds. I choose to digitally model a folding technique that folds flat. This would be desirable so that the “shutters” could fold away or be stored that way. Also the fold has variability that could represent where there needs to be more wind resistance.

Flexible Railed Panels, Gallery Installation, Gainesville, FL

This project was from a seminar class entitled: “Materials Exploration: Assemblies and Systems”. We were challenged to pick a material we were interested in and how to stretch it’s abilities and how to combine it with other materials for assemblies or as methods of working the material.

I choose PolyCarbonate a plastic noted for it’s impact resistance and clarity, often being a glass replacement. After examining the various forms I was most fascinated with the tubes. The tubes could bend to impressive degrees without bending. To explore this I wanted to design a facade that could be flexed to any angle using the tubes as the backbone structure. Instead of an opaque facade the decision was to use a fabric that would transmit light.

AB[RAY]SION, Architecture Building, Gainesville, FL

We were tasked with redesigning the lighting of the Architecture Building as part of the Lighting Design Seminar. The newest feature of the building was the new curtain wall system that made transparent previously opaque walls. This has light implications. Also of concern was that many lights are prohibitively expensive to maintain and had undesirable quality of light.