A Just Before Finals Review

Wednesday, our studio had a review with some professors, the results of which were intended to give us some much needed advice and set us on the right track in the final weeks of the project.

The comments I received were that I was generally on the right track, but some compositional issues with my program spaces were still present. One comment that hit home to me was that my design didn't have any risk. I agree with that observation; my design isn't risky or as dynamic as other designs in the class. The studios, which have a glass wall that is kicked off to face the bridge, are the most dynamic part of my design. Others did very different things, from totally transforming the rooftop with greenery, to hanging and suspending architectural elements off the edge of the building. The comments, on both my project and others, were informative and gave me a lot to think about.


Now, I think it is time to push the envelope a little. I have my formal organization down, so I will try some things that still fall within that organization, but that are also a bit more unconventional and daring.

Here is my design as it was for the review. It is based on the existing proportional relationships of the garage and the linear organization that is pulled from the facade of the building. I am using these properties to make connections to the Mississippi, which the West side of the garage faces.

The Next Phase

Models were the next phase in renovating my design so it better conveyed my ideas.

Taking a stab at a Design...

First stab at a design for the Rooftop deck of the LaSalle parking garage.
Program: Art Institute

Six artist's studio @ 600 sq ft with private bathroom.
Studio are to have access to an exterior space.
One art gallery @1,200 sq ft.
One meeting room @ 1,200 sq ft with 300 sq ft pre-function.
Support Spaces, sizes to be determined by student.

* Two offices
* Kitchen
* Public Restrooms
* Lobby

Site and Placelessness

A conceptual representation of the LaSalle garage.




I used that image as inspiration to create this image, which conveys my perceptions of the parking garage.



Any comments? What do these images say to you?

Random Placelessness

I found some Placelessness on my walk between studio and the student parking lot. What do you think?

Site Interpretation - Models

When I first started interpreting the site, I was thinking about accuracy. I wanted to create an accurate representation of the site in model form. One critique later, I realized I wasn't thinking broadly enough. Here's what I turned out.







What I should have been trying to create was a representation of my impressions of the site. How did I perceive the site? How did it make me feel? How does it relate to its surroundings?

I guess its back to the drawing board, or cutting board in this case.

The Drawing Board

This is the Drawing Board; where all observations, notes and certainties about the site are recorded. At first, the idea seemed kind of foreign to me, but now I kind of like it. My thoughts change the more I think about and view the site. The board is a place to put those changing thoughts or draw ideas as I am analyzing the site. Its like a drafted diary. I'm not really a diary type of person, but the board is cool. Check it out.

Ten Words...

Ten words to describe this site:

Spacious
Planar
Reflective
Ashen
Colorless
Hard
Inanimate
Punctured
Barren
Homogenous







Ten words describing what I want this site to be:

Populous
Illuminated
Connected
Appealing
Disconcerting (In a good way)
Stimulating
Composed
Expressive
Resplendent
Harmonizing

Identifying Placelessness; March 21, 2010

Miriam Webster Definition
Placelessness
Main Entry: place•less
Pronunciation: \-ləs\
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century
1 : lacking a fixed location
2 : indistinguishable from other such places in appearance or character (a placeless parking complex — T. J. Jablonsky)
— place•less•ly adverb
— placelessness noun

It is ironic that this definition references a parking complex to identify where one could experience placelessness. What is even more ironic is that the one place that I can think of that has such a vast sense of placelessness is a parking lot. The Parking lot at Rave Motion Pictures Theater at O’Neal Lane, Baton Rouge, Louisiana is big and vast and mostly identifiable, until you drive to the southwest corner of the parking lot. It is so far back that you lose your sense of place.

The lot is surrounding on the south and West sides by wooded area and on the north side by an embankment which separates it from interstate twelve. The aforementioned sides of the lot are bordered by various types of fencing. On the East side, if you stood in the Southwest corner, you could literally forget where you are. The lot stretches out, giving the illusion that it is far bigger than it is. The front of the theatre cannot even be seen from that corner of the lot, even though it is not by any means behind the theatre.
It is a sea of lines when empty and a patchwork quilt of cars when full. Because of its location, you cannot connect with any surrounding thing to get your bearings. The cars that pass on the freeway move too fast, the theater is too far away and situated at a contrary angle and the neighborhoods are blocked off by privacy fences. Entry and exit to and from the lot is limited by a lone access road, Hatteras, further isolating it.

Site Analysis LaSalle Parking Garage; March 17, 2010

The site is located on a city block that lies between Main Street (South), Third Street (East), North Street (North) and Lafayette Street (West), in Downtown, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the top level of the LaSalle parking garage, a steel reinforced, concrete parking garage that has seven levels, rising five stories. All four corners of the garage have stairways that provide access to all levels, though the Northwest and Southwest stairways are emergency stairways only. The Northeast and Southeast stairways also have elevators and handicap refuge areas. The East face of the garage on the bottom floor, facing Third Street, is developed for commercial use and currently houses a gym/work-out facility. The exterior of the garage has concrete cladding that is hung from the sides of the structure by welded metal clamps.
The top floor of the garage is the focus of the site. It consists of two central ramps, for entry and exiting, that are offset from each other in the north/south direction by about 30 feet. The West ramp, closest to and paralleling Lafayette street, allows vehicles access to the highest level of the garage while the East ramp, closest and running parallel to Third Street, allows vehicles to exit the top-most level of the structure. Both the East and West sides of the garage are spanned by a row of eight, 18 inch square, beveled structural columns that support both the structure and the façade. The North and South sides are supported by four 18 inch by 24 inch beveled structural columns that support both the structure and the façade. Eight pairs of 18X24 inch columns stand flanking both ramps. All columns run from floor to ceiling.
The structure faces the Hancock bank building to the East, the LaSalle government building to the North, a parking lot and several commercial buildings to the South, and an empty deconstructed lot and the River to the West. The garage allows vehicles to enter and exit on the street level of Main Street with State workers only entering on the street level of North Street. Most of the area surrounding the garage is the business district. The primary materials are steel and reinforced concrete and the secondary materials are glass and aluminum.