4th Year Project

Duration: 14 Weeks

Moore, OK

        Sustainable design is essential for the Norman/Moore area because of the harsh weather conditions it often experiences such as tornados and flooding. The concept of void and mass used to create a space that can withstand these conditions was derived from the project. Durable concrete walls protect the building from the occasional tornadoes that run through the site. With concrete as the dominant choice of material, it protects against substantial water damage from the inevitable flooding of the site. The cantilevering parts of the building place much of the program on the second floor, leaving it untouched by the floodplain. Thus, the large mass of the first floor functioning as the storm shelter allows for the building to be positioned at the deep end of the flood plain. Nestled within the existing forest, the visitor center creates an atmosphere heavily influenced by nature. The purpose of the center is to promote curiosity and learning throughout the building. The workshops provide a space that allow members of the community to produce work that can later be showcased in the exhibition room or the large outdoor patio, thus provoking their curiosity and connectivity between the locals.

            The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was a project in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State known as Diplomacy Lab. Students were challenged to design an embassy while also creating an urban complex, implementing an extensive program, and abiding by strict security limitations.

            Design began with laying out the embassy complex with program including residential, service, and government buildings. The site design was a collision of two grids separating the program by service and residential. The footprint of the embassy derives from where the two girds overlap, making it the center point of the entire complex. A separate sector is implemented on the south end of the complex for the ambassador’s house to give a more sense of privacy.

            The design of the embassy building took the same concept as the site design by colliding two grids and creating an irregular shaped courtyard where they overlap. This main courtyard can be seen from all floors of the building. Throughout the building there are multiple courtyards to provide communal gathering spaces and connect different parts of the program.

            Because of the intense, arid weather in Saudi Arabia direct sunlight in the building is a large concern. To prevent this from happening, metal fins were installed where there are long spans of glazing.  The angle of the fins restricts direct sunlight from entering the building as the sun moves throughout the day.

3rd Year Partner Project with Kira Collins

Duration: 18 weeks

Norman, OK 

Main Concept

The form and development derives from two main conceptual areas studying the properties of the existing site and a conceptual approach to circulation.

Building Placement

Through an extensive site analysis, the ideal placement of the building was decided through the existing conditions. Positioned at the top of the hill, it is able to receive the best views, optimal breezes, and efficient access from the parking lot, street, train tracks, and park without creating too much congestion or conflict with nature.

Circulation

The approach, entry, and exit was crafted as a bigger journey, so that the building would slowly unfold itself to the inhabitant as he/she moved through the site from various starting points. At the same time the circulation types (bus, car, bike, pedestrian) were sorted in a way that they would no longer conflict with each other. Overall, they were kept separated, but then weaved them into each other as they journey towards and through the building.

Building/Structure Development

The main structure is a concrete shell positioned on the major axis of the site, cut down the middle to introduce light and define spaces of rest and spaces of movement. Lighter steel rods wrap the building and penetrate the concrete to mediate the connection with the outside and define ancillary, subordinate volumes of space (the food truck pavilion, the bus pavilion). Inside, the concrete recedes to expose the tectonic connections between the steel and the concrete. Another volume collides with the main structure where all the paths meet, providing a sense of hierarchy, and is oriented along the most beautiful axis in the park, opening up to allow people to disperse off the path into the landscape.

4th Year Study Abroad Steel Competition Project

Group Members: Kira Collins, Kevin Dobbs, Erika Omae, Jacob Stinson

Duration: 5 weeks

Rome, Italy 

Design Narrative

The design addresses a dense historical infrastructure, deteriorating site, and build potential, by creating a unique green neighborhood, renewing traffic and commerce at the ancient port, and creating a new industrial steel building that imagines the material in a digital future of information, adjustment, and resiliency. Rome is a city of layers of infrastructure that over time has built people out of natural public space. The project addresses the needs of the city by creating a swath of public green space drawing people to the site, in order to create a new landmark and a pause for the inhabitants. The site near the old port gates has become forgotten over time. The park creates an approach to the museum marked with machines to remind visitors of the past use, Porta Portese is remade as an important transit stop for the city, and the museum revives the port as a site of industry and technological advancement. The museum is a teaching building designed to house old technology and showcase new purposes. Its volumes are assembled around the values of the site, and it pushes what a building can be by cloaking itself in a new system of movable, interchangeable, programmable, energy producing steel panels. In so doing, it continues Rome’s history of reinterpretation and restructuring and takes it toward the future.

Program Summary

The formal organization of the museum is an irregular grid molded around the existing structures, intersected by a volume angled toward Porta Portese. In addition to providing the hierarchy of the building, this mass creates the spine along which major circulations run. Visitors enter through the existing archway into the inner court of the building, then proceed along the major park axis through the main entry under the volume. Moving to the left on ground level takes you past the cloakroom, bathrooms, auditorium, and classroom. At the end of the axis on the north side of the building is the office and research space and the preservation room, which is glazed on the street façade so passersby can see the work being done. Rising upstairs into the volume lets you enter the gallery space, which you circle through and move south, to the other end of the volume. Stairs from this end let you down into the Armory, which houses temporary exhibitions. Under the south end of the volume is tucked the café and gift shop, accessible to the public. The basement under the building contains storage and the large mechanical room, along with the truck loading dock. A specialized elevator runs through the center of the building, intersecting the storage room, entry hall, preservation room, volume, and galleries, making visible the movement of people and machines.

3rd Year Project 

Group Members: Jessica Black, Mandy Boccio, Kira Collins, José Garcia, BreAnn Goshe, Erika Omae, Dan Quakenbush 

Duration: 6 Weeks

Tulsa, OK

        The River West site, located between 11th and 23rd Streets, is one of the more developed portions of the west riverbank in Tulsa. It is home to one of the most prominent German food festivals in the world, Linde Oktoberfest, which draws about 60,000 visitors from all over the world. Other features of the site include a condemned bridge that is part of Route 66, running parallel to 11th Street, and the Mid-Continent Concrete Company near 23rd Street. River West is also closely situated to downtown Tulsa, offering great views of the Tulsa skyline.

        After some initial research, it became apparent that Tulsa has a very vibrant cultural and arts community. Keeping those factors in mind, we began designing to reflect this, while also keeping historical elements in place. A multitude of precedents were looked at and several iterations of concepts were created before finally developing the final designs. The River West site was divided into three primary sections: the Route 66 Bridge; the amphitheater and festival site; and the development site, which would be where the existing Mid-Continent Concrete Company is located. Along with these three key areas, bike paths and waterfront access were redesigned to reflect the surrounding area and make the river a more accessible and friendly place.

        The Route 66 Bridge is currently unused and some are considering doing away with it altogether. However, our goal is to restore it for its historical and sentimental value. It has been redesigned to not be the typical bridge for vehicle or bike traffic, considering it is bordered on both sides by busy streets and a pedestrian bridge; instead, a shade and seating structure have been designed around the bridge for a more inviting space. The “rainbow” colored material and organic shape is a tribute to the vibrant arts scene in Tulsa. The primary concept behind the bridge is to create multiuse spaces that can be interchanged throughout the year as the city sees fit, while making it a comfortable place to stay and relax.

        The current festival site is an empty field, with nowhere to find relief from the sun or comfortably sit on a nice day. Its primary use is for Oktoberfest, with little going on the remainder of the year. There is also a floating stage in disrepair, shielded by amphitheater style seating that is tucked behind the festival site and hidden out of main view. The new amphitheater design is meant to connect the festival site to the area and be used all year round. Access to the venue can now be limited and ticketed, creating a source of revenue. Other aspects of the newly designed amphitheater – classrooms, for example – can be regularly used as well. The festival site has also been reimagined, creating more dynamic green spaces for various uses year round, while giving the space a more intimate and inviting feeling than before.

        Lastly, the development area has been designed with the total relocation of the Mid-Continent Concrete Company in mind. A new road system ties directly to the amphitheater and the radial theme throughout the rest of the site has been created. The streets converge on to a common courtyard that borders the river, and gives direct line of site to prominent features, including downtown Tulsa’s skyline. Mixed use spaces have been created along the riverfront, housing commercial and retail spaces, restaurants, offices, and apartments, in an effort to pull people off of the river and into these areas. Buildings dedicated solely to offices, apartment spaces, hotels, and parking, are tucked further away from the riverfront to preserve the feeling of a boardwalk along the river, but still have quick and easy access to the waterfront.

        Our goal with the River West site is to reimagine already beloved and existing features to better meet the needs of the community. In addition, we hope to show the potential to bring new businesses and homes to the area in order to create more opportunities. We believe these themes will be an accurate depiction of what Tulsans hold valuable and will only improve the way they interact with their community.

Group Members: Mandy Boccio, Firas Chamas, Erika Omae, Jacob Stinson

Duration: 12 hours

Manhattan, KS

        The 2016 Central States Region Student Design Competition was held in Manhattan, Kansas this past October. Each of the six participating schools consisted of four members and a faculty advisor. The purpose of this 12-hour long design charrette was to propose a new regional design and pedestrian link to reconnect the public realm in Manhattan with the riverfront.

        The Grass Stitch provides a framework of three distinct components that reconnect the city to the riverfront. The first component of the project is an urban village. The urban village is set within the extension of the urban grid across Fort Riley Blvd. to the edge of the existing levee. The urban village contains six mix-used structures which provides a variety of commercial, professional, and residential amenities. The current railroad is suppressed into the site to provide a more pedestrian friendly environment. The second component is a micro-forest that allows the existing river vegetation to expand over the levee and provides a counterpoint to the urban village. The micro-forest also provides a green filter to block the visual and acoustical noise of the existing city to the walking paths along the levee. The final element of the Grass Stitch is a grass pier that provides a scenic overlook and a pedestrian bridge over the Kansas River. The scenic overlook extends to the south of the urban village over the existing levee and provides a view of the Kansas River valley below. The remaining grass pier extends itself over the river to the other side and links to a new set of walking paths north to Fairmont Park.

3rd Year Project 

Duration: 8 Weeks

Medicine Park, OK

        The concept of this eco-resort revolves around making the circulation serve a more programmatic purpose while also simulating the experience of nature in a controlled environment. The resort relates to the surrounding tourist destination, the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. It draws inspiration from this natural place by incorporating activities such as rock climbing, which is highly prevalent within the refuge. The rock climbing walls function as both an activity and a means of vertical circulation, which relates back to the concept. These walls are made out of stone blocks that are arranged to make an undulating wall that allows for climbing. Some of the stone components are voided and replaced with a glass screen to allow light to penetrate the space and permit views outward. With the large curtain wall facing north, inhabitants are able to view nature as they climb. The same rock climbing wall feature is repeated on the exterior façade and allows it to be an outdoor activity as well. Rooms for the guests face northwest to provide optimal views of Mt. Scott, the most prominent feature of the area. The form of the building is a simple rectilinear volume; however, the interior provides a dynamic atmosphere through the formation of the rock walls. The simplicity of the exterior does not overpower nature, but instead, compliments it and emphasizes its natural beauty with harmony with the man-made.

4th Year Wall Workshop

Group Members: Joshua Crow, Erika Omae, Alonso Ortega

Duration: 1 week

Rome, Italy

As part of the OU Rome Study Abroad Program, students participated in a week long international workshop. In collaboration with the architecture students of Iowa State and Roma Tre, groups were tasked with designing an entry to the new entry for the Metro Station at the Castra of Hadrian. The design should:

1.  give value to the archeological complex of the castra, keeping it in its original position;

2. relink the archeological level with that of the contemporary urban fabric;

3. visually reconnects the castra with the Aurelian Wall.

Partition beings at the Aurelian Wall with steps creating a sense of hierarchy to the ruins found on site. The larger steps leading from the Aurelian Wall provide a seating area for those strolling through the surrounding park or people waiting to ride the metro. The smaller steps on the East and West side allow for quick circulation in and out of the station. A water wall functions as the partition that blurs the image of the ruins behind it and sparks the curiosity of the public. As one approaches the water wall to reveal the mystery behind it, a viewing deck hovers over and showcases the ruins of the barracks that were once there.

2nd Year Project 

Duration: 6 Weeks

Oklahoma City, OK

        The idea of the outdoor theater is to incorporate elements from two precedent objects while also implementing a preamble characteristic. Ideas were derived from a beehive and a metronome in a way that could function ideally with the wall. The window façade of the wall represents the busy and rapid movement of the bees within the hive. It traces a representation of a bee’s path, which was then given three-dimensional properties in order to create a more dynamic appearance. The panels created from these geometric forms are either composed of a transparent or solid material. This can be related to the honeycombs within the beehive that are either occupied or vacant. The structure of the wall is organized in a constant and even pattern to demonstrate the repetitive beat a metronome emits when in motion. A grid system best coordinates the placement of the structure and supports. The idea of hierarchy is imposed here to represent the hierarchical relationship between the queen bee and worker bees in the hive. Permeability is achieved through the horizontal bars beneath the geometric window façade. These bars are separated in small, consistent increments, just like the beat and motion of a metronome, so that one is still able to see the silhouette of a person behind the bars. The outdoor theater is a functional building at any time, and it also provides an interesting appearance to provide excitement in a developing site trying to achieve a sense of community.