rendering

Thesis

Thesis

FINISHED!!! kinda

We just finished up the site and building models tonight and got our group board printed this morning. Individual boards are being printed. We just need to get all our stuff together and put it on the cds and present tomorrow! I tried to upload an image of the group board, but my computer almost died. I will try again tomorrow from the lab. We got a lot of work done this week, I worked on the layout of the group board, and the template for the individual boards, as well as the building model and site model, did the sections of the building, and a couple of perspectives for the group board. Also did a little more work on the bookstore and got those renderings done. I feel pretty good about our project and hope that critiques go well tomorrow!

another final image

here's another one...our final presentation folder is getting bigger! next is sections, they are done as far as content, but need some adjusting and then bookstore stuff.  coffee run, then back for sections

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!

I finally have something to contribute to the final presentation folder!  Sections are still in progress.  One more perspective to come.  and bookstore stuff.  but i'm not worrying about that now.  i'm doing group work tonight.  and individual stuff tomorrow. and saturday.  and having everything done on saturday.  putting together layout on sunday.  printing FIRST THING monday morning.  and then sleeping.

and i'm still up

i said i was going to stay until 8, and here i am, 7:40.  i did another perspective rendering of my bookstore, made my sketchup model axon-worthy and did am going to do some photoshopping on it when i get back after my nap.  it didn't take quite as long as i thought to work on sections so i was able to work on my individual stuff more.  i dont know why all this is a link, whatever.  also for those of us doing spaces as our individual boards it might be good to have a key plan.  my eyelids are getting heavy since i've now been in the lab for 13 hours.

first all-nighter in a while

here's an idea for an individual layout board.  24 x 36, pretty straightforward, showing enough information but not getting too cluttered.  i think an axon reads better than a plan or section, so i'm gonna about to start working on that at 4AM.  my goal was to get sections finished tonight(this morning) but i got confused on the cross sections, so i'm gonna hold off on those two until i talk to other people in the group and figure out what's going on in the overlap of the buildings.  i have the two longitudinal sections, and one cross section of the core basically done, just need some adjusting and stuff.

section

here is one of the longitudinal sections i have so far.  this is a test one, so if anyone has any objections or suggestions, let me know before i move on and start adjusting lines and boxes and everything. also, the colors can definitely be changed.  i was trying to go by the colors we chose to use in each space but i couldn't remember what was in each space, so i just put something to get an idea of how it would look with color applied to the programmed spaces.  i want to have these done tomorrow so i can work on other things. 

rendering 2

here's a semi-finshed rendering using photoshop and exported sketchup images. let me know if you like these and want to try to use something like this in the finished presentation. The ceiling is still a little dark and i need more shadows and some light.

rendering style

this is more of an idea than a finished rendering, but i like the idea of having the main focus of the perspective colored and having it fade out into lines, but i haven't quite been able to pull it off yet.  I'm getting closer

the end is in sight

i put what i have for the bookstore, including an area for seating, bathrooms, and mechanical area of the lower floor into the master file, as well as what i have for the main entry, and the second level of the resource core.  There are some discrepancies in the master file with regards to floor plates and ceiling heights, so as soon as we can all get our files in there, we can figure out all those things so we can start putting together sections and plan diagrams.  once we can all those we can start working on perspectives and renderings. 

Bookstore/core area

The bottom of the core is near the bookstore, and i have imagined this space to be interactive so that when someone is on the top floor, they can look down all the way to the bottom of the core.  i did a little bit of work today on that area, which is actually outside of the core, but could be continued into the core.   i put in a fountain and seating area, with vegetation.  also i don't think we have thought about bathrooms in the building.  I put some near the main entrance, in between the main office and the classrooms.  I also put some in the bottom floor, outside of the seating area below the cafe/market space.  I put in an area for mechanical equipment and storage in the dungeon corner of the bottom floor.  I am going to put bathrooms in the resource core when i have time tomorrow.  I think we are close to having some floorplans worked out.  

main entrance

we have been throwing the idea around to have the windows proportionate to brick to relate to the aesthetic of the rest of campus.  also i thought about having a display wall or gallery area near the main entrance.  the area to the left is the reception area/office.  the right is the core.  there is an exit around to corner to the outdoor landscaping area. and maybe a small seating area or something.

rendering

rendering style #1

marker and colored pencil on marker paper

eight feet by six inches

So we talked about our presentation layout today. We decided to have a big section of the building spanning the length of about 8'. We plan to put perspectives related to the respective areas of the building under the section.


Also I just got back from the Proximity Hotel and saw a lot of nice things. One thing was the stained concrete. We had talked about using it, but haven't been able to get a sample. It had a really nice finish and used fly ash to count towards LEED credits. We have also been discussing rubber flooring, which I dislike a lot, and fitness center validated my dislike for it. Basically, it smells bad, and it doesn't really look that great either. I've known that all along, but haven't realized the extent of it until the hotel visit. The flooring used in the lobby area is limestone travertine. It looked similar to marble but it more readily available and less expensive. The landscaping in the courtyard is all native plants that are self-sustaining and do not require irrigation. Another cool thing they have is stamped concrete on the ceilings that looks like wood. Thats all for now, I need to work on my programming document for thesis.

plan diagrams

here are some plan diagrams.  you have to click on the image to actually see them, since it did something weird when i uploaded it.  also this whole explanation is a link that i can't get rid of, which is really awesome.  the red, or purple, line shows the bike lane, the grayed out parts are other levels of the building.  i think everything else is pretty self explanatory.

window placement

I placed windows based on the floor planes and areas where daylight was needed. I think we have done a good job of placing areas that don't require daylight underground. The studios all have as much daylight as possible, the lounge areas have light. This is definitely not finished by any means. I tried to group windows together so it doesn't look so sporadic from the outside, and also coordinated them from one side to the other, since some areas will be able to see through from one side of the building to the other.

Sections and run-on sentences

I made some basic section diagrams today. This will help us with window placement and coordinating stairways and elevators.  These only show floor plates and walls dividing programmatic spaces, no walls within programmed spaces, those will have to be shown in larger sections since our building is so long, all the details get cluttered at this scale, kinda this this sentence.  The red line is the bike lane, the green is the ground plane.  The grayed out areas show buildings behind the ones where the section is cut through.

Presentation layout

Tomorrow we are having a group charette to think about signage/wayfinding and presentation layouts. I created this one using the logo that Eric made. I stretched the logo out across the top of the board and incorporated "lee street studios" above the ground level. This is just the upper portion since blogger can't handle files larger than 10 kb apparently. Just an idea to think about and modify.

A Bookstore with Books?

So you aren't allowed to have food or drinks in the lab, but you can bring your dog.....

Anyway, I have been working more on the bookstore today, and it actually has books in it now! Also i worked on the check-out counter so it has the same aesthetic as Eric's product design. I incorporated the wall curve element into the ceiling element. More to come later...

Goals

So I did a lot of work over Easter break, my part is basically finished (i wish). But I have been thinking about what we have done and what we need to accomplish. Our goal as a group was to have everything finished by the 21st and have the rest of the time to work on models/presentation stuff. This is a week from Tuesday. I think is a feasible goal, though we would need to step it up a notch this week and really get things going. I think we are making good progress on our individual spaces, we just need to start pulling in together and working as a group. If we can get our individual ideas finished by thursday, and start working out some of the details of other things we will be in good shape. We can most likely start working on rendering by the end of the week/early next week. Since we do have extra time, I don't want to try to cram everything in before next week, but if we want this project to be the best that it can be, we need to have the basics of things worked out so that we can use our last week to perfect rendering, models, and presentation boards. I know in the past, I've spent a lot of time on design development, and then presentation work gets shoved into the last hours of the night. We have plenty of time to really get this project rolling and produce some really good work!

Bookstore v.95

Here's about the 15th iteration of the bookstore that I've done today.  I got rid of the wall things, I feel that they are too overwhelming, and don't have any purpose.  Instead, I created two overlapping shapes on the floor and extended that to the ceiling.  I spent about an hour making bookshelves earlier this morning and decided to get rid of them. They looked cool on their own, but when I put them in the space, they just looked like they were plopped in and it reminded me of when my elementary school had a book fair and haphazardly rearranged all the shelved.  I extruded the shapes on the floor into shelving and suspended it from the ceiling.  Now I am left with this other shape that leads you into a wall.  I still want to incorporate a coffee bar, but I'm not sure where it should go.  I think we have some more decision making to do as a group before we can move forward.  We can't continue designing one building as 6 individuals, it's gonna look ridiculous and nothing is going to be cohesive.  Also we need to work on the plans as a group, because we are changing things, and half the group doesn't know, and then we go to design something and it's different.  

Colors

Since I love to do meticulous things that have no real value in life, I figured out the HTML codes for the colors we are using, so when we do our renderings in Sketchup, or Photoshop, or whatever we do our renderings with, we can have the same colors!

HTML RGB
Red A93331 169 51 49
Orange D47A34 212 122 52
Yellow EEB73E 238 183 62
Blue 00569B 0 86 155
Gray 656B73 101 107 115
Violet 61637C 97 99 124

Also paint samples are on the way, I got the shipping confirmation email today.

Bookstore Studies

I've done some sketches and worked in Sketchup a little bit on the bookstore, but its time to really get cracking on this. I like the lighting in this one and the way the ceiling relates to the floor below it. I also like the taller shelves in center and the smaller ones outside the circle. I want to use the floorspace as much as possible and avoid having all the walls covered with shelves. I still want to use the idea of the curved elements connecting the ceiling and wall, and would also relate to Eric's product idea of connecting. Also I want to utilize some of the space above, maybe creating a reading area that might be incorporated as part of the cafe seating. We need to figure out what is happening at the bottom of the core, since it goes through the bookstore space. I have imagined it being an interactive space with seating and pathways and maybe some indoor landscaping.

California Academy of Sciences

I know it's a little late in the design phase to be referring to precedent, but I found a really cool building in my Green Source magazine. It is the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, it's LEED gold with a domed green roof, with a roof observation deck. One thing that really caught my attention was the landscaping in front of the building. The picture in the magazine shows it really well, and also is very interactive.

Elevations

As a group, we are still sticking to the original deadline of April 30, so we are getting into the details of plans, sections, and elevations. I drew up some very basic elevations to show where the slope of the land interacts with our building. I am working on sections now to show floorplates and how they work with the ground plane. This is helping us who are working on the interior decide where we can place windows and entryways and such. I am also trying to figure out how the bike lane interacts with the site. We decided on having an underground loading dock to access the bookstore and cafe, so as not to disturb the site by throwing in a large loading dock in our prime landscaped areas.

LEED credits

So since I am overwhelmed with LEED info right now, and we are incorporating sustainability into our building, I am making a list of all the LEED credits we might be able to achieve for this project. I'm going to assume we can get all the prerequistes, and since we aren't going into huge detail about the mechanical systems, I'm only going to assume the two required points for the Energy and Atmosphere category. Credits we could achieve so far:
Sustainable Sites: 1, 2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 8 (11 total)
Water Efficiency: 1.1, 1.2, 2, 3.1, 3.2 (5 total)
Energy and Atmosphere: 1-worth 2 pts (2 total)
Materials and Resources: 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 7 (7 total)
Environmental Quality: 1, 2, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 5, 6.1, 8.1, 8.2 (9 total)
Innovation and Design: 2 (1 total)

Total 35 credits = LEED Silver

Since we have no budget and don't know anything about HVAC systems, it's hard to estimate the EA credits and percentages for the MR credits, but we are looking at materials that are recycled, regional, and salvaged. We have a 100% green roof, contributing to some SS credits, and since our building is very narrow, its possible to have views and daylight in much of the space (EQ c8). Once we get closer to the end, I will look at this again and see if we could implement more credits into our design.

Moving Forward some more...

Today at our meeting, we discussed in more detail materials we plan on using for our project. Since we have such an organic form on the exterior, we are going for a contrasted interior with a more industrial material palette, with certain elements connecting the exterior and interior.

We also talked about our concept. We've had this gesture since the beginning of the project, but needed a more solid concept to inform the interior spaces of the building. We came up with a few words that are key in our building design:

interlocking, layering, centralized

With these words we are developing a concept statement that incorporates these words and states in the intent of our building design.

We discussed circulation a bit and also what needs to happen next with the bike lane. We are trying to figure out how the bike lane connects to the site and what happens at the ends of the bike lane.

Moving Forward

We are moving along at a good pace, haven't had any major roadblocks yet, and are developing our building further and further each day. I think we are at a good point where we can start putting out some somewhat solidified plans and sections. We need to develop a more solid concept as a group, since we are working as individuals on some parts of the building, so that everything comes together nicely, and looks like it was designed as a group, not several different designs trying to exist under one roof (or several roofs in our case). We've nailed down some color choices and are continuing our materials studies today. Once we have materials chosen, it will help limit our choices, and make our individual spaces more cohesive. I think we are at a good point design-wise and have some things that need to be worked out, but I think we can dive deeper and really start to nail some of this stuff down. Let's keep up the good work, and not forget about our deadlines (two weeks from Tuesday was our goal, I want to try to make that happen!!)

Bike Lane

We have been working on the interiors of the building and dividing up spaces. I think we have a general layout of where we want everything in the building, and are working towards getting floorplans. I have been working in Sketchup to further develop some of the spaces. For the individual assignment, I am working on retail design, which includes the bookstore and supply shop. After doing some sketches of general ideas, I put them in Sketchup and combined them. Some ideas where the clear wall being the entry into the space, and the curving elements along the back wall serving as shelves for art supplies as well as display areas for merchandise.

Also, I have been working on the bike lane that we are proposing to run the length of our 800' long building. The bike lane is elevated 8' AFF on the main level, which is 16' high, allowing enough head room below and above the bike lane. I have been working with the space under the bike lane and trying to create some lounge areas and various elements under the bike lane to avoid creating a long straight path down the length of the building. With the shape of our building, we are going to run into the issue of having a long narrow walkway and having rooms on either side, so we have been discussing ways to break up the space, including punch-throughs to the exterior, and interior grouping of rooms with break-out spaces in between.

Building Form! (subject to change)

We have a building form! or so we think. It's almost 800' long and 75' wide (don't think we'll be getting the LEED SSc5.2-Open Space credit). But we will be getting SSc4.2 for the bike lanes incorporated into our building. Since it is so long, we needed a way for students to get back and forth between two ends of the building. I have some diagrams for potential programming of spaces. I think it goes along with what we discussed as a group, but can be changed if need be. Since this building is so massive, I think for the interiors part, we are going to focus on a few key parts of the building rather than trying to detail every part of it. The spaces we plan to detail are the core, auditorium, event space, lounge areas, bike lane, and part of the community space, a section of the studios, and maybe more if need be.

Retail design sketches

Since I am developing the retail spaces of the building including the bookstore, art supply store, and maybe part of the fresh market (overlapping with the food service design), I made a few sketches, keeping in mind materials and big gestures to make the space interesting. I don't see either of these being used necessarily for these projects, as I was thinking about thesis when I drew the first one, but still can incorporate some of these big gestures, like the curving shapes stretching from the wall to the ceiling, and the curving shape on the ceiling in the lower one. The lower one is modified from a picture in a magazine, before I get some kind of copyright infrigment, so I am not taking credit for the design but am using it as more of a precedent study. I am working on some more sketches and will continue to develop these spaces as we start to divide up square footage of the building.

Further Building Development

We made some progress today in our building form design. We also are breaking up to work on the three sections we need to have detailed for the project. I am working on the interior of the building, and also for my individual research, I am working on retail design. I found some images of retail spaces that were inspiring and might give me some ideas as I start developing the space.






















Apple Store in Soho







Did I mention how much I hate Blogger and how it groups all the images together and how it is nearly impossible to write corresponding text below or beside the image? And you go to preview mode to try to get it right, but then when you publish it, it looks totally different from the way it did before you published it.














I like the brick wall contrasting with the modern signage on the right image, and the solid and void spaces in the ceiling on the left.