Site + Skin

by JP Mays

My current design efforts have taken a bifurcated track lately, focusing simultaneously on the site and the exterior envelope of the building.  Sitewise, I have been trying to develop a parametric hardscape design, seeking to define the placement of the diamond-shaped pavers by a series of paths through the site.  This ties in nicely with the final requirements for our Computational Methods class, and so I will continue to work on this until the end of the semester.

By sketching over a photo of my mid-term model, I am also trying to flesh out ideas of building skin at a finer level of detail than I had achieved by mid-semester.  I am currently pursuing a cladding scheme for the courtroom volumes that wraps a facade peppered with long narrow windows.  Perforated weathering steel (COR-TEN) or copper panels completely screen these apertures, mitigating sunlight from all directions.  This also will create a monolithic appearance for the volumes, while still providing natural light and views.  This goes back to some of my very first concept studies for screening the courtroom.  Looking back at another (diagrammatic) model, I am continuing to try to establish lookouts/elevated public space, in addition to folding the building into the landscape.

layers_of_site

by mcanadayuncc

 

{Sky

Landscape

Stratification}

topography-entrance-layers of entry-bounding lines-boundaries-lines of “site” (sight)

The three layers:

1)  The stratification of the earth: The park amphitheater stone setting. The courthouse stair. Entry. Circulation. Fossil. Patina. Foundation.

2)  The mediating ground plane: outstretching land bound by the forest edge and man-made transportation edge (the highway). The public. Private. The courtset. The courthouse.

3)  The view beyond: the emersion into the sky, the focus on the sky. The views of the city beyond. The overarching views of the law. Transparent. Open. The vast beyond.

The Art of Discourse

by caroothers

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The Bryant Park Community lies in the shadow of the ‘New City’ of Charlotte.  The Site calls for the rise of a new neighborhood from the trash of the remaining community.  Like the city of Charlotte, Bryant Park will connect to the past by rising above it and create a new active district hub.  From the shadow of the new city to a beacon of the  new south.

Intersection of Community and Law – Vernacular Style

by davidgilmanking

My exploration of the courthouse typology has taken me into an investigation of how community and law overlap.  This stemmed from my initial research into Sentencing Circles and Restorative Justice, or the practice of allowing the community to attach a remedy or sentence for the crime committed.  The principle behind this was to create a bridge that would allow for rehabilitation and re-admittance back into the community as opposed to the typical separation that exists in most courtroom proceedings.

        

I also researched an interesting precedent at the Superior Court in Portola, California that utilized strong vernacular architecture to blend the surrounding community and culture together with the establishment of law and order.  It uses the vernacular materials and building design to create a synthesis with the surrounding landscape and culture.

This led me to focus my site research on the vernacular of the local site where the courthouse will be located.  Specifically, I looked at site materials and the evolution of site typography.  The connection between the physical (courthouse) and the written (law) is paramount in the formation of the legal system.  If the courthouse was to be grounded in the community and of the community, I needed to understand the use of both materials and words within the community.  I needed to understand how to weave the two together seamlessly.

Speed of Encounter

by fcahill

With this site analysis, I looked at how the site was experienced by different modes of transportation: car, bike, and walking.  I started by looking at how one can arrive at the site with current access roads as well as looking at the proposed area changes of the Bryant Park Development (BPD) as current and accessible.

I first looked at the roads that surround our immediate site for pedestrian, bike and car access and broke it down from most to least accessible for pedestrians and cyclists.  This also included the Greenway as a way that would provide access to the site (which BPD proposed) as an additional way that cyclists and pedestrians could access easily from surround areas.Charlotte has also implemented a bike-share for the city and I located the bike stations, the roads with bike lanes and roads that should have bike lanes in the uptown and surrounding area.  The two closest bus routes that would bring people to the site are the Airport Bus Route and the Freedom Drive Bus Route which 7 days of the week.

At this point, I went and visited the site and experimented with how a building and site are seen when driving, bicycling or walking past.  For each pass, I noted the distance, the speed and the time it took me to get from point A to point B.  I used the Charlotte School of Law along Suttle Drive as a my test building.  While driving I noticed much less of what was surrounding me, especially because the building in question was close to the road whereas when I was walking I noticed not only the building but it’s surroundings, the views from all directions and how much I hoped there was shade along the way.

Procession + Threshold

by Anna Raines

The forms of (and relationships between) physical and/or psychological thresholds and processions within any courthouse experience led me to explore the physical thresholds encountered during a procession through our site. My original site section in pencil and gauche on clayboard (Freedom Drive to Wilkinson Blvd looking East) was transformed through the layering of images collected traversing the site and the separation of the site section into segments creating a physical space corresponding existing thresholds on the site (ie: Stewart Creek, W.Morehead Street, wooded areas, parking lots, etc.).

Fabric of the neighborhood

by JP Mays

As I began to investigate our site, I wanted to understand the human fabric of the neighborhood of which our site is a part, Ashley Park.  I researched census and other demographic data, but wanted to translate that in a visual way.  I started by making a network of the main streets, defined by two wooden bars representing the four-lane roads Freedom Drive and Wilkinson Boulevard, to the north and south respectively, with wire and jute for the intermediary streets.  The amount of the colored paper was based on the percentage of the particular demographic info; for example, 67% of the area of the neighborhood is in dark green, representing the percentage of the African American population.  Woven perpendicular to the colors are the black and white strips, which represent 15.8% unemployment and 20% below the poverty level, respectively.  The unwoven regions are the predominantly industrial or commercial areas.

Demographic Connections

by workbymariahroth

My site analysis is a study of specific demographics at the site and the immediate surrounding context.  The categories are as follows (clockwise from the top): Median House Income/Median House or Condo Value, Most Common Industries, Transportation, Year House were Built, Most Common Occupations, & Class of Workers.

I studied these demographics in particular because I believe they can relate to the design of a new modern public courthouse.  Each of the categories has influence on others, which allows them to relate and play off of each other and influence the design of my courthouse.

Walkability and Success of a Community

by workbymichelletodd

When first approaching a creative site analysis, I was overwhelmed with all of the raw data that speaks of the community of Ashley Park, but not for Ashley Park. While the demographics are helpful in studies, what I found to speak to me after visiting the site was how vast and discontinuous it seems even though there is a relative close proximity. This realization led me to become interested in the walkability of the site and how that can be connected into the success and well being of a community. With the future hopes to promote pedestrian activity comes the ambition to create a community that is more urban and helps promote a stronger community. The aims is to introduce walkability as a branch of community by promoting interaction.

With this in mind, I began to construct a creative interpretation of the site analysis. Because Bryant Park and the Charlotte School of Law Building are anchors and more staid on the site, they are a more permanent and prominent color indicating how they create strongholds on the site. To indicate the retail/commercial aspects, the pieces are indicated in a red hue. The residential components are yellow. The lighter the red hue, the more removed it is from the residential areas, relating a decrease in walkability. The lighter color of yellow indicates less dense, single family housing; the bolder yellow indicates high density residential areas. By placing these colors together, there is an interaction revealed, indicating the strong sites to introduce a potential courthouse that can compliment the area. By constructing this piece on a plexi, there is a stacking effect showing the contrast between the existing (bottom of the plexi) and the proposed site modifications (on top of the plexi).

Site Analysis

by cchlebda