Generic Courthouse Pun

by caroothers

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The final review went well.  I was struggling this semester with the connection between my site analysis and my building’s final form.  I focused on ‘projection’, as it is the basis of a shadow, and the location of the site in relation to Uptown Charlotte district.  The building form took a form of projecting toward the city and the new Bryan Park district, bringing the two neighborhoods together in a public forum of law and order.  I still believe that I can move on with this project and develop a few areas a little bit further.  I have always understood final pin-ups as a stopping point, more than a finished product, as there are always places for improvement.  I got a lot out of this semester, and I felt that I worked outside my comfort zone with a more sculptural approach to the overall design.  The final outcome was what I expected, and I think that it is a wonderful solution to the courthouse.  Something that stands for the morals and bedrock of our society and can still remain open and accessible.

The Final Pinup

by fcahill

It’s hard to believe the semester is over for studio.  I have really enjoyed reading about everybody’s progress on the blog and it has definitely been an interesting experience to post my own stuff up-instead of just pinning up.  Below are my final drawings and model from last Wednesday.  The review went well and I was pleased with the feedback I received-it was both positive and constructive.

View of Skatepark and Stair

View of Main Entrance and Skatepark

Courtroom

View from Suttle Avenue

1st Floor + Site

Building + Site Section Cut

My Presentation Board

Board + Models

South Entrance

Site Model

by pdgaither

My Previous post looked at the new design I have developed for the final. Below are a few images of the new model I have built to further represent my ideas as I make the final push for the final review. At our peer review, I focused on material selection for the building as well as perspective views I wish to show. They will help with the relationship of the architecture to the landscape and how the two work together. Digressing to the idea of material, I am using stacked stone on the flat wall portions of my building and where the building curves I am using either a zinc paneling or a composite aluminium panel.

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Peer-Review

by fcahill

For the peer-review I focused on what views I would focus on for the final review, materials for the building and showed the skatepark research I had done in order to decided what kind of skatepark (size, materials, location) to put in the site and how it would relate to the courthouse.  The perspectives focus on the view of the building and how it relates to the site versus material.  I included to ‘model’ perspectives that I plan on rendering similarly.

After the review, it was decided that the skatepark needs to be included in the perspectives but sections would not help my presentation because my building rotates so much it would not make anything clearer.  I also decided that my model needs to be more than a massing model but more a representation of the building and site and how they work together.

My plans are in the process of changing (after talking with Chrissy) and how my program dictated my form too much so they are not included.  The next few steps will be the finalization of my plans (with furniture, wall thickness and windows) and then I will begin to figure how to build my model and what types of materials I will be using.

The Usefulness of Peer Reviews

by workbymariahroth

Yesterday, Friday November 16, our studio had a peer review regarding where our designs where and our presentation style for final review.  I forgot how helpful peer reviews could be in refining my presentation style.  My peers helped me understand the readability of my presentation from a juror’s view point.  From their comments I noted all the little comments that add up on a presentation.  For example my style of labeling my floor plans, I know that adding furniture and color coding is the best style (for myself) so that everyone can easy and quickly understand my plans.  Another major category I got comments in was my rendering technique.  For one, most everyone thought that purely line rendering conveyed a good amount of information and that if I cleaned them up they are excellent, without material or color.  This was surprising to me because I thought that each perspective needed rendering, I am planning on looking into this further so I can decide if I like this technique.  Second, I learned the style of the one rendering I did, prismacolor marker, was not as successful as I had hoped.  The marker gave an unwanted grain in some area, while in other the grain greatly helped.  I was given the suggestion of watercolor pencils, so I will be looking into this technique and how I can encompass it in with my rendering style.  A third category of my presentation was my bus depot.  I had lost the readability of my bus depot within my floor plans.  This was a wake up call for me because the bus depot is something that I have worked with since the beginning to incorporate and the last thing I want to do is lose it when I present.  However, I believe small changes will fix this and allow my bus depot to read accurately.  I believe this peer review was extremely helpful and gave me many things to work on and refine for the final presentation.

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Counting down the days, tallying up the edits

by workbymichelletodd

Now that it has set in that we only have 22 days until our final review (including Thanksgiving), it has become very evident that what issues remain in my design need to be resolved. The majority of my process has been allocated to designing the courtsets and how they function as individual volumes while also providing a sense of cohesiveness. However, because most of my time was dedicated to resolving issues associated with that aspect, my entry volume had been neglected and it had become that it was stagnant and safe. The entry volume was not captivating or dynamic like the rest of my design and in result was weakening the overall presence of my building. So, for the past week I have been looking at ways to clad the volume and punch openings to make it read more dynamic. While that provided improvement, it did not provide solution.  With this in mind, I went into the weekend ready to attack this entry volume head on, determined to find a solution that worked with the concept of my building, while reading as a prominent entrance. I went through 5 iterations of working with facade details and after that 5th iteration, I came up with an entirely new design for the entry volume. Once I came up with this solution, I worked with the model on the site so that I can begin to address the landscape around the courthouse.

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Building in site

by pdgaither

          

     

This set of images deal with the massing model that I developed for mid-term that is an old scheme. There were kinks within the plans that I was working out as far as circulation and manipulating some of the support spaces. The short of it ends up being that I have developed a new scheme that I believe takes the ideas that I have had all along and reconfigures them into a better and more developed design.

Above is the entry level plan of my new scheme. The first level is comprise of my flexible space which is a digital library, the jury assembly room, alternative dispute rooms, in-custody drop-off, restrooms, and misc. areas. I also have a courtroom on the first floor on the left side of the plan. The plan is broken down into three areas, left side courtrooms, middle atrium area, and the right side deals with vertical circulation and support spaces. I now have a tower scheme while keeping the idea of the interlocking courtroom which can be see below in the second floor plan.

As one can read from the plan above, the observers (located on the south of the building with north up in this instance) sit directly behind the jury which is an idea that I have had since the beginning. Also located on the second floor, I have placed an interior garden. I have placed this as an area of repose within the building and to also bring a connection of the outside in.

Here is an image of the 3-d massing model that I have developed. I was experimenting with the push and pull of the facade and material studies have been done on the facades which can be seen below.

Progress with Movement

by fcahill

These past two weeks I focused on refining my plans with the feedback I received at my mid-review.  This also meant working in section and elevation.  I began by addressing the courtroom (and breaking the box) and then moved to the support spaces and in-custody movement.  From there I finalized a site location and building form.

I am currently trying to figure how the building works with the landscape and the surrounding connections and influences of Bryant Park and Greenway through site development and material.  My next step is researching skateparks and seeing how that can help influence the site as it is a pivotal part of my overall design (as my flex-space) in making the courthouse a destination.

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Refining, Refining, and more Refining

by workbymariahroth

Since the mid-term I have been specifically looking at refining my concept so that is more closely resembles a concept model I did early on in the semester.  A concept model that I felt had more to it than my design at mid-term.

I have specifically looked at refining the floor plan so that there is more “slippage” and “stepping”, an abstract influence from historical/typical courthouse entrance steps.  I believe that the form I have created now does this in multiple ways.  First within the floor plan itself.   Each courtroom is divided into three sections: judge, jury, attorney & observing.  Each of these sections is raised up from the previous, creating a stepping effect in the courtroom as well as the surrounding circulation.  Secondly, the exterior landscaping I plan on implementing will reflect this stepping.  This landscaping will be designed to be used by courthouse patrons or passers-by on the street if they so desire. Finally, my planned material palette will reflect the stepping.  The facade wont just be one massive material but broken up so on is fully aware of the location of the interior courtroom on the exterior of the building.

As this semester has progressed I have realized many things about my design process.  I now  know that my first instincts are probably most “correct” when it comes to designing and that I should stick to them instead of slowly creeping away.  I think what I realized most is that occasionally I need to take a good step back and look at what I am producing and ask myself if this is really what I initially wanted, if not what can I do to change that.  I am finally content with my scheme, as I wasn’t at mid-term, and excited to finish out the project with interesting materials and landscaping that enhance my design.

 

 

 

 

Mid-Review Process

by workbymariahroth

This past Friday was a crucial point within the semester, it was mid-review time!  I believe mid-review is an important stepping stone within the semester for a couple of reasons.  One it gives myself the opportunity to produce a fair amount of work on my design and then to take a step back and look it from afar; compared to staring at a computer screen or hunched over my desk working on models.  Two it gives my peers an opportunity to see my work and for me to see theirs, which I find can often be lost in the craziness of studio.  Third, is that new critics come in, observe my work, and give feedback.  I believe this is the most beneficial aspect of mid-review.

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Following my review I believe I have a very decent idea where to need to progress to throughout the rest of the semester.  I know I need to get back to the “slippage” and “steps” that I originally created in a former concept model.  This concept although appears slightly in the interior form of my courtroom does not progress the the exterior of the building.  An aspect that was lost throughout the introduction of all the other functions of the courthouse.  I believe that though this change will not be easy, but I am already on the correct path to make it happen.