Brownsville, a defunct coal-mine town, required an urban center and revitalization to attract new visitors and residents. This project was a group project in terms of master plan coordination, building interactions and architectural vocabulary. My partner designed a restaurant while I designed a hotel. Both contributed to the site design of a park, launching dock, public garden, playground, and a phase 2 plan of office and retail buildings on the main street (in reclaimed historical structures). The aesthetics of the project were rooted in the industrial hand-made feeling of the town while using modern technology to create a new identity and help Brownsville flourish. This project culminated in the Foreman Competition where we finished as finalists among the 30 other projects in our year.

This project was the first of mine to be thought out from top to bottom. Graphics, presentation materiality, rendering style, color scheme, and models all corresponded to each other. Having a partner helped saw the reclaimed tree trunk in half for our model, but this project stuck to me through the rest of my academic career, influencing how I approached projects as an identity as well as design solution.

Programs used: Revit, AutoCAD, Illustrator, Photoshop