The National Concrete Masonry Association sponsors a competition within the second year studio at Penn State. This project is the first full semester project and focuses a lot on in depth site analysis, real architectural solutions instead of pretty pictures, and an emphasis on graphics. The brief for this project was to use a building lot in DUMBO, (Down Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Overpass) Brooklyn near the waterfront, celebrating the industrial heritage of the area as it revitalized and became hip/urban again. The program was slated as a museum commemorating the Brooklyn Bridge (not the one closest to the site, that’s the Manhattan).

My responsibilities extended beyond my own project, as I took the lead on site analysis for our studio section and coordinated the site plan and documentation for our year, ultimately helping build a massive scale model for everybody to use for the final critiques.

The design of the museum blended the old and new – borrowing the heavy brick piers from nearby buildings, extending them upward as they grasped the lightweight glass box perched above. Anchoring the top of the building were oversized steel trusses suspending pristine white boxes. The boxes held exhibits for modern art, technology exhibits on new bridge tech, and futuristic goals of the engineering community. The brick portion of the building held many back of house and utilitarian features while also accommodating historical galleries, temporary showcases, and a library.

The presentation itself was an anonymous submission to a jury where only our 36″ x 72″ board and building model could speak for our design, hence the extravagant board pictured above with oversized axonometric imagery, integrated orthographics, and built in renderings and storyboard graphics.

Programs used: Revit, Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop, AutoCAD