academic portfolio - richard william off
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Architecture & Urban Design - Academic Portfolio - MS.AUD - Columbia University (GSAPP) B.ARCH - Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteTRANSCRIPT
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PORTFOLIORICHARD WILLIAM OFFARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGNMS.AUD - COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (GSAPP) + B.ARCH - RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
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CURRICULUM VITAEMASTERS - ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN (MS.AUD 2012)COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (GSAPP) - GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING & PRESERVATION
BACHELORS - ARCHITECTURE (B.ARCH - HONORS 2010)RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (RPI) - SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURAL & URBAN DESIGNER (JANUARY 2012 - MAY 2012)GSAPP KINNE GRANT & SAO PAULO HOUSING DEPARTMENT - SAO PAULO, BRAZIL & MANHATTAN, NY
BROWN FELLOW - RESEARCHER (MAY 2010 - FEBRUARY 2013)RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (RPI) - BROWN FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENT - TROY, NY
URBAN DESIGNER & PLANNER (AUGUST 2010 - DECEMBER 2010)ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY - MARP & PRATT INSTITUTE CENTER FOR PLANNING - BROOKLYN, NY
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PORTFOLIO CONTENTDIFFERENTIATED GRIDS & ERODED MASSES
ROCKEFELLER CENTER WEST - WALL BETWEEN TWO WORLDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
ALMADA CONSERVATORY - IRREGULAR LINE & POROUS MONOLITH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
FRAGMENTED SPACES & STRUCTURAL GEOMETRIES
GEO-CULTURAL CONVERGENCE - VERTICAL EXTENSION OF THE URBAN LANDSCAPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
CHAMARTIN STATION - (dis) CONNECTING URBAN TISSUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
STAZIONE DI BOLOGNA CENTRALE - DESIGN DEVELOPMENT STUDIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
FLUID TOPOGRAPHIES - EPHEMERAL ELEVATED CITY-SCAPES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
TRANSFORMATIVE URBANISMS & HYPER-DENSE HABITATS
ECO (logical) - FORMAL (ization) - THE EVOLUTION OF INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
ENABLING GROWTH - CHANGING URBAN VOIDS INTO YOUTH INFRASTRUCTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
INTERWOVEN VERTICALITY - DEVELOPING A SUSTAINABLE HIGH-RISE CITY FABRIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
CONSTRUCTIONAL & PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BACK COVER
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ROCKEFELLER CENTER WEST
Located on 6th avenue, Rockefeller Center West is a four block long site which extends along a north-south axis in central Midtown. Due east of this site is the original Rockefeller Center, but unlike the original complex, the western plazas have failed to attract the same urban energy. The spaces are maintained by the owners of the adjacent buildings, and are composed of a variety of sculptures, fountains, benches and other seating, in a relatively fragmented conguration. This project proposes a revitalization of the public zone, and the building of an elevated exhibition center, to enhance the cultural attraction of the site.
The primary formal gesture of the design is a six story wall, which stretches the full length of the site. In addition to being a continuous boundary whch unies the four blocks into one visual entity, it sets up the potential to establish two dierent worlds. One world being the busy 6th avenue and its associated vehicular and pedestrian ows. The other world being a dense and calm garden space within the blocks, privatized by the wall. In this case, the wall is a neutral interstitial zone which can be occupied. As one moves along the wall, one can witness varying degrees of opacity and outward expansions of space, so that one might experience each of these two domains in dierent ways. This also sets up the opportunity to use these spaces for display in dierent ways, to accept or deny one world, the other, or both. Objects and people exist in varying degrees of enclosure and openness, blurring not only the realm of the inside with the outside, but also blurring fast zones with areas which are slow and intimate.
WALL BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
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West To East - Serial Transverse Sections Cantilevered Exhibition Boxes - Enclosing Semi-Private Gardens
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MIDTOWN MANHATTAN - NEW YORK CITY GALLERY & GARDEN SPACE
Elevation - Facing Sixth Avenue
Typical Plan - Exhibition Spaces
Ground Floor & Garden Spaces
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IRREGULAR LINE & POROUS MONOLITHCONSERVATORIO DE ALMADA
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North To South - Perspective Transverse Sections School Classrooms & Oces & Studios Along Public Atrium Spaces
South Elevation & Concert Hall Section
Architecture like music may be conceived of as a linear sequence of events, but this set of movements need not be hierarchical, have a sense of progression, nor culminate in some ultimate or dening moment, in order to be manifested as a musical architecture. Like some untraditional and contemporary audible works, it may not have a distinct beginning or end, and suggest an indenite continuity beyond the physical boundaries of the entity. These physical ends and breaks within the sequence are not points of entry, but are moments where the internal structure of the composition is revealed. When placed within the context of a real site, this line of physcial music, or architectural events, must not only adapt to internal programmatic elements and functions, but external site forces.
On the shore of the Tagus River, a school of music is to be built at the north end of a retired shipping yard. This facility will be characterized by a continuous eld of dierentiated cells (classrooms & oces) and inter-locking interstitial spaces (public atria), and will embody conditions of expansion and contraction which establish ambiguity between interior and exterior. This eld of moments shall be framed and unied by a responsive, but more simple, external envelope. The environmental context and orientation, furthers the logic of the eld, and the envelope which wraps it. A dark colored and densely composed secondary skin of operable horizontal panels is situated along the southern facade to protect the facility from direct sun exposure, and a lighter and more delicate system of vertical wood panels exist along the northern facade to reect light and frame incrimental views. What is produced is a permeable mass. The principle space within this monolth is a large concert hall, which is also dened by a respsonsive enclosure and dynamic language, to enhance the diusion of sound and light.
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MARGUIERA, SEBUTAL - LISBON, PORTUGAL MUSIC SCHOOL & CONCERT HALL
Upper Level - Typical Floor PlanClassrooms & Large Concert Hall
Upper Level - Typical Floor PlanOce Spaces & Small Concert Hall
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VERTICAL EXTENSION OF THE URBAN LANDSCAPEGEO-CULTURAL CONVERGENCE
The Global City is a primary pulsing node in the international network of human exchange, a place where a multiplicity of cultural activities converge upon one another, and integrate with the local geography. Toronto, the provincial capital of Ontario, and the largest city of Canada, is exemplary of this condition. Toronto contains a plethora of museums, exhibitions, and the 3rd largest theatre district in the world. These conditions have led to the development of one of the most vibrant and livable downtowns in all of North America. For much of the citys history, Toronto has been dominated by low-rise horizontality, but within the past 50 years, the region has experienced immense vertical development, and the city now has one of the most recognizable skylines in the world.
Regardless of the collective aesthetic of these super-tall environments, most of these buildings are hermetic extruded volumes and static pancake-stacked forms, with no tangible relationship to the life of the city or to regional character. This project seeks to challenge the traditional typology of the skyscraper by establishing a continuous public garden space, a series of vertical courtyards which erodes the vertical mass, slices through the facades into the core of the building. These courtyards not only provide a system of circulation for light and air, but create a central space where people from dierent programs and culture might converege, or even establish shared faciltiies for increased eciency. The form takes inspriation from the vast system of valleys and ravines which cut through the Greater Toronto landscape. This geography provides essential park space, and areas for recreational public activity, in an otherwise dense urban fabric. Multi-layered urban and natural topographies are translated into dynamic vertical form, integrating global iconography with local character.
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Plan Dierentiation - Central Public Courtyard & Peripheral Mixed-Cultured Spaces
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Ravine System & Downtown Cultural Nodes - City Plans
Topography & Program & Structure
DOWNTOWN - TORONTO, CANADA POROUS & MIXED-USE SKYSCRAPER
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The presence of trains in an urban setting creates two inevitable conditions. First, it connects the city to both its metropolitan region, and to distant cities which are national and international points of interest. Second, it acts as an arterial scar which fractures neighborhoods, and creates a boundary within the city. So the urban fabric could be understood as a dis-continuous surface, simultaneously connected and fragmented by its circulation routes and massing. After analyzing existing patterns of movement across the site, such as the angular interactions of pedestrian and vehicular movement, as well as the parallel modularity of the tracks and platforms, new connections are established with fragmented space.
By deconstructing surface and structure, in plan and section, breaks within the visual continuum form spaces within spaces. This creates more intimate zones within vast open volumes. As a result, there is synthesis between latitudinal and longitudinal movements across the site, and it becomes possible to shift from streets, via public zones, and to trains, in a relatively direct manner, despite the fractured topography. The station and its adjacent park, mends the fabric the tracks divide. Through dierentiated repetition and responsive modularity, a new sense of rhythm is established within an evolving peripheral neighborhood.
(dis) CONNECTING URBAN TISSUEESTACION DE CHAMARTIN
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Diagrammatic - Longitudinal Section - Concourse & Platforms
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PLAZA DE CASTILLA - MADRID, SPAIN TRANSIT CENTER & PUBLIC PARK
Floor Plan - Main ConcoursePrimary Circulation Areas
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DESIGN DEVELOPMENT & STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING STUDIOSTAZIONE DI BOLOGNA CENTRALE
Roof Plan - Structural Frame & Steel Panel EnclosureSolid / Void Pattern Expresses Train Speed & Acceleration
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Neoprene Bearing Strip
A MILANOA ROMA
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Corrugated Metal Roof
Steel Casting Connections
Custom Steel Beams
Custom Steel Columns
Steel Secondary Structure
Steel Bolts & Gusset Plates
Steel MullionsLaminated Glass
Double Skin Enclosure
Toughened Glass
Steel Insulated Panels
Corrugated Deck
Polished Granite TileConcrete Floor Slab
Glass Floor Strip
Stainless Steel Panels
Steel Floor Truss
Rough Granite Tile
Hot & Cold Air DuctWaste Water PipeHot & Cold Water PipesElectrical Ducts
Concrete Ground SlabSteel & Glass Staircase
Steel & Glass Escalators
Sand & Gravel Base
Steel Tension BoltsConcrete Retaining Wall
Railroad Tracks
Train Platforms
Foam InsulationSand & Gravel
Recessed Floor Lights
Foundation Wall Footing
Subsoil Drainage System
Waterproof Membrane
Crushed Stone Base
Concrete Slab
Platform Footing
Southern Entrance Arcade
Stainless Steel Facade Panels
Corrugated Polycarbonate Canopy
Roof Peak - Casting Connection Node
Column & Beam - Casting Connection Node
Column & Floor Truss - Connection
Column & Foundation Wall - Connection
Steel Secondary Structure
EMILIA - ROMAGNA, NORTHERN ITALY INTER-MODAL RAILWAY STATION
Wall Section & Structural Details
Glass & Steel Balustrades
Circular Steel Handrails
Mezzanine Level BridgingStainless Steel Interior Cladding
Concourse Vertical Circulation
Focus Area - Plan & Section Diagrams
Wall Section Cut
Enclosure Line
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Over 70 percent of the Earths surface is covered by water. With the ever present threat of Global Warming, this percentage could begin to increase as the Polar Ice Caps begin to melt. The way we build cities will need to rapdily evolve as solid land dissolves into uid, and the need for more space and new landscapes will persist as long as the human population continues to grow. Several cities and regions throughout the world contain large portions of their urban fabric which have already been reclaimed from the sea, New Orleans, Venice, Amsterdam and even New York City are among them. They typically accomplish this by using civil engineering techniques such as dikes, polders and levees.
These extremes suggest the need to investigate how space and artical land might establish a more intimate relationship with a uid surface, creating form which embraces, rather than resists, inevitable ooding. Transportation may no longer be car dominated, but may involve boat trac and increased pedestrian ows on an elevated plane. The growth of this new cityscape would not likely be a monolithic mass, but a uid topography, a permeable network of interwoven spaces which embodies an ephemeral quality, as the ebb and ow of the sea would perpetually inuence the usable space and programming of this dynamic landscape. Constantly splitting and reconnecting to/from itself, these networks would be composed of linear paths for movement, tangential pockets for more private gatherings, and nodes to foster public interaction and cultural exchange.
EPHEMERAL ELEVATED CITY-SCAPES FLUID TOPOGRAPHY
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Proto-Typical Elevational Section Low Tide Versus High Tide - Usable Surface
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HARBOR CITIES & COASTAL SETTLEMENTS TRANSIENT URBAN SPACES
Linear, Tangential, Nodal - Spatial Networks Programmatic Expansion/Contraction
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In the Itaquera district of Sao Paulo, development of a linear park system along the Rio Verde riverfront requires the transformation of favela sites into wetlands and recreation spaces, and puts over 1,800 residents of informal settlements at risk for displacement. Removal of these residents guarantees their protection from ooding, and provides the district with much needed green space. However, with no clear plans for relocation into new housing, the vitality of these communities is under threat.
This project proposes an incremental upgrade system for watershed favelas, a process of ecological formalization, to integrate these isolated areas into the surrounding city fabric. The rst phases will establish environmental stabilization by addressing stormwater, ooding and erosion issues with a network of wetlands and water channels. The second phase calls for the relocation of residents in the most sensitive areas to places of higher ground along the outer street edge, while extended the existing grid of roads into the park site. The nal phases will involve densication, using modular retaining walls, composting toilets, and plumbing units, all connected to communal rainwater reservoirs, as a platform for informal growth.
Embracing transformation, through the natural processes of formalization, rather than removal of these settlements, challenges the conventional notion of de-habitation of sensitive sites for preservation, and creates a new model of co-habitation as the foundation for preservation, providing the favelas with the new and important role as stewards of the environment.
ECO (logical) - FORMAL (ization)THE EVOLUTION OF INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
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Higher Density - Main Street Ground Floor Shops/Markets Commercial / Public Plaza2-3 Story Mixed-Use Dwellings Green Paved Terracing / Steps River / Wetland Interface
East To West - Transverse Elevational Section - Favela & Park
Hollow-Brick Enclosures
Concrete-Masonry Wall
Vegetation/Plantings
Cobble/Stone Pavement
Corrugated Metal Panels
Wooden Plank Decking
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Stormwater / Greywater Channels Rainwater Reservoir Plumbing Wall / Water Pumps Composting Toilets Bioswale / Drainage System Commercial / Street Interface Pedestrian Pathways
North To South - Longitudinal Section Proposed Land Reconstruction - Water Systems & Retaining Walls & Informal Growth
RIO VERDE - SAO PAULO, BRAZIL FAVELA COMMUNITIES & ECO-INFRASTRUCTURE
(EcoIogical Framework, Fabric Relocation & Mixed-Use Growth Strategies) Site Phasing & Building Evolution - Favela Da Paz & Favela Miguel Ignacio Curi & Linear Park - Cohabitation System
Phase 2Optimization
External Edge Development
-Road System Extended Via Site-Commercial Corridors Demarcated
-Dwellings Removed From Most Sensitive Low-Lying Areas-150 Dwellings Relocated Along Itaquera Avenue
New Fabric ParcelsExisting Favela
Expanded WetlandNew Road System
Phase 1Stabilization
Eco-Platform Construction
-Itaquera Avenue Widened-Underutilized Buildings Removed
-Site Cleaned & Bio-Remediated-Flood Management System & Stormwater Channels & Wetland Buers Constructed
Removed FabricExisting Favela
Eco-Sewer SystemInformal Roads
Phase 3Densication
Internal Edge Development
-Mixed-Use Development Expand-100 More Dwellings On New Roads
-Elevated Land Parcels Demarcate Growth Limits / Verticalization-Soft Blue-Green Edges VS. Hard Commerce/Public Interfaces
New Fabric ParcelsExisting Favela
Bioswale SystemNew Road System
Phase 4Proliferation
Maximum Density
-Model Expands Outward & Applied To Other Sites
Upgraded FavelaMixed Use Fabric
Public ParkWater Retention
Existing BuildingsPedestrian Paths
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By establishing a connection between public schools and the variety of vacant and underutilized spaces located throughout East Harlem, a physical network can be created which can both supplement and complement existing academic facilities and programs in the neighborhood. Vacant lots and buildings could be engaged through a exible infrastructure, which would evolve and grow vertically as programs gain popularity, and the student population continues to expand. Extra-curricular and specialized programs, such as vocational trades, as well as visual and performing arts, which currently lack resources to thrive, would be the primary occupants of these spaces and structures. This use of urban space may enable the disenfranchised youth of Harlem to have a greater sense of ownership and involvement over the development of the neighborhood, and allow their culture to be further exhibited and celebrated in the public realm.
CHANGING URBAN VOIDS INTO YOUTH INFRASTRUCTUREENABLING GROWTH
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Practice Studios Indoor Theater Flexible Stage Landscape Seating Viaduct Exhibition
Seminar/Meeting Spaces
Art Studios/Workshops
Equipment Elevator
Operable Screen Facade
Open/Flexible Plan
Public Gallery Space
702-1498
306-702
164-306
72-164
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High School20 Minute Radius
Middle School10 Minute Radius
Elementary School5 Minute Radius
Safety Network
Student Population
Long Term Overlapping Strategy
Vacant Building Repurposed - Performing Arts Center
Vacant Lot Inll - Instruction/Exhibition
2012 2020
2016 2024
2020 2028
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Vacant Lots Occupied With Temporary Structures & Programs
Adjacent Vacant BuildingsEngaged By Activated Public Spaces
Adjacent Buildings RefurbishedOccupied Lots Formalize & Densify
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Visual Arts Studio & Theater Entrance - Student Participation & Public Interface
Outdoor Theater & Exhibition Center Facade - Flexible Structures
EAST HARLEM - MANHATTAN NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION - ADAPTIVE REUSE
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CREATING A SUSTAINABLE HIGH-RISE CITY FABRIC
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INTER-WOVEN VERTICALITY
Longitudinal & Transverse SectionsResidential/Commercial Clusters & Sky Courts
As urbanization continues to increase worldwide, more city space will be needed to accommodate the diverse and dynamic needs of the rapidly expanding population. High-rise development may not be the only means of intensifying an urban fabric, but it can be an ecient way to maximize space with minimal land, and a prudent management of the earths resources is a cornerstone to more sustainable approaches to urban design. The city fabric and formal typology of skyscrapers may continue to evolve as porous and de-compartmentalized elds, and more continuity should be established with city streets and adjacent buildings, so that vibrant vertical neighborhoods may be cultivated.
Just south of the central Loop, there exists a post-industrial site which is divided by the Chicago River. High density development within this area could establish needed connections between the nancial district to the north, Chinatown to the south, the museum campus to the east, and UIC to the west. The scheme is organized into a basic parti, a primary north-south axis of commerical and entertainment spaces, and a series of secondary east-west axes, composed of a gradient of mixed-use structures. The development could be further integrated into the city with an extension of the elevated train network, and through the presence of a high speed train station, which would face the public green space of the primary axis. This enables the development to act as more than urban inll, but also a cultural gateway into an expanded downtown area.
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SOUTH LOOP - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
MASTER-PLAN & VERTICAL NEIGHBORHOOD
Primary North-South Commercial AxisLinks Financial District To Chinatown Along River
Secondary East-West BranchesLinks University To Museum Campus
Vertical Light-CourtMixed-Use Program
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CONSTRUCTIONAL & PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDIES STRUCTURED SURFACE & MATERIAL ASSEMBLY & LIGHT PERMEABILITY
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